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The Future of Indian Art History Author(s): John F. Mosteller Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1989), pp. 597- 602 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/604084 . Accessed: 16/06/2014 00:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Oriental Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.78.61 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:31:49 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: The Future of Indian Art History

The Future of Indian Art HistoryAuthor(s): John F. MostellerSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1989), pp. 597-602Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/604084 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 00:31

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofthe American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.78.61 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 00:31:49 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: The Future of Indian Art History

THE FUTURE OF INDIAN ART HISTORY

JOHN F. MOSTELLER

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

The goal of Indian art historians has long been to understand the visual coherence of their monuments, to clarify their historical relationships and to comprehend their meaning. The essential priority of historical reconstruction to cultural interpretation has been difficult to maintain, and the time has come to set aside the idea that cultural interpretations can be made independent of specific historical contexts. The priority hitherto given to meaning must be subordinated to the fundamental priority of history. Ways to analyze styles of surviving monuments must be developed on the basis of the significant formal criteria inherent in the monuments themselves. These criteria can only be apprehended by examining the Indian artist's technical approach and his understanding of forms through their unique measure. Imaging technology provides us with the means to access the self-explanations encoded in the morphologies of the surviving monuments.

INDIAN ART HISTORY IS ON the threshold of a new beginning and its goals, methods, and research pri- orities will all be affected. In what follows I consider the changes which are soon to take place in each of these areas. My purpose in doing so is to outline an agenda for research which has the capacity to revitalize the field of Indian art history by significantly broaden- ing and deepening the quality of its achievement. I offer this essay now in honor of Ernest Bender, whose own insights have inspired it,' and as a constructive response to what I believe are the special opportunities and challenges for scholarship in this field in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.2

The goals of the field of Indian art history have long been to understand the visual coherence of the monuments-to clarify their historical relationships- and to comprehend their meaning.3 Logically, the latter should be based upon the former. However, in the case of Indian art, the essential priority of histori- cal reconstruction to cultural interpretation has been difficult to maintain. This is so for two very different reasons. First is the virtual absence of written history in ancient India which has made it hard to establish any kind of detailed historical contexts for the monu- ments.4 Second is the unfortunate fact that it became acceptable, from early on, to assert that Indian art is a

I Indian art has long been a primary interest of Ernest ilender. As a result, it seems most appropriate to honor him here by sharing with others an outline of its future study which has been articulated in numerous discussions with him over the last several years. In these discussions, his en- thusiasm for the future of Indic studies in general, and the clarity of his insight into the role new technologies are destined to play in our investigations, have been a constant source of inspiration as I have labored to bring about such a change in the field of Indian art.

2 1 have put these ideas into writing out of a basic belief in the inherent value of reflecting upon the progress of one's field for guiding the definition of its future. In offering this essay it is my intention to provoke both discussion and action: both are needed if the work I outline here is to be effectively carried out.

3 By visual coherence is meant the chronological and regional distribution of the monuments and, hence, their historical relationships to one another. Style is a key factor for the art historian in establishing this visual coherence. Hence, styles must be defined by identifying their significant criteria so that their transformation and possible interaction can be traced in terms of time and region. By meaning is intended the various levels of meaning implicit in the art object and connected to its function. These include the artist's understanding of it, the meaning it had for the people who commissioned it, and the meaning(s) it may have acquired from others both at the time of its production and also later.

4 History in India is largely a history of dynasties based upon inscriptions, which are, ultimately, highly limited sources of information. For a useful discussion of the problem of

597

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598 Journal of the American Oriental Society 109.4 (1989)

monolithic phenomenon and, hence, that its true meaning transcends the contexts of history.' Given this viewpoint, many scholars over the years have been content to elucidate the meaning of Indian art on the basis of only rough chronologies of the monu- ments and a very imperfect understanding of their stylistic interrelationships.

