ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF FORM AND ORNA- 

 MENT IN CERAMIC ART. 



By William H. Holmes. 



. INTRODUCTORY. 



For the investigation of art in its early stages and in its widest sens-e- 

 there is probably no fairer field than that afforded by aboriginal Amer 

 ica, ancient and modern. 



At the period of discovery, art at a number of places on the American 

 continent seems to have been developing surely and steadily, through 

 the force of the innate genius of the race, and the more advanced na- 

 tions were already approaching the threshold of civilization; at the 

 same time their methods were characterized by great simplicity, and 

 their art products are, as a consequence, exceptionally homogeneous. 



The advent of European civilization checked the current of growth, 

 and new and conflicting elements were introduced necessarily disas- 

 trous to the native development. 



There is much, however, in the art of living tribes, especially of 

 those least influenced by the whites, capable of throwing light upon the 

 obscure passages of precolumbian art. By supplementing the study 

 of the prehistoric by that of historic art, which is still in many cases in 

 its incipient stages, we may hope to penetrate deeply into the secrets 

 of the past. 



The advantages of this field, as compared with Greece, Egypt, and 

 the Orient, will be apparent when we remember that the dawn of art 

 in these countries lies hidden in the shadow of unnumbered ages, while 

 ours stands out in the light of the very present. This is well illustrated 

 by a remark of Birch, who, in dwelling upon the antiquity of the fictile 

 art, says that " the existence of earthen vessels in Egypt was at least 

 coeval with the formation of a written language." 1 Beyond this there 

 is acknowledged chaos. In strong contrast with this, is the fact that 

 all precolumbian American pottery precedes the acquisition of written 

 language, and this contrast is emphasized by the additional fact that it 

 also antedates the use of the wheel, that great perverter of the plastic 

 tendencies of clay. 



1 Birch: History of Ancient Pottery, 1873, p. 8. 



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