Ancient art of the province of Chiriqui, Colombia Part 14

The human figure was occasionally utilized. The treatment, however, is extremely rude and conventional, the features having the peculiar squirrel-like character shown in the figurines already given. The unique piece given in Fig. 256 represents a short, clumsy female figure with a squirrel face, carrying a vessel upon her back by means of a head strap, which is held in place by the hands. The mouthpiece of the whistle is in the right elbow and one sound hole is in the middle of the breast and the other in the left side. The costume and some of the details of anatomy are indicated by red and black lines in the original. Its notes are the same as those presented with Fig. 249.

LIFE FORMS IN VASE PAINTING.

This section is to be devoted to a short study of the decorative system of the ancient Chiriquians, and more especially to a consideration of the treatment of life forms in vase painting. Many of the finest examples of these designs, so far as execution and effect in embellishment are concerned, have already been given; but it is desirable now to select and arrange a series to ill.u.s.trate origins and processes of growth or modification.

Elements of ornament flow into the ceramic art from a number of sources, but chiefly in two great currents: the one from art, and consisting chiefly of technical or mechanically produced phenomena, and hence geometric, and the other from nature, and carrying elements primarily delineative, and hence non-geometric. When once within the realm of decoration the various motives or elements are subject to modification by two cla.s.ses of influences or conditioning forces: the technical restraints of the art and the esthetic forces of the human mind.

Mechanical and geometric elements, although born within the art or its a.s.sociated arts, are modified in the processes of adaptation to the changing requirements and conditions of the art and through the tendency towards elaboration under the guidance of the esthetic forces; left by themselves they remain, throughout all changes of use and modification of form, purely geometric. Imitative elements tend, under the same influences, to move in the direction of the unreal or geometric. In this way the realistic forms undergo marked changes, gradually a.s.suming a geometric character and finally losing all semblance of nature.

Now it must be noted that the decorations of any group of art products may embody both cla.s.ses of elements or they may be restricted rather closely to either. This fact enables us to account for many of the strongly marked distinctions observed in the decorative systems of different communities, races, and times. In a recent study of ancient Pueblo art I traced the decoration to a mechanical origin, mainly in the art of basketry, and thus accounted for its highly geometric character.

Chiriquian art presents a strong contrast to this, as the great body of elements are manifestly derived from nature by delineative imitation. It was further observed in Pueblo art that as time went on life forms were little by little introduced into its decoration and that in recent times they shared the honors equally with the primitive geometric forms. In Chiriquian art we find but meager traces of a primitive geometric system, and conclude that either the earliest art of the people did not give rise to such a system or that the graphic motives, entering gradually and steadily multiplying, supplanted the archaic forms, finally usurping nearly the entire field. As noticed in the preceding sections, there is always a certain amount of geometricity in the arrangement and the enframing of the designs, as well as a certain degree of convention in the treatment of even the most graphic motives; but these characters may be due to the restraining conditions of the art, rather than to the survival of original or ancestral features or characters.

In beginning the study of Chiriquian decorative art I found it impossible to approach the subject advantageously from the geometric side, as was done in the Pueblo study, since life elements so thoroughly permeate every part of it. I have, therefore, turned about, and in the following study present first the more realistic delineations of nature, arranging long series of derivative shapes which descend through increasing degrees of convention to purely geometric forms. These remarks relate wholly to the plan or linear arrangement of the motives.

As to method of realization, ceramic ornament may be arranged in two cla.s.ses: the plastic or relieved and the non-plastic or flat. Life forms are freely rendered by both plastic and non-plastic methods, and in either style may range from the highly realistic to the purely geometric. As shown in a preceding section, plastic life forms in Chiriquian art appear to have been subject to two divergent lines of thought, the one trivial and the other serious. Through the one we have grotesque and perhaps even humorous representations of men and of animals. The figures are attached to the vessels for the purpose--perhaps for the exclusive purpose--of embellishment, and often with excellent success, as judged by our own standards of taste. The other deals with plastic representations apparently of a serious nature, although utilized also for embellishment. The animal forms employed are treated in a way to suggest that in the mind of the artist the creature bore a definite relation to the vessel or its use, a relations.h.i.+p originating in superst.i.tion and preserved throughout all changes of form. Their office was symbolic, and this office was probably not always lost sight of by the potter, even though, through the forces of convention, the animal shapes were reduced to mere k.n.o.bs, ridges, or even to painted devices.

