A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon from
the Earliest Times to the Present Day. By Vincent A. Smith. (Oxford : The Clarendon Press. £3 3s. net.)—Architecture, painting, and sculp- ture are all treated of in this large and well-illustrated book the plan of which is to describe actual monuments rather than to give general accounts of periods of artistic activity. Here we can study the wonderful cave entrances such as that of Lomas Rishi with its beautiful portico cut in the living rock at so early a date as about 257 B.C., or gain some information as to those most interesting of early paintings, the caves of Ajunta. Of these there is a long description, but wo could have wished for even more reproductions of the frescoes. When wo come to less remote times we reach the portraits drawn during the reign of Shah Jahan. Some of the beet of these are to be found in the British Museum, and it is interesting to note that the examples reproduced by Mr. Vincent are those which were particularly admired by Sir Joshua Reynolds when he saw them in 1777. We have given but a few indications of the wonders of Indian art which are to be found in this book to turn over the leaves of which is a delight, while to read it is an education.
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