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Show Miscellany Art of Old Peru. By GAERETT P. SERVISS. One of the first inventions of man that rose above the level of the mere chipping and shaping- of stones to form rude cutting cut-ting tools was the needle with aji eye to carry a thread. Bone needles have been found among the relics of races far back in prehistoric times. And the artistic instinct to make beautiful and ornamental, orna-mental, as well as strictly useful, tilings was developed as fast as the means could be developed for its manifestation. Thus, the art embroidery appeared very early Fine specimens of linen embroidered em-broidered in red. blue, green and black have been found in very old tombs at Thebes, but the ancient wall painting's snow that embroidered garments were worn at periods much earlier than are represented rep-resented by any discoveries yet made of the actual objects. In most cases they were too perishable to survive thronch the man- thousands of years that have passed since thev left t he maker's hands. In the new world the early artists were not behind those of the old. The American Amer-ican museum in New York City contains specimens of the embroidery work of the ancient Peruvians which justify the statement state-ment that "the most wonderful textiles of the world came from Peru." Says M. C. Crawford: "In Peru every process of decoration which we know is found every trmk of the weaver's art. every skillful blending of colors. Indeed, in some of rheir techniques and color combinations I thev far surrass modern work." Most of these beautiful tilings came I from lea and Nazca. in southern Peru. J Mmv of the mopt exquisite of these are ' shawl -like garments, which speak eio-! eio-! quenrly of the hish artistic ci viliz.-i t ion : widen "prevailed. Some of the?e spiendid thiners, if they wore nnt yet entirely fin-tsh.ed. fin-tsh.ed. were buried with t',-;c dead, and thus j thev have been preserved. T'.-:e custom nf entrusting costly and beautiful obcts to the aiurdiansnip of f the srave, or tomb, which w-as so widespread wide-spread in ancient times, speaks for the reverence felt for the dead in. those days, as well as for the honesty of the people. It would not he safe in our time to place great quantities of gold and gems, as well as artistic treasures, in burial places, but then a grave seem? to have been as secure as a hank vault, heinsr protected try a sentiment stronger than steel walls. ArtiFts who have studied the collections collec-tions in the museum spare no words of prai." iu expressing their admiration and wonder. T h e J a n a n e s e . the Chinese and the Moors have all produced marvelous examples ex-amples of embroidery work, but the consensus con-sensus of opinion seems to be that the almost al-most unknown people of Peru excelled thum all in skill and taste. Their zv-iti strencth seems to have lain in their innate appreciation o:" color har-ir.oiiu-. In t he I. -a shawls the back-'.:-fiuad of ! he central part;; is black, while the fmure-s are in reds, browns, blues, creeps and yellows, of varied thus. Tncf. borders have a ground of red. and the figures fig-ures are largely in Mack. But this simple description of the arrangement ar-rangement of colors gives no idea of their fine tones and harmonies. They are a lesson to the artists of today on the undeveloped un-developed possibilities of color appreciation apprecia-tion and combination. They give a wun-derfut wun-derfut idea of the life that ovist have been i led by the ancient Inhabitants of the An- 1 dean valleys. If they lacked our modern mechanical ; accessories, they possessed a sensitive- ; ness to the effects of beautiful colors that. , if possessed in equal degree by us. would j add immensely to the pleasure of life. We ! can appreciate, the effects when we see I them, but to produce them by the original j workings of our own minds and senses is : quite a different thing. Ail intei iectual persons ca n enjoy pnr. try. but only t he specially gifted can write it. The an- cient Peruvians were the poets of color. I Other beautiful examples of the art of embroidery which may be seen in the j museum mme from among the Amur I River tribes in eastern Siberia, from Korea, Ko-rea, the Phihppir.es. Hawaii and the I southwe-s' ern T'nited States. |