17 April 2017

From the Ajanta Caves

A plate painted with geese round the rim, each one different, in the V&A's Lockwood Kipling exhibition (museum number 15.2855.1883; photo not available) that sent me looking for its inspiration - perhaps it was inspired by these geese in a ceiling panel -

The ceiling paintings (via) in the Ajanta Caves are amazing, but good photos of them are hard to find -

The caves, east of Mumbai, were chiselled out of the rock, starting as early as the 2nd century BC; they were abandoned by about 500AD, and rediscovered by English officers during a tiger hunt in 1819. They are over 60 miles from the nearest towns, and it wasn't until 1983 that Unesco declared them a world heritage site. A brief introduction to the painting is here.

And the wall sculptures are amazing. A good selection is here

This one caught my eye -
Conjoined quadruplets?
The stamp was issued in 1949 -
 (via)

1 comment:

Cate Rose said...

Love that old stamp especially! Some of the designs seem ala William Morris...maybe he was inspired by Indian design elements!