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.