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PRINCIPLES
OF
ORNAMENTAL ART;
BY
R EDWARD I1vw@*~=.1_*;e@.;§§;;;1;$-A
AUTHOR or “PLANTS, THEIR NATURAL GR0\:€3'i itﬁ'2,§ Cgi2\;.1=\1\1:1=.2-¢1-r{{.§T1ii'.A‘rrv11-:r~1'r,”
“FREE!-{AND ORNAMENT,’Z &<-:.- - -
“Content if hence th’ unlearn’d their wants may view,
The 1eam'd reﬂect on what before they knew."
POPE, Euay on Cr-ilz':i.m§.
CASSE-LL PETTER & GALPIN:
LONDON, PARIS L2” NEW YORK. ‘.1


?‘*//Y.
.


PREFACE.
HE history of the practice of Ornamental_ Art, the principles that have guided its,
pursuit, the modiﬁcations it has owed external conditions, its various ramiﬁcations, the
subtle inﬂuences of race or religion that have affected it, present a theme so vast that no
one writer could ever hope to achieve success, no one mind trace a path through such
multitudinous avenues of thought, no one hand accomplish even the mechanical task
involved in the drawing up of such a series of volumes—a library in themselves—-as the
subject would demand. The reader, then, glancing at the title we have adopted, may at
ﬁrst seem inclined to doubt its ﬁtness; but we would endeavour to reconcile him to our
labours by the prompt confession that we have no hope of achieving more than contributing
some few scattered ideas for his consideration, leaving him—our remarks being merely
suggestive, by no means exhaustive—t0 supplement our labours by the consultation of the
works of others who have at greater length- m-ac_le- the various points, upon which we can
.only brieﬂy dwell, their especial study, if -is'1iéu1-'d§jpib'_\'."§: f-ortuRi1-a§e as to awaken by
our remarks the desire to know still more of §~._1;i;=g~-a;$: :j'Whiie;-- therefore, it would be
impossible to give anything but the briefest features of the general
subject, a matter that, from the baldness of detail,-13v'oi"1idirb'ei'bui repellent, it has seemed
not undesirable that, avoiding any formal profession of an attempt to write a history of the
subject as a whole, we should nevertheless take up some few points—p0ints that will, as we
hope, be felt of. general interest and utility—and dwell at some little length upon them.
There are many characteristic features that may thus be temporarily isolated for
our consideration. We need here mention but a few, as, for instance, the inﬂuence of
symbolism and religious belief on particular styles of .Ornan1ental Art; the greater or less
use of animal or vegetable forms, with its attendant question of the due amount of healthy
naturalism or necessary conventionalism to be observed in their representation as elements
of decorative design; the history. and modiﬁcations of the various forms, such as the fret,
the anthemion, the patera, and the guilloche, which, though especially characteristic of
classic .art, crop up more or less recognisably at almost all periods. Another matter,
not altogether without interest, we trust, will be found for our consideration in the use
of caligraphy and the adornment of written characters, as in many of the Eastern styles,
as an element of design. A further suggestive subject will be found in the inﬂuence of
symmetry, repetition, variation, gradation, and subordination on the work of th-e designer;
I


iv PREFACE.
while, not to weary our readers while yet on the threshold, we will only in conclusion
mention, as a further subject of our regard, the inﬂuence that geometrical forms have at all
times exercised in decorative art.
A series of papers on Ornamental Art by the Author, which appeared in the pages
of the Art Yournal in I873, form the foundation of the present volume, though in many
cases they have been so ampliﬁed that the original matter forms but a very small part
of the whole. The illustrations have also been largely increased in number, and many
of a much richer character have been added, the larger space for illustrations in the
present case permitting details of a far more complicated construction. Some of these
papers have furnished the subject matter for lectures at the Nottingham, Stoke-upon-
Trent, and other Schools of Art, or have been read before the Archaeological section of
one of our local Natural History Societies. To those to whom, on any of these accounts,
our remarks may seem not altogether strange, our more fully-developed labours will, we
hope, prove welcome.
\-Vhile tendering this volume to our fellow-students we would gladly take the
opportunity of expressing our own great indebtedness to the labours of others. We have so
far as possible been careful to acknowledge this wherever we have quoted from any other
writer, but it has very possibly in some cases been involuntarily omitted, seeing that the
materials from wh-e-r-1-c-e these.page.s-.a;e -<;-ler.'g\/gegl have been gathering for some years, and
any omission of the§'~se'>urce frérh'1'vher1c'é the note was derived may now pass unnoticed, or
regretfully be felt to npwgim :ci-5*,§-ible to be supplied, owing to the lapse of time
-
.»- .‘ I. u
since the original memora,n5;l§1r3,1-;f:iras-,‘:;made. \/Ve are not aware that any such passages
exist, but if they do we ihréé "t'li:1't.' hiései whose labours have thus assisted us in our own
will hold us guiltless of any wilful holding back of the acknowledgment that is so justly
their due.
The works of Sir Digby \Vyatt, Mrs. Twining, Heideloff, Viollet-le-Duc, Owen Jones,
Wornum, Ruskin, and Layard are too well known, too highly valued, to need here any
eulogium of ours. To these, however, as great text-books of the subject, it is but right that
we shouldimore especially acknowledge our indebtedness, not merely for the loan of any
quotations that may from time to time appear in our own pages, but from their sterling
value, which, in our desire to render our work as distinctly utilitarian as possible, we
feel not merely justiﬁed but almost compelled to notice for the beneﬁt of others who
may be seeking like help in their studies.
*,_


CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Inﬂuence of Geometry on Ornamental Art—Geometry as a Science—Its Origin —Designs, poor in them-
selves, aided by Geometry—Good Designs enhanced by Geometric Settings—Universality of
Geometric Basis—Inherent Beauty of Geometric Forms —Love of Mankind for Complexity and
Mystery—Celtic Art—The Book of Kells—Richness of Effect produced by Simple Means—
Aptitude of Geometric Forms for Combinations—Counterchange—Sense of Flatness an Essential
Quality in Designs for Floor Coverings—Good Examples of this in the Early Italian Churches—
Symbolic Geometrical Forrns—Great Facility with which Patterns of a Geometric Character can be
put together—Apparent Variation of Identical Designs by Colour—Geometric Drawings from Madras
School of Art—Geometric Kinder-Garten Plaitings—The Simulation of Relief in Geometric Patterns-
Geometry in Classic Art—Frets, their Origin and Development—Greek, Chinese, Mexican, Celtic,
and Peruvian Examples—Geometry in Mosaic W0rk—Egyptian Glass-Mosaic——Opus TzssrlaIum—
Opus Fz};lz'num—O;>us Grzeranicum—0pus Alexandrz'num—Tarsiatura—Marqueterie—Buhl Work—
Geometry in Gothic Art-Window Traceries—Shaft Sections-—Pierced Window Openings in Hot
Climates—Examples of Geometry in Nature--The Equilateral Triangle—The Right-angled Triangle-
The Square—The Oblong—The Rhombus or Lozenge—The Pentagon, Hexagon, and Octagon—
Geometric Character of Kimmeridge Coal-money—The Circle—The Semicircle—Trefoil—
Quatrefoil—The Scale Form—The Waved Line—Vesica——The Guilloche, its Origin and Develop-
ment—The Spiral Line—Examples of the Spiral Line in Nature—Example of the Spiral Line in
Heraldry—Majolica Ware, its Origin and History—The higher the Character of the Design the less
should the merely Mechanical Geometric Basis be Obtrusive . . . . 7 .
CHAPTER II.
/Esthetic Art—Symbolic Art—Literal meaning of Symbolism-—Its Use in Religion and Heraldry—The
Medieeval Pictorial Allegories—Susceptibility to Symbolic Teaching in the Early History of a People-
u Parables—Fables—Proverbs—-Symbolism as a Veiling of Truth—Symbolism as an Aid to the Illus-
tration of Truth—Symbolism may be of Action, of Language, of Colour, of Form, and of Number-
Symbolic Actions amongst Savage Races—The Rites of the Levitical Priesthood—The Symbolic use
of the Fish in Christian Art—The Early Christian Church in the Catacombs of Rome—The Vesica
Piscis—The Fish Symbols of the Egyptians—Dagon of the Philistines—The Sphinx, Classic and
Egyptian—The Dolphin in Classic and Renaissance Art—The Serpent, Tortoise, Lizard, and
Crocodile—Serpent Worship of the Jews, Mexicans, and Egyptians—Insect Forms, the Scarabaens
and Butterﬁy—The Phoenix~—The Dragon and Hydra as Symbolic of the Evil Principle—The Dragon
in Chinese Art—The Ibis—Nisroch of the Assyrians—The Ow1—The Cock—The Dove—The Dove
Orchid--—The Raven—The Magpie—The Peacock—The Pelican in Christian Art—The Pelican in
the Old Testament—The Eagle in Roman, Christian, and Heraldic Art—The Robin—The Dog—,The
Stag in Classic and Christian Art-The Wolf—The Egyptian Apis—The Sacred Bull of Brahma-
The ]ackal—The Cat—The Hippopotamus—The Pig-The As's—The Lion as a Symbol in a Good
and Evil Sense—The Evangelistic Symbols—Th.e Creatures seen in the Visions of Ezekiel and
St. ]ohn—Wyckliffe on the Evangelistic 'Symbols—The Human Form in Gothic Work—The Repre-
sentation of Historic Events, with an Undercurrent of Symbolic Meaning—Figures of the Jewish and


PAGE


w
COIVTEZVTS.
Christian Churches—Representations of the Soul of Man—The Agnus Dci—The Hand and Arm of
the Lord—The Mosaics of St. Mark, V enice—Mosaic as a means of keeping Permanent Records of
Great but Fading Pictures—Need of Individual Research and Study . . . . , ,
CHAPTER III.
Too strained a meaning must not be attached to any Symbolic Form, Colour, or Number—Examples from
Clement, Cyril, and Durandus, of Forced Inner Meanings—Symbolism of Colour—Gold and Silver—
The Arms of ]erusalem—Symbolic Poetry of Spenser—The Rigidity of the Laws Binding the Egyptian
Artists—-Syrnbolism of Numbers, Three, Four, Six, Eight, Twelve‘—Seven, the Number of Perfection-
Forty, the Biblical Number of Trial or Probation—The Use of Symbolic Numbers amongst the
Chinese—The Temples of Heaven and Earth at Pekin—The Yang and Yin Principles—Symbolism -
derived from Vegetable Forms—-Scriptural Use of Plants as Illustrations—The Palm-—The Coinage
of the Jewish Nation—Judea typiﬁed by Female Figure beneath Palm Tree—The Vine-—A Symbol
of the Israe1ites—Christ the Vine—The Vine in Byzantine Art—Byzantium as the Capital of the
Roman Empire—The Chair of St. Maximinian—The Vine in Classic Art—The White Lily—The
Snowdrop—The Almond--The Pomegranate—The Passion Flower~—The Lotus—Confusion between
the Egyptian Lotus and the Indian Water Bean— Symbolic Plants amongst the Assyrians—The Tree
of Life—The Idolatrous Groves of Israel—The Tooba Tree—The Amaranth—The Rose—Classic and
Christian Legends—The Rose of Sharon—The Golden Rose-—The Rose of Heaven—The Heraldic
Use of the Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock—The Tudor Rose—The Broom of the Plantagenets—The
Columbine—The Daisy—Badges of the Scottish Clans—Fungi—Representations of Earth, Air, Fire,
and Water—The Planets, Symbols of the Classic Divinities—Fire Worship—Passion Symbols—The
Cross—The Nimbus—Cause of the Similarity of all the Portraits of Our Lord—The Vesica Form—-
The Anchor—The Lamp—The Crown or Wreath%ymbols of the Saints . .
CHAPTERIVV
The Use
of Letters and Inscriptions in Ornamental Art-—Egyp'.ian Hieroglyphic—Assyrian Arrow Head—The
Formation of Arbitrary Writing Characters—Mexican Picture Language—The Hebrew Alphabet-—
Runic Characters—Early Letters all Straight Lined-Cursive Writing—Writing Materia1s—Palimpsest
MSS.—The Labours of Angelo Mai—Palimpsest Brasses—Clay Records—The Rosetta Stone—Greek
Boustrephedon Inscriptions—Study of Archaeology—Moorish Inscriptions—The Alhambra—Structure
of Monograms—Abbreviations in old MSS. a fertile Source of Error—Structure of Ciphers—
Barbarous Character of Early Monograms—Ciphers and Monograms from Pottery—The Cross
Prefacing Inscriptions--The Cruz-ansata of Thoth—The Tau Form of Cross—The Sacred
Monogram—The Vision of Constantine—The I.H.S.—Monograms on Coinage—Inscriptions on
Coinage-The Monograms of Artists on their Works—]ohn Thorpe and his Plan-Palace of the
Escurial——Merchants’ Marks——Branch Letters——Ribbon Letters—Mediaeval Inscriptions on Houses-
Posy Rings-Inscriptions on Church Bells—Heraldic Mottoes—Use of Inscriptions amongst the
Eastem Nations—Inscriptions as an Element in Modern Omamental Art—General Features of
Assyrian Art—Absence of Ornament-—The Patera Form in Ornament-The Anthemion Fonn in
Ornament—Absence of Vegetable Forms—The Use of Colour in Assyrian Art-Assyrian Art
Zoomorphic—The Tri-lingual Inscriptions of the Persians—The Method Employed for Reading the
Cuneiform Character—Sketch of the History of the Ancient Kingdom of Assyria-Discovery of Site of
Nineveh-References of Biblical and Classic Writers to the Assyrian Power . .
CHAPTER V.
Heraldry or Blazonry—Derivation of the Word—MSS., Bmsses, Seals, and Glass Painting as Sources of Study—
Rolls of Arms-—Pernicious Character of much of the Modern “ Restoration ”—Devices of the Heroes
of Antiquity-—Origin of Heraldry-—Coats of Arms—Arms of Edward the Confessor—Armorial
PAGE
20


CONTENTS rnnn
Bearings of David, Samson, Adam, and Eve— Heraldry, an Incitement to Deeds of Heroism-Seals on
Legal Documents—Canting Heraldry—Heraldic Charges—The Language of Heraldry-Tinctures—
Furs~—The Varying Terms applied by Old Writers to these in the Arms of Gentlemen, Noblemen,
and Sovereigns——Honourable Ordinaries—Early Devices Structural in Character—Naval Signal Code
—Subordinaries—Forms of the Cross—Common Charges—The Lion and Eagle——The Cockatrice,
Dragon, Wyvem, Grillin, Phoenix, Triton, Mermaid, Sea Horse, Sea Lion, Harpy, Sphinx, Sagittarius,
Salamander, and Unicorn-Legends of the Basilisk-—Marshalling—Dimidiation-Impalement-—
Quartering-—Agroupment of Arms-—The Shields of War and Peace—Crests—Farnily Badges-—The
Motto-—The Supporters—'I'he Lilies of France on the English Arms—Marks of Cadency—Marks of
Augmentation—Marks of Abatement—Mantling—Value of a Knowledge of the Laws of Heraldry . 71
CHAPTER VI.
Certain Forms Characteristic of certain Styles—The Horizontal Line in Omament~—Classic Examples of it-
Ornament Based on Construction—The Horizontal Line in Weaving and Pottery—Sketch of the
Potter’s Art—Symmetry, its Meaning and Scope—-Bi-Symmetry—Multi-Symmetry—Symmetry in
Natural Objects—The Kaleidescope—The “Last Supper” of Da Vinci—Repetition as an Ornamental
Principle—Alternation—Radiation——Interchange—Counterchange-—Variation——The Inﬂuence of Ma-
chinery on Art Productions—Styles of Ornament: What are they ?—The Blending and Transition of
Art Styles—English Art Descended from Egyptian-Military Conquest as Affecting the Arts—The
Proto-Doric—Monolithic Monuments—The Modiﬁcation of Classic Types in Byzantine Art—How far
Art Rules may be considered Binding—Sir ]oshua Reynolds on Laws in Art—Conﬂicting Opinions of
Authorities-—The Use of Architectural Forms as an Element of Ornament——Representations of Armour,
Musical Instruments, &c., as Features of Decorative A1t—Imitations of Drapery——Colour in Oma-
mental Art—The Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colours—Transparent and Opaque Colouring—
Effect of a Compound Colour producible by the juxtaposition of its Elements—Advancing and
Retiring Colours—-Harmony of Colour by Analogy-—Harmony of Tone—Diﬁ'erence between Tones
and Lines, Tints and Shades-—The Naturalistic Colour Argument—The Inﬂuence of Colours on each
other-The Inﬂuence of Sunlight and Artiﬁcial Light on the Appearance of Colours—Colour Blindness,
or Daltonism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
CHAPTER VII.
Naturalism and Conventionalism—Old Work not necessarily Good Work—Egyptian Art Based on Natural
Forms of Egypt-—The Acanthus—Conventional Character of Eastem Art——Moorish and Persian Art-
The _Fountain of Lions, Alhambra-—Chinese and ]apanese Art—-Ruskin on Naturalism and Conven-
tionalism-Opinions of Worman, Hudson, Wilkinson, and others—Sir Joshua Reynolds on Imitation
of Nature in Art—Chinese Pottery often a Fac-simile of some Natural Fruit Form-The Principle of
Fitness—--The Distinction between the words Designer and Decorator—Horseshoe Breast Pins-The
Demand for Novelty--Improvement in Design since 185:—Omament Subordinate to Utility-
Venetian Glass—Fitness of Ornament to Material Employed——Earthenware Baskets and Straw Hats——
Fitness of Ornament to its Scale and Position—Natural Instances of Fitness: the Pine, Dodder, Ivy,
Water Buttercup, &c.—The Tiger, Penguin, Apteryx, Humming Birds, and Swift--The Principle of
Contrast——Contrast of Texture, Surface, Form, or Colour-The Value of Analysis of Ornamental
Forms—Simplicity or Complexity of Treatment—Complexity often a Sign of Decay-The Doric
Order—Natural Examples of Simplicity and Complexity of Form--The Interlacing of Lines—Strap
Wo1'k—Cord interlacing—Old Irish Crosses and MSS.—Early Italian Art—Heraldic Knots——Inter-
section—Interpenetration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ro7


. 208.

§Name and Title of Amunothph II.
2 2 1.
209. Original Design to illustrate nature of a Monogram.
2 ro. Assyrian Monarch and Inscription. British Museum.
2 1 1. Original Design to illustrate nature of a Monogram.
212. Ribbon Letter, Illuminated MS. British Museum.
213. Illustration of the Character of Arabic Writing.
214. Cipher from Henri Deux Ware. South Kensington
Museum.
215. Monograms from Early English Charters. British
216. Museum.
217. Monogram from Coin of William and Mary.
218. Illustration of the Cuﬁc Character.
2 19. Monogram used by Albert Durer.
220. Design for Plan of the House of ]ohn Thorp.
222. Monogram on Papal Bull. British Museum.
223. Monogram, Maria Regina, Scottish Coin.
224. Coin, Francis and Mary of Scotland.
225. Greek Boustrophedon Inscription.
226. Device of Moneyer on Saxon Coin.
227. Illustration of the Assyrian Cuneiform Writing.
228. Device on Coin of Charles II.
229.
2 30.}Ornamenta.l Arrangements of the Letters F.E.H.
I
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xi
164.
165.
166. Early Greek Coin.
167.
168.
169. Egyptian Mummy-wrapping. British Museum.
170. Early Greek Coin.
17 1. Assyrian Representation of Water. British Museum.
172. Sacred Animals of the Egyptians.
173. Early Christian Fish Symbol.
174. From Early Mexican Manuscript.
}Passion Symbols, Mediaaval.
}Passion Symbols, Media“.-val.
I75'}Nimbus Fonns. National Gallery.
r 76.
177. Wood Carving. Bishop’s Lydiard Church, Somerset-
shire.
1 78.
1 79. .
The Serpent, Mexican MSS.
180.
1 8 1. J
182. The Hippopotamus of Typho. Museum of Economic
Geology.
183. Milanese, Marble Inlay, Dolphin and Trident of
Neptune.
184. Symbol of the Trinity in Unity, Old Stained
Glass.
185. German Church Embroidery. South Kensington
Museum.
186.
}Symbols of the Triune Deity.
187. _
188. The Serpent, Egyptian Papyrus. British Museum.
189. Greek Chimera or Griﬁin.
190. The Lotus, Egyptian Wall Painting.
191. Glass Quarry, Ockham Church, Surrey.
192. Tudor Rose. Worcester Cathedral.
193. Dagon, the Assyrian Sculptures. British Museum.
194. Grotesque Figure, English Decorated Period of
Gothic.
195. Portion of Egyptian Altar. British Museum.
196. Portion of Incised Ornament, Egyptian Tablet.
British Museum.
197. From Egyptian Papyrus. British Museum.
198. Egyptian, Serpent-worship.
199. Heraldic Eagle, Swiss Glass. South Kensington
Museum.
200. Foliated Dolphin Panel, Renaissance. South Ken-
sington Museum.
201. Nisroch, the Assyrian Sculptures. British Museum.
202. Branch Letter, Illuminated MS. British Museum.
203. Greek Inscription on Pedestal of Statue. Vatican.
204. Egyptian Representation of Rehoboam, King of
]udah.
205. Mark on Sevres Pottery, Reign of Louis Philippe.
206. Illustration of the Character of Chinese Writing.
207. Mediaeval “ Merchants’ Marks."
235.
231. Ornamental Design to illustrate nature of Cipher.
232. Rude Form of Pottery, Assyrian.
233. Monogram of Louis Philippe on China.
234. Assyrian Painted Decoration. British Museum.
236. “ Merchants’ Mark" on Medieval Ring.
237. Rude Form of Pottery, Early British.
238. Cipher of Louis XVI. on China.
239. Assyrian Painted Decoration. British Museum.
240. Floral Form, Assyrian Slabs. British Museum.
241. Border to Painted Brick, Assyrian. British Museum.
242. Anthemion, Assyrian Tile. British Museum.
243. Patera on Bracelet of King, Assyrian.
Museum.
244. Border to Painted Brick, Assyrian. British Museum.
245. Portion of Assyrian Pavement. British Museum.
246. Natural Growth of the Comfrey (Syrup/zytum
qﬁizimzle).
247. Scroll Form, Ancient Peruvian Pottery. British
Museum.
248. Indian Inlay Work from Agra. South Kensington
Museum.'
249. Charge known Heraldically as the “Gurge ” or
Whirlpool.
250. Scroll Form, Greek Vase. British Museum.
251. Shell of the Common Planorbis.
252. Fossil Scorpoid F orm. Ammonite.
253. Embroidery, Early English or Thirteenth Century.
2 54. Omament at Base of Handle, Greek Vase. British
Museum._
British


LIST OF ILL USTRA T10./VS.
343. Natural Growth; Foliage of the Vine.
344. Roman Marble Mosaic.
345. Ornament painted on African Drinking-vessel.
346. String-course, French Romanesque.
347. Stone Carving, Italian Renaissance. South Ken-
348. sington Museum.
349-
3 50. Natural Growth of the Honeysuckle.
.-.51-J
352' Greek Honeysuckle Ornaments, Vases. British
353' Museum. '
354-
3 5 5. Mediaeval Embroidery, English, Temp. Elizabeth.
356
357
'}Natural Growth of the Violet.
358. Conventional Rosette Form, Gothic, French.
359-
360.
361.
362.
363-
364.
365-
366.
361-
368.
369-
Blackberry, Early French. Notre Dame, Paris.
Early English Conventional Foliage.
Early French. Cathedral of Amiens.
Anthemion stamped in Silver on Base of Hindu Idol.
Design to illustrate Character of Metal-work
Designs.
Original Design based on the Nut Plant.
Anthemion Form, Spanish Embroidery.
Kensington Museum.
Anthemion Form, French Renaissance.
Kensington Museum.
Original Design based on the Violet Leaf, Fig. 356.
Natural Growth of the Nut Plant.
Ivory Carving, Byzantine Carving. South Ken-
sington Museum.
Sout.h
South
. Original Design based on the Leaf of Convolvulus.
. Norman. Mildenhall Church, Wiltshire.
. Original Design based on the Convolvulus Plant..
Carving on Weapon, Swan River. British Museum.
. Early French Gothic.
. Spandril. Hawton Church, Nottinghamshire.
Diaper, Modern Wall-paper.
Chinese Pottery. South Kensington Museum.
Original Design based on the Ivy Plant.
Wood Carving, French, 1560. South Kensington
Museum.
. Chinese, N ankin Porcelain.
Museum.
. Indian Running Border. 1862 Exhibition.
. Ivory Carving, Thirteenth Century Chessman.
British Museum.
Rhenish Glass, c.
Museum.
. Metal Work, Elizabethan.
. Heraldic Glass, Swiss. South Kensington Museum.
. Stone Carving, Italian Renaissance. South Ken-
sington Museum.
. Gothic Spandril. Tomb in Hereford Cathedral.
L’
South Kensington
1550, South Kensington
.4°7-
xiii
Early Fourteenth Century Gothic, French.
39o. Diaper on Heraldic Glass, English, Fifteenth
Century. South Kensington Museum.
391. Marble Inlay, Milanese. South Kensington
Museum.
Capital, Decorated Gothic.
Nottinghamshire.
Moorish, Palace of the Alhambra.
Bordering, Greek Vase, British Museum.
Early English Tile. British Museum.
Bordering, Greek Vase. British Museum.
From Doorway of Chapter House, Rochester
Cathedral.
. Bordering, Greek Vase. British Museum.
399. Metal Work, German. St. Mary, Rottweil, Black
Forest.
Heraldic Glass, Swiss. South Kensington Museum.
Mediaeval Bookbinding. British Museum.
Persian. On a Plate in South Kensington Museum.
392. Southwell Minster,
ses-
394-
395-
396-
391-
400.
401.
402.
4°3-
ment.
Wood Carving, Perpendicular.
Oxford.
Modern Italian Wood Carving. - A
Embroidery, Tunisian.
Surface Decoration, Japanese.
Museum.
Border of Majolica Dish.
Museum.
Moulding, Norman. St. Ethelred, Norwich.
Boss, Early English Gothic.
Natural Seaweed Forms.
Norman, Conventional Foliage.
Running Border, Greek Vase.
4°4- Balliol College,
4°5-
406.
South Kensington
403- South Kensington
4°9-
410.
411.
412.
413-
414-
416.
415-
417-
418.
4I9-
420.
421.
British Museum.
}Stem Sections of Water Plants.
The Scarce Swallow-tail Butterﬂy.
Running Border, Greek Vase. British Museum.
Interlacing Pattern, Modern Carpeting.
Gothic Metal-work Crocket.
Gothic Stone Carving, German.
Early Form of Acanthus Capital. Temple of the
Winds.
Drinking Cup, Ancient Egyptian. British Museum.
Interlacing Pattern, Stone Carving, Byzantine.
Interlacing Designs, from Celtic Monuments.
Nature and Construction of the Semicircular Arch.
Interlacing, Celtic.
Interlacing, Early Italian.
Interlacing, Byzantine.
Late German Gothic.
Interlacing of Dotted Lines, Celtic MS.
Embroidery in Gold on Velvet, Tunisian.
422.
423-
424.
425-
426.
427-
428.
429-
430.
431.
Original Design based on the Cross Form, Pave- _
_


PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART.

CHAPTER I.
Inﬂuence of Geometry on Ornamental Art—Geometry as a Science-—Its Origin—Designs, poor in themselves, aided by Geometry—Good
Designs enhanced by Geometric Settings—Univeisality of Geometric Basis—Inherent Beauty of Geometric Forms—Love of
Mankind for Complexity and Mystery—Celtic Art—The Book of Kells—Richness of l".fTect produced by Simple Means-
Aptitude of Geometric Forms for Combinations—Counterchange—Sense of Flatness an Essential Quality in Designs for Floor
Coverings—Good Examples of this in the Early Italian Churches—Symholic Geometrical Forms—Great Facility with which
Pattems of a Geometric Character can be put together—Apparent Variation of Identical Designs by Colour—Geometric Drawings
from Madras School of Art—Geometric Kinder-Garten Plaitings—The Simulation of Relief in Geometric Patterns-——Geometry
in Classic Art—Frets, their Origin and Devel0pment—Greek, Chinese, Mexican, Celtic, and Peruvian Ex:unples—Geoinetry in
Mosaic Worl-t—Egyptian Glass.Mosaic—O1>us T:.r.rellatum—Opus F1;glinmn—O,pu: Gr¢ranr'rum—Opu.r A1exana'rz.num—Tarsiatura—-
Marqueteri%Buhl Work—Geometry in Gothic Art—Window Traceries——Shai't Sections—I’ierced Window Openings in hot
Climates—Examples of Geometry in Nature—The Equilateral Triangl<%The Right-angled Triangle——The Square—The Oblong-
The Rhombus or Lozenge—The Pentagon, Hexagon, and Octagon__—Geometric Character of Kimrneridge Coal-m0ney—The
Circle—The Semicircle—Trefoil—Quatrefoil—The Scale Form—The Waved Line—Vesica—The Guilloche, its Origin and
Development—The Spiral Line—Examples of the Spiral Line in Natnre—Example of the Spiral Line in Heraldry—
Majolica Ware, its Origin and History—The Higher the Character of the Design the less should the merely Mechanical
Geometric Basis be Obtrusive.
HE inﬂuence of geometric forms upon design has, in almost all periods of art, been
very marked; in some styles, as in those of the thirteenth century known as the Early
English and Early Italian, much more so than in others, but in no period of art has
it been altogether ignored.
Geometry, as a science, was one of the earliest studies of mankind; its origin cannot
now be determined, though it is legendarily associated with the ancient Egyptians. The
annual overﬂow of the Nile waters caused, by the destructions of land-marks, such frequent
disputations as to rights of property, that it became essential to devise some means by
which boundaries could be ascertained and recorded, and, if need be, restored in case of
accident; hence, we are told, the origin of geometry, the word, in its derivation Greek,
literally meaning earth-measurement. The study, however, has no doubt, like many others,
been the result of gradual but slow growth, many minds adding stores of fresh knowledge,
many centuries still ﬁnding it a progressive science.
In the British Museum our readers may see, among the papyrus scrolls, one containing a
treatise on Geometry and Arithmetic, “ written," according to the label afﬁxed to the inclosing
frame, “in the twenty-third year of the King Ra-aa-usr, by the scribe Aahmet, from an
earlier work." We are unable to give deﬁnitely the date of this treatise; but we mention
it here as an illustration that among this ancient people the science was -cluly cultivated in its
theoretical or demonstrative form, no less than the architectural remains prove the possession of
a knowledge of it practically and constructively. Diodorus, in his writings, says, “The children
B ii


4 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAAIENTAL ART
equilateral triangles, and squares respectively; the various forms of the guilloche, as in
Figs. 117, 118, and I19, based on circles; Fig. 241, a simple line of squares alternating in
colour; Fig. 250, a Greek example, based, as is so commonly the case, on the spiral line.
and Figs. 296 and 298, taken from the lead-lines in early Gothic glass, may all be considered
examples of the introduction of geometric forms from their pleasing character, with no
afterthought or inner meaning.
Another motive has arisen in the universal love of mankind for the marvellous or
the mysterious. Hence the great complexity and bafﬂing ingenuity of many involved geometric
devices; hence, too, the great love of elaborate interlacing of bands and lines in Celtic
work, many of them of so minute a character that it seems scarcely possible that human
eye and hand could have achieved so wonderful a result. Thus Mr. VVestwood, one of our
great authorities in Celtic art, mentions that in a space a quarter of an inch square (if our
readers will draw a square of this size themselves, they will realise the matter the better),
he counted in the Book of Kells, one of the most famous and beautiful of these early MSS.,
by means of a powerful magnifying glass, one hundred and ﬁfty-eight distinct interlacings
of a white line on a black ground, all unfailingly correct in their alternately over and under
interlacing, the whole faultlessly true in curve, the very perfection in this direction of human
work. As examples of this love of intricate geometric designs the works of the Moors
stand pre-eminent; many wonderful illustrations may be seen in Owen Jones’ work on the
Alhambra. A good deal of the Early Italian Gothic shows a very similar love for this
complexity of geometric forms. Fig. 6, though, as we shall hereafter see, faulty in principle,
is at least a good example of the richness of effect producible with little trouble, the
whole design being worked in triangles of white, green, and black. In Fig. 31, a very
characteristic piece of Moorisli work from Cairo; in Fig. 56, an intricate example of fret
work from a piece of Mexican pottery in the Museum of Economic Geology, London; in
Figs. 69, 84, representative types of the richer varieties of Greek frets; in Fig. 99, a very
good specimen of a Chinese fret; in Fig. 333, a series of window piercings from the mosque
of Dustour Khan at Ahmedabad in Gujerat; and in Figs. 413, 417, examples of geometric
interlacing from Byzantine work, we have good and characteristic illustrations of the
complexity and richness of character that often become a feature of designs on a
geometric basis. -_- ''-~ . H .
The aptitude of geometric forms for affording- good combinations is a further recom-
mendation; thus circles placed with their diameters in contact, as in Fig 18, leave
four-sided intervening spaces bounded by concave curves, pleasing forms in themselves,
and contrasting well with the circles. Many geometric forms are thus capable of not only
giving pleasure in themselves, but also of producing these satisfactory intervening forms.
The design, Fig. 5, from the inlaid cabinet already referred to, is a very good illustration
of this development, and we see it again very clearly in Fig. 7, where the eight-pointed
star alternates with the cross-like form. Fig. I5, from the same source as Fig. 5, and
Fig. 37, a piece of Moorish tile-work, are other examples.
It is often possible to produce great richness of effect by having the ground and the
ﬁgure identical in form, the design being developed by a variation of colour. As the
simplest possible illustration of what we mean we would point to the alternate black and
white squares of a chess-board. The use of this simple design, the juxtaposition of similar
squares relieved by change of colour, is very ancient; we meet with it on Assyrian pottery,
Fig. 241, and on the mummy-wrappings of the ancient Egyptians, Fig. I08. The


GEOMEIRIC FORMS AND THEIR COMBINATIONS. 5
simplicity of the form is sometimes somewhat modiﬁed by making the forms oblong
instead of square, as in Fig. 41, a piece of wood inlay from a Spanish cabinet in the
South Kensington Museum; by putting some other form within the alternate squares, as
in Figs. 28 and 130. As a still richer modiﬁcation of this, each square may be thus
treated. We see this very well in Fig. 403, where the black squares have within them a grey
cross, and the white squares a black one, the result being an amount of richness that
conceals at ﬁrst its near relationship to the simple black and white chequers from whence
it sprang. At other times the relationship of the design to the original chequers is still
less obvious, owing to each square, as in Fig. 127, an Egyptian example, being divided in
half by one of its diagonals, and each resulting triangle being of a different colour_ In
Fig. 113, an Early Italian design, it will be noticed that every alternate square has both
its diagonals dralwn, the resulting right-angled triangles being alternately wh_ite and
black.
Identity of form fin the pattern and ground appears to have had an especial charm
with the Moors, Arabrs, and Hindoos, and it is among ~them that the richest examples are
met with, the mosques of Cairo, the courts of the Alhambra, the bazaars of India, affording
many curious and beautiful illustrations. ’ In some cases the process of manufacture tends
to suggest this feature in the design, and aids_ its creation,.as in the alternately dark
and light parallelograms produced, as in Fig. 11, by weaving; ordinarily, -however, it is
the result of free choice, unbiassed by any technical inﬂuence. Figs. 14, 16, 17, 19, 22, 32,
36, 90, all Moresque in their origin, are excellent examples of this classof form, known
as “counterchange.” Fig. 23, an Early Italian form; Fig. 111, a piece of marquetry;
Fig. 112; Fig. 122, a specimen of inlaid work in.-ebony- and ivory; Fig. 129, composed,
like Fig. 112, entirely of semicircles; Fig. 244, a fragment of a painted tile from the
Assyrian remains preserved in the British Museum; "and Figs. 304, 305, rude, yet
ingenious designs of the islanders of the Paciﬁc, are all further examples ofscounterchange
arrangements. '
Many other illustrations, and those, too, of a much more elaborate nature, might have
been chosen, but we have selected those given, that from their comparative simplicity
we may the more easily explain the manner in which they are constructed, in order that
the designer, having a clue to the principle on which they are formed, may be enabled to
create other examples for himself. A square, oblong, rhombus, triangle, or hexagon,
being taken, forms that will by juxtaposition of units completely ﬁll a given space, it is
enriched by the addition‘ on half its sides of certain forms ﬁxed upon, care being then
taken that exactly similar forms are deducted from the remaining sides. In illustrating
our remarks by a reference to our ﬁgures we may perhaps render our meaning clearer,
as, though the idea is simple enough in itself, it is difficult to convey it by description
alone. If, then, the student reader will, while referring to Fig. 14, sketch out on a piece
of paper some few lines equidistant and at right angles to each other, so as to form a
series of squares, he has the basis of the design; if now, bisecting each side of a square
and using the point of bisection as the centre, and the distance thence to the angle of the
square as a radius, he constructs on each face of the square a semicircle, two of these
semicircles being beyond the square, and the remaining and opposite two within it, he
will ﬁnd that he has thus created the unit of the design, the rest of the work being
merely a repetition of this. Fig. I6 is formed in exactly the same way, but in this case
the radius taken being smaller, a portion of each side of the square enters into the design


