Wherever two or more animals or plants are represented in association
there is a tendency for them to amalgamate in process of time. I have
shown numerous examples of this in the bird and crocodile motive in
Papuan art, and it would be easy to multiply illustrations.
Heteromorphism is especially characteristic of that style of decoration
which we call arabesque, or grotesque. This is said to have been
the invention of a painter named Ludius in the reign of the Emperor
Augustus. That sovereign is said by Pliny to have been the first who
thought of covering whole walls with pictures and landscapes. The
fashion for the grotesque spread rapidly, for all the buildings of
about that date which have been found in good preservation afford
numerous and beautiful examples of it. Vitruvius was entirely out of
conceit with this sort of ornament, and declares that such fanciful
paintings as are not founded in truth cannot be beautiful; but the
general voice, both in ancient and modern times, has pronounced a
very different opinion. It was from the paintings found in the baths
of Rome that Raphael derived the idea of those famous frescoes in the
gallery of the Vatican. His example was immediately followed by other
distinguished artists. This style derived its name grotesque from the
subterranean rooms (_grotte_) in which the originals were usually
found—rooms not built below the surface of the ground, but buried by
the gradual accumulation of soil and ruined buildings.
A typical example of Pompeian treatment is seen in Plate VI., Fig. 3,
where a bird’s tail passes into a floral scroll.
The representations of such mythical monsters of antiquity as the
Sphinx, Chimæra, the Harpies, and so forth, are familiar to all.
Originally these embodied distinct conceptions which were familiar to
the initiated, if not to all. They were symbols and their origin in art
was religious; their retention was due to their decorative quality.