While this perpetual fascination with meaning can be viewed as an intellectual response to the highly symbolic nature of Indian art, the time has come to set aside the idea that cultural interpretations can be made independent of specific historical contexts. There- fore, our goals must be reordered and the focus of our field shifted: the priority of meaning must be sub- ordinated to the fundamental priority of history and this must be done in spite of the difficulty of recon- structing the historical context in India. Furthermore, in our attempts to establish the historical foundation necessary for truly meaningful interpretations, our primary source of information must be the monuments themselves and not the ahistorical traditions recorded by the texts. We must now confront the basic problem which has for so long frustrated our progress: we must develop ways to effectively analyze the styles of the surviving monuments on the basis of the informa- tion only they can provide us.

The history of Indian artistic styles and, hence, the history of the monuments themselves, will be written only when we can precisely identify the significant formal criteria of the different styles and thereby trace

their spread, interaction, and development, both chron- ologically and geographically. These criteria cannot be completely perceived by the human eye; they cannot be adequately communicated by the use of poetic or impressionistic language, and they cannot be accurately understood through the application of Indian philosophical concepts. Instead, these criteria can only be apprehended and understood by examin- ing what we have for too long neglected: the Indian artist's technical approach to the articulation of his forms.

The Indian artist understood his forms-all his buildings, images, and motifs-in terms of their unique measure.' His style inhered in the distinctive mor- phology of his tradition and this morphology was understood, transmitted, and re-created by virtue of measure. The measure of these forms was memorized, at the fundamental level-in two and three dimensions- as linear patterns and articulated volumes.7 Fre- quently, this mnemonic process was guided by the use of visual devices-consisting of lines and points-to which the linear patterns and volumes were bound both in the artist's mind and in execution.8 These

history in India see: A. L. Basham, "Ancient Indian Ideas Of

Time and History," in Prdcyavidyd- TaranginT Golden Jubilee

Volume of The Department of Ancient Indian History and

Culture, ed. D. C. Sircar (Calcutta: University of Calcutta,

1969), 49-63. 5 To deal properly with this conception would require a

separate study of the history of the study of Indian art. Here,

I would only like to observe that this conception, based upon

the traditional conception of the interrelationship of the arts

and the evidence of cultural continuity in the subcontinent,

has often been articulated on the basis of a largely uncritical

use of the ahistorical textual tradition. While it is true that

there was some relationship between the visual arts and

dancing, instrumental, and vocal music, we must also ac-

knowledge that each art in India has its own distinct history

which cannot be easily linked to all the other arts if for no

other reason than for a lack of concrete evidence. Similarly,

while the reality of cultural continuities cannot be denied, we

have to acknowledge that there has been considerable change

over time and the formation of strong patterns of regional

variation.

6 What follows is a concise summary of the approach of the

Indian artist as I have been able to reconstruct it on the basis

of a synthetic study of surviving craftsmen, ancient texts,

and a quantitative analysis of a large body of ancient Indian

sculpture. For a concise explanation of this approach see:

John F. Mosteller, "A New Approach for the Study of

Indian Art," JAOS 107 (1987): 55-69; and for a much fuller

discussion see: John F. Mosteller, The Measure of Form: A

New Approach for the Study of Indian Sculpture (New

Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1988). 7 As I have shown elsewhere, sculptors use drawing to

control the realization of carved volumes. The correct con-

tours of volumes, in a given tradition of sculpture, were

memorized through the repeated carving of these forms

where drawing was used to indicate the shaping to be done

by the chisel. This interactive procedure of drawing-carving-

drawing-carving assured that the two-dimensional design of

an image or motif would be consistently translated into a

specific three-dimensional form. See: John F. Mosteller,

"Texts and Craftsmen At Work," Proceedings of The South

Asia Seminar, Vol. 4, n.s., ed. Michael Meister (Philadelphia:

