ANALYSIS OF ORNAMENT








ROMAN.

Ancient Panel. Florence.
(Frontispiece.


ANALYSIS OF ORNAMENT
THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLES
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE
HISTORY OF ORNAMENTAL ART
By RALPH N. WORNUM
Picic, SCV
NINTH EDITION
LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LIMITED
11, HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.
1884


LONDON :
PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED,
CITY ROAD



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The following Sketch is prepared chiefly as an introduc-
tory guide to aid in the adoption of some ready system in
the study of Ornament. Though illustrated ornamental
works exist in great profusion, they are generally on special
monuments and localities, or extending only over very
limited periods of time : and being, further, mostly of a
purely illustrative character, without analytical description
of the parts, they fail to impress on the mind of the Student
those elements which are the essential characteristics of
the works, and distinguish their style. These charac-
teristics, therefore, which are the very essence of the Art,
are to be apprehended only by dint of great labour in the
comparison of many costly publications, which, until lately,
have been generally inaccessible even to the metropolitan
Student. But with access to such works, some systematic
general guide is absolutely indispensable to enable the
Student to acquire a sound apprehension of his subject,
with moderate labour, and within a moderate time.
The knowledge of ornamental style is, doubtless, most
readily imparted in a course of lectures, in which, by
numerous illustrations on a large scale, including occa-
sionally the objects themselves, the peculiar features of
each style can be at once pointed out and fixed on the
mind, through the facilities of immediate comparison. But
this compendious abstract of the course of Lectures on
PS
(RECAP),
As a
NEW 23-252520


PREFACE.
Ornamental Art, -delivered by me originally at Somerset
House, and subsequently at Marlborough House, under the
direction of the Board of Trade Department of Science and
Art, - in the absence of a more complete report, may serve
in some measure as a substitute for the personal instructions
of a lecture, by pointing out its sources, and enabling the
Student to derive directly from the standard authorities in
the Library of the Department such information for him-
self. The Student will find the most important works illus-
trating the subject enumerated in the text, to which he
must refer for its complete illustration; but he will find
the most essential and characteristic elements of the styles,
perhaps adequately illustrated by the few engraved cuts
contained in the work, which have been chiefly executed
from casts in the collections of the Department, by the
female students of the Wood-engraving Class at Marl-
borough House.
The accompanying Sketch, however, is not published as
a report of the Lectures referred to: it is simply a concise
abstract of their substance, and is intended only as an
introductory aid for the Student, to enable him to make
profitable use of the works in the Library, in furtherance
of an earnest study of Ornamental Art.*
R. N. W.
* See the Account of the Library, fc., with a Catalogue of the principal
Works, classified for the use of the Visitors. By Ralph N. Wornum,
Librarian. London, 1855. The diagrams prepared by me for these
lectures now form part of the property of this Library. The Lectures
were originally delivered in the Government Schools of Design, both at
Somerset House and in the provincial schools in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, in the years 18 18, 1819, and 1850.


INTRODUCTION.
-
ORNAMENT.
CHAPTER 1.
The history of art shows two great classes of ornamental
styles—the symbolic and the æsthetic; that is, those which
appeal to our understandings, and those which appeal to
our feelings. We may term those styles symbolic in which
the ordinary elements have been chosen for the sake of
their significations, as symbols of something not necessarily
implied, and irrespective of their effect as works of art, or
arrangements of forms and colours. Those that are com-
posed of elements devised solely from principles of sym-
metry of form and harmony of colour, and exclusively for
their effect on our perception of the beautiful, without any
further extraneous or ulterior aim, may be termed æsthetic,
Style in ornament is analogous to hand in writing, and
this is its literal signification. As every individual has
some peculiarity in his mode of writing, so every age or
nation has been distinguished in its ornamental expression
by a certain individuality of taste, either original or bor-
rowed. It is the comprehension of these individual tastes
B
65


ORNAMENT.
characterizing various times and people, which must con-
stitute the most thorough education of the ornamental
designer. These expressions are interesting also to the
general student, as they exhibit an essential quality of the
social character of these different people, both in relation
to the arts and to general culture and religion.
In a review of these ornamental styles we shall find that
the elements of form are constant in all cases; they are but
variously treated. This, in fact, must be so, if a style be
founded upon any principles at all: and those styles which
have carried with them the feelings of ages could not be
otherwise than based upon some fixed natural laws.
The elements of styles are of two kinds—pure and
absolute, and conventional and arbitrary; or natural and
fanciful.
The investigation of the principles of ornamental art is
an inquiry into the nature and character of these elements:
how the effects of certain variations of form and colour
happen to be so universally appreciated that the varieties
of their arrangements have occupied all people from the
remotest times.
Universal efforts show a universal want; and beauty of
effect and decoration are no more a luxury in a civilised
state of society than warmth and clothing are a luxury to
any state: the mind, as the body, makes everything neces-
sary that it is capable of permanently enjoying. Ornament
is one of the mind's necessities, which it gratifies by means
of the eye; and, in its strictest æsthetic sense, it has a
perfect analogy with music, which similarly gratifies the
mind, but by the means of a different organ—the ear.
So ornament has been discovered to be again an essential


ORNAMENT.
ment of his materials, not in their execution. There is a
distinct study of ornament wholly independent of the merely
preliminary exercises of drawing, colouring, or modelling.
A designer might even produce a perfect arrangement of
forms and colours, and yet show the grossest stupidity in
its application.
There are two provinces of ornament—the flat and the
relieved. In the flat, we have a contrast of light and dark;
in the relieved, a contrast of light and shade; in both, a
variety of effect for the pure gratification of the sense of
vision. Much is common to both; but in the first case, a
play of line is the main feature, in the second, a play of
masses; and colour may be an auxiliary to either, but it
acts with far greater power in the flat, as it is entirely
dependent upon light.
Ornament, therefore, is a system of contrasts: the object
of study is the order of contrasts. The individual orders
may vary to infinity, though the classes are limited, as
right-line or curved-line series, series of simple curves or
clustered curves, series of mere lines, or natural objects,
as flowers arranged in the orders of these different series.
For example, the common scroll is a series of spirals to
the right and left alternately; the Roman scroll is the
acanthus plant or brank-ursine, treated in this order of
curved series. .


CHAPTER II.
DECORATION or ornamentation, then, we may assume to be
divided into two great classes—the flat and the round, or
what may be otherwise described as painting and modelling.
That of painting, or the flat, is the far more extensive
class. It comprises, in the first place, all pictorial decora-
tion,-general costume, drapery, all printed or woven
fabrics, mosaic, inlaying, Boule-work, enamelling, and,
accordingly, many classes of furniture. The relieved, or
i modelling, is limited to building purposes, hardware, certain
kinds of furniture, implements, and to jewellery. But
everything that is relieved is comprised also in the flat, in
one sense, inasmuch as it can be imitated in the flat: this
is, however, not a legitimate use of the flat, as it is really
We may call these two classes, then, the flat and the
round. They have two qualities in common-shape and
contrast. The shape in both is given by the outline; the
contrast, in the one by light and shade; in the other, by
colour, or light and dark. There is no other means of
contrast in the flat but that of colour, or light and dark;
for when an ornament in the flat is merely an imitation
of the round, it belongs strictly to the round: the con-


ORNAMENT.
the earlier epochs of art, and they were generally parts
of ornamental schemes.
Any picture, whatever the subject, which is composed
ornament, and any ornamental design in which these two
principles have been made subservient to imitation or
natural arrangement has departed from the province of
ornament into that of the picture or the model, whichever
it may be. And in nearly all designs of this kind, applied
to useful purposes, you frustrate the very principle of
nature, upon which you found your theory, when you
represent a natural form in a natural manner, and yet
apply it to uses with which it has, in nature, no affinity
whatever. Therefore, however you may conform with
Nature in little matters, you certainly commit an outrage
There is a class of ornament which has much increased
of late years in England, and, by way of distinction, we
may call it the naturalist school. The theory appears to
be, that as nature is beautiful, ornamental details derived
immediately from beautiful natural objects must insure a
beautiful design. This, however, can only be true where
the original uses of the details chosen have not been
obviously violated; and one peculiar feature of this
school is, that it often substitutes the ornament itself for
the thing to be ornamented, as illustrated in the accom-
panying examples; in which the natural objects are so
mismanaged as to be principals : flame proceeding from a
flower, a basket on an animal's head to hold a liquid,
a bell made of leaves! the elements chosen · being so
opposed to the proposed uses of the objects ornamented,


ORNAMENT.
as to make the designs simply wsthetic monstrosities,
ornamental abominations.
Ornament is essentially the accessory to, and not the
TESTED
A Gas Jet.

MORININ
CICERONIST
citittier

A Bell.
A Cup.
substitute of, the useful ; it is a decoration or adornment;
it can have no independent existence practically. We
cannot look upon any mere ornament without instantly


10
ORNAMENT
associating it with something that it is fit, or is destined,
to adorn; as a necklace or a bracelet. Even a statuette is
ate it with some shelf
or other object or support that it may be fit to adorn. If
we look upon it as a mere statue or portrait, it is purely a
work of fine art, not an ornament; because it is then
principal, instead of being accessory, an absolute condition
of all ornament. Hence, every implement or article of
practical utility, as, for instance, a candlestick, that is
composed or built up of natural imitations exclusively or
as principals, however poetical the idea may be supposed
to be, is practically bad as a design.
There is a very great difference between ornamenting
à utensil with natural objects, and substituting these
natural objects for the utensil itself. In the latter case,
however true the details, the design is utterly false; in
the former, you are in both respects true, and may be
also highly suggestive and instructive. Of course, there
are many natural objects which at once suggest certain
uses; and we can never be wrong if we elaborate these
into such implements or vessels as their own very forms
or 'natures may have spontaneously presented to the
mind.
Every article of use has a certain size and character
defined for it by the very use it is destined for, and this
may never be disregarded by the designer; it is, in fact,
the indispensable skeleton of his design, and has nothing to
do with ornament. But it is upon this skeleton that the
designer must bring all his ornamental knowledge to bear ;
and he is a poor designer if he can do nothing more than
imitate a few sticks and leaves, or other natural objects


ORNAMENT
II
1ere
wherewith to decorate it; he must give it character as
well as beauty, and make it suggestive of something more
than a display of sprigs and flowers gathered from the
fields, or this would be mannerism indeed.
Natural floral ornament is one kind of ornament, and a
very beautiful kind; but even an infinite variety of floral
detail, especially in the round, will have æsthetically but
very little variety of effect upon the mind. For this
purpose we must bring Art to the aid of Nature, or work
upon the principles illustrated by natural objects, rather
than imitate their individual appearances.
We should add an illustrative elaboration of the abstract
principles of beauty, to the mere representation of those
natural objects in which they may be most effectively
displayed: and this is the professed object of all tracery
or mere geometrical design. The beautiful Italian style,
known as the Trecento, is a fine example of this combina-
tion of natural and artificial forms, in its mixture of
conventional flowers and foliage with its tracery and
various geometrical designs.
· It seems to be a law of nature, that every individual
thing shall be composed of two similar parts in its outward
appearance; and as the internal arrangement is often dif-
ferent, as in the animal creation, this similarity of exter-
nals would appear an evidence of the design of beauty.
We find this similarity of parts more or less decided
according to the individuality of the object — from the
simplest crystal form to that of man.
And we find this remarkable similarity relaxed only
where its relaxation does not interfere with the beauty
of the object, -as in a tree, for instance: the two


I 2
ORNAMENT.
halves of a tree are not exactly symmetrical in their
branches, yet they are generally so. There is quite
as much symmetry in every tree as the eye can ap-
preciate.
It is so also with flowers : the calyx and petals of all
flowers are symmetrical; and this symmetry is the more
decided, inversely as the number of flowers on one stem :
plurality of members seems to do away with the special
symmetry of the individual member; and where there are
several flowers from one root or on one stem, the deviation
from individual symmetry is always in favour of the
symmetry of the collective group or groups. Where
nature groups, it is the group that is the ornament, not
the individual; and this is a law which must be observed
likewise in art; as in all clusters, colonnades, or festoons,
the individuals of such designs may be arranged at ran-
dom, provided the cluster, colonnade, or festoon, be itself
of symmetrical proportions.
In endeavouring, therefore, to be symmetrical in our
designs, so far from being artificial or formal, we are
strictly following one of the grand principles of Nature..
This distinction between the symmetry of the parts and
the symmetry of the group or cluster is very important.
Take man himself: he is a compound form,—a group of
trunk, limbs, and extremities. Whatever part of the
group is balanced by a similar member on the other side,
is without that symmetry which we are speaking of. The
arm is not symmetrical, because it is balanced by a similar
member on the other side ; but take the head, which has
not this plurality to disturb its symmetry, and we find
a perfect contrast of the two parts. I believe this to


ORNAMENT.
13
be true of all natural groups; and I believe this law
of symmetry to be so important, that there is no form or
combination of forms whatever that, when symmetrically
contrasted or repeated, cannot be made subservient to
beauty


CHAPTER III.
THE whole grammar of ornament consists in contrast,
repetition, and series. A perfect contrast of form may
be defined as the two sides of a solid or section of the
solid, generated by the revolution of an outline around
a given axis; as, for instance, a sphere is the solid
generated by the revolution of a semicircle around its
diameter.
Repetition and series are nearly identical. Series com-
prises repetition, and defines its order. Mouldings are
simple repetitions, right-lined or curved, as the case may
be. Perhaps the best illustration of the value of series is
the kaleidoscope. All the beautiful figures represented by
that instrument are repetitions in circular series; and
often the rudest materials will generate extremely beauti-
ful effects.
And the elliptical, or any other regular series, sym-
metrically arranged, will be found nearly equally valuable
with the circular.
In no popular style of ornament have natural details
ever yet prevailed. The details of all great styles are
largely derived from nature, but for the most part con-
ventionally treated; and theory and experience seem to
show that this is the true system.


ORNAMENT.
A plant is said to be conventionally treated, when the
natural order of its growth or development is disregarded.
Where the exact imitation of the details, and its own
order of development, are both observed, the treatment
is natural ; and an object so treated, independent of any
application, is only a picture or model, not an ornament;
to be an ornament, it must be applied as an accessory
decoration to something else.
In Egyptian, Greek, and Roman ornament, it is ex-
tremely rare to find any natural treatment of the details :
that is, any mere imitation. The only examples I can
recall are the birds, reptiles, and animals occasionally
introduced in arabesques and scroll-work. The case is
the same with Byzantine and Saracenic art, and with the
great styles of Italy, especially the Trecento and the
Cinquecento, in which all the most perfect schemes are
purely conventional, or upon a strict geometrical basis,
whatever the treatment of the detail may be.
Lorenzo Ghiberti has introduced exact natural imita-
tions in his celebrated gates of the Baptistery of San
Giovanni at Florence; but they are strictly accessory to
a general plan, and symmetrically arranged; being neither
negligently nor naturally disposed. They are bound in
bunches or groups of various shapes and sizes, disposed
in harmony with the main compartments of the gates, of
which they are ornaments. And this is, perhaps, the
utmost extent to which decorations of this class can be
judiciously applied. But in Ghiberti's case, as elsewhere,
the group is the ornament, and not the parts of which it is
composed.
It is requisite that we should have a clear understand-


ORNAMENT.
ing of the difference between a natural and a conventional
or ornamental treatment of an object. A natural treat-
ment implies natural imitation and arrangement; but an
ornamental treatment does not necessarily exclude imita-
tion in the parts; as, for instance, a scroll may be
composed of strictly natural parts; but as no plant would
grow in an exact spiral direction, the scroll form con-
stitutes the ornamental or conventional arrangement. As
in the following arrangement of a leaf, from an old French
example.

