of the eye being such as would be necessary to follow a curve. It was soon found that frets drawn, probably at first unintentionally, with rounded corners, were pleasant to examine with the eye, and afterward they were purposely rounded down, giving rise to the beautiful linked scrolls, Fig. 11. At first, the most important part of this ornamental border was the scroll, and the connecting curve was
| Fig. 11. | Fig. 12. |
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treated, so to speak, as a mere hair-line; but, by-and-by, the eye began to take more and more pleasure in following this more subtile connecting line, and it came finally to be cultivated, to the neglect of the scrolls, giving rise to the sigmoids, Fig. 12.
Some have claimed that this last ornament was originally emblematic of water. This was certainly not the case, and it never came to mean water until, having fully grown, it was recognized as resembling the curling waves of the sea. In Etruscan art we frequently find a series of little dolphins gracefully leaping over the crests, or fishes are drawn in below. Here, undoubtedly, the ornament was treated as representing water, or the sea. A host of beautiful borders grew up by combining two or more series of these scrolls and shading the spaces in various ways, but I have not time to speak of them here.
With the culture of the sigmoid curves, and the neglect of the spirals, much vacant space is left in the border which will look better if filled in with ornament.[1]
In Brazil I have found little triangles drawn in these spaces, as in Fig. 13, while exactly the same border is found in Etruscan art.
| Fig. 13. | Fig. 14. |
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It will be observed that the sides of the little triangles are approximately parallel to the parts of the sigmoids and bounding lines to which they are adjacent, thus producing a pleasant effect on the eye. The next step in the evolution of this border consists in uniting the little triangles with the sigmoids, as in Fig. 14, and this form I have observed on a Peruvian vase.
With progress in culture comes the love of variety and change. Savage music, savage art, every thing in fact in uncivilized life, is monotonous. An Amazonian Indian will listen enrapt for hours to
- ↑ Some writers say that a space demands ornament, but the demand is subjective, not objective.
