LEE AND THOMPSON QUOTED

173

introspective record by Lee and Thompson' on observing a symmetrical jar.

"Looking at this jar one has a specific sense of a whole. One's bodily sensations are extraordinarily composed, balanced, co-related in their diversity. To begin with, the feet press on the ground while the eyes fix the base of the jar. Then one accompanies the lift up, so to speak, of the body of the jar by a lift up of one's own body; and one accompanies by a slight sense of downward pressure of the head the downward pressure of the widened rim on the jar's top. Meanwhile the jar's equal sides bring both lungs into equal play; the curve outwards of the jar's two sides is simultaneously followed by an inspiration as the eyes move up to the jar's widest point. Then expiration begins, and the lungs seem slowly to collapse as the curve inward is followed by the eyes, till, the narrow part of the neck being reached, the ocular following of the widened out top provokes a short inspiration. Moreover, the shape of the jar provokes movements of balance, the left curve a shifting on to the left foot, and vice versa. A complete and equally distributed set of bodily adjustments has accompanied the ocular sight of the jar; this totality of movements and harmony of movements in ourselves answers to the intellectual fact of finding that the jar is a harmonious whole.”

This account is strictly in accord with the James theory of emotion, since there is first the sensory stimulus, then the instinctive bodily reaction, the "feel" of this reaction being the esthetic "feel" for the object. It illustrates also the point in Dewey's theory that there 1 Op. cit.

must be conflict or diversity of impulses; for the two sides of the balance stimulate movements in contrary directions, and without these elements of diversity, we could have nothing approaching emotional excitement.

In addition to such introspective studies as that just quoted, it would be a matter of the greatest interest to have records of these physiological reactions taken under laboratory conditions. Photographing eye-movements is an important means which might be extended to a comparative study of the movements involved in watching or thinking of different figures, though the results thus far have been rather negative. Involuntary movements of various parts of the body, and of the body as a whole, are capable of record, and should throw light on the problem. Jastrow has made many studies of involuntary movements, and his results show that a person who thinks of a given object, whether the object is present to sense or is only imagined, makes movements in the direction, or the imagined direction, of the object. Even while trying to remain perfectly still the subject will move his hand, head or whole body in the direction of the thing which holds his attention. Jastrow writes of one test:1 "As the metronome, the strokes of which the subject was counting, was carried from one corner of the room to another and so on around the room, the hand involuntarily followed it and recorded an almost perfect square." One would expect from this to find characteristic involuntary movements, perhaps unconscious movements, accompanying verticals, horizontals, spirals, etc. In addition to such studies of movement one could investi

1 "Fact and Fable in Psychology."

SIMPLE LINES AND FORMS

175

gate the different types and rates of breathing and of heart-beat which possibly accompany the contemplation of different lines and figures.

READING REFERENCES.

FECHNER: "Vorschule d. Esthetik."

WITMER: "Zur Experimentellen Esthetik einfacher räumlicher Verhältnisse." Phil. Stud. IX.

LEE AND THOMPSON: "Beauty and Ugliness." Contemp. Rev. 1897.

SULLY: "Les formes visuelles et le plaisir esthétique." Revue Philosophique IX.

CRANE: "The Bases of Design"; "Line and Form."

JASTROW: "Fact and Fable in Psychology." Study of Involuntary Movements.

STRATTON: "Eye-Movements and the Esthetics of Visual Form." Phil. Stud. xx.

PUFFER: Op. cit., ch. IV.

CHAPTER X

SOME PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

1

Definition. "By Design," says Ross, "I mean Order in human feeling and thought and in the many and varied activities by which that feeling or that thought is expressed." Batchelder adds:" "Good designs are invariably sane, regular, orderly, consistent throughout." A design, we may say, in any field of art is the expression of purpose; it is material modified to suit an idea. There is always present in such a work of art some trace of humanly imposed order or law. Creative imagination, as we know, consists in seeing connections and emphasizing likenesses between different things. So in design we have something-our material—which we make into the likeness of something else our idea. If we take three flowers, and do no more than set them in order to suit our idea of a triangle, we have made a design.

What decorative design means is most easily understood by seeing it contrasted with realistic portrayal on the one hand, and grotesque exaggeration on the other. The materials for design in arts appealing to the eye are derived ultimately from the visible creation, from human, animal and vegetable forms, and inanimate formations. If, in dealing with this material, the artist faithfully copies off some of it, with the minimum of mod

1 46 A Theory of Pure Design."
2 "The Principles of Design."

DECORATIVE DESIGN

177

ifying idea in his mind, we call his product realistic. If, however, the artist orders or harmonizes his material with some idea, if he poses his material in some suitable but special manner, we call his product a decorative treatment. If, finally, the artist becomes despotic and excessive in imposing his idea upon the material, if his

FIG. 22.

idea appears to do violence to the natural form, we call his product fantastic or grotesque. Any of these three methods of handling material may

produce beautiful results, or they may produce ugly results, but the chances of producing beauty are, on the whole, with the middle, or decorative way. Realism and the grotesque are extremes; one is the extreme of nature, and the other the extreme of human caprice. Figs. 22 and 232 illustrate two methods of modifying bird forms, the former a legitimate decorative treatment, the latter an exaggerated and grotesque treatment.

Fig. 23.

The Realistic or Graphic Interest is Primary. According to recent writers of anthropology, primitive art was at first, or was at least intended to be, realistic. In the

1 From Walter Crane's "Line and Form."

2 From Aubrey Beardsley. Illustrations for "Morte d'Arthur."