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Title: The Principles of Ornament
Author: Ward, James
Language: English
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THE
PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENT
[Illustration: Patera in silver from the Hildesheim treasure.
_Frontispiece._]
[Illustration]
THE
PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENT
BY
JAMES WARD
HEAD-MASTER OF THE MACCLESFIELD SCHOOL OF ART
EDITED BY
GEORGE AITCHISON, A.R.A.
PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS
_NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION_
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
153-157 FIFTH AVENUE
1896
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON & BUNGAY.
EDITOR’S PREFACE
As Examiner on the Principles of Ornament at the Science and Art
Department, I found there was no good English text-book on the subject,
so the necessary information could only be picked up by extensive
reading and independent observation, and these are not to be expected
from young students. Certain parts of the subject have been admirably
treated by Moody in his _Lectures and Lessons on Art_,--in fact I know
of no book where the subjects treated show such keen observation and
profound knowledge, but they are embedded in lectures on other subjects,
and the book has no index. Having written the original Syllabus on the
Principles of Ornament, I was disposed to write a text-book, had not
other avocations prevented me. Last year Mr. Ward’s book on _The
Elementary Principles of Ornament_ was sent me, and though it was a
useful book and had a glossary, it contained some doubtful passages, and
being printed from a course of lectures it was a little too discursive.
In writing the new Syllabus this year I could not recommend it for a
text-book as it stood, but as I thought it would be unfair to Mr. Ward
for me to write a text-book after the trouble he had taken, I consented
to edit a new edition. I may here say that I have left Mr. Ward’s
musical comparisons as I found them, and have not revised his views on
Ogham, and Runic, nor those on the symbolic ornament of the Egyptians,
Assyrians, Siamese, Burmese, Japanese, Hebrews, Buddhists, and Brahmins.
GEORGE AITCHISON.
EDITOR’S PREFACE
TO THE SECOND EDITION
I have carefully revised the book without altering its substance. I have
also added an Appendix containing a few remarks on the Orders of
Architecture, with illustrations of some of the best classical examples;
believing that this would be useful, not only to carvers and modellers
who have to execute enrichments on Architecture, but to all students.
The ornamented parts of the Greek and Roman Orders, figure sculpture
apart, show how two cognate nations, each with transcendent abilities
but of an entirely different range, abstracted the beauties of plants,
and conferred them on stone and marble to emphasize and adorn the rigid
forms of Architecture; how the Greeks seized on the exquisite beauties
of flowers, and adapted them, so as to retain the greatest purity of
form, and used them in the most sparing way; while the Romans, or Greeks
working under Roman dictation, used them lavishly to procure
magnificence; and eventually were so prodigal with their ornament as to
defeat the end in view, as little of the architecture was left plain; to
act as a foil to the enrichment; while from the quantity employed no
time could be spared to perfect the ornament.
The power of abstracting and applying the beauties of floral form seems
now to be entirely lost. The great art of the present day seems to
consist in copying nature as exactly as it can be copied in hard
materials to make a colourable imitation; but in such a way that its
highest beauties are lost.
Mr. Ward has added several illustrations which his experience shows him
will be useful to students, and he has added an Appendix on the
construction of some geometrical figures, and the methods of drawing
conic sections and spirals.
GEORGE AITCHISON.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
In the preface to the first edition of this book, I stated that the
contents consisted of a series of class lectures given to art students.
These lectures were not originally intended for publication. I was,
however, strongly advised to publish them, and did so without any
attempt at revision, under the title of _Elementary Principles of
Ornament_. Although there are many excellent text-books on ornament
published at the present time, there are none that exclusively treat of
the theory, or what is known as the “principles of ornament”; this
belief is shared with me by many of the principal art masters in the
country, and by many gentlemen whose names stand high in the list of
decorative artists, judging from the numerous letters and opinions I
received after the publication of the first edition.
I was gratified to find that the book received a favourable recognition
from the authorities of the Science and Art Department.
The present edition has been edited and revised by Professor Aitchison,
A.R.A., the Government Examiner in the subject and Professor of
Architecture at the Royal Academy. To that gentleman I here desire to
record my grateful thanks for his invaluable services in connection with
the book, and, I am sure I shall be right if I add, the thanks of all
students in ornamental art. Professor Aitchison has also written the new
introductory chapter.
I wish here also to express my best thanks to John Vinycomb, Esq.,
F.R.S.A.I., for his valuable suggestions to me in the chapter on
symbolic ornament.
The illustrations must only be accepted as blackboard diagrams, they are
merely intended as aids in explanation of the text; more illustrations
have been added to this edition, a few that appeared in the former
edition have been left out.
J. WARD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. BY THE EDITOR 1
CHAPTER I
Definition of Ornament--Methods of Expression--Outlined,
Flat, Coloured, Relieved, and Shaded Ornament--Definition
of Arabesques 19
CHAPTER II
Elementary forms used in Ornament--Straight and
Curved line Ornament--The Greek Honeysuckle,
&c. 26
CHAPTER III
The Laws of Composition in Ornament enumerated and
explained 40
CHAPTER IV
The Shapes and Decoration of Mouldings--Fluted and
Reeded Ornament--Treatment of Floors, Walls, and
Ceilings--Relief Work on Ceilings 50
CHAPTER V
Outline and Division of Surfaces--Proportion of Rectangular
Surfaces--Spacing and Decoration of Circular
and Curved Objects--Decoration of Various
Shapes, of Planes and of Large Flat Surfaces--Abuses
of Purely Natural Forms applied to Articles
of Use--Application of Ornament and Materials in
Wall Decoration 68
CHAPTER VI
The Six Classes or Great Divisions of Ornament 80
CHAPTER VII
The Application of Plants in Ornament--Plants Used
in Historic Ornament--The Acanthus--Its Use by
the Ancients in Capitals, Candelabra, and on Flat
Surfaces--Modern Use and Treatment of the Acanthus 108
CHAPTER VIII
The Symbolic and Mnemonic Classes of Ornament 130
CHAPTER IX
Raphael’s Arabesques--Christian Symbolism--Comparison
of Symbolic and Æsthetic Ornament 138
APPENDIX ON THE ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE 145
A CHAPTER ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIGURES AND
CURVES IN PRACTICAL PLANE GEOMETRY 176
GLOSSARY 199
INDEX OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGS.
Acanthus leaf (Greek), from a capital of the Tower of
the Winds 151
Acanthus leaf (Greek), with flowers from a capital of
the Choragic Monument of Lysikrates 152
Acanthus (Mollis), from nature 149
Acanthus (Spinosus), from nature 150
Acanthus, soft-leaved, from the soffit of the architrave
at the Temple of Jupiter Stator 155
Acanthus used on candelabra and small pillars 156, 158
Acanthus, modern varieties of sea-weed and poppy-leaved
Acanthus 159
Acanthus, olive-leaf variety, from a Roman capital 153
Acanthus, olive-leaf variety, from a capital of Mars
Ultor 154, 187
Arrangement of a wall-paper pattern 84
Arrangements for wall-paper or room decoration,
improper 80-83
Astragal or bead moulding, with its ornament 77
Bead and reel 78
Book-cover (German), sixteenth century 124
Border, upright lily, Greco-Roman 120
Borders, Greek 113-117
Borders of Medallions in enamelled earthenware by
Luca Della Robbia 144
Borders, Persian 118, 119
Borders derived from the laurel 140, 141
Bracts used for “clothing” stems in Scrolls, &c. 137, 157
Capital, Greek Doric 175
Capital, Greek Ionic 176-179
Capital, Greek Corinthian 180, 181
Capital, Roman Tuscan 182
Capital, Roman Doric 183
Capital, Roman Ionic 184
Capital, Roman Corinthian 185, 187
Capital, Roman Composite 188, 189
Capitals (Byzantine), from Sta. Sophia at Constantinople,
showing bossing out of ornament A and B
Catenary, explained at page 31
Cavetto and its ornament 56, 68
Ceiling from Serlio’s architecture 89
Ceiling, portion from the vestibule of St. Spirito
(Florence), by Sansovino 88
Ceilings, fillings of 85-87
Ceilings, panelling of, showing at A an improper and
at B a proper arrangement 92
Checkers, carved 98, 99
Cinque-Cento floral ornament composed of the acanthus,
oak-leaf, convolvulus and wild rose 130
Circle, ornament derived from 24-40
Contrasting decoration on rectangular and circular
borders 95
Counter-change 171
Counter-change pattern, Saracenic 172
Cyma recta and its ornament 58, 64, 69
Cyma reversa and its ornaments. _See_ Ogee.
Diaper, Saracen 101
Diaper, Italian, sixteenth century 106, 107, 110
Diaper, Persian influence, sixteenth century 100
Diaper, Italian, German origin, sixteenth century 107
Door case at the Erechtheum, showing a portion of
the Architrave, with the pateræ on the fascia 96
Door panels illustrating improper division at A,
proper division at B 93
Entablature of the Erechtheum C
Entablature of the Caryatid portico attached to the
Erechtheum D
Entablature of the Parthenon 175
Entablature of the Greek Ionic Temple on the Ilissus 176
Entablature of the monument of Lysikrates 180
Entablature of the Theatre of Marcellus 183
Entablature of the Temple of Fortuna Virilis 184
Entablature of the Pantheon, Rome 185
Entablature of Jupiter Tonans 186
Entablature of the Arch of Titus 189
Festoon, or swag 27
Finger-plates of different outlines 94
Fluted ornaments for flat bands 75, 76
Frets, Greek 12-15
Frets, Egyptian 16
Inscription from an Egyptian tablet 162
Inscription (Japanese), “Jiu” or long life 163
Interchange 173, 174
Japanese decoration 1
Japanese decoration, altered 2
Kiku-Mon, badge of the Empire of Japan 169
Lamp bottoms 134, 135
Laurel from nature 139
Lemon from nature 145
Lily border, Greco-Roman 120
Meander 44-47
Monograms in Christian art 170
Mouldings, profiles of Greek 61-66
Mouldings, profiles of Roman 55-60
Network, Japanese 102
Ogee, Roman 57, 71
Ogee, Greek 63, 70
Ogee with water-leaf ornament from the Erechtheum 70, 73
Ogee, Roman variety, with its ornaments 71
Opus Alexandrinum, from a pavement in the Church
of San Marco, Rome 79
Ovolo, from the Erechtheum, enriched 67
Panel ornament, Renaissance 128
Panel (Venetian), illustrating balance without symmetry 126
Panel, Cinque-Cento 127
Panel with trophy of arms and armour 133
Panel, design for a carved wood panel from the
lemon plant 146
Panel arrangement from the tiger-lily 148
Paperhanging, design from the wild rose 143
Patera _Frontispiece_
Pear-tree, winter aspect, illustrating “balance” in
nature 160
Pilaster, designed by Donatello 121
Pilaster panel, Cinque-Cento 122
Pilaster decoration, Italian 123
Placque, in silver repoussé work, German seventeenth
century 125
Powdering, Japanese 103, 105
Reduction of similar ornament in different spaces E
Reeded ornaments for flat bands, &c. 76A, 76B
Root forms, Mediæval and Oriental 138
Rosettes (Roman), composed of leaf and floral forms 136
Scarab, Egyptian symbolic form 161
Scroll ornament on the roof of the Monument of
Lysikrates 53
Shield (Savage) made of cane and ornamented with
cut shells and zig-zags 97
Spandrel (Gothic), from Stone Church, Kent 131
Spandrel, by Alfred Stevens 132
Spiral 24
Spiral curves, examples of ornament chiefly based on
spiral curves 41, 43, 45, 47-51
Spotting 84, 103, 105
Straight-lined ornament 3-23
Superimposed Japanese powdering 104
Symbolic ornament, the Egyptian lotus and water 165
Tail-pieces, or “lamp bottoms” 134, 135
Tchakra, sacred wheel of Brahma and Vishnu, also
the “wheel of fire” 168
Thyrsus, staff of the god Bacchus 167
Tiger-lily from nature 147
Tree of life from an Assyrian bas-relief with worshippers 166
Tripod stand on the top of the roof of the Monument
of Lysikrates 54
Vase, from the Hildesheim treasures 129
Vases (Modern and Greek), showing unequal divisions
of the height and strengthening horizontal
bands 90, 91
Wild rose from nature 142
Wine-crater. _See_ Vase.
Winged globe and asps, Egyptian symbolic ornament 164
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
It may not be amiss to point out the advantages of studying ornamental
art even to those who do not mean to be artists. The course to be
adopted, after acquiring the necessary geometry, is to draw or model
plants and to learn their anatomy. This will make the student accurately
acquainted with the forms of plants and of their parts, and as he
progresses he will find out beauties which have escaped him in a cursory
view; the further he proceeds, the more his admiration will be excited
by those subtle beauties he finds so hard to render and so easy to miss.
The student will then notice, how many illustrations of plants are near
enough to the originals to be unmistakable, but that the grace of the
plants has evaporated. As soon as he is sufficiently advanced to study
with advantage the best examples of ornamental art, he will find out the
difficulties the great ornamentalists have overcome in applying the
beauties of nature to works of art; and will then take a deeper interest
in these masterpieces, and receive a corresponding delight. He will
learn from these studies to reverence the artists and to admire the
nation that produced them; for “art is the mirror of a nation’s
civilization.”
I have spoken only of floral ornament, though the highest ornament is
the human figure, and after that animal forms. The severity, however, of
the requisite studies to become a figure draughtsman, which demand a
knowledge of the skeleton and of the muscles, unfortunately deters
amateurs, and not unfrequently ornamentalists, from learning to draw the
figure, so that their works fall short of the excellence of the Greeks
and Italians, who were above all things figure draughtsmen. Amateurs too
will greatly aid the art, for as a rule excellence is only attained when
there are many educated lovers of it, who can appreciate a beautiful
creation, and reward the artist by their judicious admiration.
For twenty years I have pointed out that Nature offers her beauties
gratuitously to mankind for its solace and delight; perhaps, however,
the following words of Emile de Laveleye, in his book on _Luxury_, will
have more weight:--
“Might not the man of the people, on whom the curse of matter weighs
with so heavy a load, find the best kind of alleviation for his hard
condition, if his eyes were open to what Leonardo da Vinci calls _la
bellezza del mondo_--‘the beautiful things of the earth’?... Pindar
says, ‘In the day when the Rhodians shall erect an altar to Minerva, a
rain of gold will fall upon the isle.’ The golden rain which falls on
any people when literature and the fine arts are encouraged ... is a
shower of pure and disinterested delights.”
I am tempted to say something on the prospects of ornamental art.
Nothing in this world can be had without paying for it, but though we
must all live, those who have devoted their lives to the creation of
the beautiful, look more to the delight they give and the admiration
they excite, than to mere pecuniary rewards. No art will ever flourish
unless there are educated and enthusiastic admirers of its masterpieces.
The artist will never devote his talents to an art, and undergo the
ceaseless toil requisite to create beauty, unless he be rewarded by the
praise of real judges. I fear we cannot as yet make the Greek boast
“that we love the beautiful”; but until we do love it, we can hardly
expect to rival those who did.
The whole ornamental art of the world is now before us, and it is not to
be believed that artists would not elaborate something new and beautiful
from all the knowledge they have gained, if there were a passionate
desire for it among the people. This can never be so long as the public
is content with paraphrases of deceased art, or merely asks for a jumble
of discordant scraps. Novelty we must needs have, for this generation
does not inherit the precise tastes of former days, not even those of
its immediate predecessor, and it is this generation that wants to be
charmed: it is true that it gets novelty, but it should want beautiful
novelty, and not that which is commonplace or ugly. Novelty in art is
not an absolute difference from what has gone before, for that is sure
to be bad, but only that difference and that improvement which one
instructed generation can give to the past excellence it builds on. It
is therefore necessary for the student who is born an artist, and hopes
to create new loveliness, to be steeped in the beauties of nature and of
art. To attain this a profound study of nature and the masterpieces of
former art are wanted, for, as Sir Joshua Reynolds said, “Invention is
one of the greatest marks of genius, ... and it is by being conversant
with the inventions of others that we learn to invent”; while to express
our knowledge and invention admirable draughtsmanship is requisite.
We have a novel phase of ornament, which consists in twisting or
arranging certain plants into the shape required, to make them fit their
places. Much of this work is flabby or wire-drawn, and often omits the
highest beauty of the plants it uses, but even when the beauty of the
plant is not left out, the ornament is infinitely below the highest
flights of former art, in which the artist had absorbed the graces of
floral growth and had properly applied them. The highest ornament, by
its abstraction, is closely allied to architectural art, while all its
higher achievements are in conjunction with architecture; consequently
there should be a harmony between the decoration and the framework.
Natural foliage arranged on a geometrical basis makes a poor contrast to
noble architecture.
All ornamental arts, that are not realistic imitations, must be founded
on precedent art. We have only one complete system of decorative art
that took an entirely new direction besides Gothic, and that harmonizes
with its architecture--the Saracenic--and that art is not congenial to
our taste, feelings, or desires. Gothic ornamental art is mostly too
barbaric or too realistic to suit us, except when it is borrowed from
Roman, Byzantine, or Saracenic sources; in fact, we have nothing but
Roman, Byzantine, and Renaissance art to fall back on for ornament; of
Greek ornamental art we have some carved stone-work, moulded metal-work,
painting on vases, incised work, and the traces of painting. Little of
secular Byzantine art remains, though it is not probable that it
materially differed from the ecclesiastical art of its period; it was
Roman art modified by the new religion and by Greek and Oriental taste,
in which saints and martyrs, with their attributes or symbols, took the
place of the antique gods and goddesses; while the Renaissance was an
attempted revival of Roman.
We cannot expect to equal at once the masterpieces of Greek, Roman, or
Renaissance art; we have neither the centuries of experience nor the
cultivated public. Every artist, however, can, by the means before
mentioned, be sure of having conquered the preliminaries of his art, and
he can be sincere; he can give us those beauties from nature that have
captivated him, and have been transfused into ornament by the alembic of
his mind; such ornament will be sure to find some congenial spirits to
admire it: and I think I may say that a public sufficiently cultivated
to appreciate real art is gradually being formed. The highest art is
undoubtedly that which is the simplest and most perfect, which gives the
experience and skill of a lifetime by a few lines or touches; and this
art is more calculated to captivate the best taste of the day than the
complex or the intricate. However, there will even now be ample
recognition of the creations of any skilled artist who is sincere, let
his genius take him where it will. There is, too, this consolation for
every true artist whose works remain: that if there are few judges of
his work now, there may be more hereafter--judges who when they look at
his work will say, this is the work of a true artist; and he may confer
delight on unborn thousands, and direct attention, in after ages, to
those beauties of nature that have been overlooked.
I will now revert to the book, and confine myself to such remarks as I
hope may be useful to those who study it. The student, when he has
learnt and comprehended the laws, should observe growing plants, and
notice that every plant illustrates some, and mostly many, of the laws;
and when he has clearly distinguished them, he should examine the best
ornament of antiquity and the Renaissance, and satisfy himself that the
laws, involved in the particular example he is studying, have been
followed. When he has done this, he should note any divergence from the
laws and endeavour to understand the reason for it. To ensure the effect
they intend, great artists sometimes ignore the ordinary laws.
It is well that he should consider that the main object of every plant
is to live and propagate itself: to live it wants air, moisture, and
nourishment, and mostly sunshine, and it must strive to get these
necessaries amidst a crowd of competitors. In this struggle the plant is
often dwarfed or distorted, and still more frequently some of its parts
are deformed; its flowers must attract insects by their colour or scent,
and must allure the insects by the honey they distil to fertilize them;
so that beauty, except in the colour of the flowers, is for the plant a
secondary consideration.
In ornament, on the contrary, beauty is the only consideration, except
perhaps in mnemonic and symbolic ornament; and these must have beauty,
or they cease to be ornament.
Ornament has also to be portrayed on some material, or carved in it; it
should conform to the shape of the object, be governed by the quality of
the material, and by the use to which the object is to be put--_e.g._ a
leaf may be carved in certain woods, almost of the thinness of the real
leaf, but then it must be preserved in a glass case. This thinness is
not to be got if the leaf be carved in stone; the artist must therefore
see what beauties he can abstract from the plant he has chosen or from
floral growth generally, so that it can be carved. He should in all
cases know that his design can be expressed in the material to be used,
that it will ornament the object, will not be easily destroyed, and will
not interfere with the use of the object. If he succeeds in doing this,
his skill, taste, and judgment will be admired. This necessary
abstraction we unfortunately call _convention_, and when it makes good
ornament, and shows the characteristic beauty and vigour of plant form,
it is of the highest sort; this is found in the best Greek, Roman, and
Renaissance ornament, while when a coarse and clumsy imitation of nature
is made, with all the beauty left out, it is the lowest sort of
convention.
Any cheap speculative houses that have carving upon them, will afford
ample illustrations of contemporary convention in its worst form.
Gothic ornament was quite new; for no sooner did the architects,
carvers, masons, carpenters, and others find that they had surpassed
the old world in constructive skill, than they looked down on all the
old world arts, and would not be beholden to them. They were determined
to begin afresh; they had human beings, animals, trees, plants, and
flowers, as well as the Romans and Byzantines; why should they not make
as good statues and ornament? There is much to be said in favour of this
contention, for every one must desire to see his house, his town-hall,
and his church ornamented with the flowers and plants that he knows and
loves, instead of with the conventionalized plants of other countries
that he does not know, or that he has gazed on to satiety. But it is one
thing to have a longing, and another to be able to bring plants, leaves,
and flowers into the domain of high art. The early Gothic sculptors did
give a certain crispness, and in some cases even a monumental air to
their carved flora, and sometimes they got that mysterious look of
infinite complexity that is found in nature, and they had invention to a
marvellous degree. From the sculptors working on the spot, and being
able to see each figure and piece of ornament in its place, they never
missed their effect. All their ornament answered its main end, of giving
a broken mass of light and shade to contrast with plain surfaces,
mouldings, or shafts, while much of it was vigorous; but some of the
early Gothic foliage has no grace, is often destitute of floral
character, and might be mistaken for hanks of string on pieces of
firewood, or worm-eaten wigs. The first touch of the Renaissance brought
a sweetness of proportion to architecture and a grace to floral ornament
that is most striking.
