Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art
About this ebook
Finally, Coomaraswamy was a provocative writer, whose erudition was expressed in a delightful, aphoristic style. The nine essays in this book are among his most stimulating. They discuss such matters as the true function of aesthetics in art, the importance of symbolism, and the importance of intellectual and philosophical background to the artist; they analyze the role of traditional culture in enriching art; they demonstrate that abstract art and primitive art, despite superficial resemblances, are completely divergent; and they deal with the common philosophy which pervades all great art, the nature of medieval art, folklore and modern art, the beauty inherent in mathematics, and the union of traditional symbolism and individual portraiture in premodern cultures.
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About the author
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (22 August 1877 − 9 September 1947) was a Ceylonese Tamil philosopher and Metaphysicist, as well as a pioneering historian and philosopher of Indian art, particularly art history and symbolism, and an early interpreter of Indian culture to the West.
He was born in Colombo, Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, to the Ceylonese Tamil legislator and philosopher Sir Muthu Coomaraswamy of the aristocratic Vellalar Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy family and his English wife Elizabeth Beeby. His father died when Ananda was two years old, and Ananda spent much of his childhood and education abroad.
He moved to England in 1879 and attended Wycliffe College, a preparatory school in Stroud, Gloucestershire, at the age of twelve. In 1900, he graduated from University College, London, with a degree in geology and botany. His field work between 1902 and 1906 earned him a doctor of science for his study of Ceylonese mineralogy, and prompted the formation of the Geological Survey of Ceylon.
By 1906, Coomaraswamy had made it his mission to educate the West about Indian art, and was back in London with a large collection of photographs, actively seeking out artists to try to influence. He was invited to serve as the first Keeper of Indian art in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1917.
Through the 1920s, Coomaraswamy became part of the bohemian art circles in New York City and studied Sanskrit and Pali religious literature as well as Western religious works. He wrote catalogues for the Museum of Fine Arts and published his History of Indian and Indonesian Art in 1927.
He became Fellow for Research in Indian, Persian, and Mohammedan Art in 1933 and served as curator in the Museum of Fine Arts until his death in Needham, Massachusetts, in 1947, aged 70.