MA
M REES
We may have, however, conventionalities of details as
well as conventionalities of arrangement. A leaf or a
flower, for instance, may be represented as it appears,
with all the local accidents of light and shade and colour :
this would be a strictly natural representation. And it
may be represented as a mere diagram,—that is, as we
know it to be, —without reference to its appearance; or
it may be treated as a mere shadow of itself, —as a
silhouette : the two latter would be conventional treat-
ments; and it is such representations that we find almost
exclusively in Egyptian and Greek art; as the Lotus
of the Egyptian tombs and temples, or the various foliage
of the terra-cotta vases of Greece.


ORNAMENT.
----
-
---
-----
T mer
There can be no question that the motive of ornament
is not the presentation of natural images to the mind,
but the rendering the object ornamented as agreeable as
possible to it, and therefore the details of decoration
should have no independent character of their own, but
be kept purely subservient to beauty of effect. This
can hardly be done, or rather cannot be thoroughly done,
but by the adoption of conventional ornament-whether
flowers, foliage, or other natural forms: because as a
conventional or mere geo-
metrical form can really
have no individual associa-
tions, and yet at the same
time may present an ex-
tremely beautiful effect; the
whole of that effect is simply
auxiliary to the general
beauty of the object deco-
rated : the ornamentation
is purely accessory. The
designer must ever remem-
ber that the effect of the
whole should never be in-
terfered with by any partial
attraction of the details.
Every design is composed of plan and details—as in a
vase, the shape of the vase is the plan; whatever decora-
tions it may have are the details of the design, or their
enrichments, as medallion pictures or pieces of sculpture :
so with a candlestick, casket, and others.
In all cases where elaborate works of Fine Art are
VOUS


18
ORNAMENT.
introduced as enrichments of an ornamental scheme—as
sculpture in the pediment of a Greek temple, or a picture
in the panel of a wall—it is only in the general form
an arrangement that they share in the ornamental effect;
they are no longer ornaments when examined in detail, but
independent works of Fine Art.
The ordinary details or accessory decorations may be of
various kinds: they may cover the entire surface of the
plan or only portions of it; the covering of only portions
of a plan involves, of course, far higher ornamental prin-
ciples than the uniform covering the entire surface. De-
corations which are spread uniformly over a surface are
commonly called diapers—an expression supposed to be
derived from Ypres, the name of the Flemish town where
cloths so decorated were first or largely manufactured.
They are composed of a repetition or series of the same
ornament, in a vertical, horizontal, or a diagonal order.
This is the most popular class of design for cotton-prints,
and the unit of repetition is
generally small in these
cases; but it may be either
extremely simple, as a spot or
star, in one colour, or as com-
plicated and as rich as the
diapers of the Alhambra, from
which the mass of paper
diapers are derived.
Diapers are suited for flat
or round work of every class in manufactures or in mural
decoration. Units of repetition, or repeats of irregular
shapes, arranged diagonally, have the finest effects. A


ORNAMENT.
19
diaper, however, may be an alternation of two or more
simple figures, just as it may be a constant repetition of
one compound figure; for as it is in this case the
group that is repeated, the group of figures becomes the
attern or unit of repetition.
Geometric diapers are infinite, and by a judicious variation
of colours may be made extremely beautiful. The majority
of ancient mosaics are diapers of this character, and they
are a good illustration of the carrying out of the principle
of fitness in design; for
these geometric mosaics are
nearly all floors, and they
emphatically express flat-
ness—an essential quality
for a floor.
The diaper, then, is a
uniform decoration of a
surface: another general..
decoration analogous to it is a succession of stripes, of
any character, or of colonnades. The colonnade consists
of repetitions of continuous curves in the same direction :
it is the favourite form of decoration for carpets, papers,
lace, curtains, and some other textile manufactures : it
is generally a decorated or foliated serpentine, and rarely
a scroll always a measured curved succession in vertical
series. . ...
All such superficial decoration is very simple: it is, in
fact, as the paper-stainers expressively term it, mere filling,
as it involves no scheming. You have but to design your
repeat or unit of repetition; the rest is mere mechanical
expansion.


ORNAMENT
21
assumed at starting to be the element of all ornamental
effects.
These compartments are known as panels, borders,
cornice, frieze, basement or dado; capital, shaft, base,
pedestal ; neck, body, foot, and so on; all names desig-
nating the ornamental divisions of the general schemes of
objects; though these things may not be ornamented, the
mere division of an object into such parts is done for the
sake of variety of effect, in obedience to one of the necessi-
ties of the mind.
These various compartments are separated or made
prominent by mouldings: mouldings may be either mere
suits of concave and convex members, as in many Gothic
examples, or the concave series may be filled in with orna-
mental details. These may be plain or enriched mouldings;
and, as boundaries of compartments, it is necessary that
they should be particularly distinct, and we accordingly
find that they are, in nearly all cases, the part of a design
which has been most elaborated : call them edges or call
them borders, the principle is the same throughout-
whether the moulding of a room or piece of cabinet-work,
the hem of a vest, the border of a shawl or handkerchief,
the edge of a salver, we have everywhere the one principle
of contrast in itself, and with its own ground.
As no border is introduced into a design for its own
sake, but only as a contribution to the general effect, that
is sure to be the best which is designed with a view to a
principle rather than for any speciality of detail of its own:
thus we find that a mere repeat, which shall contain an
elemental principle, is superior to a prominent succession
of elaborate and varied imitations, because special attrac-


22
ORNAMENT.
tion to secondary details is not a merit, but a capital defect
in a design. The border or moulding is the ornament, and
not the details of which it is composed.
The truth of this principle is proved by the practice of
all ages : we have not now to create Ornamental Art, but
to learn it; it was established in all essentials long ago.
As a proof of this I would instance the most popular deco-
rations of the present day: we find that they are identical
with the favourites of nearly all ages, from Pericles to
Pope Julius II., from Julius II. to the late King of Bavaria,
Ludwig I.


CHAPTER IV.
We still use the forms, and, indeed, the very details,
adopted by the Greeks upwards of two thousand years ago.
Why is this ? Certainly not from their speciality of detail,
but rather because it would be, perhaps, impossible to
select others of a less decided individuality, which would
so well illustrate the great principles of ornament,-series
and contrast; contrast of masses, and contrast or harmony
of lines. The details, however, will admit of every varia-
tion which will not disturb the order or arrangement on
which the ornament depends : you may change the details
to infinity, the ornament will remain the same as long as
the arrangement is not disturbed. And this alternation is
imperative if we wish to develop a rich and varied School
of Ornamental Art.
The ornaments I refer to are,—the zigzag, the fret, the
echinus, the astragal, the anthemions, the guilloche varie-
ties, and the scrolls.
In the zigzag we have the simplest varieties of lines we
can well conceive; in the frets we have a more complicated
order of right-line series; in the varieties of the guilloche
we have a similar simple series of curved lines or inter-
lacings.


ORNAMENT.
25
e
band, by mere contact, or by some simple scroll.
Every example of an ornament must have an indi-
viduality of detail necessarily, but it is a great mistake
to adopt this detail as an essential part of the ornament;
for example, no two Greek anthemions are alike, but
there are some few which contain a member a good deal
resembling the honeysuckle: the ornament is simple and
beautiful, but modern imitators overlooking its principle
have comprehended only the detail, assumed it to be an
imitation, and have called it the honeysuckle ornament.
Instead, therefore, of grasping the source of a thousand
ornaments equally beautiful, they have acquired but one,
and half the classical buildings of modern times are
covered with honeysuckles, bringing the whole art of
Greece into disgrace for its monotony and formality, while
there is scarcely a weed in England that might not with
equal skill have been substituted for the honeysuckle,
with perhaps equal effect, if only treated on the principle
of a succession or alternation of an harmonic group of
curves.
This is only one of the dilemmas that the designer must
fall into by allowing mere specific details to usurp the
place of the principles of ornament: his mind becomes
occupied by a few individual forms, the very idea of prin-
ciples is incomprehensible to him; and he necessarily
remains a mere hack or imitator.
Where the mind views something more than the surface,
or where the eyes are auxiliary only to the mind, every
natural object may be suggestive of some new essential
form or combination of forms. The lotus, the lily, and


ORNAMENT.
the tulip, must be something more than flowers to the
designer, or his use of them is limited indeed; each
suggests distinct forms as applicable to various useful
purposes.
All established styles of ornament are founded upon the
same principles: their differences, which I shall in the
following sketch endeavour to point out, are differences
only of the materials, the details of the several favourite
essential forms, which each more or less partially deve-
loped, some for one reason, some for another. The pecu-
liarity of Egyptian and Byzantine ornament is owing to
their prevailing symbolism, and certain details becoming
standards: the peculiarity of the Saracenic is of exactly
the opposite character, it scrupulously rejected everything
approaching an individuality of detail; and accordingly
the principles of ornament are perhaps more clearly deve-
loped in this style than in any other, because the details
are so entirely subordinate.
. We do not therefore admire the echinus and the astragal,
because they are derived from the horse-chesnut or the
huckle-bone, but because they are admirable details for
that prominent contrast of light and shade which is so
extremely valuable for edges or mouldings. It is the
same with the whole series of popular ornaments; not.
one of them is beautiful because it represents any natural
object, but because it has been chosen to illustrate certain
symmetries or contrasts, by the very nature of vision
delightful to the mind, just as harmonies and melodies
delight it through another of its senses. I believe the
analogy between music and ornament to be perfect: one
is to the eye what the other is to the ear; and the day


28
ORNAMENT
mere imitative skill, employed on the most beautiful
natural materials, out of the strict province of so-called
fine art, will engender but mere fanciful vagaries, utterly
powerless on the eye as ornament, when compared with
even the crudest materials of the coarsest execution, if
only arranged in any order or combination of harmonic
progression.

Greek Terra-Cotta.


THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLES..





CHAPTER V.
THE STYLES.
In a review of this kind, when we speak of the styles,
we can comprise only the broad distinctions of ornament
itself—the kinds or genera, not the more specific varieties.
There are, of course, many varieties of nearly every great
style, but so long as the chief characteristics remain un-
changed, the style is the same. From this point of view,
therefore, the styles become comparatively few. We
shall find that nine will comprise the whole number of
the great characteristic developments which have had any
influence on European civilisation, namely, three ancient-
the Egyptian, the Greek, and the Roman; three medieval
—the Byzantine, the Saracenic, and the Gothic; and
three modern—the Renaissance, the Cinquecento, and the
Louis Quatorze.
Several of these styles have their recognised varieties.
Of the Greek there are the Doric and the Alexandrian;
that is, the severe and the florid. Of the Byzantine there
are the Romanesque, Lombard, and Norman varieties, &c.;
and of the Renaissance, also, there are several varieties.
We speak of the Renaissance both as an epoch and as a
style. As an epoch; it comprises many styles or varieties,


CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLES.
33
Romanesque from the Roman, and so on, with more or
less affinity of character.
It does not follow, however, that an ornamental work is
in a certain style because it belongs to the period of that
style, for a style is defined not by its time or period, but
by the prevailing peculiarities or characteristics of that
period; and it is not at all the case that every work of a
period possesses these peculiarities. It must be borne in
mind, therefore, that while a genuine example of a style
will always imply a certain time, a specimen of a certain
time will only as a general rule illustrate the correspond-
ing style. This is because no style is predetermined, but
is, in its details, in all cases, incidental, notwithstanding a
prevailing sentiment.
We will now then proceed to examine the nine great
historic styles, which appear to sufficiently illustrate the
history of ornament. The Egyptian, Greek, and Roman-
the ancient; the Byzantine, Saracenic, the Gothic—the
middle age; and the Renaissance, Cinquecento, and Louis
Quatorze—the modern.


THE ANCIENT STYLES.
EIGHT LECTURES.
CHAPTER VI.
EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
The works mentioned under this head are not cited as the authorities
for the opinions given, as many of them were published some years
after the preparation of the lectures, and the views do not always
agree: they are referred to only as the most comprehensive or useful
illustrated works on the subject, and as thus best adapted to aid the
student in his labours.
EGYPT.-Description de l'Egypte, ou Recueil des Observations et des
Recherches qui ont été faites en Egypte pendant l'Expédition de
l'Armée française. Publié par les ordres de sa Majesté l'Empereur
Napoléon le Grand. (The great work of the French Expedition,
treating of the Antiquities, Arts, Natural History, and Modern
State of Egypt.) 23 vols. folio, atlas folio, and elephant. Paris,
1809, et seq.
* ANCIENT ART, 1848-49.
Syllabus.
LECTURE I.—ON THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.
Early Establishment of Egyptian Art-about 1800 B.C. Its stationary
and purely ornamental character. Extensive remains still preserved
on the banks of the Nile, from Meroë to Alexandria, a distance of
nearly 1200 miles.
Ipsambul, the Telamons. Essaboua, the Sphinx-Andro—Crio-and
Hieraco-Sphinx. Philæ. Edfou, the Egyptian Temple—the Pro-
pyla, Obelisks, Mosaics, &c. Thebes, sumptuous Decoration of the
Egyptian Temples—their Columns and Capitals. The Tombs.
Denderah. Sakkara, the Arch. The Pyramids. Heliopolis. Egyp-
tian style.


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
35
PORTER, SIR R. KER.–Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient
Babylonia, &c., during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820.
2 vols. 4to. London, 1821.
Gau, F. C.-Antiquités de la Nubie, ou Monumens inédits des Bords
du Nil, situés entre la première et la seconde Cataracte, dessinés et
mesurés en 1819. Ouvrage faisant suite au grand ouvrage de la
Commission d'Egypte. Large folio. Paris, 1822.
Ram Raz.-Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus. With 48 plates.
4to. London, 1834.
ROSELLINI, J.-The Monuments of Egypt and Nubia, arranged accord-
ing to their subjects, by the Tuscan Expedition to Egypt, under the
direction of Rosellini.
I Monumenti dell' Egitto e della Nubia disegnati della spedizione
scientifico-litteraria Toscana in Egitto : distribuiti in ordine di
materie, interpretati ed illustrati dal Dottore Ippolito Rosellini.
(This great work is in three parts, folio, with separate text in octavo.
Tavole M. R. contains the Historical Monuments of the Kings,
Monumenti Storici, in 169 plates : Tavole M. C. contains the Civil
Monuments, Monumenti Civili, in 135 plates: Tavole M. D. O. the
Monuments of Religious Worship, Monumenti del Culto, in 86 plates.)
3 vols. atlas folio, plates ; 9 vols. 8vo. text. Pisa, 1832-44.
LECTURE II.-EGYPT : ORNAMENTAL DETAILS.
Decorations of the Tombs. Painted Ceilings. Colours. Sunk-reliefs.
Ornamental Types—the Zigzag, Labyrinth, Wave-scroll, Lotus,
Winged-globe, Asp, and Cartouche. The Funerals. Manufactures-
Furniture, Pottery, &c., Variegated Glass, Armour, Linen and Cotton
Fabrics, Prints, Embroidered Stuffs. Ships, &c. Study of Ornament.
LECTURE III. - Asia.
Egyptian and Asiatic Art characterised–Egyptian influence in Asia-
Judæa, Assyria, India. Nimroud Marbles. Persepolis-Cambyses,
Darius, Xerxes. The Ionian Greeks. General Similarity of Standard
Ornamental Types in Ancient Monuments, whether Egyptian, Asiatic,
or European.
LECTURE IV.-GREECE: HEROIC AGE OF GREEK ART.
Intercourse between Greece and Egypt. Greek Traditions. Legend of
Origin of Greek Art-Dibutades of Corinth. Development of Painting
-Skiagram, Polychrom, Monogram, and Monochrom-The Pro-
cesses.
The Heroic Age of Greek Art, from about the 12th to the 8th century,
B.c. inclusive. Pelasgic Remains-Mycena. Tomb of Agamemnon.
The Greek Colonies in Asia Minor and Magna Græcia.
Development of Art as evinced in the Homeric Poems-Ornamental
Armour, Toreutic Work, Embroidery, Woollen Fabrics of Miletus,
Corinth, and Carthage. Shawl or Pallium of Alcisthenes of Sybaris.
The Terra-Cotta Vases.


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
37
LAYARD, DR. A. H.—A second series of the Monuments of Nineveh,
including bas-reliefs from the Palace of Sennacherib, and Bronzes
from the ruins of Nimroud, from drawings made on the spot during
a Second Expedition to Assyria. 71 plates, oblong folio. London,
1853.
FERGUSSON, J.—Illustrations of the Rock-cut Temples of India. Fol.
London, 1834.
- The Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Restored : an Essay
on Ancient Assyrian and Persian Architecture. 8vo. London, 1851.
-- Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindo-
stan. Folio. London, 1852.
— The Ilustrated Handbook of Architecture ; being a concise
and popular account of the different styles of architecture prevailing
in all ages, and in all countries. With 850 woodcuts. Folio. London,
1857.
JONES, 0.—The Grammar of Ornament. Drawn on stone by F. Bed-
ford: Folio. London, 1856-8.
(On the styles generally.)
THE earliest style of ornament of which we know anything
of material importance is the Egyptian, dating from about
LECTURE VII.-ROME: FLORID DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK ART UNDER
THE ROMANS.
The spoliations of Greece. The Roman Triumphs. Collections. Mar-
cellus, 214 B.C. The Greek Painted Earthenware and the Murrhine of
the East. General Concentration of Ancient Art Treasures in Rome.
Gradual Development of Roman Taste. Greek and Roman Orders and
Details compared. The Composite or Roman an aggregate of the
Echinus, Voluted, and Acanthus Orders of the Greeks. The Acanthus
and Scroll, chief characteristics of this period. Distinctions between
Greek and Roman Acanthus. The Arch. Magnificence of the Romans.
The Forum of Trajan. Apollodorus of Damascus.
LECTURE VIII. – Roman DECORATION : FINAL DECLINE.
The Three Tastes--Egyptian, Greek, and Roman. Discrimination of
Style Accessory and Principal. Rapid Decline of Roman Art under
the Emperors—the Triumphal Arches. General florid and debased
character of the Ornamental Details of the Public Buildings of Rome.
The Roman House of the time of Augustus-general scheme of
Decoration. The Golden House of Nero. The Colossus of Zeno-
dorus. Extravagances of the time of Nero condemned by Pliny as
iusanities. Censures of Vitruvius on the Taste of his time. Pompeii,
its destruction, 79 A.D., re-discovery in 1748 A.D.; its decorations,
mosaics, &c. Roman Bronzes, Armour, Devices on their Shields,
Family Portraits, Funerals.


38
EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
1800 B.C., when it was already completely established;
and this is literally a hieroglyphic style in its sentiments
and in its details; both are derived from a priestly sym-
bolism. As a rule, the elements of Egyptian ornament
have a particular meaning; they are not often, if ever,
arbitrarily chosen for the sake of beauty of effect. The
style is accordingly, though abounding in materials, very
simple and limited in its arrangements, in comparison with

29
Ruins at Thebes.
later styles, in which mere symbolism was superseded by
the pure æsthetic principles of art; that is, effect, not
meaning, being the object of the artist. Yet we cannot
but admire the ingenuity with which the Egyptian
decorator, by a mere symmetrical arrangement, has
converted even the incomprehensible hieroglyphics into
pleasing and tasteful ornaments. A simple symmetrical


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
arrangement, however, is the limit of his artistic scheming,
and generally in the shape of a simple progression, whether
in a horizontal line or repeated on the principle of the
diaper, that is, row upon row, horizontally or diagonally.
The painted ceilings of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes
afford many good examples.
In one class of ornament Egypt is eminent, independent
of its skilful application of art to manufactures: it is
eminent in its complete adaptation of its own natural
productions in the development of a style peculiar to
itself, in its conventional treatment of local natural types,
as, for instance, the lotus or water-lily of the Nile, the
element of so many varieties of ornament. The Egyptian
details are not mere crude imitations of nature, but
natural objects, selected by symbolism, and fashioned
by symmetry into ornamental decorations. So that
we have here one great class of ornament, and the
earliest systematic efforts in design in the world's history.
Many of the details of the Egyptians are still popular
ornaments, handed down by successive ages to our own
time.
When we consider the heirarchical vassalage of the
Egyptian artist, and that he was by birth, and not by
choice, in his profession—as every man, by the law of
caste, was forced to pursue the occupation of his father,
in spite of his tastes or capabilities—we must admit that
he displays peculiar ability. In many respects, the art was
as thoroughly understood at Memphis or Thebes three
thousand years ago as it is at London or Paris this day.
The shapes of the Egyptian ewer and basin, and other
vessels for domestic purposes, are identical with those of
Onai


40
..
EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
the most favourite patterns of the present time; and many
Egyptian ornaments are still popular ornaments, and have
been so through all times; as the fret or labyrinth, wave-
scroll, spiral, zigzag, water-lily, star, and palm. They
had many others derived from the vegetable productions of
Egypt.
In the first place, Egyptian ornament admits of no
pictures of objects; all are treated conventionally. Even
in the wall-paintings themselves, no object is fairly
painted as it actually appears ; the best examples are
but intelligible representations—mere elevations or dia-
grams.
The arrangements are almost exclusively a mere sym-
metrical series or progression, and always of a very simple
order; but precious stones and metals, and the richest
materials generally, seem to have been very abundantly
used. The frieze or broad-band is the commonest form of
these decorations; and the details are generally some of
the more important symbols, as the lotus, or water-lily of
the Nile, the type of its inundations, from which Egypt
derives its fruitfulness, and the zigzag, the type of water
or the Nile itself. This ancient signification of the zigzag
is still preserved in the present zodiac sign of the Water-
carrier, or Aquarius. The fret or labyrinth, another right-
line series and important symbol, is of less frequent occur-
rence.
There is, however, one particular ornament which is
more common than all others in Egyptian decoration.
This is what is sometimes called the Scarabæus or
beetle, or, rather, the Winged-globe: it occurs of all
sizes and almost in all materials, and is a species of


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
talisman or invocation of good luck (Agathodæmon).
The globe is supposed to represent the sun, the wings
providence, and the two asps, one on each side of the
globe, dominion or monarchy; the creative, protective,
and distributive powers, implying order, the koguos, or
We almost invariably find this ornament placed over
doors, windows, and in passages, and sometimes of an
enormous size, extending thirty feet or more. It is also
frequent in costume and on the mummy-cases. There
are several other winged figures found in Egyptian friezes,
natural and conventional, as the vulture with the tau and
ostrich feather, the hawk, the winged asp, and the human
winged figure, corresponding apparently to those described
in the works of the Jews.
The sphinx, a remarkable object in Egyptian art, does
not come under the category of the winged creatures.
In this it is distinguished from the Greek creation of
that name, which is always winged, and always female.
The Egyptian sphinx, on the other hand, is always
male. It is supposed to represent the combination of
physical and intellectual power, or the kings, as incarna-
tions of such attributes. They are also associated with
the special forms and attributes of the great Egyptian
deities, Osiris and Ammon, Neph or Jupiter, and Phreh
or Helios : that is, we have the Man-sphinx, the Ram-
sphinx, the Hawk-sphinx, or the lion's body with the
head of the man, the ram, or the hawk, according to the
deity worshipped. These sphinxes were thus named by
the Greeks respectively the Andro-sphinx, the Crio-sphinx,
and the Hieraco-sphinx. The principal position of the


44
EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
pated the Greeks in something more than some ordinary
details. Their temples display a great diversity of pillars,
from the mere fluted columns of Beni Hassan to the
gorgeous varieties of Thebes, Philæ, and Denderah.
But although the Egyptians, except in the case of the
Isis capital, as well shown at Denderah, systematically
varied their pillars in the same colonnades, two alike with
their decorations complete never being placed together,
except as a pair of opposites, their varieties may be
reduced to three essential forms—the truncated lotus-bud,
the lotus-bell, and the Isis head. Every capital is a
variety of one of these essential forms; but the lotus or
papyrus-bell of the middle period is much the most com-
mon. The abacus is, on all occasions, the width only of

22
Ruins at Philæ.
the pillar, and invariably narrower than the capital, which
is a valuable feature, and very essential to the effect of


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
stability. The Egyptian pillars vary in their altitudes
from about four to nearly seven diameters, the longer
proportions being the most common.
The general massiveness of Egyptian architecture,
though, when transported to other climates, it may appear
heavy, is particularly appropriate to the climate and
landscape of Egypt itself.
The various altitudes and horizontal masses of the
great divisions of an Egyptian temple, as still seen at
Philæ and elsewhere breaking with their bold shadows
the dazzling undulating mass of light characterising the
general landscape, are calculated in the highest degree
to give delight and repose to the eye in their general
features, while the gay polychromic decorations of their
surfaces constitute a rich centre of attraction, modifying
the excessive brilliancy of the surrounding scene.
The Egyptian style of decoration was not without its
influence upon all people connected with Egypt; on the
Jews, on the Greeks, and more especially on the Persians
after the plunder of Thebes by Cambyses, who, Diodorus
Siculus informs us, carried away a colony of Egyptian
artists back into Persia : and we still see the remains of
their influence in the whole basin of the Euphrates and on
the borders of the Persian Gulf, from Nineveh to Perse-
polis. The so-called Nineveh sculptures recently deposited
in the British Museum are identical in style with those of
Persepolis, the work of this Egyptian colony, according to
Diodorus, introduced by Cambyses in the latter part of the
sixth century before our era ; but the works were chiefly
carried out under the direction of his successors, Darius
and Xerxes. Independent of this tradition, there is con-


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
siderable evidence of Egyptian influence in the works
themselves. The winged figure of Cyrus at Mourgab or
Pasargadæ has a decided Egyptian character, and the
head-dress appears to be that of the Egyptian god Malooli,
a son of Isis and Horus. The change in the general
character of the sculpture may be explained by the fact
that the Egyptians worked in Persia under the influence of
the Persian priesthood instead of their own. The subject
bull, which figures largely in the Persepolitan sculptures,
is explained as signifying the overthrow of the Assyrian
power by the Persian. The Persepolitan, like the Assyrian
sculptures, are inscribed with the arrow-headed characters.
The name of Sennacherib, who was murdered by his
own son in 711, is the oldest name yet discovered in the
inscriptions; and as his achievements in Judæa, in 713,
are recorded, the oldest sculptures are since his time, or, at
the earliest, in the seventh century before our era. Unless
much later works, they must, however, belong to the
seventh century before our era ; but the ruins are found
in three distinct places—Khorsabad, Kouyunjik, and
Nimroud, apparently much too remote from each other ever
to have constituted a single city. The so-called north-
west palace, that of Nimroud, is supposed to have been
built by Ninus II. and Sardanapulus (Esarhaddon) III. ;
Kouyunjik, by an earlier Sardanapulus.
The entire city was destroyed by Nabopolassar, the
father of Nebuchadnezzar, in 606, and the same king
destroyed Jerusalem in 588; he rebuilt Babylon, which
was, in its turn, destroyed by Cyrus in 538 B.C.
Darius Hystaspes, who succeeded Cambyses 521 B.C.,
had been with that king in Egypt, as one of his body-


EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
In Egypt, we found grandeur of proportion, simplicity
of parts, and splendour or costliness of material-gold,
silver, and ivory, precious stones, and colour—as the
great art characteristics. And we find throughout, that
the prevailing characteristic of Asiatic art, also, is
sumptuousness. It is equally displayed in the works of
the Tabernacle, in the Temple of Solomon, in the buildings
of Semiramis and of Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon, and in
the palaces of the Persian kings.
Jewish ornament, like the Egyptian, appears to have
been purely representative. The only elements mentioned
in Scripture are the almond, the pomegranate, the palm-
tree, the lily or lotus, oxen, lions, and the cherubim.
The only example we possess of Jewish ornamental work
is the bas-relief of the candlestick of seven branches,
still partly preserved among the sculptures of the Arch
of Titus at Rome. Extending our view still farther
east, we find the most characteristic feature of Hindoo
art seems to be the fantastic; and though possessing
the same jewelled richness as the Egyptian, it wants its
simplicity and grandeur. Its most striking peculiarities
are its fantastic animal devices, and profusion of minute
foliage. But I believe most Indian work to be modern
compared with Egyptian.*
It is not till we come to Greece that we find the
habitual introduction of forms for their own sake, or for
their æsthetic value or effect, purely as ornaments; and
this is a very great step in art.
* On the Rules and Proportions of Hindoo Architecture, see Ram Raz.


