43161927 the Evolution of Decorative Art

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THE EVOLUTIONOFDECORATIVE ART

DHTARIO COILEEE OF ART100 McCAUL ST.

TORONTO 2B, ONTARIO


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THE EVOLUTIONOF

DECORATIVE ARTAN ESSAY UPON ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE ART OFMODERN RACES OF MANKIND

BYHENRY BALFOUR, M.A, F.Z.S.

CURATOR OF THE ETHNOGRAPHICAL DEPARTMENT (PITT RIVERS COLLECTION),UNIVERSITY MUSEUM, OXFORD

NEW YORKMACMILLAN AND CO.

1893


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PREFACEIn presenting this short and, as I am well aware,imperfect essay to the public, I feel that it is necessaryto say a few words in justification of my action.Although, for a proper comprehension of the growthof Art, it is necessary that its evolution should bestudied from its very simplest beginning, this aspectof the subject has hardly been touched upon bywriters of so-called * Histories of Art.' In these,frequently very excellent works, the history of art istraced back perhaps to Assyrian and Ancient Egyptiancivilisations, and a few writers dwell briefly upon thecharacteristics of modern Savage Art. Few of them,however, offer any study of the Art of the moreprimitive of the living races of mankind, with a viewto explaining, by a process of reasoning from theknown to the unknown, the first efforts of PrimaevalMan to produce objects which should be pleasing tothe eye, and gratify his growing aesthetic feelings.


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vi Preface.

The Art of Design must, we know, have had acontinuous history, and have grown up graduallyfrom simple beginnings, at first by easy stages,involving but slight intellectual efforts, steadily pro-gressing until it has become an essential elementin our surroundings, absorbing a vast amount ofcomplex reasoning, the result of the accumulationand combination of simple ideas, which are the out-come of experience during countless ages.

George Harris, in his Theory of the Arts,published in 1869, undoubtedly sounds the key-noteto this subject, without however bringing manytangible examples to bear upon his theories.

It is to General Pitt Rivers without doubt thatwe owe the stimulus which has of recent years ledmany workers to investigate the gradual developmentof the various Arts of mankind, and to endeavour totrace their histories back to their absolute origins.The illustration of the gradual growth of DecorativeArt from simple beginnings was a part of his schemefor establishing series of objects with a view to tracingthe stages in the evolution of all the material arts ofmankind. With this object in view he accumulated


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Preface. vii

material and formed series to illustrate the origin,growth step by step, and variations of certain patterns,and these series form some of the most interestingand striking features in his collection. Amongstmany others one may mention the series illustratingthe 'varieties and geographical distribution of theLoop Coil ;' series showing the gradual degradationof designs representing the human form and theirconversion into meaningless ornament, illustrating theimportance of successive copying as a factor in theevolution of patterns ; those showing the derivationof patterns on gourds and pottery from the strings bywhich once the vessels were carried. These andothers such are too well known to require description.It is much to be regretted that with the exceptionof valuable remarks embodied in essays upon widersubjects,^ and a few descriptions of the developmentof special patterns, we have not the benefit of his

' ' Principles of Classification, 'yiC7;-. Anthropological Inst. vol. iv.p. 293 ; Report on Anthropology at the Brit. Association, 1872, ib. ii.p. 350 ; Catalogue of the Anthropological Collection of Colonel LaneFox (Gen. Pitt Rivers); * Evolution of Culture,' Proc. Koyal Institution,vii. pt. 6; 'Address delivered at the Dorchester School of Art,' Feb.1884, printed in the Dorchester County Chronicle, Feb. 7. 1884. JohnColliers's Primer ofArt also embodies the views of GenerarPitt Riverson the development of the art of design.


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viii Preface,

researches into the history of Decorative Art in apublished form. Among the earlier researches intothe history of patterns should be mentioned Dr. JohnEvans's striking series of British coins, upon which, inthe course of successive reproductions the once realisticdesign becomes hopelessly conventional {Proc. RoyalInst. vii. p. 475). Since the arrival of General PittRivers's Collection in Oxford, as a gift to the University,I have constantly endeavoured to collect fresh materialand facts, with a view to the further development ofthe subject. According to the general law laid downby him, and from the evidence now accumulated, thereseem to me to be deducible certain general conclusionsregarding the earlier history of Art, shedding light

upon the first efforts of Prehistoric man in the Art ofDesign and Decoration, and also explaining thegradual formation and raison d'etre of various formsof ornament which are familiar to us. These con-clusions I have endeavoured very briefly to set downin a more or less connected form in this essay. Wholechapters might easily be written upon the history andvariations of single designs or patterns, but this is notmy object in this little book; but rather it is to interest


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Preface. ixif possible the ' general reader ' in a subject which willrepay further investigation, the material for whichlies immediately at hand. It is within every one'spower to advance our knowledge of the subject, and,I may add, hunting up the genealogies of well-knownforms of ornament is a most attractive pursuit andcan be quite exciting at times. Strict continuity isnot easily obtainable, and it is impossible to take intoconsideration the countless indirect influences whichaffect the growth of an Art and help to divert itfrom following a straight course. We are content,when we can, to sail down the middle of the mainstream, taking little heed of the many smallertributaries, which nevertheless affect the course ofthe stream with their influence.

I have in the course of the following pagesfrequently to use the term ' Savage ' as applied to themore lowly cultured races of mankind. In doing soI am merely using a commonly accepted term forwant of a better. I do it under protest, as the wordis very unsatisfactory whether taken in the light ofits modern significance, which would ascribe ' ferocity 'to many inoffensive peoples, to whose nature it is


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X Preface.wholly strange except when introduced to them bycivilised invaders ; or whether considered accordingto its original meaning, i.e. living in woods or forests(Fr. sauvage, It. selvaggio, from Lat silva, a wood),as in this case its inappropriateness is manifest whenit is applied to such races as the Esquimaux, for whomforests can exist only in ecstatic dreams, and withwhom drift-wood has to be substituted for grow-ing timber. The French expression ' naturel ' is farpreferable, but our equivalent 'child of nature' istoo unwieldy for general use, and the single word' natural ' is out of the question from its unfortunatesignificance of crazy in some of our northern dialects.

The illustrations are partly from photographs ofspecimens or illustrations in other works kindly madefor me by Mr. A. Robinson, but mostly from my ownsketches, and these are necessarily rough as I havebeen satisfied that they should illustrate as clearly aspossible the special points for which they were selected,and have not attempted, what I regret is to me animpossibility, to produce artistic sketches.

H. B.II NoRHAM Gardens,

Oxford.


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CONTENTSPAGES

Preface v-xIntroductoryOur knowledge of the Art of Prehistoric Man,

and the impossibility of tracing the origin and continuoushistory of Decorative Art by archaeological investigationalone- . 1-13

Value of a study of the art of modern primitive races as throw-ing light upon the actual developmental history of Art . 13-17

Evolution of Decorative Art First Stage : appreciation andadaptation of natural or accidental peculiarities asornamental effects 17-21

Secottd Stage : reproducing artificially natural effects ; copy-ing, successive copying 21-22

Third Stage : Variation ; Unconscious variation and succes-sive copying . ........ 23-31

Conscious variation : human designs on spears and frigate-bird designs, Solomon Islands ; human-face designs onSouth American pottery ; degradation of human form inPeruvian pottery vessels ; ditto in Cypriot and Mykenoevessels 3 1 -49

Variations in symbolic designs : Chinese bat-designs, Japanesecrest-designs 49-55

Survival of principal feature in a symbolic design : NewZealand ' tongue '-pattern 55-5^

Survival of essential parts in Totemic and mythologicaldesigns : Haida Totemic figures ; Sandwich Islandshuman grotesques ; winged-figures and palm-tree designs 58-64


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xii Contenti:I'AGES

70-72


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Contents xiiii'AGESThe earlier form of an object, whose shape has been modified

by a change of material, indicated in its ornamentation :Andamanese plates . . . . . . . 114

Imperfections used as vehicles for ornament : SolomonIslands clubs 115

Influence of material upon the nature of ornamental designs :wampum patterns ; basket-work designs, British Guianaweaving ......... 1 16-126Complex patterns composed of simple elements . . . 126Conclusion.......... 127-128

Appendix: references to literature ..... 129-132


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSPlate i. Successive copies of design representing a snail

,, II. Successive copies of figure of Greek warrior .,, III. Ornamented arrovi^-shafts, Solomon Islands .F'iG. I. Prehistoric dravi^ing of reindeer, Thayingen Cave

2. Cave Period Drawings, La Madelaine (afterMortillet)

3-4. Carved daggers, Laugerie-Iiaute and Bruniquel5. Carved harpoon-head, La Madelaine6. Carved stone axe-head .7. Figure of stone axe, Dol-ar-Marchant8. Ornamented flint dagger, Danish .9. Boomerang with blackened knots .

