DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0210
184 Art of the North Pac ifi c Coast ofNorth America
tions are not beyond the powers of the artist. This may also be
demonstrated by a few exquisite examples of realistic carvings. The
helmet shown in fig. 154 is decorated with the head of an old man
affected with partial paralysis. Undoubtedly this specimen must be
considered a portrait head. Nose, eyes, mouth and the general
expression, are highly characteristic. In a mask (fig. 155) repre-
senting a dying warrior, the artist has shown faithfully the wide
Fig. 154. Tlingit helmet.
Fig. 155. Mask representing
dying warrior, Tlingit.
lower jaw, the pentagonal face, and the strong nose of the Indian.
The relaxing muscles of mouth and tongue, the drooping eyelids,
and the motionless eyeballs, mark the agonies of death. Plate IX
represents a recent carving, a human figure of rare excellence. Posture
and drapery are free of all the formal characteristics of North West
coast style. Only the treatment of the eye and the facial painting
betray its ethnic origin. Here belongs also the realistic head previously
referred to, made by the Kwakiutl Indians of Vancouver Island (fig. 156),
which is used in a ceremony and intended to deceive the spectators
who are made to believe that it is the head of a decapitated dancer.1
1 The selection of North West Coast art given by Herbert Kuhn (Die Kunst der
Primitiven, pp. 100, 104, Plates 48, 50, 51 are characteristic only of realistic repre-
sentations. Only Plates 47, 49 and part of 52 are stylistically typical).
tions are not beyond the powers of the artist. This may also be
demonstrated by a few exquisite examples of realistic carvings. The
helmet shown in fig. 154 is decorated with the head of an old man
affected with partial paralysis. Undoubtedly this specimen must be
considered a portrait head. Nose, eyes, mouth and the general
expression, are highly characteristic. In a mask (fig. 155) repre-
senting a dying warrior, the artist has shown faithfully the wide
Fig. 154. Tlingit helmet.
Fig. 155. Mask representing
dying warrior, Tlingit.
lower jaw, the pentagonal face, and the strong nose of the Indian.
The relaxing muscles of mouth and tongue, the drooping eyelids,
and the motionless eyeballs, mark the agonies of death. Plate IX
represents a recent carving, a human figure of rare excellence. Posture
and drapery are free of all the formal characteristics of North West
coast style. Only the treatment of the eye and the facial painting
betray its ethnic origin. Here belongs also the realistic head previously
referred to, made by the Kwakiutl Indians of Vancouver Island (fig. 156),
which is used in a ceremony and intended to deceive the spectators
who are made to believe that it is the head of a decapitated dancer.1
1 The selection of North West Coast art given by Herbert Kuhn (Die Kunst der
Primitiven, pp. 100, 104, Plates 48, 50, 51 are characteristic only of realistic repre-
sentations. Only Plates 47, 49 and part of 52 are stylistically typical).