Good traditional ornament has these inestimable advantages, that it has
been treated for ages by skilful men, so that its faults have been
corrected, new graces have been added to it, and it has been fitted to
properly fill the requisite shapes. From the first, the artist must have
noticed some special beauties and fitness in the plant he chose, and the
ornament must have had some striking qualities to make it popular; for
why else should it have been preferred and persisted in, when so many
other plants had great beauty? There is, however, some ornament that,
after it has once been perfected, seems incapable of further
improvement. The egg and tongue may be cited as an instance. It has
never been improved since the perfecting of Greek architecture, nor has
any good substitute for it been found. A coarse caricature of it is
still the most popular ornament of the ovolo. The Romans converted it
into a floral form at the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, with marked want of
success.
The Greek honeysuckle and the acanthus are the most striking examples of
good traditional ornament. To take the acanthus first, it was started by
the Greeks, continued by the Romans, and used by the Byzantines with a
different character, then adopted by the Renaissance artists, and has
been treated in an entirely novel way by Alfred Stevens in our own day.
Stevens has given a peculiarly plastic character to its leafage in the
Wellington monument. That form of it which is used in the Corinthian
capital has had such an infinity of pains bestowed on it, that
improvement on the old lines is scarcely to be expected, though new
floral capitals may be invented. Every portion of the leaf, down to its
rafflings, has been perfected to the end the Romans destined it to
fulfil, though, as in all human inventions, something was sacrificed to
attain it. The Greek capital was rather deficient in outline, but it was
possessed of the most exquisite floral grace, and this was sacrificed by
the Romans to attain distinctness, strength, and dignity; these
qualities being particularly necessary when it was used in colossal
monuments. Even when it was on a smaller scale, we can see the
advantages of the change. In some Byzantine buildings, old Greek and
Roman Corinthian columns have been used together. As an isolated
ornament the Greek capital is greatly to be preferred, but when the two
are seen in conjunction as parts of the building, the Roman capital is
clear, distinct, and dignified, while the Greek one is a confused mass.
In their colossal capitals, the Romans mostly substituted the olive-leaf
for the natural raffle, and used but four or five in each leaflet;
though the oak-leaf, the parsley, and the endive were occasionally used.
Each raffle of the olive-leafed variety is hollowed by a curve without
ribs, the only lines being those made by the edges of the hollows, and
each leaflet is hollowed out like a cockle-shell as well. In the best
examples, the upper edges of each leaflet are mostly clear of the one
above or overlap it; in the first case they are thrown up by the shadow
behind, in the latter the edges of the raffles are bright against the
half light of the leaflets above, and are also thrown up by the shade in
their points. The top of the complete leaf curls over, and thus throws
its shadow on the part below, so there is the contrast between masses of
light, graduated shade, and graduated shadow. The back of the leaf was
used to get a wide stem, and this stem tapers upwards, while the pipes,
that come from the eyes between the leaflets, taper downwards, are
nearly parallel with the stem, and are deeply undercut, thus making the
whole leaf distinct and vigorous (Fig. 110). If examples are compared,
the superiority of the parallel pipes over those that run into the stem
is at once seen. The lower leaves are cut through horizontally in the
middle, and come straight down on to the necking, which gives much more
vigour to the capital, than when the bell turns inwards above the
necking.
The student will do well to carefully draw a good example, then model
it, and then carve it, for it has been the type from which most good
floral capitals have been derived. The acanthus and other floral
ornament used by the Italian Renaissance artists deserve quite as much
attention as the Roman; for though their ornament was not on the same
colossal scale, it was done by excellent figure sculptors who had
studied ornament, and were of finer artistic fibre than the Romans,
besides having the best Roman examples for their models. The Italian
artists were, too, nearly as fond of the human figure as the Greeks, and
introduced it wherever they could do so appropriately.
There is perhaps but one other ornament that is worthy of the
profoundest study, the radiating ornament of the Greeks, known as the
Greek honeysuckle. This ornament is full of subtle devices, in the
elegant graduation of its forms, in the proportioning of the masses, in
its even distribution, and in the making of the different curves enhance
the value of one another. There is often, too, a suggestion of
horizontality or verticality introduced, that gives the highest value to
the composition; all showing the intimate acquaintance with nature that
the Greek artists possessed. Many of the Greek running patterns are both
original and effective, and in some of them tangential junction is
distinctly avoided, to attract attention to the ornament. The Greeks,
too, were pre-eminent in knowing the use of restraint and the value of
plainness. When the sculptor had carved his ornament on an architectural
monument he seemed to say, “Better this if you can!”
The Byzantines understood the value of gradation, and when they wholly
ornamented a profile, they made some parts in bold, some in low relief,
and engraved or sunk other parts. The Saracens learned this art from
them, and so improved on it, that the general effect of their best work
resembles Greek art; at the proper distance the subordinate ornament
looks like a mere difference of texture.
Saracenic ornament affords the only instances of complete floral
decoration without the figures of man or animals; and although it is
inclined to be monotonous, and geometrical forms are too predominant, it
is, when coloured and gilt, saved from monotony by the magical change of
the patterns on the beholder shifting his position. This effect is
obtained by trifling differences of level in the planes of the ornament
and by gilding. Its floral forms, however, are usually coarse and poor,
and have no refined graces.
There are a few points not touched on in the book which it may be well
to mention. One is a device that was, I think, only used by the
Byzantines, _i. e._ bossing out ornament to catch the light. Constantine
the Great, when he had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem
built, had the capitals of the sanctuary columns made of silver, and
doubtless the silversmiths in working them hammered out some bosses to
catch the light. This device was seized on by the sculptors of Sta.
Sophia at Constantinople, and used in the marble capitals of its columns
and pilasters (Figs. A and B).
I may also draw attention to another Byzantine device, which charmed Mr.
Ruskin at St. Mark’s--the leaves of capitals caught by the wind and
blown aside. Capitals with a similar device existed in Sta. Sophia at
Salonica, some of which were partly calcined by the late fire. The
propriety of using such an incident in the conventional stone ornaments
of a supporting member may be doubted, still we must admire the
observation and genius of the sculptor; and there are many opportunities
of using such an incident when the ornament is not on a supporting
member. I point it out to show what fresh resources for the
ornamentalist are to be found in nature, when he has the industry to
observe and the talent to create.
There are cases where architectural features have to be reduced, and at
the same time to be emphasized too. No better example of this is to be
found than in the Caryatid temple attached to the Erechtheum. Its
entablature was below the main one, and so had to be smaller, and yet
was wanted to be important
[Illustration: FIGS. A and B.--Byzantine Capitals from Sta. Sophia at
Constantinople, showing the bossing out of the ornament.]
[Illustration: FIG. C.--Entablature of the Erechtheum.]
[Illustration: FIG. D.--Entablature of the Caryatid portico of the
Erechtheum.]
and weighty enough for the figures. All the frieze but the capping was
consequently left out, the top fascia of the architrave was enriched
with circular discs, and between the cappings of the architrave and
frieze a deep dentil band was introduced. Mainly by these means the due
effect was gained (Figs. C and D).
Ornament has sometimes to be repeated in a composition on a smaller
scale, and this should not be done by merely reducing the scale so as to
have a diminutive reproduction, but by keeping the general form of the
ornament with fewer details. Several examples may be found in M.
Mayeux’s book.[1] Instances of the same motive being repeated in the
same height and in a narrower width are sometimes found. An example may
be seen beneath the double and single windows of an hotel in the Rue
Dalbard, Toulouse[2] (Fig. E).
[Illustration: FIG. E.--Reduction of similar ornament in different
spaces.]
Much might be said on the subject of materials, but I will only make a
few remarks. In making a design, due consideration should be given to
the material employed, so that the natural ornamentation of one material
may not be put on another; pottery is turned on the wheel, and is
adapted for painting, while hollow metal vessels are embossed, but it
is common enough to see pottery embossed, which can, it is true, be
accomplished by casting or by inlaying, yet this sort of ornamentation
always looks inappropriate. Stone is usually of large and wood of small
scantling, yet in the front of a stone building with arched openings the
wooden door-head is often made a continuation of the stone impost,
though the mouldings of the wood-work should be finer and the ornament
different.
Although the young student should confine his attention to the best
styles, the advanced one should have some acquaintance with all
traditional ornament, even the styles of Louis XIV. and XV., a grafting
of Chinese and Japanese ornament on the current classic, for they are
the only modern styles, except the early Renaissance, that have complete
unity. The same style runs through the whole building, down to the door
furniture and the damask of the chairs; the handling, too, is often
admirable, and the examples are full of hints to the advanced student,
who is unlikely to be infected with the rococo style.
I have dwelt much on carving for several reasons; it is the most lasting
of ornamental work, and as a rule the most important; it is susceptible
of the greatest perfection when executed in marble, and all
architectural ornament must eventually fall into the hands of the
sculptor, since he has devoted his life to its study. I may add that the
French architects look upon it as the weak point in English
architecture.
To the young student I may say that he can never become an artist until
he has mastered the fundamental principles of his art; and that nothing
can deserve the name of ornament that is not both appropriate and
beautiful, and has been evolved from nature by the mind of man. I would
suggest to the young artist that the flora of the world is not confined
to the lotus, the honeysuckle, and the acanthus; that if accident caused
the original choice of these plants, it was the infinite pains bestowed
on their treatment that caused their persistence. There are, too,
thousands of beauties still to be culled from plants and flowers that
now remain outside the domain of art. Let the student remember that
knowledge, skill, truth, and sincerity are the main roads to real
success, and that real success is, to have produced some beauty that has
captivated or will captivate mankind.
G. AITCHISON.
THE
PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENT
CHAPTER I
Ornament is the proper enrichment of an object or surface with such
forms, or forms and colours, as will give the thing decorated a new
beauty, while strictly preserving its shape and character. It is the
function of ornament to _emphasize_ the forms of the object it
decorates, not to _hide_ them. Decoration is not necessarily ornament;
for instance, the lovely sprays of plants with birds and cognate
subjects, painted on Japanese pottery, may be called beautiful
decoration, but cannot in our sense of the word be called ornament; for
however realistic ornament may be, it must show that it has passed
through the mind of man, and been acted on by it. This kind of
decoration might be a literal transcript from nature, and neither
emphasizes the boundaries of the decorated surface nor harmonizes with
them. It possesses an exquisite beauty of its own, for the drawing and
colour and the style of execution are good. With the exception of frets
and diapers, true ornament is rare in Japanese art. Fig. 1 is a
Japanese decoration on an oblong surface. Such a design is pretty, but
we can hardly call it ornament. Something must be done with it before we
can give it that name.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--Japanese decoration.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--Japanese decoration altered.]
To make an ornamental design, the units of the decoration must be
arranged and brought into order; repetition and symmetry may not be
required, but _even distribution_, _order_, and _balance_ are
indispensable. The whole too must not appear to be accidental but
designed for the object, while No. 1 might have been made from a shadow
cast on a window. The sketch at Fig. 2 is an attempt to illustrate our
notion of ornament by using the elements in Fig. 1 evenly distributed,
having at the same time a due regard to the boundary-lines of the
panel.
Applied ornament is that which is specially designed and fitted for the
position it occupies.
_Independent ornaments_ are such things as shields, labels, medallions,
&c., with or without enclosing frames; pateræ, festoons, and other loose
ornamental objects, which may be attached to a surface, and may be used
alone, or in combination with applied ornament (Fig. 133).
Numerous examples may be given of _inappropriate_ ornament. As a rule,
any kind of ornament that is not suited to the surface ornamented, or is
falsely constructed, may be called inappropriate. For instance, if
upright panels and pilasters were decorated with ornament running in
oblique lines, or with a strongly-marked series of horizontal bands; or
if a carpet pattern were designed to run in one particular direction;
or, from an architectural point of view, if columns supporting nothing
were used in decoration; if consoles or brackets were turned upside
down; or if curved mouldings were decorated with frets; or panels were
overloaded with mouldings; if forms, organic or otherwise, were used
together, but out of scale with one another; or things were made to
simulate what they are not; or there were a great excess of enrichment;
each of these examples might be considered as inappropriate ornament.
_Methods of Expression._--Ornament is expressed in three different ways:
Firstly, by pure outline, as traced with a point; secondly, where
breadth is added, by flat tints as in painting with the brush, or by
shading, hatching, spotting, or stippling; thirdly, by relief, or
sinking, as in modelling and sculpture. These three divisions may be
subdivided, but all the subdivisions are but varieties or combinations
of the first three genera. Relief modelled or pierced ornament has no
other outline than that given by light and shade; but it may also be
coloured, _i. e._ in two shades--one for the ornament and one for the
background, or with the forms and background “picked out” in a variety
of colours. Shaded or painted ornament in the flat is an imitation of
relief work, and will be noticed again.
_Ornament Expressed in Outline._--All the early decorative work of
mankind, both the prehistoric etchings on bone and on pottery, the line
decoration on Assyrian cylinders, bronze dishes and tablets, and the
incised work on the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman cistas, hand-mirrors, and
vases come under this head; as well as sgraffito-work when expressed by
outline, cut in plaster showing a different-coloured plaster beneath.
_Ornament Expressed by Flat Tints_, in monochrome or colour, with no
shading and without shadow, is a common method of ornamentation. This
class includes painted ornament on the flat, whether polychromatic or in
“grisaille”; inlaid wood-work, called parquetry when used for floors,
and marquetry when used for other purposes; inlaid marble, stone, tile
and plaster work, mosaic, tesselated, sectile and Alexandrine pavements;
damascened metal-work; some enamels, lac-work, and painted pottery;
woven, embroidered, printed, and stencilled stuffs, including oil-cloth;
enamelled glass; and some sgraffito-work. It is convenient to class
under this head certain work of slight thickness or relief, such as
lace, applied work of paper, stuffs, velvet, &c., fine filigree and
wire-work. Inlay under the name of “Tarsia” was greatly used by the
Italians in the decoration of cathedrals and churches and in fittings
and furniture; in cathedral stalls and sacristy fittings, boxwood was
commonly inlaid in walnut, but ebony and ivory were largely employed for
house furniture and fittings, and many different substances were
sometimes employed. Tortoiseshell, gold, silver, ivory, mother-of-pearl,
and different coloured woods are largely employed for the same purpose
by Orientals and others. A species of inlay composed of white and
stained ivory, ebony, and silver, in geometrical patterns, is much used
by the cabinet-makers of India--our Tunbridge ware is supposed to be an
imitation of it.
_Flat Tints enriched by Outline_ were sometimes used in Greek vases, and
are often used in inlays and damascened work; very pretty examples may
be found in old Chinese lac-work, inlaid with figures and landscapes in
black mother-of-pearl, the features, &c. being outlined.
_Relief-work._--Ordinary modelled and carved work, either in relief or
sunk, is too well known to need description; but under this heading are
included pierced, open, and turned work, and such compound work as may
be pierced, or turned and carved or incised as well.
_Coloured Relief-work._--All Egyptian, Greek, and Mediæval bas-reliefs,
and some if not all of their figure sculpture in the round, were
coloured, but when the figures were of white marble, the colour was
generally confined to the flesh, eyes, and hair, and to the stripes or
patterns on the dresses. In one of the white marble sarcophagi from
Sidon, now in the Museum at Constantinople, while figures of half
life-size are left wholly white, smaller figures are wholly coloured and
gilt, like the terra-cotta ones of Tanagra, and some of the ornament is
white on a purple ground. All the Italian Renaissance bas-reliefs in
“gesso duro” were wholly coloured.
In Greek temples the carved ornament was coloured, including the
triglyphs, and parts of the ornament were often gilt, the uncut
mouldings too were mostly ornamented in colour. In some enamelled
pottery in relief, the figures or ornament were left white on a coloured
ground, or the drapery of the figures and the ornament were coloured, as
in some of the Della Robbia ware. All Roman embossed plaster was
coloured and gilt. Much relief-work in bronze and the precious metals
has been coloured by means of enamel, or alloys in the metal; coloured
mosaic has been used to clothe columns, and some mosaic and pietra dura
is in relief, as well as lac and ivory work inlaid with fine stones,
mother-of-pearl, and ivory; all Moresque and some Saracen embossed
plaster-work, and probably carved stone-work, was coloured and gilt;
some Burmese plaster-work in relief is gilt and inlaid with coloured
glass, and certain stuffs have had raised ornament upon them, formed by
stuffing with wadding the applied pieces, which sometimes were
embroidered.
_Shaded or Painted Ornament on the Flat in Imitation of
Relief-work._--This is probably the largest class, and includes
engraving, shaded ornament in chiaroscuro, and shaded and coloured
ornament with or without cast shadows; in it are included the Chinese,
Persian, Mediæval, and Renaissance translucent enamels, which are laid
over sunk (intaglio) work, and painters’ enamels; Boule work, which
consists of brass, tin, or pewter, inlaid in ebony or tortoiseshell with
the metal-work engraved; wood inlay in the shape of shaded natural
flowers, landscapes, architectural views, and figure subjects; shaded
ornament on woven or printed stuffs, and embroidery; and shaded painting
on china and glass, and in Arabesques. What we now call Arabesques were
paraphrases of Roman painted decoration, of which Pompeii offers us so
wide a knowledge. These decorations consisted of fantastic buildings,
interspersed with figures, animals, landscapes, and foliage. The
discovery of this kind of painting in the baths of Titus[3] at Rome led
Raphael to adopt it and to improve on it. The culminating point in
Arabesque painting was the decoration of the loggias of the Vatican by
Raphael and his pupil, Giovanni Recamatore, commonly known as Giovanni
da Udine. The Mohammedans, from whom the name was derived, mostly
avoided the figures of men and animals,[4] even in their secular
buildings or furniture, it being feared that the portrayal of living
creatures might lead them to idolatry; so spaces were filled with
intricate geometrical patterns and coarse foliage.
CHAPTER II
The _elementary forms_ used in ornament form the next division. It is
assumed that the space is given that we are required to ornament; for
example, a ceiling, a wall, a frieze, a panel, or a carpet. The
boundary-lines are the enclosing lines of our space or field, which may
be subdivided. This subdividing is called the _setting-out_. We have now
to think of the forms and character of the ornament we propose to adopt.
It is now advisable to give illustrations of the various elementary
forms used in ornament. As lines, either straight or curved, are the
basis of all ornament, we begin with the straight line. It would be
difficult to overrate the value of the straight line in ornament. The
qualities of stability, firmness, and repose given by upright and
horizontal lines are well illustrated by the mouldings round rectilinear
panels, by cornices and pilasters, and by reeded and fluted ornaments.
All frets are composed of straight lines. The illustrations from Fig. 3
to Fig. 23 are specimens of straight-lined ornaments. Taking the band or
two horizontal parallel lines in Fig. 3, and marking off equidistant
points on the upper and on the lower one, only alternating, and drawing
vertical lines from these points, we obtain the basis of a large class
of frets. Figs. 4, 6, 7, and 8 show further developments of the fret.
Figs. 5 and 18 show the elements of some Saracenic or Moresque frets, of
which Figs. 11, 21, and 22 are developments. Figs. 6, 8, 12, 13, and 14
[Illustration: FIGS. 3 to 7.--Straight-lined ornaments.]
are Greek frets; 7 and 20 are Chinese. Fig. 9 is a Gothic nail-head
ornament; 10 is of German origin; 19 is a Japanese key pattern; and Fig.
23 is derived from the plaiting of rushes, ribbons, straws, or from
herring-bone brick-work, and is common to prehistoric and Byzantine
work.
Frets are more appropriate to flat surfaces than to concave or convex
ones; they may, however, be used on slightly concave surfaces, such as
the inside bevels of plates or dishes; then their vertical lines will
compose well, by radiating from the centre of the plate. The square
within square, and double and single frets, shown at Figs. 8 and 15,
were often
[Illustration: FIGS. 8 to 11.--Straight-lined ornaments.]
used in conjunction by the Greeks, and earlier by the Egyptians, on the
ceilings of their tombs (Fig. 16), both singly, and alternating with
spirals and circular ornaments. (See Fig. 43.)
The zigzag is another straight-lined form largely used as ornament; it
was used by the Egyptians and Early Greeks as the symbol of water (Figs.
28, 165).
Lozenges and diamonds are other elements of straight-lined ornament,
and form the basis of many repeating patterns in woven stuffs,
paper-hangings, and tiles. Triangles, squares, hexagons, octagons,
[Illustration: FIGS. 12 to 14.--Greek frets.]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Fret and panel border, Greek.]
and other polygons are also used largely as constructive bases in
pattern-designing.
After the straight line, the curved is the other element in ornament. It
is pre-eminently the type of grace, and the “line of beauty.” Whether
seen in the outline of the cloud, the wave, or the rounded limb of the
human figure, the eye takes a delight in
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--Egyptian ceiling fret.]
tracing out the flowing curve. We have closed curves in such figures as
the circle, ellipse, oval, figure of eight, and in the vesica piscis, or
fish-shape, the latter being composed of two arcs of a circle of the
same radius, touching each other at their opposite extremities. The
parabola, hyperbola, &c., are open curves; such figures as the meander
(Fig. 29), the spiral (Fig. 24), the scroll (Fig. 25), and the swag or
festoon (Fig. 27), are also open curves. When the festoon is formed of
links and hangs like a chain from two points, it is called a catenary,
and is practically identical with the lines of festoons and the loopings
of drapery.
[Illustration: 17
18
19
20
FIGS. 17 TO 20.--Straight-lined ornaments]
In the illustrations, we have at Fig. 30 circles touching each other;
this is the framework of some diapers and repeating forms. Next we come
to circles intersecting each other. Fig. 31 is a pattern common alike
to Saracenic, Egyptian, and Japanese diapers. Fig. 32 is a border
ornament of the same pattern with a centre.
[Illustration: FIGS. 21 to 23.--Straight-lined ornaments.]
An effective disc border, like that made by savage tribes from cut
shells, is shown at Fig. 33, and a development of the latter is that of
Fig. 34, taken
[Illustration: FIGS. 24. 25.--Spiral and Scroll.]
from Assyrian tesseræ, small oblong pieces of stone or metal, on which
the pattern was incised, and often alternating with the _guilloche_
(Figs. 37, 38, 39, and 40). The guilloche was an important pattern in
Assyrian work, in Greek moulding decoration, and in their flat painted
ornament.
[Illustration: FIG. 26. A, B, C, D, E.--Scale-work (imbricated).]
[Illustration: FIG. 27.--Festoon (catenary).]