8 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART
to each other without actually crossing. Frets, from their slight resemblance at times to the
wards of a key, are sometimes known as “key patterns." In the earlier Greek vases in our
national collection the gradual development of the fret may be very well seen. In some cases
the band to be ornamented has but a series of upright lines, in other cases, as in Fig. 50, we
ﬁnd these joined in pairs, or with a simple arrangement of lines at right angles to them, as 'in
Figs. 68, 83. These arrangements gradually grow more complicated till at length we reach
arrangements like Figs. 67, 69, 84. In archaic examples the lines are not always at right angles,
as we may see in Fig. 86; nor is the design continuous as in the later examples. Figs. 50, 59,
are examples of this feature of the early frets. Fig. 67 may be regarded as a very typical
specimen of what is ordinarily understood by the term fret; but in the works of all people
we ﬁnd a delight in patterns of a more or less fret-like form. In Fig. 29, a Norman
example that has no doubt been suggested by a classic form; and in Fig. 34, an example
from New Guinea; in Figs. 25, 39, Moresque examples; in Fig. 56, a Mexican design, we see
instances of the introduction of oblique lines. Many of the Chinese frets are very curious.
They are generally very disconnected in character. Figs. 42, 63, 73, 102, illustrate this
peculiarity very clearly. In some cases circular lines are admitted, and this, added to the
numerous breaks of connection, renders their origin, as in Fig. 61, scarcely recognisable.
Figs. 46, 51, 52, 53, 60, and 72, are frets within circles, a very characteristic Chinese application
of them. Other examples calling for passing remark are seen in Figs. 43, 44, Mexican
examples, where a simple fret arrangement is developed by a variation of colour; Fig. 62,
a very singular example from ancient Peruvian pottery, compounded apparently of a fairly
good Greek type of form alternating with a strangely barbarous addition; Figs. 88 and 99,
very rich and satisfactory Chinese examples; Figs. 90, 101, Arabian frets, designed like
the two preceding examples not as borderings, but for the decoration of large surfaces; and
Fig. 91, a Celtic example from the old stone cross of Kilklispeen, Ireland.
The mosaic work of classic and mediaeval times is frequently of a geometric character,
though in some cases where ﬁgure subjects, heads, groups of ﬂowers, and such-like are
introduced the setting out /of the panels and the borderings of the pictorial treatments
are alone geometric.
Mosaic in its most extended sense may be understood to be the combination of minute
portions of any substance into geometric, foliated, pictorial, or other patterns, the pleasing
result of the whole being produced by the aggregation of particles in themselves frequently
of rough and irregular shapes; but the term, as generally employed, is taken in a more
limited sense to imply the formation of such designs from the employment of various kinds
of stone or marble, as porphyry, serpentine, and others, and, at a later period, the introduction
of vitriﬁed substances.
Mosaic has been employed from the remotest ages of which we have any knowledge.
It is traceable to the most ancient periods of art, and seems to have arisen amongst the
Eastern nations, races which even to the present time show a wonderful facility for intricate
design and a ﬁne sense of colour. \/Ve read incidentally in the Book of Esther (i. 6),
in the description of the Palace of Shushan, belonging to king Ahasuerus (who reigned
about 500 B.C.), of a pavement of red, blue, white, and black marble, or, according to the
reading in the margin, of porphyry, marble, alabaster, and stone of blue colour.
The Egyptians some three thousand years ago practised a curious kind of mosaic,
wherein the pattern was produced by a number of very small rods of coloured opaque glass
arranged perpendicularly to the surface of the design, so that if any number of sections
Q


VARIOUS KINDS OF MOSAIC 9
were made horizontally through the glass each would be of exactly the same pattern. The
skill required is shown not only in the design but in the minuteness of the workmanship,
for some of the details can only be seen by the aid of a magnifying glass, which no doubt
was also used in the manufacture, though no example of a lens, so far as we are aware,
has been found in the Egyptian remains. Layard discovered one,_while excavating at
Nineveh, and there can be but little doubt that the Egyptians also were acquainted with its
use and properties. Winckelman mentions two specimens of this minute Egyptian mosaic
work, one of which he says though not quite an inch in length and the third of an inch
in breadth exhibits on a dark ground a deﬁnite design. From the condition of this it was.
at ﬁrst difﬁcult to form any conception of the process of its manufacture, till a small fracture
proved that it was composed of ﬁlaments passing right through from end to end. The
other specimen, about eq-ual in size to the former, was also produced in the same way. It
exhibits forms in green, yellow, and white, on a ground of blue. All the details are perfectly
distinct, and though the keenest eyesight is needed to trace some of the lines, they yet all
pass faultlessly throughout the thickness of the piece and re-appear in fac-simile upon the
reverse side. Mosaic pavements, not only of a geometric character but also of ﬁgure
subjects, were, in the reign of the great Alexander, common throughout Greece. Pliny
in his writings refers to several eminent workers in mosaic. Mosaic work was introduced
into Rome about 100 B.C., examples being brought amongst other spoils of war from
Greece, and it was speedily adopted by the wealthier Romans in the decoration of their
villas. As time passed on various modiﬁcations of the working arose, but into some of
these, as the opus 2/ermioulatum, the most elaborate development, limited to the direct
representation of ﬁgures, animals, and pictorial subjects generally, we need not enter, as they
are foreign to our present subject, the use of geometry in art.
The opus tessellatum, the most ancient kind of mosaic, was composed of small cubes
of marble varying from half an inch to an inch square, and formed into simple geometrical
patterns, either curved, as in the scroll and guilloche forms, or straight-lined frets and
bands of colour. Many ﬁne examples of this kind of mosaic are from time to time
discovered in our own country, and may be seen in our leading metropolitan and
provincial museums. The desirability, however, of greater variety of colour was speedily
felt, and the opus ﬁglizzum was developed to meet this requirement; in this the small
portions, technically called tesserae, were formed of a combination of silex and alumina
coloured by a metallic oxide. This soon became exclusively used, as from its greater
variety of colour, the comparative ease in shaping the pieces required, and its cheapness,
compared to that wherein marbles of more or less cost were required to produce the more
elaborate effects of colour, the opus tessel/alum was unable to compete with it, though
many of the earlier pavements were admirably wrought out, and more especially so, when
we consider the very limited means that very often were at the disposal of the artist.
Thus, to give merely one example, a pavement found at Cirencester, representing the sea
with appropriate ﬁshes, lobsters, crab, star-ﬁsh, spiral and bivalve shells, dragons, and
other marine monsters, was composed of the following few and simple elements—the
white given by chalk; a cream-colour of hard freestone, grey being produced by the same
stone affected by heat; yellow, oolitic pebbles; chocolate, from the old red sandstone;
slate-colour, limestone from the lower lias; while the light red, dark red, and black
were derived from the clays of the neighbourhood. The opus Greaznicum, a glass
mosaic, was conventional in design, and frequently used as an inlay. The opus
C I


1Q ' P1?/YVCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART
A/exandrinum was a marble tessellation generally composed of porphyry, a reddish-purple
stone, and serpentine, a dull green, arranged into geometric patterns that were cut into the
white marble slabs that composed the groundwork of the pavement. Sir Digby Wyatt's
work on mosaic will supply numerous examples of all these modiﬁcations, and much
additional information on the subject to those of our readers who care to go into the
subject to a greater extent than we here feel justiﬁed in doing.
Tarsia work, or Tarsiatura, was a kind of mosaic in wood, and we see at the present
time a very humble imitation of it in the inlaid wood-work on fancy articles, known as
Tunbridge ware. Tarsia, inlaid wood, either stained or of different natural shades, was
at one time much used in decoration. It originated in Florence, but soon spread
throughout Italy and France; in the latter country it was termed marqueterie. In the
sixteenth century Cologne was very famous for its inlaid tarsia-work furniture. In the
International Exhibition of 1851, a table of Spanish manufacture was exhibited, having a
decoration upon it in this tarsia, or marqueterie, three million pieces of wood, it was stated,
being employed in its formation. Buhl-work is another modiﬁcation of the principle of
mosaic. Buhl, an Italian, who was born in the year 1642, and died in 1732, settled in Paris
during the reign of Louis XIV. The work called after his name, and which at one time
was in high repute, was usually produced by an inlay of brass, generally scroll-work, in a
ground of tortoiseshell, while at the same time one Reisner, a German, who bore the
appointment and title of Ebiniste du Roi, introduced a kind of work owing its effect to the
introduction of ebony upon a ground of tulip-tree wood.
Neither of these two last methods of working possess any great intrinsic beauty, and
only owed—at least in a great part—their popularity to the patronage they received at the
heads of the Court, and of all those who desired to be thought fashionable; and we may
add that they appear to have met with the same fate as the once popular but now well-nigh
forgotten manias for Dutch tulips, Cochin-China fowls, potichomanie, and such-like. It
will of course be obvious to our readers that many such modiﬁcations and combinations of
substance might be formed, and we shall merely mention one other, the great use made
throughout the Middle Ages, and more especially in Italy, of a decoration upon chests and
various articles of domestic furniture, musical instruments, &c., formed by small geometﬁc
patterns of ivory on a ground of dark wood. Examples of these are very numerous in
the South Kensington Museum.
Geometry enters very largely into Gothic architecture, and the ornamental details
that spring from, and adorn, the construction. Many of the most characteristic and typical
forms are markedly geometric in character, as, for instance, the dog-tooth moulding of the
Early English period; the ball-ﬂower of the Second or Decorated period, shown in the
central form of Fig. 106; and the Tudor rose, Fig. 192, of the Third or Perpendicular
period, no less than the ruder forms of the billet, nail-head, zig-zag, &c., in the Norman
work that preceded these. The window traceries of the various pointed styles are
distinctly geometric in their main lines. In the Early English Gothic, though the lancets
are generally simple in form, they at times have trifoliate heads, as in Raunds Church,
Northamptonshire ; while at other times two lancets in combination have a pierced circle
over them, the ﬁrst step towards the wonderful richness of form that was ultimately
developed. The windows of the Early Decorated period are perhaps the ﬁnest examples
to study, as later on a too great redundancy of detail makes itself felt. In the thirteenth
century Gothic the geometric panels so frequently found in the framework of the stained


GEOMETRIC FORMS 11V NA TURE. I I
glass are generally very rich and beautiful in form. Shaft sections are almost invariably
geometric, in simple work circular or square; at other times a central circular mass,
surrounded by smaller shafts of the same section; or quatrefoil, hexafoil, or octofoil; at
times, as at Canterbury, simple right-line regular hexagons, while in richer examples several
geometric forms are combined together. Gothic tiles, though frequently decorated with rude
ﬁgure-subjects, grotesque animals, foliated and ﬂoral forms, have these designs generally
inclosed within a geometric framework, while at other times the whole ﬁeld of the tile is
covered with a design of geometric character.
In hot climates the windows are frequently richly carved. It is essential that, for the sake
of air, the openings should be numerous, while, to prevent the penetration of the sun’s
rays, they are very small; they are therefore admirably arranged according to some
geometric pattern, and frequently one of great intricacy. Very good examples may be
seen in Cairo and throughout India. Fig. 31 is a Cairene window-piercing; Fig. 333, one
from Gujerat.
Geometrical forms are not uncommon in nature. Perhaps the most beautiful illustrations
will be found in the crystals of falling snow. Minute and evanescent as they are, the
variety of design in them, and its charming delicacy, are something wonderful. They are
all stellate forms with six rays, and of these, three are ordinarily much more fully
developed than the three that alternate with them. If any of our readers who are interested
in designing will take the trouble to refer to the works of Glaisher, Lardner, or other
reliable authors who ﬁgure these crystals, or, better still, will, during a gentle fall of snow,
allow a few to fall on black cloth, they will ﬁnd themselves amply repaid. Care must
be taken not to breathe on the natural specimens while examining them, or they will at
once melt, and all the sharp precision of form that is so beautiful a character in them
will dissolve. In a heavy snow-storm the spiculae get broken in their descent, and the
forms are often very imperfect. Many kinds of star-ﬁsh, as, for example, the common
“ ﬁve-ﬁngers,” as it is often termed, the Uraster ruéens of science, and the gibbous starlet,
Asterina giééosa, assume various modiﬁcations of the pentagon. The section of the stem
of the Stapelia H)/strzlx, a native of South-east Africa, is a very beautiful pentagonal
star. The stems of the Bramble and Meadow-sweet, when cut across, are seen to be
ﬁve-sided, the angles being replaced by rounded lobes. Many of our most common
ﬂowers are found to be pentagonal in plan, the London Pride, Avens, Crowfoot, Cockle,
Primrose, Hawthorn, Dog Rose, Elder, Lime, Columbine, Bitter-sweet, Stone-crop, and
Periwinkle are but a few examples; while the hexagonal arrangement is seen in the Lily
of the Valley, Tulip, Crown Imperial, Snowdrop, Crocus, and many others. The Holly and
Tormentil, and the great order of plants known as the Crucz'fera> or Cross-bearers, have their
parts based on a square. VVe meet with the square again in the sections of the stems
of many of the Labiate plants, as the white Dead Nettle, the Ground Ivy, and numerous
others. In the Arrow-head, \Vater-plantain, Frog-bit, Water-soldier, and some others, the
parts of the plants are in threes. In most aquatic plants, as in the Water-plantain, the
Flowering-rush, and the Sedges, the stem is an equilateral triangle in transverse section.
It is hardly necessary to pursue this part of the subject any further. We may, however,
impress upon the reader the importance of studying from Nature herself, if accessible,
who will supply many other examples of the geometrical forms that are so common and
so pleasing a feature in ﬂoral growth. The subject has also been discussed in a work on
“ Plants, their Natural Growth and Ornamental Treatment."


12 PRHVCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ARI'.
The honeycomb will no doubt occur to many of our readers as a beautiful example of
natural geometry. The cells being hexagonal there is no valuable space wasted, since
hexagons in contact with each other completely ﬁll up a given space. There is no intervening
interval, as there would have been if circles or pentagons had been employed instead;
and springing from this we may mention an example of the commercial advantage of the
knowledge of a little geometry. The biscuits for navy use were originally made round,
but there was found to be a twofold disadvantage in this. In the ﬁrst place, in stamping
them out of a sheet of prepared dough, all the material was not used up, and secondly,
when packed for a voyage they did not ﬁt closely, and as both dough and space were
too valuable to be wasted the biscuits were made hexagonal in form, thus getting over
both difﬁculties at once, for now no material is wasted in the stamping out, and no
space lost in the stowage. The only simple forms that will thus ﬁt together without
intervening spaces are the square, oblong, lozenge, equilateral triangle, isosceles triangle,
and hexagon.
Turning our attention brieﬂy to the leading geometrical forms found in ornamental art,
we commence with the triangle, and pass thence to the square, rhombus, and polygon, and
the circle and other curved-line ﬁgures. The equilateral triangle, except when symbolically
introduced, is seldom found alone. We have, however, examples of its use in Fig. 82, a
Chinese example from the South Kensington Museum; Fig. 87, a piece of Byzantine work;
Fig. 110, from majolica ware, curious as having two of its sides curved; Fig. 125, an
Italian example, and in Figs. 317, 318, where it forms the bounding line of Elizabethan
carving. The symbolic use of the triangle is seen in Figs. 138, 184, 186, 187. In two of
the examples we have the triangle pure and simple; in the remaining two it is the basis of
the curved forms seen in the illustrations. The equilateral triangle is more ordinarily met
with in combination with the hexagon than alone. We see instances of this combination in
Figs. 1, 15, and 105. The right-angled triangle, formed by cutting a square in halves or
quarters diagonally, is a much more common form, owing to its working so well with the
square. In Figs. 111 and 127, the ﬁrst a piece of mediaeval wood inlay, the second an
ancient Egyptian example, the whole design is exclusively composed of these triangles, while
in Figs. 109, I13, we see them in combination with the square. The isosceles triangle is
rarely met with, but we see it in Figs. 24, 38, ornaments from early Etruscan vases in the
British Museum; in Fig. 282, an Elizabethan example, and in Fig. 408, the bordering of
a plate of majolica ware in the South Kensington collection. The square is a very early
and common form, occurring abundantly in the oldest historic monuments and throughout
the whole ﬁeld of ornamental art. We see it in Figs. 1 and 28, early pavements; in Fig.
30, a piece of Byzantine carving; in Fig. 88, where the complicated form of Chinese fret
is based on it; in Fig. 89, a piece of Byzantine interlacing from the capital of a column;
in Fig. 91, a Celtic example; in Fig. 108; in Fig. 128, a string-course from an Italian
church; in Fig. 130, an ancient Egyptian example, where a very considerable amount of
richness of effect is produced by the combination of squares of different sizes; in Fig. 241,
a piece of painted Assyrian tile; in Fig. 289, a diapering having the square as a ground-
work; in Figs. 290 and 291, the ﬁrst from Sevres porcelain, the second on Chelsea china;
in Fig. 320, the pattern on the dress of an efﬁgy in Beverley Minster, date fourteenth century;
in Fig. 326, another Gothic diapering; in Fig. 333, an Indian example already referred to;
in Fig. 373, carving from a club, Swan River, British Museum, and in Fig. 403, a piece
of pavement. The oblong is by no means so commonly met with as the square, but we


I4. PRI./VCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART
them. In only one of theitwelve specimens before us as we write does any opening
pass right through; it therefore is the only one out of the dozen that accommodates itself
to this theory. They can scarcely have been used as money, as they are met with in so
limited an area, and of a material too fragile for such a use. They cannot be of British
manufacture, as they are so extremely local. The two very different kinds of pottery found
would appear to indicate an intercourse between a rude and a highly-civilised people.
Probably, therefore, the limited area over which they are found is the site of some ancient
colony, a belief still further encouraged by the fact of its being on, or near, the coast. The
remains cannot be Roman, or similar remains would doubtless have been found elsewhere;
nor would the Romans, or any other warlike people, have established themselves in a
position so unﬁt for a military station. It is conjectured that the remains are Phoenician,
the Phoenicians, a great mercantile people, being known, on the authority of Strabo and
other writers, to have visited Britain at a very early period for purposes of barter, supplying
the natives with pottery and other articles in exchange for tin, and that, ﬁnding both clay
and coal in the Isle of Purbeck, they established a colony there for the fabrication of the
pottery thus required, instead of having the risk and burden of importing it.
The circle is naturally the commonest of the curvilinear series of geometric forms, and the
earliest applied to decorative art. The following examples will show both from their
number how common a form it is, and from the diversity of the localities from whence
they are derived, how universal has been its use :—Figs. 4 and 18 we have already referred
to. Fig. 17, from a piece of early work at Metz, shows a pleasing contrast between the
circular and angular forms; Fig. 75, a Saxon brooch, British Museum, owes any beauty
it may possess to the ten circles engraved on it; Fig. 94, a pattern engraved on ivory,
Byzantine workmanship, eleventh century, South Kensington Museum; Fig. 96, painted on
an Egyptian mummy-Wrapping, British Museum; Fig. 97, a simple example of the Gothic
tracery, that under the name of “wheel " or “ rose " is often of an exceedingly rich character,
as may, in a more especial degree, be seen at York, though almost all our cathedrals afford
ﬁne specimens; Fig. 106, central ﬁgure, that known as the Ball-ﬂower, a very characteristic
form of the later Gothic, generally occurring at slight intervals, as a detached form, in hollow
mouldings, or more rarely united by a waving stem or conventional foliage: the two lateral
ﬁgures are forms very similarly applied to the Ball-flower, but both from French buildings.
Figs. 114 and 121 are from some Roman pottery found on the site of a kiln in the New
Forest. The ﬁrst of these ideas, the intersecting circles, is a very characteristic form in the
decoration of the celebrated Oiron, or Henri-deux ware. It occurs nine times on a candlestick
in the South Kensington collection, and the guilloche, another very characteristic ornament
based on the circle, seven times; Fig. 123 is from a piece 0f old furniture; Figs. 234 and
239 are both ornamental forms based on the circle, and met with on the painted bricks
from the palaces excavated at Nineveh; Figs. 243 and 261 are both circular forms of a
patera character, the ﬁrst from Nineveh, the bracelet centre of one of the many jewels
represented on the sculptures as worn by the kings, while the second is from an Indian
textile fabric. The whole of Plate XVI. is devoted to forms based on the circle, the most
noteworthy being Figs. 264, 264*, and 271, all from tiles found on the site of Chertsey
Abbey, and Figs. 267 and 268, examples from early Greek pottery in the British Museum.
As derivatives from the circle, we have the semicircle, trefoil, quatrefoil, and multifoil
ﬁgures, the scale form, waved line, Vesica, and guilloche. It will be easily seen that the
scale form and the waved line merely result from two arrangements of semicircles or arcs.


