AliTICLE YI. 



AN ANALYSIS OF THE LIFE-FORM IN ART, ' 

 By H.vuRisOiN Allen, M. D., 

 Professor of (Jompdraiive Andtoriiij in tke Unioersity of Pennsylvania. 

 Read 91ai-c-Ii 6th, 1874. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



Section 1, The Imitative. We are informed on the highest authority*"^ that 

 the language-character of primitive people is largely if not entirely composed of signs, 

 which are either direct copies of familiar objects, or can be shown to be derivatives of 

 them. 



A language or letter-type and an art-form have thus much in common, although 

 the processes are different by which they are evolved. To produce the letter-type, a 

 series of abridgments must be practiced for a long time, with the result of simpli- 

 fying the form by the elimination of non-essential attributes. Of course the resem- 

 blance to the original design is, by such treatment, sooner or later lost. To produce 

 the art-form the rude outline becomes in time a reasonably faithful cop}*^ of the 

 natural model, and from this realistic stage may pass under favoring conditions to 

 an art-type capable of expressing the highest culture. 



From among the innumerable objects surrounding man, those selected by him 

 for delineation have been relatively few in number. He appears to have been 

 influenced in his choice by his necessities, both real and imaginary. Among the 

 first may be placed the objects he sought for food, and those he dreaded as enemies. 

 Thus we meet with figures of birds, fishes and the grazing animals, as well as those 

 of rapacious and venomous creatures. N^ext in order may be placed representations 

 of the heavenly bodies and the signs of the elements, indicating his dread of the violent 

 phenomena of the earthquake and thunder-storm, or his appreciation of the benefits of 

 rain and favoring winds. Outlines of his own form are often of great antiquity. 



* Egypt's Place in Universal History, London, Chev. Bunsen, I, 333. Five Ancient Jlouarcbies, etc., Londou. 

 Geo. Rawlinson, I, 81. Dissertation on the Nature of, anil Character of the Chinese System of Writing, Phila., 1838, 

 XV, Duponceau. 



