The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1893-03-31
PICTORIAL JOKES.
The Art Of Carie.ture Is Of Very Great
Antiuuity.

Antiquity.
With the perfection of photoe ngrav-
ing and the skill of the artists has come
q readiness of picture-making which
has turned even the daily newspapers
into illustrated journals. The advance
has been very rapid in the last thirty
years, and when we examine the books
and periodicals of the last generation,
paucity Of pictures they present.
Yet the art of drawing is very old,
and the most ancient branch is that OF
caricature. Specimens of the art date
back SO far that there is practically no
limit, and as the caricaturist, in many
cases, needed but a piece of colored
chalk, pencil or crude paint-brush, we
meet with pictorial jokes among all the
monuments of the past.
The ancient Egyptians carried their
pictorial jokes so far as to carve them
on their tombs. The bibulous propensi-
ties of the people furnished the chief
theme for caricature, although other
features of social life were not spared.
Political jokes were also INDUCED in,
but only occasionally, since the rulers
were apt to reward the jokers with
death or a heightened term of imprison-
ment.
A slab from Thebes, and certainly
three Thousand years old, bears q pict-
ure showing fox, presumably repre-
senting conquered tribe, offering trib-
ute consisting of a goose and a fan (the
badge OF servitude) to ioness seated
on the throne, the lotus flower indi-
eating royal rank. The point Of the
caricature seems to be that the fox is
holding back a weapon, while the lioness
is, in good faith, offering wine to the
treacherous subject.
To give human beings the form and
attributes Of animals has always been a
comic art no subject was too sacred to
be burlesqued, and even the Roman
gods and goddesses had their foibles
pictured.
In Pompeii have been found many
well-preserved specimens of caricature
intended for permanent preservation.
These were frequently mural decora-
tions, gorgeous in color and heightened
with gold and silver.
Ancient Greece was the home of all
the fine arts and the caricature which
usually follows. There is more point
to Grecian pictorial joking, and the ideas
are worked out in more finished way.
Many of them greatly resemble Japanese
caricature of the present day.
To go even further back into antiqui-
ty, the East Indian mythology offers
many instances of pictorial joking. The
Hindu caricaturist treated the subject
apparently for the purpose, not of rails
ing q laugh, but to awaken different
emotions-as admiration, horror, awe,
or sense of power In the observer. Most
Of the Hindu caricature are crudely
expressed; but in portraying the career
Of Krishna, the god of love and jollity,
the artist introduces much grace, and
what passes current with his people as
humor.
The humor of these, as we'll as most
ancient caricatures is that which would
only appeal to 4 very young child of the
present day, but becomes interesting in
tracing the development Of the art
down to our time.
If any one wishes to see caricature in
it's primitive state, he may consult the
drawings cf the Indians of the west,
notably the Zunis. In pictorial joking
they are not more advanced than the
Egyptian of three thousand years ago.
w S. Bates in Golden DAYS.