Fairbanks, Arthur: Greek art: the basis of later European art (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1933)

GREEK ART

as the eye sees them, but was satisfied with a
formula which had been developed to serve
the artist’s purpose. Even the desire in Egypt
for sculptured portraits to serve as a body for
the wandering soul after death, led only to
modifications of the formula in the face which
was treated with discernment and sensitive feel-
ing. Nor was it the case with the design art
of primitive peoples and early civilizations gen-
erally. Their art was essentially decorative.
It often consisted of abstract designs, and when
pictorial elements were introduced into the de-
sign, there was little or no effort for accurate
representation. The animals so truthfully
painted by the cave-dwellers of the Dordogne
are almost a unique exception to the rule, a
rule which is well exemplified by the grotesque
figures of early Central American art (p. 5 f.).
The art of Minoan civilization is of this decora-
tive type. At its best it reproduces plant and
marine and human subjects with a wonderful
feeling for truth and beauty; nevertheless ac-
curacy of representation was never the primary
aim of the Minoan artist. Certainly it was not
the aim of the symbolic art of India, where
subtle meaning quite takes the place of any
effort to reproduce the exact forms of nature.
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