364 Philip Ainsworth Means, 



the result of a cultural migration, that migration must have had 

 its origin in Middle America. From a geographical standpoint, 

 then, it would be difficult to explain why the migrants, on their 

 way south, passed the region of Chimu and went first to that 

 of Nasca where they developed the Proto-Nasca art after their 

 arrival, and then gradually spread north along the coast, in time 

 reaching Chimu where the Proto-Chimu culture was perfected. 

 This theory is almost impossible to support on geographical 

 grounds. But geographical objections are not the only ones. 

 Other and more serious drawbacks to the theory present them- 

 selves. 



These drawbacks we will now enumerate. In Proto-Chimu 

 art we have a realistic art which has so thoroughly outlived the 

 preparatory stages characteristic of all arts that there is hardly 

 a trace left of the crudenesses that mark the infancy of all sub- 

 civilized or high primitive arts.-- It is a decorative art that has 

 reached so high a level as to combine no small degree of repre- 

 sentation with its decorative purpose. In other words, Proto- 

 Chimu art is one ripe for the influence of several principles of 

 art-development. These principles all find their natural resultant 

 in Proto-Nasca art. 



A few quotations from Dr. Spinden's work, "A Study of 

 Maya Art," will make clear this point. The mere fact that Dr. 

 Spinden is speaking of Middle American art does not alter the 

 fact that what he says applies equally well to Peruvian art or to 

 any other art of similar rank.-^ 



"In the imaginative modification of any given natural figure, 

 for the purposes of decorative art, there are a number of rather 

 definite processes. Each of these is amenable to the fundamental 

 principles of design, such as balance, rhythm and harmony, as 

 these terms have besn elucidated by Dr. Ross.-* Each process 

 may show, moreover, the phases of conscious and unconscious 

 manipulation of the subject matter. Lastly, these processes of 

 intensive development of a design motive, .... work both 

 singly and in combination. It is possible to detect much of the 

 counterplay. 



-^ The general remarks made here are intended to apply solely to 

 decorative, as contrasted with representative, art. 

 " Spinden, 1913, p. 38 ff. 

 ^*Ross, 1901, 1907. 