16 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART
of the Renaissance, and very frequently enriched by a doubling of the lines and the
presence of some central ornamental form. Figs. 8 and 10 are two very fairly characteristic
examples.
The wave-line, a name expressive of its resemblance to the undulations of the ocean—
a name, however, that would be more ﬁtly applied to the scroll form, seeing that we
ordinarily accept as our ideal of the wave the mass of water that with curling crest travels
onwards till it rolls over and breaks into a mass of silver foam, rather than the mere
heaving swell—is a form of very common occurrence in ornamental art. Though occasionally
formed of semicircles in juxtaposition, it is more ordinarily less pronounced in its curvature,
being composed generally of smaller portions of circular curves, and those of a greater
radius than would be possible if the entire semicircle had to be used. Two very marked
examples may be seen on Plate XXII. In Fig. 341 the undulation of the line is very slight,
while in Fig. 342 the amount of curvature is much more considerable: the ﬁrst illustration
is a painted mural decoration from an Italian church; the second, a piece of ivory carving
of Byzantine workmanship. Other instances of the use of the wave-line may be seen in
Fig. 380, a bordering from a slab of Nankin porcelain in the South Kensington Museum;
in Fig. 381, an Indian example; in Fig. 396, where it forms the central stem of a simple
foliate design from a Greek vase; in Fig. 397, taken from the moulding that runs round
a doorway, Chapter House, Rochester Cathedral; in Fig. 399, a piece of very characteristic
German metal work, from the church of St. Mary, Rottweil; and in Figs. 398 and 402,
two other instances of the occurrence of the line, in designs taken from antique Greek vases
in the British Museum collection.
The guilloche, a form produced by the interlacing of circles, is capable of several
modiﬁcations. Fig. 116 may be considered as the simplest and most common form. In Fig.
117 we see the same arrangement, but enriched by variation of colour. In Fig. 120 the
plain central spot of the two preceding examples, both from Nineveh, is replaced by a
patera or rosette form, which, together with the little angular pieces at the junctions of
the circles and the ﬁctitious effect of relief, gives a wholly new character. This example is
from a piece of Spanish pottery in the South Kensington Museum. In Fig. 258, a relief
example from an old chest in our possession, we see these points still further developed,
the angular points being still further enforced by being cut into facets, and the central
rosettes all varied in character. In Fig. I19, a Renaissance example from a doorway in
Rouen, we ﬁnd a further character of enrichment produced by having the interlacing circles
alternately large and small, and alternating again with a similar series, so that the small
circle of the one is bounded and circumscribed by the larger one of the other. By having
a variation of colour in the two series of circles, a very considerably greater enrichment of
effect would readily be produced. In Fig. 118 a very rich arrangement is created by the
combination into one ornamental composition of two similar guilloche forms parallel to
each other.
The guilloche, like the fret, the anthemion, and many other ornamental forms, though
easily recognisable in its typical form, passes by almost insensible gradations into other
developments. Thus, in Fig. 115, a speira or plait, our readers will, we think, readily detect
the guilloche idea underlying the actual form. It is, in fact, a guilloche form pulled out, so
to speak, thus throwing the intersections into angular forms instead of circular. If we
could imagine a sufﬁcient pressure exercised in the direction of the length all the forms
would become circular, and the result would be a guilloche. In Fig. 70, a simple band


EXAMPLES OF THE SPIRAL LINE. i7
of ornament from a Greek vase, we may see the archetype; but little wouldibe needed to
form these rude markings into a true guilloche, while, on the other hand, the same rude forms,
if placed somewhat more closely together, would suggest the beautiful form known as the
“cable” moulding, a form more especially seen in Romanesque and Norman, though
by no means exclusively conﬁned to such work. A very little modiﬁcation in Figs. 114
and 121 would convert them into guilloche forms. In Fig. 114, the placing of a smaller
circle within and tangential to the larger would at once produce Fig. I19, while the placing
of the detached circles of Fig. 121 in contact would result in a form like Fig. 116: in
either case a true guilloche.
The guilloche and scroll forms, though more especially features of classic ornament,
were known in Egypt many ages before they were adopted by the Greeks, and the most
complicated form of guilloche covered a whole Egyptian ceiling upwards of a thousand
years before it was represented on the comparatively late objects found amidst the remains
of Assyrian art from Nineveh.
The scroll or spiral line has from its beauty been largely employed in decorative art.
In many cases it forms the entire feature, as in Fig. 2 50, a Greek example; or in the ruder
form, Fig. 247, met with on a piece of ancient Peruvian pottery in the British Museum; though
more ordinarily it merely forms the groundwork for a design of a more or less conventionally
foliate character, as in Fig. 248, a piece of Indian inlay work; in Fig. 253, an example of
English thirteenth century embroidery; or in Fig. 254, painted at the base of the handle of a
Greek vase. It is also seen in the Ionic and other capitals. Other examples of its use
may be seen in Fig. 260, from a Roman mosaic; in Fig. 382, a piece of thirteenth century
carving in walrus ivory, the ornament on the back of one of the bishops’ chairs in a set
of chessmen found at Uig, Isle of Lewis, and now preserved in the British Museum; in
Fig. 391, an example of marble inlay on a chimney-piece of Milanese work, dating about
the year 1600, and now in the collection at South Kensington; and in Fig. 393, a Moresque
example from the Palace of the Alhambra.
Many beautiful examples of the spiral line may be met with in nature. Amongst
fossil remains the various species of Ammonite,*‘ as in Fig. 252, supply many interesting
illustrations, while those of our readers to whom such remains are not easily accessible
for reference will ﬁnd other instances almost as beautiful in many existent species of
mollusca. The Planorbis, Fig. 251, is a good and very easily procurable example. A net
swept along the bottom of almost any pool will scarcely fail to bring to the surface several
specimens of it. In plant life the same beautiful line is seen in the inﬂorescence of the
Comfrey, Fig. 246, a plant very commonly to be met with on the banks of our streams;
and again in the ﬂower-heads of the Forget~me-not, Borage, and several other plants. The
opening leaves of many of our ferns afford equally good examples, the fronds being rolled
up in what is termed a circinate manner, the spiral gradually unwinding as the vigorous
spring life asserts its power.
The spiral, under the name of the gurge or whirlpool, is one of the forms of heraldic
charges. Whenever introduced in any arms it will always be found to be blazoned in
azure and argent. We see it represented in Fig. 249. It is a somewhat unusual form.
The guilloche and spiral forms that as we have seen are in a special degree characteristic
of classic work, are naturally very frequently found in the ornament of the period of great
1' So called from its resemblance to the horns seen on the statues of Jupiter Ammon, a deity whose symbol was the ram.
D


ABOUT MA ]0z1c.4 WARE. 1 9
Raphaelle to whom our thoughts at once turn when the name is mentioned. The ﬁgures
are ordinarily outlined in blue or black, the draperies being coloured, and the creamy-white
of the ground-colour of the ware left for the ﬂesh. The glaze is either of a rich ruby
colour, and metallic iridescent lustre, or a brilliant yellow, having all the splendour and sheen
of gold. Pesaro, Urbino, and Florence were all seats of the manufacture. The wares made
at'Gubbio are still more famous for their splendid lustre, while the ruby tints of Pesaro are
carried to a yet higher and unrivalled degree of intensity of colour. Some examples are also
noted for their golden and coppery lustres. Faenza, whence the term fayence applied by
French archaeologists and others to majolica ware, Castel-Durante, Arezzo, Perugia,
Bologna, Ferara, Ravenna, Deruta, and other Italian towns had also schools of ceramic
art. Many ﬁne examples of Faenza ware, generally known by its dark blue ground with
arabesque forms in orange upon it, or alternate panels of those colours, may be seen in the
South Kensington Museum. The death of Duke Guidobaldo was a heavy blow to the
Florentine manufacture, as, when his fostering patronage was withdrawn, there was not a
sufﬁcient public demand for the higher-class work to maintain the old standard of excellence.
The importation also about this time of several ﬁne examples of Chinese pottery into Europe,
and the consequent diversion of public taste, may have tended still further to inﬂuence
adversely the sinking manufacture. The secret of the ruby lustre was lost even in the
sixteenth century, though it has recently been imitated with a fair amount of success by the
potters of Italy, France, and England. The various richly-coloured lustres were produced
by preparations of lead, silver, copper, and gold, while a very brilliant white glaze, with the
prized metallic lustre, was produced from tin.
Hitherto we have, in all our remarks, been dealing with the simpler forms of design;
and though in these geometry is the life and often the only feature, we must still bear in
mind that as we rise higher, employing treatments of animal or vegetable form, the geometry
sinks into a subordinate place. It is still, however, very useful in setting out and deﬁning
leading lines and masses in a design; but beyond that, except in minor cases, it is powerless
to please. It is valuable, for instance, in fourteenth century diaper, where the surface is
cut up into squares or lozenges, both as boundary lines, and also on account of the contrast
thus obtained; but the part we now admire is not the geometric basis of the design, but
the delicate ﬁlling in of the spaces with oak, buttercup, or maple; and we unconsciously
admire these the more on account of the inclosing straight lines that we should sorely miss
if removed. The higher the character of the design the less should the merely mechanical
geometric basis be obtrusive. Its presence is necessary, and as we have seen, is an
enhancement of the beauty of the composition, but its place is nevertheless a subordinate
one.


CHAPTER II.
./'Esthetic Art—Symbolic Art—Literal meaning of Symbolism—Its Use in Religion and Heraldry—The Medizeval Pictorial Allegories—
Susceptibility to Symbolic Teaching in the Early History of a People—Parables—Fables—Proverbs—Symbolism as a Veiling of
Truth—Symbolism as an Aid to the Illustration of Truth-Symbolism may be of Action, of Language, of Colour, of Form,
and of Number—Symbolic Actions amongst Savage Races—The Rites of the Levitical Priesthood—The Symbolic use of the
Fish in Christian Art—The Early Christian Church in the Catacombs of Rome—The Vesica Piscis—The Fish Symbols of
the Egyptians—Dagon of the Philistines—The Sphinx, Classic and E;yytian__-The Dolphin in Classic and Renaissance Art-
The Serpent, Tortoise, Lizard, and Crocodile—Serpent \Vorship of the Jews, Mexicans, and Egyptians—Insect Forms, the
Scarabarus and Butterﬂy-—The PhIenix—The Dragon and Hydra as Symbolic of the Evil Principle—The Dragon in Chinese
Art—The Ibis—Nisroch of the Assyrians—The Owl—The Cock—The Dove—The Dove Orchid—The Raven—The Magpie-—
The I’eac0ck—The Pelican in Christian Art—The Pelican in the Old Testament—The Eagle in Roman, Christian, and Heraldic
Art—The Robin—The Dog—The Stag in Classic and Christian Art—The VVolf—The Egyytian Apis—The Sacred Bull of
Brahn1a—The ]ackal—The Cat—The Hippopotamus—The Pig—The Ass—The Lion as a Symbol in a Good and Evil Sense-
The Evangelistic Symbols—The Creatures seen in the Visions of Ezekiel and St. ]ohn—\Vyckliffe on the Evangelistic Symbols—
The Human Form in Gothic Work—The Representation of Historic Events, with an Undercurrent of Symbolic Meaning—Figures
of the Jewish and Christian Churches—Representations of the Soul of Man—'l'he Agnus Dei—The Hand and Arm of the Lord-
The Mosaics of St. Mark, Veniee—Mosaic as a means of keeping Permanent Records of Great but Fading Pictures—Need of
Individual Research and Study.
N the present and following chapter it will be our endeavour to give our readers some
insight into the nature of symbolic art. We shall only be able to touch upon a few of the
salient points; nevertheless, we trust that even this necessarily brief treatment of the subject
will not be found without interest and proﬁt; that enough may at least be brought forward to
testify to the interest and advantage to be derived from pursuing the matter, and that
our remarks may thus form, at all events, a foundation for the after-labours of any who
may care to pursue the inquiry into greater detail. In the present chapter we propose
to deal with the symbols derived from the animal kingdom, the ﬁshes of the sea, the birds
of the air, the beasts of the ﬁeld, some realistic, others in their representations grotesque
in the highest degree, the use of the human and angelic forms, and lastly the suggestion
of the Deity; reserving for future consideration the great use made of forms derived from
the vegetable kingdom, the inﬂuence of colour and number in art, and concluding with
remarks on those forms that, like the cross and sacred monogram, forming a minor
division, would appear to defy classiﬁcation, having no relation to natural objects animate
or inanimate.
Symbolic forms can never in the future attain to the importance they have done 1n
the past, since, living as we do in a time when the opportunities both for imparting and
acquiring knowledge are so great and widely spread, there does not exist the same
necessity for this picture language. It nevertheless is interesting, and to the artist
distinctly valuable, since we are by this means enabled to look through and beyond the
rude forms and to grasp the inner meaning; for though in many cases the devices appear
grotesque and almost barbarous in their quaintness, we must remember that they were but
the outer shell, and often beneath a rugged exterior bore golden wealth of signiﬁcance to
those to whom they were intended to appeal.
All art, though capable of being divided into many diverse classes, may be broadly


PI CT ORIA L A LLE G ORJE .5. 2 1
massed under two great heads: the art that is sensuous, appealing to the eye from its
beauty; or, secondly, the art that is symbolic, that touches a deeper chord, appeals to
the mind or heart, that besides the outward seeming has an inner and deeper signiﬁcance.
All the noblest art-work that ever existed, that ever can exist, must belong to this latter
class. The thoughts evolved from one work of art may be intrinsically nobler than those
derived from another; but our readers will, we trust, agree with us that all artistic work
is good only so far as it affords food for reﬂection—so far as it enables us to see something
of the mind of the man—so far as it appeals, not to the senses only—like the Zeuxis
grapes that the birds, if we may credit the old story (which personally we decline to do),
came to peck at—but to the mind, the heart, the soul of man, those priceless gifts that
lift him so immeasurably higher than the beasts that perish.
The word symbolism is Greek in its origin, and signiﬁes literally a throwing or putting
together of things, a positive and visible form implying a something else that is itself
often incapable of representation, as, for instance, Truth; a form" that may in itself be
trivial in appearance, barbarous and archaic in its representation, that nevertheless, by education
of thought and past association of ideas, is the sign or symbol of something higher than
merely meets the eye. Symbolism, therefore, has naturally been largely employed as a
ready means of impressing truths, in themselves great, in a simple language. We accordingly,
then, expect to ﬁnd it largely used in the service of religion, as a method of expressing
abstruse doctrines in a way that may appeal more readily to simple hearers, as, for instance,
in the old legend of the preaching of St. Patrick, wherein we are told that he illustrated
the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity to his rude congregation by the familiar demonstration
afforded by the trefoil growing at their feet, the three distinct leaﬂets combining, as we
may see, Fig. 144, into one perfect leaf. It also, for the same reason, enters largely into
the forms used in heraldry, the lilies of the Bourbons, the roses of the Lancastrians and
Yorkists, the broom of the Plantagenets, being all forms in themselves familiar and
commonplace, that nevertheless, by association with dynasties and great historic events,
derive a greatly added weight of signiﬁcance. These are but a few examples; many others
may be very readily added by our readers on very brief consideration.
In the Middle Ages a great use was made of pictorial allegories as a feature in the
pageants of the day. Thus, on the entry of Queen Elizabeth into the Cityof London at her
coronation, there was on either side of the gateway a hill raised, the one on the north
side rugged, barren, and stony. Beneath a tree, “all withered and deadde," sat a man in
mourning garb and posture, having over his head a tablet inscribed “ Ruinosa Respublica,"
other tablets about him bearing such sentences as those following :—“ Blindnes of Guides,"
“Civill Disagreement,” “Flattring of Princes." “ The other hylle on the south syde was
made fayre, freshe, grene, and beautifull, the grounde thereof full of ﬂoures and beautie;
and on the same was erected also one tree, very freshe and fayre, under the whiche stoode
uprighte one freshe personage, well apparayled and appointed, whose name was written,
‘Respublica bene instituta.’ And uppon the same tree also were ﬁxed certayne tablets
conteyning sentences, as, ‘Feare of God ;' ‘ A wise prince ;’ ‘Obedient subjectes.’” Between
these two hills was a cave from whence, on the Queen's arrival at the spot, issued Father Time,
and his daughter Truth, who handed to the Queen the word of truth, the Bible in English. On
the entry of Charles I. into Edinburgh, the city was personiﬁed by a fair lady, “attired
in a sea-greene velvet mantle, her sleeves and under roabe of blew tissue, with blew buskins
on her feete. About her necke shee wore a chaine of diamonds; the dressing of her head


22 PRHVCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ARI'.
represented a castle with turrets." She was attended by Religion, trampling beneath her
feet Superstition, while on the left side stood Justice trampling upon Oppression, “a person
of ﬁerce aspecte in armes, but broken all and scattered."
In the early art-history of any people, as in the childhood of the individual, there is
found to be a peculiar susceptibility to, and attraction in, this picture teaching. In the ﬁrst
period of art the rude form of the god or demi-god is either exceedingly vague in the
signiﬁcance implied, or is only saved from this by an accompanying inscription; but very
soon, in literature, some distinctive epithet, the “cloud-compelling," or some such other
picturesque title, if we may be allowed the term, is connected with the name; while in
art some appropriate symbol is added, that serves to convey to the spectators the artist's
aim, and stamps the person represented with the needful distinctness and individual character.
Hence the eagle of Jove, the trident of Neptune, the jackal of Anubis, the crescent moon
of Diana in pagan art, or the keys of St. Peter, the anchor of St. Clement, the spiked
wheel of St. Catherine, the lion of St. Jerome, the saw of St. Simon, the gridiron of St.
Lawrence, in Christian art.
Parables, fables, proverbs, whether sacred or secular, are all further manifestations of
this love of the symbolic, and it is doubtless owing to such picturesqueness of treatment
that the “ Pilgrim’s Progress," the “ Holy VVar," and works of that character, have retained such
hold upon their readers, as in all these cases a teaching by pictorial imagery is employed
to a marked degree. The following examples of proverbial philosophy—“ A cat in mittens
catches no mice;" “A rolling stone gathers no moss;” “There is a silver lining to every
cloud ;" “ All is not gold that glitters "—will sufﬁce as illustrations of our meaning.
Symbolism, though ordinarily a convenient and suggestive way of conveying instruction,
has at times been employed in a precisely opposite direction, as a veiling of truths that it
was not felt desirable on some account too distinctly to proclaim. Thus, among the Egyptians,
the priesthood reserved to themselves an inner meaning in many of their rites—a meaning
unknown to all but themselves or those specially initiated—and in the same way the early
Christians thus also employed forms that, though full of meaning to themselves, had no
signiﬁcance that was apparent to the heathens amongst whom they dwelt; while an illustration
more familiar to some of our readers will be seen in those mysterious little cakes that passed
from hand to hand throughout India, to the wonder of the Europeans, until the outbreak
of the great mutiny threw a sudden and lurid glow of light upon their meaning, and all
that it involved.
Symbolism may make itself felt in several ways. There may be symbolism of action,
of language, of colour, form, or number. It is in these three latter directions that symbolism
is most ordinarily encountered in ornamental art; for though the Moors, for example,
delight greatly in religious, poetic, and sententious phrases, and introduce them largely
in their ornament, the Cuﬁc letters entwining very ingeniously and happily with the
conventional foliage employed, this must be considered an exceptional use, and one that
we can better consider in our remarks on inscriptions and writing forms, as an element
in design.
Symbolism of action may be seen in the solemn burying of the hatchet and the smoking
of the pipe of peace, in the eating of bread and salt, or in the passing of the loving-cup
at the banquets of the more civilised. It may be very beautifully seen in the touching
custom of the Seneca Indians of North America, where, on the death of a young girl of
the tribe, her companions each get, if possible, a young bird, and cherish it till it is strong