University of Pennsylvania, Department of South Asia Re-

gional Studies, 1988). 8 These devices were compositional and constructional in

function: they controlled both the disposition of the two-

dimensional design of an image, motif, etc., as also the

proportions that it would be assigned. The control these

devices permitted is the reason why forms and their mode of

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Page 4: The Future of Indian Art History

MOSTELLER: The Future of Indian Art History 599

same devices could also be articulated proportionally, thus permitting the same form, motif, or image to reflect the application of varied systems of proportion.9

This process of mnemonically transmitting mor- phology or style necessarily entailed two collateral developments which further defined the Indian artist's approach. First was the development of convention- alized vocabularies of forms, motifs, images, etc., by groups of artists at all periods. Second was the development of a method for transmitting (memoriz- ing) these morphological vocabularies involving a process of repeated exercises of drawing and carving. This process of repetition, integral to learning the articulation of forms, also defined the artist's creative process: in creating an image or designing a temple the artist or architect was re-creating (repeating) what he had learned from his teacher. As a result, an artistic style was not the creation or property of just an individual, but rather a corporate reality: it was the

shared interpretation of conventionalized sets of visual forms by groups of artists living and working together. These groups of artists, whether related as families or not, preserved discrete visual traditions (morphologies) that were transmitted over time from teacher to student and moved with the artists as they travelled from place to place."

This Indian approach to the articulation of form explains why we have, so far, been unable to achieve a clear understanding of the history of styles in the subcontinent. We have tried to do for years what cannot be done: to define and understand the corpor- ate styles of Indian art in terms of divisions of time (dynasties) and space (regions). Furthermore, even the more recent terms of idiom and mode'2 while more conceptually accurate will only gain real meaning when we shift from what has been an essentially descriptive approach to one that is fully analytical. What this analytical approach or method must do is permit us to perceive, with precision, the subtlety and complexity of formal variation inherent in the repeti- tive creative process of the Indian artist. The reality of this variability-generated through repetition-and everywhere apparent in the monuments of the subcon- tinent, no longer needs to stand in our way, for it can now be quantitatively recorded, perceived, and ana- lyzed through the adaptation of imaging technology to the study of visual art. As a result, we must now recognize that Indian art is particularly suited to the

representation (style) cannot easily be separated in Indian art. For some discussion of these devices in various traditions please see: Clifford Reis Jones, "Dhulicitra: Historical Per- spectives on Art and Ritual," in Kaldarsana: American Studies in the Art of India, ed. Joanna Williams (New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., 1981), 69-75; David P. and Janice A. Jackson, Tibetan Thangka Painting: Methods & Materials (Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 1984). 9 For how proportions can be manipulated in figural

sculpture please see the references in footnote six above and: John F. Mosteller, "The Practice Of Early Indian Icono- metry," Proceedings of The Conference on the 9dstric Tradi- tion in the Indian Arts (Heidelberg: University of Heidelberg, South Asia Institute, in press). This same type of] manipula- tion also occurs in architecture where the different com- ponents of the building, i.e., the mouldings, pillars, pilasters, capitals, brackets, and various parts of the superstructure, could be assigned different proportions to obtain both the formal attenuation necessary in the tower over the shrine as also different effects in the overall composition of the temple itself.

10 However, the perception of his talent and, hence his livelihood, did not only depend upon his ability to repeat the forms he had learned form his teacher. Both also depended upon his inventiveness in recombining the same forms in new ways according to the established principles of composition operative within his tradition. Therefore, the Indian artist's approach allowed for innovation by permitting variation in the combination of forms and their relative proportions. In addition to these, subtle modifications in the forms them- selves were introduced by artists, either by accident or by intention, which further distinguished one artist from another.