10. Human-form designs on spears, Solomon Islands11. Frigate-bird designs, Solomon Islands .12. Face-designs on South American pottery13. Human-form designs on Peruvian pottery vessels14. Cypriot vase in human form....15. 16, 17. P'ace urns, Mykense .18. Chinese ' bat ' designs .....19. Japanese crest designs :

Japanese crests) ....20. Japanese crest designs : ' butterfly21. Japanese crest designs : 'feathers'22. Japanese crane : realistic23. Maori staves with human-face grotesques24. Pipe carved in Totemic designs .25. Human-form canoe fetich, Solomon Islands

cranes ' (from book of

>AGE2629lOI

78910II121833353741454750

52535354575968


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List of IlliLstrations XVFig. 26, 27. Bird- and human-form canoe fetiches, RubianaIsland ,.,,.... 6928. Bird designs, New Guinea (from chunam spatulas) 71

29. Ceremonial adzes, Hervey Islands ... 7430. Martynia-seed charm against snake-bite, Burma . 8331. Stone seal charm, Haida ..... 8532. Mandrake root, Asia Minor 8633. Carved arrow-straightener. Western Esquimaux . 8934. Carved arrow-straightener. Western Esquimaux . 9035. Apple-gouges of bone and wood .... 9136. Root-headed clubs, Fiji Islands and Australia . 9437. Carved and incised ivory toggle, Esquimaux . 9738. Zigzag chipping of Danish flint daggers . . 10639. Ancient British urn with rope-like band of orna-

ment, from tumulus at Guildford . . . 10840. Similarly decorated urn, New Mexico . . . 10841. Presentation wrappers, Japan . . . . 11242. Austrian air-gun . . . . . . . 11343. Plates of shell and of wood, Andaman Islands . 11544. Club with decorated flaw, Solomon Islands . . 11645. Wampum belt with figures, North America . . 11946. Snake pattern in basket-work, British Guiana . 12147. Spider-monkey pattern in basket-work, British

Guiana . . . . . . . . 123


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Evolution of Decorative ArtIT is not my purpose to deal with the Fine Arts asa whole, but to restrict myself to the considera-tion of a single branch, that of Decorative Art, andto examine briefly such evidence as we have of itsgradual evolution from the simple to the complex,both in the case of individual forms of ornament, andfrom a more general standpoint in the endeavour totrace the history of the art back to the earliestefforts of primitive man in a field as yet unexplored.

OftKe actual infancy of Decorative Art we haveno knowledge, and it is impossible to affix even an^approximate date to its origin. The true historyof its growth ' ab ovo usque ad mala ' is lost and can-never be written, and in forming our opinion of thecondition of its early progress we arc reduced toreasoning from analogy, and are unable to producea chain of evidence in the form of events arranged intrue chronological order.

It is well known that appreciation of the effectsof artificial decoration to a certain degree extends

A


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2 Evolution of Decorative Art.beyond the limits of the human race. There are, forexample, various birds, such as magpies, jackdaws,' bower-birds,' which love to adorn their nests, or, incase of the last named, their 'bowers/ with variousbright objects,shells, paper, bleached bones, silverspoons, and other articles foreign to the elementsrequired for mere construction. With them, however,this would appear to be the result of instinctive at-traction to bright and glistening objects generally,and there is no true creative operation of the intellectwhich characterises the use of decoration as a fine art.In the same way, no doubt, Man in his earliest andmost uncultured state appreciated to some extentbeauty as occurring in Nature, and was attracted byuncommon or brightly coloured objects, or by anyindividual peculiarities in familiar things which pre-sented themselves to his notice, long before heconceived the idea of imitating them. The discoveryof numbers of the little perforated beadlike fossils,Coscinopora globiilaris, in small groups in the gravelsof the River Drift, seems to point to the fact that inearly Palaeolithic times these were collected for theirpeculiar appearance and comparative rarity, and werevery probably strung together to form necklets orbead-strings, just as modern savages frequently selectnatural objects of peculiar form for the adornment oftheir persons, or for use as charms.


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EvohUion of Decoi-ative Art. 3The earliest attempts, however, of Primaeval Man

in decoration as a fine art, are, as I have alreadysaid, completely involved in obscurity, and their truehistory can be only speculated upon. We have nodirect evidence of any attempts having been madeduring the early Palaeolithic age to embellish any ofthe useful objects, or to apply artificial ornamentationin any form. The rude implements, roughly madefrom pieces of flint, which are found in the gravels ofthe River Drift, and which are the earliest evidencewe have of Man's attempts at manufacture, are neverembellished with decoration of any kind. Indeed,the material, hard and difficult as it is to work intoshape, is utterly unsuited to the application ofdecoration except in the most expert hands.

It by no means follows that Man in the ' DriftPeriod ' was unacquainted with the art of ornament-ing ; he very probably frequently carved or chippedrough and simple patterns upon his implements ofwood, bone, or other comparatively soft materials,but these, unfortunately, have not been handed downto us, having been unable to withstand the destroyingaction of time, which leaves only the hard and practi-cally imperishable implements of flint to indicate tous the state of culture in those extremely remote ages.

In later, though still very remote, timesduringthe early portion of the * Cave Period ' so called


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4 Evolution of Decorative Art,the absence of evidence of artificial decoration is stilla marked feature. Amongst the remains in Franceof the period to which Mortillet has given the name* Moustierienne/the epoch especially of the CaveBear {Ursus spelceus) in Europe,are found remark-ably few implements of bone or horn, and none ofwood, and consequently traces of ornamentation arealmost entirely absent. The stone implements showno attempts at decoration.

During the ' Epoque Solutreenne ' a certainnumber of horn and bone implements appearassociated with flint and chert blades which aremasterpieces of workmanship ; but, although certainwould-be realistic carvings of deer in high andcomplete relief upon stone have been found,^ em-bellishment of purely decorative nature is extremelyscarce. The mammoth was a prominent featureduring this period, and the reindeer appears upon thescene in Southern France.

' It is during the ' Epoque Magdalenienne ' that the' art of the ' Cave Period ' fully manifests itself. The

period of excessive cold in Northern and CentralEurope was coming to a close ; the Post-Glacialreaction had set in, and in the finds of Laugerie-Basse,Les Eyzies, Bruniquel, Schussenried, and other places,evidence is discovered of the stimulus to the arts of

1 Mortillet, Musie Prehistorique.


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 5the inhabitants of these regions, resulting from theless severe climatic conditions and the diminishedhardness of the struggle for existence. The climatewas still a rigorous one, and an examination of theirimplements proves that the people of this latestdivision of the ' Cave Period ' depended principallyupon the products of the chase for their food-supply.The reindeer, now to be found in Europe only inthe extreme north, was perhaps the principal featurein the surroundings, and furnished at the same timefood, horn for fashioning into spear-heads, daggers,and other implements, and no doubt also clothingand other necessaries of life. This race of huntersand fishers, living under a somewhat rigorousclimate, may, in their general mode of living, haveresembled the Esquimaux of modern times, and astriking resemblance is certainly seen in the conditionof their artistic attainments.

Very many of the implements made of reindeerhorn, so characteristic of this period, which havebeen discovered in the cave breccia of SouthernFrance, Switzerland, and other parts, are decoratedwith representations of animals, many of which arevery lifelike and well executed, showing a state ofartistic culture which appears disproportionate to theprimitive surroundings. Some of the studies arepoor and indistinct, it is true, but a number are


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6 Evolution of Decorative Art.spirited and clever life-studies of various animalsvery familiar to the people who depended upon themso largely, such as horses, reindeer, ^sli, etc. Theboldly executed figure of a mammoth scratched upona fragment of the ivory tusk of this animal, has beendeservedly often quoted and figured,^ and is an ex-cellent example of the earliest known attempts atrealistic representation. /The etching of a reindeer

Fig. I.Prehistoric drawing of Reindeer, Cave of Thayingen.found in the cave of Thayingen stands conspicuousas a masterpiece of 'life-study,' equally as regardsthe correct outline, the attitude portrayed, and theexecution (F'ig. i).

We find, moreover, representations of Man himselfamong these sketches (Fig. 2).

^ Lubbock, Pnhistofic Times^ p. 340.