[Illustration: FIG. 28.--Zigzag.]
[Illustration: FIG. 29.--Meander.]
Figs. 35 and 36 are further examples of ornament obtained from the
circle and its segments; the former being the Gothic ball-flower.
Imbricated or scale ornament was much used for roofs, to ornament small
columns and circular mouldings. Examples are given at Fig. 26, A, B, and
C.
[Illustration: FIGS. 30 to 36.--Ornaments mostly derived from the
circle.]
We now pass from the circle to the spiral,[5] from which a great part of
ornamental forms are derived.
Fig. 41 is an Egyptian wave scroll, and 42 is the familiar Greek wave.
Fig. 43 is from an Egyptian ceiling; all these contain the spiral as
their chief characteristic. Fig. 44 shows two intersecting meanders,
[Illustration: FIGS. 37 to 40.--Ornaments mostly derived from the
circle.]
47 is a scroll intersected by a meander, 46 is an eccentric meander, 45
is the scroll or antispiral of the cyma recta, and 48 is the double
spiral of the cavetto decoration. Fig. 70 is the ornament on the Greek
cyma reversa or ogee, called by the French _rais de cœur_; 71 is a Roman
variety.
[Illustration: FIGS. 41 to 48.--Ornaments chiefly based on spiral
curves.]
Fig. 50 shows the anatomy or centre lines of the purely æsthetic Greek
pattern developed at Fig. 49. Figs. 51 and 52 are additional examples.
Fig. 53 is one of the scrolls, and in Fig. 54 is shown the irregular
meanders and spiral curves forming the stand for the tripod on the roof
of the choragic monument of Lysikrates.
[Illustration: FIGS. 49 to 52.--Greek borders from vases.]
[Illustration: FIG. 53.--Scroll ornament on the slope of the roof of the
choragic monument of Lysikrates.]
[Illustration: FIG. 54.--Portion of the tripod stand on top of the roof
of the monument of Lysikrates.]
CHAPTER III
The laws of composition in ornament are deduced from nature, but we must
look to works of art for their proper application.
The laws that may be deduced are numberless, but the principal ones may
be given as follows:--
GEOMETRICAL ARRANGEMENT, PROPORTION, STABILITY, REPETITION, CONTRAST,
SYMMETRY, RADIATION, TANGENTIAL JUNCTION, REPOSE, VARIETY,
SUBORDINATION, BALANCE, UNITY, SERIES, GROWTH, SUPERPOSITION, FITNESS.
Some of these are preliminary laws; _e.g._ we cannot have ornament
without some _geometrical arrangement_, even spots in a line must be set
out at regular distances, or with a recurring element of irregularity;
and as every plant and part of it are set out on a geometrical basis, we
cannot have good floral ornament without such an arrangement. The same
may be said of the setting out of the more complex schemes of ornament,
and besides this framework, a whole class of ornament depends on
geometrical arrangement. There must be _harmonic proportion_ between the
parts of the ornament, as well as between the enrichment and the ground,
to make ornament pleasing; this last element of proportion is generally
called _even distribution_, and is found in all good work; at the same
time it admits of a variety of treatment: in some Indian, Chinese, and
Saracenic ornament it is painfully monotonous, while in good Roman and
Renaissance work, though the law is observed, there is such variety and
contrast, that it never becomes tiresome. Ornament to be satisfactory
must have _Stability_, and not look as if it would fall down. After
these preliminaries, _Repetition_ may be looked on as the first law; as
anything repeated forms elementary ornament. _Contrast_ comes next, as
the mere alternation of upright and horizontal lines form a contrasted
ornament | ---- | ---- | ---- | _Symmetry_ perhaps comes next, and is the
repetition of any form on its axis; even the rudest blot so doubled
makes ornament. _Radiation_ alone is the basis of much ornament, and
directly we get as far as the scroll, we must have _tangential
junction_, for broken-backed curves are hardly ornament. Next comes
_Repose_: any decoration that seems to crawl is not pleasing but
distressing. As we advance we want _Variety_ and _Subordination_. An
unsymmetrical ornament generally requires _Balance_; _Unity_ is
necessary in any complex system. _Series_ adds a new element by the
repetition at stated intervals of a succession of different objects, or
of similar ones of increasing or decreasing size. _Growth_ gives us one
of the most vigorous and delightful elements in nature, and
_Superposition_ may be looked on as the last addition to ornament yet
made by man; while _Fitness_ may be said to include all before-mentioned
and more.
The descriptions just given will serve for the definition of some of
the laws, but others require further explanation.
_Proportion_, by which “harmonic proportion” is meant, applies also to
the architectural features of a design, and is indispensable in
designing borders, composed of lines or mouldings, and in panels. The
width of such border, or series of mouldings, should be a proportionate
part of the narrowest width of the space or panel. There are certain
distances between lines that are more pleasing than others, and as a
rule, one space should preponderate. In mouldings the same thing is
true, but in addition to the spaces, there are the projections and
contours to be studied. The study of Greek profiles (Figs. C and D, p.
15) is most valuable, though Greek mouldings are unsuitable for external
work in this climate. The methods of proportioning cornices given in
Vitruvius are useful (the application of proportion to surfaces will be
found at Chap. IV.).
_Stability._--Instability is mostly found in creeping or twining plants,
put vertically, and not attached to a central stem, or to the framework
of the panel; also to bulky forms put on slight ones, that from their
size seem unable to support the weight. We know from experience that
trunks of trees support the enormous mass of branches and foliage above
them by their solidity, and bear the strain of winds by their strength
and the spread and tenacity of their roots. In the rare case in which
such an arrangement is wanted in ornament, we must resort to some
device, such as difference of texture between the supports and the mass
above, to indicate superior supporting power.
_Repetition_ is the first method by which things were turned into
ornament, but if it be carried too far it produces monotony; this may be
seen in a long succession of similar windows in factories, and the
endless rows of iron railings to parks. A little more thought would put
in proper places a larger or more ornate window; and in the case of
railings would afford a larger and more important post or a group of
them: this infusion of Variety would correct the monotonous appearance,
and greatly add to the pleasure of the beholders. The ornaments on
mouldings, patterns in checkers, net-work, or diapers may be repeated up
to a certain point without being tiresome, but symbolic and
distinguishing forms must, as a rule, be used sparingly. One human
figure is mostly enough in an ornamental panel, because the figure
absorbs the attention, though cupids or very young children may be
repeated; the former are imaginary creatures, and the latter sportive
ones, but even these should be so arranged as to compose with the
foliage, which should be an open screen they are seen playing through.
The difficulty of preventing even cupids from absorbing all interest,
was probably the cause of the ancients so often making them half-floral.
_Contrast_ in form or colour imparts vigour to the composition; the
commonest illustration of contrast in form is the circle and the
straight line, but more subtle contrasts are found in Nature’s works,
very flat curves being contrasted with sharp ones; and in colour,
besides the contrasts of the leaves and flowers, there are often spots
of contrasting colour on flowers to heighten their brilliancy, though
this is mostly effected by the pistils and stamens. The “egg and
tongue,” one of the most effective ornaments invented, has the smooth
curved eggs contrasted with the thin lines of the shells, and the curved
eggs with the straight edge of the tongue. (Fig. 67.) Renaissance and
Roman ornament (see Fig. 129) give the amplest illustrations of
contrast; varieties of foliage contrasting with vases, labels, shields,
armour, masks, animals, and human figures. (See Figs. 121, 123, 124,
126, 127, 130, 132, and Frontispiece.)
_Symmetry_ has been defined before as the mere doubling of a form on its
axis; it is one of the most important means of producing ornament, as
well as one of the laws most commonly found in nature. Nothing in
nature, however, is absolutely symmetrical, though there is a suggestion
of symmetry about the bulk of its works.
_Radiation_ is the spreading out of lines from a point, like a fan, and
these lines may be straight or curved, and the axis of the radiating
lines may be vertical, horizontal, or oblique. It is found in the human
hand, in the wing feathers of birds, in the scallop and similar bivalve
shells, in the umbels of flowers, and in much other plant growth. The
Greek honeysuckle is the most beautiful instance of its adaptation as
ornament. (See Figs. 49, 50, 51, 52, and 115.) If the centre of the
radiating lines is kept below the springing line, it adds greatly to the
interest and beauty of the ornament. A succession of festoons or of
drapery hanging from two points are examples of one species of curved
radiation.
_Tangential Junction._--Euclid’s definition of a tangent is as
follows:--“A straight line is said to touch a circle, when it meets the
circle, and being produced does not cut it,” and is obtained by drawing
a line perpendicular to any radius from the point at which it touches
the circumference. In ornament, tangential junction means that where two
curves of opposite curvature meet they are to meet at the tangential
points of each (Fig. 25), and in the case of a curve being continued by
a straight line, the point of junction is the tangential point. A curve,
however, should never be continued by a straight line, but by a flatter
curve. The beauty imparted by following this rule is seen in the Ionic
capitals of the Temple of Apollo at Bassæ, where the two volutes are
joined by a curve instead of by the usual straight line (see Fig. 179 in
Appendix).
_Repose._--The absence of a look of motion in ornament; this appearance
of motion may be seen in some flamboyant tracery and Saracenic patterns,
in some modern paper-hangings, and in patterns in woven and printed
stuffs. The word repose is sometimes used to denote an absence of
spottiness. In the best pilaster panels, horizontal lines are introduced
partly for contrast, and partly to give repose by checking the
appearance of motion in the curved plant forms. (Fig. 127.)
_Variety_ is a difference of form or arrangement in the ornament from
that which immediately precedes or follows it. In nature we see that
every leaf varies from every other by subtle differences, though the
foliage is roughly alike, and it is for this reason that Nature’s works
never pall upon us. General similarity with slight variety is the most
proper for the highest and most dignified ornament. In other cases
absolute variety is permissible. Variety is the salt of ornament that
takes off the insipidity of repetition.
_Subordination._--The state of being inferior to another, a regular
descending series. In any complex system of ornament, one part should be
chosen as the most important, and all the rest should lead up to it; but
certain distinct parts, such as masses or flowers, may re-echo in a
fainter way the main motive. In drawing, subordination is obtained by
the principal mass being larger than the rest, and by its details being
larger and more pronounced; in painting, by the above and by the
principal part being more vivid in colour; in modelling, by greater size
and relief. The Romans and Cinque Cento artists were great masters of
this art. In some panels, though the highest relief is not great, there
is an infinity of gradation, the lowest relief gradually sinking into
the ground. In a Renaissance bas-relief of a full face the greatest
projection is about the sixteenth of an inch, and yet the face is
perfectly modelled. Modern English carved ornament is too frequently
deficient in this quality.
_Balance._--The making unsymmetrical masses of equal weight. In the
creations of nature we see balance employed in trees, shrubs, and plants
(Fig. 160); in leaves, made as it were on a symmetrical basis, balance
is equally employed. In simple oval leaves, for example, one side is
more convex than the other, and the balance is got by the curve in the
rib.
_Unity_ is the completeness of any system of ornament not marred by
incongruous elements or forms.
_Series_ is the repetition of a limited succession of different forms:
in the egg and tongue, of two; in the bead and reel, of three; in
branches of plants when the leaves regularly diminish in size, of many.
(Fig. 67.) Long series may be seen in Saracenic ornament, where the same
text is repeated sometimes with ornament between the texts.
_Growth._--This is at once the rarest and most delightful of the hints
taken from nature by great ornamentalists. In climbing plants, whose
stalks are polygonal, and that twist to reach an object, or for the
flowers to get the sun, the edges of the stalk are seen to form a
spiral. Sometimes this vigour of growth is seen in the turn of a leaf or
the clasp of a tendril round a twig. The capitals and the tripod stand
of the choragic monument of Lysikrates are good examples. (Figs. 53 and
54.)
_Superposition._--This is most frequently seen in Saracenic ornament,
but it is also found in Renaissance ornament. The simplest form is in
the case of meanders of different curvature when one is put over the
other, the upper one being more vigorous in form and colour. The next
case is where larger ornaments of a more striking colour are put over a
smaller and less obtrusive pattern, as in the Persian windows of the
Suleimanyeh at Constantinople; but the commonest case is that of
inscriptions over floral ornament, examples of which are without number
in Saracenic work. This, like nearly all other inventions in ornament,
is taken from nature. We see twining or creeping plants overgrowing
trees or bushes, and parasitical plants overgrowing others, from which
they get their sustenance, and have therefore roots, stems, and flowers,
but no leaves. Saracenic diapers frequently have many planes superposed,
and as each pattern is differently coloured and gilt, any change of
position in the beholder brings out a new pattern. This may be seen in
the Alhambra Court at the Crystal Palace. (Fig. 101.)
_Fitness_, in its most obvious sense, is arranging the ornament so that
it may not interfere with the proper use of the thing ornamented. The
enrichment of a sword-hilt must not hurt the hand, nor render the proper
wielding of the sword difficult or impossible; and the same canon
applies to the handles of flagons, jugs, or drinking vessels, &c.; in a
secondary sense it is a due consideration of the qualities of the
material to be ornamented, and of the appropriateness of the ornament to
the purpose for which the article is intended; and thirdly, it supposes
a well-ordered design, whose completeness would be marred by anything
being added or removed.
The want of what is called “alternation” in design is analogous to a
surface that is so elaborately decorated with a uniform repeating
pattern that it is wearisome to look at.
The value of plain spaces in design is enormous. Charles Lamb, in one of
his delightful letters to Coleridge, says in finishing--“I will leave
you, in mercy, one small white spot _empty_ below, to repose your eyes
upon, fatigued as they must be with the wilderness of words they have
by this time painfully travelled through.” To the designer this analogy
will be obvious and useful.
Plain spaces as alternations in design, are the oases in the desert, and
may be compared to a refreshing silence after a continuous chatter or
deafening noise.
It is easier to do too much than to know exactly where to stop. Excess
of ornament defeats its own end, there is no foil to set it off, and it
must be guarded against. The Saracens, by the relative weight of their
ornament, have to some extent obviated this objection. To know the value
of plainness is to enhance the ornament used. To have this vividly
brought home to you, the best Greek architecture should be compared with
late Roman. In the Greek you see a very small quantity of exquisite
ornament surrounded by plainness, which makes it doubly precious; in
late Roman, every surface is covered without a spot to rest the eye on,
so that the whole becomes dull, confused, and monotonous.
CHAPTER IV
Before speaking of the decoration of mouldings, a few words must be said
on the mouldings themselves. The Greeks were the first people who
carried the art of moulding or profiling to any perfection, and they are
still supreme; they mainly used straight-lined sections for strength,
but added a few curved sections to prevent monotony. The air of Greece
is pellucid and the sunshine brilliant, so for their curved sections
those that approximated to conic sections were preferred as having more
subtle shade, segments of circles being rarely used. (See Figs. 61-64.)
The greatest efforts were made to have these mouldings as exquisite as
possible, so as to get variety of shade and shadow, and mouldings of the
same species were rarely or never alike. The Romans, who had much
coarser artistic sensibilities than the Greeks, and were slaves to easy
rules, used segments of circles for their mouldings instead of the Greek
curves. (See Figs. 55-66.) They also had an atmosphere less clear, and
their sunshine was not so brilliant. The Mediævals, who lived in misty
climates with little sunshine, were as logical in their methods, but
were not possessed of the artistic sensibilities of the Greeks, so,
although their mouldings answer the
[Illustration: FIGS. 55 to 60.--Profiles of Roman mouldings with their
fillets.]
[Illustration: FIGS. 61 to 66.--Profiles of Greek mouldings with their
fillets.]
purpose, they lack refinement. The Mediævals got their effects by deep
undercutting, and by putting fillets or leaving arrises on such parts as
were to tell bright;--Classic and Renaissance mouldings, however, are
alone treated of here.
[Illustration: FIG. 67.--The ovolo or echinus from the Erechtheum,
enriched.]
[Illustration: FIG. 68.--The cavetto moulding.]
[Illustration: FIG. 69.--The cyma recta.]
In the best periods of ancient art it was the invariable custom to adopt
a form nearly like the profile or section of the moulding, and to double
it for the basis of its decoration, and nothing could produce a more
pleasing and artistic result, for then the moulding never lost its
character, however elaborately it might be enriched. The diagrams from
Figs. 67 to 78 will help to illustrate this: for instance, at Fig. 67 we
have the Greek ovolo, ornamented with eggs, called
[Illustration: FIG. 70.--The Greek ogee with water leaf ornament.]
by the Greeks “turnip stones,” which resemble the section of the
moulding doubled; at 70 and 73 the Greek ogee is shown with the water
leaf ornament
[Illustration: FIG. 71.--Roman variety of the ornament on the ogee.]
used to enrich it, for which we have no distinctive name--it is called
by the French “_Rais de Cœur_,” and resembles the section of the
moulding doubled; at 71 is a Roman variation of this ornament; at 68, a
Roman cavetto, or hollow; at 69, a “cyma recta.” Fig. 77 is a curved
“astragal” or bead moulding; and at Fig. 78 is the bead and reel
ornament. (See also Figs. 72 and 73 for examples of Greek bead and reel
ornament.) Figs. 74, 75, and 76 are examples of ornament used for flat
bands or fascias. When these are sunk with semi-circular or elliptical
channels they are called “fluted,” and when raised in relief “reeded.”
[Illustration: FIG. 72.--Decorated mouldings from the temple of Minerva
Polias at Athens, ogee, ovolo, and beads.]
We may next briefly speak of the ornamental treatment of floors, walls,
and ceilings.
Beginning with the floor, it must be remembered that in floor decoration
the sense of flatness should be preserved; raised and especially angular
surfaces are to be avoided, and what is unpleasant to use is unpleasant
to be suggested for use, though the Assyrians used relief on their
floors. Whether the
[Illustration: FIG. 73.--Greek cyma reversa or ogee decorated with the
water leaf, a fret ornament carved on upper fillet, and a bead and reel
below.]
[Illustration: 74. From Jupiter Tonans.
75. From the Forum of Nerva.
76. From the Temple of Jupiter Stator.
FIGS. 74 to 76.--Fluted ornaments.]
decoration be obtained by carpets, rugs, floor-cloth, inlaid marble or
metal, mosaic, tiles, or parquetry, nothing should be introduced to
disturb the flatness,
[Illustration: FIGS. 76 A and 76 B.--Reeded ornaments for flat bands.]
by shading the forms or by imitating mouldings, or a ridge and furrow.
All realistic renderings of animals
[Illustration: FIG. 77.--Astragal or bead moulding.]
[Illustration: FIG. 78.--Bead and reel.]
or plants should be carefully avoided. The colour may be varied, but
evenly distributed, and mostly sober; though the Romans sometimes used
lapis lazuli for their floors, or encrusted them with gems, and the
Byzantines used gold or silver chased and enriched with niello. Mosaic
work applied to floors was an early form of decoration, and is still of
a high order in the scale of floor decorations, the highest
[Illustration: FIG. 79.--Opus Alexandrinum from a pavement in the Church
of San Marco (Rome).]
being marble inlaid with other marbles or with mastic, like those in the
Baptistery at Florence and the Cathedral at Siena. The use of marble or
tiles in this country is limited to the floors of museums, baths, halls
and passages; on account of their coldness, they cannot be used with
comfort in ordinary rooms. Mosaic may be treated with borders and lines
like the framing of a picture, with the field (or central space) either
plain, powdered with spots of decoration, or covered with a pattern.
Black and white is the most dignified treatment. If other colours are
used, black with pale red or cream colour, or low-toned reds, greens,
greys, and yellows are to be preferred. Opus Alexandrinum is one of the
most magnificent floor decorations yet used; rectangular or circular
slabs of porphyry are surrounded with bands composed of geometrical
figures in purple, green, and black porphyry, on a white marble ground,
though marble occasionally takes the place of porphyry in the smaller
geometrical patterns. (See Fig. 79.)
Floor-cloths and linoleums are of modern introduction. The decoration of
these coverings is best when it is of subdued colours treated flatly.
In carpets, the pattern should, as a rule, radiate from geometric
points; at least the more important spots should be on a circular,
lozenge, or square basis, so that the eye should not be carried in one
particular direction. If animals are used, they should have a simple
outline, and should be treated flatly. Realistic flowers, birds, human
figures, landscapes, and architecture are out of place on carpets. A
border always improves a carpet, if properly designed to harmonize with
the centre, or to enhance its value.
Walls may be decorated with metals or marbles; with wood panelling,
either plain, moulded, inlaid, carved or incised; with plaster flatly
embossed or sunk, or in which stones, shells or looking-glass, &c. is
embedded; with plain colour, with painted or stencilled patterns; with
furs or feather work; with hangings of velvet, satin, silk, or calico,
either plain, enriched, or embroidered; by tapestry, matting, stamped
leather or
[Illustration: FIGS. 80 to 83.--Improper arrangements for wall-papers or
room decoration.]
its imitations, and by paper-hangings. If pictures are to be hung on a
wall, it is obvious that a low-toned decoration, that will set them off,
is alone admissible; since the pictures themselves are the principal
decoration, the walls should be treated as an unobtrusive background.
The best decoration for appearance after simple colour or a painted
pattern is silk or woven stuffs.[6] If paper-hangings be chosen, they
should have a uniform pattern and be free from spots; for the eye should
not be arrested by any particular form, nor be forcibly carried in any
direction. In illustration of this, we may suppose the diagrams, Figs.
80, 81, 82, and 83, to represent decorated wall spaces. All these
decorative arrangements are bad as wall-coverings; but by combining
their elements, at Fig. 84 a tolerably good paper-hanging is produced
that will form a background for furniture and pictures.
[Illustration: FIG. 84.--Arrangement for the lines of a wall-paper.]
The diagram, Fig. 80, arrests the eye; 81 and 82 tend to exaggerate the
height or breadth of the room; for patterns in which vertical or
horizontal lines predominate will have the effect of lengthening or
widening the surface of the wall; whilst the diagram 83, being composed
of oblique lines, will not only give a look of weakness to the wall, but
will lead the eye from one corner of the room to the other. A pattern,
to be satisfactory as a background, should neither arrest the eye nor
carry it in any particular direction.
