Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art Part 2

A cla.s.sification of the sources of decorative motives employed in the ceramic art is given in the following diagram:

/Suggestions of features of natural utensils or objects.

| / | | /Handles.

| | |Legs | | Functional|Bands | | Perforations, etc.

| | |Suggestions of features of | |artificial utensils or objects.| /The coil.

| | |The seam.

Origin of ornament| |Constructional|The st.i.tch.

| | |The plait.

| The twist, etc.

|Suggestions from accidents /Marks of fingers.

| attending construction. |Marks of implements.

| Marks of molds, etc.

| | Suggestions of ideographic features or pictorial delineations.

+SUGGESTIONS OF NATURAL FEATURES OF OBJECTS.+

The first articles used by men in their simple arts have in many cases possessed features suggestive of decoration. Sh.e.l.ls of mollusks are exquisitely embellished with ribs, spines, nodes, and colors. The same is true to a somewhat limited extent of the sh.e.l.ls of the turtle and the armadillo and of the hard cases of fruits.

These decorative features, though not essential to the utensil, are nevertheless inseparable parts of it, and are cast or unconsciously copied by a very primitive people when similar articles are artificially produced in plastic material. In this way a utensil may acquire ornamental characters long before the workman has learned to take pleasure in such details or has conceived an idea beyond that of simple utility. This may be called unconscious embellishment. In this fortuitous fashion a ribbed variety of fruit sh.e.l.l would give rise to a ribbed vessel in clay; one covered with spines would suggest a noded vessel, etc. When taste came to be exercised upon such objects these features would be retained and copied for the pleasure they afforded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a._--Sh.e.l.l vessel. _b._--Copy in clay. FIG. 475.--Scroll derived from the spire of a conch sh.e.l.l.]

Pa.s.sing by the many simple elements of decoration that by this unconscious process could be derived from such sources, let me give a single example by which it will be seen that not only elementary forms but even so highly const.i.tuted an ornament as the scroll may have been brought thus naturally into the realm of decorative art. The sea-sh.e.l.l has always been intimately a.s.sociated with the arts that utilize clay and abounds in suggestions of embellishment. The _Busycon_ was almost universally employed as a vessel by the tribes of the Atlantic drainage of North America. Usually it was trimmed down and excavated until only about three-fourths of the outer wall of the sh.e.l.l remained. At one end was the long spike-like base which served as a handle, and at the other the flat conical apex, with its very p.r.o.nounced spiral line or ridge expanding from the center to the circ.u.mference, as seen in Fig. 475 _a_.

This vessel was often copied in clay, as many good examples now in our museums testify. The notable feature is that the sh.e.l.l has been copied literally, the spiral appearing in its proper place. A specimen is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 475 _b_ which, although simple and highly conventionalized, still retains the spiral figure.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a_ _b_ _c_ FIG. 476.--Possible derivation of the current scroll.]

In another example we have four of the noded apexes placed about the rim of the vessel, as shown in Fig. 476_a_, the conception being that of four conch sh.e.l.ls united in one vessel, the bases being turned inward and the apexes outward. Now it is only necessary to suppose the addition of the spiral lines, always a.s.sociated with the nodes, to have the result shown in _b_, and by a still higher degree of convention we have the cla.s.sic scroll ornament given in _c_. Of course, no such result as this could come about advent.i.tiously, as successful combination calls for the exercise of judgment and taste; but the initiatory steps could be taken--the motive could enter art--without the conscious supervision of the human agent.

+SUGGESTIONS BY FEATURES OF ARTIFICIAL OBJECTS.+

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 477.--Ornament derived through the modification of handles.]

