Of the Choice of Form--Elementary Forms--Space-filling--Grouping--
Analogies of Form--Typical Forms of Ornament--Ornamental Units--
Equivalents in Form--Quantities in Design--Contrast--Value of
Variations of Similar or Allied Forms--Use of the Human Figure
and Animal Forms in Ornamental Design.
We were considering the choice and use of Line in the last chapter: its
expressive characters and various methods. We now come to the no less
important question to the designer and draughtsman--_The Choice of
Form_.
If Line may be said to be the bone and sinew of design, Form is the
substance and the flesh, and both are obviously essential to its free
life and development.
[Elementary Forms]
The _cube_ and the _sphere_ give us the fundamental elements, or primal
types from which are derived the multifarious, ever varying, and complex
forms, the products of the forces and conditions of nature, or the
necessitous inventiveness of art, just as we may take the square and the
circle to be the parents of linear and geometric design.
[Illustration (f045a): Elementary Forms: Pyramid, Sphere, Cube, Hexagon,
Cone.]
The cube and the sphere, the ellipse, the cone, and the pyramid, with
other comparatively simple forms of solid geometry, present themselves
to the student as elementary tests of draughtsmanship--of the power,
that is, of representing solid bodies upon a plane surface. Such forms
being more simple and regular than any natural forms, they are supposed
to reduce the problem of drawing to its simplest conditions. They
certainly afford very close tests of correctness of eye, making any
fault in perspective or projection at once apparent.
[Illustration (f045b): Use of Elementary Forms in Architecture.]
To avoid, however, falling into mechanical ways, and to maintain the
interest and give vitality to such studies, the relation of such forms
to forms in nature and art should be borne in mind, and no opportunity
missed of comparing them, or of seeking out their counterparts,
corresponding principles, and variations, as well as their practical
bearing, both functional and constructive; as in the case of the typical
forms of flowers, buds, and seed-vessels, for instance, where the cone
and the funnel, and the spherical, cylindrical, and tubular principles
are constantly met with, as essential parts of the characters and
organic necessities of the plant: the cone and the funnel mostly in buds
and flower-petals for protection and inclosure of the pollen and seed
germs, the tube for conducting the juices; the spherical form to resist
moisture externally, or to hold it internally, or to avoid friction, and
facilitate close storage, as in the case of seeds in pods. The
seed-vessel of the poppy, for instance, has a curious little pent-house
roof to shield the interstices (like windows in a tower) till the seed
is ripe and the time comes for it to be shaken out of the shell or pod.
A further practical reason for the prevalence of spherical form in seeds
is that they may, when the outer covering or husk perishes, more readily
roll out and fall into the interstices of the ground; or when, as in the
case of various fruits, such as the apple and orange, the envelope
itself is spherical and intended to carry their flat or pointed seeds to
the ground, where it falls and rolls when ripe.
[Illustration (f046): Poppyheads.]
The cube and the various multiple forms may be found in crystals and
basaltic rocks, as well as in organic nature, as, for instance, in the
honeycomb of bees, where choice of form is a constructive necessity: the
cube is in every sense of the word the corner-stone in architecture, and
without squaring and plumbing no building could be constructed, while
the cylindrical and conical principles of form are illustrated in towers
and roofs, spires and pinnacles. In architectural ornament and carved
decoration the cube and sphere again form the basis, both forming
ornaments themselves by mere recurrence and repetition, and also forming
constructional bases of ornament.
[Illustration (f047): Apple Cut to Show Position of Seeds.]
[Dog-Tooth Ornament]
[Illustration (f048b): Dog-tooth Formed From Cube.]
A very simple but effective form of carved ornament characteristic of
early Gothic work is what is known as the dog-tooth. This is formed
simply by cutting a cube of stone into a pyramid, depressing the sides,
and cutting them into geometric leaves, leaving the sharp angles of the
pyramid from the base to the apex standing out in bold relief. In
ground-plan this is simply composed geometrically of a rectangle divided
diagonally into four equal parts, and by striking four semicircles from
the centres of the four sides of the rectangle. Here we get a form of
ornament in the flat which appears to have been very widely used, and
reappears in the early art of nearly all races so far as I am aware. We
find it, for instance, in Assyrian carving and in early Greek
decoration, in China and Japan, and in European mediaeval work of all
kinds. Its charm perhaps lies in its simplicity of construction yet rich
ornamental effect, either as carved work or as a flat painted diaper. It
might also be used as the geometric basis of an elaborate repeating
wall-pattern over a large surface.
[Illustration (f048a): Cube and Sphere in Architectural Ornament: Brick
Dental, Ball Flower Moulding, and Dog-tooth Moulding.]
