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Ajanta: Cave 2, Painting above doorway

Date

Authors

Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

Description

The majority of the murals in Cave 2 at Ajanta deal with a long procession of Buddhist devotees coming toward the shrine door, Others, such as that discussed in the previous slide, deal with the subjects of the Buddha and the divinities occupying the Buddha's paradise, The present example is of this second scheme, Space is carefully defined in these panels: each figure moves within its indicated surroundings while at the same time it occasionally overlaps other figures to suggest the shallow depth of the composition, Large areas of flat color are used to render the images while the shading is, again, added in narrow outlines at the edge of the contours only, The effect produced is both simple and harmonious since no extraneous elements are introduced to compete with the uncluttered arrangements of forms or with their simple space,

Citation

Source

Type

Archives Series

Basham Collection

Date created

circa 1970s

Access Statement

License Rights

This image is provided for research purposes only and must not be reproduced without the prior permission of the Archives Program, Australian National University.

DOI

Restricted until

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