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 7This was pre-eminently an age of realistic repre-

sentation ; the sketches, which are for the most part

Fig. 2.Prehistoric drawings, Cave Period, La Madelaine.scratched upon the surface of pieces or tools of rein-deer hornmore rarely upon pieces of flat stonebeing evidently intended to be faithful portraits ofthe animals, applied to the convenient surfacesafforded by the various implements, and possiblynot with any idea of beautifying the latter, though itis quite possible that some of the groups and scenesrepresented may have been intended to record specialevents, such as hunting incidents ; they may, in fact,in many cases, have been a rudimentary form ofpicture-writing, such as that with which the NorthAmerican Indians recorded the events of their time^

Occasionally, however, a departure from strict' realism ' is seen, as when, for example, the handleof a dagger or other implement has been carved torepresent the figure of some animal in complete


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8 Evolution of Decorative Art.

Fig. 4.Dagger handle of Rein-deer horn, Bruniquel ; from a cast.

relief. The two examples here given illustrate thispoint (Figs. 3 and 4).In the one, an entire dagger of reindeer

horn, a figure of a reindeer has been carvedwith considerable skill at the upper or handleend ; in the other, a similar idea has beenexecuted, the blade being missing. Inboth cases it has been necessary to distortthe animal's attitude,in order to adapt itsform to that of a con-venient handle, andthis form of repre-sentation, though fairly accurate so far asis compatible with the strained attitude,must be classed as conventionalised forpurposes of ornament, thus differing fromthe incised sketches mentioned, which mustbe classed as realistic portraits. It is truethe distortion in these instances is slight,

Fig. 3. and but little detracts from the value of theDagger ofReindeer representation of the animal, but neverthe-horn, Lau- , . .

gerie-Haute; Icss the carvuig IS to a ccrtaui extent sub-from a cast. . i r r i i a iservient to the function of the implement, andhas been modified so as to conform to necessary outline.

Many of the horn and bone implements, especiallythe * harpoon heads' and smaller points, exhibit


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Evolution of Decorative Art.decoration apparently of a purely fanciful or conven-tional character, such as plain, straight,or curved lines, chevrons and notches.The harpoon head represented in Fig. 5affords an example of simple decorationof this kind. We must neverthelessregard the characteristic art of the later' Cave Period ' as realistic, \

Leaving now the * Cave Period,' andpassing on to the Later Stone Age or* Neolithic Period,' we lose sight of thebold realistic representation so charac-teristic of the *6poque Magdalenienne.'Such carvings as may be classed asrealistic are for the most part bothrudely executed and poor in conception,and, moreover, rarely found at all.Rarely an implement of stone is found,which is ornamented with the head of ananimal well carved upon it ; such anexample is given in Fig. 6, and showsthe head of a bear cleverly executed bycarvinor upon a perforated axe of^ ^ ^ I


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lo Evolution of Decorative Art.been lavished upon the symmetrical shape andfinish of the implements of stone, and the laboriouspolishing of their surfaces. Most writers assert thatthe Neolithic Period was behind the Cave Period in

Fig. 6.Stone Axe-head with carved bear's head, Russian Carelia(Acad, des Sciences, St. Petersburg).

the art of design. Boyd Dawkins, in his Early Manin Britain, remarks: * Although the neolithic menwere immeasurably above the cave men in culture,they were far below them in the arts of design. Theyhave not left behind any well-defined representationsof the forms either of plants or animals, . . . andtheir highest artistic achievement is the rude figureof a stone axe in its handle of wood, engraved on theroof of the sepulchral chamber of Dol-ar-Marchant,near Locmariaquer in Brittany.' This assertion holdsgood only with regard to the realistic style or studiesfrom nature ; in conventional or fanciful design aconsiderable advance is observed, and the art of thisage was devoted rather to embellishing and beautify-ing useful objects than to, so to speak, sketching fromnature. Its 'school' was a very different one, butby no means necessarily inferior.


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Evolution of Decorative Art, iiThe representation of a hafted stone axe (Fig. 7),mentioned by Boyd Dawkins in the passage quoted

above, is an example of a rough realistic sketch, cutupon a slab of hard stone, the outline representingvery fairly the form of some hafted stone axes whichhave been discovered ; this design occurs fairly fre-quently upon the walls of sepulchral chambers inBrittany and elsewhere in France, and would seemto have had some symbolic meaning.

Fig. 7.Representation of Stone Axe carved on wall of sepulchral chamber,DoI-ar-Marchant, Locmariaquer. (From a sketch made on the spot.)

The fanciful decoration of stone implements of theneolithic age frequently gives evidence of considerableskill and taste. In Denmark, even the implements offlint, works of art in themselves, were sometimesornamented with zigzag lines laboriously and skilfullychipped upon surfaces and edges, showing how com-plete was the mastery over this hard and difficultmaterial. The figure of a Danish flint dagger showsthis form of ornamentation, to which I shall again have


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occasion to refer later on (Fig. 8). In the CopenhagenMuseum (' Oldsager') there is atruly magnificent specimen of orna-mented dagger of this kind, perhapsthe finest example of flint workextant. It is significant thatwe, with all our nineteenth-centuryappliances, should be absolutelyincapable of producing flint work tocompare with these examples, whichhave baffled all the attempts of themost laborious and sanguine 'forger.'We are still in doubt as regardsthe implements, and handles of im-plements, of softer materials duringthis period, as these have for themost part perished, but we can onlysuppose that these were frequentlyembellished with carving, moreelaborate no doubt than thatbestowed upon the harder materials.

It is perhaps unnecessary topursue further the subject of ourknowledge, or perhaps rather ourignorance, of the art of the remote

ages. The foregoing remarks upon art in the importantearly periods, the ' Drift,' ' Cave,' and ' Neolithic

mFig. 8.Dagger of Flintwith ornamented zigzaglines, Denmark (PittRivers Collection).


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 13periods, are necessary in order to show very brieflyhow extremely incomplete is the actual record, andas an introduction to the main portion of this essay.We first become acquainted with the art of design inthe remains of the Cave Period, but it is evident thatart had had a long history of progress before this stagewas reached, that the infancy of the art had alreadylong been forgotten, with an imposing list of interven-ing ancestors. There is at least no reason for supposingthat the people of the Cave Period became acquaintedwith the art purely by intuition.

It is further manifest that a study of the relics ofPrehistoric times gives evidence of marked phases orepochs in the history of decorative art ; but, evenwhen the matter is treated in far greater detail thanI have been able to do here, the succession of ideasrequired to form a complete history is by no meansclear. We have only isolated links without the meansof connecting them into a continuous chain.

In the absence, therefore, of direct record, we mustturn from the study of prehistoric Archaeology andlook elsewhere for evidence which may throw lightupon the origin and early progress of decorative art,and, by examining the conditions to be found amongthose living races of mankind which are most nearlyallied to Primaeval Man, form from these our


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14 Evolution of Decorative Art.conclusions as to the actual history of the art in thehuman race as a whole. Let us turn therefore tothe modern savage races, among whom we may findthose varieties of the human race which we believe tobe lowest in the scale of civilisation, whose conditionof culture is in the most primitive of existing states.These should certainly in some sort supply our want,as we have every reason to believe that while someraces are obviously degenerate, many of these types ofmankind really represent to a very great extent thecondition of man in remote times, before the graduallyand continuously accumulating experience of ages hadraised him from a low state of culture, when he waslargely dependent upon natural objects, or the formsof nature but slightly modified, for his implements, andwhen the art of manufacture was yet in its infancy.

If we examine, for instance, the condition andmode of living of the aborigines of Australia we canat once see that their state of culture is a trulyprimitive one,a case on the whole of arrested orretarded development, rather than one whose lowlycondition is due to retrogression or degeneration.General Pitt Rivers has ably pointed out the evidenceof this.^ There is no evidence of their having informer times enjoyed a higher civilisation ; their toolsand weapons are for the most part of the simplest kind,

^ 'Primitive Warfare, 'yb/^r;/. Roy, United Sa-vice hist. ^ xi. No. xlvii.


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Evolution of Deco7'ative Art. 15and in many cases are merely such fairly serviceableforms as are supplied ready-made by nature, such aspieces of stone, shells, sharks' teeth, etc., or the formsof nature but slightly improved by art ; their imple-ments of wood in all cases follow in their shape thenatural grain of the wood ; the variety is small, thesame implement frequently serving both as a tool,perhaps for a variety of purposes, and as a weapon.The same kinds of implements are spread over theentire continent, and although the actual -shape variesto a certain extent in the different important regions,yet the persistent local differences are often so slightas to be appreciable only to the natives themselves.Except where civilisation has reached them, they arestill absolutely in their ' stone age.' Their customs,religion, etc., show equally that the natives of Australiaare, speaking generally, in a primitive and not in adegenerate condition.

