Form in the textile art, as in all other useful arts, is
fundamentally, although not exclusively, the resultant or expression
of function, but at the same time it is further than in other shaping
arts from expressing the whole of function. Such is the pliability of
a large portion of textile products--as, for example, nets, garments,
and hangings--that the shapes assumed are variable, and, therefore,
when not distended or for some purpose folded or draped, the articles
are without esthetic value or interest. The more rigid objects, in
common with the individuals of other useful arts, while their shape
still accords with their functional office, exhibit attributes of form
generally recognized as pleasing to the mind, which are expressed by
the terms grace, elegance, symmetry, and the like. Such attributes are
not separable from functional attributes, but originate and exist
conjointly with them.
In addition to these features of form we observe others of a more
decidedly superfunctional character, added manifestly for the purpose
of enhancing the appearance.
In very primitive times when a utensil is produced functional ideas
predominate, and there is, perhaps, so far as its artificial
characters are concerned, a minimum of comeliness. But as the ages
pass by essential features are refined and elements of beauty are
added and emphasized. In riper culture the growing pressure of
esthetic desire leads to the addition of many superficial
modifications whose chief office is to please the fancy. In periods of
deadened sensibility or even through the incompetence of individual
artists in any period, such features may be ill chosen and
erroneously applied, interfering with construction and use, and thus
violating well founded and generally accepted canons of taste. In
respect to primitive works we may distinguish four steps in the
acquisition of esthetic features of form, three of which are normal,
the fourth abnormal: First, we have that in which functional
characters alone are considered, any element of beauty, whether due to
the artist's hand or to the accidents of material, construction, or
model, being purely adventitious; second, that in which the necessary
features of the utensil appear to have experienced the supervision of
taste, edges being rounded, curves refined, and symmetry perfected;
third, that in which the functionally perfect object, just described,
undergoes further variations of contour, adding to variety, unity,
&c., thus enhancing beauty without interfering with serviceability;
and, fourth, that in which, under abnormal influences, beauty is
sought at the sacrifice of functional and constructive perfection.
[Illustration: FIG. 286. Mat or tray exhibiting a minimum of esthetic
attributes of form. Moki work--1/8.]
The exact relations of the various classes of forces and phenomena
pertaining to this theme may be more fully elucidated by the aid of
illustrations. Woven mats, in early use by many tribes of men and
originating in the attempt to combine leaves, vines, and branches for
purposes of comfort, are flat because of function, the degree of
flatness depending upon the size of filaments and mode of combination;
and in outline they are irregular, square, round, or oval, as a result
of many causes and influences, embracing use, construction, material,
models, &c. A close approach to symmetry, where not imposed by some of
the above mentioned agencies, is probably due to esthetic tendencies
on the part of the artist. The esthetic interest attaching to such a
shape cannot be great, unless perhaps it be regarded, as all
individuals and classes may be regarded, in its possible relations to
preceding, associated, and succeeding forms of art. The varied
features observed upon the surface, the colors and patterns (Fig.
286), pertain to design rather than to form and will receive attention
in the proper place.
[Illustration: FIG. 287. Tray having decided esthetic attributes of
form. Obtained from the Apache--1/2.]
In point of contour the basket tray shown in Fig. 287 has a somewhat
more decided claim upon esthetic attention than the preceding, as the
curves exhibited mark a step of progress in complexity and grace. How
much of this is due to intention and how much to technical perfection
must remain in doubt. In work so perfect we are wont, however
unwarrantably, to recognize the influence of taste.
[Illustration: FIG. 288. Pyriform water vessel used by the Piute
Indians--1/8.]
A third example--presented in Fig. 288--illustrates an advanced stage
in the art of basketry and exhibits a highly specialized shape. The
forces and influences concerned in its evolution may be analyzed as
follows: A primal origin in function and a final adaptation to a
special function, the carrying and storing of water; a contour full to
give capacity, narrow above for safety, and pointed below that it may
be set in sand; curves kept within certain bounds by the limitations
of construction; and a goodly share of variety, symmetry, and grace,
the result to a certain undetermined extent of the esthetic tendencies
of the artist's mind. In regard to the last point there is generally
in forms so simple an element of uncertainty; but many examples may be
found in which there is positive evidence of the existence of a strong
desire on the part of the primitive basketmaker to enhance beauty of
form. It will be observed that the textile materials and construction
do not lend themselves freely to minuteness in detail or to complexity
of outline, especially in those small ways in which beauty is most
readily expressed.
Modifications of a decidedly esthetic character are generally
suggested to the primitive mind by some functional, constructive, or
accidental feature which may with ease be turned in the new direction.
In the vessel presented in Fig. 289--the work of Alaskan Indians--the
margin is varied by altering the relations of the three marginal turns
of the coil, producing a scalloped effect. This is without reference
to use, is uncalled for in construction, and hence is, in all
probability, the direct result of esthetic tendencies. Other and much
more elaborate examples may be found in the basketry of almost all
countries.
[Illustration: FIG. 289. Vessel with esthetic characters of form. Work
of the Yakama--1/4.]
In the pursuit of this class of enrichment there is occasionally
noticeable a tendency to overload the subject with extraneous details.
This is not apt to occur, however, in the indigenous practice of an
art, but comes more frequently from a loss of equilibrium or balance
in motives or desires, caused by untoward exotic influence. When,
through suggestions derived from contact with civilized art, the
savage undertakes to secure all the grace and complexity observed in
the works of more cultured peoples, he does so at the expense of
construction and adaptability to use. An example of such work is
presented in Fig. 290, a weak, useless, and wholly vicious piece of
basketry. Other equally meretricious pieces represent goblets,
bottles, and tea pots. They are the work of the Indians of the
northwest coast and are executed in the neatest possible manner,
bearing evidence of the existence of cultivated taste.
[Illustration: FIG. 290. Basket made under foreign influence,
construction and use being sacrificed to fancied beauty--1/3.]
It appears from the preceding analyses that _form_ in this art is not
sufficiently sensitive to receive impressions readily from the
delicate touch of esthetic fingers; besides, there are peculiar
difficulties in the way of detecting traces of the presence and
supervision of taste. The inherent morphologic forces of the art are
strong and stubborn and tend to produce the precise classes of results
that we, at this stage of culture, are inclined to attribute to
esthetic influence. If, in the making of a vessel, the demands of use
are fully satisfied, if construction is perfect of its kind, if
materials are uniformly suitable, and if models are not absolutely
bad, it follows that the result must necessarily possess in a high
degree those very attributes that all agree are pleasing to the eye.
In a primitive water vessel function gives a full outline, as capacity
is a prime consideration; convenience of use calls for a narrow neck
and a conical base; construction and materials unite to impose certain
limitations to curves and their combinations, from which the artist
cannot readily free himself. Models furnished by nature, as they are
usually graceful, do not interfere with the preceding agencies, and
all these forces united tend to give symmetry, grace, and the unity
that belongs to simplicity. Taste which is in a formative state can
but fall in with these tendencies of the art, and must be led by
them, and led in a measure corresponding to their persistency and
universality. If the textile art had been the only one known to man,
ideas of the esthetic in shape would have been in a great measure
formed through that art. Natural forms would have had little to do
with it except through models furnished directly to and utilized by
the art, for the ideas of primitive men concentrate about that upon
which their hands work and upon which their thoughts from necessity
dwell with steady attention from generation to generation.