[Filling of Spaces]
When it comes to the choice of form, when we are face to face with a
particular problem in design, ornament, or decoration (say, as most
frequently happens, it is to fill a panel of a given shape and size), we
are bound to consider form in relation to that particular panel, to the
subject we propose to treat, and the method by which the design is to be
produced, or the object and position for which it is intended. This
generally narrows the range of possible choice. Firstly, there is the
shape of the panel itself. A well-known exercise for the Teacher's
Certificate under the Department of Science and Art is to give a drawing
of a plant adapted to design in a square and a circle. Now in the
abstract one would be inclined to select for a circular fitting
different forms from those one might select for a square filling, since
I always consider that the shape of the space must influence the
character of the filling in line and form. Still, if the problem is to
fill a square and a circle by the same forms, or an adaptation of them,
we must rely more and more upon difference of _treatment_ of these
forms, and not try to squeeze round forms into rectangular space, or
rectangular forms into circular space. In a rose, for instance, it would
be possible to dwell on its angular side for the square, and on its
curvilinear side for the circle. Anyway, we should seek in the first
place a good and appropriate motive.
[Illustration (f049a): Filling of Square Space.]
Supposing the design is for wood inlay, we should have to select forms
that would not cause unnecessary difficulty in cutting, since every form
in the design would have to be cut out in thin wood and inserted in the
corresponding hollow cut in the panel or plank to receive it. Complex or
complicated forms would therefore be ruled out, as being not only
difficult or impossible to reproduce in the material, but ineffective.
[Illustration (f049b): Filling of Circular Space.]
[Inlay Design]
A true feeling for the particular effect and decorative charm of inlaid
work should lead us to limit ourselves to comparatively few and simple
forms, treating those forms in an emphatic but abstract way, and making
use of recurring line and form as far as possible. We might make an
effective panel, say, for a casket, or a clock-case, or a floor, by
strictly limiting ourselves to very few and simple forms--say, for
instance, a stem, a leaf, a berry, or disc, and a bird form, or fruit
and leaf forms. It would be possible to build up a design with such
elements both pleasant in effect and well adapted to the work. An
excellent plan would be to cut out all one's forms with knife or
scissors in stiff paper, as a test of the practicability of an inlay
design. This is actually done with the working drawing by the inlay
cutter.
[Illustration (f050): 1. Units of Simple Inlay Pattern; 2. Motive for
Inlaid Pattern Built of the Same Units; 3. Treatment of Form as Pattern
Units for Inlaid Work; 4. Pattern Motive for Inlaid Work]
I once designed an inlaid floor for the centre of a picture gallery.
The scale was rather large, and the work was bold. One kept to large,
bold, and simple forms--water-lilies and broad leaves, swans, scallop
shells, and zigzag borders. Forms which can be readily produced by the
brush would generally answer well for inlay, since they would have
simple and sweeping boundaries and flat silhouette. And for inlay one is
practically designing in black, white, or tinted silhouette. This makes
it very good practice for all designers, both for the invention it tends
to call out, owing to the limited resources and restriction as to forms,
and also as giving facility and readiness in blocking in the masses of
pattern.
The water-colour painter, too, would find that blocking in in flat local
colour all his forms and the colours of his background was an excellent
method of preparatory work, and afforded good practice in direct
painting, since he could add his secondary shades and tints in the same
manner until the work was brought to completion, while preserving that
fresh effect of the undisturbed washes which is the great charm of
water-colour.
[Grouping of Allied Forms]
In seeking forms to group together harmoniously--which is the whole
object of composition--we shall find that much the same kind of
principle holds good whether we are arranging a still-life group or
designing a wall-paper or textile. It is only a difference of degree and
scale. In the one case we are designing in the solid with the actual
objects, before drawing or painting them as a harmonious pictorial
composition; in the other we are arranging forms upon the flat with a
view to harmonious composition with a strictly decorative purpose in
view. In the first we are dealing with concrete form in the round; in
the second, generally speaking, with abstract form in the flat.
[Illustration (f051a): Grouping of Allied Forms: Composition of Curves.]
But in either case we want harmony. We cannot, therefore, throw together
a number of forms unrelated to each in line, contour, or meaning. We
seek in composing or designing not contradictions, but correspondences
of form, with just an element of contrast to give flavour and point. In
grouping pottery, for instance, we should not place big and little or
squat and slender forms close together without connecting links of some
kind. We want a series of good lines that help one another and lead up
to one another in a kind of friendly co-operation. Broad smooth forms
and rounded surfaces, again, require relief and a certain amount of
contrast. We feel the need of crisp leaves or flowers, perhaps, with
our pottery form. We may safely go far, however, on the principle of
grouping similar or allied forms, giving our composition as a whole
either a curvilinear or angular character in its general lines, masses,
and forms, on the principle of like to like. This will entirely depend
upon our choice of grouping of form; but the more by our selection we
make our composition tend distinctly in the one direction or the other,
the more character it will be likely to possess.
