DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68516#0087
EGYPTIAN ART
To the perfectly innocent and unsophisticated vision all aspects of an
object would be both equally significant, or rather insignificant, and
equally capable of representation. Such an eye would be as receptive of
all aspects as a camera. But such an eye, though it must probably exist
in the new-born infant, is very rapidly modified by the necessities of life.
The mere mosaic of coloured patches which our actual vision gives us is
thus very rapidly and definitely crystallized into objects, each of which
has more or less significance and interest for us. And this vivid interest
in objects, which is urged on us with all the force of the instinct of self-
preservation, causes us to pay most attention to those aspects of an object
which appear most to distinguish it from its surroundings, and this
aspect almost always is that which gives the largest extension in the
field of vision. This aspect becomes, as it were, the symbol or sign of the
object, so that when the verbal symbol, the name of the object, is
mentioned we get a mental image of that characteristic aspect. Thus, if
I say the word ‘coin’, you are likely to see something like a circle, which
is the aspect of a coin in its greatest lateral extension. And if you want to
suggest a coin to another person you will draw a circle rather than a
straight line.
Children, who have already lost the innocent indifference of the eye
long before they begin to draw, show always in their drawings a highly
conceptualized vision.
To show with what vigorous logic children apply the principles of
conceptual drawing, look at this (46), which I collected a long time ago
in my nursery. The theme was the sea-shore. To the right the child drew
the shore not as he, from his three feet of elevation, could ever have
seen it, but as he knew it to be and as it would appear in its greatest
extension, with its curved edge and its pebbles and its boats drawn up;
then there had to be a boat at sea, and for this the vision had to be
turned through a right angle so as to get the most extended character-
istic aspect of a boat.
When once the child has been provided with a collection of these
characteristic symbols for objects he has all he wants, with them he can
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4-2
To the perfectly innocent and unsophisticated vision all aspects of an
object would be both equally significant, or rather insignificant, and
equally capable of representation. Such an eye would be as receptive of
all aspects as a camera. But such an eye, though it must probably exist
in the new-born infant, is very rapidly modified by the necessities of life.
The mere mosaic of coloured patches which our actual vision gives us is
thus very rapidly and definitely crystallized into objects, each of which
has more or less significance and interest for us. And this vivid interest
in objects, which is urged on us with all the force of the instinct of self-
preservation, causes us to pay most attention to those aspects of an object
which appear most to distinguish it from its surroundings, and this
aspect almost always is that which gives the largest extension in the
field of vision. This aspect becomes, as it were, the symbol or sign of the
object, so that when the verbal symbol, the name of the object, is
mentioned we get a mental image of that characteristic aspect. Thus, if
I say the word ‘coin’, you are likely to see something like a circle, which
is the aspect of a coin in its greatest lateral extension. And if you want to
suggest a coin to another person you will draw a circle rather than a
straight line.
Children, who have already lost the innocent indifference of the eye
long before they begin to draw, show always in their drawings a highly
conceptualized vision.
To show with what vigorous logic children apply the principles of
conceptual drawing, look at this (46), which I collected a long time ago
in my nursery. The theme was the sea-shore. To the right the child drew
the shore not as he, from his three feet of elevation, could ever have
seen it, but as he knew it to be and as it would appear in its greatest
extension, with its curved edge and its pebbles and its boats drawn up;
then there had to be a boat at sea, and for this the vision had to be
turned through a right angle so as to get the most extended character-
istic aspect of a boat.
When once the child has been provided with a collection of these
characteristic symbols for objects he has all he wants, with them he can
< 51 >
4-2