Chai'. VII.] 



THE FINE ARTS. 



475 



Amongst the most renowned of the Singhalese masters, 

 was the King Detii Tissa, a.d. 330, "a skilful carver, 

 who executed many arduous undertakings in painting, 

 and taught it to his subjects. He modelled a statue of 

 Buddha so exquisitely that he seemed to have been 

 inspired ; and for it he made an altar, and gilt an 

 echfice inlaid with ivory." ^ Among the presents sent 

 by the King of Ceylon (a.d. 459) to the Emperor of 

 China, the Tsih foo yuen kwei, a chronicle compiled by 

 imperial command, particularises a picture of Buddha.^ 

 The colours employed in decorating their temples are 

 mixed in tempera^ as were those used in the ancient 

 paintings in Egypt ; the claim of the Singhalese to the 

 priority of invention in the mixture of colours with oil, 

 is adverted to elsewhere.^ 



Sculpture.— 1\\ style Singhalese sculpture was even 

 more conventional and less imaginative than their paint- 

 ing ; since the subjects to which it was confined were 

 ahnost exclusively statues of Buddha^, and its efforts 

 were mere repetitions of the three orthodox attitudes 

 of the great archetype — sitting, as when in deep medi- 

 tation, under the sacred Bo-tree ; standing, as when 

 exhorting his multitudinous disciples ; and reclining, in 

 the enjoyment of the everlasting repose of " nirwana." 

 In each and all of these the details are identical ; the 

 length of the ears, the proportions of the arms, fingers, 

 and toes ; the colour of the eyes, and the curls of the 

 hair ^ being repeated with wearisome iteration. To such 



' 3Iahawan.-^o, cli. xxxvii. p. 242. 



« B. li. p. 7. 



3 See the chapter on the Fine Arts, 

 Vol. I. p. 490. 



* Mention is made of a fif^ure of 

 an elephant {Rajavali, p. 242), and 

 of a horse (3Iahawa)iso, ch. xxxix. 

 TtTRNOini's manuscript translation), 

 and a carved bull as amongst the 

 ruins of Anarajapoora. 



^ M. Abel Remitsat has devoted 

 a section of his Mclanyes Adutiques, 



1825, vol. i. p. 100, to combating 

 the conjecture of Sir W. Joxes in 

 his third Dissertation on the Hindus, 

 drawn from the cmied or rather the 

 woolly hair represented in his sta- 

 tues, that Ijuddha drew his descent 

 from an African origin. ( Works, vol. 

 i. p. 12.) Another ground for Sir. W. 

 Jones's conjecture was the larf/e 

 ears which are usually characteristic 

 of tlie statues of Buddha. But it is 

 curious that one of tlie peculiar fea- 