[Illustration (f051b): Grouping of Allied Forms: Composition of Angles.]
[Grouping]
[Illustration (f052): Still-life Group Illustrative of Wood-Engraving.]
In selecting forms for still-life grouping and painting, I think
increased interest might be gained by arranging significant objects,
accessories bearing upon particular pursuits, for instance, in natural
relationship and surrounding. Groups suggesting certain handicrafts, for
instance, such as the clear glass globe of the wood-engraver, the
sand-bag, the block upon it, the tools, gravers lying around, the
eye-glass, an old book of woodcuts, and so forth. Other groups
suggestive of various arts and industries could be arranged--such
motives as metal-work, pottery, literature, painting, music, embroidery,
spring, summer, autumn, and winter, might all be suggestively
illustrated by well-selected groups of still life. Even different
historic periods might be emblematically suggested--I should like to see
more done in this way.
[Illustration (f053): Japanese Diagonal Pattern.]
To return to design in the flat. If we start with a motive of circular
masses, we cannot suddenly associate them with sharp angles--I mean in
our leading forms. Of course we can make a network or trellis or diaper
of the angles, to form a mat, ground, or a framework on which to place
our broad masses, as we may see effectively done by the Chinese and
Japanese.
[Corresponding Forms]
[Illustration (f054): Treatment of Fruit and Leaf Forms: Corresponding
Curvature]
If the principal group of forms in our pattern, say, are fruit
forms--apples, pomegranates, or oranges--we must re-echo or carry out
the curves in a lesser degree in the connecting stems and leaves. Change
the form of the fruit, say, to lemons, and a further variation of
connecting or subsidiary curve in stems and leaves will naturally
suggest itself, and at the same time in following such principles we
shall be expressing in an abstract way more of the character of the tree
or plant itself. In looking at the leaf of a tree one may often see a
suggestion of the general character and contour of the tree itself, and
we know the line:
"Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined."
In dealing with angular motives the same principle would be followed,
but corresponding to the difference of motive. Let the form of your
detail be reflected in the character of your mass.
I have spoken of the necessity in designing of seeking correspondences
in form, and although, could we place every form in proper sequence and
supply all the intermediary links to unite them harmoniously, forms of
extreme diversity might thus be associated, given great extension of
space (as in wall decoration, for instance), even then we should want
these forms to correspond and recur. Yet, as a rule, having to deal in
design with what are really parts rather than wholes, we can only
endeavour by making the design of these parts simple and harmonious in
line and form, and true to their special conditions, to render their
association decoratively possible.
[Illustration (f055a): Correspondence in General Contour Between Leaf
and Tree.]
[Illustration (f055b): Some Analogies in Form.]
Certain forms seem to lend themselves to design in ornament better than
others, because they give the designer certain lines and masses which
can be harmoniously repeated or combined with other allied forms or
lines. Design from this point of view becomes a search for analogies of
form.
[Analogies of Form]
I mentioned certain simple geometric forms common to nature and art.
Early ornament consists in the repetition of such forms. The next step
was to connect them by lines: and so form and line, through endless
vicissitudes and complexities, became united, to live happily in the
world of decorative motive ever after. But long after the primitive
unadorned geometric forms themselves have ceased to be the chief forms
in ornament, their controlling influence is asserted over the boundaries
of the more complicated masses introduced.
[Typical Forms of Ornament]
The simple rectangle is disguised under the fret, the circle and spiral
assert their sway over the boundaries of the palmette, or circle and
semicircle unite to form the oval so frequently used both as a unit in
Greek ornament and as a controlling boundary. These are typical border
forms: for extension and repetition in fields of pattern we find the
same geometric plans at work in combination and subdivision, forming at
first the ornament itself, and afterwards furnishing the plan and
controlling boundaries only. Even in later stages in the evolution of
surface decoration, in what are called naturalistic floral patterns,
amid apparent carelessness and freedom, by the exigencies of repetition
the ghost of buried geometric connection reappears, and compels the
most naturalistic roses on a wall-paper to acknowledge themselves
artificial after all, as they nod to their counterparts from the masked
angles of the inevitable diaper repeat.
[Illustration (f056): Tree of Typical Pattern Forms, Units, and
Systems.]