Many other savage races give equally good evi-dence of retarded development, of having, by reasonof their geographical position or from other causes,remained practically in the same condition throughcountless ages.^ They have been, and are, progressing,but progressing very slowly ; for the rate of progress

^ In considering thus the natural status of savage peoples one musteliminate the influence of higher civilisation resulting from theircomparatively recent contact with whites.


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i

1 Evolution of Decorative Art,increases in geometrical ratio as knowledge andexperience accumulate, and geographical position is aprime factor in determining the rate, as isolationgreatly militates against the rapid increase of know-ledge, and the consequent quickened rate of progressin culture.

The recently extinct Tasmanians afforded a mostinteresting example of arrested development. Notonly were they still in their stone age, but the fact oftheir never having shaped their implements of stoneby rubbing or polishing, but by chipping or flakingonly, and that of the simplest kind, and their neverhaving hafted them in handles, seems to refer backtheir condition of culture to that of the earliestpalcBolithic times, and to present them to the anthro-pologist as survivals from almost the earliest periods ofhuman development. Their stone implements were farruder in fact than the better examples of palaeolithicstone work of Europe, and in variety of design ex-tremely limited, and their general inferiority in work-manship was unrelieved by examples which betrayedin any way what might be considered as more thanvery moderate skill in manufacture. Were it not fortheir ruthless extermination by the savage methods ofintruding civilisation, which resulted in their com-plete extinction in 1876, this interesting race wouldstill have been living, an instance of persistence of


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 17primitive conditions which seem strange to us whenwe think of the strides made by civilisation elsewhere.We are justified, therefore, in appealing to thestudy of the primitive arts of savages, in order toelucidate points concerning which the evidenceafforded by archaeology is incomplete. Assumingthis I will pass on to consider the light which the artof modern savages throws upon the study of theorigin and growth of Decorative Art. By the exam-ination and comparative study of various patternsand designs, and especially by means of seriesillustrating the variations upon particular designs, wemay arrive at certain conclusions as to how thesehave grown up from earlier stages, and in some casestrace their evolution back to their absolute origin aspatterns. At the same time many of my illustra-tions will be drawn from the art of civilised people,in which the raison detre and evolution of patternsand designs are frequently very clear.

FIRST STAGE.As in the useful arts so also in the fine arts we

find the lowest (least cultured) savages deriving theirearly ideas from Nature. We find very much that inthe matter of the ^^sthetic Arts the condition corre-sponds with their primitive state of general culture.The ornamentation, for example, of their weapons


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EvohUion of Decorative Art. 19prominence upon the light ground colour, and, more-over, to many of the dark patches he gave a moreor less lozenge-shaped outline, in order to furtherenhance their value as ornament.The decorative effect of the nodes upon a reed-

stem or bamboo, due to the regularity of theirarrangement, has appealed to the minds of savagesin various parts of the world, Australia, New Guinea,Africa, and other parts, where we find spear- andarrow-shafts of reed, in which the nodes have beenscraped smooth, and the bands thus formed roundthe stem have frequently been picked out in black,red, or white. I shall have later on to refer to thistreatment of reed-stems again, when I shall showhow from a quasi-natural decoration of this kind anelaborate pattern has been evolved (p. 102), as in thiscase there is the additional stimulus of necessity, thesmoothing of the nodes being an improvement tothe weapon made of the reed.

In these examples we have two extremely simpleforms of ornamentation, suggested directly by naturalpeculiarities in the material, to appreciate and in-tensify which requires but a very slight intellectualeffort.Anything peculiar in the material used in the

manufacture of objects of every-day use would besure to attract notice, and, possibly, in the first


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20 Evolution of Decorative Art.instance, would suggest itself as a convenient viark ofownership, that is a sign whereby to distinguish theparticular object from other similar objects belongingto other people.From the mere appreciation of the uncommon to the

artificial increasing of the effect, the step is, as I havesaid, but a slight one ; but in a low state of culture,such as that of the less cultured savages, naturalprogress advances by extremely slow stages, neverby sudden strides. The savage mind is receptive toa certain extent only, and is unable easily to graspnew ideas if they are greatly in advance of existingknowledge ; they must be led up to by easy stages.The savage peoples from whom I have drawn

these examples of primitive ornamentation have, itis true, reached far beyond the earliest stages in theart of design ; their art is no longer in its infancy.The art of the Australians, as of many savage races,is undoubtedly in a rudimentary state, but it never-theless shows signs of steady progress during pastages, in the differentiation of its branches, and theskill sometimes displayed in the application of orna-ment. In savage art we find, as I have said, muchevidence of its having been schooled by Nature, andthe examples of Nature-suggested forms of ornament,such as those I have mentioned, seem to reflect thebirth of the art and to be survivals of early phases in


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Evolittion of Decorative Art. 21

the history of its progress ; they may, in fact, serveto suggest to us how the art of design first dawnedin the remotest ages.There can, I think, be little doubt that both

graphic and plastic arts were in the first instancesuggested to man in simple ways of this kind, andtheir origin should be referred back to the time whenman's aesthetic appreciation of peculiarities, eithernatural or produced as accidents in manufacture, wassufficiently developed to suggest the. application ofartificial means in order to increase their effect ; inother words, to control them to serve the specialpurpose either of representation of other objects orof ornament.The first stage in the development of design as a

fine art was purely what may be termed an ADAPTIVEstage, that is, man simply accepted and adaptedeffects which were accidentally suggested to him. Ishall have occasion to mention several other instancesillustrating this stage, when I come to deal with thehistory of certain patterns and designs, and themanner in which they first originated as such.

SECOND STAGE.As a natural result of the appreciation and

adaptation of natural or accidental effects, therearises a desire to produce artificiatly similar effects


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22 Evolution of Decorative Art.where these do not exist. For this a creativeoperation of the intellect is required, and it is herethat the art develops fresh importance, and assumes

ia definite vitality. Imitation is the mother of art,and is the outcome of this desire to possess someobject or to reproduce some effect which is admired ;it is inherent in our nature, and is perhaps the prin-cipal stimulus in the early development of the finearts.

As a natural outcome of the development of theart of copying at first hand we come to successivecopyings and the importance of this latter process inthe development and progress of the art of designcannot be over-estimated.

So long as the intention in each case is merely tomake as accurate an imitation of the original aspossible, it would seem that copying, whether suc-cessively or at first hand, should be considered asbelonging to the Second Stage ; but, as the effect ofthis successive copying is in all cases to createchanges in the original design, even though un-intentionally, and to render the primary conceptionvery unstable, it is necessary to treat of this underthe Third Stage, and to explain in connection withthis stage the meaning which is here assigned to theexpression ' successive ' copying, and the value ofthis as a factor in the evolution of designs.


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Evolution of Decorative Art.

THIRD STAGE.This, which is the resultant principally of suc-

cessive copying, may be termed the stage of variation^and must be divided into two sections :

{ci) Unconscious Variation.(/;) Conscious Variation.

(a) Unconscious Variation.To a highly skilledartist it is no very difficult matter to make a copy ofa simple object or pattern, which shall so resemblethe original as to be hardly distinguishable from it.With people not specially trained, whether civilisedbeings or uncultured savages, and so we must believealso with primaeval man, it is different. In un-skilled hands and with indifferent tools accuratecopying is an impossibility, and each new attemptat representing an object creates a variation from theoriginal type.

Let us suppose that some one, whom I will callA, copies an object, and B copies A's version of itwithout having seen the original, and C copies B's,and so on ; in each case the new copy varies fromthe immediately preceding one more or less accordingto the skill of the artist. We can readily see thatin the course of time by such successive copyingsdesigns can arise, which may entirely lose all


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24 Bvolulton of Decorative Art.resemblance to the original object, and to A's would-be realistic version of it.

It would be almost impossible to obtain fromspecimens of savage art a really consecutive seriesof any length to illustrate this point, as, in order thatone may be sure of the absolute continuity of theline of succession, the series must be produced undercircumstances which admit of constant supervision.It is, moreover, doubtful whether a long series ofchanges in a design is often, or ever, producedentirely by unconscious variation. Still, as this isso important a factor in the evolution of ornamentand the conventionalisation of original realistic de-signs, it is necessary to have some illustration of theworkings of this process, in order to show how rapidand complete may be the changes effected by it.