The role of artist families in Indian art has been raised and explored, in particular, by B. N. Goswamy in relation to Pahari painting. In this pioneering work, Goswamy has established an important model of the relation between the life of a style and the life of a family of painters. He shows how an artistic style, conceived within the context of a family of artists, grows and changes with the family itself as its members move from one Pahari princedom to another. The way in which the same style comes to be found in different places is instructive of what we often find in ancient Indian art as well. For Goswamy's model see: B. N. Gos- wamy, "Pahari Painting: The Family as The Basis of Style," Marg, 21.4 (1968): 17-62.

12Several examples of recent scholarship using these terms are: Michael W. Meister, "Style and Idiom in the Art of Uparamala," in Felicitation Volume for U. P. Shah, special number of the Bulletin of the Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery (forthcoming); Phillip Wagoner, Mode and Mean- ing in the Architecture of Early Medieval Telangana (c. 1000-1300) (Ph.D. diss., Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1986).

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600 Journal of the American Oriental Society 109.4 (1989)

application of a quantitative method of analysis speci- fically because the artists themselves understood and transmitted their imagery and buildings as measured forms.

The first and most fundamental implication of this suitability is that we must revise both our basic conception of Indian images and temples and the role they are to play in our analysis of them. Presently, laboring under the limitations of a descriptive ap- proach, we primarily conceive of these objects as works of art to be appreciated and explained by referring to external sources like, for example, texts, inscriptions, archaeological reports, etc. However, we must now recognize that the best data for explaining the historical relationships of these objects is the information they themselves embody: given the Indian artist's approach to the articulation of form, the configuration of the surfaces of an Indian image or temple encode what can be called their self- explanation. This self-explanation is our primary data and it can only be properly obtained and analyzed through quantitative means.

The adaptation of imaging technology13 to the analysis of visual art provides us with the necessary means to access the self-explanations encoded by the surfaces or morphologies of the surviving monuments. These computerized systems, by digitally capturing the continuous dimensions of the object, will now make it possible for us to apprehend the measured line and volume of the Indian artist's forms. Through a comparative analysis of the monuments, electronic- ally executed, this new tool will lead to the definition of a new standard of morphological analysis. This standard will go far beyond the best standard so far achieved by the field in the study of Indian temple architecture.14 Furthermore, it will be applied to the

arts of sculpture and painting as well. This new morphological analysis will permit us to define with precision, for the first time, the formal language of both temple architecture and figurative art through a comparison of all the forms found within any given tradition. On the basis of such analysis, the history of the corporate styles of Indian art will finally be written and the achievement of the Indian artist properly understood.

The reordering of our goals-the subordination of meaning to the reconstruction of historical context- and the shift from a descriptive to an analytical and quantitative method or approach, have considerable implications for the future course of research in the field. The agenda of research priorities that these changes point to is divided between two basic areas: (1) the documentation and analysis of all sources relevant to reconstructing the approach of the ancient Indian artist, and (2) the integration of a quantitative approach in the study of Indian art.

A key source for the reconstruction of ancient practice remains the surviving art and craft traditions of the Indian subcontinent. These still living traditions preserve the parameters of traditional artistic practice which can be invaluable in guiding our formulation of hypotheses about ancient practice which will now be tested by an increasingly sophisticated analysis of the monuments.'5 Furthermore, the so-called folk art traditions preserved in the tribal or village contexts, offer a living record of the folk sources that con- tributed so much to the 'high' artistic traditions of ancient India. Thus, our first and urgent priority must be to intensify efforts already underway to document all these surviving traditions.'6 This documentation

1' Imaging systems are currently used in a variety of

technical applications including medical diagnosis, engineer-

ing, architectural design and commercial design. For a good

introductory survey of the main methods of image processing

please see: G. A. Baxes, Digital Image Processing: A Practi-

cal Primer (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1984). 1 This standard is being defined in the volumes of the new

Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture being pub-

lished by the American Institute of Indian Studies. The

volumes so far published are: South India: Lower Drdvid-

adjsa, 200 B.C.-A.D. 1324, vol. I, pt. 1, ed. Michael Meister

(New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1983);

South India: Upper Dravi~dadea, Early Phase, A.D. 550-

1075, vol. 1, pt. 2, ed. Michael Meister and M. A. Dhaky

(New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1986).