We find in the historical forms of decorative art constantly recurring
types of form and line, such as the lotus of the Egyptians, the anthemia
of the Greeks, the pineapple-like flower and palmette of the Persians,
the peony of the Chinese. These forms, at first valued solely for their
symbolical and heraldic significance, and continually demanded, became
to the designer important elements or _units_ in ornament. They gave him
fine sweeping curves, radiating lines, and bold masses, without which a
designer cannot live, any more than a poet without words. They were
capable, too, of infinite variation in treatment, a variation which has
been continued ever since, as by importation to different countries (the
movement going on from east to west) the same forms were treated by
designers of different races, and became mixed with other native
elements, or consciously imitated as they are now by Manchester
designers and manufacturers, to be sold again in textile form to their
original owners, as it were, in the far East. Truly, a strange turn of
the wheel.
[Ornamental Units]
The range of choice in ornamental units is, indeed, embarrassingly large
for the modern designer, and a careful and tasteful selection becomes of
more and more importance. It is not the number of forms you can combine,
or because they are of Persian or Chinese origin, that your work will be
artistic, but the judicious and inventive use made of the elements of
your design. Ready-made units, such as the Oriental forms I have
mentioned, are no doubt easier to combine, to make an effect with,
because a certain amount of selection has already been done. In fact,
with such forms as the Persian or Indian palmette, we are dealing with
the results of centuries of ornamental evolution, and with emblems
immemorially treasured by ancient races. It behoves us, if we are called
upon to recombine them, to treat them with sympathy, refinement, and
respect, and to let them deteriorate as little as possible, for the
spirit of an important ornamental form is like a gathered flower--it
soon withers and becomes limp.
[Illustration (f057): Sketches to Show Use of Counterbalance, Quantity,
and Equivalents in Designing.]
[Equivalents in Form]
It is the _spirit_, after all, that is the important thing to preserve,
in decorative design, however widely we may depart from the _letter_
sometimes. This is a difficult quality to define, but I should say it
chiefly consists in a nice attention to the character of form, the
elastic spring of curves, an understanding of the construction and
proportions, and grasp of the effect. In designing we constantly feel
the need of repeating certain masses with variations or balancing them
by equivalents, or the necessity of leading up to certain main forms by
subsidiary forms, and to carry out their lines in other parts of the
composition. In designing figures or emblems, for instance, within
inclosed spaces, such as shields or cartouche shapes, forming leading
elements in a design, it requires much invention and ornamental feeling
so to arrange them that, while different in subject or meaning, and
differently spaced, they shall yet properly counterbalance each other,
and, though varied in detail, shall yet be equivalent in quantity. The
same sort of feeling would govern the case of designing two masses of
fruit and foliage, say, forming two halves of an oblong panel, which,
though starting on the symmetric plan from the centre, are not intended
to be alike in detail; or in a frieze composed of a series of formalized
trees, where it was desired to have each different, say, to express the
progression of the seasons, it would be the sense of the necessity of
equivalents which would govern the decorative effect.
[Illustration (f058): Quantities and Counterchange of Border and Field
in Carpet Motives.]
[Quantities in Design]
[Illustration (f059): Sketch to Illustrate Value of Different Quantities
in Persian Rugs.]
Such considerations naturally lead us to the question of the use of
_quantities_ in design--the ornamental proportions of ornament, or the
contrasting distribution of form and line. For the mere repetition of
ornamental forms over surfaces and objects without reference to
proportion or structure is not decoration. The perception of appropriate
quantities in design is really the decorative gauge or measure of
effect.
[Illustration (f060): Sketch to Illustrate Value of Different Quantities
in Persian Rugs.]
In designing a bordered panel--or say a carpet--we might decide to
throw the weight of pattern, colour, or emphasis upon either the field
or border. Supposing the field had a dark ground upon which the
arabesque or floral design was relieved, in the border it would be most
effective to transpose this arrangement, making the ground light, and
bringing out the border design dark upon it. Or, if the motive were
reversed, giving a light ground to the centre, with the pattern dark,
the border might be brought out on a dark field. Or, again, for a less
emphatic treatment the quantities of the pattern itself might be almost
infinitely varied, massive forms and close fillings contrasting with
open borders and united with intermediary bands.
[Illustration (f061): Sketch to Illustrate Value of Different Quantities
in Persian Rugs.]
These intermediary bands or subsidiary borders are very important in
Eastern rugs and carpets, and their quantities very carefully
considered. A Persian designer, for instance, would never leave a blank
unbroken strip of colour to surround his field; his object is not to
isolate the quantities of his pattern, but to distinguish and unite
them: so he makes use of the subsidiary borders as additional
quantities. A usual arrangement which always looks well is to have the
border proper inclosed in two bands of about the same width and quantity
in pattern--or they might be a repeat of each other--and to inclose the
field or centre within another narrow subsidiary border. But the
variations to be observed in any chance selection of Persian rugs or
carpets are constant, and the amount of subtle variety and invention in
these subsidiary borders is endless.
Very excellent examples of the treatment and distribution of quantities
may also be studied in the older Indian printed cottons, such as maybe
seen at South Kensington.
[Contrast]
The consideration of quantities in form and design involves the question
of _contrast_, which, indeed, can hardly be separated from it. There is
the contrast of form and line, and the contrast of colour and plane. It
is with the first kind we are dealing now.
Take the simplest linear border, such as the type common in Greek work.
We should easily weary of the continual repetition of such a form alone
and unassisted, but add a vertical with an alternative dark filling, and
we get a certain richness and solidity which is a relief at once. Add
another quantity, and we get the rich effect of the egg and tongue or
egg and dart moulding.
A still simpler instance of the use of contrast, however, is the
chequer, or the principle of equal alternation of dark and light masses;
but this touches colour contrast rather than form.
[Illustration (f062): Recurrence and Contrast in Border Motives.]
The love of contrast makes the Chinese porcelain-painter break the blue
borders of his plates with small cartouche-like forms inclosing the
light ground, varied with a spray or device of some light kind; or the
diagonal, closely-filled field of his woven silk by broad discs or
cartouches of another plane of ornament. But the love of sharp or very
violent contrasts, more especially of form, may easily lead one astray
and be destructive of ornamental effect. Like all decorative
considerations, the artistic use of contrast depends much upon the
particular case and the conditions of the work, and one cannot lay down
any unvarying rules. There are agreeable and disagreeable contrasts, and
their choice and use must depend upon the individual artist.
[Variation of Allied Forms]
The most beautiful kinds of design rather seem to depend upon the
harmonious variation in association of similar or allied forms than on
sharp contrasts.
In compositions of figures the association of the delicate curves and
angles of the human form, and the lines of drapery, with the emphatic
verticals and horizontals, the semicircles and rectangles of
architectural form, for instance, are always delightful in competent
hands; as also compositions of figure and landscape, with its
possibilities of undulating line corrected by the severe horizon, or
sea-line, and contrasted with the vertical lines of trees, stems, and
the rich forms of foliage masses.
For the same reasons both of correspondence and contrast, masses of type
or lettering of good form are admirable as foils to figure designs, in
which commemorative monuments of all kinds and book designs afford
abundant opportunities to the designer.
[Use Of Human Figure and Animal Forms]
In surface or textile decoration of all kinds nothing gives so much
relief and vitality as the judicious use of animal forms and the human
figure, although they are not much favoured at present. The forms of
birds and animals, if designed in relation to the rest of the pattern,
will give a pleasant variety of form and line, and in their forms and
lines we find just those elements both of correspondence and contrast,
in their relation to geometric or to floral design, which are so
valuable.
[Illustration (f063a): Use of Inclosing Boundaries in Designing Animal
Forms in Decorative Pattern.]
In order to combine such forms successfully, however, great care in
designing is necessary; and a good sound principle to follow as a
general guide is to make the boundaries of the bird or animal touch the
limits of an imaginary inclosing form of some simple geometric or floral
or leaf shape (see p. 104[f063a]). This would at once control the form
and render it available in a pattern as a decorative mass or unit. The
particular shape of the controlling form must, of course, depend upon
the general character of the design, whether free and flowing or square
and restricted, the nature of the repeat, the ultimate position of the
work, and so on. A study of Gothic heraldry and the early Sicilian silk
patterns would be very instructive in this connection, since it is
rather the heraldic ideal than that of the natural history book which is
decoratively appropriate. At the same time it is quite possible to
combine ornamental treatment with a great deal of natural truth in
structure and character.
[Illustration (f063b): Decorative Spacing of Figures Within Geometric
Boundaries.]
Much the same principles apply to the treatment of the human figure as
an element in ornament; they should be designed, whether singly or in
groups, under the control of imaginary boundaries, and care must be
taken that in line and mass they re-echo (or are re-echoed by) other
lines which connect them with the rest of the design, if they occur as
incidents in repeating wall-paper or hanging design, for instance. It
is, however, quite possible to imagine a decorative effect produced by
the use of figures alone (see p. 105[f063b]), with something very
subsidiary in the way of connecting links of linear or floral pattern,
much as figures were used by the ancient Greek vase-painters,
beautifully distributed as ornament over the concave or convex surfaces
of the vases and vessels of the potter, the forms of which, as all good
decoration should do, they helped to express as well as to adorn.