EARLY CHRISTIAN ART 23
enough to ﬂy. It is then taken to the grave of the loved and lost, and with many a kiss
' and fond caress released, from a belief that it will not stay its ﬂight until in the dim
spirit land it has delivered to the departed its load of loving remembrance. \Ve may see
it, too, running throughout the rites of the Levitical priesthood, abounding, as these do, in
types and shadows, emblems and symbols. \/Ve need here only refer to the incident of the
scapegoat, a story so familiar that we dwell no longer on it, nor pause to deduce the inner
meaning of the act.
Symbolism of language, in addition to its use, as already mentioned, by the Moors, is
largely met with amongst various semi-civilised races, and is more especially characteristic
of that period in a people's history. The languages of the Indians of North America,
and of the New Zealanders, for instance, are largely indebted to these allusions for their
force. It is also a very conspicuous feature in the languages of the Eastern races. Biblical
examples may very commonly be met -with; as in the blessing given to Jacob, “With corn
and wine have I sustained him," corn, the source of the staff of life, and wine to make glad
the heart of man, being selected as symbolising the general material and temporal prosperity
which the expression was meant to convey. Or again, “There shall come forth a rod out of
the tree of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots."
Of the three art-applications, form, colour, and number, the ﬁrst is decidedly the most
important. We shall therefore apply ourselves in the ﬁrst place to its consideration, reserving
for awhile the other and less weighty points; and further at present limiting it, as we
have already said, to a consideration of animal form alone.
In Christian art the ﬁsh is one of the earliest forms we meet with, being found, and
very freely, in the catacombs of Rome. Rome, like many other cities, was built of the
stone furnished on its site, the supply of material for many hundreds of years being derived
from beneath the surface on which the city actually stood; hence the ground is largely
honeycombed with vaults and passages stretching to now unknown distances. These
quarries, on their disuse, became the asylum of the early church, a retreat during life, a
quiet resting-place at death, for those who escaped the famished lion or the consuming
ﬂame. In the persecution under Diocletian several hundreds took refuge here, and being
closely pressed were all slain. Stephen, Xystus, and Caius, bishops of the early church,
suffered martyrdom here; and here, too, during the persecutions under Nero, Trajan, Domitian,
Adrian, Aurelius, Diocletian, Maximinian, and several others, thousands fell, and were
buried by their companions on the withdrawal of the Roman soldiers. In niches cut tier
above tier in the rocky walls are found the remains of countless numbers of this noble
army of martyrs, their resting-places being ordinarily covered with a slab of rock, and on
this frequently an inscription or rude symbolic form.
We cannot now presume to positively deﬁne the motives that led to the symbolic use
of the ﬁsh in Christian art. It is curious that the letters of the Greek word for ﬁsh are
also the initial letters of the words Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour, while
Tertullian, and several others of the early writers, suggest a new train of thought, since
they frequently term their converts pisciculi, in allusion to their new life through the
waters of baptism. In some instances the ﬁsh may have been rudely carved on the slab
in token that the deceased was a ﬁsherman or sailor, but as signs that clearly refer to
the worldly occupations are few in number, while the ﬁsh-form is very abundant, we may,
we think, in most cases at least, very reasonably assume that it was employed as a symbol,
not in the lower, but in the higher, sense. The crossed ﬁsh, shown in Fig. 1'73, is an


24 PRINCIPLES OF ORNA./IIENTAL ARI".
early and good example of the treatment often adopted. In the works of the early
illuminators many examples of the use of the ﬁsh will be found, in some cases as an
accessory, while at other times the ﬂexibility of the creature is taken advantage of in the:
formation of entire letters : a letter C may be composed entirely of the ﬁsh-form, while two in
combination are used to form the letter O. Many examples of these grotesque letters
may be seen in any good standard work on illumination, or, better still, on consultation
of the original MSS. in our national collections, and the rich libraries of our own and
continental cathedrals. Though the vesica form based on the ﬁsh-form is still used in
ecclesiastical architecture, and throughout the English and continental styles of Gothic,
the natural representation of the ﬁsh disappeared about the ﬁfteenth century, and the cross
deﬁnitely took its place as the sole and universal symbol of the Christian faith.
The ﬁsh was a very favourite symbol of the Egyptians, owing, like the Lotus plant,
its importance to its association with the sacred river Nile, the source of the fertility
and consequent prosperity of the land. In Fig. I 35 we have an example from an ancient
Egyptian source, a plate in the museum at Berlin, of the use of both these symbols. Apart
from its symbolic import, the design is in itself quaint and pleasing. The reader will notice
that though there are apparently three complete ﬁsh, one head and one eye are common
to them all. Certain species were accounted sacred, the la,-tidutus, martes, oxyr/zz'nc/ms, and
p/zagrus, and these it was profanation to touch. The oxyr/zinc/zus is still very commonly
met with in the Nile, and .is easily recognisable from its long and sharply-pointed head,
a feature that readily assists its identiﬁcation in the bronzes, sculptures, and paintings of
the Egyptians. It was one of the symbols of the goddess Athor, who held a parallel
place in Egyptian mythology to that of Venus among the Greeks, and several specimens
of it have been found embalmed at Thebes. The ﬁsh, in its various speciﬁc forms, was
not only represented in the paintings, but, like the smmémus, was made into little charms
or trinkets, and worn on the person; hence examples are not uncommon, for these little
charms, having a religious signiﬁcance, were frequently placed on the body of the deceased,
and are therefore often found on the opening of a place of sepulture.
The great god Dagon of the Philistines was, like the sphinx and many other symbols,
of a composite nature, being partly human, partly ﬁsh-like." Fig. 193 will enable our
readers to form an idea of its character. It is from the deeply interesting series of Assyrian
sculptures that we are so fortunate in possessing among the other treasures of our national
museum. It will be remembered that it was during a great sacriﬁce to this idol that the
captive Samson was brought forth in mockery; for in the inspired word we read that
“The lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacriﬁce unto Dagon
their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our
hand. And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god
hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who multiplied
our slain. And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for
Samson, that he may make us sport” (Judges xvi. 23, 24, 25). It was this Dagon, too,
that fell before the captive Ark of God at Ashdod, and was broken in pieces. “Only
the ﬁshy part of Dagon was left unto him." \-'e need not quote the story in full. Any
who care to follo out the narrative can do so on turning to I Samuel, v. In the case of
many composite ﬁgures we are able to detect the motive that inﬂuenced the combination,
some noble attribute of an animal, as the strength and generosity of the lion, being united
with the intellect of the man; but we confess ourselves quite unable to suggest what hidden


EARLY CIIRISTIAN ART. 25
meaning may have been symbolised to his worshippers by the ﬁgure of Dagon, the com-
bination being a most unusual one. The sphinx form is very commonly met with in ancient
art, and more especially in Egyptian and Greek work. Our student-readers must bear
in mind the marked difference of treatment in the works of these two peoples. With the
Greeks the sphinx is always winged, always woman-headed; while with the Egyptians,
with one exception, it is never winged nor woman-headed, the head being sometimes that
of a man, at others that of an animal; hence archaeologists speak of the androsphinx,
criosphinx, hieracosphinx, to distinguish these various modiﬁcations of the form in Egyptian
art. The one exception to the otherwise universal law that regulated the Egyptian form
is seen in a woman-headed sphinx sculptured on the throne of Horus, a king of the
eighteenth dynasty, but the inscription on it shows that it is intended to represent his royal
consort, and thus a very curious and unique deviation of the rule is accounted for.
Among the Greeks and Romans the dolphin, represented in a very conventional way,
was accepted as one of the symbols of Neptune, and therefore of maritime power. Fig.
134, an illustration of its use, and of the suppression of natural fact to suit artistic require-
ments, is from a shield painted on a Greek vase; the original is in the British Museum.
Fig. 183 is from a piece of inlay work from a Milanese chimney-piece, while Fig. 2o0, a
still more conventional treatment, is from a piece of Renaissance carving. The artists of
the Renaissance not only embodied the main principles of classic art in their compositions,
but also freely introduced literal copies of ornamental and other details; hence the constant
recurrence of forms essentially heathen in their associations. The dolphin frequently
occurs on the various forms of majolica ware.
The serpent, as a symbol of sin, is naturally, from the direct reference to it in the
Scriptures, a very early form. In many old illustrations representing the Temptation in
Eden it is represented with a human head. In the coins of Constantine, the ﬁrst Christian
Emperor, the sacred monogram surmounts a standard, the whole being placed on a serpent, to
symbolise the ﬁnal victory of Christianity over paganism. It is very remarkable to notice
that though the early Christians were disciplined in so severe a school, and with the
possibility of a violent death hanging over them continually, a possibly swift release on
the spot through death, or the temptations, the taunts, the bribes, the scofﬁngs of the
judgment-hall, the lonely death in the darkness of the dungeon, or the passage from life
temporal to life eternal, amidst the cries of the thousands who pitilessly thronged the
amphitheatre to see the followers of this new religion torn to pieces in the arena by the
lions, their lives seem to have been singularly child-like in their faith. They walked as
seeing Him who is invisible; spiritual strength triumphed over bodily weakness; to them
death had no terror. One inscription commemorates “the sleeping-place of Elpis," while
from another we learn that “ Porcella sleeps here in peace." We look in vain for any
representation of the evil spirit or his kingdom, though in the Middle Ages we ﬁnd both
represented with every accuracy of morbid horror. Hell is generally with the mediaevals
the yawning mouth of a huge monster breathing smoke and ﬂame, or a large cauldron set
on ﬂames, into either of which attendant spirits hurl their victims, and often with a grim
touch ot humour, and bitterness of satire, we ﬁnd some of these with kingly crowns, and
monks’ cowls, and bishops’ mitres. It is curious to note that when the Spaniards
entered the city of Mexico they found that the doorway of the temple of the god
of the air was made like the mouth of a serpent or dragon, painted, to quote one
of their chronicles, “with foule and devilish gestures, with great gums and teeth wrought,
E


26 PRINCIPLES OF ORIVA/IIEJVTAL ART
-which was a thing to feare those that should enter in thereat, and especially the Christians,
unto whom it represented very hell, with that ugly face and those monstrous teeth."
Reptile forms seem to exercise a peculiar fascination. The tortoise, lizard, and crocodile
are in some countries objects of worship as incarnations of Deity. It is a tortoise, our readers
will remember, that, according to Hindu belief, sustains our world, though what sustains
the tortoise has never we believe been satisfactorily settled; while the serpent in almost
every country is an object of dread, a creature to be propitiated, and in the early period
of most nations an object of worship. It is an especially common form in ancient Mexican
and Egyptian art. In Figs. 174, 178, I79, 180, 181, we have a series of examples from old
Mexican MSS. The ﬁrst of these may possibly represent the expulsion of the evil principle
from heaven, or the erratic course of a comet through the starry ﬁrmament into space
and the outer darkness. Both explanations have occurred to our own mind, and as, owing
to our ignorance of the language in which the accompanying inscriptions are given, the
whole matter is purely one of conjecture, we content ourselves with offering our readers
both suggestions, leaving them to favour one or the other, or to develop fresh ones in
explanation of the enigma. The asp, sacred to Ranno and Neph, and the horned snake,
Fig. 172, supposed to have been dedicated to Amun, are both frequently represented in
Egyptian art, and embalmed specimens are deposited in the tombs of Thebes. Fig. I88,
.curiously like Fig. 181, the Mexican treatment, is from an Egyptian papyrus in the British
Museum. We have in Fig. 198 an Egyptian illustration not merely of the serpent but of
its worship.
The Jews, ever prone to fall into idolatry, at one time made an image of a calf, a
form that was no doubt suggested to them by the Apis worship that had grown familiar to
their eyes in Egypt, and we afterwards ﬁnd them worshipping the serpent. It will be
remembered that the Israelites, giving utterance to seditious murmurings at the place called
afterwards Zalmona, z'.e., the place of the image, were assailed by ﬁery serpents, and that
Jehovah, at the prayer of the people, instructed Moses to make a serpent of brass for the
deliverance of the people, as narrated in the Book of Numbers, chap.xxi. This memorial
of their wonderful deliverance, at ﬁrst preserved with religious care as a monument of God's
goodness, became ultimately itself an object of adoration, until Hezekiah, purifying the
nation of the idolatry into which it had for a long time sank, “removed the high places, and
brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that
Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he
called it Nehushtan," a contemptuous name, signifying a “piece of brass," in order to show
that having fulﬁlled its providential purpose it possessed no inherent sanctity.
Insect forms appear but little in symbolic art. The most conspicuous instance is found
in the constant recurrence of the scarabaeus, or sacred beetle, in Egypt. It was dedicated
to the sun and to Pthah. Numerous examples of it will be found in any good museum
in the scope of which archaeology at all enters; as, besides being sculptured or painted
in mural decoration or papyri, as in Fig. 221, it was largely worn as a charm, little ﬁgures
of it being made in metal or glazed earthenware, and these are found, like the small ﬁsh
symbols, already referred to, in great abundance in the tombs. The scarabaeus is often
placed on the breast of the mummy, or on the inclosing cartonage, an emblem of the
protection of Deity. The common watchman, or dor-beetle, the Geotrupes stercorarius
of naturalists, the “shard-borne” beetle of the poet, is very similar both in appearance and
instincts to the sacred beetle of the ancient Egyptians.


BIRD-FORMS AS SYMBOLS 27
The butterﬂy is but rarely seen in early work, for though the Greek word for the
butterﬂy and the spirit of life is the same-—psyc/ze—yet, owing to the imperfect idea of
all pre-Christian races, except the Jews, as to the immortality of the soul, much of the
force of the symbol was in those early days lost; while in even later times, owing to a
want of study of the lower forms of nature, the analogy between the spirit of life and the
butterﬂy—ﬁrst appearing as a creeping toiling caterpillar, its span of existence apparently
over, burying itself in the earth a seemingly lifeless chrysalis, ﬁnally at the appointed season
soaring above its tomb into the sunlight, the perfect insect—-was not perceived ; as throughout
the Middle Ages little attention, worthy the name, was paid to the study of natural history,
and the few grains of truth acquired were lost amidst the mass of error, “ travellers’
tales,” and old wives’ fables. In some few examples, however, of Greek art, the butterﬂy
is represented as hovering over the dead. The fabled Phoenix rising from its ashes is
another symbol of the resurrection of the dead, found from time to time throughout the
whole range of mediaeval art.
The dragon, another fabulous monster, like the hydra, represents the principle of evil;
hence dragon-slaying is, in mythical story, the hero's task, a labour of Hercules, the task
of Perseus, the chivalrous duty of St. George. In some old representations of the Tempter
he is shown as a winged serpent, or dragon, resting on the shoulder of a man, or hovering
by him, and whispering suggestions of evil in his ear. In China the dragon is the symbol
of the imperial power, and Chinese art abounds with representations of dragon-forms,
grotesquely, morbidly horrible. Many examples may be seen in the ceramic ware and
bronzes fabricated by the Celestials, and preserved in the South Kensington and other
collections.
Passing now to bird-forms, we ﬁnd among the Egyptians several species held
sacred. Of these the ibis occupies the highest place, being dedicated to Thoth. Numerous
embalmed specimens have been found at Memphis, Thebes, and Hermopolis: some of
these may now be seen in the British Museum. It is often represented on the sculptures
and paintings. The goose, Fig. I72, was sacred to Seb. The hawk and vulture, Fig.
I72, were sacred to Re and other deities. The vulture (called by the Arabs nissr) was
also the symbol of Nisroch, one of greater deities of the Assyrians. Our readers will
remember that it was while worshipping before the altar of Nisroch, his god, that
Sennacherib, one of the greatest of the Assyrian monarchs, was slain by his sons. A
representation of the ﬁgure is seen in our 201st illustration, derived from the Nineveh
slabs now preserved in the British Museum.
The owl, whose silence and solemnity of expression have been taken as tokens
of the possession of a considerable depth of thought, has thus, like some other bipeds,
cheaply gained great credit for wisdom, and as such is the symbol of Minerva or
Pallas, the goddess of learning and culture. The Greeks worshipped her under the
name of Athene, named their chief city in her honour, and erected the Parthenon for her
service. Pan‘/Leno: is the Greek for maiden, hence the word Parthenon literally means
the Temple of the Virgin. We have in Fig. 170 a representation of the owl from a
Greek coin; the olive introduced is another symbol of the goddess. The treatment is
decidedly archaic. In Tartary, according to Pennant, the owl is equally honoured, though
for another reason. The Mongols and natives almost pay it divine honours, because they
attribute to this bird the preservation of the founder of their empire, Genghis-Khan. That
prince, with his small army, happened to be surprised and put to ﬂight by his enemies,


~ AN!/IIAL-FORMS AS SYMBOLS 29
There is a very ﬁne one at Norwich, and in an old catalogue of the church furniture at
Durham another is mentioned. Dante, in his “ Paradise,” speaks of our Saviour as
“ Nostro pellicano." Fig. 139 is an example of its use in art, taken from some mediaeval
stained glass now in the South Kensington Museum. By the writers of the Old Testament
the pelican is always regarded as a bird of solitude and ill-omen, a symbol of desolation
and ruin; thus, in one of the Psalms, David, in speaking of his troubles, says of himself,
“I am like a pelican of the wilderness, I am like an owl of the desert,” and Zephaniah
says, speaking of the downfall of Assyria and the destruction of the capital city, Nineveh,
that “both the pelican and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice
shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds.” The pelican. was one of
the unclean birds of the Mosaic law.
The eagle, the king of birds, has little, if any, connection with Christian art, except,
as we shall see presently, in one marked particular; but is frequently introduced in the
various periods of art in which heraldic devices form any feature. As the bird of Jove,
it w_as chosen by the Romans as a symbol of their power; it appears largely on their
coinage, and was borne on their standards, or “ eagles," as they were on this account
termed. The eagle, as in our illustration, Fig. I62, ordinarily bears the thunderbolt, another
symbol of Jove. The French, Austrians, Prussians, Russians, and Americans have all
adopted the eagle as a national symbol, some treatments of it, as the French and American,
being naturalistic; others so far conventionalised as to justify its being, like the Russian bird,
double-headed. Fig. 162, .a fairly naturalistic example, is taken from one of the mosaics
in the Church of St. Louis des Invalides, in the crypt of which repose, according to his
wish,* the ashes of the ﬁrst Napoleon. Fig. I99, a highly conventional treatment, is from
some Swiss glass, dating I618, preserved in the magniﬁcent art collections at South
Kensington.
A familiar little bird symbol amongst ourselves is seen in the constant association of
the robin with Christmas; for as surely as the year draws to its close, the familiar emblem
ﬁgures on cards, magazine covers, et /Qoc genus omne, as a sign and a reminder that Yule-
tide is rapidly approaching.
Among the higher animals fewer examples of symbolic 'use occur than we should,
judging by their diversity of disposition, have supposed: for while in popular estimation the
pig not unworthily represents gluttony; the ass, stupidity; the fox, craft; the dog, ﬁdelity;
and the horse, strength; but little use is made in ornamental art of several of these; though
many of our readers will no doubt be able to recall isolated examples, as in the case of
the dog at the feet of the efﬁgy of many a Crusader in our cathedrals and old abbey-
churches. Mummies of the dog are frequently met with in Upper Egypt; it was one of the
animals dedicated to Anubis. We may mention in passing that the dog was one of the
unclean animals of the Jews; and though, owing to their great value as scavengers, they
are tolerated in Eastern towns, there is a strong prejudice against them, any contact with
them being a deﬁlement. The Mohammedans have a similar feeling, based upon several
passages of the Koran—as, for instance, that whosoever keeps a dog, except for the
protection of his cattle, for hunting, or for guarding his com-ﬁelds, will in the future life
suffer diminution of his reward; while in another place the prophet afﬁrms that angels will
not enter a household wherein there is a dog.
' “Je désire que mes cendres reposent sur les bords de la Seine, au milieu de ce peuple Francais que j"ai tant aimé.”
The inscription over the entrance to the tomb.


