The few examples given here show how varied are the applications of a
single principle. The study of these will suggest a field for research. If
possible the student should work from the objects themselves or from large
photographs; and from the original Japanese design books. These [No. 31.
Compositions in Rectangles.]
tracings are given for purposes of comparison.
1. Copy the examples, without measuring. An attempt to copy brings the
pupil’s mind into contact with that of a superior, and lets him see
how difficult it is to reach the master’s perfection. Copying as a
means of improving one’s style is the opposite of copying as a
substitute for original work.
2. After making the best possible copies, invent original variations of
these themes,—keeping the same general plan but changing the sizes.
COMPOSITION OF POTTERY FORMS. Makers of modern commercial ware usually
leave beauty of line out of account, thinking only of utility,—of the
piece of pottery as a feeding‐dish, or as a costly and showy object. The
glaring white glaze, harsh colors and clumsy shapes of common table‐ware
must be endured until there is sufficient public appreciation to demand
something better; yet even this is less offensive than the kind that
pretends to be art,—bad in line and glittering with false decoration.
Pottery, like other craft‐products, is truly useful when it represents the
best workmanship, combined with feeling for shape, tone, texture and
color,—in a word, fine art.
Such quality is found, to mention only a few cases, in some of the
“peasant wares”; in the best Japanese pottery, ancient and modern; in
Chinese, especially of the Sung period (A. D. 960‐1280) in Moorish,
Persian, Rhodian and Greek. When each maker tried to improve up older
models, and had the taste and inventive genius to do it, the art grew to
supreme excellence; even fragments such handicraft are now precious. The
difference between the contours a really great piece of pottery and
ordinary one may seem very slight, but in just this little difference lies
the art.