In color delineations, although the same subjects are to a great extent employed, there is necessarily greater constraint--there is less freedom as well as less vigor in the presentation of natural forms. There is apparently no attempt at the grotesque or amusing. The variants are practically infinite. The work is more purely decorative and is perhaps less subject to the restraints of a.s.sociated ideas and of use with particular vessels or in definite relations to other features of the vessel. At the same time it is manifest that these painted figures are not all merely meaningless decorations, but that many, throughout all degrees of modification, refer with greater or less clearness to natural originals, to ideas a.s.sociated with these originals, or to the relations.h.i.+p of these originals to the vessel and its uses.

It is clear, however, that a considerable body of nature-derived elements, plastic and painted, are employed as simple embellishments, having no other function. This suggests the separation of all decorations into two grand divisions, based upon the kind of thoughts a.s.sociated with them. These divisions may be designated as significant and non-significant, the term significant referring not to the mere identification of a device with an original form or to its office as an ornament, but to its symbolism, to its mystic relation with the vessel and its uses. But I have to do here with the forms taken by motives, with their morphology rather than with their signification, as the latter must, with reference to archaeologic material, remain greatly speculative.

In the application of life forms in vase painting several cla.s.ses of modifying and constraining agencies of a technical nature are present, and the following examples are grouped with the idea of defining these cla.s.ses of forces and keeping them in a measure distinct.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 257. Graphic delineation of the alligator, from a vase of the lost color group.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 258. Graphic delineation of the alligator, from a vase of the lost color group.]

Of all the animal forms utilized by the Chiriquians the alligator is the best suited to the purpose of this study, as it is presented most frequently and in the most varied forms. In Figs. 257 and 258 I reproduce drawings from the outer surface of a tripod bowl of the lost color group. Simple and formal as these figures are, the characteristic features of the creature--the sinuous body, the strong jaws, the upturned snout, the feet, and the scales--are forcibly expressed. It is not to be a.s.sumed that these examples represent the best delineative skill of the Chiriquian artist. The native painter must have executed very much superior work upon the more usual delineating surfaces, such as bark and skins. The examples here shown have already experienced decided changes through the constraints of the ceramic art, but are the most graphic delineations preserved to us. They are free hand products, executed by mere decorators, perhaps by women, who were servile copyists of the forms employed by those skilled in sacred art.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 259. Conventional alligator, from the lost color ware.]

A third ill.u.s.tration from the same group of ware, given in Fig. 259, shows, in some respects, a higher degree of convention. The scales are here represented by triangular dentals, which occupy the entire length of the back. These dentals are filled with the round dots that stand singly in the preceding cases.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 260. Style of convention in the alligator group of ware.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 261. Style of convention in the alligator group of ware.]

In another cla.s.s of ware--the alligator group--the treatment is quite different, being decidedly more clumsy and realized by distinct processes; but prominence is given to a number of corresponding features. The strong curve of the back, the dentals and dots, and the muzzle and mouth refer apparently to the same creature. The curiously marked panel in the body of the last example is a unique feature, which appears, however, in a few other cases.

These drawings occur upon the sides of vases, alternating with the plastic features, and are perhaps generally a.s.sociated with such features in the expression of some mythical idea.

The modeled creature is often represented with two heads instead of with a head and a tail, and the painted forms, in many cases, exhibit the same peculiarity as shown in Fig. 262. I surmise that the employment of two heads arises from the need of securing perfect balance of parts rather than as an original product of the imagination.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 262. Two headed form of the alligator.]

It will be interesting, as additional examples are presented, to note the effect of modification upon particular features of the animal, to observe how some come into prominence, representing the creature and the idea, while others fall into disuse and disappear. In nature the line of the body is perhaps the most strongly characteristic feature, and it is in art the most persistent. It survives in the stems of many conventional devices from which all other suggestions of the animal have vanished.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 263. Figure of the alligator much simplified.]

