While the natural world, including leaves, flowers, animals, etc., is the
greatest source of ornament, it is generally the opinion of the best
authorities, derived from the study of the best styles and by a
consideration of the principles of fitness and propriety which underlie the
entire physical and moral world, that natural forms in ornamental and
decorative art should not be literally copied or imitated. That is the aim
of painting, sculpture, and the other representative arts, where the object
is to present something to the eye which will suggest at once the actual
presence of the object. To produce that effect, the object, whether animal
or vegetable, is represented as much as possible in the actual
circumstances of its existence, surrounded by the necessary conditions of
its well-being and growth. A frame is placed around it, to shut it off as
much as possible from other surroundings, and thus help us delude ourselves
that we are in the presence of the real thing, either as it would impress
us through our senses or our imagination.
But in ornamental art the case is entirely different. As it is to be
applied and consequently subordinated to something, and does not exist for
itself, it would be impossible, except in very rare instances, to introduce
in a design a natural object in a realistic manner and not violate some
important law of its growth or the conditions of its well-being. For
instance, to exactly repeat a certain rose, with all the accidents of its
growth, many times in a carpet is not natural. Nature never repeats
herself. Moreover, to tread on that which is supposed to suggest to us real
roses is barbarous. It would really be outraging and distorting nature
while pretending to be her faithful disciple and imitator.
We not only derive from nature the most important materials for our
designs, but also the various modes of arranging this material. Various
modes of repetition--radical, bilateral, etc.--were all probably suggested
by some natural arrangement observed in flowers, leaves, etc. Of these
different arrangements it is curious to note that the bilateral is more
characteristic of the higher forms of nature and the radiating of the
lower. The leading principles of ornament--symmetry, proportion, rhythm,
contrast, unity, variety, repose, etc.--are all exemplified in natural
forms. The latter have also suggested many of the most important
architectural forms. The Gothic cathedral, with its clustered columns
branching and forming pointed arches overhead, was probably suggested by a
grove of trees with overarching branches and boughs. The idea of the column
was derived from the papyrus plant, a species of reed growing in the river
Nile. The bud or flower suggested the capital of the column; the stalk, the
shaft; and the bulbous root, the pedestal. The blue vault of the sky
undoubtedly suggested the dome, etc.
The following are a few of the leading principles of ornamental art as set
forth by Owen Jones in his _Grammar of Ornament_, a fine work,
magnificently illustrated, whose perusal could hardly fail to delight the
most indifferent:
"All good ornamental art should possess fitness, proportion, harmony, the
result of all which is repose."
"Construction should be decorated. Decoration should never be purposely
constructed."
"All ornament should be based upon geometrical construction."
"Harmony of form consists in the proper balancing and contrast of the
straight, the inclined, and the curved."
"In surface decoration all lines should flow out of a parent stem. Every
part, however distant, should be traced to its branch or root. Natural
law."
"All junctions of curved lines with each other, or with straight lines,
should be tangential to each other. Natural law."
"Natural forms, as subjects of ornament, should not be imitated, but should
be conventionalized."