[Footnote 1: Lectures before the Society of Arts, London, 1891.]
By HUGH STANNUS.
_Lecture I._
§ 1.--THE ELEMENTS OF DECORATION.
The chief impelling Motives which have caused that treatment of
objects which is now termed _Decorative_, have been:
(a) That necessitated by the Usage, which is FUNCTIONAL;
(b) That resulting from the Instinct to please the eye, which
is ÆSTHETIC;
(c) That arising from the Desire to record or to teach, which
is the DIDACTIC motive;
The ÆSTHETIC instinct of the early peoples was gratified by:
(a) The _forms_ of their weapons or tools;
(b) The _patterns_ with which they are decorated;
(c) The _imitation_ of the surrounding animals, e.g. the Deer
scratched on the horn at the British Museum.
Imitation was afterward applied to the vegetable creation; and much of
what is termed Ornament was derived from that class of elements.
The ELEMENTS OF DECORATION are the material used by the Artist. They
might be considered to include everything that is visible; but since
Decoration is a result of the æsthetic instinct, the field is narrowed
to such as are pleasing _at the first glance_. And the selection is
further limited to such as are suitable to the shape and size of
objects.
They may be classified according to their relative Dignity, as
follows:
The Human form,
Animal forms,
Natural foliage,
Artificial objects,
Artificial foliage, and
Geometrical figures.
§ 2.--THE TWO KINDS OF FOLIAGE.
A Distinction is made between natural and artificial foliage. They
have much in common; and consequently many have supposed that our
Western artificial foliage is merely a very-much-conventionalized
version of natural foliage. The supposition is correct with regard to
Eastern Pattern work, but not in Western Architectural ornamentation.
A simple generalization may make this clear. The ordinary stock
foliage of the Ornamentist was evolved in connection with:
(In the West) (In the East)
ARCHITECTURE, TEXTILES,
as in Greece. as in Persia.
Hence the primary Elements of decoration were derived from:
(In the West) (In the East)
GEOMETRICAL LINES, NATURAL FLOWERS and LEAVES,
e.g. the meander, spiral, etc. e.g. the pine, pomegranate, etc.
Further, it may be observed that the Method of treating these Elements
has been different:
(In the West) (In the East)
The Geometrical lines The natural foliage was
were enriched by the introduction codified by the introduction
of the details of of Geometrical arrangement;
Natural vegetation; thus thus becoming
becoming gradually more gradually more
_naturalesque_. _artificial_.
An APPROXIMATION between the two treatments, sometimes appears; but
the two kinds--Artificial, and Natural--are essentially different in
origin; and should be kept distinct in their application.
This approximation may be shown, in a tabular arrangement, thus: