526 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1930 



In painting we wish to see permanent colors, expressing ideas and 

 idealizations, not impressions of the moment. Thus the contrast 

 between photography and what we consider fundamental appears 

 even in modern civilized art, although civilized style of presentation 

 of such permanent features is far more sophisticated, and often more 

 pleasing, than is the case with primitive art. 



Conventionalism in primitive art need not be unrealistic; when 

 possible, as in clay modeling or in wood carving, realistic portraiture 

 is quite commonl}'- found along with conventional or grotesque 

 designs. 



Modern Malayan art, for example, ranges far superior to pre- 

 historic European achievement. It was only with the coming of 

 Grecian influence to northern Europe that art forms developed there 

 beyond the initial crude stage of the later Stone Age. 



MASKS 



The primary association of the mask is with serious religious 

 practices rather than with decorative art. With this, however, is 

 combined the semireligious masked dance. The use of death masks 

 in aboriginal America is perhaps limited to that section of the west- 

 ern highlands both of North and South America where the use of 

 the mask itself had reached its greatest development. The mask 

 was used in ancient Peru and the false head or mask is a common 

 accessory with Peruvian mummies. 



Contrasting with the false head on mummy bundles there appears 

 in the lowland region of South America a form of dance mask. Its 

 use is quite extensive as far north as the valley of the Orinoco 

 Kiver. In Mexico and in Central America the use of the mask 

 apparently was general. The mosaic mask of the Aztec is a wooden 

 mask which was overlaid with designs built up with small particles 

 of turquoise. The stone temples in Mayan territory show in low 

 relief profiles of priests wearing masks. Sometimes these temples 

 have panels of plumed warriors and priests in low relief. 



In the United States many tribes were apparently not addicted 

 to the use of the mask. In the Northeast were the Iroquois, who 

 were specialists in the manufacture and use of masks carved from 

 single blocks of wood. Such masks were grotesque, with lips pro- 

 truding, nose at tilt, and eye sockets cavernous. These faces rep- 

 resent mythical creatures essentially human. In the more totemic 

 tribes the representations on masks are of animals, birds, and mon- 

 sters of various descriptions. Between these two extremes we find 

 man^T^ tribes, both east of the Mississippi and on, the Western 

 plains, among whom masks were in vogue. East of the Mississippi, 

 the Cherokee, Chippewa, Delaware, Choctaw, and Seminole used 