With this object in view I have formed someseries after a method originated by General PittRivers and suggested to me by him some while ago.Briefly thus : I first made a rough sketch of someobject which could easily be recognised. Then Iprocured a number of pieces of paper of the samesize as that on which the sketch was made. Next Ienlisted the aid of a number of people who, whilehaving some notion of copying designs, were not byany means skilled in the art (this in order not tomake the series unnecessarily long, and in order


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EvoltUio7i of Decorative Ai^t. 25to adhere to a certain extent to the conditions ofprimitive copying ; to this end also the copies weremade with a pen and not with pencil, as the latter,with its attendant possibilities of rubbing out, wouldhave rendered greater accuracy possible).

To the first, /\, I gave my sketch, of which hemade as accurate a copy as he was able on one ofthe slips of paper. I then withdrew my original, andset the second person, B, to copy A's version, whichwas then withdrawn ; the third copied .B's sketch ;and so on ; in every case all the former sketches werewithdrawn from sight, the last alone of the increas-ing series being issued to be copied afresh. In thismanner series were formed of successive copies, eachof which was intended to be a faithful representationof the one immediately preceding it. Still, and it isto this that I wish to particularly draw attentionalthough no tivo adjacent sketches exhibit very markeddifferences, the extremes of the series show hardlyany resemblance to one another, and, if seen apartfrom their series, would certainly not be recognisedas the same design, or as being in any way relatedto one another. The examples here given {seePlate I.) will serve to illustrate this, and, humour-ous and even frivolous though they appear, affordgood examples of the unconscious variation of adesign, the result of want of skill. The successive


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&.

u. s.

10. //, /e.

IBM

PLATE I.


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 27sketches are numbered from i to 14 in the order inwhich they were made. No. i is a sketch repre-senting a snail crawling over a twig. In the courseof six successive copyings the design had lost itsmeaning ; by No. 10 the shell of the snail had leftthe body of the mollusk and had ' crawled ' up thetwig, the hinder end of the snail becoming intimatelyassociated with the base of the twig. No. 12 is acopy made by a skilled artist, who was asked to* interpret ' the design at this stage, and to show inhis sketch what he thought it was intended to re-present. The next copyist, not being able to makeanything of the design when viewed the right wayup, reversed it and proceeded with satisfaction tocopy it upside down, under the impression that hewas reproducing a 'bird' design ; so also in No. 14,and in the succeeding copies which are here omitted,this interpretation was retained. This truly is* evolution made easy ' ! The bird can here be tracedback to its gastropodous molluscan prototype, througha continuous series of developmental changes of thesimplest nature ! The whole metamorphosis requiresbut fourteen of these changes, covering a period, say,of a day or so, and there is your bird-like form stillirredeemably connected with its humble prototype,however much it may, if seen by itself, appear toscorn such an alliance.


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28 EvohUio7i of Decorative Art,It is interesting to trace what becomes of thevarious portions of the design individually. The

large end of the twig becomes the bird's head, thegrowth-rings supplying the eye ; the snail's bodyremains as that of the bird ; the snail's head, withthe prominent 'eye-stalks,' degenerates into theforked tail of the bird ; the shell of the snail into anunwieldy and unnecessary wart upon the, shall wecall them, ' trousers ' which were once the branchingend of the twig.One more example may serve to further illustrate

the workings of the process {see Plate li.).A sketch, No. i, of the head of the Patroclus, of theiEgina Marbles, was submitted to be copied. In thecourse of eight or nine successive copyings, the Greekwarrior became metamorphosed into a female figure,a sort of helmeted Minerva, the helmet being muchmodified from the original type. But the mostinteresting point to notice is the ultimate fate of thestrongly-emphasised lines representing the musclesand the collar-bones, a prominent representation ofwhich is so characteristic of Greek art. The lines ofthe collar-bones droop lower and lower at the centre,till at length they form together an elongated V, givingto the later copyists the impression of a cloak thrownloosely over the shoulders, and even enveloping thearms, which were originally free and distinct, the


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 29

p.:f\,


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muscle lines going to supply folds in the mantle. AtNo. 9, as at No. 12 in the last series, a skilled artistwas asked to interpret the design.These two examples will be sufficient to show the

importance of this process in the production of varia-tions upon a given design, and how an original ideamay, through lack of skill, become modified and com-pletely lost, while a new suggestion of its meaningmay arise and be accepted, this again in later stagestending to be obscured and to become meaningless.The process of ' degradation ' is hastened or retardedaccording to the greater or less skill displayed, butthe design is tinconsciously varied, and in no case hasthere been any intention to make the copy differfrom the thing copied. Although, in order to illus-trate this point with series whose continuity couldnot be doubted, I have not drawn my examples fromactual savage art, still the workings of this processare often very apparent in the art of the lower races,as also in that of civilised peoples.

It would appear that this process was an importantfactor in producing the remarkable series of variationsfrom the original type to be noticed in the ancientGaulish and British imitations of foreign coins, suchas the gold stater of Philip of Macedon, as has beenso well described by Dr. John Evans.^

1 Froc. Royal Institution, vii. p. 476.


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Thus it may be stated that, in the early conditionof man's culture, conventional or fanciful design, whichis usually the result of such variation, has been to agreat extent unconsciously evolved from realistic repre-sentation, and the passage from the one to the otherhas been by easy stages, by successive slight changes.

It is obvious that, if instead of actually copying adesign, the reproduction is made from memory^ theprocess ,of unconscious variation will be greatlyhastened.

{U) Conscious Variation.This unintentional varia-tion of design is, however, frequently, usually in fact,accelerated by another process, which I have calledconscious variation, that is to say, the desire to vary orimprove upon the design copied. While the two pro-cesses may be associated, each contributing to thechanges effected, conscious variation is frequently toall intents and purposes the sole agent. Some re-semblance to the accepted type or model is retained,but there is no idea of slavishly adhering to theoriginal in detail. This usually results in some parti-cular portion or portions of the original design beingspecially emphasised, and made thus to develop atthe expense of the remainder.

Conscious variation may act in many differentways, and be dictated by a variety of circumstances,and I now propose to give a number of illustrative


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32 Evolution of Decorative Art.examples of its importance in the development ofornamental designs, and the evolution of conven-tional designs from more or less realistic originals.On the shafts of many of the very elaborate spears

or lances from the islands of the Solomon group,Melanesiaespecially those from Bougainville Straitsand St. Christovalis seen a curious pattern, carvedin low relief at the base of the long multibarbed head.This pattern varies to a considerable extent, as maybe seen from the examples here given, but in examin-ing a number together it becomes obvious that theyare all modifications of one original design, that theyare all traceable to one primary conception, that theyare in fact survivals of various stages of variation.By a process of associating together those of themwhich most resemble each other, a series is formedwhich at one end is composed of designs such as thatshown in Fig. lo^;, while at the other end we findpatterns of the kind shown in Fig. \oe. Betweenthese extremes are various intermediate forms, whichresemble the extremes more and more as they approachthem, and which are more * generalised ' towards thecentre.From such an arrangement we learn that the origi-nal type was a representation of the human form, not' divine ' but grotesque, though still recognisable assuch. This is represented in Fig. io, which shows the


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EvahUion of Decorative Art. -i^^body with arms and legs fully represented, thoughthe head is detached ; this latter, it will be noticed, ischiefly remarkable for the very prominent angular7Hoiith. Fig. \ob shows a modification of this con-ception ; the body has been split up in order to in-crease the decorative effect, the arms and legs coalescewith those of the corresponding figure on the otherside ; the face too is modified. Fig. lo^ showsanother modification of the design, in which the

a. b. c. d. e.Y\G. lo.Carved designs on Solomon Islands Spears.

(Pitt Rivers and Ashmolean Collections.)

various parts are still more conventionalised, thereduction of the body and limbs has proceededfurther, the former a mere central patch, the latterrepresented by lines down the sides which meet eachother across the base, forming thus a kind of frameto the lower part of the design. The mouth, absentin \ob, is here extremely prominent, being in fact

C


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reduplicated to form a bold double ' chevron.' In Fig.\Qd the ' mouth ' is triple, and by far the most im-portant part of the design, the central ' body ' patchand rectangular frame still surviving. Fig. \oe re-presents a perfectly conventional pattern derived fromthe design ; the face is suppressed, while the all-devouring mouth is quadrupled, and, for purposes ofsymmetry, a corresponding number of ' mouths ' areadded turned the other way, forming an elegantthough meaningless chevron pattern. The rectan-gular remains of the body and legs have, curiouslyenough, survived the various changes which have ledup to the fanciful pattern, and remain to emphasisethe alliance of the last stages to the first.