CHAPTER VII.
GREEK ORNAMENT.
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
IONIAN 'ANTIQUITIES, published, with permission of the Society of
Dilettanti, by R. Chandler, M.A., N. Revett, architect, and W. Pars,
painter. Folio. London, 1769,
PAOLI. P. A.-Ruins of Pæstum.
Rovine della Citta di Pesto detta ancora Posidonia. Folio. Rome,
1784.
HAMILTON, SIR W.-Collection of Engravings from Ancient Vases,
mostly of Pure Greek workmanship, discovered in sepulchres in the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but chiefly in the neighbourhood of
Naples, during the course of the years 1789-90, now in the possession
of Sir W. Hamilton; with remarks on each Vase by the Collector.
3 vols. large 4to. Naples, 1791-95. .
STUART AND REVETT.—The Antiquities of Athens measured and
delineated. 4 vols. folio. London, 1762-1816.
- Supplement to the above by Cockerell, Kinnard, Donald-
son, Jenkins, and Railton. Folio. London, 1830.
BRITISH MUSEUM.—A Description of the Collection of Ancient Marbles
in the British Museum, with engravings, chiefly from drawings by
H. Corbould. 10 vols. 4to. London, 1812, et seq.
DE QUINCY, Q.-Le Jupiter Olympien, ou l'Art de la Sculpture Antique
considérée sous un nouveau point de vue, &c. (The mode of construct-
ing the Chryselephantine works considered.) Folio. Paris, 1815.
-- Monuments et Ouvrages d’Art Antiques, restitués, d'après
les Descriptions des Ecrivains Grecs et Latins, et accompagnés de
Dissertations Archéologiques. (Attempted restorations in coloured
plates of Chryselephantine and other celebrated works of Ancient
Art.) 2 vols. 4to. Paris, 1829.
MILLENGEN, J.-Ancient Unedited Monuments. Painted Greek Vases,
from collections in various countries, principally in Great Britain,
illustrated and explained. 4to. London, 1822.


52
GREEK ORNAMENT.
Draece, Asia Minofon, n. d.
Ancient Marbles in bouillon, Pei
VULLIAMY, L.-Examples of Ornamental Sculpture in Architecture.
Drawn from the Original of Bronze, Marble, and Terra Cotta, in
Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy, in the years 1818-19-20-21. 2nd
edition, 4to. London, n. d.
BOUILLON AND ST. VICTOR.— The Ancient Marbles in the Louvre.
Musée des Antiques, dessiné et gravé par P. Bouillon, Peintre,
avec des Notices explicatives par J. B. de St. Victor. 3 vols.
folio. Paris, 1821-27.
NORMAND, C.--Nouveau Parallèle des Ordres d'Architecture des Grecs,
des Romains, et des Auteurs modernes. Folio. Paris, 1828.
MICALI, G.-Monuments illustrating the History of the Ancient People
of Italy.
Monumenti per servire alla Storia degli Antichi Popoli Italiani ;
raccolti esposti, e pubblicati da Giuseppe Micali. Small folio.
Florence, 1832. Text, 4 vols. 8vo. 1832-44.
PENROSE.-An Investigation of the Principles of Athenian Architec-
ture, or the results of a recent survey, conducted chiefly with refer-
ence to the optical refinements exhibited in the construction of the
. ancient buildings at Athens. Illustrated by numerous engravings.
(Published by the Society of Dilettanti.) Folio. London, 1851.
HITTORFF, J.J.-On Greek Polychromy, or the painting of Architecture.
Restitution du Temple d'Empédocle à Sélinonte, ou l'Architecture
Polychrome chez les Grecs. Text, 4to.; plates, atlas folio.
Paris, 1851.
WEITBRECHT, C. — Ornamenten Zeichnungs-Schule. (Ornamental
Drawing-School for Artists, Manufacturers, and Workmen.) 100
plates. 2nd edition. Oblong folio. Stuttgart, 1852.
BÖTTICHER, KARL VON.—The Art of the Greeks in its relation to the
Beautiful in Architecture, and in the Industrial Arts.
Die Tektonik der Hellenen. Text, 2 vols. 4to. ; atlas of plates,
2 vols. folio. Potsdam, 1852-53.
Holz, F. W.-Details of the principal Greek Mouldings.
Details Greichischer Haupt-Gesimse zusammengestellt für die man-
nigfachsten Anwendungen, in 40 blättern. 4to. Berlin, 1854.
DONALDSON, T. L.–Architectura Numismatica, or Architectural Medals
of Classic Antiquity. Illustrated and explained by comparison with
the monuments and the description of ancient authors, and copious
text. Imp. 8vo. London, 1859.
THE next great historic style we have to review is the
Greek. First we must speak of the Doric, or early
Greek, which comprises the Etruscan-evidently derived


GREEK ORNAMENT.
seventh century, and perhaps earlier, it is impossible
but that the Greeks were sufficiently acquainted with
all the arts of the Egyptians, and that very much was
learned by them from the Egyptians, although, in the
great cities, the traditionary records or later versions of
records generally claim the art as indigenous and original.
The traditions, however, of less important localities, as
occasionally repeated by Pausanias, carry the whole
evidence to the other side of the question. The arts
of the Greeks appear to have been established much
earlier, or more extensively, in the islands, and espe-
cially at Samos, than in Greece itself.
The Doric age—the first historic age of Greek art-
comprises altogether a period of about four centuries
from the first historic records ; from Rhæcus of Samos
and Cypselus of Corinth, until Phidias and Pericles and
their immediate successors. The previous period from
the traditions of the Trojan war, belongs rather to what
may be termed the heroic age. The style of this period
extended from the Western shores of Asia to the extreme
limits of Sicily, as shown in the many interesting Doric
ruins still preserved. The most important manufacture
of the period of which remains exist, was that of the
terra-cotta vases; and on these we find all the charac-
teristic ornaments of the distinctively Greek style of
decoration. We find on these vases exactly the same
ornaments, but necessarily modified in their treatment,
as those which distinguished the architectural monuments
of the time.
There are two classes of the painted Greek pottery,
the black and the yellow; that is, those which have
uses
ime





GREEK.

Example of Fret or Labyrinth.

ותו
פסקל6 סה"ס
Anthemion. Apollo Epicurius.

DIONOIDIDODO
MASULMAN
Echinus and Astragal. Erechtheium.
5S
Example of Guilloche.


GREEK ORNAMENT.
59
black figures and ornaments, the ground of the vase
being left the colour of the clay; and those which have
the ground painted black, and the figures left the colour
of the clay. Of the black or former class there are two
varieties, the one painted only with animals, the other
with figures, &c. The earliest belong to the date of
about 600 B.C. ; the second may be generally reckoned
as a century later. Of the yellow vases there are three
varieties or sub-classes—the severe, the beautiful, and
the rich, so called from the various characters of their
decorations; and these belong respectively to the general
dates 400, 300, and 200, B.C., when the manufacture
seems to have ceased. There are two other kinds of
vases which, in an ornamental view, may be considered
to commence and to terminate the series ; those that are
not painted, but are merely decorated with zigzags and
frets in a manner resembling wicker-work; and those
which are painted with the complete encaustic picture
in all colours. The last are very rare, and belong to
the latest date, about 200 B.C.; the first are even older
than the most ancient black yases, and may be considered
as belonging to the seventh century before our era.
The first ornaments which attract our notice on these
vases, of all periods, are those with which we have already
become familiar in Egyptian art—the zigzag, the wave-
scroll, and the labyrinth, or Greek fret. But perhaps the
most characteristic ornaments of the period are the
echinus, or horse-chestnut (egg and tongue), and the
anthemion, commonly known in its most simple form as
the honeysuckle or palmette, both of which it somewhat
resembles, as represented in the Doric antefixes. But


60
GREEK ORNAMENT.
OM
the anthemion, or flower-ornament, is more than the
mere honeysuckle (or palm-branch, whatever it may be),
even when so applied: it is this flower-form alternated
with the lily or analogous form. This is the case with
every example, except a very few, upon the vases.
There is, however, no actual imitation whatever in Greek
ornamental art. Occasionally, also, in this period .em-
blematic ornaments were used which referred to the
mysteries, sacrifices, funeral rites, and the games; but
instances are not frequent. At all events, such ornaments
do not belong to prominent characteristics of style.
The architectural features of the Greek are still more
distinctive than the ornamental in comparison with the
Egyptian. The flat, ponderous, sloping buildings of the
Egyptians are both beautiful and useful in the landscape
and climate of Egypt; and just as the rainless heat of
Egypt developed the massive flat roofs, so the rainy seasons
of Greece rendered the sloping roof necessary, the gable
of which the Greeks eventually developed into their beau-
tiful pediment. The pediment seems to have necessitated
another member in the entablature, the frieze; a feature
æsthetically more than mechanically necessary to diminish
the apparent weight of the pediment, to balance the parts,
and to strengthen, in effect, the entablature. The only
Greek example of a temple without a pediment, the Pan-
droseium at Athens—has no frieze in its entablature.
The distinctive ornament of the three Greek architec-
tural orders, as they are termed, is the capital. The
Doric capital consists of a round flat cushion, called the
echinus, and a large square abacus, the lower diameter of
the echinus being that of the pillar, its upper that of the


GREEK ORNAMENT.
abacus. The cushion is called the echinus, from its being
invariably decorated (painted) with that ornament. As
this ornament is so constant, the Doric order may be
descriptively termed the echinus order ; and the echinus is
accordingly the principal ornament of the period.
Like the Egyptian, the Greek is distinguished from its
broad flat surfaces. Even its curves are flat, of a para-
bolic character; a development, perhaps, due to the prac-
tice of polychromic decoration. Everything was coloured;
and high relief, as producing shadows, is antagonistic to
the display of colour.
In a general classification we may combine the Doric
and Alexandrian as one style, the Greek, unless we wish
to distinguish between early and late Greek; and as they
really are distinct, it is proper to separate their charac-
teristics here; but of course the second comprises the
first.
Of the early period, then, to recapitulate, the charac-
teristic features are—the echinus, the wave-scroll (some-
times called the Vitruvian scroll), the fret or labyrinth,
the zigzag, the anthemion, and occasionally the astragal;
and the terra-cotta vases have given such a prestige to
black and tawny yellow that their combination has become
a characteristic colouring—not, however, to the exclusion
of red, blue, yellow, green, or white. Purple and saffron
may likewise be said to be characteristic of this period, as
the favourite colours for male and female costume.
On the whole, foliage performs a very secondary part
in the ornamentation of this age. We have conventional
floriage more prominent; and we have comparatively a
great variety of geometrical forms and combinations in the


64
GREEK ORNAMENT.
characteristic of the Roman than the Greek. The only
Greek scroll worthy of the name is the very simple one of
the roof of the choragic monument of Lysicrates.
The most simple form of the scroll is of very rare
occurrence, even on the painted terra-cotta vases ; but it
is not uncommon on the ordinary red ware of the Romans,
and in these examples it has preserved its Greek character.
There is always a great simplicity both in the details and
in the arrangement of the materials of Greek ornament:
it is generally the various elements arranged in simple
horizontal series, one row above the other.

JAMAA
NNNNN
Ancient Bronze Lamp, ound in the 'Thames.


CHAPTER VIII.
ROMAN ORNAMENT.
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
PIRANESI, G. AND F.-Greek and Roman Antiquities, Paintings, &c.
29 vols. fol. Paris, 1835-7.
WOOD AND DAWKINS.—The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmor in
the Desert. Folio. London, 1753.
- The Ruins of Baalbec, otherwise. Heliopolis, in Colosyria.
Folio. London, 1757.
MOREAU, C.-Fragmens et Ornemens d'Architecture, dessinés à Rome
d'après l'antique. Folio. Paris, 1800.
TATHAM, C. H.-Etchings, representing the best Examples of Ancient
Ornamental Architecture, drawn from the originals in Rome, and
other parts of Italy, during the years 1794, 1795, and 1796. . 3rd
edition, small folio. London, 1810.
ROME.—The most remarkable Buildings of Ancient Rome.
Raccolta delle più insigni Fabbriche di Roma Antica e sue adjacenze.
Misurate Nuovamente e dichiarate dall'Architetto Giuseppe
Valadier, illustrate con osservazioni antiquarie da Filippo Aurelio
Visconti, ed inciso da Vincenzo Feoli. Folio. Roma, 1810-22.
WILKINS, W.-The Civil Architecture of Vitruvius, comprising those
Books of the Author which relate to the Public and Private Edifices
of the Ancients. Illustrated by numerous engravings. With an
Introduction, containing an Historical View of the Rise and Progress
of Architecture among the Greeks. Folio. London, 1812.
Mazois, F.—Les Ruines de Pompéi, dessinées et mesurées par F.
Mazois, pendant les années 1809, 1810, 1811.
Ouvrage continué par M. Gau, précédé d'une notice sur F. Mazois
par M. le Chevalier Artaud, et de l'explication de la grande
Mosaïque découverte à Pompéi en 1831, par M. Quatremère de
Quincy. Le texte de la quatrième partie a été rédigé par M.
Barré. 4 vols. folio. Paris, 1812-38.


ROMAN ORNAMENT.
TAYLOR AND CRESY.— The Architectural Antiquities of Rome. 2 vols.
folio. London, 1821.
GELL AND GANDY.–Pompeiana : the Topography, Edifices, and Orna-
ments of Pompeii. 4 vols. imperial 8vo. London, 1824-32.
CANINA, L.-Ancient Architecture, explained by its Monuments :
Greek, Roman, &c. L'Architettura antica descritta e demonstrata
coi Monumenti. Text, 9 vols. 8vo. Plates, 4 vols. folio. Roma,
1834-46.
ALBERTOLLI, FERD.-Friezes from the Forum of Trajan, with others in
Rome, and various other cities.
Fregi trovati negli scavi del Foro Trajano, con altri esistenti in
Roma ed in diverse altre città ; disegnati e misurati sul luogo
da Ferdinando Albertolli. Folio. Milan, 1838.
ZAHN, W.-The most beautiful Ornaments and most remarkable
Paintings of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiæ, &c., from original
drawings made on the spot.
Die schönsten Ornamente und merkwürdigsten Gemälde aus Pom-
peii, Herkulanum, und Stabiæ, nebst einigen Grundrissen und
Ansichten, nach den an Ort und Stelle gemachten Originalzeich-
nungen, von Wilhelm Zahn. Folio. Berlin, 1829-54, et seq.
-- Ornaments of all Classic Art Epochs, represented from the
originals in their proper colours.
Ornamente aller Klassischen Kunst Epochen nach den originalen
in ihren eigenthümlichen farben dargestellt. Oblong folio.
Berlin, 1849.
WIESELER, F.—Theatres, &c., of the Greeks and Romans.
Theatergebäude und Denkmäler des Bühnenwesens bei den
Griechen und Römern. 4to. Göttingen, 1851.
We come now to the third and last ancient style, the
Roman. In this, however, we have simply an enlarge-
ment or enrichment of the florid Greek. It did not add
a single important element to the Greek, but elaborated
the established elements with every possible variety of
effect, and with all the exuberance and richness of which
they are capable, developing some into comparatively
colossal proportions. It was, therefore, original only in
its treatment of the Greek materials. Roman art is
accordingly still Greek art; and it is more than probable


ROMAN.

Hiz
SET
HITEL
S
Win
PA
HO
TOIO
Cornice of Pedestal, Trajan's Column, Rome.








ROMAN.

oldinIDIIDIDIK
J.ES
Echinus and Astragal. Pantheon, Rome.

FINDEN.
Jupiter Tonans, Rome.

well!
ANTONIO
Jupiter Stator, Rome.





