Turning from special illustrations of the artistic skill of the
Mound-Builders, brief attention may be paid to their art in its more
general features, and as compared with art as found among our Indian
tribes.
Among some of the latter the artistic instinct, while deriving its
characteristic features, as among the Mound-Builders, from animated
nature, exhibits a decided tendency towards the production of
conventional forms, and often finds expression in creations of the most
grotesque and imaginative character.
While this is true of some tribes it is by no means true of all, nor is
it true of all the art products of even those tribes most given to
conventional art. But even were it true in its broadest terms, it is
more than doubtful if the significance of the fact has not been greatly
overestimated. Some authors indeed seem to discern in the introduction
of the grotesque element and the substitution of conventional designs of
animals for a more natural portrayal, a difference sufficient to mark,
not distinct eras of art culture merely, but different races with very
different modes of art expression.
To trace the origin of art among primitive peoples, and to note the
successive steps by which decorative art grew from its probable origin
in the readily recognized adornments of nature and in the mere
"accidents of manufacture," as they have been termed, would be not only
interesting, but highly instructive. Such a study should afford us a
clew to the origin and significance of conventional as contrasted with
imitative art.
The natural process of the evolution of art would seem to be from the
purely imitative to the conventional, the tendency being for artistic
expression of a partially or wholly imaginative character to supplant or
supplement the imitative form only in obedience to external influences,
especially those of a religious or superstitious kind. In this
connection it is interesting to note that even among tribes of the
Northwest, the Haidahs, for instance, whose carvings or paintings of
birds and animals are almost invariably treated in a manner so highly
conventional or are so distorted and caricatured as to be nearly or
quite unrecognizable, it is still some natural object, as a well known
bird or animal, that underlies and gives primary shape to the design.
However highly conventionalized or grotesque in appearance such artistic
productions may be, evidences of an underlying imitative design may
always be detected; proof, seemingly, that the conventional is a later
stage of art superimposed upon the more natural by the requirements of
mythologic fancies.
As it is with any particular example of savage artistic fancy, so is it
with the art of certain tribes as a whole. Nor does it seem possible
that the growth of the religions or mythologic sentiment has so far
preceded or outgrown the development of art as to have had from the
first a dominating influence over it, and that the art of such tribes as
most strongly show its effect has never had what may be termed its
natural phase of development, but has reached the conventional stage
without having passed through the intermediate imitative era.
It is more natural to suppose, so far, at least as the North American
Indians are concerned, that the road to conventionalism has always led
through imitation.
The argument, therefore, that because a tribe or people is less given
than another to conventional methods of art, it therefore must
necessarily be in a higher stage of culture, is entitled to much less
weight than it has sometimes received. Squier and Davis, for instance,
referring to the Mound-Builders, state that "many of these (_i.e._,
sculptures) exhibit a close observance of nature such as we could only
expect to find among a people considerably advanced in the minor arts,
and to which the elaborate and laborious, but usually clumsy and
ungraceful, not to say unmeaning, productions of the savage can claim
but a slight approach."
It is clearly not the intention of the above authors to claim an entire
absence of the grotesque method of treatment in specimens of the
Mound-Builder's art, since elsewhere they call attention to what appears
to be a caricature of the human face, as well as to the disproportionate
size of the heads of many of the animal carvings. Not only are the heads
of many of the carvings of disproportionate size, which, in instances
has the effect of actual distortion, but in not a few of the sculptures
nature, instead of being copied, has been trifled with and birds and
animals show peculiarities unknown to science and which go far to prove
that the Mound-Builders, however else endowed, possessed lively
imaginations and no little creative fancy.
Decided traces of conventionalism also are to be found in many of the
animal carvings, and the method of indicating the wings and feathers of
birds, the scales of the serpent, &c., are almost precisely what is to
be observed in modern Indian productions of a similar kind.
Few and faint as are these tendencies towards caricaturing and
conventionalizing as compared with what may be noted in the artistic
productions of the Haidahs, Chinooks, and other tribes of the Northwest,
they are yet sufficient to show that in these particulars no hard and
fast line can be drawn between the art of the Indian and of the
Mound-Builder.
As showing how narrow is the line that separates the conventional and
imitative methods of art, it is of interest to note that among the
Esquimaux the two stages of art are found flourishing side by side. In
their curious masks, carved into forms the most quaint and grotesque,
and in many of their carvings of animals, partaking as they do of a half
human, half animal character, we have abundant evidence of what authors
have characterized as savage taste in sculpture. But the same tribes
execute carvings of animals, as seals, sea-lions, whales, bears, &c.,
which, though generally wanting in the careful modeling necessary to
constitute fine sculpture, and for absolute specific resemblance, are
generally recognizable likenesses. Now and then indeed is to be found a
carving which is noteworthy for spirited execution and faithful
modeling. The best of them are far superior to the best executed
carvings from the mounds, and, are much worthier objects for comparison
with modern artistic work.
As deducible from the above premises it may be observed that, while the
state of art among primitive peoples as exemplified by their artistic
productions may be a useful index in determining their relative position
in the scale of progress, unless used with caution and in connection
with other and more reliable standards of measurement it will lead to
very erroneous conclusions. If, for instance, skill and ingenuity in the
art of carving and etching be accepted as affording a proper idea of a
people's progress in general culture, the Esquimaux of Alaska should be
placed in the front rank of American tribes, a position needless to say
which cannot be accorded them from more general considerations. On the
other hand, while the evidences of artistic skill left by the Iroquoian
tribes are in no way comparable to the work produced by the Esquimaux,
yet the former have usually been assigned a very advanced position as
compared with other American tribes.