Such a series as this cannot pretend to illustratethe continuous succession of variations which haveled up to the conventionalised pattern, but it shows,in a general way, the manner in which this has beengradually arrived at. There are numerous othervariations upon this design, which branch off atdifferent stages. The actual genealogy of thesevarious connected patterns derived from the originaldesign of the human form upon these spears, wouldhave to be represented in the form of a tree, withmain stem, branches, and sub-branches.

In the same group of islands^Solomon groupvery characteristic form of design is that whose


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 35motive is a representation of the ' frigate ' bird. Thevariations upon this theme are endless, and in manycases the representation of the bird has become, bya gradual process of reduction, converted into afanciful and meaningless arrangement of lines, whoserelationship to the original idea would be unrecognis-able, were it not for survivals of earlier stages in theseries. I give a sketch of one of the characteristicornaments of tridacna shell, decorated with anincised design, picked out in black.

Fig. II.Engraved shell pendant, Solomon Islands.(Pitt Rivers Collection.)

This example shows an intermediate stagebetween realism and absolute conventionalism. The'bird' idea is still distinctly recognisable, though the


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wings are scrolled, and the forked tails of theprincipal figures are confluent with other portionsof the design representing other frigate birds,or portions of them. The idea of ornamentpreponderates over that of realistic representation,and it is easy to see how it is that many of thequite meaningless patterns of the Solomon Islandshave been evolved through a generalised stage ofthis kind, from an original would-be realistic figureof the frigate bird.

Some very interesting examples of variationsupon an original would-be realistic theme are givenin the Archivos do Mtiseo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro,VI., 1885. From the very numerous figures ofdesigns representing a human face found upon thepottery of the ' Mound builders ' of the Amazon,given in that work, I have selected the following :Fig. \2a shows one of these designs which, thoughfar from realistic, shows that it is undoubtedlyintended to convey the impression of a human face.The eyes are prominent, the nose and mouth moreor less coalesced, the teeth being represented by aratchet-like row of marks. Fig. \2b is a still moreconventionalised form of the face design, withtriangular outline ; the nose is fusiform, and thereare various other modifications which increase thedecorative effect. Fig. \2c is a more or less direct


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Evolution of Decorative Art. n

7nOo


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38 Evolution of Decorative Art.variation of b ; the eyes are missing, but the fusiformnose and other portions of design b persist, as doesthe triangular outline. Fig. \2d \?, a variation inanother direction, it is more rectangular, and theparts of the face are more completely represented,the ratchet-like marks on the mouth are reproduced asrays on the nose, which expands above into a figurewhose origin is seen in a. Fig \2e is a broadenedvariation allied closely to d. The turned-up ends atthe sides are angular instead of scrolled as in d.

P'ig. 1 2/ is a complex derivative ; the eyes arebelow the level of the nose, and the mouth is muchexaggerated with numerous rays. Above, under aT-shaped figure, a second pair of eyes has beenintroduced, though it is doubtful whether at thispoint the prehistoric artist knew that the designwhich he was making, the decorative effect of whichhe endeavoured to increase, was derived from earlierrepresentations of faces. Fig. \2g is a design inwhich the figure is reduplicated, the two ' facesbeing placed together to form one symmetricalcomplex design ; the component elements beingmuch the same as in /, extra * eyes ' are introducedat the sides outside the figure. Fig. \2h is acuriously scrolled variety, in which the eyes, nose,and mouth are apparent only when viewed in thelight of the other examples.


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A repetition of these designs in close proximity, asseen in g, greatly augments the decorative effect onthe pottery, at the expense of the realism. All thevariations must be regarded as slight improvementsupon others that have gone before ; they are un-doubtedly related to one another, and in all we can,by comparison in a series, trace the primary idea,viz., that of a human face. The larger the series themore apparent does this become, as the intermediatestages serve to explain the relationships, more clearly.A new design will frequently be influenced by anumber of preceding ones, and not merely be amodification of a single one. This fusion of theparts of several designs leads to very complexderivatives, presenting frequently an apparentlyinextricable confusion of ideas to him who wouldunravel the separate lines of growth, which have, soto speak, been plaited together in various combina-tions, till at length the original conception is com-pletely obscured in a web of tangled threads.

The series which I have just given may be takenas illustrating the amplification of a design, and thereduction of realism for increased decorative effect,and I will now give an example to show how adesign, originally intended to be both realistic anddecorative, may tend to disappear little by little, andperhaps vanish altogether.


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40 Evolution of Decorative Art.A very large proportion of the pottery vesselsmade by the ancient inhabitants of Peru for holding

water or other purposes, are shaped so as to representanimal and other forms more or less conventionalised,and of these a considerable number show the humanform more or less grotesquely portrayed. By ex-amination of a large series the stages by which theoriginal quasi-realistic design has become modified,and has gradually vanished, can to a great extentbe made out. The following examples, selectedfrom the Peruvian " pottery in the Pitt RiversCollection, will serve to illustrate, in a broad andgeneral way, the transitions. The series cannot betaken as representing the history and fate of theparticular form of human representation shown inNo. I., but as illustrating the modification of thehuman form conception as applied to this class ofpottery as a whole, involving a variety of modes oftreatment of this theme. I am unable to say to whatextent these variations in style are local differenceswithin the area of Peru, or whether each style wasintended to convey a special symbolic meaning.

Fig. I3 is a jug coloured red and white andshaped to a human form, the representation of whichis almost as realistic as that in the well-known 'tobyjugs' of the Swaddlingcote potteries; the limbs aredistinctly marked and the face is well modelled.


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 43in an exaggerated form, in spite of the entire suppres-sion of the rest of the figure, leads me to suggestsomewhat tentatively that the two lateral loop-likehandles frequently seen upon plain examples of thesePeruvian pottery vessels, may have been to a greatextent suggested as a useful adaptation of the loopsrepresenting the ears of the human figure. This mayhave been only partly the case, as we may see manyexamples in which very serviceable handles areformed by the two arms placed high up between thesides of the face and the shoulders of the vase so asto form two very convenient loops ; whether ears orarms were the first to suggest their possible utility ashandles could possibly be determined by an examina-tion of a larger series. This modification may wellhave appealed to those to whom the practical utilityof the vessels was of greater moment than the fancifulembellishment.

There can be little doubt that, in the series justgiven, the disappearance of the details of the originaldesign has been effected to a great extent by un-skilfulness or carelessness on the part of the potters,who, while to a certain extent desirous of perpetuatinga design which was generally recognised as suited tothis class of vessel, successively allowed the variousattributes to drop out, leaving them to the imagina-tion, as it was easier to do this than to represent in


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44 Evolution of Decorative Art.full a somewhat complicated design, in a materialwhich in any case presented difficulties to themanipulator.

Now, bearing in mind the two isolated little dabsor bosses in No. 3 of the series just given, whose truesignificance, as representing the toes of a humanfigure, would not be clear, were they not interpretedby the more complete design in Fig. 13^, it isparticularly interesting to recall the words of Mr,R. H. Lang in a paper upon * Archaic Survivals inCyprus' (Joitrn. Anthrop. Inst. 1887, p. 187), he says' The potter of to-day at Lithodronto, when he hasturned his jug and is taking it ofif the wheel, puts twolittle dabs of moist clay on the right and left side ofthe rounded surface, a little above the middle. Ifyou ask him why he does so, he will probably answer,'so my father did before me,' and, in truth, thearchaeologist will pick you out from a pile of vasesdisinterred from tombs 2500 years old, numberlessspecimens with the same finishing touch, and othersof the same age, superior to anything which themodern potter can produce, on which the two dabsrepresent two breasts, with a female head abovethem.'

Turning to the History of Art in Phcenicia andCyprus, by Perrot and Chipiez, vol. ii. pi. 4., we seeone of these fine vases portrayed, showing a well-


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 45designed female head, and below it upon the body ofthe vase two little cones representing the breasts(Fig. 14 1). No doubt the application of these little

Fig. 14.Cypriot Vase.

cones required but very slight skill upon the part ofthe potter, and so these have survived while the face,the more difficult portion of the design, has vanished,leaving our less skilful modern Cyprian potter, withthe application of his two humble little dabs of clay,to unconsciously perpetuate the memory of beautifuldesign, and contribute this token of mourning over alost art.

Was it, however, merely want of skill or careless-' Reproduced by kind permission of Messrs. Chapman and ITall.


