The History of Other Forms. There are still other
meanings of form which, though less important, are
used in the theory and practice of the arts.
(1) The name “form” is sometimes given to tools
which serve to produce forms, e.g., the forms used by
sculptors, potters, tinners, and others. We may call
them forms F; they are employed in making forms,
and at the same time are forms. Often, as in the case
of sculptor's forms, they are negatives of the forms
which will be created with their help. Some of them,
namely, sculptors' and potters' forms, are used for
shaping the form we have called form C, whereas
others, such as the tinctorial and printing forms, give
objects color as well as shape, thus producing forms
in the meaning of form A. History shows that the
importance of form F in art is increasing. Even archi-
tects are now making use of such forms in the produc-
tion of prefabricated elements for the construction and
facing of buildings.
(2) In the history of the visual arts, as in the history
of music or literature, forms are frequently discussed
in yet another meaning: conventional, traditionally or
commonly accepted forms, binding on the composer
or writer who uses them. Once accepted, for whatever
reason, they are ready and waiting to be used. These
forms, which we may call form G, are exemplified in
literature by the forms of the sonnet or of tragedy with
the “three unities” (place, time, and action); in music,
the forms of the fugue or sonata; in architecture, the
peripteros (“array of columns”) or the Ionic order; the
bosquet form in Italian and French gardening; the
zwiebelmuster (“onion pattern”) design in Saxon por-
celain. These forms are partly structural and partly
ornamental. Though they are all forms A, a few of them
are forms G. Many forms G have a long and venerable
history, their Golden Age going back to antiquity when
almost every variety of art was enclosed within such
forms. Medieval art was also restricted by such con-
trolling forms, as was also eighteenth-century classi-
cism. Romanticism undermined the old forms, but also
created new ones in their place. In avant-garde art the
departure from stable and conventional forms seems
thoroughgoing: every artist wishes to have his own
way. History appears to show that art moves way from
forms G. It is, however, possible for new stable forms
to be created.
(3) “Form” of art may also mean a kind or variety
of that art. In an expression like “new forms of paint-
ing” form is used in the same sense as that in a “form
of government” or a “form of disease.” The term is
used but does not belong in the theory of art; it is
simply a convenient way of expressing the multiplicity
of the arts: ars una, species mille. In our catalogue
of forms, we may list it as form H.
Nor are all the meanings of “form” in art exhausted
by the above. Their great number has been known and
remarked upon long ago. In the twelfth century Gilbert
de la Porrée wrote: “one talks about form in many
meanings.” In the thirteenth century Robert Grosse-
teste (p. 109) distinguished three meanings: (a) as a
model, e.g., a sandal used as a form (pattern) for making
sandals; (b) as a casting mold, e.g., for a statue; (c) as
an image in the mind of an artist. Bonaventura's dis-
tinction between two meanings of form was given
above.
Some of the concepts of form discussed above have
disappeared and belong to the past; the concept of
form D is not needed by modern aestheticians, and
form E has acquired new names. Form F is used rather
in artists' workshops than in art theory; form G is a
technical expression of theoreticians of art; form H may
easily be replaced by other expressions. In all these
cases there is no danger of confusing their respective
meanings. However, concepts A, B, and C are closely
related and are likely to be mixed up; and yet since
they are so intimately linked with the name “form”
it would be wrong to deprive them of that usage. Thus
there does not appear to be any prospect of eliminating
the ambiguity of “form” in aesthetics and in the theory
of art. But once we are aware of the various meanings
of the term, it ceases to be harmful.
