Primordial Image and the Archetypal Design of Art

This paper extends Jung's work on the relationship of art to (postulated) archetypes of the collective unconscious. Archetypes of the collective unconscious, according to Jung, are revealed to ego consciousness only by way of images--images of a specific form. Jung suggests that archetypes, primordial images, combine two aspects in a single form and are therefore paradoxical. The wise old man and youth and hermaphrodites illustrate Jung's definition of a primordial image. My study of Jung's illustrations concludes that he is referring to what I term double-figures as the design form of primordial imagery. I elaborate upon the design form of double-figures, and illustrate my conception of archetypal imagery through comparative analysis of nine cases of double-figure imagery from selected prehistoric and contemporary societies. Double-figures, as archetypal primordial imagery of the collective unconscious, are spontaneously generated, autonomous, and known to a wide variety of societies. I distinguish between form and content in the study of primordial imagery, and conclude with a summary of the importance of Jung to the cross-cultural study of art.