The following examples depart still further from nature, approaching the border line between the distinctly imitative and the purely conventional or geometric phases. In the first (Fig. 263) all the leading features are recognizable, but are very much simplified. The jaws are without teeth, the head is without eyes, and the body without indication of scales. The other example (Fig. 264) is of a somewhat different type and may possibly refer to some other reptilian form, but many links connecting the two are found. The shape is more angular and is a step further removed from nature. From shapes as conventional as this we drop readily into purely geometric forms, as will be seen further on. These and the preceding drawings are all executed on broad surfaces, where fancy could have free play. The modifying or conventionalizing forces are, therefore, quite vague. Variation from natural forms is due partly to a lack of skill on the part of the painter, partly to the peculiar demands of ceramic embellishment, and partly to the traditional style of treatment acquired in still more primitive stages of culture and in other and unidentified branches of art.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 264. The alligator much modified by ceramic influences.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 265.

Fig. 266.

Fig. 267.

Ill.u.s.trations of the influence of the shape of s.p.a.ces upon the delineation of animal forms.]

I shall now call attention to some important individualized or well defined agencies of convention. First, and most potent, may be mentioned the enforced limits of the s.p.a.ces to be decorated, which s.p.a.ces take shape independently of the subject to be inserted. When the figures must occupy a narrow zone they are elongated, when they must occupy a square they are restricted longitudinally, and when they must occupy a circle they are of necessity coiled up. Fig. 265 ill.u.s.trates the effect produced by crowding the oblong figure into a short rectangular s.p.a.ce.

The head is turned back over the body and the tail is thrown down along the side of the s.p.a.ce. In Fig. 266 the figure occupies a circle, and is in consequence closely coiled up, giving the effect of a serpent rather than an alligator. In Fig. 267 the s.p.a.ce is semicircular, and we observe peculiar conventional conditions, some of which may be due to other causes. For example, such s.p.a.ces may originally have been filled with purely geometric figures, which tended to impart their own characters to the life forms that supplanted them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 268. Delineation retaining but slight traces of the life form.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 269. Delineation retaining but slight traces of the life form.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 270. Delineation retaining but slight traces of the life form.]

Now, it often happens that, as in the last example given, the animal form, literally rendered, does not fill the panels satisfactorily. The head and the tail do not correspond and there is a lack of balance. In such cases two heads have been preferred. The body is given a uniform double curve and the heads are turned down, as shown in Figs. 268 and 269, or one may turn up and the other down, as seen in Fig. 270. The two headed form may also arise from imitation of plastic forms, as I have already shown. The example given in Fig. 268 is extremely interesting on account of its complexity and the novel treatment of the various features. The two feet are placed close together near the middle of the curved body, and on either side of these are the under jaws turned back and armed with dental projections for teeth. The characteristic scale symbols occur at intervals along the back; and very curiously at one place, where there is scant room, simple dots are employed, showing the ident.i.ty of these two characters. Some curious auxiliary devices, the origin of which is obscure, are used to fill in marginal s.p.a.ces. The shape given in Fig. 269 is so highly modified that it is not recognizable as an animal form, excepting through a series of links connecting it with more realistic delineations. It is perfectly symmetrical and consists of a compound curve for the body, with hooks at the extremities and two appended hooks for legs. The spots symbolizing the scales are here placed within the body, showing another step toward complete annihilation of the natural forms and relations. Three additional examples, showing still higher degrees of convention, are presented in Figs. 271, 272, and 273. The series could be filled up and continued indefinitely, connecting the whole family of devices in which dentals, hooks, spots, and circles occur with the alligator radical or with other reptilian forms confused with the alligator through the carelessness or ignorance of the decorator.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 271. Highly conventionalized alligator derivative.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 272. Highly conventionalized alligator derivative.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 273. Highly conventionalized alligator derivative.]

In looking over a large series of the vases it will be seen that the tendency of decoration is toward the zonal arrangement, the s.p.a.ces being narrow and long, even when divided into the usual number of panels. As a consequence the motives tend to take linear forms. Parts are repeated or greatly drawn out to fill the s.p.a.ces. This phase of conventional evolution may be ill.u.s.trated by a mult.i.tude of examples.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a, b, c, d, e, f_ Fig. 274. Series of forms showing modification through use in narrow zones.]

