Fig. 188. Vase embellished with life forms, heads in relief and other parts in color—½.
With reference to life forms it has already been pointed out that the painted figures generally imitate or typify animal forms, and it is important to note that these figures are in very many cases used as auxiliaries to plastic features in the development of particular conceptions. This is shown to advantage in Fig. 188, which illustrates a small, well formed bottle, having two large human-like heads attached to opposite sides of the body. There are no other plastic features, but the heads are supplied with arms and legs, rudely expressed in black lines, which are really the interspaces of the lines drawn in the lost color. These painted parts occupy the zone usually devoted to decoration and, as will be seen by reference to the cut, resemble closely the radiate or meandered figures seen in vases of the class shown in [Fig. 167]. The arms are joined to the lower part of the head and extend upward to the neck of the vessel, where they terminate in rudely suggested fingers. Rising to the right and left of the arms are legs terminating as do the arms. A double row of dots is carried along each member, and thus we have a suggestion of the relation of the dots and dotted lines, seen in more highly conventional forms, to the markings of the creature represented or symbolized. The grotesque faces are covered with lines which follow the forms as if imitating markings upon the skin. Another example, equally suggestive, also employing an animal form, is shown in Fig. 189. It is a cup, mounted upon three feet, which has attached to one side the head of a peccary, modeled with more than usual skill. The ears of the animal appear at the sides of the vessel and the tail is opposite the head. The lines and dots seen upon the head are carried along the sides of the vessel as far as the ears and
undoubtedly represent the markings of the animal’s skin. Behind the ears the markings are different in character and purely geometric. A view of the under side of the vessel is shown in Fig. 190 and illustrates a treatment characteristic of the tripod vases of this class. In other cases, instead of fixing the head of the animal upon one side
and other members of the body upon other sides, two heads, or two complete creatures, are placed opposite each other.
Fig. 189. Vase modeled to represent a peccary—½.