SYMBOLS COMMON TO EARLY PERIODS OF ARI! 3;
penalty that, according to the Egyptian code, at all met the enormity of killing any of
the animals; and during the occupation of Egypt by the Romans some hundreds of the
conquerors were slain in a popular tumult, one of the legionaries having killed a cat. The
hippopotamus, Fig. 182, a little ﬁgure from the Museum of Economic Geology, London,
the pig, and ass, were symbolic of Typho, the evil spirit.
In Christian art the lion is employed as an emblem of strength, majesty, and fortitude;
or, in an evil sense, as referring to him who “walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour.” It is sometimes used as a symbol of the second person of the
Trinity, in allusion to such passages as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath conquered."
The great use, however, of the lion in religious art is as the symbol of St. Mark; the
angel, the lion, the ox, and the eagle being the four forms especially devoted to the four
Evangelists, and in the order mentioned: thus, St. Matthew has the angel; St. Luke, the
ox ; St. ]ohn, the eagle.
As some of our readers may, on commencing these studies, ﬁnd a certain difﬁculty in
remembering the appropriate symbol of each person, they will ﬁnd the following mechanical
aid to memory very useful :—If the word aloe be taken, it will be found to be composed
of the initial letters of the four symbols, angel, lion, ox, eagle, and in their proper order for
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This key-word will at once solve any further difﬁculty.
These four ﬁgures, the man or angel, the lion, ox, and eagle, are in a marked degree
common to almost all early periods of art. Thus, in Egypt, we ﬁnd the sphinx human,
and hawk or eagle-head, or l-eonine in character; while in the Assyrian remains we are
confronted by bulls or lions with human heads, or ﬁgures in human form, but with the
wings and heads of eagles. The four creatures seen in the wonderful vision of the prophet
Ezekiel were of this nature, for he expressly says in his description that they were similar
to\ those he‘ had seen while a captive by the river Chebar—a river of Assyria that runs
into the Euphrates about two hundred miles north of Babylon—whither he and the great
bulk of his nation were carried by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, 721 years before the
Christian era: the Assyrian sculptures, therefore, must have been familiar in appearance
to him and to those to whom he was sent to prophesy. In the Apocalyptic vision, seen
by St. John at Patmos, of the mysterious creatures adoring ceaselessly before the throne, the
ﬁrst we read was like a calf, the second like a lion, the third creature had a face as a man, and
the fourth was as a ﬂying eagle. Probably it was upon these two passages of Scripture that
the Evangelistic symbols were based. St. Jerome and St. Ambrose assert in their writings
that these four creatures represent, through the Evangelists, our Lord under four aspects.
Wyckliffe, in his translation of the New Testament published in 1380, refers to the
beliefs of both these older writers. His English is almost too quaint for direct quotation,
but the substance of it is that Matthew is represented as a man or angel, inasmuch as
he dwells chieﬂy, in his gospel, upon the manhood of Christ; Mark is represented as the
lion, as he treats most fully of His rising again; Luke is represented as the ox, writing'
as he does more especially concerning the sacriﬁce and the priesthood; while John is the
eagle, as he passes in his writings over many of the little details given by the other
Evangelists, and dwells most lovingly on the Sacrament and holy mysteries. Another theory
on which he touches slightly differs from this, as it sees in the life of our Saviour himself
four great incidents which the forms symbolise—the man referring to His human birth, the
sacriﬁcial ox to His death on the Cross, the lion to His resurrection, and the eagle to His
ascension into heaven.


32 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ARI.
In the Cathedral of Messina is a very large lectern, having a central stem surmounted by
the pelican, and four lateral arms, each terminating in an evangelistic symbol, upon which the
books rest, so that each gospel is read from its appropriate place. This lectern is well
ﬁgured in Sir Digby Wyatt's book on metal-work. We need give no other examples, as
instances are so numerous that very slight research will sufﬁce to discover numerous
illustrations. In early work the animals stand alone, an inscribed book or scroll being
occasionally added; in later times the Evangelists are represented as men, each being
accompanied by the appropriate symbol.
The human form, under various grotesque modiﬁcations, is frequently introduced in
Gothic work. Our 194th il1ustration—
“A hugye giaunt stiffe and starke,
All foule of limbe and lere ;
Two goggling eyen like fardcn,
A mouth from eare to eare—”
is a very fair example of this Middle Age spirit. In some cases probably these ﬁgures are
symbolic of evil passions: in others, satirical; in some, no doubt merely grotesque and
quaint from play of fancy, and having no ulterior and hidden meaning.
The human form was sometimes employed in a sense half symbolic, half historic;
such as in rude sculpture, sometimes met with in early work, of such a subject as the ﬁnding
of Moses amidst the reeds of the Nile, where the idea of baptism was intended to be
brought out, as well as the historic fact; so, too, with the crossing of the Red Sea by the
Israelites—primarily, the historic fact; secondarily, the chosen people of God of all ages and
peoples entering, through baptism, the Land of Promise. These subjects, and many others
thus treated, are to be met with in the catacombs we have already so frequently had occasion
to refer to. In the church at Adijerat, in Abyssinia, the painting of the crossing of the
Red Sea is noticeable not only as an interesting link between the Eastern and Western
Churches, but also on account of its treatment, as the principal characters are made much
larger in size than the subordinate actors in the scene—a very common feature in
early art, and more especially noticeable in Egyptian, Assyrian, Hindoo, and Mexican work.
The rank and ﬁle of Pharaoh’s army are armed with muskets of the muzzle-loader or
“ Brown Bess ” pattern. _
We occasionally, and more especially on the continent, meet with two curious ﬁgures
representing the Jewish and the Christian Churches. The Jewish is represented as blinded,
a veil being over her eyes: in one hand she bears the tables of the law, in the other a
drooping banner on a broken staff. The other ﬁgure wears the crown, holding in one hand
a chalice, the pledge of communion with her Lord, and in the other the once despised cross,
the symbol of her faith and power. Good examples of these ﬁgures may be seen at
Strasburg Cathedral.
In mediaeval work the soul of man is represented either in human or angelic form;
generally as a little naked child issuing from the mouth of the dying person—“Naked came
I into the world, and naked shall I return again ;" sometimes draped—“C1othed upon with
the robe and righteousness of God ;" sometimes issuing as a little black imp or ﬁend. In
most cases good and bad angels stand by to receive it and to contest its possession.
The second person of the Trinity is frequently represented as a lamb, in allusion to
such passages as “ He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter ;” or, “Behold the Lamb of
God." The symbol is known as the Agnus Dei. The Holy Spirit, as we have seen, is


BYZANTINE ART 33
symbolised by the dove; while the ﬁrst person of the Trinity is rarely represented. In early
MSS., &c., the eye or the arm of the Lord are sometimes shown amidst the clouds that
veil the brightness of the Divine Majesty. Many passages of Scripture refer to these, and
they are therefore often made use of as symbols. The frequent allusions in the Old Testament
to the hand and the arm of the Lord as the instrument of His sovereign power—such as,
“His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory ;” or of His might in
creation, as, “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me ;" of His goodness to the
creatures He has made, “Thou openest Thy hands, they are ﬁlled with good ;" and of His
justice, “The works of His hand are verity and judgment"—are sufﬁcient to show the
wideness of the scope in which such a symbol could be used, and thus clearly to
account for its very frequent recurrence. During the ﬁrst eleven centuries these were the
only symbols employed; later, a head, or the entire ﬁgure, was shown, but with not nearly
so grand and impressive an effect as that produced on the mind by the more reverential
treatment of the subject.
Byzantine art, essentially symbolic in its nature, affords in its mosaics for mural
decoration many excellent and instructive illustrations. Numerous beautiful examples of mosaic
may be seen in St. Mark’s, Venice, and other Italian churches, and it is to this day employed in
the adornment of the churches of the Greek faith throughout Russia; the semicircular apse at
the end of the building, and the domes and pointed roofs so characteristic of Byzantine
architecture, being covered with ﬁgures of the Deity, of angels and archangels, saints and
prophets, confessors and martyrs. Christ and His followers are never represented as
militant and sorrowing; the former things have passed away—the eternal glory of Christ and
of His chosen ones is alone represented. He is no more the homeless wanderer, the reviled,
the cruciﬁed, but the Christ we read of in the grand language of the Apocalypse, whose
voice is as the sound of many waters, and His countenance as the sun shining in his strength.
“ I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.” The effect of these
mosaics, their brilliancy partly subdued by the dim light and the dust and stain of time, is
very grand. I-low far such, with their accompanying elaborate ritual, impressive architecture,
and noble music, are in accordance with man's religious obligations-—whether the simple
building, unadorned in any way, is best adapted to pure .worship, or that where men have
freely given their noblest and best to adorn His sanctuary-—is a question which, weighty as it
is, we do not here and now feel called upon to decide either for ourselves or our readers-
Wherever the Byzantine inﬂuence has made itself felt, the ﬁgures are introduced with great
rigidity of position, and frequently attenuated to a degree out of all due proportion. It is
curious that, throughout the art of Christian mosaic, the proﬁle or side view of the face is, so
far as we are aware, never shown : the subject of the mosaic is always represented as directly
facing the spectator. In Assyrian and Egyptian art, with some few exceptions, the direct
reverse is seen.
For nearly a thousand years, from the fourth century after Christ till the revival of
tempera painting in the schools of Cimabue and Giotto, mosaic was almost exclusively
employed for wall decorations, and during at least four centuries—namely, from the ﬁfth to the
ninth—entirely superseded all other methods. But for these mosaics, therefore, the course of
pictorial art would have been broken; and though for their own inherent merits the loss would
in many cases have been but small, as the execution was frequently coarse, and the subjects
ill-drawn, yet, as links in the long chain of art, and as illustrations of the beliefs, doctrinal and
legendary, of the early ages of the Christian Church, they possess an extreme value akin to that
F Jf


34 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART
of the touching memorials of the primitive Christians which, as we have seen, cover the walls of
the long subterranean galleries of ancient Rome. In \Vestern art the ﬁgures were generally on
a white or blue ground; in Eastern, on a ground of gold. In the thirteenth century many
whose names are famous as those of great painters worked also in mosaic; thus,
Cimabue, primarily an artist in the more familiar sense of the word, directed the execution
of a mosaic at Pisa ; Giotto also, and many other celebrated Florentines, practised this branch
of art. The workers in mosaic could not, however, compete with the great masters of fresco-
painting, and having served its purpose well in the past, mosaic gave place to the new art;
though it was still employed by the successive popes in the decoration of St. Peter's, as we
may in these latter days see its revival amongst ourselves in our own metropolitan cathedral.
In the seventeenth century thin slips of enamel of various forms and sizes were introduced,
and from the wonderful variety of colour then accessible to the artist, and the minuteness of the
fragments employed, mosaic again rose into favour, and was brought to great excellence. It
was then employed to render an important service to art, in the reproduction of the celebrated
works of the great artists of the past, the ﬁnest pictures in the Vatican—many of them fading
from the effects of time—being- copied in mosaic for the Cathedral of St. Peter. Such
reproductions, though naturally inferior to the original works, since they fail to render the
handling of the masters, give some fair idea of their colouring, and are valuable as giving the
composition. In this way frescoes of Raphaelle, Da Vinci, and other great masters, which
were decaying through the dampness of the walls upon which they were painted, have been
translated into a material which no length of time will have power to affect, and which may,
so long as the fabric endures within which it is placed, be deemed imperishable ; but, as may
easily be credited, the labour and expenditure of time and money have been tremendous,
some of the more elaborate subjects thus reproduced having been in hand eighteen to
twenty years.
We would, in concluding this branch of our subject, warmly advise the student who reads
our remarks not to rest satisﬁed with the little that we have here been able to set before him,
but to carry his investigations very considerably further than the necessary limits imposed on
our pleasant labours will here allow. Many excellent books—as, for instance, those of Jameson
and Twining—are published on the subject, and these the novice will do well to consult; but
above all, let him by personal investigation and research, note-book in hand, ﬁnd examples for
himself; he will ﬁnd a feeling of reality attaching to these that no book illustration will be
able to afford. Some good evangelistic symbols occur on stained glass in the South
Kensington Museum. The National Gallery is a valuable storehouse of examples; so, too,
the magniﬁcent collection of MSS. in the British Museum, while, for pursuing the subject
amongst the remains of an earlier period, the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek collections in
the national collection afford equally ample facilities.


36 PRINCIPLES OF OR./VAZIIENTAL A1871
of Cyril abound with illustrations of this subordination of the literal and historic reading to a
desire to see mystic and allegorical signiﬁcance. As one more example, and this time from
the Middle Ages, we would quote a short passage from a book by Bishop Durandus, who died
A.D. 1296. The book is in great part devoted to an explanation of the subtle meanings that
he avers are to be found running throughout the fabric of the Church, using the term in its
most literal sense. Every little thing, even to the composition of the mortar, is here made of
extreme importance. Of this we need give but one instance, the .bell-rope, a useful but
unobtrusive piece of church furniture which hitherto, we are persuaded, has been to our
readers but a convenient means of ringing the bell that summons the congregation to the
church service. The old monk, however, sitting in the twilight of the abbey belfry, sees much
more in it than this. To him “the hanging rope by which the bell is pulled is humility, or the
life of the preacher ; the same rope also showeth us the measure of our own life. Besides this,
since the rope hath its beginning from the word upon which the bell hangeth, by which is to be
understood the cross (a point which, to his own satisfaction, at least, he had proved in a
preceding chapter), it doth thus rightly typify Holy Scripture, which doth ﬂow down from
the word of the Holy Cross. As also the rope is composed of three strands, so doth the
Holy Scripture consist of a trinity-—namely, of history, allegory, and morality. Again, the rope
reacheth unto the hands by which it is grasped, because Scripture ought to proceed unto good
works. Also, the raising and lowering of the rope in ringing doth denote that Holy Scripture
speaketh sometimes of high matters, sometimes of low; or that the preacher speaketh
sometimes lofty things for the sake of some, and sometimes condescendeth for the sake of
others. Again, the priest draweth the rope downwards when he, from contemplation,
descendeth into active life, but is himself drawn upwards when, under the teaching of
Scripture he is raised in contemplation." The works of Durandus have been translated into
English from the quaint monkish Latin of the original ; they are therefore accessible to any of
our readers who may care to see to what lengths a morbid and unhealthy state of imagination
can travel. True symbol, in expressing great truths, must, while pleasantly stimulating the
mind and the imaginative faculties, in achieving this aim speak a language not unreadily
to be comprehended, or it misses its mark, and has no longer a reason for its existence.
Vi/'e turn now our attention to a brief investigation of the use of colour in a symbolic sense.
A given colour, it must, however, be premised, may be used in either a good or a bad sense,
according to the subject represented. I/Ve cannot, therefore, assign any positive meaning to
it unless we also take into consideration the circumstances under which we meet with it.
In old Gothic work, yellow signiﬁed love and wisdom. The Moors by golden yellow
understood wise and good counsel; by pale yellow, deceit and fraud. In France, during
the reign of Francis I., A.D. I515, the doors of traitors and felons were daubed yellow. In
Spain the dresses of the state executioners were red and yellow—yellow to indicate the
treason, and red its punishment. Judas, thief and traitor, in old glass painting and
illumination is generally known by his soiled yellow robes; and at the establishment of
the Inquisition under Ferdinand and Isabella, the victims were brought out to die clad
in long, coarse woollen robes dyed yellow, and stamped over in red with crosses and waving
ﬂames. Yellow and white, when represented by gold or silver, the precious metals, are
always employed in a good and honourable sense. Thus the Jews, in making themselves a
molten image in similitude of a calf—a thing in itself abominable—nevertheless, seeing that it
was to be to them as a god, made it of solid gold; while the golden image of N ebuchadnezzar
affords a very parallel case, since he probably erected it as a symbol of the glory and
U
11


S Y/IIBOLISAI OF C OLO UR. 3 7
power of his kingdom, and in impious deﬁance of the vision wherein he saw a man having
a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, thighs of brass, and legs of iron; the golden
head being interpreted to mean the present glory of his kingdom, so soon to be followed
by the sway of the Medes—as typiﬁed by the silver breast and arms—while these, again,
must in turn give way to the Macedonians, and in the end the land would pass beneath the
iron sway of Rome. Gold and silver are frequently mentioned in the Bible in enhancement
of honour: thus the ﬁrst-fruits of the people of Israel were offered at the temple in baskets
of silver; while in another place we read that a word ﬁtly spoken is like apples of gold. in
a basket of silver. The Psalmist, speaking of Jerusalem, says: “Yet shall ye be as the wings of
a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold." It is curious to notice that
though in heraldry it is a ﬁxed rule that metal shall never be blazoned on metal, nor colour on
colour, an exception was made when, after the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, it was
thought necessary to assign arms to it, these arms being ﬁve golden crosses on a ﬁeld
of silver. The following passages, if studied with the context, will be found to be further
illustrations; and the reader may easily increase them very largely in number for himself, if
he cares to do so :—“ The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, puriﬁed seven times” (Psalm xii. 6). “We will make thee borders of gold with studs
of silver ” (Song of Sol. i. 11). “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the ﬁre, that thou
mayest be rich " (Rev. iii. I8).
White has in every age been accepted as the symbol of purity, holiness, and innocence. In
Egypt the great divinity Osiris, the judge of the living and the dead, wore a white coronet,
and the priests, when engaged in his service, wore robes of white. In Greece the priests
of Jupiter were robed in white; so, too, the Vestal Virgins, the Brahmins of India, and
the Druids of our own early national history. In the Bible we read many passages that
conﬁrm and carry forward the same idea: the sins that are as scarlet that shall be made
white as the snow; and the great army that no man can number, of every people and tongue
and nation, standing before the eternal throne, and clothed in spotless white. In the early
ages of the Christian Church the rite of baptism was ordinarily administered either on
Easter Day or VVhit Sunday—the day on which the apostles commenced their public
ministry by the baptism of three thousand converts to the faith. As symbolic of the spiritual
purity involved in the rite, those who received it were clothed in white. It has hence been
conjectured, and with great probability, that the term Whit Sunday is really only a modiﬁcation
of White Sunday, though according to some writers the word is derived from the Saxon
witle, or wisdom—referring to the gifts of the Holy Spirit that descended on the apostles
on the Day of Pentecost. In Roman Catholic countries, the little delicate snowdrop, as a
symbol of purity, is often employed to deck the altars of the virgin-mother of Christ. In
the “ F aéry Queene" of Spenser Faith is thus allegorically portrayed :-—
“She was arrayed all in lily white,
And in her right hand bore a cup of gold,
\Vith wine and water ﬁlled up to the height,
In which a serpent did himself enfold,
That horror made to all that did behold ;
But she no whit did change her constant mood.”
VVe have given the passage at some little length as, in addition to the point we more
especially desired to bring forward, a further symbolic meaning may be seen, in the introduc-
tion of the serpent in the golden cup —an emblem of that dire perplexity and mystery of