The height of a real dado generally depends on the height of the
chair-backs, but it may be influenced by the height of the ceiling, and
partly by the use to which the room is put; high wainscoting prevents
small-sized pictures from being seen. If the wainscot
[Illustration: FIGS. 85 to 87.--Fillings of ceilings showing various
schemes of all-over effects.]
be higher than the centre of the wall, the upper part of the wall may
have a stronger decoration with a more flowing pattern than would be
admissible on a
[Illustration: FIG. 88.--Portion of the ceiling of vestibule of Sacristy
of S. Spirito (Florence) by Sansovino.]
wall with lower wainscoting. If there be a frieze in the room, a still
freer and more pictorial treatment may be allowed on it. The Greeks
called the frieze Zoophoros, or life-bearing, because it was generally
[Illustration: FIG. 89.--Ceiling from Serlio’s architecture.]
adorned with figures of men or animals. Wall spaces need not be panelled
in small rooms, as the window-openings, doors, and fireplaces mostly
break up the space sufficiently. If the rooms, though small, are high, a
dado and a frieze are improvements. On ceilings there is more room for
variety and elaboration. There are many ways of decorating ceilings. We
may take the cornice as the frame, and regard the ceiling as the space
to decorate; the simplest way is to powder it (Fig. 85), or to cover it
over with a scroll-work pattern (Fig. 86). An effective treatment
consists in lightly covering the field with a pattern steadied by
labels, shields, or medallions (Fig. 87).
In dividing a ceiling into panels, either by painting or by relief work,
the centre panel or compartment should generally be larger than any of
the others (see Fig. 89, and 92 at B), though there are excellent
Renaissance ceilings divided into equal panels. When the ceiling is
unequally divided, the spaces should be in harmonic proportion, so that
no two series of panels shall be the same width; this, however, does not
apply to the widths of the stiles and rails, which should be alike.
Figs. 88 and 89 show such arrangements. Care must be taken in designing
the subdivisions of ceilings that the panels, interspaces, and mouldings
are well contrasted. A safe guide for the designer in obtaining the
requisite proportions is to be found in the Roman ceilings, although
those of which drawings are preserved were mostly vaulted. For flat
ceilings, good examples may be studied of the best period of Italian
Renaissance (Fig. 88), and in both cases the mouldings of the panels are
usually given. Where a ceiling to be decorated is divided by beams, the
panelling, if admissible, should be repeated in the different
compartments. Ceilings of corridors or long rooms may be harmonically
divided across at discretion.
Relief work or modelled ornament on ceilings should be so regulated that
the light from windows or from artificial illumination should cause
little cast shadow, only enough to define the outline; the forms should
be carefully rounded off in the more important masses to lessen the
abruptness of cast shadow. A preponderance of light in the larger
masses, connected and softened by lower tones, is commonly adopted.
On the carved surface itself, the play of light and shade should be
quite secondary, and not compete in strength with the deeper shadows
cast by the ornament on its ground. If this be not attended to,
confusion and obscurity are apt to be produced.
A nice balancing of light and shade is of the greatest importance in
relief ornament. It may here be remarked, that for outdoor work in a
sunny climate, a lower relief in the carving and more delicacy in the
mouldings is admissible, than in a misty one like ours, where strong
sunlight rarely occurs; and for this reason a bolder treatment of relief
is necessary, which allows of a coarser material being used. Before
leaving the subject of relief ornament, it would be as well to state,
that no carved decoration should be fastened on to a ceiling or panel,
but should be worked out of the material itself; and also that where
human figures are used on ceilings, they must be so arranged as to be
seen from the heads at the most important point in the room; seen from
the feet the figures appear to be upside down.
CHAPTER V
In setting out spaces for decoration the chief aim should be to get them
in harmonic proportion. The Greeks were the great masters of this art,
the most subtle proportions being chosen by them, but there is not space
here to enter into refinements. Roughly speaking, the proportion of
1¾ to 1 is fairly agreeable; when the space required approaches a
double square, it looks better if it somewhat exceeds or falls short of
that figure. As a rule, a marked preponderance in the height or length
should be given to every oblong used in decoration, and with those rough
rules, an educated eye can mostly, after a few trials, obtain harmonious
proportions. Those forms about which there is an uncertainty always look
feeble and unsatisfactory, _e.g._ an oblong that approaches the square,
or an ellipse that approaches a circle. In the case of the square there
should be no doubt about its being a square, so it is necessary that the
ornamentation chosen be calculated to emphasize the shape and not give
it the appearance of an oblong, _i.e._ the ornament should be
symmetrical on both the axes, and it is often useful to accentuate the
corners as well; if the square be surrounded by a border it is
sometimes advisable to strengthen its corners by knees. If this be done
it is necessary to have them at the four corners; if they be applied to
the two upper or the two under corners, the square will be taken for an
oblong. The repetition of squares is much more endurable than a
repetition of similar oblongs. A common case of the monotonous effect of
similar oblong panels is to be seen in a four-panelled door with the
middle rail in the centre, so the middle rail is commonly put below the
centre to get variety in the panels. Even in so graceful a form as the
human figure, sculptors rarely represent it in a perfectly symmetrical
attitude, particularly in bas-relief, unless it be to express some
marked emotion, or for the sake of the composition; there are, however,
a few figures in front view, symmetrically arranged, that form the
centres of ornamental compositions: the front view of animals in
bas-relief is still less admissible. The circle is by far the most
beautiful and useful closed curve, but it is not always available, as in
the case of a central feature in a very long ceiling or in oblong
panels, and its place must be then supplied by an ellipse, which has
this merit, that its proportions are infinite, the straight line and the
circle being only extreme cases of the ellipse; but when the choice is
unfettered the long (major) axis should so far exceed the short (minor)
as to afford a contrast; an ellipse that differs but slightly from the
circle too much resembles one that is ill-drawn. When an ellipse is
placed with the long axis vertical, which is sometimes necessary in
oblong panels, looking-glasses, &c., it should be tied to the vertical
and horizontal framework to prevent an
[Illustration: FIG 90.--Vase by Stevens showing unequal divisions of the
height, and strengthening horizontal bands.]
appearance of instability, and when this cannot be done it should be
supported by foliage.
In horizontally dividing objects circular in plan and curved in section,
such as vases, with lines or bands, several things have to be
considered. The lines themselves have a strengthening effect, but the
question is where they are best applied: if the curves of the object
vary considerably, the points at which the variations begin are the
proper places, and in this case, as in all others, variety and the
predominance of one division are to be adopted; if, however, the vase
[Illustration: FIG. 91.--Vase showing unequal divisions of the height,
and strengthening horizontal bands.]
is to be decorated, the predominant space for the most important
decoration must be placed where the curve is nearly uniform, or else the
ornament will be distorted. The Greek painted vases, with a few
exceptions, are the best examples of excellence in their divisions
(Figs. 90 and 91). Due consideration must also be given to the placing
of the vase; some of the Greek vases, intended to stand on the ground,
have the main ornament confined to the shoulder.
In the division of objects in the round, it is a general rule that they
should not be divided in the middle, but that the upper or under part
should be distinctly predominant, and that the two parts should be
different. There is, however, an exception to this rule, for when
certain objects are wanted to be symmetrical on their horizontal axes,
the upper and under forms should then be identical, _e.g._ in the case
of certain vases, candlesticks, and balusters.
[Illustration: FIG. 92.--Panelling of ceilings showing at A a bad, and
at B a better arrangement.]
In the case of ornamental objects whose outline is a matter of taste,
such as finger-plates, care must be taken that they neither have a weak
outline wholly made up of curves, like A, nor one that is too angular,
like B; the design C seems to obviate both these defects (Fig. 94).
[Illustration: _Fig. 93._--Door panels illustrating an ill-proportioned
division at A, and a well-proportioned one at B.]
[Illustration: FIG. 94.--Finger-plates for a door, of different
outlines.]
Compositions wholly formed of parallel straight lines, such as
entablatures, and some door and window architraves, have a severity,
that borders upon the monotonous, that is sometimes called dryness. The
Greeks corrected this defect in their entablatures by introducing
figures in the frieze, while the Romans mostly ornamented their friezes
with festoons and foliage. In the door architrave at the Erechtheum
circular pateræ are used on the fascia for this reason (Fig. 96); modern
ornamentalists have introduced curved figures to correct the dryness.
Archivolts to circular openings without imposts, and not enclosed by
straight lines, lack firmness and rigidity, which may be imparted by
inserting frets or flutes radiating from the centre, on the fascia of
the archivolt (Fig. 95). Similar devices may be employed to correct
weakness in planes of varied outline. In the shield of the savage (Fig.
97), made of black and yellow cane ornamented with cut shells, the two
horizontal bands, just below the junction of the semicircles with the
straight lines, strengthen the composition; there is a fair amount of
contrast between the oblique lines of the ornaments, and the circular,
slanting, and horizontal lines; though the circular cut shell-work of
the ends is excessive and monotonous. Extreme repetition is a common
fault of savage art.
When a surface requires ornament and yet to be kept flat, the painted or
inlaid ornament upon it should not be shaded nor have cast shadows, or
when carved it should be sunk: what beauty can be got by flat colours
may be seen in the tiles from Rhodes, Cairo, and Damascus. On large
surfaces the best forms of applying ornaments is within lines of
checkers, network (Figs. 98 and 99), or diapers, and except in the case
of very large surfaces, where striking variety may be introduced at set
intervals, the ornament should be uniform in general
[Illustration: FIG. 95.--Contrasting decoration on rectangular and
circular borders.]
effect, leaving the varieties to be discovered by closer inspection. One
of the best examples of this, though it is not in diapers, is in the
Medici Chapel at Florence. Michael Angelo enriched a string there with
copies of antique masks; in looking at the sides of the chapel the
masks seem all alike, but on going near them, each one is seen to be
different. Innumerable examples of ornament within network, checkers,
and diapers, maybe found in Saracenic, Moresque, Gothic, and Renaissance
work.
[Illustration: FIG. 96.--Door case at the Erechtheum showing the pateræ
on the fascia.]
To adopt forms directly from nature for the shape of any article of use
is rarely successful, though the best shapes have mostly been suggested
by natural forms. The Orientals, especially those of the extreme East,
have been very fond of this direct imitation, as in vessels made in
imitation of a piece of bamboo, of gourds with both single and double
bulbs, of eggs, cocoanuts, the horns and hoofs of animals including the
horn of the rhinoceros, of shells, flowers, &c., but they mostly want
stands or feet, which partly removes them from pure realism, except in
the case of the bamboo, the form of which too is not particularly
beautiful. When the ancient traditions had died out in England, and the
proper application of ornament
[Illustration: FIG. 97.--Shield made of cane and ornamented with cut
shells and zigzags.]
to articles of use was unknown, it occurred to many that such objects
might be directly imitated from nature. Sprays of fuchsia with a large
flower on each were used for curtain hooks; branches of plants were
used for gas brackets with the flame coming from the flower; and vases
made in imitation of the blossom of the arum. Sometimes nature itself
was not vast enough for imitation; earthenware bowls and wine-coolers
were made in imitation of wickerwork, gold brooches in imitation of
twisted bread, and other adaptations were made that were equally
incongruous. It is true that the Japanese sometimes protect their
porcelain with an outer covering of woven cane, and wicker-covered
bottles are not unknown here. The Kafirs, too, carry their milk in woven
baskets; yet in spite of these cases, there is an apparent absurdity in
such designs, not to speak of the poverty of invention they betray.
FIGS. 98 and 99.--Carved checkers.
Such vagaries are happily disappearing, since the creation of museums
and schools of ornamental art, but they are by no means extinct.
Every article, whether for use or ornament, should first be constructed
as elegantly as possible for its purpose, or supposed purpose; and only
be ornamented when the ornament does not appear incongruous, and does
not interfere with its use, but only emphasizes its form or relieves it
from monotony. Although this chapter is mainly confined to outlines and
divisions of surfaces, something has been said about the application of
ornament, so it may be remarked that the lower part of a wall should be
treated with more severity and sobriety than the upper part; for the
lower part is partly hidden by furniture, and is most liable to injury.
The Romans and Byzantines mostly used marble for the lower parts of
walls in magnificent buildings, though in houses of less magnificence
marble was either imitated by painting, or else simple floral decoration
was used. The Saracens also employed marble, but when that was not easy
to obtain, tiles took its place. The Mediævals used marble, wood
panelling, or tapestry, and when the walls were wholly painted, they
often imitated the more costly materials. Geometrical figures or diapers
are most appropriate for this part, when it is painted or papered. The
part of the wall above this may be treated with greater freedom and
elaboration. The part of the wall on a level with the eye should have
greater finish bestowed on it, unless there be a frieze with figures or
a higher class of ornament to a larger scale.
CHAPTER VI
Having previously considered the principal elements of ornament, it is
now advisable to classify ornament in accordance with the spaces it has
to fill, and these may roughly be divided into six classes or great
divisions, as follows:--
1. Uniform surfaces, as floors, walls, and ceilings.
2. Horizontal bands, as friezes, &c.
3. Perpendicular bands, as panels of piers, pilasters, stripes, &c.
4. Symmetrical arrangements, as panels, either rectangular or of closed
curved figures.
5. Symmetrical arrangements composed of straight and curved lines or
of compound curves, as spandrels, panels of curved and straight lines.
6. Unsymmetrical spaces founded by straight or curved lines, or by both.
_The uniform surfaces_ of large undivided areas are mostly decorated in
the following ways: by all-over patterns, by diapering, checkering,
powdering, or spotting. All-over patterns may be symmetrical, balanced,
or one-sided, and are drawn, painted, modelled, or carved. The typical
pattern, if symmetrical, has no
[Illustration: FIG. 100.--Waving pattern, stamped velvet, 16th century.
Italian, showing Saracenic influence.]
two pieces of the ornament alike in the one half; and if balanced or
onesided has no two pieces alike; so that the whole is full of interest
from its variety. It is, however, rarely seen, as, unless the artist
does it for his own delight, few amateurs care to pay for it. It is
simulated in paper-hangings by the repetition of a piece, the width of
the paper (Fig. 143), called a repeat; by stencilling or pouncing the
repeat, if painted; and by cast repeats, if in plaster. This is one of
the cheap substitutes for the real thing which pervades European art.
The Chinese formerly supplied paper-hangings that would cover a whole
room without a repeat.
A _diaper_ pattern is properly one contained in some repeating
geometrical figure not composed of straight lines. In Saracenic and
Moresque work real diapers are mostly found, a geometrical framework
being laid over some interlaced floral patterns (Fig. 101). The name
diaper comes from jasper, through the Low Latin _diasprum_, Italian
_diaspro_, or French _diapre_, and was originally applied to woven
stuffs from the East. (See Figs. 101, 106, 107, 109, and 110.) These
were mostly of silk covered with small patterns in colour, that
suggested the appearance of the flowering of jasper.
In vulgar parlance, it is now applied to all patterns enclosed in a
repeating geometrical form. Dados in painted decoration were mostly
diapered, as may be seen in one of the churches of St. Francis, Assisi;
and at the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, the diapers are on painted
hangings; at the Arena Chapel at Padua the dado is painted in imitation
of marble panels.
Checkers and network enclosing carved patterns are found on the walls
of Gothic cathedrals and churches (Figs. 98, 99). When the space covered
with checkers, network, or diapers is not too large the patterns should
so far resemble one another as to give a uniform appearance, the
variations being only enough to prevent disgust on a near view. Two
patterns may sometimes alternate, but in very large surfaces another
distinct pattern should be introduced, at certain intervals, to relieve
the monotony. Care must be taken to make the network and pattern of the
proper scale for the building or room, and for the other decoration.
[Illustration: FIG. 101.--Moresque diaper.]
[Illustration: FIG. 102.--Japanese network.]
Diapers are found in Chinese and Japanese decoration, although
rectilinear network is more common (Fig. 102), but powdering is most
favoured by them (Figs. 103-105). Sometimes it is put over a pattern
(Fig. 104). Powdering was, too, a favourite method of ornamenting in the
Middle Ages.
The _second division_ is ornament arranged in horizontal bands. The
Greeks were pre-eminent in the use of horizontal bands in their
sculptured and
[Illustration: FIG. 103.--Japanese powdering.]
[Illustration: FIG. 104.--Superimposed Japanese powdering.]
[Illustration: FIG. 105.--Japanese powdering.]
[Illustration: FIG. 106.--Diaper, Italian brocade, 16th century.]
[Illustration: FIG. 107.--Diaper in velvet brocade, 16th century.
Italian (German origin).]
painted decorations. The embroidered or woven patterns on their dresses,
shawls, and curtains, and the beautiful ornament on their vases, were
mainly
[Illustration: FIG. 108.--Construction lines of Fig. 109.]
designed on this system. The _frieze_ is a characteristic feature in
Greek architecture; and if you take the band ornaments out of Greek work
there is very little ornament left. Figs. 37, 42, 45, 49, 51, 52, 113,
[Illustration: FIG. 109.--Velvet brocade, 16th century. Italian.]
114, and 115 are some of their favourite band patterns. Figs. 116 and
117 show some of the patterns on dresses taken from the Greek vases. The
shawl (_peplum_) of Demeter on a vase at the British Museum has chariot
races, winged cupids, animals, birds, and dolphins in the successive
bands; the sacred shawls of Minerva at the Parthenon (_pepla_) are only
known by description. One had the battle of the gods and giants woven or
embroidered on it, and another was ornamented with the portraits of
Antigonus and Demetrius Poliorcetes (Plutarch’s Demetrius).
Spotting at regular intervals was the favourite way of decorating the
larger surface of dresses. The circular flower that usually formed the
spot in Greek ornament was composed of a greater number of petals than
the Roman, and is probably of Assyrian origin. (See Fig. 116.) Saracen
work also affords good examples of horizontal band treatment. (See Figs.
118 and 119.)
_The third division_: perpendicular bands are not so common in
decoration as the former class; they are mostly architectural in
character, and usually form divisions between wall-spaces in the shape
of panels in piers and pilasters. Triglyphs in friezes may even be
classed in this division, and so may the soffits of arches in the
Classic and Renaissance styles; the decoration of the soffits of beams
and of ribs and groins in Gothic, though some purists say it gives a
look of weakness to the arch. When the soffits of arches are wide in
proportion to their height they may be panelled, and if narrow be
treated like pilaster panels, the bottom of each side
[Illustration: FIG. 110.--Diaper in silk brocade. Italian or Spanish,
16th century; formerly used for dress purposes, but now only employed
for furniture.]
[Illustration: FIG. 112.--Stamped velvet, 16th century. Italian.]
[Illustration: FIG. 113.--Greek ivy meander border.]
[Illustration: FIG. 114.--Greek border from a vase.]
[Illustration: FIG. 115.--Greek border with fret bands.]
[Illustration: FIGS. 116 AND 117.--Greek borders.] being at the
springing; the tops may nearly touch at the crown, or be separated by a
circular panel. The decoration of pilaster panels in relief should be
comparatively low, and although some of the minor details may almost
sink into the ground, there should be nothing vague; the danger to be
apprehended being a loss of architectural severity
[Illustration: FIGS. 118 AND 119.--Persian borders.]
in this supporting feature. The ornament on a pilaster must be
symmetrically built with the strongest elements at the base and the
lightest at the top. The best examples of this kind of decoration are
Roman, Italian, and French Cinque-Cento work. The latter may be seen in
the well-known pilasters of Louis XII. The artists of those times paid
the same attention to pilaster decoration that the
[Illustration: FIG. 120.--Upright lily border. Greco-Roman.]
Greeks did to horizontal band-work. Figs. 121, 122, and 123 show some
examples of pilaster decoration. When the main ornamental effect is
obtained, the next problem to be solved is to get the greatest possible
variation in the planes of the carving, so that the ornament may not
have the air of being cut out with a fret-saw, with the face slightly
carved and pinned on. It is sometimes well to accentuate certain
portions if care be taken to avoid spottiness; occasionally the main
piece of ornament that has the greatest projection may be echoed up the
pilaster with a sort of ebb and flow, only the greatest subsidiary
projection should be less than the main one. Modern ornamentalists have
insisted, that if animal forms are introduced they should be repeated,
and rise in scale of importance as they get higher; but this method does
not seem to have been adhered to by the Romans or Renaissance artists.
In the latter we sometimes meet with cupids or children at the very base
of the panel.
[Illustration: FIG. 121.--Pilaster designed by Donatello.]
_The fourth division._--Ornament in panels, &c. Ceilings
[Illustration: FIG. 122.--Italian Cinque-cento pilaster panel.]
[Illustration: FIG. 123.--Italian pilaster decoration.]
[Illustration: FIG. 124.--German book cover, date 1572, in four enamel
colours and gold.]
[Illustration: FIG. 125.--Plaque in repoussé work. German 17th
century.]
have been treated in Chapter IV., and floors cannot have real panels, so
upright rectangular panels may be taken first. Their simplest
ornamentation is by moulding; if the mouldings have stopped ends, they
are known as linen panels. When narrow and unmoulded they may be filled
with symmetrical ornament
[Illustration: FIG. 126.--Venetian panel illustrating “balance” without
symmetry.]
on either side of an upright stem, either purely floral (Figs. 148 and
120), or after the manner of pilaster panels, or the ornament may spring
from vases at the bottom (Fig. 127), or they may have central medallions
circular or oval, pateræ or bosses; and in cases where these narrow
panels are in a long succession, each one may be varied, or the centres
alone may be varied, if the size and weight of the centres be
preserved; circular and oval panels in moulded frames should be avoided
in woodwork on account of the chances of the mouldings splitting. In
Saracenic and Moresque work the
[Illustration: FIG. 127.--Cinque-cento panel.]
panels are mostly filled by diapers, and in late European work it was
common to enrich the corners, and sometimes to form a centre, leaving
the rest of the panel plain, spotted, powdered, or filled with
interlaced work.
In ornamental panels the mouldings of the frame
[Illustration: FIG. 128.--Renaissance panel ornament.]
[Illustration: FIG. 129.--Wine crater in silver from the Hildesheim
treasures. Antique Roman.]
must never be wholly ornamented (see Fig. 128); sometimes they may be
wholly plain, but if there be several mouldings, it is well to slightly
enrich one member to connect the frame with the panel and detach it from
the plain stiles and rails; these should never be carved when enriched
panels are used. When great richness is required, and the panels are
carved, inlay or incised ornament is the best form of enrichment for the
stiles and rails.
[Illustration: FIG. 130.--Cinque-cento floral ornament composed of the
acanthus, oak leaf, convolvulus, and wild rose, &c.]
