Origin and Development of Form and Ornament in Ceramic Art. | Page 9

favorite ornament, the scroll, in its
disconnected form may have originated in the copying of natural forms
or through the manipulation of coils of clay. I present here an example
of its possible origin through the modification of forms derived from
constructional features of basketry. An ornament known as the
guilloche is found in many countries. The combination of lines
resembles that of twisted or platted fillets of wood, cane, or rushes, as
may be seen at a glance, Fig. 481 a. An incised ornament of this
character, possibly derived from basketry by copying the twisted fillets
or their impressions in the clay, is very common on the pottery of the
mounds of the Mississippi Valley, and its variants form a most
interesting study. In applying this to a vessel the careless artist does not
properly connect the ends of the lines which pass beneath the
intersecting fillets, and the parts become disconnected, b. In many cases
the ends are turned in abruptly as seen in c, and only a slight further
change is necessary to lead to the result, d, the running scroll with
well-developed links. All of these steps may be observed in a single
group of vessels.

It may be thought by some that the processes of development indicated
above are insufficient and unsatisfactory. There are those who, seeing
these forms already endowed with symbolism, begin at what I conceive
to be the wrong end of the process. They derive the form of symbol
directly from the thing symbolized. Thus the current scroll is, with
many races, found to be a symbol of water, and its origin is attributed
to a literal rendition of the sweep and curl of the waves. It is more
probable that the scroll became the symbol of the sea long after its
development through agencies similar to those described above, and
that the association resulted from the observation of incidental
resemblances. This same figure, in use by the Indians of the interior of
the continent, is regarded as symbolic of the whirlwind, and it is
probable that any symbol-using people will find in the features and
phenomena of their environment, whatever it may be, sufficient
resemblance to any of their decorative devices to lead to a symbolic
association.
[Illustration: FIG. 481.--Theoretical development of the current scroll.]
One secret of modification is found in the use of a radical in more than
one art, owing to differences in constructional characters. For example,
the tendency of nearly all woven fabrics is to encourage, even to
compel, the use of straight lines in the decorative designs applied. Thus
the attempt to employ curved lines would lead to stepped or broken
lines. The curvilinear scroll coming from some other art would be
forced by the constructional character of the fabric into square forms,
and the rectilinear meander or fret would result, as shown in. Fig. 482,
a being the plain form, painted, engraved, or in relief, and b the same
idea developed in a woven fabric. Stone or brick-work would lead to
like results, Fig. 483; but the modification could as readily move in the
other direction. If an ornament originating in the constructional
character of a woven fabric, or remodeled by it, and hence rectilinear,
should be desired for a smooth structureless or featureless surface, the
difficulties of drawing the angular forms would lead to the delineation
of curved forms, and we would have exactly the reverse of the order
shown in Figs. 482 and 483. The two forms given in Fig. 484 actually
occur in one and the same design painted upon an ancient Pueblo vase.

The curved form is apparently the result of careless or hurried work, the
original angular form, having come from, a textile source.
[Illustration: a, free-hand form. b, form imposed, by fabric. FIG.
482.--Forms of the same motive expressed in different arts.]
[Illustration: a, free-hand form. b, form imposed by masonry. FIG.
483.--Forms of the same motive expressed in different arts.]
[Illustration: a b FIG. 484.--Variations resulting from change of
method.]
Many excellent examples illustrative of this tendency to modification
are found in Pueblo art. Much of the ornament applied to pottery is
derived from the sister art, basketry. In the latter art the forms of
decorative figures are geometric and symmetrical to the highest degree,
as I have frequently pointed out. The rays of a radiating ornament,
worked with the texture of a shallow basket, spring from the center and
take uniform directions toward the margin, as shown in Fig. 485. But
when a similar idea derived from basketry (as it could have no other
origin) is executed in color upon an earthen vessel, we observe a
tendency to depart from symmetry as well as from consistency. I call
attention here to the arrangement of the parts merely, not to