Sarnath Lion Capitol

Anna H. Asian Art History Maurya Dynasty Sarnath lion Capital Mauryan Empire of India lasted from 4th to 2nd century BCE. According to Coomaraswmy, an Indian historian, Mauryan art had troika phases. The third phase was considered the beginning of brick and stone scratch and architecture. The pillars of Asoka would consider such example, which are free standing carved living creature capitals created in the time of Asoka empire. There are 20 known pillars that Asoka commissioned. These pillars are made out of shafts of sandstone and display Buddhist symbolisms.Asoka had a forge of quartette lions placed on top of one of his pillars, knows as Sarnath Lion Capital. These lions were depicted as power and still remain a national symbol of India. The art elements portrayed in this sculpture define the meaning and characteristics that had weighty significance during Mauryan dynasty. The Sarnath Pillars composition has more than nobble relation back than schematic portrayal. Th e capital contains four lions, standing back to back, mounted on an abacus with a frieze carrying sculptures of an elephant, horse, bull, and a lion.In this way, four rivers of India is represented. The animals are separated by elapsing wheels, which symbolizes time. Because wheels are also mentioned in Buddhist religion, it can be explained as spiritual purpose as headspring. Since the sculpture has a schematic relation, it is voteless to understand the main point at the first sight. The sculpture is volumetrical with few high relieves. The animals and wheels can be considered as high stand-in where as the lions top portion would consider three dimensional. Over each(prenominal) sculpture itself is considered as free standing, since it can be iewed from all angles. The proportional relationship to the size of animals in authorizedity is more abstract than realistic. The animals at the bottom portion of the sculpture, are much smaller than in real life. Although the lions can be considered realistic, despite the overlapping of one another. The inclination from reality suggests that the size of lions portrayed in large scale signifies power, too of their nature meaning (powerful animal of animal kingdom). In this way it leads the witnesser to concentrate more on lions than on other parts of the culpture. The lines of the sculpture let the eye to lead to the main ideas and it emphasizes more volume than lines. some parts of the sculpture, such as water plant, and lions beard have curvilinear orientation where as the wheel is more rectilinear. The lines avail to create more naturalistic details, which effects the sculpture to be more easily defined. The texture of the sculpture is smooth, more similar to copper made. This deviates from the real texture of the objects depicted, even though it go bads the rich shiny feeling hich is more similar to lions natural color. Because the lack of color it give the sculpture more abstract than naturalistic look. Th e absence of the color gives more dull look and less definable. It also suggests that the painting techniques during Mauryan dynasty was not well developed and had limited use of techniques. Asokas pillars are some of Indias earliest major stone sculptures. The Asokas reign were highly religious. He was the first powerful milkweed butterfly to practice Buddhism, therefore his sculptures were mainly on Buddhism and power.