718 Conventionalism in Ancient American Art. 
All other features have disappeared. In the next figure th 
pointed jaw alone is retained in the mass of clay above the 
opening, and in the last figure (Fig. 8) the climax of this cor) 
ventionalism is reached, where all that remains of the fish con | 
sists in two pairs of oblique lines representing the jaws. f 
These prehistoric people of Chiriqui carved in stone as wel 
as in clay, and were remarkable for their work in copper and | 
gold. In all these materials similar realism and a similar devel. 
opment of the conventional can be traced. Other animals, evel 
the human form, are thus treated ; but in the museum collections 
the series of fish forms is the largest and most perfect, and hence | 
was selected for illustration. tf 
In the stone graves of Tennessee a similar evolution is ob 
servable. First, we have a rudely realistic representation of at | 
animal-head upon the sides of the pot; but this has resulted it | 
an unsymmetrical form. This was improved by the addition of 
knobs, which mjght be called nose and tail, and afterwards by 
handles. In the mean time conventionalism steps in, and te p 
features, which once were highly realistic, become represented | 
by six round knobs of equal size, and realistic work has entirely £ 
given way to symmetry, and a common cooking-pot has becom 
chaste in style as a result of a development of artistic feeling. 
A somewhat similar development is traced in the ancient potter! 
of Nicaragua, and the result is much the same. In specimen 
pot itself, and either the head and tail or the dorsal and anal fi 
alone remain as handles, Again, the frog was similarly treat 
as were the bird, human figure, and squash. From an examine 
tion of the collections in the museum it would be easy to met | 
clude that the jars in the shape of a woman were evolved fi 
the squash-like form, were it not, as Professor Putnam says, t 
€ realistic precedes the conventional in every instance. 
As was said above, this conventionalism does not occur among 
all the peoples of ancient America. In ancient Mexico, ag 
: Sunce, the higher ceramic art was symbolical rather than ® 
* Yentioual. So, too, the ancient Peruvians west of the 
_ influenced by the Aymaras, or their predecessors in the 
of Lake Titicaca, were lacking in conventionalism, 
highest art was a realistic one, in which was often added 
— Septeasion of action. In the region of Lake Titicaca 4 
eg 