ROMAN ORNAMENT.
that nearly all the great artists employed by the Romans
were Greeks, not only in the provinces, as at Petra,
Palmyra, Baalbec, or at Athens (Temple of Jupiter), Pola,
and Spalatro, but at Rome itself, where the most magni-
ficent Forum, that of Trajan, was the work of a Greek.
However, though not original, Roman ornament has its
peculiar characteristics, as well as every other style. The
chief of these is its uniform magnificence. The most simple
Greek ornament becomes, under Roman treatment, if not a
magnificent, at least an elaborate decoration. In fact, the
most florid Greek example, as the choragic monument of
Lysicrates for instance, becomes a very simple design in
comparison with only an ordinary Roman specimen.
The architectural orders, though preserved in nearly
their pure Greek form also, have not escaped this enrich-
ment; and the composite, the only distinct Roman order,
comprises, as its name literally implies, all the three Greek
orders at once—the echinus, the voluted, and the acanthus
orders.
It is perhaps incorrect to say that there is no new
element in Roman ornament. I believe the shell, which
in after time became so very prominent, is first found in
the modillion of the arch of Titus at Rome. The arch, too,
is a Roman feature : where the Greeks were in the habit
of using the horizontal entablature, the Romans very often
have employed the arch. The Roman acanthus likewise
has a character of its own. The Greeks used the Acanthus
spinosus, or narrow prickly acanthus; the Romans the
Acanthus mollis, or soft acanthus,—the brank-ursine of
our islands. But the Roman acanthus, for capitals, is
commonly composed of conventional clusters of olive-


ROMAN.

WS
What is
Ancient Pilaster, Rome.





ROMAN.

77
Acanthus Scroll, Rome.





ROMAN.

G. MATEAUX
Frieze, Forum of Trajan.


ROMAN ORNAMENT.
81
The free introduction of monsters and animals is like-
wise a characteristic of Greek and Roman ornament,—as
the sphynx, the triton, the griffin, and others : they occur,
however, much more abundantly in the Roman. The most
splendid Roman ornamental specimens are those which
have been dug up among the ruins of the Forum of Trajan,
of the early part of the second century of our era. They
are the work of a Greek,-Apollodorus of Damascus,-
who carried out many great works for the Emperor
Trajan.

HELODIE OEL.SC
Chimera.


CHAPTER IX.
THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT ART.
We have hitherto looked at only the bright side of this
period: we must not overlook those features which more
especially constitute it a period of decline. In the first
place, quantity generally supplanted quality; and in the
second, this quantity was applied in most cases without
taste or propriety. This is illustrated by most of the great
works of the period; and by none better than the triumphal
arches, which are exclusively ornamental works.
A few remarks will suffice to show how the Roman, with
its abundance of materials, was still a period of decline.
It was the use that was made of these materials. Style
and system may be looked upon as synonymous terms in
ornamental art. Besides the ornaments themselves, we
must have some system of applying them. And if the
prominent and characteristio members of certain established
styles are promiscuously thrown together, the principal
features of one style applied as secondary to subordinate
features of another, the value of all is diminished, and the
general effect has but its vagueness to characterise it.
The same ornamental types may be used in the develop-
ment of new styles,—distinction of style depending not so
much on the types themselves, as on the mode of using
them.


THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT ART.
83
But in the development of any particular historic style
of ornament, we are strictly limited to the elements belong-
ing to that style; and in combining styles, the various
members belonging to the same style should preserve their
relative degree of importance.
The general decorations of the Roman period, and espe-
cially those of Pompeii, exhibit an utter disregard of these
observances; and thus all distinctions of style, and conse-
quent peculiarities of character, are lost.
The tastes of the three ancient styles—Egyptian, Greek,
and Roman, are very distinct. The Egyptian is symbolic,
rich, and severe, at the same time; the Greek is severe
and beautiful; and the Roman, rich and beautiful,-at
least in its good examples.
Greek taste steadily progressed until about the time of
Alexander : from this period, richness and abundance of
ornament gradually supplanted the chaster principles of
design. The conquest of Asia introduced a taste for orna-
mental display, which, ending in pure ostentation, resulted
in the utter annihilation of taste, and of art itself, under
the luxurious example of the Roman Emperors. The
Greeks themselves, however, were always lovers of splen-
dour. Their painted and chryselephantine (gold and ivory)
sculpture could hardly be surpassed in magnificence: their
personal costume, as Sybaris evinces, was of the richest
character; and the splendour of their temples was only
characteristic of their mural decoration generally.
This splendour was carried out by the Romans on a
still greater scale, until a boundless luxury established an
indiscriminate extravagance of ornamental detail. Marcus
Ludius, in the time of Augustus, became very celebrated


84
THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT ART.
for his landscape decorations, which were illustrated with
figures actively employed in occupations suited to the
scenes ; which kind of painting became universal after his
time, and in the first century of our era was established
that extraordinary style which we have still preserved at
Pompeii, but which the Roman writers themselves were
as far from approving as the best critics of modern times.
Vitruvius, at a still earlier time, deplores the folly and
absurdity of the stucco-work of his day. “What the
ancients," he complains, "accomplished by art, we attempt
to effect by gaudy colouring. Expense is now substituted
for skill. Who, in former times, used vermilion, except
for physic? We now cover our walls with it.” Pliny
also complains of ostentation having completely supplanted
good taste in the decorations of his time : “A man now
cares nothing for art, providing he has his walls well
covered with purple, or dragon's blood from India.” Vi-
truvius enumerates the various kinds of wall-painting in
use among the ancients. They first imitated coloured
marbles; these they afterwards divided into panels, and
enriched with ornamental frames and cornices; then archi-
tectural decorations were added ; and finally were intro-
duced tragic, comic, and satyric scenes, and landscapes.
All eventually degenerated into the existing Pompeiian
extravagances.
Yet, notwithstanding the general extravagance of this
age, there were doubtless in Rome many examples of
beautiful decoration of a very high character. Even Pom.
peii, an unimportant provincial town, exhibits occasional
traces of a magnificent system of decoration. The painted
figures which we find in the centres of walls or panels,
res


86
THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT ART.
feet by ten, representing the battle between Darius and
Alexander at Issus, discovered in the so-called House del
Fauno, in 1831. It is one of the most important relics of
ancient art, and shows that though the laws of perspective
are generally grossly disregarded in the architectural deco-
rations, it was not from the ignorance of their existence;
for in this work, however careless the mechanical exe-
cution may be, perspective is appreciated, and the fore-
shortening of the figure and the horse is even skilfully
expressed. It is a work, in composition, general attitude
of the figures and horses, and for treatment of costume, in
every way worthy of a great master; and the picture or
composition itself evidently belongs to a period long
anterior to the execution of the mosaic, in which we most
probably have an example of the higher school of painting
of the Greeks, and possibly a coarse copy of the great
battle-piece of the victory of Alexander over Darius, men-
tioned by Pliny, by which Philoxenus of Eretria had ren-
dered his name celebrated.


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
89
Wyatt, M. D.-Specimens of the Geometrical Mosaic of the Middle
Ages; with a brief Historical Notice of the Art, founded on Papers
read before the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal
Society of Arts, and the Archeological Institute of Great Britain and
Ireland. Small folio. London, 1848.
CHALMERS OF AULDBAR.—The ancient sculptured Monuments of the
County of Angus, including those at Meigle in Perthshire, and one
at Fordoun in the Mearns. With an additional plate and explana-
tory text. (Privately printed and presented to the Bannatyne Club.)
Large folio. Edinburgh, 1848.
PERRET, L.-The Catacombs of Rome. Catacombes de Rome ; Archi-
tecture, Peintures Murales, Inscriptions, Figures, et Symboles des
Pierres sépulcrales, Verres gravés sur fond d'or, Lampes, Vases,
Anneaux, Instruments, &c., des Cimetières des premiers Chrétiens.
5 vols. folio. Paris, 1852, et seq.
(Published by the French Government, under the direction of a
Commission of the Institute of France.)
CAUMONT, DE.-Archæological A B C Book.
Abécédaire, ou Rudiment d'Archéologie. Ouvrage approuvé par
l'Institut des Provinces de France. (Ornamental styles, civil
and military architecture, &c.) 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1851-53.
INKERSLEY, T.-An inquiry into the Chronological Succession of the
Styles of Romanesque and Pointed Architecture in France; with
Notices of some of the principal Buildings on which it is founded.
Stained Glass—Methods of Glass Painting—Mosaic-Mosaic-stain-
and the Pure and Mixed Enamel-Mosaic Enamel.
Mosaic method described by Theophilus, twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Design, hatched and smeared on Pot Metal, in Enamel Brown—the
Grozing Iron. Ornaments, chiefly from the Manuscripts—of a Byzan-
tine or Norman character-Tan coloured Flesh-Simple and Medal-
lion Windows-Foliage and Quarry Patterns, plain and reticulated.
LECTURE IV.—ON GOTHIC ORNAMENT-DECORATED POINTED.
The Verticality of Gothic as contrasted with the horizontal Romanesque.
The Five Arches of English Architecture—the Round, the Pointed,
the Ogee, the Four-centred, and the Flat.
Seven Styles of English Ecclesiastical Architecture, from Edward the
Confessor (1066) to Edward VI., about five centuries—the Saxon
(early Norman Romanesque)-Round Norman (Zigzag)—Pointed
Norman (Transition)-Early English Gothic(introduction of the Mul-
lion and Tracery) —Decorated-Perpendicular (Lancastrian)—and
Tudor. Average duration of each style about seventy years.
Characteristics. Geometrical character of Gothic Art. Snow Crystals.
Tracery-Soffit and Chamfer Cusping. The Trefoil Leaf-the
Crocket-the Finial—the Gargoyle. The Tudor Flower. Manufac-
tures.


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
Bock, F.—Les Trésors sacrés de Cologne. Objets d'Art du Moyen
Age. 8vo. Paris, 1860.
TYMMS AND WYATT.—The Art of Illuminating, as practised in Europe
from the earliest times. Ilustrated by borders, initial letters, and
alphabets, selected and chromolithographed by W.R. Tymms. With
an Essay and Instructions by M. Digby Wyatt. Imp. 8vo. London,
1860.
We may now turn to the Middle-Age styles, which, in
sed
termed Christian art.
The peculiar views of the early Christians in matters of
art had, before the establishment of Christianity by the
State, no material influence upon society, though the Pagan
idolatries found many bold and vigorous opponents long
before the time of Constantine. During the first and
second centuries, Christian works of art were limited to
symbols, and were then never applied as decorations, but
as exhortations to faith and piety. And all Christian
decoration rests upon this foundation,—the same spirit of
symbolism prevailing throughout, until the return to the
heathen principle of beauty (to the æsthetic) in the period
of the Renaissance.
The early symbols were the monogram of Christ : the
lily; the cross; the serpent; the fish; the aureole, or
Vesica piscis, representing the acrostic symbol, the fish,
from the common Greek word for fish, ixoús, containing
the initials of the following sentence: 'Ingous Xplotos Ocoû
Yiós Lórnp, Jesus Christ, of God the Son, the Saviour;
and the circle, or nimbus, the glory of the head, as the Vesica
is of the entire body. These are very important elements
in Christian decoration,—especially the nimbus, which is
the element of the trefoil and quatrefoil, so common in


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
COS
From a Gold Fibula.
Byzantine and Gothic art, the first having reference to
the Trinity, the second to the four Evangelists, as the
testimony of Christ, and to the cross; at the extremities
of which we often find four circles, besides the circle in
the centre, which signifies the Lord.
Thus, figures or combinations of three, four, and five
circles are common in me-
dieval art, and have all
sacred significations. Many
crosses are composed nearly
exclusively of the five cir-
cles as principals, or are
prominently decorated with
them. A cross of this
character is not uncom-
mon, either with the circle
or nimbus in the centre, and
four other circles or nimbi
at the extremities, or com-
posed simply of five cir-
cles arranged in the form
of the cross,—the centre
circle, or nimbus, having
reference to the Lord, and
the other four to the Evan-
gelists. Occasionally the
symbolic images of the
Old Leather Case.
Evangelists, — the angel,
the lion, the ox, and the eagle,—are represented within
these circles.
These symbolic images of the Evangelists are frequently


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
93
applied as the principal decoration of a façade, and are
constantly met with under the arches of doorways, on
either side of the vesica, which is found circumscribing the
image of Christ, with his right hand raised in the attitude
of benediction.
The hand, in the attitude of benediction, is another
characteristic element in early Christian and medieval
works of art. There is a distinction between the Greek
and the Latin form,—the Greek symbolising Jesus Christ,
expressing the Greek monogram, IC.XC., (JesouC XristoC),
by placing the thumb on the third finger, and slightly
curving the second and fourth : the Latin displaying the
thumb and the first and second fingers only extended, and
thus symbolising the Trinity. The Roman prelate blesses
in the name of the Trinity; the Greek in the name of
Jesus Christ.
Without some knowledge of these essential points, the
Byzantine decorations are quite unintelligible ; for their
early designers would appear to have avoided rather than
sought beauty in all these peculiar forms; the principle
is exactly the same as that by which
Egyptian art was regulated. The Lily,
too (the fleur-de-lis), the emblem of the
Virgin and of purity, is as common in
Christian decoration as the lotus is in
that of Egypt. It is the symbol which
was eventually elaborated into the most
characteristic foliage of Byzantine and Romanesque art,
still well illustrated in work of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, -and especially in the old iron-work of that
time.


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
95
details, is that conventional foliage and scroll work just
described.
The very exclusive prejudices of the early Byzantines
once overcome, a most comprehensive style of decoration
was rapidly developed, notwithstanding they never attained
that purity of detail which characterises the works of the
Greeks. Still, so great was their ingenuity, that they
made, from their crudest symbols even, very beautiful and
attractive designs.
An important feature always to be observed in the
works of the Byzantines is, that all their imitations of
natural forms were invariably conventional : so far they
have preserved the ancient custom throughout. It is
the same even with animals and with the human figure :
every saint had his prescribed colours, proportions, and
symbols.
This Byzantine system of decoration was fully matured,
and is still shown in perfection in the rich mosaics of
St. Sophia at Constantinople, completed by the Emperor
Justinian 562 A.D.*
The beauty and effect of Byzantine designs is, however,
as often owing to their materials as to the fashion of the
ornaments themselves; and this is the case with nearly
all early middle-age art; as it was with the Egyptians,
and must perhaps always be in every style which depends
for its individuality of character chiefly upon its sym-
bolism: for symbols are not chosen for their beauty, but
for their meaning.
* Some beautiful specimens have been lately published in the work
of Salzenberg, on Constantinople, undertaken under the auspices of
the Prussian Government.


96
BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
We shall find that the most beautiful Byzantine designs
are those in which the symbolism is unobtrusive, or
even wholly disguised : not absent, for that is very
rarely, if ever, the case. A design which contained no
trace of symbolism could hardly be a genuine Byzantine
example. Generally speaking, but especially in eccle-
siastical decoration,—whether metal-work, stone-work,
wood-carving, glass-staining, or mosaic,—the symbols, in
some form or other, are paramount, being mixed only
with geometrical forms. Many By-
zantine capitals may appear to con-
tradict this; but on examination it
will be found that the apparently
floral forms are combinations only
of the conventional types derived
from the symbols; as vesicas, circles,
lilies, and many others. The very
tracery is sometimes composed of serpents; and serpents
are not an uncommon ornament for a capital.
The serpent figures largely in Byzantine art, as the
instrument of the Fall, and one type of the Redemption.
The cross planted on the serpent is found sculptured on
Mount Athos ; and the cross, surrounded by the so-called
Runic knot, is only a Scandinavian version of the original
Byzantine image,—the crushed snake curling round the
stem of the avenging cross. The cross, with two scrolls
at the foot of it, typifying the snake, is another of its
modifications, and a very common Byzantine ornament.
The ordinary northern crosses, so conspicuous for their
interlaced ornaments and grotesque monsters, appear to
be purely modifications of this idea. Some good examples

urra





BYZANTINE.