15 In certain cases, like traditional sculpture and architec-

ture, the living traditions provide us with our only remaining

link to the oral traditions of ancient times. This information

is vital to future analysis of the Wilpa- and vdstusastra which,

because of their frequently garbled language, must be cre-

atively decoded by referring to other evidence relating to

practice that is available only in the living traditions. This

approach to the texts has a long history, established at the

beginning of this century by pioneers like Ananda Cooma-

raswamy and W. H. Hadaway. See: Ananda Coomaraswamy,

Mediaeval Sinhalese Art (Broad Campden: Essex House

Press, 1908; revised and reprinted, New York: Pantheon

Books, 1956); W. S. Hadaway, "Some Hindu 'Silpa' Shastras

in their Relation to South Indian Sculpture," Ostasiatische

Zeitschrift, 3 (1914-15): 34-50.

16 It seems to be only a matter of time before the pressure

of an increasingly technological culture overwhelms the

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MOSTELLER: The Future of Indian Art History 601

must be systematic, in depth, and multi-disciplinary. As a result, coordinated teams of researchers must be sent into the field to document the materials, tech- niques, and social background of each tradition. This documentation should utilize all means available in- cluding video taping. All technical procedures and the production of objects must be so documented, and this should be accompanied by extensive interviewing of the practitioners focusing on the methods of their training and their own understanding of their work. The function of the objects produced should also be examined in all relevant contexts. Finally, the social background of the practitioners themselves should be studied with special attention paid to their social and economic relationships to the broader communities they serve.

A second important source for reconstructing an- cient practice is to be found in what the ancient artists have left unfinished. Unfinished work, whether limited to isolated images or entire temples, can provide us with considerable information about how the artists, at a given place and time, actually worked. Therefore, a program must be undertaken to document, in detail, the abundant record of unfinished art in the sub- continent.17 While documentation should be compre- hensive, analysis of the evidence must be conducted within the context of specific traditions of sculpture and architecture. The analysis of these remains must be coordinated, where possible, with information de- rived from both the living traditions and texts. 18 It

will only be through such an integrated analysis that we will be able to maximize the value of each of these lines of evidence.

Ultimately, of course, the greatest source of infor- mation about ancient practice is to be found in the vast number of finished monuments that have sur- vived. However, extracting this information requires the integration of a quantitative approach to the study of Indian art. The integration of this approach is clearly dependent upon the adaptation of imaging analysis. It also requires, as an initial stage, a funda- mental shift in the way we conceptualize our research.

The new conception of monuments as discrete and quantifiable data bases necessarily means that we must now pursue their study from a quantitative perspective. What this implies is that the monuments can no longer be superficially catalogued and dis- cussed-on the basis of subjective observation alone- as mere examples of different stylistic traditions. Instead, the goal of analyzing the data they embody, requires that we deal with the objects of these different traditions as data samples to be analyzed, where the definition of hypotheses will automatically entail the identification of the specific data one wants to extract from them. Unlike the subjective and often imprecise nature of visual observations, the data collected for a quantitative study will be objective and precisely identified; its sheer quantity will require the use of computers to manage and analyze it. Therefore, while most current studies address hypotheses through a descriptive narrative illustrated with photographs, a quantitative study will address hypotheses through the analysis of a unique data base: the descriptive narra- tive will be replaced by a presentation of the findings of data analysis, and the interpretations of those findings supported by the data. As a result, in addition to illustrations, quantitative studies will include a published data base.'9

The full integration of a quantitative approach will require the creation of digitized data bases of Indian monuments and this will be a major focus of research for many years to come. This task, of course, involves the adaptation of imaging technology to the analysis

communities preserving these traditions. It is likely that by the end of the century these traditions will be either hope- lessly corrupted by commercialization, or extinct. Efforts to document Indian folk traditions are presently being sponsored by the Indira Gandhi National Centre For Arts in New Delhi.

