172 ancij;nt akt of the PKOvixt'K of cinhMi.n'i- 



time went ou life forms were little by little iutroduced int<j its decora- 

 tion and that in recent times they shared the honors equally with the 

 primitive geometric forms. In Chiriqnian art we find but meager 

 traces of a primitive geometric system, and conclude that either the 

 earliest art of the people did not 'give rise to such a system or that 

 the graphic motives, entering gradually and steadily multiplying, 

 supplanted the archaic forms, finally usurping nearly the entire field. 

 As noticed in the preceding sections, there is always a certain amount 

 of geometricity in the arrangenifiit ;iiid the ciifnuiiiiiK ol' thcdesigns, 

 as well as a certain degree of ciuiMMitinii in the tic-itiiicnt of cN-enthe 

 most graphic motives; but thesi'cluirartprs iikiv ImmIuc to the restrain- 

 ing conditions of the art, rather than to the survival of original or 

 ancestral features or characters. 



In beginning the study of Chiriquian decorative art I found it 

 impossible to apjiroach the subject advantageously from the geo- 

 metric side, as was done in the Pueblo study, since life elements so 

 thoroughly permeate every part of it. I have, therefore, turned 

 about, and in the following study present first the more realistic 

 delineations of nature, arranging long series of derivative shapes 

 which descend through increasing degrees of convention to purely 

 geometric forms. These remarks relate wholly to the plan or linear 

 arrangement of the motives. 



As to method of realization, ceramic ornament may be arranged 

 in two classes: the plastic or relieved and the non-plastic or flat. 

 Life forms are freely rendered by both plastic and non-plastic 

 methods, and in either style may range from the highly realistic to 

 the purely geometric. As shown in a preceding section, jjlastic life 

 forms in Chiriquian art appear to have been subject to two (lixeigeiit 

 lines of thought, the one trivial and the other serious. Through the 

 one we have grotesqvie and perhaps even humorous representations 

 of men and of animals. The figures are attached to the vessels for the 

 imrpose — perhaps for the exclusive purpose — of embellishment, and 

 (jfteu with excellent success, as judged by our own standards of taste. 

 The other deals with plastic representations apparently of a serious 

 nature, although utilized also for embellishment. The animal forms 

 employed are treated in a way to suggest that in the mind of the 

 artist the creature bore a definite relation to the vessel or its use, a 

 relationship originating in superstition and preserved throughout all 

 changes of form. Their office was symbolic, and this office was prob- 

 ably not always lost sight of by the potter, even though, through the 

 forces of convention, the animal shapes were reduced to mere knobs, 

 ridges, or even to painted devices. 



In color delineations, although the same subjects are to a great ex- 

 tent employed, there is necessai'ily greater constraint — there is less 

 freedom as well as less vigor in the presentation of natural forms. 

 There is apparently no attempt at the grotesque or amusing. The 



