Table Of ContentArt / Religion
Figures of Speech or
Ananda K.
(cid:31) Th is new edition of Coomaraswamy’s classic work includes all of the defi nitive
Coomaraswamy
revisions he later intended to add to the book. Figures of Thought?
(cid:31) Contains, for the fi rst time, translations of the Greek, Latin, French, German,
and Italian terms and phrases used by Coomaraswamy. The Traditional View of Art
(cid:31) Introduction by Roger Lipsey, the foremost authority on Coomaraswamy’s
writings.
Revised Edition with Previously Unpublished Author’s Notes
(cid:31) Edited by William Wroth, a specialist in the Hispanic and Native American
A K C
traditional arts and cultures. nanda . oomaraswamy
“Coomaraswamy uncovers and puts before us the truths of a primordial tradition,
refl ected in the world’s existing traditions and expressed by them as if in diff ering
dialects. He asks us to join him in the eff ort to decipher the religiously rich arts and
crafts, literatures and folklore of the world’s traditions.”
—Roger Lipsey, from the Introduction F
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“Coomaraswamy is an extremely precious author.” r
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—Frithjof Schuon, author of Th e Transcendent Unity of Religions T s
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h
“Coomaraswamy’s essays [give] us a view of his scholarship and brilliant insight.” e f
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—Joseph Campbell, author of Th e Hero with a Th ousand Faces and T
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Th e Masks of God ra e
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“Ananda Coomaraswamy is in many ways to me a model: the model of one who i h
t
has thoroughly and completely united in himself the spiritual tradition and io o
n r
attitudes of the Orient and of the Christian West….” a F
—Th omas Merton, author of Th e Seven Storey Mountain and New Seeds Vl ig
of Contemplation u
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e r
“[Ananda Coomaraswamy is] that noble scholar upon whose shoulders we are w e
s
still standing.” o o
f
—Heinrich Zimmer, author of Th e King and the Corpse and Philosophies A f
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of India r h
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o
“Coomaraswamy’s work is as important as that of Joseph Campbell or Carl Jung, u
g
and deserving of the same attention.”
h
—David Frawley, author of Yoga and Ayurveda t?
A K C (1877-1947) was one of the great art historians
of the twentieth century. His books and articles deal primarily with visual art, aesthetics,
literature and language, folklore, religion, and metaphysics.
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Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought? The Traditional View of Art: Revised Edition
with Previously Unpublished Author’s Notes appears as one of our selections in the
Perennial Philosophy series.
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which has focused on the enunciation and explanation of the Perennial
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Some of these titles are companion volumes to the Treasures of the World’s
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Figures of Speech
or Figures of Thought?
The Traditional View of Art
Revised Edition
with Previously Unpublished
Author’s Notes
by
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
Edited by
William Wroth
Introduction by
Roger Lipsey
Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought?
The Traditional View of Art:
Revised Edition with Previously
Unpublished Author’s Notes
© 2007 World Wisdom, Inc.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner without written permission,
except in critical articles and reviews.
First edition published by Luzac & Co., London, 1946.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish, 1877-1947.
Figures of speech or Figures of thought? The Traditional View of Art / by
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy ; edited by William Wroth ; introduction by Roger
Lipsey. -- Rev. ed., with previously unpublished author’s notes.
p. cm. -- (Perennial philosophy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-933316-34-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Art. 2. Aesthetics. 3.
Figures of speech. I. Wroth, William, date. - II. Title.
N7445.C777 2007
701--dc22
2007024177
Cover Art:
Kichijo-Ten (Srî-devi); Japanese painting from
the end of the 8th century.
Detail from the retable of Sta. María de Avià,
Catalonia, Spain; first half of the 13th century.
Printed on acid-free paper in Canada.
For information address World Wisdom, Inc.
P.O. Box 2682, Bloomington, Indiana 47402-2682
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Table of ConTenTs
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
Editor’s Preface ix
Introduction by Roger Lipsey xvii
Author’s Preface xxiii
I. “A Figure of Speech, or a Figure of Thought?” 1
II. The Mediaeval Theory of Art 31
III. Ornament 71
IV. Ars Sine Scientia Nihil 85
V. The Meeting of the Eyes 89
VI. Shaker Furniture 93
VII. Literary Symbolism 99
VIII. Intention 107
IX. Imitation, Expression, and Participation 117
X. The Intellectual Operation in Indian Art 129
XI. The Nature of Buddhist Art 145
XII. Saṃvega, Aesthetic Shock 177
XIII. An Early Passage on Indian Painting 183
XIV. Some References to Pictorial Relief 189
XV. Primitive Mentality 191
XVI. Notes on Savage Art 213
XVII. Symptom, Diagnosis, and Regimen 223
XVIII. The Life of Symbols by Walter Andrae 227
List of Abbreviations and Short Titles 231
List of Works by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Cited in this Book 243
Biographical Notes 247
Index 249
lisT of illusTraTions
1. Quentin Matsys: Christus Salvador Mundi 91
© IRPA-KIK, Brussels
2. Shaker Furniture 94
From Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews,
Shaker Furniture: The Craftsmanship of an American
Communal Sect (New Haven, 1937)
3. The Gracious Manifestation of the Devī 134
© Smithsonian Institute, courtesy of the Freer
Gallery of Art
4. Sarmatian (?) Ornament, 204
Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the
British Museum.