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46 Evolution of Decorative Art.ness on the part of the later potters that caused theoriginal design to be thus mutilated? I think not,and give the following examples in order to showthat perhaps, after all, accident had a great deal to dowith it, and that the potters had some excuse. Thethree figures here given are taken from Schliemann'sIlios (figs. 46, 989, 1 291), and represent three of theinteresting vases found by Dr. Schliemann duringhis excavations at Mykense (I am indebted to Mr.Murray for permission to copy these figures). Thefirst shows very distinctly a somewhat rough re-presentation of a face, with, as in the examples whichI have just mentioned, two little conical bosses, thebreasts of the female figure, below it. We noticethat both the face and the breasts are upon the bodyof the vase, the lid having no share in the design. Inthe second example (Fig. 16), the face is seen to havebeen transferred to the moveable lid, the breasts stillremaining upon the body of the vase. Now supposingthat the lid of such a vase were lost or broken, asundoubtedly must frequently have happened,^ a stillserviceable vessel remains with two little bosses uponit, a form of ornamentation conveying by itself noinformation whatever to the uninitiated. A new lid,to replace the lost one, would often be hurriedly

^ Several vases were found by Dr. Schliemann which had lost theircovers, as also loose covers without the vessels to which they belonged.


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Fig. 15. Fig. 16.

'^

Fig. 17.Face_Vases, Mykena; (after Schlieinann).


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made without going to the trouble of reproducing theold one in facsimile, a mere covering devoid of orna-ment. This would appear to be the case with thethird example (Fig. 17), in which the lid is of a muchless elaborate form than in the preceding example ;the breasts in this one appear in isolated glory. Thereis no reason why a vase should not have been copiedin this state, and reproduced again and again, bythose who forgot, or never knew, the importance ofthe design upon the cover, and who would thusestablish a class of vessels whose only ornamentconsisted in two small meaningless dabs, which con-tinued to be added from force of habit, and have doneso to the present day. If this is the true reading ofthe series, the person to blame for the degradation ofthis design would be the potter who, no doubt withgood intentions, first transferred the face from thebody of the vase to the less stable lid, and the modernpotter is entitled to some praise for laudable effortsto perpetuate the only ornament which has beenhanded down to him.

That these ' breasts ' became in themselves a re-cognised, though purely fanciful, form of ornament isproved by one of Schliemann's figures (fig. 58, Ilios)representing a pitcher on which there appear tJiree ofthem !

Such ' survivals ' occur constantly in ornamental


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 49designs, though the history of the greater number iscompletely lost. In the cases which I have mentioned,conscious and unconscious variation have workedupon the same design, and the ultimate form of thepattern has tended to continue unchanged through agreat length of time, to a great extent because of itsextremely simple nature, which has not suggestedfurther modification.

In further illustration of the process of consciousvariation, one or two examples from modern civilisedart may be given.

Where a particular design has a special meaning,which renders its frequent repetition desirable, wefind it often introduced under circumstances whichdo not admit of realism, and there will be a combina-tion of * symbolic ' with * aesthetic ' representation ;that is to say, there will be an endeavour to increasethe ornamental effect, at the same time retainingsufficient of the attributes of the original designto enable this still to be recognised in its conven-tionalised form. In Chinese art the bat, considered tobe the precursor of happiness and prosperity, forms afrequent theme for decorative design, and variationsupon this animal pattern occur upon a great varietyof objects. I give here some of the variations whichshow greater or less degrees of conventionalisation.

The first (Fig. 18^) is a design upon the ivoryD


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mi

ms


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52 Evolution of Decorative Art.the greater is the variation of the crest design fromthe original concept.

The following selected illustrations will illustratethis point. A crane, the emblem of longevity, is re-

a b c dFig. 19.Japanese ' Crest ' Designs : Crane.

presented (Fig. 19a) ^ under a somewhat convention-alised form, though still easily recognisable. Such adesign is commonly met with in Japanese art, beingconstantly repeated for its symbolic significance. Thecrane also does duty as a family crest, and in Figs.\(^b to


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 53flower. No one, seeing this last crest by itself, woulddream of its avian origin, or think of referring theproud owner of it to the ' crane ' gens. It neverthe-less, when seen in association with the other allieddesigns, obviously belongs to this group, the necessityfor variation having brought its very modified forminto being.

a hFig. 20.Japanese

' Crest' Designs: Butterfly.

Fig. 20a is a ' butterfly ' crest, in which the head,body, and two pair of wings are distinctly shown, theclubbed antennae lying close along the anteriormargins of the front pair of wings. One of the mo-difications of this design is that given in Fig. 20b.This is a floral pattern, obviously derived from thebutterfly design, being composed of an arrangementof * anterior wings ' and * antennae ' disposed arounda centre.

a bFig. 21.Japanese 'Crest' Designs: Feathers.

In Fig. 2i


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54 Evolution of Decorative Art.feathers, and Fig. 2i


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 55In the cases which I have given to illustrate

' conscious variation ' the designs have been variouslymodified, chiefly according to the individual taste ofcaprice of the artiststhough frequently carelessnessor lack of skill is an additional important cause ; and,except in the case of the Japanese crests, the principalmotive for varying the designs has been the idea ofincreasing the ornamental effect, possibly in someinstances associated with the desire to create slightdifferences to act as marks of ownership. There isno important reason why from the outset one portionof the design should be rendered specially prominentrather than another.

Occasionally there is a definite and valid reasonfor specially emphasising some particular portion of adesign. That portion may have a special significance,which renders it the most important feature. Inreproducing such a design again and again, thetendency would always be to preserve and make themost of this important detail, and the rest of thedesign would tend to sink into insignificance beforeits encroachments, perhaps to disappear altogether,leaving the principal feature master of the field.

When one small boy, if I may digress for amoment, puts out his tongue at another, it is under-stood that he desires to convey the impression offeelings of contempt and defiance towards the other.


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56 Evolution of Decorative Art,The action is a simple one, but conveys a considerableamount of information, being, moreover, an incentiveto action on the other's part. It may be said there-fore that, for the time beinghappily usually only abrief periodthe protruded tongue, from the impliedemotion, becomes the most important feature of theboy's face ; and, even supposing that the eyes andnose were concealed, it would still convey its mean-ing, and serve to stimulate the latent energy of boynumber two. This digression is not without itspurpose, as this precise point finds expression insavage art. The ceremonial staves, hani, used bythe Maori chiefs of New Zealand, are decorated attheir upper extremities with carved grotesques ofthe human face, with the eyes made of discs ofhaliotis shell (Fig. 23 a). The most prominentportion of the carved design is the enormouslanceolate tongue, which is shown protruded fromthe mouth, usually covered with an elaborate carvedscroll-work. The raison d'etre of this greatly em-phasised tongue lies in the fact that with the Maoriwarriors, as with our small boys, the protrusion ofthis organ indicates defiance and contempt, and thisform of expression of these emotions is of con-siderable importance with this warlike people, thecultivation of this accomplishment forming an im-portant part of the warrior's training. It is shown


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 57in the illustration of a Maori war-dance in Wood'sNatural History ofMan. The design then upon theheads of the staves represents defiance or scorn, andthe mere pointing of the upper end of such a staff ata foe would be sufficiently expressive. It is obvious,therefore, that the tongue in this design is by far the

Fig. 23.a I, c

-Carved Heads of Maori chief's Staves (a and /, Pitt Rivers Collection).most important part, and this fact is borne out bythe examples given in Fig. 23 b and c. In Fig. 23 bit is seen that the grotesque face has been repre-.sented sideways, in profile ; there is only one eye,and the mouth is placed sideways, while a desire forsymmetry has caused a nose (or the rudiment re-presenting a nose) to be inserted on either side ; but


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58 Evolution of Decorative Art.the tongue remains as before, ftdl-face, and thisexample serves to illustrate the lesser importance ofthe face, which can be varied, as compared with theunalterable tongue. In Fig. 23 c (adapted from Joest'sTatowtren, Plate V.) the subordination of the face iscomplete. It has been suppressed as unnecessary,while the all-essential tongue remains unchanged, sym-bolic to the last, but with no context, so to speak, toexplain its meaning, if sqqw apart from other morecomplete, and therefore more realistic, examples.