Beginning with an ordinary form in Fig. 274, _a_, we advance under the restraint of parallel border lines through the series, ending in a simple meander, _f_, the s.p.a.ces about which are, however, filled out with the conventional scale symbols, the triangles inclosing dots. Thus we witness the transformation of the life form into a linear device, in which the flexures of the body are emphasized and multiplied without reference to nature, and there is little doubt that the series continues further, ending with simple curved lines and even with straight lines unaccompanied by auxiliary devices.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 275. Running ornaments composed of life elements.]

Next to the body line the most important of the alligator derivatives is the notched or dotted hook, which in the lost color group stands sometimes for the whole creature, but more frequently for one or more of the members of its body, the snout, the tail, or the feet. It is employed singly or in various arrangements suited to the shape of the s.p.a.ces to be filled or occurs in connection with the body line or stem, where, by systematic repet.i.tion, it serves to fill the triangular inters.p.a.ces. Take, for example, an ornament (Fig. 275) which encircles the shoulder of a handsome vase of the lost color group. The s.p.a.ce is neatly filled with groupings in which the simple life coil elements are joined one to another in such a way as to give somewhat the effect of an ordinary running ornament. The same motive takes a different form in Fig. 276, which is part of the decorated zone of an earthen drum (see Fig. 235). Here the body of the creature is represented by a wide meandered line, and to this the notched or scalloped hooks are attached with perfect regularity, one to each angle of the meandered body. In other examples the angular geometric character extends to every part of the detail and the curved hooks lose their last suggestion of nature and are entirely dropped or used separately.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 276. Running ornaments composed of life motives.]

The rings, strokes, spots, and dentate figures that serve to represent the markings and scales of the reptile are among the most important of the derivative devices and occur in varied relations to other cla.s.ses of derivatives. They also occur independently, either singly or in groupings. Thus we see that the alligator, in Chiriquian vase painting, is represented by an endless list of devices, and it is interesting to note that among these are several figures familiar to the civilized world in both symbolism and ornament.

I present five series of figures designed to ill.u.s.trate the stages through which life forms pa.s.s in descending from the realistic to highly specialized conventional shapes. In the first series (Fig. 277), we begin with a meager but graphic sketch of the alligator; the second figure is hardly less characteristic, but is much simplified; in the third we have still three leading features of the creature: the body line, the spots, and the stroke at the back of the head; and in the fourth nothing remains but a compound, yoke-like curve, standing for the body of the creature, and a single dot.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a, b, c, d_ Fig. 277. Series of derivatives of the alligator showing stages of simplification.]

The figures of the second series (Fig. 278) are nearly all painted upon low round nodes placed about the body of the alligator vases and hence are inclosed in circles (see Fig. 197). The animal figure in the first example is coiled up like a serpent, but still preserves some of the well known characters of the alligator. In the second example we have a double hook near the center of the s.p.a.ce which takes the place of the body, but the dotted triangles are placed separately against the encircling line. In he next figure the body symbol is omitted and the three triangles remain to represent the animal. In the fourth there are four triangles, and the body device, being restored in red, takes the form of a cross. In the fifth two of the inclosing triangles are omitted and the idea is preserved by the simple dots. In the sixth the dots are placed within the bars of the cross, the triangles becoming mere inters.p.a.ces; and in the seventh the dots form a line between the two encircling lines. This series could be filled up by other examples, thus showing by what infinitesimal steps the transformations take place.

The round nodes upon which these medallion-like figures are drawn are survivals of the heads or other parts of animals originally modeled in the round, but in the processes of manufacture partially or wholly atrophied. It was sought to preserve the idea of the creature by the use of painted details, but these, as we have seen, were also in time reduced to formal marks, symbols doubtless in many cases of the conception to which the original plastic form referred.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 278. Series showing stages in the simplification of animal characters.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a, b, c, d_ Fig. 279. The scroll and fret derived from the body line of the alligator.]