99
Iron Hinge, Notre-Dame, Paris.


BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
may be seen in Chalmers' Sculptured Monuments of
- Angus.
The leading forms of Byzantine architecture are like-
wise due to the same influence—the cross, the circle, and
the dome, pervade everywhere. The dome has its own
reference to the vault of heaven, whose living glories
were generally represented on the spherical roof of the
apse at the end of the Greek Basilicas. This representa-
tion is known in the Greek Church as the holy liturgy,
or the glorification of Christ, and it often illustrates the
dome itself in the centre of the cross. That is the reason
that the cross and the dome are so characteristic of early
esque architecture generally.
Some of the principal Byzantine or Romanesque
churches are developments of the symbol of the five
circles or glories : they are placed in the form of a cross,
and are surmounted by domes corresponding in size and
situation to the circles represented in the pavement below.
St. Mark's at Venice is a conspicuous example of this
symbolic architecture.
This species of architecture, with the dome and round
arch, is termed Romanesque, as derived immediately from
that which prevailed throughout the Roman Empire at
that time when from heathen it became Christian : some
of its classical types are the Pantheon, the Coliseum,
and the palace of Diocletian at Spalatro. Though not
Roman absolutely, it is derived from the Roman; it is
debased Roman-Romanesque : it is a general term which
distinguishes the round-arch species from the Saracenic
and Gothic, which are pointed-arch species. The pre-


100
BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
servation of the dome and arch, however, was probably
due rather to the symbolic value of those figures among
the Byzantine Greeks than to the mere historic example
of the Romans.
The chief varieties of the Romanesque are the
Byzantine, the Lombard, and the Norman.* Both the
Lombard and the Norman may, in a technical point of
view, be considered mere modifications or varieties of
the Byzantine; certainly few examples of the Romanesque
out of Italy were not deriyed, directly or indirectly, from
Constantinople, or Byzantium, as it was previously called.
The style extended to this country as far north as York
and Hexham: it is still the standard type in Russia; and
it is the exclusive model of the whole system of architec-
ture of the Mohammedans, from Benares to Cadiz, from
Cairo to Damascus. Indeed the Byzantine was so widely
spread, and so thoroughly identified with all middle-age
art, that its influence did not entirely cease until the
establishment of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century:
both the Saracenic and the Gothic proceeded from the
Byzantine.
The Greek missionaries carried its influence into the
extreme north ; and while the artists of Syria were
accommodating their style to Mohammedan exclusiveness
in the south, in the colder regions of Europe the mysteries
of Mount Athos were freely mixed up with the fables of
Scandinavian mythology.
The Scandinavian soldiers, also, of the imperial body-
guard, made the talismans of Christian mythology almost
* See these styles beautifully illustrated in Osten's “ Buildings of
Lombardy."


BYZANTINE.

Capital. Moissac, France.

101
Capital. Germany.





BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
105
as familiar in their native homes as the gods of their
forefathers. The same mixture became as common even-
tually on the portals of Lombardy.
There is this difference between the Byzantine and the
Lombard and Norman varieties, that the symbolism is
mere matter of habit in the two latter, and generally,
perhaps, though rudely preserved in many forms, is dis-
regarded in their spirit; that is, in mere ornamental
details, such as the zigzag, dog's-tooth, nail-head, star,
chain, and a host of others : but the symbolic figures
and other religious decorations mean exactly what they
express.
As the peculiarly Norman style, such as it is best
known in this country, was originally developed in Sicily,
it contains, of course, many Saracenic features, of which
the pointed arch and the zigzag are the most prominent;
for the Norman, though originally a simple Romanesque
style, eventually adopted in the twelfth century the
pointed arch of the Mohammedans.* This style is well
developed in the Cathedral of Cefalu in Sicily, built by
King Roger in 1132.
The terms Byzantine and Romanesque have been used
above as almost synonymous. They are so as regards
their architectural features; the Byzantine being only a
variety of the Romanesque. In the later centuries they
may be considered the same in all respects; but in the
earlier centuries there is an ornamental distinction: the
more strictly Romanesque, or Latin, being a simple
debasement of Roman art; the Byzantine, or Greek,
being this art combined with the symbolic elements
* Gally Knight, “Saracenic and Norman Remains in Sicily.”
M
va
n


SARACENIC ORNAMENT.
109
time. However, by the seventh century, when the
works of the Saracens commenced, the Byzantine Greeks
were already sufficiently skilful to make light of such
exclusions, and the exertion of ingenuity which they
impelled gave rise to a more beautiful simply ornamental
style than perhaps any that had preceded it, for there was
no division of the artistic mind now between meaning
and effect; and although the religious cycles and other
symbolic figures which had hitherto engrossed so much
of the artist's attention were excluded, the mere con-
ventional ornamental symbolism, the ordinary forms
borrowed from the classic periods, and geometrical sym-
metry, left an abundant field behind which was further
enriched by the peculiarly Saracenic custom of elaborating
inscriptions into their designs. Mere curves and angles.
or interlacings were now to bear the chief burden of a
design, but distinguished by a variety of colour; the
curves, however, very naturally fell into the standard
forms and floral shapes, and the lines and angles were
soon developed into a very characteristic species of
tracery or interlaced strap-work, very agreeably diversified
by the ornamental introduction of the inscriptions. And
although flowers were not palpably admitted, the great
mass of the minor details of Saracenic designs are com-
posed of flower forms disguised; the very inscriptions
are sometimes thus grouped as flowers : this is especially
the case in the later works of the Alhambra; still no
actual flower ever occurs, as the exclusion of all natural
images is the fundamental of the style in its purity.
The omission of the crescent in Saracenic or Moham-
medan work generally is worth notice. It now crowns


LIO
SARACENIC ORNAMENT.
CU
was
the great mosques of Constantinople, but it is not to be
found in any early work, and it appears to be itself
simply the trophy of the conquest of the Greek capital
of Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium, of which it was
the symbol, the town on one occasion having, according
to an old tradition, been preserved from a night ambuscade
by the timely appearance of the new moon; it occurs on
old Byzantine coins. Constantinople was not captured by.
the Turks until 1453.
One of the greatest works produced under these cir-
cumstances was the magnificent mosque of Touloun at
Cairo, a monument of the ninth century (876 A.D.), and
the recorded work of a Greek. The ornaments are in
stucco, and altogether offer the most characteristic example
of the combination of Byzantine and Saracenic elements.
With the Saracenic tracery and inscriptions, and other
peculiar forms, we have combined several of the most
popular ancient ornaments in their Byzantine garb, but
somewhat more than ordinarily modified, as the fret,
anthemion, the guilloche, the horns of plenty, and the
fleur-de-lis.
The more characteristic detail, that is, the original
Saracenic elements, the disguised conventional foliage
spoken of, is very beautifully elaborated in some of the
accessory works of this mosque. They became standards
to after ages; for the details of the diaper-tiles of the
Alhambra, executed some five hundred years afterwards,
are in many respects nearly identical with these details of
the mosque of Touloun at Cairo.
In all these early Arabian buildings of Cairo we have
the pointed arch, which appears first, I believe, in the


SARACENIC

WIEC
ISA
12
DODDS
VW
SGGCEO
CCCCCC
SSS
ДОНО
111
Alhambra Diaper.





SARACENIC ORNAMENT.
113
great mosque of Amrou, a work of the seventh century
(641 A.D.); but the ogee, the crescent, and the scalloped
arches, are more characteristic, perhaps, of Saracenic
architecture generally, as the pointed arch has been
made familiar by a later style; but the simple round
Romanesque arch also occurs in the Moorish works of
Spain. This style became gradually richer as it advanced
westwards from Egypt to Sicily, and especially in Spain,
where the Alhambra, a work of the fourteenth century,
still remains to bear witness to its unparalleled richness of
detail.
There is not much pure Saracenic work in Sicily; the
palace of La Ziza, at Palermo, is, perhaps, the only
example: there are, however, some magnificent Siculo-
Norman remains of the twelfth century at Palermo,
Monreale, Cefalu, and Messina, in which Greek or
Saracenic artists were engaged; and the glass mosaics
in these places are among the finest specimens of their
class existing : they exhibit some exquisite examples of
tracery or interlacing.
The Saracenic was the period of gorgeous diapers, for
their habit of decorating the entire surfaces of their
apartments was peculiarly favourable to the development
of this class of design: the Alhambra displays almost
endless specimens, and all are in relief and enriched
with gold and colour, chiefly blue and red. Some give
the idea of being more endurable imitations of the rich
woollens of Cashmere, which the Arabs always made
great store of. The Genoa damasks, Arras tapestries,
and modern paper-hangings, are all imitations of these
Saracenic wall diapers. The very word “Damask” means
ace
eans


114
SARACENIC ORNAMENT.
.
NEW
Honu 1
1:10-
BEN
li
ol
Damascus work. Damascus, however, was famous for
such fabrics before its conquest by the Arabs. It was
called Damesk, and was a place of repute even in the
time of Abraham.
Damascus is still famous for its textile fabrics in a pure
Saracenic taste, and it produces a great variety of patterns
in silk and in cotton, the designs of which are chiefly
stripes and inscriptions, good wishes or pious sentences.*
The Siculo-Norman, from which our round zigzag
(Ziza) and the pointed Nor-
man are derived, is as much
a variety of the Saracenic
as of the Byzantine : it is
indeed a free combination
of the two styles ; for the
reserved mixture of the two
hitherto practised had its
Christian character restored
to it by the Normans,
through the introduction of
sacred figures, and a pro-
Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire.
minence which they gave
to all the most palpable Christian symbols, more especially
* This style has of late years found its way into our railway carriages :
worsted borders, in which the initials of the company are worked as an
ornamental pattern, right and left, and upside down, as in the Eastern
examples, are now common. The mock inscriptions on the borders of
rich robes, in early Italian pictures, are also derived from oriental
models. The richest stuffs were from the East, and were decorated
with Arabic inscriptions; the old painters accordingly, when from a
spirit of veneration they dressed their saints in rich robes, were very
particular in the elaboration of their border decorations, which neces-
sarily implied a robe of a costly oriental fabric. There are several
examples of such borders in the National Gallery.


CHAPTER XII.
GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
DE LABORDE, LE COMTE ALEXANDRE.—Les Monumens de la France,
classés chronologiquement, et considérés sous le Rapport des Faits
historiques et de l'Etude des Arts. 2 vols. folio. Paris, 1816—36.
CARTER, J.-The Ancient Architecture of England, including the Orders
during the British, Roman, Saxon, and Norman Eras; and under
the reigns of Henry III. and Edward III. Illustrated by 109 en-
gravings. A new and improved edition, with Notes and copious
Indexes, by John Britton. Folio. London, 1837.
-- Specimens of the Ancient Sculpture and Painting now remain-
ing in England, from the earliest period to the reign of Henry VIII.
Exhibited in 120 plates, drawn and etched by J. Carter. With
Critical and Historical Illustrations by Francis Douce, Richard Gough,
John Fenn, J. S. Hawkins, William Bray, and the Rev. J. Milner.
A new and improved edition, arranged in topographical order, and
illustrated with copious notes by Dawson Turner, Sir Samuel Rush
Meyrick, John Britton, and others. Folio. London, 1838.
BRITTON, J.—The Cathedral Antiquities of England. 5 vols. 4to.
London, 1836.
Putin, A. W.-Specimens of Gothic Architecture, selected from various
Ancient Edifices in England, consisting of plans, elevations, sections,
and parts at large, &c. The literary part by J. E. Willson. 3 vols.
3rd edition, corrected and revised. 4to. London, 1821—50.
POPP, J., AND BULEAU, TH.— The Three Ages of Gothic Architecture.
Les Trois Ages de l'Architecture Gothique, son origine, sa théorie,
démontrés et représentés par des Exemples choisis à Ratisbonne,
&c. Folio. Paris, 1841.
BOISERÉE, S.-Histoire et Description de la Cathédrale de Cologne.
Pour servir de texte aux Vues, Plans, Coupes, et Détails de l'Edifice.
Nouvelle édition refaite et augmentée. Plates, folio; text, 4to.
Munich, 1842–43.


118
GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
Architecture of the Middle Ages, and its Spire Growth. 2 vols. folio.
London, 1853–55.
DOLLMAN AND JOBBINS.—An Analysis of Ancient Domestic Architecture
in Great Britain. 4to. London, 1860.
The third and last great middle-age style was the Gothic.
Of this I can remark only as regards its general principles,
to fully explain all its subdivisions of style would occupy
much space.
It grew out of the Byzantine, and flourished chiefly
on the Rhine, in the North of France, and in England.
Salisbury Cathedral, A.D. 1221, the first great work of
the kind in this country, is a work of the French, but
in style it was a genuine Norman beginning. The
Gothic was developed in the thirteenth century, and
was perfected in the fourteenth ; its most characteristic
monument, perhaps, is Cologne Cathedral, which was
consecrated in the year 1322 ; in the fifteenth century
it rapidly declined, and it became quite extinct, in this
country at least, in the sixteenth ; a catastrophe doubtless
involved by the Reformation.
England has had seven ecclesiastical styles, extending
over a space of about five hundred years only, from the
death of Edward the Confessor, 1066, to the death of
Queen Mary, 1558, when all ecclesiastical architecture
ceased; and the Tudor was superseded by the Renaissance
in the reign of Elizabeth.
The seven styles are,-
1. The Saxon, or simple round arch, Romanesque.
2. The round Norman (zigzag style).
3. The pointed Norman, or transition (Henry II., or
first Plantagenet style).


GOTHIC.

DEBE
PUD
ESS
GO
AR
FEA
LIDL
De
ou
osa
TO
119
119
The Lynn Cup. C. 1400.


