Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art. | Page 2

the principles involved
are applicable to all times and to all art, as they are based upon the laws
of nature.
Ceramic art presents two classes of phenomena of importance in the
study of the evolution of æsthetic culture. These relate, first, to form,
and second, to ornament.
Form, as embodied in clay vessels, embraces, 1st, useful shapes, which
may or may not be ornamental, and, 2d, æsthetic shapes, which are
ornamental and may be useful. There are also grotesque and fanciful
shapes, which may or may not be either useful or ornamental.
No form or class of forms can be said to characterize a particular age or
stage of culture. In a general way, of course, the vessels of primitive
peoples will be simple in form, while those of more advanced races
will be more varied and highly specialized.

The shapes first assumed by vessels in clay depend upon the shape of
the vessels employed at the time of the introduction of the art, and these
depend, to a great extent, upon the kind and grade of culture of the
people acquiring the art and upon the resources of the country in which
they live. To illustrate: If, for instance, some of the highly advanced
Alaskan tribes which do not make pottery should migrate to another
habitat, less suitable to the practice of their old arts and well adapted to
art in clay, and should there acquire the art of pottery, they would
doubtless, to a great extent, copy their highly developed utensils of
wood, bone, ivory, and basketry, and thus reach a high grade of
ceramic achievement in the first century of the practice of the art; but,
on the other hand, if certain tribes, very low in intelligence and having
no vessel-making arts, should undergo a corresponding change of
habitat and acquire the art of pottery, they might not reach in a
thousand years, if left to themselves, a grade in the art equal to that of
the hypothetical Alaskan potters in the first decade. It is, therefore, not
the age of the art itself that determines its forms, but the grade and kind
of art with which it originates and coexists.
Ornament is subject to similar laws. Where pottery is employed by
peoples in very low stages of culture, its ornamentation will be of the
simple archaic kind. Being a conservative art and much hampered by
the restraints of convention, the elementary forms of ornament are
carried a long way into the succeeding periods and have a very decided
effect upon the higher stages. Pottery brought into use for the first time
by more advanced races will never pass through the elementary stage of
decoration, but will take its ornament greatly from existing art and
carry this up in its own peculiar way through succeeding generations.
The character of the ornamentation does not therefore depend upon the
age of the art so much as upon the acquirements of the potter and his
people in other arts.

ORIGIN OF FORM
In order to convey a clear idea of the bearing of the preceding
statements upon the history of form and ornament, it will be necessary

to present a number of points in greater detail.
The following synopsis will give a connected view of various possible
origins of form.
/ By adventition. Origin of form--| By imitation--------/ Of natural
models. \ By invention. \ Of artificial models
+FORMS SUGGESTED BY ADVENTITION.+
The suggestions of accident, especially in the early stages of art, are
often adopted, and become fruitful sources of improvement and
progress. By such means the use of clay was discovered and the
ceramic art came into existence. The accidental indentation of a mass
of clay by the foot, or hand, or by a fruit-shell, or stone, while serving
as an auxiliary in some simple art, may have suggested the making of a
cup, the simplest form of vessel.
The use of clay as a cement in repairing utensils, in protecting
combustible vessels from injury by fire, or in building up the walls of
shallow vessels, may also have led to the formation of disks or cups,
afterwards independently constructed. In any case the objects or
utensils with which the clay was associated in its earliest use would
impress their forms upon it. Thus, if clay were used in deepening or
mending vessels of stone by a given people, it would, when used
independently by that people, tend to assume shapes suggested by stone
vessels. The same may be said of its use in connection with wood and
wicker, or with vessels of other materials. Forms of vessels so derived
may be said to have an adventitious origin, yet they are essentially
copies, although not so by design, and may as readily be placed under
the succeeding head.