_Functional features_.--Functional features of art products liable to influence ornament comprise handles, legs, feet, rims, bands, and other peculiarities of shape originating in utility. Handles, for instance, may have been indigenous to a number of arts; they are coeval and coextensive with culture. The first load, weapon, or vessel transported by man may have been suspended by a vine or filament. Such arts as have fallen heir to handles have used them according to the capacities of the material employed. Of all the materials stone is probably the least suited to their successful use, while clay utilizes them in its own peculiar way, giving to them a great variety of expression. They are copied in clay from various models, but owing to the inadequate capacities of the material, often lose their function and degenerate into mere ornaments, which are modified as such to please the potter's fancy. Thus, for example, the series of handles placed about the neck of the vessel become, by modification in frequent copying, a mere band of ornamental figures in relief, or even finally in engraved, punctured, or painted lines, in the manner suggested in Fig. 477. Legs, pedestals, spouts, and other features may in a like manner give rise to decoration.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a._--Coiled fillet of clay. _b._--Double coil.

FIG. 478.--Scroll derived from coil of clay.]

_Constructional features._-Features of vessels resulting from construction are infinitely varied and often highly suggestive of decoration. Constructional peculiarities of the clay utensils themselves are especially worthy of notice, and on account of their actual presence in the art itself are more likely to be utilized or copied for ceramic ornament than those of other materials. The coil, so universally employed in construction, has had a decided influence upon the ceramic decoration of certain peoples, as I have shown in a paper on ancient Pueblo art. From it we have not only a great variety of surface ornamentation produced by simple treatment of the coil in place, but probably many forms suggested by the use of the coil in vessel building, as, for instance, the spiral formed in beginning the base of a coiled vessel, Fig. 478 _a_, from which the double scroll _b_, as a separate feature, could readily be derived, and finally the chain of scrolls so often seen in border and zone decoration. This familiarity with the use of fillets or ropes of clay would also lead to a great variety of applied ornament, examples of which, from Pueblo art, are given in Fig.

479. The sinuous forms a.s.sumed by a rope of clay so employed would readily suggest to the Indian the form of the serpent and the means of representing it, and might thus lead to the introduction of this much revered creature into art.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 479.--Ornamental use of fillets.]

Of the various cla.s.ses of utensils a.s.sociated closely with the ceramic art, there are none so characteristically marked by constructional features as nets and wicker baskets. The twisting, interlacing, knotting, and st.i.tching of filaments give relieved figures that by contact in manufacture impress themselves upon the plastic clay. Such impressions come in time to be regarded as pleasing features, and when free-hand methods of reproducing are finally acquired they and their derivatives become essentials of decoration. At a later stage these characters of basketry influence ceramic decoration in a somewhat different way. By the use of variously-colored fillets the woven surface displays figures in color corresponding to those in relief and varying with every new combination. Many striking patterns are thus produced, and the potter who has learned to decorate his wares by the stylus or brush reproduces these patterns by free-hand methods. We find pottery in all countries ornamented with patterns, painted, incised, stamped, and relieved, certainly derived from this source. So well is this fact known that I need hardly go into details.

In the higher stages of art the constructional characters of architecture give rise to many notions of decoration which afterwards descend to other arts, taking greatly divergent forms. Aboriginal architecture in some parts of America had reached a development capable of wielding a strong influence. This is not true, however, of any part of the United States.

+SUGGESTIONS OF ACCIDENTS.+

Besides the suggestions of surface features impressed in manufacture or intentionally copied as indicated above, we have also those of accidental imprints of implements or of the fingers in manufacture. From this source there are necessarily many suggestions of ornament, at first of indented figures, but later, after long employment, extending to the other modes of representation.

+IDEOGRAPHIC AND PICTORIAL SUBJECTS.+

Non-ideographic forms of ornament may originate in ideographic features, mnemonic, demonstrative, or symbolic. Such significant figures are borrowed by decorators from other branches of art. As time goes on they lose their significance and are subsequently treated as purely decorative elements. Subjects wholly pictorial in character, when such come to be made, may also be used as simple decoration, and by long processes of convention become geometric.