_The fifth division._--Compound shapes such as spandrels, segmental
pediments, compound panels, and tail-pieces (Figs. 134, 135), the last
known in France under the name of “lamp bottoms,” some arms and pieces
of armour and some utensils (Fig. 133).
[Illustration: FIG. 131.--Gothic spandrel from Stone Church in Kent.]
In spandrels between two arches a slight deviation from symmetry may be
allowed if the sides are well balanced, but it requires great skill to
render the ornament satisfactory (Fig. 131). If the arch mouldings are
properly emphasized, the spandrels may have a free and unsymmetrical
treatment, for they do not appear so constructively important as the
panels of pilasters, and so greater freedom is allowed to the artist.
The Gothic spandrel (Fig. 131) from Stone Church, in Kent, is a good
example of balance.
[Illustration: FIG. 132.--Spandrel by Stevens.]
_The sixth division._--Unsymmetrical spaces to be filled with ornament
are rare, being mostly found in Saracen work and in arms and utensils,
except in the case of angular spandrels composed of a vertical and
horizontal line and a segment (Fig. 132); in all these cases, balance
must be the principle employed. Fig. 132 shows a well-balanced design
for a right-angled spandrel between a round arch and a vertical line,
the work of the late Alfred Stevens.
[Illustration: FIG. 133.--Panel with trophy of arms and armour.]
[Illustration: FIGS. 134 and 135.--Tail-pieces (Renaissance), or lamp
bottoms.]
CHAPTER VII
The ornamentalist is more indebted to plants and flowers, both for
materials and suggestions in design, than to any other division in the
domain of nature. The best conventional and æsthetic floral ornament was
the outcome of the study of plants and flowers. That characteristic
Greek ornament, the honeysuckle or anthemion, is said to have originated
from the Egyptian lotus flower, or the Sacred Hom, and not from the
honeysuckle; the conventional rendering of this flower in ornament is
said to have been adapted from the Egyptian forms by the Chaldæans; and
later the children of those ancient flower-worshippers, the Assyrians,
developed the pattern into more ornate forms. The Greeks in their turn
are supposed to have copied the anthemion from the Assyrians: at first
it was archaic and stiff, but full of vitality as ornament, and well
adapted for its various uses and positions; and at last perfected to
such a degree of æsthetic purity in the Erechtheum, as to lose all
traces of any particular plant, while embodying the best qualities of
plant-growth; for in it we see vigorous life combined with grace and
elegance.
Another phase of floral and leaf growth, and its proper development
into pure ornament, can be studied in the many rosettes of the various
styles. These are circular in plan, and would appear at first sight to
be derived from flowers, but are mostly a cluster of leaves, radiating
like the spokes of a wheel, either straight or curved.
[Illustration: FIG. 136.--Rosettes or pateræ from Roman ornament,
composed of leaf and floral forms.]
There are many plants--for instance, the bedstraw and the madder--that
have their sets of leaves arranged in a whorl round the joints of their
upright stems; looking down on these leaves we notice that the plan
appears like a rosette. This idea may have occurred to the ancients when
designing their rosettes. The results, obtained by grouping a cluster of
leaves together in this manner, are finer and stronger in appearance
than any imitation of flowers, particularly in sculptured work. (See
Fig. 136.) Leaflets and bracts growing at the junctions of stems and
leaves also furnished ideas and forms for the making up of rosettes and
similar ornament; but more use is made of these bracts in what is called
“clothing stems,” or sheaths, some varieties of which are illustrated at
Figs. 137 and 157; in fact, very good ornament is often composed of a
stem or meander clothed with these bracts alone. Root forms are not much
used in European ornament, though Indian, Saracen, and Mediæval
decoration abound in examples of the treatment of roots. (See Fig.
138.) The objection to their use is this, that it gives the whole
ornament the appearance of having been pulled up and hung to dry. This
must always be an objection to their use, unless the root can be shown
in the ground; consequently the Roman and Renaissance artists let their
ornament
[Illustration: FIG. 137.--Bracts used for “clothing” stems in scrolls,
&c.]
spring from vases or clusters of leaves. When roots are used it is clear
that the general outline of the root must alone be taken, and the
character of the growth expressed simply, to prevent confusion and
obscurity.
[Illustration: FIG. 138.--Mediæval and Oriental root forms.]
As a rule, all redundances, excrescences, and accidental waywardness of
growth, that might be interesting to a botanist, ought to be avoided in
the decorative rendering of plant form; the average form and the higher
beauties should alone be expressed. Though this may seem a paradox, the
less realistic we make our designs, the more nature we put into them.
We should strive to put the most perfect forms of nature into our
ornament, avoiding those that are poor and stunted, as well as
over-nourished and rank ones, though nature abounds in both.
[Illustration: FIG. 139.--Laurel from nature.]
In Persian[7] ornament we find flower and plant forms treated in a
thoroughly decorative manner (Figs. 118 and 119); the pink and hyacinth
were as great favourites with Persian decorators as the maple and vine
were in mediæval work, the lotus and papyrus in Egyptian, the peony in
Chinese, and the chrysanthemum in Japanese; while such styles as the
Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Saracenic are more purely conventional, and,
without having much realism, are still based on natural forms.
Students in design cannot be too strongly advised to cultivate the habit
of making correct drawings of
[Illustration: FIGS. 140 and 141.--Borders derived from the laurel.]
all kinds of plants, both in flower and fruit, especially those of
single flower and of simple growth, accompanied by careful notes of the
construction at the stem and leaf junctions.
The botanical analysis of a plant may serve a scientific end, and be
useful to show the student the construction of the plant, but it makes a
very poor show in an artistic design. Landor the poet said it was an
act of cruelty to cut a flower from its stem: it would be interesting to
know his opinion of that school which believes in dissecting plants to
find “new forms,” many of whose designs present novelties that nature
never dreamt of, such as leaves neatly cut in half, elevations, and
sections of petals, stamens, pistils, seed pods, and other curious forms
suggested
[Illustration: FIG. 142.--Wild rose from nature.]
by these dissections, so that the design when completed is an anatomical
preparation, and certainly innocent of any violation of the second
commandment. A section through some flowers may, however, give
suggestions of outline for some flat ornament. The testimony of the best
old decorative design is against this practice. It is refreshing to see
that in England a reaction is setting in, mainly owing to the efforts
of such men as Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Messrs. Morris, Crane, and a few
others, who prefer nature to novelty.
[Illustration: FIG. 143.--Design for a paper-hanging from the wild
rose.]
In selecting plants for particular purposes, it is well to bear in mind
the material to be decorated, whether it be woven stuff, wood, or
metal-work, and to choose the kind best adapted to the purpose--as the
hare-bell, the wild poppy, grasses, and delicate ferns for muslins,
cottons, and lace; the oak, orange, lemon, pomegranate, and the mallow
for wood-and for stone-carving, and for iron-work. At the same time, a
too rigid adherence to these principles is not to be advised. What is of
most importance is to adhere to the growth
[Illustration: FIG. 144.--Borders of medallions in enamelled earthenware
by Luca della Robbia.]
and character of the plant we use; for instance, a plant like the laurel
(Fig. 139) is best suited for an upright or horizontal border. (See
Figs. 140, 141.) The wild rose (Fig. 142) and the lemon (Fig. 145) are
both
[Illustration: FIG. 145.--Lemon from nature.]
[Illustration: FIG. 146.--Design for a carved wood panel from the lemon
plant.]
suitable for panels of almost any form, for all-over patterns, or for
paper-hangings, &c. (See Figs. 143 and 146.) For narrow upright panels,
plants of upright growth, such as the lily, the ox-eye, and the iris,
&c., are most suitable. (See for illustrations Figs. 147 and 148.) A
trailing vine makes a good ceiling decoration, and was so used by the
Byzantine mosaic workers. Lastly, plants of horizontal growth, such as
the dandelion, the daisy, &c., looked at from above, might be best
adapted for a floor, a carpet, or a table-cover.
[Illustration: FIG. 147.--Tiger lily from nature.]
[Illustration: FIG. 148.--Panel arrangement from the Tiger lily.]
The well-known conventional _acanthus_ and its varieties must now be
described. There have been various suggestions concerning the identical
plant from which the acanthus ornament is derived, but, like the
anthemion of the Greeks, there is some
[Illustration: FIG. 149.--Acanthus Mollis from nature.]
obscurity about it. The story told by Vitruvius of the sculptor
Callimachus having the Corinthian capital suggested to him, by finding
the plant growing round a basket covered by a square tile, is a
plausible and certainly a pretty one (Vit. lib. 4, cap. 1). At any rate,
Callimachus is credited by Vitruvius with the first use of the acanthus
in capitals. The ornamental forms of the acanthus bear little
resemblance to the natural leaf. (See Figs. 149, 150, 151, and 152.) The
two latter are
[Illustration: FIG. 150.--Acanthus Spinosus from nature.]
leaves from Greek capitals, the first two have been drawn from nature.
The acanthus, as we know it in the capitals of the Greek and Roman
Corinthian, and the Roman Composite orders, is an artistic creation,
adapted to suit the ends of a grand style of architecture, and not an
imitation of a particular leaf. The characteristic difference of the
classic ornament from the natural leaf lies in the “pipes” that start
from the “eyes” at the base of the leaflets,
[Illustration: FIG. 151.--Greek acanthus leaf from a capital of the
Tower of the Winds.]
and, somewhat contrary to nature, taper downwards to the base of the
leaf; these pipes, together with the central stalk, impart that strength
and dignity which is necessary for architectural foliage, especially
when it adorns the bell of a capital. (See Fig. 154.) The pipes are less
important, and are consequently less marked in examples of smaller work,
such as may be found in the acanthus of candelabra and panels, in which
constructive strength is not required.
[Illustration: FIG. 152.--Greek acanthus leaf with flowers from a
capital of the Choragic Monument of Lysikrates.]
On the Corinthian capital, the acanthus presents a simple edge exactly
repeated on each leaflet, with far less serration than is seen in the
natural foliage: this imparts dignity to the leaf. On modillions a more
serrated and smaller variety is used, with the stalks and pipes still
prominent; while on candelabra and small pillars the leaves lie flatter,
and the leaflets overlap, and owing to the fact that the leaves are
smaller in scale and nearer to our eyes, more serrations and more detail
may be put into them, for the smaller the scale the more detail is
necessary.
[Illustration: FIG. 153.--Roman leaf of capital,--the olive leaf
acanthus variety,--see Introductory Chapter.]
[Illustration: Plan showing stalk, pipes, and undercut channels of Fig.
153.]
(See Fig. 156.) To prevent the foliage in the latter examples from
appearing flimsy, as it would naturally do with an overlapping edge much
cut up, the edges of the leaves should be slightly thickened and rounded
so as to catch the light, thus giving a rich quality to the decoration.
The Greeks mostly used
[Illustration: FIG. 154.--Acanthus: olive leaf variety from a capital of
Mars Ultor.]
that kind of acanthus that is known as the _Acanthus spinosus_, or the
prickly variety; the Romans preferred the _Acanthus mollis_, or the
soft-leaved kind. The olive-leaf has been used for the raffles of the
leaves in the capitals of Jupiter Stator, Mars Ultor, and the Pantheon
at Rome (see Figs. 154, 185, and 188), while at the Temple of Vesta at
Tivoli the capitals have the oak-leaved variety. A bit of the
soft-leaved acanthus is shown at Fig. 155 from the soffit of the
architrave at the temple of Jupiter
[Illustration: FIG. 155.--Soft-leaved acanthus from the soffit of the
architrave at the temple of Jupiter Stator.]
[Illustration: FIG. 156.--Acanthus used on candelabra and small
pillars.]
Stator. The Romans sometimes used the acanthus in a lavish way,
overloading mouldings with it; the cornice of the Temple of Jupiter
Tonans, for instance, is overdone with decoration. (See Fig. 186.) The
more modern type of acanthus used on majolica
[Illustration: FIG. 157.--Water plant stem, showing channelling.]
[Illustration: FIG. 158.--Acanthus and water leaf foliage from an
antique Roman shaft.]
[Illustration: FIG. 159.--Modern varieties of sea-weed and poppy-leaved
acanthus used in decoration.]
plates and in painted decoration is of a very free character, but it
only holds a secondary place, being generally found in combination with
animal forms and grotesques. The utmost freedom in the curve and reflex
curve may be allowed in the painted forms of the acanthus; this being
logical enough when we consider that the greater part of the leafage is
generated by the free play of the brush. (See Fig. 159.) The arabesques
of the Vatican, and the Italian cinque-cento ware, afford the best
examples of this painted foliage. The acanthus was the parent of nearly
all the subsequent styles of decorative foliage down to the Saracenic
and late Romanesque, and its modifications have shown the difficulty of
improving on the Classic type. We are advised by ornamentalists and
writers on art to seek for a new leaf that might in time rival the
acanthus in ornament. The advice may be good, and many have given their
attention to it, but no lasting results have as yet been obtained. Of
late years there is a kind of scroll-work much favoured by some
ornamentalists. It cannot of course be called new, few things can be in
this world; but its persistent application, from illumination to
stone-carving, will perhaps in time stamp it with a traditional
character. The foliage is more like sea-weed than anything else, but it
also has a faint resemblance to the acanthus, the ox-eye, and the wild
poppy (Fig. 159). We have no fixed principles of ornamental art; even
ornamentalists themselves disagree as to what is good, and what is bad,
so that nothing lives long enough to become national ornament. How can
we hope to vie with the ornamental
[Illustration: FIG. 160.--Winter aspect of a pear tree, illustrating
“balance” in nature.]
art of Greece, when the artists disagree and the nation is indifferent;
while the Greeks enjoyed unity of artistic thought, and gloried in the
worship of the beautiful? To gain a fuller insight into the delicate
varieties of the acanthus, the student is advised to carefully examine
and draw the foliage in the pilasters of Louis XII.’s tomb. The late
Alfred Stevens has done more than any one of late years to properly
apply the acanthus. (See Fig. 132.)
CHAPTER VIII
The “_symbolic_” and “_mnemonic_” classes of ornament are large, and are
interesting alike to the historian, the antiquary, and the student of
art. It is not easy to draw the line between them, as the latter skirts
the ground of the former so closely. Mnemonic ornament is that class
which includes written characters, signs, hieroglyphics, and natural
forms as aids to memory. The scenes, facts, or ideas so recalled may or
may not be in relation to the thing decorated; _e.g._ we see texts from
the Korân in Kufic and other characters, used to decorate the walls and
gateways of mosques, and dresses, vases, candlesticks, and other
articles of domestic use. Japanese ornament abounds in mnemonic
characters with or without other forms. All writing came from the
picture-writing of barbarous tribes; the symbols of these pictures were
used on the one hand for letters, and on the other for ideas. In the
decorative art of most nations, inscriptions can be found on their
buildings, utensils, and articles of luxury; and as in the case of some
illuminated manuscripts, it is not only difficult to know where the
lettering ends, and the ornament begins, but whether the main end was
not ornament rather than instruction. The art of illumination or
decorative writing really begins when there is a desire to have the
written matter presented in a beautiful form, and to those who could not
read the illumination alone was of importance. In the hands of artists
letters have often been arranged as a highly ornamental cipher.
_Monogram_ and _cipher_ are almost synonymous terms; the former differs
only from the latter in this respect, that a monogram may have different
forms of the letters in different positions, and still have the same
meaning, while a cipher cannot have more than one particular form or
else it defeats its purpose, if used as a signet or as a trade-mark. The
decorations found on the tombs, sarcophagi, and stone tablets, &c., of
ancient Egypt are mnemonical in character, and this was the primary
reason of their existence: they were sculptured on the granite slabs, to
record the names and virtues of the deceased kings and persons of note,
but at the same time they were made pleasing to the eye; the perfect
balance and even distribution of these inscriptions render them highly
decorative, and they become mnemonic ornament. (See Fig. 162.) This
diagram is the hieroglyphic inscription taken from the famous “Tablet of
Four Hundred Years.” It is the third line of the twelve on this
monument, and is thus translated: “King of Upper and Lower Egypt,
Ra-user-ma, Sotep-en-ra, Son of Ra, Ramases Mer-amen, Chieftain
enriching the lands with memorials of his name.” The inscription at Fig.
163 occurs frequently in Japanese pottery; it represents the word “Jiu,”
meaning longevity or everlasting life. The Japanese symbols of
longevity are the following: the god of longevity, a very old man with a
large head and merry countenance, holding a scroll in his hands, and
accompanied by a crane, as an attribute, and sometimes by a stork or a
sacred tortoise. The crane itself is a symbol of long life; the bamboo,
the fir, and the plum together make a second; and the gourd is another.
Religion has had, from the earliest period of man’s history, Art for its
earthly handmaid, and nine-tenths of symbolic ornament pertains to
religious ordinances and ceremonies. Nearly all the beginnings of art
expressed religious thought by means of symbols; the picture writing of
barbarians, the hieroglyphic or priestly compositions of the Egyptians
on papyrus and granite, the Runic and Ogham inscriptions of the Northmen
and ancient Celts, were alike endowed with an occult meaning, but they
were symbols to the initiated only. A good example of symbolic ornament
may be seen at Fig. 164. The winged globe so common in Egyptian art has
been found sculptured on the lintels of temple doorways almost thirty
feet in length. The globe is said to symbolize the sun, the outspread
wings the overshadowing presence of Providence, and the asps dominion or
the monarchy. The Scarab, or winged beetle (Fig. 161), is an emblem of
the Creator or Maker. The disc or ball that it holds between its claws
is said to represent the Sun, from which all life is derived. Another
and more natural meaning attached to the disc is that it represents the
ball containing the egg which the beetle usually rolls to a place of
safety, where it is buried, and in course of time new life will spring
from it. This emblem occurs as a central ornament in some Egyptian
ceilings. Nearly all Egyptian ornament was symbolic. The canons or laws
laid down by the Egyptian priests and chief scribes for the guidance of
artists were for centuries unvarying; every ornament, including
representations of the human figure, was drawn and sculptured by rule,
and no one was allowed to alter the type under severe penalties. The
blue Nymphea or lotus flower is pre-eminently characteristic of Egyptian
ornament (see Fig. 165); it was sacred as the type of coming
[Illustration: FIG. 161.--Egyptian Scarabeus.]
plenty, as it appeared just before the springing of the crops, and
immediately after the subsidence of the Nile; it was therefore to the
Egyptians the harbinger of their daily bread, so there need be little
wonder that it was worshipped by them as the emblem of earthly goodness.
There is a species of lotus that bears fruit, and it is said that the
form of the Jewish seven-branched candlestick was derived from it. The
lotus was used in the decoration of everything Egyptian, the fresh
flowers were used in garnishing the offerings to their gods, and was
also presented as a peace offering to strangers and visitors. Next
[Illustration: FIG. 162.--Inscription from an Egyptian tablet.]
[Illustration: FIG. 163.--Japanese inscription, “Jiu,” or “long life.”]
[Illustration: FIG. 164.--Winged-globe and asps, Egyptian Symbolic
ornament.]
[Illustration: FIG. 165.--Symbolic ornament, the Egyptian lotus and
water.]
in importance to the lotus came the palm as a symbolical plant; this was
used by the Assyrians in their bas-reliefs. It was, when surrounded by
the sacred hom, called the “tree of life” (Fig. 166). The date-palm is
here surrounded by the sacred hom, which grew on the slopes of the
Hindoo Kush, and was the plant from which inebriating drink was first
[Illustration: FIG. 166.--Sacred tree of life or hom (British Museum),
from an Assyrian bas-relief.]
made by the Aryans. The date-palm was certainly the tree of life to
Eastern nations, affording them food, alcoholic drink,[8] and shelter.
Many animals, birds, and hybrid creations, such as the Egyptian sphinx
and the winged bull of Assyria, had symbolical meanings.
The fir-cone, so common in Assyrian ornament, was an emblem of fire, as
the lotus was an emblem of water, and this cone placed on a staff, and
adorned with ribbons, was carried by the Bacchanals and Mænads when
celebrating the festivals of Dionysus, the Greek Bacchus. This is known
as the “thyrsus,” or staff of Bacchus. (See Fig. 167.) The pine-tree was
sacred to Dionysus, from its supplying turpentine
[Illustration: FIG. 167.--Three forms of the thyrsus or staff of
Bacchus.]
to make torches; wine also was made from its cones, both important
elements in these festivals. The head of the thyrsus was often made of
ivy leaves instead of the pine-cone, and Bacchus is said to have
concealed spears under this head of leaves, and thus overcome those who
were inimical to him (Diodorus Sic. lib. iii. cap. iv.; Ovid’s
_Metamor_. iii. 667). The vine and the ivy were also sacred to Bacchus,
and are symbolical of him in Greek and Roman decoration. Early Christian
and mediæval art are also teeming with symbolic ornaments. These
ornaments are often called indifferently “emblems,” “attributes,”
“symbols,” &c. Allegory is a kind of parable, and the word is often
applied to allegorical painting or sculpture, which is a representation
of one thing under the image of another, and is mostly expressed by
human or animal forms.[9] In a recent picture called “Hope,” by Mr.
Watts, we have a fine allegorical illustration, in a figure seated on a
sphere, or the world, bending her ear to catch the strains of a lyre
which she plays, which has only one string left; there is a weird
feeling of loneliness about the composition, just relieved from utter
desolation by the music that is left in the one string.
CHAPTER IX
The arabesques of the Vatican have been noticed before; there were,
however, arabesques on the ceiling of the Sala del Cambio at Perugia,
painted by Perugino, Raphael’s master, also in the Borgia apartment at
the Vatican, and in the Villa Madama; arabesques of the latter are said
to have been copied from the plaster work in Hadrian’s villa near
Tivoli.
Raphael, being one of the greatest modern painters, added to the beauty
of this sort of decoration by the exquisite drawing and composition of
the figures. Some of the medallions at the Loggias contain subjects said
to be taken from antique gems, and Scripture subjects are also
introduced; the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise is balanced by
one of Omphale and Hercules, the queen having the club.
When a cipher or a sign conveys to our minds an idea, or an association
of ideas, we call it a “_symbol_,” particularly if the idea is connected
with religion. The commonest form met with in symbolic art is the
circle, as the symbol of eternity, from its having neither beginning nor
ending; it often appears as a serpent with its tail in its mouth, for
this, like many other Pagan symbols, was adopted by the early
Christians. The circle in the shape of a wheel has perhaps had the
widest signification in art. The wheel of fire, or sun-wheel, was an
emblem of the Teutonic sun-worshippers. The _tchakra_, or sacred wheel,
is the emblem of the religion of Brahma; it is the shield of Brahma and
Vishnu, as a wheel of fire; it is to the Siamese a type of universal
dominion, a sign of disaster, and the symbol of eternity. (See Fig.
