HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



Considerable interest attaches to the question of the characteris- 

 tics of both the crude and the more highly developed representative 

 designs that occur in various cultural stages. 



We will direct our attention here particularly to the attempts at 

 representation on a surface; that is to say, to the graphic arts of 

 drawing, engraving, and painting. 



It is clear that whenever man tries to represent objects of nature 

 in this manner, he is confronted with the problem of showing a three- 

 dimensional object on a surface. The complete presentation of the 

 object in all its aspects cannot be given; and the question therefore 

 arises of solving the problem how to represent in an adequate way a 

 three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional space. 



When we examine the products of the art of primitive people, we 

 find that on the whole a method is used which is apparently quite 

 foreign to our modern feeling. While in our modern perspective draw- 

 ing the painter tries to give the visual impression of the object, show- 

 ing only what we believe we see at any given moment, we find that in 

 more primitive forms of art this solution of the problem appears 

 unsatisfactory, for the reason that the momentary position of the 

 object will not exhibit certain features that are essential for its recog- 

 nition. For instance, if a person is seen from the back, the eyes, the 

 nose, and the mouth are not visible; but at the same time we know 

 that eyes, nose, and mouth are essential characteristic elements of the 

 human form. This idea is so fundamental in the view of most primi- 

 tive people that we find practically in every case the endeavor to 

 represent those elements that are considered as essential character- 

 istics of the object to be represented. It is obvious that when this is 

 to be done, the idea of rendering the momentary impression must be 

 given up, because it may not be possible to see all these different 

 features at the same time; and thus we find that one of the character- 

 istic traits of primitive art is the disregard of the relative position of 

 the essential elements of the object of representation. 



It is interesting to note that the same problem presents itself to 

 the child when it first tries to draw, and that the solution of the 

 problem generally follows the same line that is adopted by primitive 

 man; namely, the endeavor to represent all those elements that are 

 considered as essential and characteristic rather than the actual spacial 

 relations as they appear at any given moment. We must explain from 

 this point of view the profiles with two eyes, or the outlines of the 

 body under the garments, which occur in the drawings of both chil- 

 dren and primitive tribes. 



However, it must not be assumed that this tendency is indepen- 



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