17 Some work has already been initiated on this topic. See: Hermann Goetz, "Building and Sculpture Techniques in India, Part I: The Pre-Classical Phase," Archaeology, 15.4 (1962): 252-61; Hermann Goetz, "Building and Sculpture Techniques In India, Part II: Classical and Later Times," Archaeology, 16:1 (1963): 47-53; Joanna Williams, "Un- finished Images," India International Centre Quarterly, 12.1 (1986): 90-105.

1 The ancient texts on art-the gilpa- and vdstugdstras-as also all other texts that contain information on gilpa and vistu, represent very important sources for the future study of Indian art. It must be emphasized here that all these texts need to be collected and studied. However, there is clearly much work to be done to prepare these texts before they can be fully utilized by art historians.

'9 The publication of data bases will be necessary only when individual scholars support their studies upon a data base they have created themselves. As this approach develops and institutional data banks are created, it will be possible for scholars to do studies where they present only the analysis of the data and not the data itself. The latter will be available to scholars through the various data banks themselves.

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602 Journal of the American Oriental Society 109.4 (1989)

of Indian art and this must begin with the develop- ment of systems for digitizing groups of individual sculptures and miniature paintings.20 On the basis of this work, it will then be possible to create portable systems for digitizing more complex monuments like the narrative reliefs from Deogarh, Mahabalipuram, Badami, Ellora, etc., and the surviving cycles of cave and temple paintings at Ajanta and elsewhere. Ulti- mately, these systems will be adapted for digitizing entire temples. Therefore, what must of necessity begin as individual projects, will quickly become a focus of institutional concern in museums around the world and, as a result, data bases will be replaced by data banks. We must, therefore, also anticipate the international need for the establishment of digitized data bases of monuments in situ in India, and the creation of a network to access electronically informa- tion from one data bank to another.

The development of these data bases will, of course, ultimately serve the cause of analysis.2' Even at the initial level of individual projects, it will be possible to pose and answer a number of questions that we have never been able to ask of our material.22 This process

of inquiry will lead to the further definition of the new standard of morphological analysis discussed above, and this standard will be extended and refined as the number and size of our data bases grow. As data banks of digitized monuments are established, sup- porting numbers of different projects over many years, our increasing knowledge will lead to a magnification of both the precision (quality) and speed of our analytical capabilities. As a result, what, at present, would take one scholar an entire career to achieve, will be attained in a fraction of that time. Given the vast remains of Indian art, this acceleration in the collection and analysis of data will not exhaust the field. On the contrary, the field will expand in response to an unprecedented increase in data.

The future of Indian art history rests upon the active pursuit of this basic research agenda and our individual and collective efforts must be directed to the many projects it encompasses. All of us now working in the field must, as a result, accept the challenge implicit in the technological transformation of our world by computers: we must adapt our training and insights to a new range of possibilities in order to use these wonderful tools in the service of scholarship. The future of our field is no longer something distant or open to speculation: the future of our field is now and it is time for us to respond appropriately to the new opportunities for discovery that are appearing before us.

20 I am currently engaged in this work with a focus on Indian sculpture in both stone and metal.

21 The data bases will fulfill several important non-analytical functions. They will serve as an essential form of object

documentation which will, ultimately, replace photographs. Because they will document the object in such a precise way, they will also become important records for tracing stolen

objects and for restoring objects if damaged. 22 In order to appreciate the number of different questions

that we will be able to ask and answer, we must each imagine having, in digitized form, the particular body of material we are working with now. Initial questions would logically focus

upon the way in which the morphologies of our objects are

similar and different. In the case of sculpture, this type of

analysis will, for example, permit a real consideration of

contour or volume articulation as a significant component of

style differentiation.

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