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.