The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-05-21
ART OF PRIMITIVE MEN.
Two Totally Distinct Types are
Found Among Uncultured Races.
[Fortnightly Review.l

[Fortnightly Review.1
whoever has examinedgt he handicraft
offsavage peopl1ikmowswell that from
q very early age two totally distinct
types OF art ariseBpontaneousl among
uncuftured races. OneTis initiative, the
other decorative. Paleoifhic mentor
example, 'thescave.dweIers prehistoric
Europe before thegfaciale poch-had an
art of their own of purely initiative
and pictorial character. They repre-
sentadaon frsgmentsof bonesand man.
mothiyory realistic-scenesof' their own
hunting existence.
Here, a naked and hairy brave, flint
spear in hand, staIks'wild horses undis-
mayed in the. grassy plain; there, acou-
pie of reindeer engaged IN a.desperate
fightwith their antlers hard lockedsin
deadlysembrace yonder, again, a man.
moth charges u1rwieidly with wide open
mouth, or a snake glides unseen beneath
thashoeless feet of an unsuspecting saw
age. All their rude works-of art repro
duce living objects, and tell, in their
naive way, distinct story. They are
pictorial records Of livingstone. things
seen, things suffered.
Paleolithic men were essentially
dranghtgmen, onot decorators. Buttheir
neohthic SUCCESSORS, of a totallydifferent
race-the herismen who supplanted
them in post glacial Europe-had an art
ofan entirely different type, purely and
solely decorative. Instead of making
pictures they drew concentric circles
and ornamental curves on their boats
andsdwelhngs; they adorned their weap-
ons and their implements with knobs
andnicks, with crosses and bosses; they
wrought beautiful patterns in metal
work as soon as ever they advanced to
the bronze using stage, and they de-
signed brooches and bracelets of ex-
quisite elegance, but they seldom intro
duced into their craft any living object;
they initiated nothing, and they never
in any way told a pictorial story.
Nowthese two types. of art-the essen
tally initiative or pictorial and thees
seutially decorative or @sthetic-prsist
throughout in-variousj human. races and
often remain as entirely distinct as in
thetypical instances here quoted. The
great aim Of the one is to narrate fact;
the great aim Of the other Is to produce
a beautiful object. The frstis.to speak
historical, the second ornamental.
In developed forms you get the ex-
treme case of the one in the galleries at
Versailles; you get thesextremecase.of
the other in the AIhambra at. Granada.
The modern Esquimau and the modern
Bushman resemble the ancient cave
JEWELLERS in their love of purely pictorial
story telling art; man in a kayak
rpooning whale; man with an
$3.50" sr.aaring a sDringbok; these are
trubjects that ENGAGE win notsay
= pencils - but their sharp flint
YES or their Jumps of red ocher.
IN the other hand, most central AZ.
an races have no initiative skill. They
dnw figures and animals Ill or not at ali.
but they produce decorative pottery and
other ornamental objects which wouId
excite attention at Versailles, and be
well placed atthe arts. and crafts in, the
new gallery. Everywhere racial taste
and racial facultytend most in the.one
or the other direction. A-tribe, a horde.
anation, is pictorial, or else it is deco
ratiye. Rarely or never is it both alike
il. an equal degree of native excellence,