Abstract
IT is remarkable that in these days, when the question of “origins” holds a place of commanding importance in almost every department of investigation, comparatively little should have been done to trace the evolution of art back to what Mr. Balfour calls “its very simplest begining.” Mr. Balfour does not, of course, undertake to present in this small book anything like a complete view of the subject. His aim is merely to indicate some of the main conclusions to which he has been led by his own researches. He finds in early art three distinct stages—(1) adaptive; the appreciation of curious or decorative effects occurring in nature or as accidents in manufacture, and the slight increasing of the same by artificial means in order to augment their peculiar character or enhance their value as ornaments; (2) creative; the artificial production of similar effects where these do not occur (imitation or copying); (3) variative; gradual metamorphosis of designs by unconscious and conscious variation. Mr. Balfour brings out admirably the significance of these stages, and it is scarcely necessary to say that the Pitt Rivers collection, of which he is curator, provides him with ample means for the clear and effective exposition and illustration of his ideas.
The Evolution of Decorative Art.
By Henry Balfour (London: Percival and Co., 1893.)
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The Evolution of Decorative Art. Nature 47, 606 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/047606b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/047606b0