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| Fig. 281. Devices incised in a needlecase. | Fig. 282. Devices representing the markings of a reptile’s body. |
Other classes of geometric figures, derived chiefly from scale or skin markings, are given in the fifth series. In more realistic phases of representation the dentate and dotted devices are ranged along the body of the creature, as in nature, but as convention progresses they are used independently to fill up spaces, to form the septa of panels, &c. Many illustrations appear in the preceding pages and additional examples are given in Fig. 283. It is possible that these devices come from delineations of a number of distinct animal forms; but in the higher stages of convention confusion cannot be avoided, and must have existed to some extent in the mind of the decorator; they serve, however, to illustrate the stages of simplification through which all forms extensively used for a long period must pass. The laws of derivation, modification, and application in art are the same in all.
It has now been shown that life forms and their varied derivatives constitute the great body of Chiriquian decorative motives; that when first introduced the delineations are more or less realistic, according to the skill of the artist or the demands of the art; but that in time, by a long series of abbreviations and alterations, they descend to simple geometric forms in which all visible connection with the originals is lost. The agencies through which this result is accomplished are chiefly the mechanical restraints of the art acting independently of voluntary modification and without direct exercise of esthetic desire.
There may be forces at work of which we find no clear indications. Some of the conventional forms into which life forms are found to grade may be survivals of forms originating in other regions and belonging to other cultures which have through accidents of contact imposed themselves upon Chiriquian art; such are the scroll, the fret, and the guilloche; but the thorough manner in which such forms are interwoven with purely Chiriquian conceptions makes it impossible to substantiate such a theory. The conclusion most easily and most naturally reached is that all are probably indigenous to Chiriqui, and hence the striking deduction that the processes of modification inherent in the art are of such a nature that any animal form extensively used in decoration may give rise to any or all of the highly conventional forms of ornament.
During the progress of this study a question has frequently been raised as to the extent to which the memory of the creature original or of its symbolism in first use was kept alive in the mind of the decorator. It is a well established fact that primitive peoples habitually invest inanimate objects with the attributes of living creatures. Thus the vessel, from the time it assumes individual shape and is fitted to perform a function, is thought of as a living being, and by the addition of plastic or painted details it becomes a particular creature, an alligator, a fish, or a puma, each of which is in most cases the symbol of some mythologic concept. When, through the changes of convention in infinite repetition, all resemblance to individual creatures was lost and mere knobs or simple geometric figures occupied the surface of the vessel, there is little doubt that many of these features still recalled to the mind of the potter the ultimate originals and the conceptions of which they were the representatives, and that others represented ideas, the outgrowth of or a development from primary ideas, while still others had acquired entirely new ideas from without. It cannot be denied, however, that there does come a time in the history of vase painting at which such associated ideas become vague and are lost and elements formerly significant are added and combinations of them are made for embellishment alone, without reference to meaning or appropriateness; but I am inclined to place this period a very long way from the initiatory stages of the art. It
may not be possible to find evidence of the arrival of this period, as it is not necessarily marked by any loss of unity or consistency—striking characteristics of ancient American art; for such is the conservatism of indigenous methods that, unless there be forcible intrusion of exotic art, original forms and groupings may be perpetuated indefinitely and remain much the same in appearance after the associated ideas are modified or lost.
Fig. 284. Vase with decorated zone containing remarkable devices—⅓.