History of Wood Carving - Aboriginal

Aboriginal

Further information: Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas, Arts by region#Oceania

There is a general similarity running through the carved design of most races of primitive culture, the chip form of ornament being almost universally employed. Decorated surfaces depending almost entirely upon the incised line also obtain all over the world, and may no doubt be accounted for by the extensive use of stone cutting tools. The carver shows the same tendency to over-exalt his art by crowding on too much design as the more civilized craftsman of other lands, while he also on occasion exercises a good deal of restraint by a harmonious balance of decoration and plain space. So far as his chip designs and those patterns more or less depending on the line are concerned, his work as a rule is good and suitable, but when he takes to figure work his attempts do not usually meet with success. Primitive carving, generally, shows that very similar stages of artistic development are passed through by men of every age and race.

A very favorite style of chip pattern is that formed by small triangles and squares entirely covering a surface in the Cook Islands, the monotony being sometimes varied by a band of different arrangement in the middle of the article or at the top or bottom. So far as the cultivation of patience and accuracy is concerned, has no equal. The Fiji Islanders, employ chip designs rivaling those of Europe in variety. Upon occasion the aboriginal Marquesas carver appreciates the way in which plain surfaces contrast and emphasize decorated parts, and judiciously restricts his skill to bands of decoration or to special points. The Ijos of the lower Niger design their paddles in a masterly way, and show a fine sense of proportion between the plain and the decorated surface. Their designs, though slightly in relief, are of the chip nature. The method of decorating a subject with groups of incised lines, straight or curved, though often very effective and in every way suitable, is not a very advanced form of art and has decided limits. The natives of the Congo, now two nations, covered by the landmass of the Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo does good work of this kind.

Carving in relief is common enough, idols being produced in many forms. The South African carves the handle of his spoon perhaps in the form of a giraffe, and in the round, with each leg cut separately and the four hoofs meeting at the bowl, hardly a comfortable form of handle to hold. The North American Indian shows a wider invention than some nations, the twist in various shapes being a favorite treatment say of pipe stems. The Papuan has quite a style of his own; he uses a scroll of the form familiar in Indian shawls, and in some cases the scroll entwines in a way which faintly suggests the guilloche. The native of New Guinea also employs the scroll for a motive, the flat treatment of which reminds one of a similar method in use in Scandinavian countries. The work of the New Zealander is greatly in advance of the average primitive type; he uses a very good scheme of scroll work for decorative purposes, the lines of the scrolls often being enriched with a small pattern in a way reminding one of the familiar Norman treatment, as for example the prows of his canoes. The Maori wood carver sometimes carves not only the barge boards of his house but the gables also, reptilian and grotesque figures being as a rule introduced; the main posts and rafters, too, of the inside receive attention. Unlike the Hindu he has a good idea of decorative proportion, and does not plan his scheme of design on too small a scale.