Art, Prehistoric; Folk literature -- History and criticism
As stated before, a sharp line between the two methods of graphic
representation cannot be drawn. In most cases symbolic representations
are at least in part perspective, either in so far as the general
form is maintained, or as parts are shown in perspective form; while
perspective representations may contain symbolic elements. When
the Pueblo Indian paints the form of a deer with a fair degree of
perspective accuracy (see fig. 142, p. 167), but adds to it a line
running from the mouth to the heart as an essential symbol of life;
or when the symbols are arranged with a fair degree of correspondence
to perspective order we have forms in which both tendencies may be
observed. Indeed, some degree of conventional symbolism is found in
every drawing or painting, the more so, the more sketchy it is; in
other words, the more the representation is confined to salient traits.
This is particularly true in all forms of caricature.
If representative art did develop into absolute realism, stereoscopic
color photography would be the highest type of art, but this is
obviously not the case. Setting aside the emotional appeal of the
object itself, an accurate copy of a natural object, such as a glass
flower, a painted carving, an imitation of natural sounds or a
pantomime may attain an intense emotional appeal, they may excite our
admiration on account of the skill of execution; their artistic value
will always depend upon the presence of a formal element that is not
identical with the form found in nature.
[Illustration: Fig. 73. Koryak carvings.]
Stress must be laid upon the distinctive points of view from which the
two methods of graphic representation develop, because the development
of perspective drawing is often represented as growing out of the
cruder symbolic method. As a matter of fact the two have distinct
psychological sources which remain active in the early, as well as
in the late history of art. Vierkandt[42] designates the various
methods of representation as suggestive (andeutend), descriptive
(beschreibend), and perspective (anschaulich). Of these the former
two correspond to what I have called here symbolic. They differ
only in the more or less fragmentary character of the symbols. The
perspective type does not develop from the former two as the result
of an evolution; it is based on a distinct mental attitude, the early
presence of which is manifested by the realistic, perspective paintings
of a number of primitive tribes.
[42] Das Zeichnen der Naturvölker, Zeitschrift für angewandte
Psychologie, Vol. 6, (1912), pp. 347 et seq.
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