38 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART
iniquity, the presence of sin in even the holiest duties—but which fails, as we may see
in the last line. to be a terror, or to shake the constancy of Faith. White, in a bad sense,
is the symbol of a craven fear—arising, probably, from the blanched cheek that indicates
in any peril the fainting spirit. \¢Ve see this application of the idea in the familiar
expression “ showing the white feather." '
Red, as applied to spiritual virtues, signiﬁed an ardent love, a burning zeal for the
faith; in mundane virtues, energy and courage ; in an evil sense, cruelty and blood-guiltiness—
“ And lo ! the universal air
Seemed lit with ghastly ﬂame-
Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes
Vi/ere looking down in b1ame.”— T /ze Dream oflfugenz A ram.
In China red is consecrated to the service of religion.
is a further illustration of the symbolic use of the colour.
Green—the characteristic colour of the spring-time, when all nature appears to revive
again, when the days of sunshine are growing more frequent, and in the bursting buds and
blossoms we see the promise of the fruits of the earth in due season—is naturally associated
with hope; while, in conclusion, black expresses the sense of sadness or sin—
The crimson cross of the Crusader
“ Oh, heaven ! to think of their white Souls,
And mine so black and grim !”
In some old MSS. our Saviour, during the temptation in the wilderness, is clothed
in a black robe. Black is the natural expression of the material darkness and gloom that
follows the withdrawal of the cheering light of day—the natural emblem of the spiritual
darkness of the soul into which no day-star has yet dawned: we see, therefore, how appropriately
the expression “Prince of darkness" is applied to the arch-tempter—the great enemy of the
Vi/hite and black, when used together, signify purity of life and humiliation, and
were in this sense adopted by the Dominican and Carmelite monkish orders. The Caliphs
of the House of Abbas, when marching to exterminate the hated inﬁdel, had borne before
them two black standards, called allegorically the Night and the Shadow~symbols of the
unpitying ferocity that fell on all those that would not join the ranks and religion of Islam; and
many of our readers will no doubt remember what an interest they felt in their younger days in
the adventures of the pirates that, sailing under a sable banner embellished with skull and
crossed bones, committed such devastation on the more prosaic merchantmen. In Spain
some of the visiting-cards used are black, with the name in white; these are the cards of
the doctors, and perhaps rather ominously signify their calling.
A good deal of the peculiar sameness which is so striking in looking through any large
collection of Egyptian antiquities (as that in the British Museum) is caused by the ﬁxed
rules under which the artist or sculptor worked, each god having not merely a set form
and series of attributes, with appropriate symbols, but even a ﬁxed arrangement of colours
employed in all representations of him. This gives Egyptian work that marked individuality
of .character as compared with all other styles of art; as the laws of the priesthood, once
established, were immutable, and death was the swift penalty following any attempt at
innovation. Thus the human ﬁgure, or that of any divinity, was always represented in proﬁle,
never in front view; while perhaps a still more curious example of the rigidity of the rules
in which the artist was fettered is seen in the fact that in the hundreds of thousands of
souls of men.


S Y/III? OLISM OF NUMBER. 39
ﬁgures sculptured or depicted in a standing or walking attitude, the left leg is invariably
placed in advance of the right. No statue has ever been found where this rule is reversed.
The line, it will be seen here, is a very thin one that divides orthodoxy from ﬂat heresy.
This remarkable conservatism was maintained even long after Egypt, after many centuries
of independent power, had sank into a Roman province, and the same adherence to rule
was to be seen that had been in force from the very earliest times. Plato, in speaking
of this peculiarity of Egyptian art, says ;—“ The pictures and statues made ten thousand
years ago are in no particular better or worse than those they now make.”
Examples of symbolism of numbers are not so frequently to be met with, or if so, do
not so clearly convey their meaning. The ﬁgure three—such as a three-pointed window,
a trefoil, or triangle, Fig. 187, symbolised the Trinity; four, the Evangelists; six, the
attributes of Deity—power, majesty, love, wisdom, mercy, and justice—hence the common
use of the hexagon in early work; eight, regeneration (the greater number of the old
baptisteries and fonts are on this account octagonal); twelve, the Apostles—hence applied,
in a more extended meaning, to the Church generally. In Fig. I 38 we have an ingenious
arrangement of the circle—type of a never-beginning, never-ending eternity-—and two
equilateral triangles, from a church at Nuremburg; while in Fig. 186 the combination
of arcs symbolises in one ﬁgure, by the actual blending of the curved and continuous
line with a triangular character, the idea embodied in the equilateral triangle and circle—
the Trinity, the Unity, the eternity of Deity.
A very ingenious treatment for giving expression to these articles of faith is often
met with in old glass; the form is shown in Fig. I84. On investigation the reader will
ﬁnd that he has in it all the materials at hand to give utterance to several of the leading
dogmas held throughout Christendom. Should he desire to realise the eternity of
Deity, he ﬁnds it expressed in the circles surrounding the Divine names. Should he wish
to emphasise the individuality of the persons, he will read “Pater non est Filius, Fz'lz'us
mm est Spz'rz'tus, Spz'rz'tus mm est Pater.” Should he wish to grasp the idea of the
equal divinity, he meets with it by reading not as before, from one outer circle to
another, but from the outer to the central circle—“ Pater est Deus, Filius est Deus, S;5z'rz'tus est
Deus." ,
Seven has by old writers been called the number of perfection; and it is curious to
notice how often this idea seems involved in its use. Thus, to quote a few examples,
Balaam, as an effectual test of the will of God, built seven altars, and prepared seven oxen
and seven rams; Job, referring to the effectual protection of Providence, says: “ In seven
troubles there shall no evil touch thee ;" while Jacob, as a sign of perfect submission, bowed
himself seven times before his brother. The sevenfold circuit of Jericho, prior to its
complete overthrow, is another example. Naaman was commanded to bathe seven times
in the Jordan; Samson, for full security, was bound with seven bands; the Jewish Church
has seven great holy-days in each year; the Romish Church has seven sacraments; the
Hindoos believe in seven mansions for all created spirits, the earth being the lowest of
these, while the seventh and highest contains the seat of Brahma; the Moslem prilgrimage
is consummated when seven circuits have been made round the sacred stone at Mecca;
amongst the Romans, children who died before attaining the age of seven months were
denied the ordinary rites; while we may just mention without comment, merely begging
'our readers to bear in mind this idea of perfection, completion, and full satisfaction, the
vengeance that should be taken sevenfold on any who slew the wandering Cain; the seven


PLANT FORMS—THE PALM. 41
furnish numerous illustrations for symbolic teaching: hence the allusions in the Bible to
the withering grass, the fading ﬂower—ﬁt emblems of the short estate of man and the
transience of all his glory; the lilies of the ﬁeld arrayed in a splendour outvying that of
Solomon himself, and teaching a lesson of trust in an all-providing care; the purging with
hyssop; the Divine root and living branches; the parable of the wheat and tares; and the
illustration used by the apostle—the grain sown in the earth—to explain something of the
mystery of the resurrection of the dead.
There is, perhaps, no symbol more universally met with in Christian art than the palm-
branch. It is so essentially a feature in any great rejoicing to deck the place where the
festivities are held with wreaths and garlands, that some symbol of this nature seems only
natural; and the palm, being bold in character, and abundant in those countries that were
the ﬁrst centres of Christianity, became thus selected as a type or symbol of rejoicing, of
triumph over victory won; and it was doubtless the more readily adopted from the
reference in the vision of St. John to the innumerable companies of the beatiﬁed spirits
that, clothed in white robes, bear in their hands the palm-branch. The palm was originally
assigned in art to martyrs alone, but after awhile it became appropriated to all those who
had died in the Christian faith. It is largely used in the catacombs of Rome. Fig. 159
is an early example from this source; in this instance it surrounds what is known as the
sacred monogram-'—a form to be dealt with at greater length in the succeeding chapter,
wherein we shall proceed to consider the use of inscriptions, &c., in ornamental art. The
palm is also met with in Jewish art; thus, in the description of the building of Solomon's
Temple, in the First Book of Kings vi. 29, we read that “he carved all the walls of the
house round about with carved ﬁgures of cherubims and palm-trees and open ﬂowers,
within and without." These plants had doubtless a symbolic meaning. The palm-tree and
vine, either as detached leaves or clusters of fruit, or ears or sheaves of corn, are found
on the Jewish coinage. We have no knowledge of the existence of any coined money
amongst the Jews prior to the captivity. During that period they, however, became familiarised
with the use of that of the Babylonians and Persians, and afterwards with the coinage of
the Greeks and Romans. Their conquerors permitted them, B.C. I40, when really semi-
independent, the privilege of coining money—a privilege that several of the Asmonean
princes availed themselves of. The coinage issued has on one side its value marked; on
the other the year—ﬁrst, second, third, fourth, or ﬁfth—of the freedom of Jerusalem, and differs
from that of most other nations in having no likeness of living being upon it. The pro-
hibition of the law—“ Thou shalt not make to thyself the likeness of any living thing that is
in heaven above or the earth beneath "—seems scarcely to have been considered as extending
to inanimate forms, as we ﬁnd various emblematic ﬁgures like those we have already
mentioned stamped thereon. We have in Fig. I 5 3 a representation of a palm-tree on a.
copper shekel of Simon. A very similar device occurs also on the silver rial, Fig. I 51, of
Queen Mary of Scotland. ,
Many of the ancient writers describe the Holy Land as abounding with date-palms:
hence Judaea, typiﬁed by a female ﬁgure, is on several of the coins of Vespasian represented
as seated beneath one of these trees, an idea repeated on almost all the medals struck to
commemorate the capture of Jerusalem and the subjugation of the land of Judaea by the
Romans. Coins of Domitian, Titus, and Trajan have the same symbol on them. David.
it will be remembered, says in one of his Psalms that “the righteous shall flourish as
the palm-tree."
G


42 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAJIIEZVTAL ART '
Another symbolic plant, the vine, is of equally common occurrence with the last. It is
frequently employed in the Old Testament as a ﬁgure or emblem of the Israelites: thus, in
Isaiah, Bishop Louth's translation, we read-
“ My beloved had a vineyard
On a high and fruitful hill ;
And he fenced it round, he cleared it from the stones ;
He planted it with the vine of Sorek.”
In one of the Psalms we ﬁnd another good example of the same simile—
“A vine thou clidst bring out of Egypt ;
Thou castedst out the nations and plantedst it.
Thou preparedst the ground for it ;
It spread its roots and ﬁlled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
And with its tendrils the lofty cedars.”
The allusions sometimes refer to such passages as, “I am the true Vine;” or to the
parable of the vineyard whose rightful owner was slain; or, again, as in a general sense
expressive of temporal blessing, as in the benediction of Jacob by Isaac, “God give thee
of the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine." Christ in His
teachings so clearly spoke of Himself as the Vine, that it naturally became intimately
associated symbolically with Him. Examples of the vine are exceedingly abundant in
Byzantine art—an art essentially symbolic in all its features. Many good examples may be
seen on carved ivory caskets of this period in the South Kensington Museum. Byzantium,
we may- mention for the beneﬁt of some of our readers, was the seat of government towards
the close of the great Roman empire, the capital being transferred from Rome to Byzantium,
or what we now term Constantinople. The word Constantinople means “the city of
Constantine,” the change being made in the reign of that emperor, when the empire was
verging to decay—when, overgrown and yielding to corruption within, and ﬁerce assaults of Hun
and Vandal from without, the whole fabric of the state was tottering to its fall. This
change of the capital taking place during the reign of the ﬁrst Christian monarch will, it
will be seen, explain how, in the ﬁrst fervour of the new belief—which doubtless gained many
an adherent when it passed from the dust and darkness of the blood-stained catacombs to
the palace of the emperor—the old forms of architecture and ornament were looked upon as
too suggestive of the bygone heathen state of things to be reproduced in the new city.
The chair of St. Maximinian at Ravenna, of sixth century work, is entirely overlaid with
panels of ivory. On these are various Scriptural subjects, each being separated from those
adjoining by lines of ornament of a symbolic character, chieﬂy the vine with its fruit, and
having peacocks, lions, lambs, doves, and other animal forms introduced amidst it, the foliage
being upo-n a scroll, with the animals interspersed. Owing to the minuteness and rich profusion
of the ornament, we are unable, we regret, to give an illustration of it, as it would, from
the necessary size, encroach more upon our space than its importance justiﬁes; but it has
been ﬁgured in several works, and we would warmly advise any of our readers who have
an opportunity of gaining an idea of it to do so, as the designs are good in themselves, and
also interesting as examples of symbolic treatment.
The bread and wine of the Last Supper are in early work sometimes represented by
ears of corn and bunches of grapes. In classic art the vine is, with the ivy, associated with
the service of Bacchus.


44 PR/2VCIPLj'\7S OF ORNAMENTAL ART.
are the ﬁve wounds. The plant, from its large and handsome ﬂowers and ﬁne palmate
leaves, is one well worthy in itself, symbolic signiﬁcance apart, of the ornamentist's regard.
We need scarcely say, however, that it must either be used altogether and obviously without
any symbolic afterthought or undercurrent of meaning, or else in the limited connection
above detailed. Though the passion-ﬂower is now not uncommon, our readers will remember
that it was introduced from abroad: hence, it does not occur in early English art, nor at
any time so commonly as plants that are either indigenous, or of early introduction and
more complete acclimatisation—plants, therefore, more familiar to the designer.
In ancient art—Egyptian, Assyrian, Indian—the lotus is a very conspicuous feature, in
some cases considerably conventionalised in -treatment, but still, nevertheless, sufﬁciently
testifying to the natural type-form. Among the Egyptians especially do we ﬁnd it used;
the capitals of their columns, their jewellery, drinking-vessels, surface ornament, &c., being
all largely dependent for their effect upon the ornamental forms more or less obviously
based on this plant. As illustrations of the great variety of designs thus developed, we
have represented, in Figs. 149, I50, I60, 169, 190, I95, I96, 197, and 407, a series of examples
from various Egyptian sources. The ﬁrst four of these are from mummy-wrappings, the
outer covering, or cartonage of the mummy being generally overlaid almost entirely, from
head to foot, with continuous lines of such ornament, each band about an inch in width,
and each being complete in itself, and having no connection with those above or below it,
though placed in immediate contact with them. Numerous examples of this feature may be
seen in the British Museum and other large national collections——as the Louvre, or the Berlin
Museum. In Fig. 149 the decorative effect is produced by the fruit alone; in Fig. 150
the designer has employed merely the ﬂower, turning it alternately upwards and downwards;
in Fig. 160 the fruit alternates with a series of detached petaloid forms; while in Fig. 169
the designer has removed the ﬂowers that in Fig. I50 were reversed, placing in their stead
two fruit forms cut open so as to show the internal structure—a form very similar to that
produced by cutting an orange transversely in half—and on these a third fruit form in its
original integrity. In some cases the design is entirely composed of a series of these
cross-sections, giving a simple but agreeable patera form. In Fig. I90 we have another
painted example, from a papyrus, introducing the ﬂower and bud. Fig. I95 is a peculiarly
rich example from an altar of black basalt in the British Museum, and illustrates very
beautifully the great brilliancy of effect that, in the hands of a clever designer, even materials
so simple in themselves as those used therein, are capable of producing. Figs. 196 and
197 are further good and simple instances of the use of the plant. In the ﬁrst of these
the bud, ﬂower, and leaf are employed, in the second the ﬂower and bud alone. The leaf
of the lotus, though a form sufﬁciently pleasing in itself, and a good contrasting form with
the ﬂower, is very rarely met with. The elaborate design for a pavement, Fig. 245, owes
some, at least, of its richness to the introduction in the central panel and outer border of
lotus forms. The original, a pavement from Kyonjik, may be seen in one of the Assyrian
Rooms, British Museum.
A certain amount of confusion has arisen from the similarity of name of two really
dissimilar plants, the name lotus being applied to the lily of the Nile, the Nymjﬁ/um Lolu:
of botanists, and also to the Indian lotus or water-bean, the Nelum6z'um sjﬁeciosum of
scientiﬁc nomenclature. The latter is not now known in the Nile, though it is represented
in the sculptures of the Romano-Egyptian period; it is never, however, met with in earlier
art, and the true lotus of the monuments, the characteristic plant of real Egyptian national


PLA1VT F_0RIMS—LOTUS, TOOBA-TREE. 45
art, is always the former of the two. The lotus was sacred to Isis, the Egyptian goddess
of fecundity; the ﬂower was used, therefore, symbolically, to express the plenty that in that
almost rainless climate was caused by the fertilising periodical overﬂow of their great river,
the melting snows of the Abyssinian highlands annually bringing rich store of wealth to
the Egyptian plains. Amongst the Hindoos and Chinese the lotus has more ordinarily
. the character of the Indian plant. In a Sanscrit poem a beautiful Indian lake is described
as being “fragrant with the lotus;” the water-bean is the plant here referred to. A form
analogous to, and probably suggested by, the Egyptian treatment of the Nym;§/uea'Lotus, is
occasionally met with in Assyrian and Indian art, as in the Sanchi Tope gateway, a
Buddhistic structure, of which a cast may be seen in the architectural collections of
the South Kensington Museum. Both species of lotus may be studied in their natural
growth at Kew. l
Among the Assyrians but few plants appear to have had any symbolic meaning,
though many are represented pictorially in their sculptures, if we may here be allowed
.to use the term pictorially in such a connection as implying a certain natural character
and picturesque treatment in opposition to the necessary modiﬁcation requisite in decorative
work. There is, however, one form that is of continual occurrence; it is of a very
conventional nature, but it has been supposed by some whose opinions have value to
represent the tree of life, a sacred and mysterious symbol, entering into all the religious
systems of the East, that we meet with in the earliest chapters of the Bible, amidst the
delights of the earthly Eden, and in the last chapters amongst the joys of the Paradise
of God. The Assyrian symbol is generally ﬂanked by eagle-headed ﬁgures. It may
probably have some reference to the groves so frequently found in various idolatrous systems,
as in our early Druidic rites, and which so repeatedly became the object of worship with
the Jewish people, and the cause of national humiliation and punishment. “ The Lord shall
smite Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good
land, and he shall scatter them, because they have made them groves." Mahomet is
described, in the ﬁfty-third chapter of the Koran, as having seen the angel Gabriel by the
lote-tree, which stands in the seventh heaven on the right hand of the eternal throne. It
is also called the tree tooéa, a word signifying eternal beatitude. Moore, in his “ Paradise and
the Peri," it will be remembered, introduces it in the following lines :—-
“ Farewell, ye odours of earth, that die,
Passing away like a 1over’s sigh ;
My feast is now of the tooba-tree,
\Vhose scent is the breath of Eternity.”
The Amaranth of our poets appears to bear a very similar signiﬁcance. The term is
derived from two Greek words signifying not withering. Thus the passage in our New
Testament translated “ a crown of glory that fadeth not away," is in the original Greek “ the
amaranthine crown of glory." Milton is frequently found to use the word; it occurs
several times in the “Paradise Lost." The following ﬁne passage from the third book will
sufﬁciently well illustrate this application of it :—-
“ The multitude of angels, with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from blest voices, uttering joy. Heaven rang
With jubilee, and loud hosannas ﬁlled
The eternal regions. Lowly reverent