5. Horse and Donkey: Folk Art and Bourgeois Art, 205
Photograph in A. K. Coomaraswamy collection.
aCKnoWleDGMenTs
This new edition of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy’s Figures of Speech or
Figures of Thought? includes material from the author’s notes and com-
ments which he made after the book was first published in 1946, as
well as a new introduction by Roger Lipsey, the leading authority on
the life and work of Coomaraswamy. We are grateful to Dr. Lipsey
not only for his introduction, but also for the editing of some of these
essays when he re-issued them in Coomaraswamy I. Selected Papers:
Traditional Art and Symbolism (Princeton University Press, 1977),
now long out-of-print and difficult to obtain. Coomaraswamy himself
was fluent in many languages and assumed, no doubt correctly in the
1930s and 1940s, that most of his readers would also be fluent in the
major European languages. Often, therefore, he did not translate words,
phrases, and even long passages in Greek, Latin, French, German, and
Italian. He did, however, have mercy on his readers with regard to
words in Sanskrit which he almost always explained or translated. To
make this new edition more accessible to a wide audience, we have ren-
dered in English all of the previously untranslated material in the above
languages and have transliterated all Greek words into our alphabet. The
editor is grateful to Dr. Richard McCombs for his transliterations and
translations of Greek and his translations of Latin words and phrases.
Deborah Kornblau, Roger Gaetani, and Susana Marin all generously
assisted in translations from the other languages. Dr. Timothy Scott
cheerfully proofread the entire typescript. We have also added to this
new edition a list of abbreviations and short titles of works utilized by
the author and a list of his own works cited in the essays, as well as an
index. Margaret Rich and AnnaLee Pauls of the Rare Books and Special
Collections Department of the Princeton University Library kindly
provided us with photocopies of Coomaraswamy’s own copies of some
of the essays in this volume. The editor is greatly appreciative of the
help and dedication of the editorial and design staff of World Wisdom
Books: Michael Fitzgerald, Mary-Kathryne Steele, Stephen Williams,
Roger Gaetani, Susana Marin, and former staff member Sarah Jacobi. It
has been a pleasure to work with them. Finally we are all grateful to the
late Dr. Rama P. Coomaraswamy who was an enthusiastic supporter of
this project, providing us many helpful suggestions as well as his father’s
annotated desk copies of several of his publications. We only regret that
Dr. Coomaraswamy could not still be with us to see the fruit of his and
our labors.
vii
eDiTor’s PrefaCe
ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy 1877-1947
“Blessed is the man on whose tomb can be written Hic jacet nemo” [Here lies no one].
(A. K. Coomaraswamy, Hinduism and Buddhism, p.30)
In response to a request for autobiographical information, Ananda K.
Coomaraswamy replied: “I must explain that I am not at all interested
in biographical matter relating to myself and that I consider the modern
practice of publishing details about the lives and personalities of well-
known men is nothing but a vulgar catering to illegitimate curiosity…
this is not a matter of ‘modesty’ but one of principle.” The principle
involved here, often enunciated by Coomaraswamy, was to value the
truths expressed by the man above the man himself, who was merely a
vehicle for their expression. Now nearly sixty years after his death, he
would perhaps forgive us this venture into biography, especially since
the wisdom he so eloquently unfolded remains of such precious value
in this world of uncertainty and flux in which we live in the twenty-
first century.
The breadth of Coomaraswamy’s knowledge, the many fields of
which he had full grasp, seems astonishing in today’s world of narrow
scholarly specialization. While primarily known among scholars as an
art historian, he shed light upon many other diverse subjects, for he
did not limit the study of art to descriptive or historical inquiry. He
drew the broadest implications for the meaning and always-present
value of the works of art under consideration, delving into aesthetics,
literature and language, folklore, religion, metaphysics and many other
fields. His heritage and early years uniquely prepared him for this life’s
work. Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was born in 1877 in Colombo,
Ceylon. His father was the distinguished Sri Lankan barrister Sir Mutu
Coomaraswamy and his mother Elizabeth Clay Beebe, from a wealthy
English family. Sir Mutu died in 1879 when Ananda Coomaraswamy
was two years old. His mother had already brought the young Ananda
back to England, and after his father’s death, they lived in a cottage in
Kent. Ananda attended Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire from 1889
to 1897. He received the B. Sc. in geology and botany from University
College, London in 1900 and in 1906 his doctorate in Geology from
London University. At least as early as 1896 he began to make annual
ix
