458 FORM AND ORNAMENT IN CERAMIC ART. 



MODIFICATION OF ORNAMENT. 



There are comparatively few elementary ideas prominently and gen- 

 erally employed in primitive decorative art. New ideas are acquired, 

 as already shown, all along the pathway of progress. None of these 

 ideas retain a uniform expression, however, as they are subject to modi- 

 fication by environment just as are the forms of living organisms. A 

 brief classification of the causes of modification is given in the follow- 

 ing synopsis: 



r Through material. 



Modification of ornament < Through form. 



1 Through methods of realization. 



Through material. — It is evident at a glance that material must have a 

 strong influence upon the forms assumed by the various decorative 

 motives, however derived. Thus stone, clay, wood, bone, and copper, 

 although they readily borrow from nature and from each other, necessa- 

 rily show different decorative results. Stone is massive and takes form 

 slowly and by peculiar processes. Clay is more versatile and decoration 

 may be scratched, incised, painted, or modeled in relief with equal fa- 

 cility, while wood and metal engender details having characters peculiar 

 to themselves, producing different results from the same motives or ele- 

 ments. Much of the diversity displayed by the art products of different 

 countries and climates is due to this cause. 



Peoples dwelling in arctic climates are limited, by their materials, to 

 particular modes of expression. Bone and ivory as shaped for use in 

 the arts of subsistence afford facilities for the employment of a very 

 restricted class of linear decoration, such chiefly 7 as could be scratched 

 with a hard point upon small irregular, often cylindrical, implements. 

 Skins and other animal tissues are not favorable to the development of 

 ornament, and the textile arts — the greatest agents of convention — do 

 not readily find suitable materials in which to work. 



Decorative art carried to a high stage under arctic environment would 

 be more likely to achieve unconventional and realistic forms than if 

 developed in more highly favored countries. The accurate geometric 

 and linear patterns would hardly arise. 



Through form. — Forms of decorated objects exercise a strong influ- 

 ence upon the decorative designs employed. It would be more difficult 

 to tattoo the human face or body with straight lines or rectilinear pat- 

 terns than with curved ones. An ornament applied originally 7 to a ves- 

 sel of a given form would accommodate itself to that form pretty much 

 as costume becomes adjusted to the individual. When it came to be 

 required for another form of vessel, very decided changes might be 

 necessary. 



With the ancient Pueblo peoples rectilinear forms of meander pat- 

 terns were very much in favor and many earthen vessels are found in 



