The terms “zoomorph” and “phyllomorph” have been employed for the
representations in art of plants and animals. Although man is,
zoologically considered, only a higher animal, it is convenient to
retain the term “anthropomorph,” which has been used by some writers
to express representations of the human form. All three terms have
reference to living beings, hence the appropriateness of classing
them under the general designation of “biomorph.” The biomorph is
the representation of anything living in contradistinction to the
skeuomorph, which, as we have seen, is the representation of anything
made, or of the physicomorph which is the representation of an object
or operation in the physical world.
The fact that there is life in the original of the biomorph appears in
most cases to exert an influence on the biomorph itself, so that it
comes to have what might almost be described as a borrowed vitality.
The distinctive activities or qualities of any living being, more
especially in the case of animals, very often cause them to be taken as
symbolic of that particular quality. For example, the harmless, gentle,
and affectionate dove, which only busies itself with parental cares,
has come to be symbolic of peace. There are other reasons to which
allusion will be made which have conspired to render biomorphs very
important in decorative art.
Biomorphs partake of one characteristic of their originals. They have
a life-history. All organisms are born, they grow, they die. During
their growth they all pass through greater or less changes. Sometimes
these changes, as in the metamorphoses of most insects, have attracted
the attention of the least observant, and have appeared to be of such
significance as to have been utilised for the illustration of religious
doctrines. Whether taking place in full daylight, open to casual
observation, or hidden in obscurity, or encapsuled within an egg-shell,
marvellous transformations invariably accompany the earlier stages of
the development of animals, from the egg stage. The development records
an evolution, the history of which is being worked out in detail by the
patient investigators of one of the most fascinating of all branches of
study—embryology.
We have now to trace the birth, the evolution, and the decay of
biomorphs, and we shall find that the subject is scarcely less
suggestive and interesting than that of the very animals themselves.
Biomorphs are represented for varied purposes, and with other
representations may be classified according to the diagram given in the
introductory section (p. 8).