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CINEMATOGRAPHY AN ART FORM 23
rapher, think well of your complicated curriculum and you may realize the responsibility of your vocation.
Origin of Art.
The history of art is one of the most important branches of the history of mankind. What we know of ancient history is largely due to the work of archeologists who, through their rummaging among the productions of ancient man, have furnished a great deal of the historian's material. Those antiques, which they have unearthed, represent the earliest forms of art and establish the degree of development of civilization. They also furnish the fundamental idea of two well denned forms of art: First, that example which was founded purely on the proposition of utility. The second form was a natural progression of the first and inspired by the love of expressing beauty for its own sake. It is accounted for by the fact that life made more easy and interesting through the development of utilities, the aesthetic sense was aroused.
This state of culture introduces such forms of art as sculpture, painting, music, poetry, the drama and, lastly, motion pictures; all of which have their origin in that deep rooted desire — which dates to that aforesaid awakening of the aesthetic sense — of reproducing or imitating those things which are pleasing.
In tracing the origin of the arts, it is interesting to picture to ourselves the ancient cave man fashioning a spear from a piece of stone. He needed the thing to protect himself from wild beasts and his not much less ferocious brother. Next, he ornamented it with streamers of strips of skin, which made it pleasing to look at. His spear was then the envy of his fellows. Here we have the primitive idea that any form of production must appeal to the aesthetic sense, of combining beauty with utility. What is more important, it suggests the natural tendency of man to improve the ideas of his fellows and is the vital factor in the development of the arts. "A potter thumped his wet clay" and molded a vessel which, along with its usefulness, was much admired; but another man devised a wheel and took the same wet clay and turned it into a pot of more perfect symmetry, a form of exquisite beauty. No other man could mould a pot as he did. He was proclaimed an artist because his individual skill had broken away from the old method of thumping out a crude unshapely thing. Our fancy furnishes the true conception of the high forms of art and suggests a more satisfactory definition of those forms previously mentioned and which are entirely considered from the sense of delight and amusement. It suggests that we narrow the definition of art as the product of human ingenuity, more nearly addressed to the emotions, and wherein individual genius determines the degree of excellence. Therefore, Mr. Cinematographer, beware of that competitor of yours, that studious dreamer who goes about looking for beauty in all things; who borrows from science what he feels he needs. He will even call upon the humble mechanic when occasion requires. He will utilize any natural force to aid him in putting on