Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art.: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-1883, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 437-466. — John Shaqi
Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art.: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-1883, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 437-466.Holmes, William Henry
History
Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art.: Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-1883, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 437-466.
Holmes, William Henry
Decoration and ornament -- History; Indian art -- North America; Pottery -- History
It may be thought by some that the processes of development indicated
above are insufficient and unsatisfactory. There are those who, seeing
these forms already endowed with symbolism, begin at what I conceive to
be the wrong end of the process. They derive the form of symbol directly
from the thing symbolized. Thus the current scroll is, with many races,
found to be a symbol of water, and its origin is attributed to a literal
rendition of the sweep and curl of the waves. It is more probable that
the scroll became the symbol of the sea long after its development
through agencies similar to those described above, and that the
association resulted from the observation of incidental resemblances.
This same figure, in use by the Indians of the interior of the
continent, is regarded as symbolic of the whirlwind, and it is probable
that any symbol-using people will find in the features and phenomena of
their environment, whatever it may be, sufficient resemblance to any of
their decorative devices to lead to a symbolic association.
[Illustration: FIG. 481.--Theoretical development of the current
scroll.]
One secret of modification is found in the use of a radical in more than
one art, owing to differences in constructional characters. For example,
the tendency of nearly all woven fabrics is to encourage, even to
compel, the use of straight lines in the decorative designs applied.
Thus the attempt to employ curved lines would lead to stepped or broken
lines. The curvilinear scroll coming from some other art would be forced
by the constructional character of the fabric into square forms, and the
rectilinear meander or fret would result, as shown in. Fig. 482, _a_
being the plain form, painted, engraved, or in relief, and _b_ the same
idea developed in a woven fabric. Stone or brick-work would lead to like
results, Fig. 483; but the modification could as readily move in the
other direction. If an ornament originating in the constructional
character of a woven fabric, or remodeled by it, and hence rectilinear,
should be desired for a smooth structureless or featureless surface, the
difficulties of drawing the angular forms would lead to the delineation
of curved forms, and we would have exactly the reverse of the order
shown in Figs. 482 and 483. The two forms given in Fig. 484 actually
occur in one and the same design painted upon an ancient Pueblo vase.
The curved form is apparently the result of careless or hurried work,
the original angular form, having come from, a textile source.
[Illustration: _a_, free-hand form. _b_, form imposed, by fabric.
FIG. 482.--Forms of the same motive expressed in different arts.]
[Illustration: _a_, free-hand form. _b_, form imposed by masonry.
FIG. 483.--Forms of the same motive expressed in different arts.]
[Illustration: _a_ _b_ FIG. 484.--Variations resulting from change
of method.]
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