CHAPTER YII.

Art of the East and of the West.*

IT is not possible to understand the art of India without,
some comprehension of the whole culture and historical
tradition of which it is an immediate expression. It-
is impossible to treat of art as an isolated phenomenon
apart from the spiritual and physical life of the people who
gave it birth. Indian art cannot be understood by those
without sympathy for Indian culture; and this is still a
rare thing. The orthodox Christian, the materialist, and
the Imperialist are all, in so far as they are what these
names imply, constitutionally unable to sympathise with
the ideals of Indian civilization. Indian art is essentially
religious, as well as those who in the name of"
Puritanism would secularise or abolish art entirely, have-
not in them a capacity for understanding. Even with the-
best intentions, the study of Indian art proves difficult.
There have until lately been no books to guide the student
and no collections of Indian painting and sculpture, except
those brought together with a purely archaeological purpose.,
Unfamiliarity with Indian religious philosophy, and its
traditional expression in art and literature, and the now
complete divorce between art and life in Europe, have-
added to the difficulties of those who have sought to know
anything of Indian art. A majority—from Ruskin on-
wards—have rested happy in the conviction that there wasu
nothing to be known.

* This essay originally formed part of a lecture given to the*
members of the Art-workers' guild, and is primarily phrased as if
Jor European renders*