168.) The wheel form at Fig. 169 is the _kikumon_ or badge of the Empire
of Japan; it is derived, however, from the chrysanthemum.
[Illustration:
FIG. 168.--The “tchakra,” or sacred wheel of Brahma and Vishnu,
also called the “wheel of fire.”
]
[Illustration: FIG. 169.--Kiku-Mon, badge of the empire of Japan.]
Christian art, from the beginning of the first century of our era to the
fourth, consisted almost entirely of symbols. The first Christians were
fearful lest their new converts should relapse into Paganism, and so
avoided images; and being persecuted they used only a few symbols such
as the fish, the dove, the lamb, and the monogram of Christ. This last
consisted of two Greek letters X and P (Chi and Rho), the Chi forming
the cross as shown at A in Fig. 170; another form of this is shown at B,
in which a cross has the Rho formed on the upright stem, and has the
first and last letters of the Greek alphabet (Alpha and Omega) written
beneath the arms. This form sometimes appears on the nimbus over the
head of a lamb; the latter sometimes stands on a round hill, at the
bottom of which issue four streams, the whole symbol signifying “Christ
the first and the last, the Lamb of God,” the streams “the four
evangelists whose gospels are the water of life to the whole world.”
At C, Fig 170, we have the monogram that the Emperor Constantine placed
on the _labarum_, or
[Illustration: FIG. 170.--Sacred Monograms in Christian Art.]
Imperial standard, after his conversion; it was woven in gold on purple
cloth. Christ was sometimes represented as Orpheus, with a lyre in his
hand, amid the birds and beasts; the commonest personification of Him
was, however, as the Good Shepherd caring for His sheep, in which He was
always represented young and beautiful. Every allegorical representation
of the Founder of the Christian religion was rendered pleasing to the
eye of the new converts, and anything pertaining to the dreadful scene
of the Crucifixion was avoided. The Christian Church was symbolized
under the form of a ship, with our Lord as the pilot and the
congregation as the passengers; whence we may have the word _nave_ (of
a church), from _navis_, a ship; _naus_, a ship, was also the Greek name
for the inner part of a temple.
[Illustration: FIG. 171.--Counterchange ornament, Spanish embroidery.]
The dove in Christian art is the emblem of fidelity and of the Holy
Spirit, the pelican of the Atonement, and the phœnix of the
Resurrection. One of the symbols of our Lord is a fish, because its
Greek name Ἰχθύς (Ichthus) contains the initials of “Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the Saviour.” It was also used as the symbol of a Christian
passing through the world without being sullied by it, as the fish is
sweet, in spite of its living in salt water; it is found engraved in the
soft stone of the Roman catacombs (where the early Christians took
refuge), with the monogram and other inscriptions. The _Vesica piscis_,
or fish form, often encloses the Virgin and Child, and is the common
form of the seals of religious houses, abbeys, colleges, &c. The four
evangelists are represented respectively as a lion, a calf, a man, and
an eagle,--St. Mark being the lion, the calf St. Luke, the man St.
Matthew, and the eagle St. John.
[Illustration: FIG: 172.--Moresque Counterchange pattern, inlaid
marble.]
Many plants are used as symbols in Christian art: the vine, as typical
of Christ, during Byzantine times and the Middle Ages. In Scripture we
find frequent allusions to the vine and grapes; the wine-press is
typical of the “Passion,” as we read in Isaiah. The passion-flower, as
its name denotes, was, and is, used as an emblem of the death of Christ.
The lily is the emblem of purity, and has always been used as the
attribute of the Virgin Mary in pictures of the Annunciation. We find
this plant often engraved on the tombs of early Christian virgins. From
the iris, formerly called a lily, is derived the flower de luce, or
_fleur-de-lis_, one of the finest conventional renderings of any flower;
it was much used as a decoration in sculpture, painting, and weaving
during the thirteenth and following centuries. It was the royal insignia
of France; mediæval Florence bore it on her shield and on her coin, the
_fiorino_; and it was used in the crowns of many sovereigns, from King
Solomon down to our own Queen. The trefoil is an emblem of the Trinity,
and is a common form in Gothic decoration.
[Illustration: FIGS. 173 and 174.--Interchange ornament.]
The symbolic and mnemonic classes have now been described, and the
_æsthetic_ alone remains. Æsthetic form we owe to the clearness and
directness of the Greek mind. The Greeks were contented with the simple
solution of the problem before them, which was to beautify what they had
in hand. If they wanted allegorical subjects they confined them to their
figure subjects, and being thus freed from other disturbing elements,
they concentrated their whole attention on perfecting floral form. They
attained perfection in this as they did in their figures, by correcting
the peculiarities of the individual by a study of the best specimens of
a whole class; and thus succeeded in making the most perfect type of
radiating ornament, and of adapting it to sculpture and painting, on
flat and curved surfaces. This ornament has perfect fitness, for you can
neither add to it nor take away from it without spoiling its perfection.
The same may be said, only in a minor degree, of the colour applied to
the carved patterns of the Saracens and Moors: they are both æsthetic
works, solely created for their beauty. A symphony in music is a
composition of harmonious sounds; it has little subject-matter, and is
analogous to æsthetic ornament, only the ear is charmed by the former,
as the eye is by the latter.
APPENDIX
ON THE ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE
It seemed to me that a short chapter on the orders would be useful to
students, not only because so much ornament is used as an enrichment to
architecture itself, but also because a very much larger proportion of
it is used in conjunction with architecture, and without some slight
knowledge of the subject, the ornament and the architecture, instead of
setting off each other’s characteristic beauties, are apt to spoil one
another. The rigid lines of architecture should act as a foil to the
graceful curves of ornament, and the plain faces should not only set off
fretted surfaces, but make the undulations of carved ornament precious.
When I speak of ornament, I include the highest form of it, the human
figure, and I may point to the Doric frieze of the Greeks as a brilliant
example of success. This conjunction of ornament and architecture,
however, demands high qualities in the ornament, and insight in the
artists as to what is wanted for mutual contrast or emphasis; and if
this be successfully accomplished, I think it must be conceded that the
combined work gives a finer result than the uncombined excellence of
each.
Mean ornament, whether of figures or plants, tends to degrade the
architecture with which it is associated, and may spoil it by the main
lines not properly contrasting with the adjacent architectural forms, or
by the ornament being on too large a scale. I have seen in modern work,
the stately dignity of a grand room utterly destroyed by colossal
figures. Michelangelo, in his superb ceiling at the Sistine Chapel, has
by use of gigantic figures dwarfed the vast chapel into a doll’s house.
I may add that there is monumental colouring as well as monumental form:
the finest examples of such colouring may be seen in many of the grand
buildings in Italy and at Constantinople, notably at St. Mark’s and at
Sta. Sophia; but you may also see magnificent halls and churches,
coloured to look like French plum-boxes.
The elaborate system of proportioning parts to one another and to the
whole, which is so important in architecture as to be its main
characteristic, is equally valuable for the division of spaces for
ornament.
Mouldings which form so great a feature in architecture as to have given
rise to the saying that “mouldings are architecture,” give lessons in
elegance of shape, and in the proper contrast of forms, that are useful
to the ornamentalist who has to design the shapes of small objects;
while the Corinthian capital has been the prototype of most of the
floral capitals up to the present day.
It is admitted that in those periods of history when architecture,
sculpture, and painting attained their highest excellence, the painter,
sculptor, and architect have not only sympathized with one another, but
each one has been no mean judge of the sister arts. At the Renaissance,
and immediately before it, artists are to be found who were goldsmiths,
sculptors, painters, and architects, and some few who were poets,
musicians, and engineers as well.
The origin of the orders was probably in the verandah of the Greek
wooden hut. In some of the paintings on the Greek vases may be seen the
processes by which the Doric and Ionic capitals were evolved; but for
our purpose, which is not archæology, only some of the best examples
need be referred to, after the wooden hut had been converted into a
marble temple.
An order consists of a column supporting an architrave, frieze, and
cornice, which is called the entablature. The column generally consists
of a shaft, a capital, and a base, except in the Doric columns of the
Greeks and early Romans, which were baseless. The capital was the
capping-piece which you now see put on the tops of story-posts by
carpenters to shorten the bearing of the bressummer. The architrave was
what we now call a bressummer, and bore the trusses of the roof; the
fascias of the architrave show that in some instances this bressummer
was composed of three balks of timber, each projecting slightly over the
one below. The frieze was the wide band immediately above the architrave
and below the cornice, comprising the triglyphs or ends of the trusses,
and the filling in between them, which is called the metope. The metopes
were left open in early Greek temples, but were eventually filled with
sculpture. The cornice was the projecting boarded caves; while the
slanting
[Illustration: FIG. 175.--The Parthenon. Greek Doric: enlarged section
of annulets at A.]
undersides of the mutules were copied from the slanting timbers of the
roof.
I will speak first of the Greek orders, not only because they were the
earliest, but because the Greeks showed the greatest artistic
sensibility in their choice of forms, in the composition of lines, and
in their arrangements for light and shade. I begin with the DORIC. The
shaft is conical, and fluted with twenty shallow segmental flutes that
finished under the capital, which consists of a thick square cap called
the abacus, with a circular echinus under it, finished at the bottom
with rings called annulets, and a little below them is a deep narrow
sunk chase called the necking, and the shaft has no base.
The Greeks were a seafaring people, mainly inhabiting the sea-shore, the
islands of the Archipelago, and the edges of Asia Minor, and were thus
acquainted with the forms of the sea and of shells. The echinus of the
Doric capital resembles the shell of the sea-urchin, or echinus, when it
has lost its spines, and was probably called after it. The ovolo
moulding that was most used was called the cyma or wave. At the
Parthenon, the finest example of the Doric, the architrave is plain, and
was once adorned with golden shields and inscriptions; it is capped by a
square moulding called the tænia or band; the frieze, with its square
cymatium, is capped with a carved astragal, and is divided
longitudinally by the triglyphs, projecting pieces, ornamented with two
whole and two half vertical channels, from which the word triglyph takes
its name; below the tænia is a narrower square moulding the width of the
triglyph, and beneath it, ornamented with drops called guttæ. I may
point to this as a most artistic device both to relieve the monotony of
the tænia and to weld the architrave with the frieze. The triglyphs
begin at the angles of the frieze, and range centrally over all the rest
of the columns, with an additional triglyph between each, though in the
frieze over the larger central opening of the Propylæum there are two
intermediate triglyphs; the nearly-square metopes between the triglyphs
are filled with figure-sculpture. The cornice consists of the square
mutule band, from which the mutules project, whose slanting underside is
enriched with drops; and above the mutules is their capping, a narrow
fascia under the corona; the corona or main projecting member of the
cornice is throated at the bottom, and its capping consists of a wide
fillet, deeply-throated, with a hawk’s-bill moulding under it. These
together form the most superb piece of architectural work that exists,
and has called forth the rapturous admiration of all the tasteful in the
world, from the time it was built to the time of Ernest Renan, one of
its latest distinguished admirers.
I have lingered over this order because it is a masterpiece for all
time. Those who have seen it in England alone are possibly convinced
that this praise has been ill-bestowed; yet even these would change
their opinion if they saw it when perfectly white on a clear day in
bright sunshine; but in London, even at its best, the clear air and
fierce sun of Athens is wanting, as well as the pentelic marble, and the
chances are that the sculpture in the metopes has been left out. This
Doric of the Greeks is true architecture, fitted to the climate, and
made by men of genius to charm the most gifted race the world has seen.
To the Greek architect no thought and no labour was too great in
designing his building, to form it so that the sun would play melodies
on it from dawn to dusk. Such truly national architecture cannot be
imported into a different climate without losing most of its effect, nor
can it be transferred to a coarse and opaque material without losing
much of its charm; while its sculpture, the finest the world has yet
seen, portrayed national traditions or events connected with its faith.
But even here in London, if you see paraphrases of Greek architecture
just painted white on a clear sunshiny day, you will see a faint reflex
of its pristine glory. The rising moon that the sun makes on the
echinus, contrasted with soft graduated warm shades and sharp blue
shadows, is the finest thing an architect has ever compassed. The
splendid sculpture that adorned its metopes may be seen in the Elgin
room of the British Museum. This one example is a model for those who
seek perfection in exquisite simplicity, for almost all the mouldings
are square ones, and there is no enrichment beyond the highest
figure-sculpture, and one little carved astragal; and I may add, that
the perfection of the whole composition of the Temple is as great as
that of this part.
THE IONIC.
The example, given on account of its simplicity, is from the Temple on
the river Ilissus. The column differs from that of the Doric by being of
slenderer proportions, by having twenty-four deep elliptical flutes with
fillets in its shaft, by having a cushioned capital inserted between the
thin moulded
[Illustration: FIG. 176.--Entablature, capital and base of the Greek
Ionic Temple on the Ilissus.]
abacus, and a shallow echinus carved with the egg and tongue. The
peculiarity of this cushioned cap is, that each side of the front and
back faces are formed into volutes, and come down considerably below the
bottom of the capital, and are carved on the faces with a shell
spiral.[10] The junctions of the plain surfaces of the volutes with the
projecting circular echinus are masked by a half honeysuckle. At the
bottom of the shaft is a circular pedestal or base of slight projection,
consisting of an upper and lower torus joined by a hollow (trochilus),
the upper torus being horizontally fluted and the lower one plain, and
there is no square plinth.
In this case the architrave is deep and without fascias, though the
Ionic order has mostly three fascias; its capping (cymatium) consists of
a fillet with a plain cyma and astragal beneath. The frieze, which has
no triglyphs, is supposed to have been sculptured with figures; its
cymatium consists of an ogee and astragal, to admit which the underside
of the corona is deeply hollowed out; the cymatium of the corona
consists of a narrow fillet and a cyma. The crowning member probably
only existed on the raking sides of the pediment.
As this is not a treatise for architects, but a sketch of the subject
for ornamentalists, one example is enough to show the difference between
the Doric and Ionic, but the capital of the most ornate example, that of
the Erechtheum, is given; its main differences from the former one being
these, that the ornaments on the mouldings are carved instead of only
being painted, that in the entablature there are three fascias to the
architrave, that the column has a neck carved with floral ornaments and
a carved necking, and the sweeps of the capital as well as the spirals
of the volutes are more numerous.
[Illustration: FIG. 177.--Side elevation, plan, and section of the Ionic
capital, from the Temple on the Ilissus.
Side Elevation. Plan.
Section. Section.]
[Illustration: FIG. 178.--Greek Ionic: half of the Capitol from the
north portico of the Erechtheum at Athens. _A_ is a regular guilloche
with coloured glass beads in the eyes.]
I have given too the capital of the internal Ionic columns of Apollo
Epicurius at Bassæ, to show how much it is improved by making the top of
the capital curved instead of straight. The Ionic is more graceful and
as a rule more ornate than the Doric, but is not so majestic. Capitals
from the
[Illustration: FIG. 179.--Capital from the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at
Bassæ. Greek Ionic.]
Erechtheum, from the Temple at Bassæ, from the last Temple of Diana at
Ephesus, and from the Mausoleum are at the British Museum.
THE CORINTHIAN.
Callimachus, according to Vitruvius, invented this capital, and is
supposed to have lived about 396 B.C., forty years before Alexander the
Great was born. Besides the beauty of this order of the choragic
monument of Lysikrates, it is the only undoubted and complete Greek
specimen that we have in Europe. The main importance of the invention,
besides its intrinsic beauty, is its being adopted by the Romans as
their favourite order and used throughout their dominions. I give you
here the story Vitruvius tells of its invention. Besides the prettiness
of the story, it serves as an incitement to the reflection, that if
those whose hand and eye are trained will only observe what they see,
they may get notions for inventions.
“A marriageable maid, a citizen of Corinth, was taken ill and died.
After her burial, her nurse gathered the things in which the maid most
delighted when she was alive, put them into a basket, and carried them
to the grave and put them on the top, and so that they might last the
longer in the open air, covered them with a tile. By chance this basket
was put on an acanthus root. The acanthus root meanwhile, pressed by the
weight, put forth its leaves and shoots about spring time; these shoots
growing against the sides of the basket, were forced to bend their tops
by the weight of the corners of the tile and to make themselves into
volutes. Then Callimachus, who from the elegance and subtlety of his
sculpture was called Catatechnos by the Athenians, passing by that
grave, noticed the basket and the tender growth of leaves round it, and
charmed by the style and novelty of its form, made his columns among the
Corinthians after that pattern.” (Vit. lib. 4, cap. i. pp. 9, 10.)
[Illustration: FIG. 180.--Entablature, capital and base of the
Lysikrates monument. Greek Corinthian.]
A Corinthian capital was found by Professor Cockerell in the Temple at
Bassæ, supposed by him to have been used there. Another was found at
Athens by Inwood, and there is a graceful capital of one of the engaged
Corinthian columns at the Temple of Apollo Didymæus, at Branchidæ, near
Miletus, of unknown date.
I do not look on work as Greek that was done after the second century
B.C., when Greece became a Roman province.
The Corinthian capital of the monument of Lysikrates is more than one
and a half times as high as the lower diameter of the column, while the
Doric capital of the Parthenon is only about half a diameter to the
necking, and the Ionic capital of the Erechtheum about eight-tenths.
The abacus of the capital is deep and moulded, is hollowed out
horizontally on the four sides in plan, and has the sharp angles of the
abacus cut off. The floral cap consists of a bottom range of sixteen
plain water leaves, about half the height of the eight acanthus leaves
of the upper row; these have a blossom between each pair of leaves.
Above the top, and at the sides of the centre leaf, on each of the four
sides of the capital, spring two acanthus sheaths, out of each sheath
spring three cauliculi; the one most distant from the centre forms a
volute under one side of the angle of the abacus, and is supported by
the turned-over top leaf of the sheath; the lowest cauliculi form two
volutes touching one another at the centre. The third cauliculus comes
from between the two former, and forms much smaller volutes than those
immediately below them, touching
[Illustration: FIG. 181.--Capital of the Lysikrates monument. Greek
Corinthian.]
at the centre, but turning the reverse way to those beneath; from the
middle of these springs a honeysuckle, whose top is as high as the top
of the abacus, and there is a little floral sprig between the angle
volutes and the honeysuckle, to relieve the bareness of the basket or
bell. The foliage of this capital is exquisitely graceful, but the
outline of the capital is not happy. The entablature is Ionic, to leave
the frieze clear for the sculptured history of Bacchus, turning some
pirates into dolphins. The architrave is deep with three equal fascias,
the face of each one inclined inwards, and a cymatium. Above the
cymatium of the frieze is a cornice with a heavy dentilled bed mould.
The Greeks were consummate artists, who bore in mind the adage that
“rules are good for those who can do without them,” and adapted every
part of their buildings to produce the effect of light and shade they
wanted. The profiles of their mouldings were mostly slightly different
in every example we have, and mostly approximate to conic sections, so
as to have the shade less uniform, segments of circles being rarely
used; and there was in Athens an affluence of excellent figure
sculptors.
It has always seemed to me that the slight variations the Greeks made in
their profiles to get perfection, and their passion for simplicity, were
greatly due to their intimate knowledge of the nude human figure. All
their recruits were exercised naked, and they must have noticed that the
perfecting of the human shape by training was brought about by slight
variations.
THE ROMAN ORDERS.
The Romans, great people as they were in subjugating, governing, and
civilizing so great a portion of the world, and possibly on that very
account, were
[Illustration: FIG. 182.--The Tuscan order.]
not artistic in the sense that the Greeks were. The Romans were slaves
to easy rules and methods; most, if not all, the profiles of their
mouldings were struck with compasses, and they were almost destitute of
good figure sculptors. They had, however, a passion for magnificence,
and for ornate stateliness and dignity, and they rarely failed to get
these in their public monuments.
Besides the three orders which were taken from the debased Greek
examples of their own time, the Romans added two, the order of the
_Tuscans_, and an invention of their own called the _Composite_.
THE TUSCAN.
The Tuscan is described by Vitruvius, lib. 4, cap. 7, as an incomplete
Doric, but with a base and a round plinth. The portico of St. Paul’s,
Covent Garden, by Inigo Jones, is the best example we have of it in
London. The example given is from the learned Newton Vitruvius.
THE ROMAN DORIC.
One of the earliest examples, with the exception of that at Cora, which
is rather debased Greek than Roman, is the example on the Theatre of
Marcellus at Rome, finished by Augustus. The column is not fluted, and
has no base, and the capital has been greatly altered from that of the
best Greek examples. The abacus has a cymatium; the echinus has been
reduced in depth, and is an ovolo, and the annulets are merely three
plain fillets; the column too has a neck and a necking. In the
entablature the architrave is
[Illustration: FIG. 183.--Roman Doric. From the Theater of Marcellus.
The crowning members of the cornice are conjectural, for the whole has
been broken away. See Desgodetz.]
[Illustration: FIG. 184.--Roman Ionic. Entablature, capital, and base of
an angle column, at the Temple of Fortuna Virilis.]
shallower than in the Greek examples. In the frieze the triglyphs are
over the centres of the angle columns; the guttæ are the frustums of
cones, while those of the Greeks were cylinders or with hollowed sides;
the cornice has a dentilled bed mould; and the mutules have disappeared,
but their edge runs through and the soffit is slanting, and ornamented
alternately with coffers and small guttæ, six on face and three deep;
and besides, the cymatium of the corona is capped by a large cavetto;
this in the Greek examples was only the crowning member of the slanting
sides of the pediment. There are Roman Doric columns at the Colosseum,
at Diocletian’s Baths at Rome, and elsewhere. The Doric, best known to
us, was elaborated by the Italian architects of the Renaissance.
THE ROMAN IONIC.