I 22
GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
had occupied his time in the years of his apprentice-
ship. There are not many matters on which the English
people have been more deluded of late years than on the
subject of the nationality and the Christianity of Gothic
architecture. Gothic is of comparatively very late de-
velopment, and endured at most in this country for
about three centuries; it is by no means English in its
origin, and so far from having any determinate unity in
its character, it displays, as already shown, a continued
succession of changes. Its religious elements are Byzan-
tine. As regards Christianity of style, the most Christian
architecture is literally that of the Mohammedan mosques,
which owe their forms to the early Christian symbolism,
as developed by the Byzantine Greeks.
Three only of the above styles, the fourth, fifth, and
sixth, are what can be strictly termed Gothic: the two
first are round arch, and belong to the Byzantine or
Romanesque varieties; the third is the simple transition
from the round to the pointed styles; and the seventh
is the transition back again from those styles in which the
arch is so prominent a feature, to the Renaissance varie-
ties, in which the arch becomes again round, and loses its
importance as a principal elementary feature of style.
The general characteristics of the Gothic, as an archi-
tectural style, are these :-It is essentially pointed or
vertical in its tendency, and in its detail is geometrical —
in its window-tracery, in its openings, in its clusters of
shafts and bases, and in its suits of mouldings—but it
is only geometrical in its construction, or in its form,
not in its spirit or motive.
All the symbolic elements of the Byzantine are con-


GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
123
tinued in the Gothic; but the pointed arch is substituted
for the round. There is a close traditional connection in
all the ordinary details, though the virulence of the
image controversy, and other differences, between the
Greek and Latin Churches, doubtless had some influence
in the development of a change of style; for we find
that where the Greek Church has prevailed there has
been, until very recently, no essential change whatever
in ecclesiastical architecture. It is unquestionable, how-
ever, that climate has had something to do also with
the peculiar development of the Gothic; it has flourished
only in cold regions subject to much rain and snow, and
a Gothic church frequently looks very like a fortification
against the weather, with its high-pitched roof, solid
buttresses, and narrow doors and windows. As I have
already explained, the pointed arch, one of the charac-
teristics of the Gothic, is not peculiar to it; it had
already existed five hundred years in Egypt, and is the
common form of the Siculo-Norman arch.
The Gothic is chiefly distinguished from the Byzantine
and the Latin Romanesque varieties, by the universal
absence of the dome, and the substitution of the pointed
for the round arch. The union of the belfry with the
church is not peculiar to the Gothic, though in the great
Romanesque examples they are distinct, as at Venice
and Pisa; they are also distinct at Florence, and many
other Italian towns; nor are the towers in the place of
the domes peculiar to the Gothic, they are common in
the Norman Romanesque in Sicily, in Germany, and in
this country, as at Ely, Peterborough, and elsewhere.
The spire is the pointed roof of the tower, and both


1 24
GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
doubtless originally owed their development as much to
use as to ornament: in thinly-populated and only half-
cleared countries, such as England was in the Middle
Ages, a tower or spire was a landmark performing other
useful services besides that of simply indicating the
locality of the church, or securing the proper elevation
of its bells.
The transition added the spire to the old tower of
the Romanesque and Norman, and it is a common feature
of the Gothic; while the square abacus and the heavy
cushion capitals of these styles, with their simple incised
ornaments, are converted, in the transition, to the round
abacus and the bell-shaped capital, decorated with raised
foliage, and eventually elaborated into infinite variety in
the Gothic styles.
Ornamentally the Gothic is the geometrical and pointed
element elaborated to its utmost, its only peculiarities
are its combinations of details; at first the conventional
and the geometrical prevailing, and afterwards these
combined with the elaboration of natural objects in its
decoration. The Byzantines never did this, their orna-
ments were purely conventional; while in the finest
Gothic specimens we find not only the traditional con-
ventional ornaments, but in the decorated period also
elaborate imitations of the plants and flowers growing
in the neighbourhood of the work. This is a great
feature; but still the most striking feature of all Gothic
work is the wonderful elaboration of its geometric tracery
-vesicas, trefoils, quatrefoils, cinquefoils, and an infinity
of geometric varieties besides. The tracery is so para-
mount a characteristic that the three English varieties,








GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
129
the Early English, the Decorated, and the Perpendicular,
are distinguished almost exclusively by this feature ; it
is the same with the French flamboyant—the flame
style, from the waving lines of its tracery. The tracery,
indeed, establishes the fact of a style being Gothic or
not, for the Byzantine contains only the symbolic folia-
tions; so the pointed style called “Transition” is not
Gothic, because it has no tracery.
The first Gothic in this country is the Early English,
in which we have the first development of geometrical

ISWALLOW.
From the Temple Church.
window-tracery; mullions instead of piers; windows of
several lights; flying buttresses, crocketed pinnacles, com-
plicated mouldings, the columns clustered, and the capitals
generally round; an extensive application of foliage, with
the trefoil leaf, commonly called the Early-English leaf, as
the most characteristic ornament. It is sometimes as formal
as a clover leaf, at other times very irregularly formed,
but always with a fulness or roundness of the parts, as
contrasted with the somewhat similar, but flat or even


130.
GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
-
-
-
---
- -
hollow Byzantine or Norman foliage, of which it is a
variation.
The so-called tooth, or dog's-tooth, the most character-
istic ornamental detail of the previous pointed style, the
Transition, occurs comparatively rarely in the Early
English, and in the early specimens only, and consider-
ably varied in detail. This ornament was probably in its
original form a simple vesica cross, but being contracted
to fill hollows was developed into its ordinary character,
so common in early Plantagenet, or Transition work.
Upon the Early English succeeded the Decorated, chiefly
characterised by a more magnificent development of the
leading elements of the Early English, more especially the
tracery; but it has its own features—the ogee arch, and
the pinnacled canopied recesses of the buttresses, and other
parts, producing a prominence of diagonal lines. The so-
called ball-flower, and the common serpentine vine-scroll,
are the most characteristic details of this period. There is
also more nature, or imitation, in the details than in any
other of the Gothic varieties.
In the third variety, the Perpendicular, the new features
are the horizontal line, the panellings, and the substitution
of perpendicular for flowing tracery. And the execution
of the ornamental details is very conventional. The most
prominent bar of the tracery is the mullion itself, so that
the prevalent panelling of the style is also prominent in
the window tracery, composed of mullion upon mullion, or
mullion and supermullion, being separated by a horizontal
bar, termed a transom. This divides the lights into vertical
panes or panels, and the same panelling (of which fan-
tracery is also an example) is spread over every surface of


GOTHIC.

W
CADOS
CD
SES
NIMENTE
DHE
SER
H
Illi
WI
UU
.
EU
llllll
BE
Pedestal, Henry VII.'s Chapel.





134
GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
nation of the lily and the cross, common as the decoration
of a crown, and for edges or borders of many other kinds.
There are five orders of arches which distinguish these
several ecclesiastical styles generally, namely—the round,
the pointed, the ogee, the four-centred, and the flat: the
pointed itself comprising three varieties—the lancet, the
pointed, and the drop arch; in the first the pitch being
greater than the span, in the second equal to it, and in the
last less.
In ornamental art generally, then, as in architecture, it
is geometrical tracery which will stamp a design with a
Gothic character: decorate it with natural flowers only, it
will still be Gothic; it would be necessarily made much
more characteristic by the introduction of some of the
historic ornaments of the period, -as the Tudor-flower,
fleur-de-lis, crocket-leaf, trefoil or Early-English leaf,
vine-scroll, or any other of the more familiar ornaments
of the style. As, however, the Gothic is a style which
has flourished exclusively in cold countries, its ornaments
of a natural class to be characteristic should be from such
plants as are native to Gothic latitudes; tropical plants
would be inconsistent. Throughout we should prefer the
wild plants of the north to the more exuberant flowers of
the south. All exotics, in fact, that are not symbols,
should be unconditionally excluded. The characteristic
Norman ornaments are not admissible in the Gothic, with
the exception of the tooth, and that is peculiarly ren-
dered.
Classical ornaments, likewise, are of course excluded ;
even the scroll occurs only in the Gothic as a serpentine.
Gothic ornaments independent of the tracery are nearly
IL


GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
135
exclusively fruit, flowers, or leaves; and as a general rule,
the execution is extremely rude.
Such is a rough outline of the course of ornamental art
among the most prominent people of medieval history, for
a period of more than a thousand years. We have seen
that all varieties, however individual in character; are
intimately connected with those which preceded them; an
advantage once gained was not allowed to be lost; and the
remarkable transition from the Byzantine to the Saracenic,
so totally different in spirit and in detail, yet both deve-
loped by the same artists, shows that it is not from a per-
severing manual routine that variety and beauty are to be
derived, but from the active intelligence of the controlling
mind.

Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.


THE MODERN OR RENAISSANCE STYLES. 137
SOMMERARD, A. Du.—Les Arts au Moyen Age. (Collection of the Hôtel
de Clugny.) Text, 5 vols. 8vo. ; plates, 6 vols. folio. Paris, 1836-46.
LACROIX AND SERÉ.—The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Manners
and Customs, Sciences and Arts, &c.; with fac-simile illustrations.
Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance, Histoire et Description des
Mours et Usages du Commerce et de l'Industrie, des Sciences,
des Arts, des Littératures, et des Beaux Arts en Europe. Direc-
tion littéraire de M. Paul Lacroix. Direction artistique de M.
Ferdinand Seré. Dessins fac-similes par M. A. Rivaud. 5 vols.
4to. Paris, 1848-51.
BECKNER AND HEFNER.—Works of Art and Utensils of the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance.
Kunstwerke und Geräthschaften des Mittelalters und der Renais-
sance. By C. Becker and J. von Hefner. Many coloured plates,
2 vols. 4to. Frankfort, 1852.
Russian EMPIRE.—Ecclesiastical, Imperial, and other Antiquities of the
Russian Empire. Published by Supreme Command. (Russian text.)
Produced under the direction of an Imperial Commission. By S.
Stroganov, M. Zagoskin, J. Snegirev, and A. Th. Veltman. Division
1. Ecclesiastical Antiquities; 2. Imperial Insignia, Dresses, &c.; 3.
Arms and Armour; 4. Costume, Pictures, and Portraits; 5. Furni-
ture, Jewellery, &c.; 6. Architecture and Decoration. Text, 6 vols.
4to.; plates, 6 vols. folio. St. Petersburg, 1852.
DURELLI, G. AND F.—The Charter House of Pavia.
La Certosa di Pavia descritta ed illustrata con tavole incise dai
fratelli Gaetano e Francesco Durelli. 62 plates. Folio. Milan,
1853. .
BERAIN, JEAN.—Collection of Ornamental Designs. Mural Chimney-
pieces, and other Decorations, Cinquecento, Renaissance, and Louis
LECTURE II.—THE RENAISSANCE—THE QUATTROCENTO.
The Quattrocento (1400). Tradition superseded by Selection. Natural
Imitations in the Details, and the symmetrical Arabesques from
Ancient Sculpture, added to the elements of the previous style, with
Occasional Cartouches, or scrolled Shield-work. Luca Della Robbia
-Enamelled Pottery. Andrea Pisano. Iron and Bronze work—The
Gates of the Baptistery of San Giovanni at Florence. Lorenzo
Ghiberti, 1403–52. Niello-work. Tommaso Finiguerra. Metal-plate
engraving, 1452. The Renaissance as an Epoch and as a Style.
LECTURE III.—THE CINQUECENTO.
The Cinquecento (1500), the predominant Italian style of the Sixteenth
Century, the ultimate goal of the Renaissance. A perfect restoration
of Classical Ornament of the Roman period, to the exclusion of all
alien forms, with an especial elaboration of the Arabesques and
Scrolls, and grotesque combinations of Vegetable and Animal Forms :
a purely æsthetic, or sensuous development of Ornament. '


THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL.
141
new elements of beauty, especially its varied and intricate
interlacings, which were so very prominent for a while
as to constitute the chief characteristic of a new style, the
first step of the transition from middle-age to modern art;
known from its mean time, about the year 1300, as the
Trecento.
The new life and activity displayed by Italy at this
period was in some degree owing to the Crusades, and
more especially to the Latin conquest of Constantinople in
the year 1204, which displayed many treasures of ancient
art to the Venetians, whose taste was already sufficiently
cultivated to appreciate their value; and four ancient
bronze horses, a Christian trophy of this Venetian crusade,
still adorn the façade of St. Mark's.
Venice, already rich in Byzantine works, appears to
have taken the lead also in the dawning revival of classical
art; and the Venetians seem likewise to have contributed
more than any others to its most finished development, the
Cinquecento. The Venetians and the Italians generally,
controlled by no trammels of tradition, added their own
beginnings of natural imitations, to Christian or to Pagan
elements indiscriminately; the prestige of a thousand
years was broken; the classical forms prevailed, and the
Quattrocento, the first great style of the Renaissance, was
established. From this time, the fifteenth century, we
have done with all Christian forms and elements in Italy,
in the ordinary details of ornamental art.
The first of these modern innovations is the transition
style, the Trecento; which may be considered a negative
style, as its peculiarity consists in its exclusion of certain
hitherto common ornamental elements.


142
THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL,
FOR
The great features of this
style are its intricate tracery
of interlacings, and delicate
scroll-work of conventional
foliage, the style being but
a slight remove from a com-
bination of the Byzantine
and Saracenic, the symbol-
ism of both being equally
excluded; the foliage and
floriage, however, are not ex-
clusively conventional, and
it comprises a fair render-
ing of the classical orders,
with the restoration of the
round arch. Nicola Pisano,
Andrea Taffi, Giotto, and
their contemporaries, were
the great masters of this
style, and the Church of San
Francesco at Assisi and the
Cathedral of Florence are
fine examples of it.
In the Quattrocento, the
next style, we have a far
more positive revival. Lo-
renzo Ghiberti may, perhaps,
be instanced as its great ex-
ponent or representative in
ornamental art. Filippo
Calendario and Antonio Riccio, called Briosco, contem-

mol
renzo
HM
Gate of Baptistery, Florence.


144
THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL.
of ornament does not in any way invalidate such an
origin.
There are none of these forms on the gates of Ghiberti ;
but it abounds with medallions containing portraits, which
perform a similar service in the design as the shields in
other examples.
Another feature of this Quattrocento style—or what
is more especially the Italian Renaissance, as dis-
tinct from the Cinquecento—is the introduction, for
the first time, of the grotesque arabesque, after the
ancient models of Rome and Pompeii: in fact, the
style of decoration is now of a very complicated
character, though not confused, for we still have the
Trecento interlacings very largely used as borders, and
the scroll, from the pretty serpentine character of the
previous style, appears with all the fulness of the
Roman arabesque, but not yet very prominently intro-
duced.
Although in the Quattrocento the religious symbolism
was excluded generally (not absolutely) from the orna-
mental details, the religious sentiment was by no means
absent from the Quattrocento art itself; on the contrary,
the Quattrocento is essentially a religious style, but the
religious sentiment was transferred from a secondary to a
primary object in the design: we have the actual repre-
sentation instead of the mere symbol. As, for instance, in
the second pair of Ghiberti gates—the history of Moses is
the principal subject of illustration of these gates—the
ornaments are but the decorations to the several panels ;
so it is in all other great schemes, of which the Certosa of
Pavia offers many examples. There is little decoration
WY
la


CHAPTER XIV.
THE RENAISSANCE AS A STYLE.

furaflour
Bronze. From Door of St. Maclou, Rouen, o. 1542.
The capricious style, the so-called Renaissance of the
sixteenth century, which was in such good repute with the
jewellers, was far more conspicuous for its cartouches (its
scrolled shield-work) and tracery than for the more natural
or the more classical elements of the style; the beauties
of nature and the standard ornaments of antiquity could
not vie, in the general taste, with either the attraction of
novelty or the charm of indiscriminate variety, especially
with the example of such names as Primaticcio, Holbein,
and Benvenuto Cellini, as its advocates; but in as far as
art and manipulation again attained the ascendency over
symbolism it also was a revival, by reasserting the æsthetic
principle.