The special retention and amplification of certainimportant portions of symbolic designs is very char-acteristic of mythological and totemic representationsin savage art. The Haidas of British Columbia, forexample, frequently decorate large spaces, the sidesof wooden coffins, boxes, and other objects, by cover-ing them completely with the eyes of the ' thunder-bird,' or hands, or the two intermingled, paintedupon the surfaces with highly decorative effect, thedesign at the same time retaining its symbolicsignificance. In cases, too, where the whole of atotemic animal figure is represented in a Haidacarving or painting, although the general character-istics of the animal are not strictly adhered to, byreason of the conventionalisation of outline due tovariation resulting from frequent repetition of thedesign, and the desire for increased ornamental


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 59effect, still there is usually retained some dis-tinctive attribute or sign whereby the animal whichit is intended to represent may be recognised. Thebeaver is indicated by prominent incisor teeth,and may be recognised even when the characteristicspatulate tail is omitted or modified ; the wolf, too,is recognised by the character of its teeth ; the eagle,raven, and other birds, by the shape of the beak ; ahigh and prominent dorsal fin betrays the killerwhale, and so on. In this way it is possible even forthe untrained observer to identify many of the sym-bolic figures of animals which occur upon such ob-jects as totem poles, carved slate-stone pipes, etc.

Fk; Pipe of slate stone, Haida, British Columbia.(Author's Collection.)One of these elaborately carved ' babeen ' pipes ishere represented, showing a somewhat involved groupof conventionalised animal and human figures. Atthe bottom, facing towards the left hand, is a charac-teristic representation of the killer whale {prca\ withits high dorsal fin projecting upwards, and furnishing


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6o Evolution of Decorative Art.a support for a partly-reclining semi-human figurewhich is represented as joining tongues with a birdon the extreme left, which, from its straight beak,may be intended for the raven. On the extremeright is a * butterfly' figure which is rescued frombeing unrecognisable by the curled proboscis, largeround eye, and double wings, a powerful combinationsufficient to form a majority to prevail against thealienating claims of such unlepidopteran appendagesas a human mouth, a well-formed arm, and a mosthighly specialised feathered tail. The whole designvery probably refers to some myth or legend wellknown to the natives themselves.

In the Hawaian Islands of East Polynesia aninstance parallel to that of the New Zealand gro-tesques with protruded tongue is found. In thiscase it is the mouth to which a special importance isattached. In the numerous grotesque and symbolicalfigures of the human form, ' idols ' so called by themissionaries, the mouth usually appears in a veryprominent and exaggerated form, having a bi-lobedor dumb-bell-shaped outline.^ This in many in-stances occupies the greater part of the space allottedto the face, and to such a degree is this carried in

^ The late Professor H. N. Moseley gives an interesting account ofthe amplification of the mouth in Hawaian and New Zealand figures,and gives several figures illustrating his remarks {Notes by a Naturaliston the Challenger^ pp. 504-511).


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62 Evolution of Decorative Art.symbolical nature of these representations of the' tree of life ' led to their repetition again and againthrough successive ages, and their adoption by otherraces. Modifications in the details and the increasingconventionalisation of the design for ornamental usestended to obscure its meaning, until finally thisbecame lost, the unity was broken up, and thewinged figures became separated from the palm-tree,though they still continued to survive as distinctdesigns. From the palm a variety of patterns wasdeveloped in different parts of the world, amongstothers the so-called 'honeysuckle' or 'palmette' inGreek art ; while to the winged figures may betraced, through a long genealogical succession, thewinged genii of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art,and the angels of Christianity. The two separatedportions of the old design might meet again in someaccidental association, but it would be without anysign of recognition. To quote the concluding wordsof Dr. Tylor's paper : * It is curious to see sometimeson a church wall the honeysuckle pattern borderinga space round sculptured angels, and to rememberhow far off and how long ago it was that the ancestorof the angel tended the ancestor of the plant.' ^

^ The views advanced by Dr. Tylor regarding these designs arecombated by W. II. Goodyear in his very fine work on the ' Grammarof the Lotus;' but this question need not be discussed here, and at any


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 63It is perhaps curious that designs having a sacred

or symbolic significance should have so great a ten-dency to vary from the original conception. It mightbe supposed that these at least would survive un-altered, and be so preserved as to convey theirmeaning as fully as possible. They have, however,been subjected to much the same processes as othermore purely aesthetic designs of less serious import,which might well be expected to be somewhatunstable, as their retention, or suppression, could notbe a matter of great intrinsic importance. Themeaning of a symbolic design is apt to outlive therealism of the design itself, and, after the representa-tion has become so modified as to cease to conveyper se the idea to illustrate which it was created,the significance remains as an heritage to the designin all its disguises. It is handed down by traditionfrom generation to generation, till at length it tooperhaps succumbs, and may be altogether lost, whilethe now purely fanciful remains of the design, if thishas not completely vanished, as sometimes happens,continues its career of metamorphosis unfettered bytradition which would assign to it an importancewhich it has failed itself to maintain.^rale Dr. Tylor makes out a strong case for palm versus lotus, thoughvery probably the two designs may have influenced each other.

^ I refer in the Appendix to most interesting papers by C. H. Readand Hjalmar Stolpe upon symbolic designs in Polynesia; the two very


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64 Evohdion of Decorative Art.It is impossible to estimate how many of thedecorative designs with which we are surrounded, and

which we are accustomed to regard as mere orna-mental patterns, could be traced, were the materialforthcoming, to originals having a definite signifi-cance, it may be one of sacred import, to the minds ofthose for whose benefit they were designed. Symbolsof the various religious beliefs and institutions ofMan in his different stages of culture have beenrepeated again and again, ever with an increasingtendency to vary from the original, have been trans-mitted from one people to another, till all semblance tothe original and all knowledge of its significance havevanished. The meaningless and fanciful patternwhich is the net result of all this continues, partlyfrom the force of habit, to be applied to aestheticpurposes, and may frequently become, as decoration,associated with an object to which the originaldesign would have been singularly inappropriate.

In spite of this ever present tendency to varyaccepted designs, and the many causes which producechanges, one of the prominent characteristics of savageart is the persistent manner in which certain types ofdesigns or themes are adhered to ; the conservativenature of the mind of the savage is well exemplifiedin his art of decoration.similar pieces of work were produced independently, and almostsimultaneously.


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Evolution of Decorative Art. 65In the application, accordingly, of the art ofdecorative design, certain types are for the most

part adhered to ; and, however numerous may bethe variations, these will be found usually referableto a few ' root ' designs, so to speak, which arecharacteristic of the particular region. It will alsobe noticed, as a general rule, that objects of thesame class are decorated with the same kind ofornament, which, while varying in detail in nearlyevery example, will continue the same in fundamentalidea from generation to generation. Thus, the com-plete transformation of designs by the processes ofgradual variation is to a great extent kept in checkby this inherent tendency to preserve * fashionableideas, which thus becomes an * escapement ' togovern the impulse of the thirst for change.

In the treatment of these favourite themes eachsavage people develops its own peculiar style, orwhat we may call its * school,' and on this account itis very usually possible to decide the locality whencean object has come, with no other data to direct onethan the character of the ornamentation. In S.E.New Guinea art we find the human- and bird-formrepeated in endless variations, singly or in groups, inmany cases apparently mere scrolls, but neverthelessreferable to one or other of the fundamental themes.In the Solomon group the frigate bird is very


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constant, also associated with representations of thehuman form. The Maori of New Zealand adoptsgrotesques of the human face and body as hisprincipal theme ; and, in the often extremely elabor-ate scroll-work which adorns weapons and otherobjects from that country, we may frequently tracethe outlines of features, or the marks representingthe tattooing of the face which supplied originallythe motive upon which to 'ring the changes.' InPolynesia for the most part elaborate geometricalpatterns obtain, produced often with a degree of skillthat is perfectly surprising, when we consider thecondition of general culture and the primitive toolswith which the results have been arrived at

In the art of civilised peoples the same is to beseen, only here the complexity is very much increasedby the far greater number of influences at work, andby frequent intercommunication.

In the case of migrations of tribes the characterof the art of the mother country survives for a longtime, and decorative art may sometimes afford avaluable clew in study of the affinities of races.

It must at the same time be admitted that similarcauses have frequently produced similar results inwidely separated portions of the globe, and indecorative art, as in many other arts, we occasion-ally find a very striking resemblance between ideas


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68 Evolution of Decorative Art.ckse of the influence of one design over another, andI think this can be borne out by the use of a fewexamples. I give here (Fig. 25) a sketch of one ofthe little wooden 'gods,' which are nearly alwaysaffixed to the stems of the sea-going SolomonIslands canoes, as charms against bad weather.The carving represents a grotesque head and arms

of a human figure, and it willbe at once noticed that, seen inprofile, it exhibits this unnaturalprognathism in a marked degree.Now, in constant associationwith these human-form designs,and especially so on the de-corated canoes of these islands,we find representations, moreor less conventionalised, of thefrigate bird, which is held

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43161927 the Evolution of Decorative Art