The Ionic was not much more to the taste of the Romans than the Doric,
for, with the exception of the examples in tall buildings, where the
orders were piled up one over the other, the Temple of Fortuna Virilis
is the only good example, although there is a very debased one at the
Temple of Concord. The columns of the Temple of Fortuna Virilis somewhat
resemble the Greco-Roman ones of the Temple of Bacchus at Teos; they
have similar paltry capitals, and an Attic base, but their truly Roman
entablature is very notably worse than that at Teos, in fact, it might
be used as an example of what to avoid in profiling. The cornice is
crushingly heavy for the frieze and architrave, the parts are
disproportionate, the corona having almost disappeared to make room for
the
[Illustration: FIG. 185.--Roman Corinthian. Entablature, capital, and
base of the Pantheon.]
extra crowning member, and the floral ornaments on some of the mouldings
are gigantic. Its main importance to us is from the use made of it by
the Renaissance architects, some of whom, however, greatly improved its
appearance, by making it a four-faced capital, by adding a necking and
putting festoons from the eyes, thus giving the capital greater depth
and importance.
THE ROMAN CORINTHIAN.
The magnificence of this capital took the Romans, so that good examples
of the other orders, except of the Composite, are rare. As I said
before, the only undoubted Greek Corinthian order that has come down to
us is that of the Lysikrates monument, though we have many Greco-Roman
examples. The best Roman example I can give you is that of the Pantheon;
the existing portico is believed by M. Chedanne to be a copy of
Agrippa’s, made in the days of Septimius Severus. At any rate, it has
the comparative simplicity that characterized some of the buildings just
before our era. The capital has two rows of eight leaves, the upper row
not rising to quite so great a height above the lower ones as these do
above the necking, and there is space between the upper leaves to show
the stalks of the sheaths of the cauliculi; the inner ones finish under
the rim of the basket, the outer ones form the volutes under the angles
of the abacus, and above these a curled leaf masks the overhanging of
the angles of the abacus. From some foliage on the top of the upper
[Illustration: FIG. 186.--Roman Corinthian. Entablature of Jupiter
Tonans.]
middle leaf, a stalk runs up behind the cauliculi, and blossoms in the
abacus.
It may be observed that the cauliculi of the centre and of the volute
have lost the floral character and become stony. The shafts are
unfluted, being of granite, and have the favourite Roman base, a plain
upper and a lower torus, with two scotias separated by double astragals
and fillets. The entablature consists of an architrave of three fascias,
the bottom edge of whose projections are moulded, the whole architrave
is capped with a cymatium consisting of a wide fillet and an ogee with
an astragal beneath. The frieze is slightly shallower than the
architrave, and has nothing on it but the inscription, and its cymatium
is the counterpart of that of the architrave on a smaller scale. The
cornice is heavy, and its bed mould consists of an uncut dentil band, an
ovolo carved with the egg and tongue, and an astragal carved with the
bead and reel, a modilion band with carved modilions, a shallow corona,
and a deep cyma-recta-cymatium with fillets.
I have added the fine and gigantic capital of Mars Ultor and the
entablature of Jupiter Tonans, which is overladen with ornament, as a
contrast to the almost stern simplicity of that of the Pantheon.
I shall only draw your attention to two points in this ornamentation,
the omission of the tongues between the eggs, leaving only the upright
line, and the attempt to turn the egg and tongue into a foliated form.
The egg itself is covered with ornament, and is set in the centre of
acanthus leaves. We must praise the boldness of the author, who has
given us a new ornament, but deplore his want of tasteful invention
which has forced him to give a bad one.
The varieties of leaves used in capitals have been mentioned in the body
of the book.
THE ROMAN COMPOSITE.
This order has been called the Composite, from the mixture of Ionic and
Corinthian motives in its capital. The example given is from the Arch of
Titus, erected to celebrate the taking of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The main
thing to be remarked is the capital; for the entablature is Corinthian,
less ornate than that of Jupiter Tonans or Jupiter Stator, and very
inferior to the latter in its proportions. It may be imagined that all
the foliage above the upper row of leaves in a Corinthian capital has
been removed, that a carved Ionic echinus has been put in at the level
of the bottom of the Corinthian cauliculi, that on the centre of the
echinus there is a calix, from which a flower runs up above the top of
the abacus, and from each side of the calix spring curved bands running
into the hollow of the abacus and ending in heavy volutes coming down to
the tops of the upper row of leaves, the lower parts of the bands and
the spaces between the spirals being filled with foliage. The parts of
the bell thus left bare by the omission of the sheaths of the cauliculi
have two little scrolls of foliage to cover them. The worst fault of the
capital is, that the upper part has no artistic connection with the
lower, and taken merely as an isolated capital, its volutes are too
ponderous for the rest. We must, however, give the Romans credit for the
merits of the invention. They
[Illustration: FIG. 187.--Roman Corinthian. Half of the capital of Mars
Ultor.]
saw that in tall columns, and in this case the columns are on pedestals,
the volutes of Corinthian columns
[Illustration: FIG. 188.--Roman composite capital from the Arch of
Titus.]
were too insignificant. This capital when once invented took the Romans,
and was applied everywhere.
[Illustration: FIG. 189.--Roman Composite. Entablature, capital, and
base, Arch of Titus.]
It was the practical solution for a practical people of a want that was
felt. Artistically speaking, it was no solution, and we can imagine that
if such a solution had been offered to the Athenians in their palmy
days, the author would have been howled at, and hunted out of the city.
I may mention that the orders that have passed through the hands of the
Italian masters and been altered by them are not Classical, but
Renaissance.
Those who wish to study this subject will find the Greek examples in
Stuart and Rivett’s _Antiquities of Athens_; in Mr. Penrose’s
_Principles of Athenian Architecture_; in the books published by the
Dilettanti Society; in Cockerell’s _Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius at
Ægina_; in Inwood’s _Erectheion_; and in Wilkins’ _Antiquities of Magna
Græcia_. J. Pennethorne’s _Elements and Mathematical Principles of the
Greek Architects_ gives many examples of profiles: “The Roman,” in _Les
Édifices Antiques de Rome_, by Desgodetz; Cresy and Taylor’s
_Architectural Antiquities of Rome_; Normand’s _Parallel of the Orders_;
and Mr. Phené Spiers’ _Orders of Architecture_.
A CHAPTER ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOME FIGURES AND CURVES IN
PRACTICAL PLANE GEOMETRY USEFUL IN ORNAMENT.
Definitions and names of figures from 1 to 13.
An Equilateral triangle is a triangle which has _three equal_ sides.
(Fig. 1.)
An Isosceles triangle is that which has only two sides equal. (Fig. 2.)
A Scalene triangle is that which has _three unequal_ sides. (Fig. 3.)
A Right-angled triangle is that which has a right angle. (Fig. 4.)
An Acute-angled triangle is that which has _three_ acute angles. (Fig.
5.)
A Parallelogram is a four-sided figure which has its opposite sides
parallel. (Fig. 6.)
A Rhombus is a _four-sided_ figure which has all its sides equal, but
its angles are not right angles. (Fig. 7.)
A Lozenge is a square set angle-wise. (Fig. 8.)
NOTE.--A square, an oblong, a rhombus, and a rhomboid are all
species of parallelograms.
[Illustration: FIG. 1]
[Illustration: FIG. 2]
[Illustration: FIG. 3]
[Illustration: FIG. 4]
[Illustration: FIG. 5]
[Illustration: FIG. 6]
[Illustration: FIG. 7]
[Illustration: FIG. 8]
A Diamond is composed of two _equilateral_ triangles set back to back.
(Fig. 9.)
All other four-sided figures are called Trapeziums. If one opposite pair
of sides be parallel, and the other pair not, the figure is called a
Trapezoid. (Fig. 10.)
Polygons.--A Polygon is a plane rectilineal figure contained by more
than four straight lines.
A Regular Polygon is that which has its sides _equal_, and its angles
also are _equal_.
An Irregular Polygon may have _unequal_ sides and _unequal_ angles, or
_unequal_ sides and _equal_ angles, or _equal_ sides and _unequal_
angles. In this chapter regular polygons are only treated of.
Polygons are named according to the number of sides or angles they may
have. A polygon having
5 sides is a Pentagon.
6 “ a Hexagon.
7 “ a Heptagon.
8 “ an Octagon.
9 “ a Nonagon.
10 “ a Decagon.
11 “ a Undecagon.
12 “ a Dodecagon.
13 “ a Tridecagon.
14 “ a Tetradecagon.
15 “ a Pentadecagon.
16 “ a Hexadecagon.
17 “ a Heptadecagon.
18 “ an Octadecagon.
19 “ a Nonodecagon.
20 “ a Bisdecagon.
Figs. 11, 12, and 13 are self-explanatory.
Fig. 14. From a given point D without to draw Tangents to a given circle
A B C.
Join E the centre of the circle D.
Bisect D E in F. With F as centre and F E radius describe the circle D B
E cutting the given circle in A and B. Draw the required tangents from D
to touch the given circle at A and B. N.B.--A tangent to a circle or arc
is always at right angles to a radius drawn to the point of contact.
[Illustration: FIG. 9]
[Illustration: FIG. 10]
[Illustration: FIG. 11]
[Illustration: FIGS. 12 and 13]
[Illustration: FIG. 14]
Fig. 15. To draw an Exterior Tangent to two given circles A B and C D K.
Join the centres E and F cutting the circumference of the larger circle
at K. Bisect E F in G. From K in the line K F cut off a part K P equal
to the radius of the smaller circle E B.
With centre G and radius K F describe a semicircle; with F as centre and
radius F P describe a circle. The semicircle cuts this circle at H. Join
F H, and produce it to C. At E draw E A parallel to F C. Join A C, which
is the exterior tangent required.
Fig. 16. To draw an Interior Tangent to two given circles B E and F D.
Join the centres E and F. Bisect E F in G, and describe a semicircle on
E F. From K on the larger circle mark off K J and E F equal to the
radius of the smaller circle, and with F as centre and F J as radius
describe an arc passing through semicircle at H. Join F H cutting the
larger circle at C, and draw E A parallel to F H. The points of contact
are A and C, through which the _interior_ tangent is drawn.
Fig. 17. Within a given circle to describe _any_ Regular Polygon--say a
Pentagon.
Draw the diameter A F and divide it into the same number of parts as the
required polygon is to have sides--in this case it will be five parts.
To divide the diameter into the number of equal parts, draw a line A X
any angle to A F. Set off any convenient measurement five times on this
line. Join point 5 to F, and draw the lines 4, 4´, 3, 3´, &c., parallel
to 5 F to meet the diameter. With A and F as centre and A F as radius
describe arcs intersecting at L. From
[Illustration: FIG. 15]
[Illustration: FIG. 16]
[Illustration: FIG. 17]
L draw a line through the _Second_ division on A F at point 2´ cutting
the circumference at B. Join A B. This is the length of the side of the
required polygon. Set off the length of the side A B around the
circumference at C, D, and E. Join the points A, B, C, D, E to complete
the required _pentagon_.
N.B.--A Regular Hexagon may be inscribed in a circle by setting off the
length of its radius _six_ times round the circumference, and joining
the points.
Fig. 18. On a given line to construct _any_ Regular Polygon,--say a
Pentagon.
Produce the given line A B to R, and with B as centre and A B as radius
describe a semicircle A C R. Divide the semicircle into as many parts as
the polygon is to have sides--in this case five. Draw a line from point
B to the _second_ division point Q C. Bisect A B and B C to find P,
which will be the centre of a circle passing through the points A B C.
Mark off the points D and E, making the distances C D, D E, and E A each
equal to A B. Join C D, D E, and E A to complete the required polygon.
Fig. 19. Special method of drawing an Octagon in a given circle.
Draw two diameters B F and H D at right angles to each other. Bisect
angles H K B and B K D in the lines K A and K C. Produce the lines K A,
K C, to meet the circumference at G and E. The _eight_ points thus found
on the circumference are joined to make the required octagon.
Fig. 20. To inscribe an Octagon in a given square.
With each corner of the square as centres, and half the diagonal of the
square as radius, describe arcs
[Illustration: FIG. 18]
[Illustration: FIG. 19]
[Illustration: FIG. 20]
cutting the sides of the square at F, G, H, K, &c. Join these points to
complete the required octagon.
Fig. 21. To describe a circle to touch two given straight lines A B and
A C, one point of contact being given.
Bisect the angle B A C in A D. At C draw a perpendicular to A C, meeting
A D at D. With D as centre and D C as radius describe the required
circle.
Fig. 22. To inscribe a _circle_ in a given triangle A B C.
Bisect any two of the angles as at B and C. The lines of bisection
intersect at D. Produce B D to E. With centre D and distance D E
inscribe the required circle.
Fig. 23. A square being given, to inscribe _four equal circles_ each
touching _two_ others and _two_ sides of the square.
Draw the diagonals and two lines parallel to the sides through the
centre of the given square. Join the extremities of the latter lines to
obtain the points 1, 2, 3, and 4. With these points as centres, and 1 E
drawn perpendicular to C A as radius, inscribe the four required
circles.
Fig. 24. A square being given, to inscribe _four equal circles_ each
touching _two_ other and _one_ side of the square.
Draw the diagonals and two lines through the centre parallel to the
sides of the given square A B C D. Bisect any one of the angles made by
a diagonal and one of the sides of the square, as at D. Produce the line
of bisection until it meets the vertical centre line at point 1. With
the central point O as centre
[Illustration: FIG. 21]
[Illustration: FIG. 22]
[Illustration: FIG. 23]
[Illustration: FIG. 24]
and O 1 as radius, describe a circle to obtain the points 1, 2, 3, 4.
These are the centres of the required circles.
N.B.--If the central portion made by the meeting of the four
circles were removed, the remaining parts of the circles would form
a figure known as the _quatrefoil_, a form common in architecture.
Fig. 25. To inscribe _six equal circles_ in a given equilateral triangle
A B C.
Bisect the angles of the given equilateral triangle as at E, and draw
the bisection lines through to meet the centre of each side. Bisect the
angle A B J to obtain the point D on C K. Through D draw G F parallel to
A B, also F H and H G parallel to the sides of the triangle. With D as
centre and D K as radius inscribe one of the required circles, and with
the same radius and F, 2, H, 1, and G as centres inscribe the remaining
circles.
Fig. 26. (1) Within a given circle to inscribe a _hexagon_. (2) Without
the same circle to describe a _hexagon_. (3) Within the inner hexagon to
inscribe _three equal circles_ each touching each other and two sides of
the hexagon.
(1) Mark off the length of the radius of the given circle B D F six
times on the circumference as at D E F, &c. Draw the three diameters A
D, B E, and G F, and produce them a little beyond these points. Join the
points G, D, E, F, &c., by straight lines to produce the hexagon within
the given circle. (2) Bisect the angle K O H, the line of bisection will
cut the circle at point R. Through R draw H K parallel to B C. With O as
centre and O H as radius describe a circle cutting the produced
diameters at K, L, M, &c.
[Illustration: FIG. 25]
[Illustration: FIG. 26]
Join the latter points to produce the required hexagon without the given
circle. (3) Join the points G, E, A. This will obtain the points 1, 2, 3
on the diameters. Draw 1, 4 perpendicular to G B. With 1, 4 as radius
and 1 as centre describe one of the required circles. 3 and 2 are the
centres of the other two required circles.
Fig. 27. Within a given circle to inscribe any number of _equal
circles_, each touching the circumference and two other circles.
Divide the circle in the same number of parts as the number of circles
required--in this case five. Draw the five radii. Bisect the angles B D
A and A D C. Draw E F perpendicular to D A. D E F is a triangle any two
angles of which bisect as at D and E. From point 1 thus obtained on D A
and radius 1 A inscribe a circle. From D as centre and D 1 as radius
describe a circle cutting the five radii in points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. With
the latter points as centres and 1 A as radius describe the remaining
required circles.
Fig. 28. This problem is worked in the same manner as Fig. 27, _seven_
circles being inscribed instead of _five_ in a given circle.
Fig. 29. To inscribe a _trefoil_, or _three equal_ semicircles having
adjacent diameters in a given circle.
Divide the given circle into six equal parts by marking off the length
of the radius six times on the circumference. From the centre D to these
six points draw radii. Bisect any of the six sectors as at E. Draw E C
obtaining F on one of the radials. On either side of F draw lines from
it to meet the alternate radials perpendicular to B D and D C, and
[Illustration: FIG. 27]
[Illustration: FIG. 28]
[Illustration: FIG. 29]
join their extremities, thus making the equilateral triangle 1, 2, 3. On
the sides of this triangle describe the three semicircles required by
using points 1, 2, and 3 as centres, and 2 F as radius. The completed
figure is the trefoil, and the inscribed three semicircles have their
diameters adjacent.
Fig. 30. To describe an equilateral triangle within and without a given
circle.
[Illustration: FIG. 30]
Draw six radii dividing the given circle into six equal parts. Join
their alternate extremities as at L M N. This makes the required
_equilateral_ triangle within the circle. Draw tangents to the circle at
L M and N, or lines at right angles to L O, M O, and N O. Produce the
latter radii to meet the tangents at A B C. A B C is the _equilateral_
triangle without the circle.
N.B.--It will be seen that the triangle B A C is made up of four
similar triangles each equal to L M N. Also, if six of the smaller
triangles, as A L M, were placed around points A B and C a hexagon
would be formed. This figure is very useful in designing
geometrical and other repeating _all over_ patterns in ornament.
CONIC SECTIONS.
The figures known as the Conic Sections are the Ellipse, the Parabola,
and the Hyperbola.
The Cone may have other sections in addition to these, such as the
section through any point below the apex, on the axis, and taken
parallel to the base; this would be a _circle_, and a section through
the apex perpendicular to the base would be an _isosceles triangle_.
The Ellipse is the curve of the section made by a plane passing
_obliquely_ through a cone from side to side.
The Parabola is the curve of the section made by a plane passing through
a cone _parallel_ to _one_ of its sides.
The Hyperbola is the curve of a section made by a plane passing through
a cone _parallel_ to its _axis_, or _inclined_ at a greater angle to its
base than its side, but _not_ through its apex.
Fig. 31. The elevation of a cone is shown at A B C. A section through
point X at right angles to the axis of the cone is a _Circle_. A section
passing through and across the cone from point X, but not at right
angles to the axis, is an _Ellipse_, as at X 1. A section through X
parallel to the opposite side A C is a Parabola, as at X 2. A section
through X parallel to the axis, as at X 3, or a section through X at any
other angle greater than the angle made by the side and base, as at X 4,
is a Hyperbola.
Figs. 32, 33, and 34 show the actual shape of the sections X 1, X 2, and
X 3 respectively.
Fig. 32. In this figure the _major_ or _transverse_ axis of the Ellipse
is equal to X 1. To find the _minor_ or _conjugate_ axis bisect X 1
(Fig. 31) in H, draw through it F G parallel to A B, drop a
perpendicular from F to _f_, and describe the semicircle _f h g_. From H
drop a perpendicular to A B, and produce it to _h_ to meet the
semicircle, _k h_ is then half the length of the minor axis of the
Ellipse, as C D. Divide A E into any number of equal parts, and A G into
the same number. Draw from C lines through the divisions as 1, 2, 3 &c.,
and from D lines to 1´ 2´ 3´ &c. The curve of the required Ellipse will
pass through the intersections of these lines, as at 1´´ 3´´ 5´´ &c.
Fig. 33. In this figure, the Parabola, the line C D is equal to X 2
(Fig. 31), while A B is _twice_ the length of D 2 (Fig. 31). Divide G B
into any number of equal parts, and join the points of the divisions to
C. Divide D B into the same number of equal parts, and draw lines from
the points of division parallel to D C to meet the similar numbered
lines drawn from B G; through these meeting points the curve of the
Parabola will be drawn.
Fig. 34. The only difference between the working of this figure--the
Hyperbola--and the Parabola is that the lines which in the Parabola were
drawn parallel to G B, are here drawn to a point E on C D produced, C D
being equal to X 3 (Fig. 31). This point E is found by drawing the line
from 7 on D B to E on C D produced, where C E equals twice X O (Fig.
31).
Fig. 35. To describe an Archimedean spiral of any number of
revolutions--say _three_, the longest radius A B being given.
[Illustration: FIG. 31]
[Illustration: FIG. 32]
[Illustration: FIG. 33]
[Illustration: FIG. 34]
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--Archimedean Spiral.]
Divide the radius A B into _three_ equal parts for the three
revolutions. With B as centre and B A as radius describe a circle, and
divide it into any number of equal parts--say eight, by drawing four
diameters. Each of the three divisions on A B is divided into eight
equal parts. With centre B and the point of each succeeding division as
radius, describe arcs, meeting in following order the _next nearest_
diameter as shown at arcs 1 1´´, 2 2´´, 3 3´´, &c. Through point 8 with
radius B 8, the second division, describe a circle, and through point 16
with centre B describe a circle. In these two divisions arcs are drawn
as described above for the division A 8, &c., to the next nearest
diameter. The _spiral_ is then drawn through the points thus formed on
the diameters, which mark its path as at 1´, 2´, 3´, &c., until it ends
in its centre at B.
Fig. 36. To draw Goldman’s Volute, the _cathetus_ C F being given.
Divide C F into 15 equal parts. With C as centre describe a circle A E B
to form the eye of the volute, making the diameter 3⅓ of these parts.
Bisect A C and C B in 1 and 4. On 1 4 draw a square, 1, 2, 3, 4. Produce
the sides 1 2, 2 3, and 3 4 to G, H, and I respectively.
Divide 1 C into three equal parts. Draw lines parallel to 1 G through
the points of division to P and L, which cut the line C 2 in the points
6 and 10. Through these points (6 and 10) draw lines to M and Q parallel
to E H, cutting C 3 in 7 and 11. In the same way draw lines parallel to
3 I from 7 and 11 to N and R. The points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c., will then
form the centres of the series of quadrants which are to form the _outer
spiral_ that begins with the radius 1 F. To describe the _inner spiral_.
A´ F´ in Fig. 36 (_a_) is equal to A F (Fig. 36). F´ S´ is made equal to
the breadth of the fillet at the top F S. V´ F´ is drawn at right angles
to F´ A´ and equal to C 1. By joining V´ A´ and drawing T´ S´ parallel
to V´ F´, then T´ S´ is obtained which will be the length of _half_ the
side of the square for drawing the inner spiral. The method for
obtaining the _inner spiral_ is the same as for the _outer_.
Fig. 37. There is no geometric means of drawing a perfect catenary
curve; at best we can only obtain it by an approximation in geometry.
The curve is formed by suspending a chain from two points and pricking
points along the curve of the chain. These
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--Goldman’s volute.]
points will mark the path of the catenary. In the accompanying figure
three catenary curves are drawn from a chain suspended from points A and
B.