RENAISSANCE.

239

Carved Door Panels, from the Château d'Anet; now at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris.
c. 1548.





ELIZABETHAX.

161
From the old Guard Chamber, Westminster. c. 1600.









BUOTO
1201)
211n
TOOTMOEDIAE
ELIZABETHAN. North Entrance, Wollaton.

ES
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11
Wlanum
IN
LP
LW 12..
គុធ ដើមគេម
157
GOTHIC. Place House, Cornwall.


CINQUECENTO.

1. M. SPARLING, DEL. Se
From the Martinengo Tomb, Brescia. c. 153).
161


CINQUECENTO.


OLE
164
From the Façade of Santa Maria de Miracoli, Brescia. C. 1530.





CINQUECENTO.


Efter
00000000
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I J. Swallow.dlic
From Carved Oak Panels in the Louvre, Paris. c. 1520.

TU
168
From a Marble Fountain in the Louvre, Paris. Italian. 1508.


THE CINQUECENTO.
173
Another of its features is its beautiful variations of
ancient standard ornaments, as the
anthemion especially, of which there
are some admirable Cinquecento ex-
amples.
The guilloche or plat, the fret,
and the acanthus scroll are likewise
favourites, and occur in many varie-
ties. The Cinquecento appears, in-
deed, to be the special province of
the curve in its infinite play of
arabesque; but in all its develop-
ments it is in the form of some
natural object or artificial combina-
tion. The cartouches and strap-
work wholly disappear from the
best examples. In all the extensive
works in sculpture of the north of
Italy, from about 1480 until 1550,
such forms are extremely rare; and
in defining the Cinquecento as a
style, their exclusion becomes an
essential condition. Absolute works
of art, such as vases, and imple-
ments and instruments of all kinds,
are prominent elements of the cin-
quecento arabesque; but cartouches
and strapwork as unauthorised by
ancient practice, are necessarily ex-
cluded from the style as a presumed Carved Wood. Château de Gaillon,
ancient revival.

We
D Graos
OG
Carved Wood. Château de Gaillon,
France. C. 1505.


174
THE CINQUECENTO.
10nu-
en
It is, however, in sculpture, perhaps, that we must
look for the purest examples of this style, as regards the
mere elaboration of form; and among the cinquecento
sculptors none paid more attention to ornament than
the Lombardi of Venice and Agostino Busti of Milan.
Venice abounds with the works of the Lombardi, of
whom Tullio is prominently distinguished. His monu-
mental bas-reliefs have, perhaps, never been surpassed
for their exquisite spirit and delicacy of execution:
and even in their details they are unsurpassed by the
best examples of antiquity. Sometimes they consist of
fine elaborations of the pure classic acanthus scroll; at
others, and more commonly, of the standard arabesques,
with the interspersing of grotesque figures and animals,
and occasionally of simple curves, with ordinary natural
foliations, combining a strict imitation with a masterly
freedom of execution.
Another chief feature of the Cinquecento is the admir-
able play of colour in its arabesques and scrolls; and
it is worthy of note, that the three secondary colours,
orange, green, and purple, perform the chief parts in
all the coloured decorations. Its great leading form,
the acanthus scroll or foliated spiral, is sometimes a
complete iris, with its beautiful variety of tints, as in
some of Julio Romano's decorations at Mantua. Aind
where we have but two colours, we have constantly
complements..
Indeed, the Cinquecento may be considered the cul-
minating style in ornamental art, as presenting the most
perfect forms and the most pleasing varieties, nature
and art vying with each other in their efforts to attract
Уес.


THE CINQUECENTO.
175
and gratify the eye. It appeals only to the sense of
beauty. All its efforts are directly made to attain the
most attractive effects, without any intent to lead the
mind to an ulterior end, as is the case with the Byzantine
and other symbolic styles. The cinquecento forms are
supposed to be symbols of beauty alone; and it is a
remarkable concession to the ancients, that the moderns
to attain this result, were compelled to recur to their
works; and it is only now in the contemplation of this
consummate style, that the term Renaissance becomes
quite intelligible. The Renaissance, or rebirth of orna-
ment, is accomplished in the Cinquecento; still the term
is not altogether ill appropriated to the earlier styles,
because these were really the stepping-stones to the
the æsthetic was substituted for the symbolic. The
principles, therefore, were identical, though from imper-
fect apprehension, elements strange to the classical period
were generally admitted; it was a revival of principle
though not of element.
The Cinquecento very generally pervaded manufactures
for a time in France as well as Italy, though for a much
shorter period than its great beauties and applicability
would seem to justify. The arms and armour, and the
pottery or majolica wares of the time afford some of the
finest examples of the style.
It was, however, not long successfully pursued : it
appears to be too exact in its details, and too compre-
hensive in its range of elements, for the ordinary grasp
of the decorator, whether from the kingdoms of nature
or the realms of art, poetry, and history ; every form


176
THE CINQUECENTO.
rna-
being excluded having neither wit nor beauty to recom-
mend it. It required too much from the designer's
powers, for, besides a familiarity with the art of classic
antiquity, it exacted a considerable acquaintance with
the figure, as well as a mastery over the animal and
vegetable forms generally.
Accordingly, already in the sixteenth century, orna-
mental art fell back to what it was before that time;
and from the middle of the sixteenth century, as illus-
trated by the works of Alessandro Vittoria, Nicola dei
Conti, Alfonso Alberghetti, and Benvenuto Cellini, we
again find the promiscuous mixture of forms of all kinds
with a prominence of the cartouche, as in the ordinary
Renaissance, which, from its far less definite character,
gave greater liberty to the artist, in accordance with his
own vague notions of variety, tủe attainment of which
seems now, and for a long period, to have usurped every
other purpose.
The Cinquecento is essentially an Italian style, though
in some few instances good examples are found out
of Italy, especially in France; as the monument to
Louis XII. in the church of St. Denis, near Paris, and
several examples at Rouen, and at the Château de Gaillon,
Normandy. These were, however, either carried out by
Italians, or directly from some Italian example.
The ordinary ornament of the Renaissance was at the
same time very common in the North and West, and
was evidently much spread by the little works with
ornamental marginal woodcuts published frequently in
the sixteenth century, and expressly for designers for


THE CINQUECENTO.
177
manufactures: as in the case of the edition of Alciati's
Emblems, published at Lyons in 1551, of which there
is a copy in the Library of the Department.

Chimney-piece, Louvre. By Germain Pilon.


CHAPTER XVI.
THE LOUIS QUATORZE.
For a century after the development of the Cinquecento,
there was little individuality in the practice of ornamental
art. Architecture itself was completely domineered by
a mere classical pedantry, rule and measure usurped the
place of expression. Towards the close of the seventeenth
century, however, a new style commenced to develop
itself (the Louis Quatorze), essentially an ornamental
style, and differing very materially in principle from
nearly all that preceded it, its chief aim being effect by
a brilliant play of light and shade; colour or mere beauty
of form in detail having no part in it whatever. This
style, like most others of modern times, arose in Italy;
and we may, perhaps, look upon the Chiesa del Gesù, or
Jesus Church, at Rome, as its type or model. The
principal decorators of this church were Giacomo della
Porta, Pietro da Cortona, and Father Pozzi, author of
the well-known Jesuits' perspective.
Of the vague character of the intermediate style, after
the decline of the Cinquecento, the various nautilus-shells
are good examples, something of the Renaissance, Eliza-
bethan, and Louis Quatorze combined.
The great medium of the Louis Quatorze (1643-1715)
al
5


THE LOUIS QUATORZE.
179
was gilt stucco-work, which, for a while, seems to have
almost wholly superseded decorative painting; and this
absence of colour in the principal decorations of the
period seems to have led to its more striking characteristic,
-infinite play of light and shade.
Such being the aim of the style, exact symmetry in
the parts was no longer essential, and, accordingly, in
the Louis Quatorze varieties, we, for the first time, occa-
sionally find symmetry systematically avoided. This
feature was gradually more and more elaborated, till it
became essential in the Louis Quinze, and ultimately
led to that debased yet popular style, the Rococo, in
which symmetry, either in the balance of the whole or
of place.
Versailles is the great repertory of the Louis Quatorze:
but the whole was evidently intended to present a gor-
geous classical scheme of decoration. Foreign elements,
however, and foreign treatment, both found their place;
and it is to these foreign features that the decorations
owe their individuality. They are the constant and
peculiar combination of the scroll and shell —the an-
themion treated as a shell, and a small scroll, sometimes
plain and sometimes clothed in acanthus foliations. All
the other elements of the style are classical, such as we
find them treated in the Cinquecento, with some slightly
modified new varieties. The fiddle-shape combination of
scrolls is, perhaps, a legacy of the ordinary Renaissance.
The Louis Quinze (1715-74) does not much differ from
the Louis Quatorze in its elements; but yet, from a
certain manner of treatment, must be considered as
S





186
CONCLUSION.
In the Byzantine,—the first style of the second period,
-we go back to at first an almost exclusive symbolism,
which, however, in the course of a century or two, is
elaborated into a style of a very gorgeous general effect,-
combining the æsthetic with the symbolic-partly owing
to richness of materials; but as prejudice was gradually
overcome, a comprehensive and beautiful style was ulti-
mately developed in the sixth century, but nearly always
displaying, perhaps, more skill in its general effects than
in its details.
The Saracenic is the same in principle, a gorgeous
general effect, without any remarkable merit of detail : it
is made up of an infinite number of minute contrasts of
light and shade and colour, -something like a formal
flower-garden, wanting the simplicity and grandeur of
natural scenery; but it is capable of very beautiful general
effects on a small scale.
In the Gothic, again,--the last of the middle-age styles,
-symbolism more than divides the field with art, and
induces much of that crudity of detail which must be the
inevitable result of a divided attention. The general effects
are often grand; but the details are ill expressed and
inferior.
In the Renaissance,—the herald of the modern styles,
and, like the classical styles, purely æsthetic,-We have,
at first, the natural vagaries of an unaccustomed freedom;
which, however, eventually settled into a genuine revival
of the most finished styles of antiquity,--the Cinquecento.
Then came the final decline,--mere love of display, gold
and glitter : such is the Louis Quatorze,--still, prodi-
giously clever in the means it took to accomplish its effects.


CONCLUSION:
187
The Louis Quatorze is more general in its aim than any
style whatever: thus its details, provided they generated
sufficient contrasts of light and shade, were of no indi.'
vidual consequence. Accordingly we find, after a little
time, that all detail is absolutely neglected, and with it all
study: and in the absurd Rococo,—the very natural result
of this general neglect,—we have designs made up of
details so without meaning and individuality, as to defy
description. They are Rococo ; we can come no nearer to
them; and with this Rococo, the first term of existence,
the last of the nine lives of ornamental art expires.
This vast store of materials, taken in the mass, without
selection or order, is a mere chaos; and so far from
creating variety, will, unless classified into schools or
styles, engender only a mere uniform repetition of con-
fusion. . .
This is the view, then, .with which we study the history
of art,—to discriminate and individualise the styles of the
various epochs; and by thus developing distinct characters,
multiply to an equal extent our means of viewing nature,
and our powers, consequently, of representation. The real
result of historical knowledge, therefore, is not the mere
copying of what has been done before, but the acquisition
of a power which not only supersedes all copying, but
which alone will insure the production of that variety of
ornamental design which, the simplest theory must make
manifest, is the ostensible effort of every designer.
Had the knowledge of styles been a little more dis-
seminated in the present day, we should not have found
the Louis XV., and the Rococo, as the prevailing English
tastes of the Great Exhibition of 1851. In fault of his-
et


188
CONCLUSION.
me
torical knowledge, and its consequently enlarged views
of art, the designer has been reduced to merely copying
his neighbour : hence the still paramount importance in
this country of the last great historic style of France, -
the Louis XV.,-in silver, in wood-carving, in carpets,
damasks,—even in lace, also, and in many other branches.
The great lesson we may learn from a study of the
characteristics of styles is, that our designs want indivi-
duality: they are too general, too much alike: we require
something more than mere sprigs and colonnades, or con-
ventional scrolls. We want both systems of detail and
systems of arrangement. A picture is not an ornament;
but every flower, -however simple,—and, indeed, every leaf,
—is capable of being converted into an ornament by the
mere aid of repetition on a geometrical basis; and the same
forms may be beautifully varied by altering this basis; and
again, by new judicious combinations of colour, applied to
the same geometric scheme.
We should work on the principles of construction of
natural objects, independent of their individualities of
development. The value of such a system in ornamental
design is incalculable: but it is only by a knowledge of
the characteristics of styles,—the standard types of all
ages, that even system will effect that variety and indi-
viduality of expression, which alone will secure a perma-
nent gratification or success.
The great success of the Greeks was not more than
commensurate with the strict adherence to principles of
beauty upon which even their slightest efforts depended.
The cheap manufactures of antiquity, as the ordinary
Greek terra-cottas, were cheap by reason of the nature of


CONCLUSION.
189
Se
their material, not from any neglect of care in their
manufacture.
The ancient prosperity of the Samians is a remarkable
instance of the great national benefit to be derived from
the judicious application of art to manufactures, and is
worthy the emulation of their modern British competitors.
The small island of Samos, by its potteries alone, carried
on an important trade with all the great cities of the Greek
and Roman empires, and thus was enabled to compete in
splendour and luxury with the greatest states of the
ancient world. Herodotus (iv. 152) speaks of the un-
paralleled fortune of a Samian merchant. It was the first
Greek state that attained celebrity in the arts. Its temple
of Juno, the famous Hercum, was perhaps the most cele-
brated art-repository of antiquity, and was itself a work of
extraordinary grandeur. The same Greek historian (iii. 60)
speaks of it as the largest temple he ever saw, though it
was constructed entirely of marble. The workers in metal
and the painters were equal in renown to the sculptors and
architects of Samos. All this magnificence was but the
fruit of its industrial ingenuity, its skilful ship-building,
its enterprising commerce, its matchless potteries. The
skill of its potters made the very soil they trod upon more
precious than gold. This earthenware of Samos carried
its commerce over every sea, to every port, until its mer-
chants became princes, and this small island-state was
conspicuous among the richest nations of the world. It
was this distinction, this political pre-eminence, which
excited the jealousy of its more powerful neighbours; and
with its freedom, its commerce and its prosperity declined
together.
TOIU
1


190
CONCLUSION.
The sun still shines on the fruitful valleys of Samos, and
it still abounds in the valuable clay of which its ancient
potteries were manufactured; but its population has de-
clined into a mere scattered and rude peasantry; its potters
have departed; the genial clay without the skilful hand to
fashion it is of little avail.
Such was Samos when it directed its energies to the
art; such is it now that all cultivation of art has ceased.
It was but the judicious application of art to industry that
made this small Levantine island once the illustrious rival
of great empires.
THE END.
PAINTED BY J. $. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY BOAD, LONDOX.