Having made a brief study of form and color in the textile art, I
shall now present the great group or family of phenomena whose
exclusive office is that of enhancing beauty. It will be necessary,
however, to present, besides those features of the art properly
expressive of the esthetic culture of the race, all those phenomena
that, being present in the art without man's volition, tend to suggest
decorative conceptions and give shape to them. I shall show how the
latter class of features arise as a necessity of the art, how they
gradually come into notice and are seized upon by the esthetic
faculty, and how under its guidance they assist in the development of
a system of ornament of world wide application.
For convenience of treatment esthetic phenomena may be classed as
_relieved_ and _flat_. Figures or patterns of a relievo nature arise
during construction as a result of the intersections and other more
complex relations--the bindings--of the warp and woof or of inserted
or applied elements. Flat or surface features are manifested in color,
either in unison with or independent of the relieved details. Such is
the nature of the textile art that in its ordinary practice certain
combinations of both classes of features go on as a necessity of the
art and wholly without reference to the desire of the artist or to the
effect of resultant patterns upon the eye. The character of such
figures depends upon the kind of construction and upon the accidental
association of natural colors in construction.
At some period of the practice of the art these peculiar, adventitious
surface characters began to attract attention and to be cherished for
the pleasure they gave; what were at first adventitious features now
took on functions peculiar to themselves, for they were found to
gratify desires distinct from those cravings that arise directly from
physical wants.
It is not to be supposed for a moment that the inception of esthetic
notions dates from this association of ideas of beauty with textile
characters. Long before textile objects of a high class were made,
ideas of an esthetic nature had been entertained by the mind, as, for
example, in connection with personal adornment. The skin had been
painted, pendants placed about the neck, and bright feathers set in
the hair to enhance attractiveness, and it is not difficult to
conceive of the transfer of such ideas from purely personal
associations to the embellishment of articles intimately associated
with the person. No matter, however, what the period or manner of the
association of such ideas with the textile art, that association may
be taken as the datum point in the development of a great system of
decoration whose distinguishing characters are the result of the
geometric textile construction.
In amplifying this subject I find it convenient to treat separately
the two classes of decorative phenomena--the relieved and the
flat--notwithstanding the fact that they are for the most part
intimately associated and act together in the accomplishment of a
common end.