DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0389
CONCLUSION
We have now completed our review of the forms of primitive
art and we shall try to sum up the results of our inquiry.
We have seen that art arises from two sources, from technical
pursuits and from the expression of emotions and thought, as soon
as these take fixed forms. The more energetic the control of form
over uncoordinated movement, the more esthetic the result. Artistic
enjoyment is, therefore, based essentially upon the reaction of our
minds to form. The same kind of enjoyment may be released by
impressions received from forms that are not the handiwork of man,
but they may not be considered as art, although the esthetic reaction
is not different from the one we receive from the contemplation or
the hearing of a work of art. When speaking of artistic production
they must be excluded. When considering only esthetic reactions
they must be included.
The esthetic effect of artistic work developing from the control
of technique alone is based on the joy engendered by the mastery
of technique and also by the pleasure produced by the perfection
of form. The enjoyment of form may have an elevating effect upon
the mind, but this is not its primary effect. Its source is in part
the pleasure of the virtuoso who overcomes technical difficulties that
baffle his cleverness. As long as no deeper meaning is felt in the
significance of form, its effect is for most individuals, pleasurable,
not elevating.
We have seen that in the various arts definite formal principles
manifest themselves, the origin of which we did not try to explain,
but which we accepted as present in the art of man the world over,
and which for this reason we considered as the most ancient, the
most fundamental characteristics of all art. In the graphic and
plastic arts these elements are symmetry, rhythm and emphasis of
form. We found symmetry to be very generally right and left and
We have now completed our review of the forms of primitive
art and we shall try to sum up the results of our inquiry.
We have seen that art arises from two sources, from technical
pursuits and from the expression of emotions and thought, as soon
as these take fixed forms. The more energetic the control of form
over uncoordinated movement, the more esthetic the result. Artistic
enjoyment is, therefore, based essentially upon the reaction of our
minds to form. The same kind of enjoyment may be released by
impressions received from forms that are not the handiwork of man,
but they may not be considered as art, although the esthetic reaction
is not different from the one we receive from the contemplation or
the hearing of a work of art. When speaking of artistic production
they must be excluded. When considering only esthetic reactions
they must be included.
The esthetic effect of artistic work developing from the control
of technique alone is based on the joy engendered by the mastery
of technique and also by the pleasure produced by the perfection
of form. The enjoyment of form may have an elevating effect upon
the mind, but this is not its primary effect. Its source is in part
the pleasure of the virtuoso who overcomes technical difficulties that
baffle his cleverness. As long as no deeper meaning is felt in the
significance of form, its effect is for most individuals, pleasurable,
not elevating.
We have seen that in the various arts definite formal principles
manifest themselves, the origin of which we did not try to explain,
but which we accepted as present in the art of man the world over,
and which for this reason we considered as the most ancient, the
most fundamental characteristics of all art. In the graphic and
plastic arts these elements are symmetry, rhythm and emphasis of
form. We found symmetry to be very generally right and left and