The exact amount of significance still attached to significant figures after adoption into decoration cannot be determined except in cases of actual identification by living peoples, and even when the signification is known by the more learned individuals the decorator may be wholly without knowledge of it.

MODIFICATION OF ORNAMENT.

There are comparatively few elementary ideas prominently and generally employed in primitive decorative art. New ideas are acquired, as already shown, all along the pathway of progress. None of these ideas retain a uniform expression, however, as they are subject to modification by environment just as are the forms of living organisms. A brief cla.s.sification of the causes of modification is given in the following synopsis:

/Through material.

Modification of ornament------|Through form.

Through, methods of realization.

_Through material._--It is evident at a glance that _material_ must have a strong influence upon the forms a.s.sumed by the various decorative motives, however derived. Thus stone, clay, wood, bone, and copper, although they readily borrow from nature and from each other, necessarily show different decorative results. Stone is ma.s.sive and takes form slowly and by peculiar processes. Clay is more versatile and decoration may be scratched, incised, painted, or modeled in relief with equal facility, while wood and metal engender details having characters peculiar to themselves, producing different results from the same motives or elements. Much of the diversity displayed by the art products of different countries and climates is due to this cause.

Peoples dwelling in arctic climates are limited, by their materials, to particular modes of expression. Bone and ivory as shaped for use in the arts of subsistence afford facilities for the employment of a very restricted cla.s.s of linear decoration, such chiefly as could be scratched with a hard point upon small irregular, often cylindrical, implements. Skins and other animal tissues are not favorable to the development of ornament, and the textile arts--the greatest agents of convention--do not readily find suitable materials in which to work.

Decorative art carried to a high stage under arctic environment would be more likely to achieve unconventional and realistic forms than if developed in more highly favored countries. The accurate geometric and linear patterns would hardly arise.

_Through form._--Forms of decorated objects exercise a strong influence upon the decorative designs employed. It would be more difficult to tattoo the human face or body with straight lines or rectilinear patterns than with curved ones. An ornament applied originally to a vessel of a given form would accommodate itself to that form pretty much as costume becomes adjusted to the individual. When it came to be required for another form of vessel, very decided changes might be necessary.

With the ancient Pueblo peoples rectilinear forms of meander patterns were very much in favor and many earthen vessels are found in which bands of beautiful angular geometric figures occupy the peripheral zone, Fig. 480 _a_, but when the artist takes up a mug having a row of hemispherical nodes about the body, _b_, he finds it very difficult to apply his favorite forms and is almost compelled to run spiral curves about the nodes in order to secure a neat adjustment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 480.--Variations in a motive through the influence of form.]

_Through methods of realisation_.--It will readily be seen that the forms a.s.sumed by a motive depend greatly upon the character of the mechanical devices employed. In the potter's art devices for holding and turning the vessel under manipulation produce peculiar results.

In applying a given idea to clay much depends upon the method of executing it. It will take widely differing forms when executed by incising, by modeling, by painting, and by stamping.

Intimately a.s.sociated with methods of execution are peculiarities of construction, the two agencies working together in the processes of modification and development of ornament.

I have previously shown how our favorite ornament, the scroll, in its disconnected form may have originated in the copying of natural forms or through the manipulation of coils of clay. I present here an example of its possible origin through the modification of forms derived from constructional features of basketry. An ornament known as the guilloche is found in many countries. The combination of lines resembles that of twisted or platted fillets of wood, cane, or rushes, as may be seen at a glance, Fig. 481 _a_. An incised ornament of this character, possibly derived from basketry by copying the twisted fillets or their impressions in the clay, is very common on the pottery of the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, and its variants form a most interesting study.

In applying this to a vessel the careless artist does not properly connect the ends of the lines which pa.s.s beneath the intersecting fillets, and the parts become disconnected, _b_. In many cases the ends are turned in abruptly as seen in _c_, and only a slight further change is necessary to lead to the result, _d_, the running scroll with well-developed links. All of these steps may be observed in a single group of vessels.

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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociation.