CHAPTER VII

Fig. 110.—Diaper in silk brocade. Italian or Spanish, 16th century; formerly used for dress purposes, but now only employed for furniture.

Fig. 112.—Stamped velvet, 16th century. Italian.

Fig. 113.—Greek ivy meander border.

Fig. 114.—Greek border from a vase.

Fig. 115.—Greek border with fret bands.

Fig. 116 and 117.—Greek borders.

being at the springing; the tops may nearly touch at the crown, or be separated by a circular panel. The decoration of pilaster panels in relief should be comparatively low, and although some of the minor details may almost sink into the ground, there should be nothing vague; the danger to be apprehended being a loss of architectural severity

Fig. 118 and 119.—Persian borders.

in this supporting feature. The ornament on a pilaster must be symmetrically built with the strongest elements at the base and the lightest at the top. The best examples of this kind of decoration are Roman, Italian, and French Cinque-Cento work. The latter may be seen in the well-known pilasters of Louis XII. The artists of those times paid the same attention to pilaster decoration that the

Fig. 120.—Upright lily border. Greco-Roman.

Fig. 121.—Pilaster designed by Donatello.

Greeks did to horizontal band-work. Figs.121,122, and123show some examples of pilaster decoration. When the main ornamental effect is obtained, the next problem to be solved is to get the greatest possible variation in the planes of the carving, so that the ornament may not have the air of being cut out with a fret-saw, with the face slightly carved and pinned on. It is sometimes well to accentuate certain portions if care be taken to avoid spottiness; occasionally the main piece of ornament that has the greatest projection may be echoed up the pilaster with a sort of ebb and flow, only the greatest subsidiary projection should be less than the main one. Modern ornamentalists have insisted, that if animal forms are introduced they should be repeated, and rise in scale of importance as they get higher; but this method does not seem to have been adhered to by the Romans or Renaissance artists. In the latter we sometimes meet with cupids or children at the very base of the panel.

The fourth division.—Ornament in panels, &c. Ceilings

Fig. 122.—Italian Cinque-cento pilaster panel.Fig. 123.—Italian pilaster decoration.

Fig. 124.—German book cover, date 1572, in four enamel colours and gold.

Fig. 125.—Plaque in repoussé work. German 17th century.

have been treated in Chapter IV., and floors cannot have real panels, so upright rectangular panels may be taken first. Their simplest ornamentation is by moulding; if the mouldings have stopped ends, they are known as linen panels. When narrow and unmoulded they may be filled with symmetrical ornament

Fig. 126.—Venetian panel illustrating “balance” without symmetry.

on either side of an upright stem, either purely floral (Figs.148and120), or after the manner of pilaster panels, or the ornament may spring from vases at the bottom (Fig. 127), or they may have central medallions circular or oval, pateræ or bosses; and in cases where these narrow panels are in a long succession, each one may be varied, or the centres alone may be varied, if thesize and weight of the centres be preserved; circular and oval panels in moulded frames should be avoided in woodwork on account of the chances of the mouldings splitting. In Saracenic and Moresque work the

Fig. 127.—Cinque-cento panel.

panels are mostly filled by diapers, and in late European work it was common to enrich the corners, and sometimes to form a centre, leaving the rest of the panel plain, spotted, powdered, or filled with interlaced work.

In ornamental panels the mouldings of the frame

Fig. 128.—Renaissance panel ornament.

Fig. 129.—Wine crater in silver from the Hildesheim treasures. Antique Roman.

must never be wholly ornamented (seeFig. 128); sometimes they may be wholly plain, but if there be several mouldings, it is well to slightly enrich one member to connect the frame with the panel and detach it from the plain stiles and rails; these should never be carved when enriched panels are used. When great richness is required, and the panels are carved, inlay or incised ornament is the best form of enrichment for the stiles and rails.

Fig. 130.—Cinque-cento floral ornament composed of the acanthus, oak leaf, convolvulus, and wild rose, &c.

The fifth division.—Compound shapes such as spandrels, segmental pediments, compound panels, andtail-pieces (Figs.134,135), the last known in France under the name of “lamp bottoms,” some arms and pieces of armour and some utensils (Fig. 133).

Fig. 131.—Gothic spandrel from Stone Church in Kent.

In spandrels between two arches a slight deviation from symmetry may be allowed if the sides are well balanced, but it requires great skill to render the ornament satisfactory (Fig. 131). If the arch mouldings are properly emphasized, the spandrels may have a free and unsymmetrical treatment, for they do not appear so constructively important as the panels of pilasters, and so greater freedom is allowed to the artist. The Gothic spandrel (Fig. 131) from Stone Church, in Kent, is a good example of balance.

Fig. 132.—Spandrel by Stevens.

The sixth division.—Unsymmetrical spaces to be filled with ornament are rare, being mostly found in Saracen work and in arms and utensils, except in the case of angular spandrels composed of a vertical and horizontal line and a segment (Fig. 132); in all these cases, balance must be the principle employed.Fig. 132shows a well-balanced design for a right-angled spandrel between a round arch and a vertical line, the work of the late Alfred Stevens.

Fig. 133.—Panel with trophy of arms and armour.

Figs.134 and 135.—Tail-pieces (Renaissance), or lamp bottoms.

THE ornamentalist is more indebted to plants and flowers, both for materials and suggestions in design, than to any other division in the domain of nature. The best conventional and æsthetic floral ornament was the outcome of the study of plants and flowers. That characteristic Greek ornament, the honeysuckle or anthemion, is said to have originated from the Egyptian lotus flower, or the Sacred Hom, and not from the honeysuckle; the conventional rendering of this flower in ornament is said to have been adapted from the Egyptian forms by the Chaldæans; and later the children of those ancient flower-worshippers, the Assyrians, developed the pattern into more ornate forms. The Greeks in their turn are supposed to have copied the anthemion from the Assyrians: at first it was archaic and stiff, but full of vitality as ornament, and well adapted for its various uses and positions; and at last perfected to such a degree of æsthetic purity in the Erechtheum, as to lose all traces of any particular plant, while embodying the best qualities of plant-growth; for in it we see vigorous life combined with grace and elegance.

Another phase of floral and leaf growth, and itsproper development into pure ornament, can be studied in the many rosettes of the various styles. These are circular in plan, and would appear at first sight to be derived from flowers, but are mostly a cluster of leaves, radiating like the spokes of a wheel, either straight or curved.

Fig. 136.—Rosettes or pateræ from Roman ornament, composed of leaf and floral forms.

There are many plants—for instance, the bedstraw and the madder—that have their sets of leaves arranged in a whorl round the joints of their upright stems; looking down on these leaves we notice that the plan appears like a rosette. This idea may have occurred to the ancients when designing their rosettes. The results, obtained by grouping a cluster of leaves together in this manner, are finer and stronger in appearance than any imitation of flowers, particularly in sculptured work. (See Fig. 136.) Leaflets and bracts growing at the junctions of stems and leaves also furnished ideas and forms for the making up of rosettes and similar ornament; but more use is made of these bracts in what is called “clothing stems,” or sheaths, some varieties of which are illustrated at Figs.137and157; in fact, very good ornament is often composed of a stem or meander clothed with these bracts alone. Root forms are not much used in European ornament, though Indian, Saracen, and Mediæval decoration abound in examples of thetreatment of roots. (SeeFig. 138.) The objection to their use is this, that it gives the whole ornament the appearance of having been pulled up and hung to dry. This must always be an objection to their use, unless the root can be shown in the ground; consequently the Roman and Renaissance artists let their ornament

Fig. 137.—Bracts used for “clothing” stems in scrolls, &c.

spring from vases or clusters of leaves. When roots are used it is clear that the general outline of the root must alone be taken, and the character of the growth expressed simply, to prevent confusion and obscurity.

Fig. 138.—Mediæval and Oriental root forms.

As a rule, all redundances, excrescences, and accidental waywardness of growth, that might be interesting to a botanist, ought to be avoided in the decorative rendering of plant form; the average form and the higher beauties should alone be expressed. Though this may seem a paradox, the less realisticwe make our designs, the more nature we put into them. We should strive to put the most perfect forms of nature into our ornament, avoiding those that are poor and stunted, as well as over-nourished and rank ones, though nature abounds in both.

Fig. 139.—Laurel from nature.

In Persian[7]ornament we find flower and plant forms treated in a thoroughly decorative manner (Figs.118and119); the pink and hyacinth were as great favourites with Persian decorators as the maple and vine were in mediæval work, the lotus andpapyrus in Egyptian, the peony in Chinese, and the chrysanthemum in Japanese; while such styles as the Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Saracenic are more purely conventional, and, without having much realism, are still based on natural forms.

Students in design cannot be too strongly advised to cultivate the habit of making correct drawings of

140141Figs.140 and 141.—Borders derived from the laurel.

140141

Figs.140 and 141.—Borders derived from the laurel.

all kinds of plants, both in flower and fruit, especially those of single flower and of simple growth, accompanied by careful notes of the construction at the stem and leaf junctions.

The botanical analysis of a plant may serve a scientific end, and be useful to show the student the construction of the plant, but it makes a very poor show in an artistic design. Landor the poet said itwas an act of cruelty to cut a flower from its stem: it would be interesting to know his opinion of that school which believes in dissecting plants to find “new forms,” many of whose designs present novelties that nature never dreamt of, such as leaves neatly cut in half, elevations, and sections of petals, stamens, pistils, seed pods, and other curious forms suggested

Fig. 142.—Wild rose from nature.

by these dissections, so that the design when completed is an anatomical preparation, and certainly innocent of any violation of the second commandment. A section through some flowers may, however, give suggestions of outline for some flat ornament. The testimony of the best old decorative design is against this practice. It is refreshing to see that in Englanda reaction is setting in, mainly owing to the efforts of such men as Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Messrs. Morris, Crane, and a few others, who prefer nature to novelty.

Fig. 143.—Design for a paper-hanging from the wild rose.

In selecting plants for particular purposes, it is well to bear in mind the material to be decorated, whether it be woven stuff, wood, or metal-work, and to choose the kind best adapted to the purpose—as the hare-bell, the wild poppy, grasses, and delicate ferns for muslins, cottons, and lace; the oak, orange, lemon, pomegranate, and the mallow for wood-and for stone-carving, and for iron-work. At the same time, a too rigid adherence to these principles is not to be advised. What is of most importance is to adhere to the growth

Fig. 144.—Borders of medallions in enamelled earthenware by Luca della Robbia.

and character of the plant we use; for instance, a plant like the laurel (Fig. 139) is best suited for an upright or horizontal border. (See Figs. 140, 141.) The wild rose (Fig. 142) and the lemon (Fig. 145) are both

Fig. 145.—Lemon from nature.

Fig. 146.—Design for a carved wood panel from the lemon plant.

suitable for panels of almost any form, for all-over patterns, or for paper-hangings, &c. (See Figs.143and146.) For narrow upright panels, plants of upright growth, such as the lily, the ox-eye, and the iris, &c.,are most suitable. (See for illustrations Figs.147and148.) A trailing vine makes a good ceiling decoration, and was so used by the Byzantine mosaic workers. Lastly, plants of horizontal growth, such as the dandelion, the daisy, &c., looked at from above, might be best adapted for a floor, a carpet, or a table-cover.

Fig. 147.—Tiger lily from nature.Fig. 148.—Panel arrangement from the Tiger lily.

The well-known conventionalacanthusand its varieties must now be described. There have been various suggestions concerning the identical plant from which the acanthus ornament is derived, but, like the anthemion of the Greeks, there is some

Fig. 149.—Acanthus Mollis from nature.

obscurity about it. The story told by Vitruvius of the sculptor Callimachus having the Corinthian capital suggested to him, by finding the plant growing round a basket covered by a square tile, is a plausible and certainly a pretty one (Vit. lib. 4, cap. 1). At any rate, Callimachus is credited by Vitruvius with the first use of the acanthus in capitals. The ornamental forms of the acanthusbear little resemblance to the natural leaf. (See Figs.149,150,151, and152.) The two latter are

Fig. 150.—Acanthus Spinosus from nature.

leaves from Greek capitals, the first two have been drawn from nature. The acanthus, as we know it in the capitals of the Greek and Roman Corinthian,and the Roman Composite orders, is an artistic creation, adapted to suit the ends of a grand style of architecture, and not an imitation of a particular leaf. The characteristic difference of the classic ornament from the natural leaf lies in the “pipes” that start from the “eyes” at the base of the leaflets,

Fig. 151.—Greek acanthus leaf from a capital of the Tower of the Winds.

and, somewhat contrary to nature, taper downwards to the base of the leaf; these pipes, together with the central stalk, impart that strength and dignity which is necessary for architectural foliage, especially when it adorns the bell of a capital. (SeeFig. 154.) The pipes are less important, and are consequently less marked in examples of smaller work, such as maybe found in the acanthus of candelabra and panels, in which constructive strength is not required.

Fig. 152.—Greek acanthus leaf with flowers from a capital of the Choragic Monument of Lysikrates.

On the Corinthian capital, the acanthus presents a simple edge exactly repeated on each leaflet, with far less serration than is seen in the natural foliage: this imparts dignity to the leaf. On modillions a more serrated and smaller variety is used, with the stalks and pipes still prominent; while on candelabra and small pillars the leaves lie flatter, and the leaflets overlap, and owing to the fact that the leaves are smaller in scale and nearer to our eyes, more serrations and more detail may be put into them, for the smaller the scale the more detail is necessary.

Fig. 153.—Roman leaf of capital,—the olive leaf acanthus variety,—see Introductory Chapter.

Plan showing stalk, pipes, and undercut channels ofFig. 153.

(SeeFig. 156.) To prevent the foliage in the latter examples from appearing flimsy, as it would naturally do with an overlapping edge much cut up, the edges of the leaves should be slightly thickened and rounded so as to catch the light, thus giving a rich quality to the decoration. The Greeks mostly used

Fig. 154.—Acanthus: olive leaf variety from a capital of Mars Ultor.

that kind of acanthus that is known as theAcanthus spinosus, or the prickly variety; the Romans preferred theAcanthus mollis, or the soft-leaved kind. The olive-leaf has been used for the raffles of the leaves in the capitals of Jupiter Stator, Mars Ultor, and the Pantheon at Rome (see Figs.154,185, and188), while at the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli thecapitals have the oak-leaved variety. A bit of the soft-leaved acanthus is shown atFig. 155from the soffit of the architrave at the temple of Jupiter

Fig. 155.—Soft-leaved acanthus from the soffit of the architrave at the temple of Jupiter Stator.

Fig. 156.—Acanthus used on candelabra and small pillars.

Stator. The Romans sometimes used the acanthus in a lavish way, overloading mouldings with it; the cornice of the Temple of Jupiter Tonans, for instance, is overdone with decoration. (SeeFig. 186.) The more modern type of acanthus used on majolica

Fig. 157.—Water plant stem, showing channelling.

Fig. 158.—Acanthus and water leaf foliage from an antique Roman shaft.

Fig. 159.—Modern varieties of sea-weed and poppy-leaved acanthus used in decoration.

plates and in painted decoration is of a very free character, but it only holds a secondary place, being generally found in combination with animal forms and grotesques. The utmost freedom in the curve and reflex curve may be allowed in the painted forms of the acanthus; this being logical enough when we consider that the greater part of the leafage is generated by the free play of the brush. (SeeFig. 159.) The arabesques of the Vatican, and the Italian cinque-cento ware, afford the best examples of this painted foliage. The acanthus was the parent of nearly all the subsequent styles of decorative foliage down to the Saracenic and late Romanesque, and its modifications have shown the difficulty of improving on the Classic type. We are advised by ornamentalists and writers on art to seek for a new leaf that might in time rival the acanthus in ornament. The advice may be good, and many have given their attention to it, but no lasting results have as yet been obtained. Of late years there is a kind of scroll-work much favoured by some ornamentalists. It cannot of course be called new, few things can be in this world; but its persistent application, from illumination to stone-carving, will perhaps in time stamp it with a traditional character. The foliage is more like sea-weed than anything else, but it also has a faint resemblance to the acanthus, the ox-eye, and the wild poppy (Fig. 159). We have no fixed principles of ornamental art; even ornamentalists themselves disagree as to what is good, and what is bad, so that nothing lives long enough to become national ornament. How can we hope to vie with the ornamental

Fig. 160.—Winter aspect of a pear tree, illustrating “balance” in nature.

art of Greece, when the artists disagree and the nation is indifferent; while the Greeks enjoyed unity of artistic thought, and gloried in the worship of the beautiful? To gain a fuller insight into the delicate varieties of the acanthus, the student is advised to carefully examine and draw the foliage in the pilasters of Louis XII.’s tomb. The late Alfred Stevens has done more than any one of late years to properly apply the acanthus. (SeeFig. 132.)

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, butwhether 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.Monogramandcipherare 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. (SeeFig. 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 atFig. 163occurs 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 atFig. 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 acentral 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 (seeFig. 165); it was sacred as the type of coming

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