DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68516#0130
AMERICAN ART
more sensibility or subtlety than appears in the typical Mexican
illuminated manuscripts. But it seems that at a very early period—we
have, by the bye, almost no means of calculating the dates of Peruvian
art and we can only note the relative positions of different cultures where
they are superimposed on the same site—at a period long before the
Inca conquest, the Tihuanaco style seems to have spread its influence
over the littoral countries. In the Nazca pots, for instance (123, 124), we
find a similar classic purity and austerity of design, a similar refinement
in the proportions, and the same ordered control. The galb of the second
pot, though the main idea is one of great simplicity, shows the most
delicate sensibility in its inflections. And it is fascinating to see with
what a sure instinct the painter had seen the opportunity which it gave
for a geometrical pattern of the barest simplicity, because at every
point the diamond shapes it creates would suffer minute variations
from the geometrical norm. In this way he has created a feeling of
extreme simplicity and unity, but we cannot summarize it in a geo-
metrical formula, the eye is invited to prolonged contemplation by
these perpetual slight variations. No. 125 is equally satisfying in a
similar way: there is constant variation on a theme of elementary
simplicity and an equally happy, though quite different, choice of the
relations of the rectangles to the shape and size of the bowl. Look at the
proportions of the band to the upper and lower portions, and the free-
dom and unity of the whole.
All these are consummate examples of how, by allowing the sensi-
bility to have play—by refusing to repress it in the interests of perfection
—we can accept with delight forms of extreme simplicity which would
be intolerably bleak and empty if geometrical regularity were attained.
In the lea pot (126) there seems a want of grasp of the object as a
whole, a lack of subordination of the parts and a certain monotony in the
ornament. The proportions of the whole pot are fine and firm, but the
galb, like the ornament, is monotonous.
Of the remaining examples the first three (127, 128, 129) are comic
pots. How essentially characteristic is the absurd solemnity of the parrot
< 94 >
more sensibility or subtlety than appears in the typical Mexican
illuminated manuscripts. But it seems that at a very early period—we
have, by the bye, almost no means of calculating the dates of Peruvian
art and we can only note the relative positions of different cultures where
they are superimposed on the same site—at a period long before the
Inca conquest, the Tihuanaco style seems to have spread its influence
over the littoral countries. In the Nazca pots, for instance (123, 124), we
find a similar classic purity and austerity of design, a similar refinement
in the proportions, and the same ordered control. The galb of the second
pot, though the main idea is one of great simplicity, shows the most
delicate sensibility in its inflections. And it is fascinating to see with
what a sure instinct the painter had seen the opportunity which it gave
for a geometrical pattern of the barest simplicity, because at every
point the diamond shapes it creates would suffer minute variations
from the geometrical norm. In this way he has created a feeling of
extreme simplicity and unity, but we cannot summarize it in a geo-
metrical formula, the eye is invited to prolonged contemplation by
these perpetual slight variations. No. 125 is equally satisfying in a
similar way: there is constant variation on a theme of elementary
simplicity and an equally happy, though quite different, choice of the
relations of the rectangles to the shape and size of the bowl. Look at the
proportions of the band to the upper and lower portions, and the free-
dom and unity of the whole.
All these are consummate examples of how, by allowing the sensi-
bility to have play—by refusing to repress it in the interests of perfection
—we can accept with delight forms of extreme simplicity which would
be intolerably bleak and empty if geometrical regularity were attained.
In the lea pot (126) there seems a want of grasp of the object as a
whole, a lack of subordination of the parts and a certain monotony in the
ornament. The proportions of the whole pot are fine and firm, but the
galb, like the ornament, is monotonous.
Of the remaining examples the first three (127, 128, 129) are comic
pots. How essentially characteristic is the absurd solemnity of the parrot
< 94 >