Fig. 38.--To draw a cycloid curve when the _generating_ circle is
given. In order to find the length of the line A B on which the circle
rolls, and which must be the length of the circumference of the given
circle, we must first find _approximately_ that length by
[Illustration: FIG. 37.--Catenary curves.]
[Illustration: FIG. 38.--Cycloid curve.]
the following method. Draw the vertical diameter of the circle D C. Draw
D M at right angles to D C, and make it _three_ times the length of the
radius of the circle; make an angle of 30° at E, and draw a line
parallel to D M of any convenient length. The line E L making the angle
of 30° cuts C B in L. Join M L. M L is the approximate length of half
the circumference. Make A C and C B each equal to M L. Then A B is the
length _approximately_ of the circumference, drawn at right angles to C
D on which the circle rolls. Divide now half the circle into eight equal
parts, and draw a line from E S parallel to A B, and equal to M L.
Divide E S into eight equal parts. From the points 1, 2, 3, &c., draw
lines parallel to A C. With centres 1´, 2´, 3´, &c., and with radius E
C, describe arcs cutting them at 1´´, 2´´, 3´´, &c. The curve A D, which
must be drawn by free-hand, will then pass through these points.
Complete the cycloid by drawing D B in a similar manner. The length A B
can also be found approximately by dividing C D into seven equal parts,
and taking A B = 22 of those parts.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN ORNAMENT
_Many of the terms which appear in this Glossary have been explained in
the previous chapters. The reader should refer back to the text when any
of the terms are inadequately described here._
_Æsthetics_, the science of the beautiful.
_Æsthetic_, when applied to ornament, not only means “beautiful,”
hut that beauty was the sole aim of its production, and
distinguishes it from symbolic and mnemonic ornament. See page 143.
_Allegory_, the representation of one thing under the image of
another. It was mostly confined to human figures, but to aid its
comprehension attributes were added. Among the Pagans strength was
shown as Hercules with his club; health as a woman with a serpent;
rivers were represented as gods with crowns of sedge or rushes;
towns as gods or goddesses with mural crowns. Among the Christians,
a man holding a lamb, or a shepherd with his flock, was an
allegorical representation of Christ the Good Shepherd; the seven
cardinal virtues and the seven deadly sins were represented by
allegorical figures, and each had its proper attributes.
_Alternation_, two different forms in succession, or alternating
with each other. Figs. 67, 75, and 76.
_Anthemion_, a radiating ornament with a palmate outline; the
honeysuckle ornament of the Greeks.
_Attributes_, the things assigned to any one. Amongst the Pagans
the eagle and thunderbolt to Jupiter, the trident to Neptune, the
peacock to Juno, &c. Amongst the Christians the nimbus was the
attribute of divinity, saintship, or martyrdom, the lily of
chastity, &c.
_Balance_, equilibrium or counterpoise. In compositions that are
not symmetrical the _weight_ of the masses must be alike on either
side of a central axis; in those of symmetrical outline with
different fillings there must be equality of weight in the
fillings. Renaissance ornament affords many admirable examples of
balance. See page 46, and Figs. 126 and 131.
_Banding_, decorating by means of horizontal stripes, mostly filled
with ornament. Figs. 116 and 117.
_Catenary_, the curve formed by a chain hanging from two points.
Fig. 27.
_Cauliculus_, the shoot or stem of a plant forming the volutes
under the angles of the abacus, and those in the centre of each
face of a Corinthian capital; in modern works this name is mostly
confined to the central spirals, the outer ones being called
volutes. Figs. 180, 181, 185, 187, and 188.
_Checkering_, covering a surface with a square pattern like a
chess-board, in which the colour or the ornament alternates. The
outline is formed by equidistant vertical and horizontal lines
crossing one another. Figs. 98 and 99.
_Colour_, apart from the literal meaning of the word, is a vague
technical term to express character and contrast in ornament.
_Complexity_, interweaving or intricacy; the opposite of
simplicity. Ornament in which the leading forms are not apparent,
is mainly to be found in Celtic, Saracenic, Moresque, and Gothic
ornament. It is also characteristic of the decadent periods of all
historic styles.
_Contrast_, the opposition of dissimilar figures or positions, by
which one contributes to the effect of the other; _e. g._ the
straight line with the circle, vertical and horizontal lines
alternating; in colour black with white, &c.; ornamental forms
where flat and sharp curves contrast with one another; a plain
space alternating with an ornamented one, or an enriched moulding
round a plain panel, or _vice versâ_, &c. See page 43.
_Conventional._ This is a word of great elasticity. In early
decoration natural objects were highly conventionalized through the
want of skill in the artists, who could not copy, but only portray
their impressions, thus the Egyptians and early Greeks represented
water by the zig-zag. These early conventionalized forms were
sometimes perpetuated through religious conservatism, after the
artists had become skilful. All ornament is more or less
conventional, but the term is usually applied to designate that
ornament in which the most beautiful and characteristic floral
forms have been abstracted and adapted to the material employed and
the effect wanted. The styles most characterized by conventional
ornament are the Greek and the early Gothic; they are equally
effective as ornament in their respective countries, but the Greek
has all the grace and vigour of the highest plant form, while
Gothic has mostly only the vigour. Figs. 49-54. The Romans and the
Renaissance architects also successfully conventionalized. Figs. 91
and 129. Convention now too often means leaving out all grace and
vigour. Saracenic-Persian ornament is perhaps the least
conventionalized of fairly good ornament. Figs. 49, 53, 54, 118,
and 119. _Conventional_ is also used in opposition to _realistic_
ornament.
_Counterchange_, a pattern in which the ornament and ground are
mostly similar in shape but different in colour and alternate with
each other. See Figs. 171 and 172.
_Cymatium_, the capping to a vertical member, as the cymatium of
the abacus of the Roman Doric, of the architrave, of the frieze, of
the corona. See Appendix on the orders.
_Diaper_, derived from jasper, originally employed to designate
those coloured patterns on stuffs that suggested the flowerings of
jasper; subsequently a pattern enclosed in repealing geometrical
forms not composed of straight lines; but unhappily employed of
late years to designate any repeating patterns enclosed in
geometric forms, including checkers and net-work. Figs. 101, 107,
109, and 110.
_Emblem_, in Latin, means embossed ornament on vessels, inlaid
work, and mosaic. In modern English it is a device, and was the
animal or thing that was painted on a shield to show the temper or
striking quality or achievement of the warrior. It is also used as
an allegorical representation of some virtue or quality. We say the
cock is an emblem of watchfulness; the lion, of courage; the
scales, of justice; the lily, of purity; but the latter may be used
as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.
_Equilibrium._ See _Balance_. Also Figs. 130 and 160.
_Enlargement of Subject_, _e. g._ the figure of Bacchus is wanted
for a given space which it does not fill; the due filling of the
space may sometimes be attained by the addition of his attributes,
as a leopard, a thyrsus, a vine and grapes; accessories even may be
wanted, as a satyr, mænad, rocks, trees, &c.
_Eurythmy_, harmony or elegance in ornament; a quality obtained by
the use of contrasted but harmonious and dignified forms, expressed
in a measured or proportionate quantity.
_Even distribution_, the plain space and ornament proportionately
arranged; Indian ornament gives the most mechanical instance of
this, while good Roman and Cinque Cento pilaster panels give the
most artistic examples of this arrangement. It is sometimes
improperly used to designate the balancing of masses in a design.
Figs. 101, 102, 143, &c.
_Expression_, the method of representing ornament by various means,
as in outline by the pencil, pen, or point; in painting, by the
brush; and in relief or sunk work by modelling. In another sense
_expression_ is giving the proper treatment and character to
ornament.
_Fanciful_, a term sometimes applied to grotesque creations, for
example, to the hybrid animals, and the figures ending in foliage,
met with in Pompeian and other decorations. Figs. 122, 131, 134,
and 135.
_Fitness_, absolute propriety; beautiful ornament adapted to its
purpose and not interfering with the use of the object ornamented.
See page 48.
_Flexibility_, a quality derived from the appearance of plants of
free growth; the freedom and elasticity found in natural forms when
converted into ornament give a look of flexibility, in opposition
to rigid and angular lines which produce a look of _inflexibility_.
See Fig. 54.
_Fluted_, channelled in hollows, semi-circular, segmental, or
elliptical in section; like those on some of the shafts of Greek
and Roman columns. See also Figs. 75 and 76.
_Geometric_, or “geometrical arrangement,” the setting out of all
good ornament; also the bounding lines for ornament constructed on
a basis of geometry, as in diapers, &c.; the triangle, square,
lozenge, diamond, the circle, the hexagon, octagon, and other
polygons, are the chief geometrical forms for patterns in ornament.
Saracenic decorations are pre-eminently geometric in construction.
See Figs. 101, 102, 106, 107, 110, and 172.
_Grotesque_, from the word grot or grotto. When the fantastic
arabesques of ancient Roman decoration were discovered under the
baths and in grottoes, they were originally called grotesque, and
were imitated in the Vatican. (See Figs. 122 and 128.) The word is
mainly used now to describe the coarse and humorous carvings of
heads, satyrs, &c., originally used to decorate the built grottoes
of the late Renaissance, which gradually overspread all buildings.
The word is also used to denote the quaint class of Gothic
sculptured creations (Fig. 131), such as winged dragons, grinning
monsters, &c., that serve to decorate the ends of dripstone
mouldings; gargoyles, bosses, and finials, &c.
_Growth_ is a concise expression for those forms which denote the
special vigour shown by plants at certain epochs of their growth,
the twist of the stem of creeping plants to get light to the
flowers, the bursting of the bud from a capsule, or the clasp of a
tendril. Examples are to be met with in the volutes of Greek
Corinthian capitals, in the base of the tripod on the choragic
monument of Lysikrates, in Renaissance sculpture, and in early
Gothic.
_Guilloche_, snare-work; an ornament composed of parallel curved
lines flowing and crossing each other; these forms may best be
illustrated by the bending of ropes round circular pins so as to
cross one another. See Figs. 37, 38, 39, and 40.
_Hieroglyphic_, sacred carving, mostly applied to Egyptian picture
and symbolic writing. See Fig. 162.
_Idealistic_, used by some writers as equivalent to conventional,
in opposition to “realistic”.
_Imbrication_, overlapping scale-like ornaments; as seen in
fir-cones, the hop, and curved tiles on roofs, are examples of
imbrication. The bark of the Chili pine is a peculiar instance of
horizontal imbrication which is something like that of a Roman
roof. It is used as decoration on roofs, torus mouldings, and small
columns, and is a common way of filling certain spaces on Italian
majolica. See Fig. 26, A, B, C.
_Inappropriate ornament_, that which is improperly applied, so as
to spoil the appearance, or interfere with the use of an object; is
false, out of scale, or redundant. See page 21.
_Independent ornaments._ Things that are beautiful, quaint, or
curious, that may be attached to a wall or surface, as festoons,
shields, medallions, trophies, &c. See page 21, also Fig. 133.
_Interchange_ is when running vertical or horizontal patterns are
divided by a vertical or horizontal axis, the colour of the ground
on either side of it being different, the ornament on each side of
the axis being of the colour of the opposite ground. See Figs. 173,
174.
_Interlacing_, ornament composed of bands, ribbons, ropes, rushes,
osiers, &c., woven together, or crossing at intervals, as seen in
Celtic, Byzantine, and Saracenic ornament; among examples of
interlaced work may be mentioned braided, trellis, basket, and
woven work. Figs. 22, 23.
_Intersection_, the points at which lines or other forms cut one
another.
_Monotony_, sameness of tone; often shown in excessive repetition;
a very undesirable feature in ornament: patterns within diapers
without contrasting elements; mouldings coming together whose
widths and profiles are nearly equal; panelling without sufficient
variety in size; carved ornament of nearly equal relief--in short,
any lack of variety in the composition, modelling, or colour of
ornament produces monotony.
_Mnemonic_, ornament in which written signs or other elements are
used for the purpose of aiding the memory. See page 130. Figs. 162,
163.
_Naturalistic_, those forms that are used for decoration, that
resemble the spots and eyes on butterflies’ wings, or the markings
on the skins of reptiles and quadrupeds, or on the feathers of
birds; mostly found in the ornament of savage tribes.
_Network_, as opposed to checkers, are squares set lozengewise or
forming diamonds; but the word is commonly applied to any figures
in outline, rectilinear or otherwise, covering a surface. See Fig.
102.
_Order_, regular disposition; a pleasing sequence in the
arrangement of opposed forms. Order is of such vital importance in
a design that ornament can scarcely have any existence without it.
_Powdering_, sprays, flowers, leaves, and other decorative units
sprinkled on a ground; “powdering” is a favourite method of
decoration with the Japanese, and was with the Mediævals. See pp.
63, 80, and 83, and Figs. 85, 103, and 105.
_Proportion_, the harmonic spacing of lines and surfaces; of the
length, width, and projection of solids; the ratio between
succeeding units in flowing ornament, and the relation between the
spaces occupied by the ornament and its ground.
_Radiation_, the divergence from a point of straight or curved
lines. Radiating ornament is improved by the point being below the
straight or curved line from which the radiation starts. Explained
at page 44. See Figs. 49, 50, and 51.
_Realistic_, a style of decoration in which forms are applied
without alteration from natural forms or objects, or without
apparent alteration; it is opposed to the “conventional,” and is
rarely found in the best periods of good historic styles. See Figs.
1 and 146.
_Repetition_, a succession of the same decorative unit. For
explanation see pages 40-43. and Figs. 3, 9, and 32.
_Reeded_, convex forms applied to a flat or curved surface,
producing the reverse effect of “fluting”; some of the columns in
Egyptian architecture are reeded, being sculptured to represent a
bundle of reeds tied together. See Figs. 76A and 76B.
_Repose_, rest; the absence of apparent movement in ornament; this
apparent movement may be seen in some flamboyant tracery and
Saracenic work, and in some bad paper-hangings, &c.; also the
absence of spottiness. See page 45.
_Scale_, the relative proportion of the different parts of a
decorative composition to each other, to the whole, and to the
thing ornamented. If a design is composed of different organic
forms, they should, as a rule, keep their natural proportion to
each other. Attributes are, however, often made to a much larger
scale in Greek coins and engraved gems. Equality in scale need not
be used when parts are cut off from each other by inclosing
mouldings, as in isolated panels, pilasters, medallions, spandrels,
&c.; the inclosed spaces may be filled with other subjects of
smaller or larger scale, as with landscapes, heads, or
inscriptions; the frieze of a room, from its greater importance,
may have its decoration larger in scale than the panels of the
door or shutters. The scale employed in the decoration of rooms, of
floors, or of pieces of furniture, may increase or destroy their
importance; hence, except in rare instances, the human figure
should not exceed its natural size, and may want to be much
smaller. And this precaution is equally important in the use of
plants; if the flowers or leaves in ornament are made gigantic,
they destroy the scale of the room or floor; though it may be known
that leaves four feet in diameter or six feet long actually exist.
_Scalloping_ or _scolloping_, forming an edge with semi-circles or
segments, the convex side being outwards.
_Scroll_, a roll of paper or parchment. As a unit in ornament, it
is usually applied to two spirals, each attached to the opposite
ends of a curved stem, each spiral coiling the reverse way, but the
word is often applied to ornament composed of a meander with
spirals.
_Series_, usually the sequence of several dissimilar forms at
regular intervals, as the bead and reel in bead-mouldings, the
sequence of the same text in Saracenic work, and also a sequence of
forms similar in shape but in an increasing or decreasing order, as
branches of plants with leaves getting smaller from bottom to top.
_Setting out_, the planning of a scheme of decoration; the first
constructive lines or marking-out of the ornament; the skeleton
lines of a design. See pages 26, 40, and 68.
_Soffit_, an architectural term applied to the under side of any
fixed portion, as the soffit of a beam, an architrave, a cornice,
an arch, or a vault.
_Spacing_, the marking of widths in mouldings, panels, stiles and
rails, borders, &c. Equality of division in decoration is, in most
cases, ineffective, and should be guarded against; harmonious
variety in such widths and distances is desirable for getting a
good effect. See pages 42, 62, 65, and 68-71. Also Figs. C, D, 88
and 89.
_Spiral_, the elevation of a wire continuously twisted round a
cylinder, or cone, also the plan of one twisted round a cone; in
ornament the word spiral, when used as a substantive, mostly means
the latter form. The curved line forming a volute (as in the Ionic
capital) and the outline of the wave ornament; the line of
construction in univalve shells. See Figs. 24, 41, 42, 43, 178, &c.
_Stability_, firmness and strength in the general appearance of a
design; in climbing plants this appearance can only be given by
their attachment to a central upright or to the vertical sides of
the frame; the straight line is the chief factor of stability in
ornament. See page 42. Where many curved lines are used in the
decoration of long panels, straight-lined forms must be introduced
to counteract the effect of instability in the curved ones. See
Figs. 123 and 128. This is especially the case in pilasters which
are architectural features of support; and for the same reason the
heavier forms should be kept at the bottom and the lighter ones at
the top.
_Style_, originally meant handwriting. In historic styles it means
the expression of the taste and skill of the people who produced
the work of art, whether it be architecture, sculpture, or
painting. Bygone styles are useful for study, and may be copied or
paraphrased, but can never be re-created, because the genius,
knowledge, opportunities, and surroundings of any later period are
unlikely to be the same. We classify them under the head of
conventional (sometimes called idealistic), realistic, and
naturalistic. It is also used to express good drawing or modelling,
which conveys the elegance, grace, or vigour of the best natural
forms. Sometimes it is applied to a composition in which those
qualities arc expressed, in contradistinction to the ill-drawn,
flabby, or commonplace.
_Spotting._ This word has nearly the same meaning as “powdering,”
the only difference being that the units of form in such decoration
have a geometrical basis and are mostly equidistant, the ground
occupying much larger space than the ornament. See Fig. 80.
_Stripe_, usually applied in ornament to narrow bands.
_Suitability_, æsthetic and practical fitness; the great thing to
remember is the nature, surface, and shape of the object to be
decorated, and to design the ornament accordingly, for it is
evident that what would be a good ornament for one object or
position might be bad for another.
_Superimposed_ or _superposed_, an ornament which is laid on the
surface of another, such as a large flowing pattern on a ground
covered with a smaller pattern, either geometric or floral; or a
broad, ribbon-like ornament laid on a pattern formed of narrow and
fine lines. This sort of ornamentation is mostly seen in the
decoration of the Saracens, but occasionally in that of the
Renaissance artists. In the wall-patterns of the Alhambra, we often
find two, three, and sometimes four different designs superimposed
on each other, the judicious use of different colours and gold
preventing confusion in the pattern; the complexity is sometimes of
a well-ordered kind. See Figs. 101, 102, and 104.
_Subordination._ A regular gradation from the most important
feature to the least important. See the central panel of ceiling,
Fig. 89.
_Symbol_ originally meant a token or a ticket among the Greeks; by
the Romans it meant the same, and also a signet. In modern English
it means a sign, emblem, or figurative representation. In
ornamental art it is mostly used to express some beautiful thing
that by knowledge or association brings to the mind some power or
dignity connected with religion. Attributes are often used as
symbols of the divinity to which they belong--the bow of Diana, the
thyrsus of Bacchus (Fig. 167), and the trident of Neptune, &c. In
Christian ornament the fish and lamb are mostly symbols of the
Saviour. It is sometimes difficult to determine when anything
should be called a symbol, an emblem, or an allegorical
representation; for instance, whether the Apocalyptic calf is a
symbol, an emblem, or an allegorical representation of St. Luke.
_Symmetry_, equality of form and mass on either side of a central
line; absolute sameness in the two sides of a piece of ornament.
See Figs. 127 and 130.
_Tangential Junction_, the meeting of curves at their tangential
points, so that they flow into one another without making an angle.
The principal constructive lines in foliated ornament and scroll
patterns should illustrate “tangential junction,” _i. e._ the
branches and curves should flow out of the central stem. See p. 45,
and Figs. 25 and 53.
_Uniformity_, being of one shape; the square and circle are uniform
figures; it is one of the main causes of grandeur and dignity, but
if absolute, results in monotony. The Greek temples had apparently
uniform columns placed at uniform distances, and monotony was
avoided by delicate variations in the size and spacing of the
columns.
_Unit_, the smallest or simplest _complete_ expression of ornament
in any scheme of decoration.
_Unity_, perfect accord in all the parts of a design. Unity is
often a characteristic of designs that are very monotonous, so by
itself it will scarcely render a design pleasing.
_Unsymmetrical_, without symmetry, such as the volute. See the word
_Balance_.
_Variety_, the absence of similarity; a word embracing an infinity
of differences, from two things that are not absolutely alike, to
two things that are absolutely unlike. The judicious use of variety
gives interest to ornament, but uniformity with slight variety
gives the most dignity.
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON & BUNGAY.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] M. Henri Mayeux, _La Composition Décorative_, 8vo, Paris, s.a.
[2] See M. César Daly’s _Motifs Historique_, fol., Paris, 1881.
[3] The chambers under Titus’ baths in which the paintings were found,
were originally parts of Nero’s golden house.
[4] There are, however, figures of men and animals occasionally found
in their carved wood-work, tiles, damascened work, carpets, and
embroidery.
[5] Many of the frets are woven spirals.
[6] There is, however, a strong objection, from a sanitary point of
view, to the use of absorbent hangings, especially when the surface
is rough, for they not only absorb infection, but hold dust, which
generally contains the germs of disease.
[7] There arc many styles of Persian ornamentation--that of the
Achæmenides, probably that of the Macedonians after the conquest of
Persia by Alexander the Great, that of the Sasanides, that of the
Saracens after they conquered the country, and their ornamentation
was doubtless influenced by the subsequent Mongul conquest. That
ornamentation which is generally called Persian, except modern work,
seems to be Saracenic.
[8] In the sixteenth chapter of the Korân called the “Bee,” it is
said, “and of the fruit of the palm-trees and of grapes, ye obtain an
inebriating liquor and also good nourishment.”
[9]
“Eve’s tempter thus the rabbins have express’d,
A cherub’s face, a reptile all the rest.”--POPE.
[10] From Dr. Richter’s discoveries at Cyprus, it seems probable that
the Ionic volute may have taken its rise from an enlargement of the
Egyptian lotus.
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