46 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART
Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground,
\Vith solemn adoration, down they cast
Their crowns inwove with amaranth and gold.
Immortal amaranth, a ﬂower which once
In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life
Began to bloom ; but soon for man’s offence
To Heaven removed, where ﬁrst it grew, there grows
And ﬂowers aloft, shading the fount of life.”
The rose is from time to time met with both in Christian and Pagan art. The plant
mentioned by Biblical writers as the Rose of Sharon has no relationship to the roses of
our gardens and hedgerows. Much has been written, and many opinions expressed,
regarding the plant that is thus referred to, but it is probably either a kind of If;/pericum
or the plant described by Linnzeus under the name of Cz'stus roseus, the rose-ﬂowering
cistus, a plant of the same botanical order as our common and beautiful rock-rose, and
abundantly met with throughout Judzea, and notably so, according to the testimony of
travellers, in the Vale of Sharon. True roses, however, grow freely in the Holy Land,
and the Syrian origin of our beautiful damask rose is indicated in its name-—the rose of
Damascus. Among some of the Northern nations a rose was suspended in the place of
deliberation where weighty matters requiring secrecy were discussed, hence the modern
expression sub rosci. In classic fable we meet with this same idea again, as Cupid is
represented therein as giving a rose to Harpocrates, the God of Silence. It is a very
favourite ﬂower of the Persians and other Eastern races, and is freely introduced both
into their poetry and religious belief. Thus, when Abraham was thrown i11to the ﬁre by
heathen persecutors, the ﬂames, according to Persian tradition, became a bed of roses, whence
the Persian feast of roses is held each year with great rejoicings. Into Christian art the
rose enters from time to time, owing to its association with several legends; thus we are
told that a virgin named Dorothea, after suffering martyrdom in Czesarea, converted the
scribe Theophilus to Christianity by sending him some roses from Paradise. A golden
rose is one of the greatest honours that a sovereign can receive at the hands of a pope.
Henry VIII., in addition to his title of Fidei Defensor, received one from Alexander VI.
The Roman emperors, in like manner, used it as a means of conferring distinction upon
those they wished to honour. Among the numerous titles given in medizeval times to
the Virgin Mary we ﬁnd Rosa Crzli and Santa Marzh del/a Rosa, that ﬂower being
consecrated to her; hence it may often be seen represented in old pictures and frescoes,
either in the hand of the Virgin mother or of her Son. Dante, in allusion to this, writes :—-
“Here is the Rose,
Wherein the \Vo1'd Divine was made incarnate.”
VVe need scarcely remind our readers of the heraldic use of the ﬂower, the rose of
England, like the thistle of Scotland and the Irish shamrock, being too familiar a symbol
to need more than a passing mention. The rose was ﬁrst borne as a royal badge by
Edward I. James I., under whose reign England and Scotland became united, bore, as
badge, a rose and thistle combined. Fig. 145, a pattern coin struck during the reign of Queen
Anne, is a very good example of such a combination. The thistle has been borne by
Scotland as a national emblem from the year 1503. James IV. of that kingdom adopted
it as his personal badge, but the expressive motto, “Nemo me impzme laressit,” was not
added until'some time afterwards. It is ﬁrst seen on the coinage of James VI., in the
year 1 5 79.


PLANTS AS BADGES. 47
The Tudor rose, as it is termed heraldically, is largely used in the later mediaval
decoration on the conclusion of that desolating strife, which, from the emblems chosen by
the rival factions, is known in history as the War of the Roses. The form may be seen
on our coinage, as in the pennies of Edward VI., where it is surrounded by the motto,
Rosa sine .§¢>z'na, a sentiment afterwards very freely bestowed in adulation of his kinswoman,
Queen Elizabeth. The Tudor rose may be met with again on the silver halfpennies of
James I., Charles I., and Charles II. A very good idea of the form may be derived from
Fig. 192, a piece of carving from the door of Prince Arthur’s Chantry in Worcester
Cathedral, and dating about the year I 504. In conjunction with the portcullis, the
badge of the city of Westminster, the rose of the Tudors is lavishly employed within and
without the chapel of Henry VII. at Westminster Abbey. In any painted representations
the petals either alternate in colour or the ﬂower is divided down the centre by a line,
the left-hand half of the outer ring and the right-hand half of the inner ring of petals
being of the same colour, the other halves being of the alternating colour. It is always
painted in red and white, the red rose being the badge of the Lancastrians, as the white
was that of the Yorkists.
Many plants, in addition to those just referred to, have heraldic signiﬁcance. Thus,
Henry II. bore a broom plant, the planta genista of old writers, whence arose the historic
family title, Plantagenet. Henry IV. adopted a columbine ﬂower, and Katherine of Arragon
a pomegranate or sheaf of arrows. The daisy has in like manner been used at divers
times as a badge. In French its name is Marguerite, meaning a little pearl, expressive of
its beauty; hence, to cite one instance, it was used by Margaret, Countess of Richmond,'
and it may still be seen carved in stone over the gateway of St. John's College, Cambridge,
founded by that lady.
The Scottish clans in the same way have each their appropriate badge. To
quote a few examples, the Camerons bear the oak; Macgregor, the pine; Maclachlan,
the mountain ash; Macdonald, the heath, known botanically as the Erica tetralzlx, the
allied species E. einerea being borne by the Macalisters; Chisholm, the alder; Buchanan,
the birch ; Campbell, the myrtle ; Macpherson, the box; and Robertson, the brake.
Should any of our student-readers, to whom the subject is new, care to seek out
examples for themselves, they will ﬁnd, amongst other sources, the glass-quarries of our old
church windows very often full of suggestive designs, sometimes purely decorative, but
generally either heraldic symbols of earthly rank and glory or else of religious signiﬁcance.
We have, in Fig. 191, illustrated a curious example from this source, a fungus springing
from amidst the moss; the original is in Ockham Church, Surrey, a building containing many
interesting features, and amongst them an early English window of seven lancets, a very
uncommon number. As this particular device, unlike many, is not met with elsewhere,
its meaning must remain an open question. We may either consider that some medizeval
fungologist admired it for its own sake, the various forms and the rich variety of colours
seen in fungi being often strikingly beautiful, or, as we prefer to think, chose it as a ﬁt
emblem of the low estate of man, the fragility of his frame, the transience of all his
mundane glory. We may here, perhaps, mention, though it is somewhat foreign to our present
subject, that in the Museum of Economic Geology may be seen a very curious vase of
Chinese manufacture, the body of the vase being shaped like a large, hollowed fungus,
while at its base and surrounding its stem are other and smaller fungoid forms. This we
have represented in Fig. 95. Many other plant forms may be met with, and more or less


52 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAA/IE./VTAL ART
glory that fadeth not away—are all at times met with. In Christian art each saint has some
distinguishing symbol—often something connected with his or her martyrdom; thus St. Paul
bears the sword, St. Catherine a spiked wheel ; or it may be something associated with some
event in the life; and thus St. Peter bears the keys of the kingdom committed to him by the
Divine Master. We see in the thunderbolt of Jupiter, the trident of Neptune, the caduceus
of Mercury, the helmet and spear of Minerva, the thyrsus of Bacchus, and many others,
this same association of symbol with particular persons in classic art; while in Egyptian art
again each god has his appropriate and distinctive symbol.
Many other symbolic forms of less frequent recurrence may be met with, but on these
it scarcely seems desirable to dwell, those already given being those that the student is far
more likely to encounter in his studies, far more likely to ﬁnd himself called on to understand
or to introduce than such symbols of minor importance, as the sword of the Scandinavian
Tyr, the God of battles, or those that mark and distinguish the ten incarnations of Vishnu,
the preserver of the world, according to Hindu mythology.


CHAPTER IV.
The Use of Letters and Inscriptions in Omamental Art—Egyptian Hieroglyphic—Assyrian Arrow Head—'I'he Formation of Arbitrary
Writing Characters—Mexican Picture Language-~The Hebrew Alphabet—Runic Characters—Early Letters all Straight Lined—
Cursive Writing—'Writing Materials—Palimpsest i\ISS.—The Labours of Angelo Mai—Palimpsest Bra.sses—Clay Records—The
Rosetta Stone—Greek Boustrephedon Inscriptions—Study of Archveology—Moorish lnscriptions—The Alhambra—Structure of
Monograms—Abbreviations in old MSS. a. fertile Source of Error—Structure of Ciphers—Barbarous Character of Early
Monograms—Ciphers and Monograms from Pottery—The Cross prefacing lnscriptions—The Crux-ansata of Thoth—The Tau
Fonn of Cross—The Sacred Monogram—The Vision of Constantine—The I.H.S.—Monogr;uns on Coinage—Inscriptions on
Coinage—The Monograms of Artists on their Works—John Thorpe and his Plan—Pa1ace of the Escurial——Merchants’ Marks—-
Branch Letters—Ribbon Letters—Medi2eva1 Inscriptions on Houses—Posy Rings—Inscriptions on Church Bells—Her.1ldic
Mott0es—Use of Inscriptions amongst the Eastern Nations—Inscripti0ns as an Element in Modern Ornamental Art—General
Features of Assyrian Art—Absence of Omament—The Patera Form in Ornament—The Anthemion Form in Ornament—Absence
of Vegetable Forms—The Use of Colour in Assyrian Art—Assyrian Art Zo0morphic—The Tri-lingual Inscriptions of the
Persians—The Method Employed for Reading the Cuneiform Character—Sketch of the History of the Ancient Kingdom of
Assyria—Discovery of Site of N ineveh—References of Biblical and Classic Writers to the Assyrian Power.
IN every period of art a greater or less use of inscriptions as an element in ornamental
design may be met with, though it is in some cases difﬁcult to determine how far the
inscriptions are of decorative character, or, on the contrary, are to be considered merely
as statements of facts alone; since even in the richest examples an inscription would
hardly be worked up into the general decoration, unless it bore some signiﬁcance, and added
value to the work in a higher degree than as a mere aggregation of forms graceful but
meaningless. Deﬁnitions, it is well known, are extremely difﬁcult things to venture on;
but in the present case we need trouble ourselves but little to draw a hard and fast line,
since, while it is true that examples of doubtful character may be met with, there will
ordinarily be no difﬁculty in assigning to such instances as we may encounter their proper
sphere. If, for example we see “Dent, London” legibly inscribed on a clock-face, we
realise at once that the matter-of-fact statement has no other object than to afford knowledge
of certain business details; but if surrounding the dial we have a band inscribed “Time
tryeth, time ﬂyeth,” we comprehend that the designer, desiring to beautify his work, has chosen
an inscription full of thought and suggestiveness, as well calculated to attain the end in view.
A very good example may be seen in the motto surrounding an old clock in the north
tower of Exeter Cathedral: it is placed round the circle of hours, and is as follows :—
“ Perezmt et z'mputam‘u1”’ (“They perish and are reckoned"). As we have already seen, in
a previous paper, that the highest kind of art, decorative or otherwise, is that which contains
the clearest impress of thought in the designer, our readers will, we trust, see that a
consideration of the use of caligraphy in its varied modiﬁcations is a subject well worthy of
our attention, since manner and matter in these cases may alike be good; thoughts of rich
and poetic suggestiveness appealing to the mind, and clothed in forms that, from their grace,
satisfy the eye. It will readily be seen, on slight reﬂection, that the decorative effect produced
will be very greatly dependent upon the character employed; thus the Roman characters
at present in use—though, from their clearness and simplicity of form, of eminent work.a-day
utility—present but little scope to the designer, while the various mediaeval alphabets, from


54 PRIZVCIPLES OF OR./VA.-l/EZVTAL A187". i
their picturesque character and quaintness, are especially adapted to art purposes. It
follows, therefore, that where a decorative effect is desired, as in texts for church-dressing,
the Gothic character is, even to the present day, employed. This practice, though at times
presenting some evident anomalies, does not seriously, we think, violate any law of artistic
propriety, and more especially as it is ordinarily in harmony with the architectural features
of the buildings, so long as the text or other matter is clearly legible; though it at once
fails of its primary object, when, owing to overcrowding of accessory ornamental features, or
the use of a character unknown to all but a few antiquaries, it appeals merely to the eye,
and leaves the mind unsatisﬁed. There is great need in the present day, when the practice
of so-called illumination is so general with amateurs, who bring but little previous study to bear
on their work, to emphasise the fact that the decoration—the outer clothing—is subordinate
to the thought they thus seek to clothe. True illumination should aim at the clear and
legible setting forth of some thought noble in itself. Any amount of good decorative work
may be added in enhancement of honour to this, but as soon as the decoration, instead of
being the accessory, becomes the principal feature, the whole aim is perverted—the last
becomes ﬁrst and the ﬁrst last, and the text or other passage that should at once strike the eye
is lost in a labyrinth of forms, that, possibly beautiful enough if kept in due subordination,
become an eyesore and an impertinence when they usurp the attention and thrust from its
throne what should really be the centre on which the eye should without difﬁculty rest.
Hence, too, in deﬁning the scope and aim of illumination, we have stipulated for the
choice of some worthy subject—a something not so trivial and unworthy in itself as to make
each hour spent on it an ever-increasing error of judgment, a sad misdirection of energy
and patient toil.
The characters employed by various nations differ very greatly: in some cases, as in
the ancient Egyptian, the forms are very pictorial in their character; in others, as in the
cuneiform, or wedge-shaped characters, Fig. 227, very arbitrary and rigid: in some cases,
again, rectilineal, Fig. 203; in others, Fig. 213, ﬂowing, and susceptible of considerable
freedom of treatment. Where a nation has been isolated it will ordinarily be found that its
written language has passed through most, or all, of these stages; the course generally gone
through by any people in emerging from barbarism being as follows :—First, habits of
observation and power of drawing that shall be sufﬁcient to enable both writer and reader
to agree that a given rough sketch is meant for a man, a beaver, or the sun; and secondly,
the combination of such into pictures, generally, naturally, of a very rude character. The
ancient Mexicans excelled in this way of recording events; and though, owing to the
unfortunate and precipitate zeal of the Spanish priests, who, on the subjugation of the
country, destroyed many valuable MSS. and mural paintings, a great mass of interesting
matter has been lost, enough still remains to illustrate their method of recording events.
\Vhat the loss really was, and how complete the destruction, may be seen by the following
quotation from the writings of the Abbé Clavigero :—“ The Mexican empire abounded with
all those kinds of paintings, as their painters were innumerable, and there was hardly
anything left unpainted. Of all those which were to be found in Tezcuco, where the chief
school of painting was, they (the priests) collected such a mass in the square of the market,
that it appeared like a little mountain; to this they set ﬁre, and buried in the ashes the
memory of many most interesting and curious events."
The Mexicans, in addition to this picture-teaching, used certain arbitrary marks to indicate
things of too abstract a character to allow of their clear pictorial representation, and by the


MEXICAN s YMBOLS. 5 5
combination of the two systems were able to record many things that at ﬁrst sight would
appear incapable of being preserved in such a way. They had also advanced as far as the
recognition of certain symbols of a phonetic character, but the system, though in many
respects resembling that of the Egyptians, is very far removed from the perfection attained
by the latter people.
The Mexicans, like many other semi-civilised people, had even in their proper names
some reference to natural objects; so that the difﬁculty of representing them intelligibly was
by no means so great as at ﬁrst sight appears; thus, for instance. Ilhuicamina, the name
of one of their kings, signiﬁes “ the arrow that pierces the sky ; ” while the names of the cities
of Macuilxochitl and Quauhtinchan signify respectively “ﬁve ﬂowers," and the “home
of the eagle." Of these curious records of this strange people our readers will ﬁnd several
examples in far-sz'mz'!e, giving both the quaint form and brilliancy of colour of the originals, '
in Humboldt's “Atlas Pittoresque." Some of the paintings refer to political events,
others to domestic matters. One curious series is devoted to the education of children,
each picture being divided in half; in one part the father instructs his son, in the other,
the mother educates the daughter. At ﬁve years of age the boy carries loads, and the
girl attends her mother in spinning; at six, the girl learns herself to spin, while her brother is
instructed in the use of the ﬁshing-net. In other pictures of the series, idleness or disobedience
meet their very conspicuous reward—the rod falls, and tears ﬂow. Numbers are expressed
by dots or other simple forms. It is soon found, however, by any people thus feeling
their way to a written language, that though this pictorial treatment does very well for
natural objects, it does not meet many cases that arise as the nation advances in intelligence.
The ﬁrst step towards overcoming this difﬁculty—as Sharp, in his history of ancient
Egypt, has very clearly shown—is to use the picture, not for the object itself, but for its
name; thus the means of writing a sound or syllable is gained. In Egyptian, the word
for head was pe; mouth, ro; an owl, mo. On the temple walls hundreds of these natural
forms may be seen; no longer, however, to be read literally as heads or mouths or owls,
but as the syllables, pe, ro, mo, in the formation of other words. The next great step was
to u-se these characters for letters, not for syllables; the character for pe becomes P, the
form for ro becomes R; A/zom, an eagle, becomes A; Berée, a censer, becomes B; Knzléz)'z',
a basin, is K. This is, of course, the formation of an alphabet; and when it is once thus
recognised by a people any record becomes possible. The ﬁnal result is, that these heads,
owls, &c., become less and less like the natural forms, owing to the great diversity of
application in words having no suggestive relationship with the original living type; the
characters are at length transformed into mere signs, requiring much less skill and trouble
in their delineation than the natural objects, and hence of far greater practical value. The
Hebrew alphabet is very similar, every letter being also a word expressing some simple
object: thus, jod, or J, signiﬁes a hand; dale!/z, or D, a door; bet/1, or B, a house; gimel
or G, a camel. The utility of the alphabet being at once obvious and complete, the knowledge
speedily spread, the Phoenicians, Jews, and Arabians rapidly adopting it, and in turn
imparting it to the Greeks and Romans; while these two latter warlike and colonising
people spread the invaluable discovery wherever their arms penetrated; and it was through
the subjugation of Britain by the Roman power that the knowledge came to ourselves;
in our case, no experimental stages being gone through, as our ancestors had but to adopt
the completed labours of others. The ’Chinese have ever rejected the knowledge, and
in their pride and isolation decline to believe that the outer barbarians can teach them


56 PRI./VCIPLES OF ORZVA/IIEZVTAL ART
anything; hence he who would attain to even the rudiments of their language must ﬁrst
master the signiﬁcance of some hundreds of characters.
At ﬁrst all inscriptions were in capital letters; the next improvement was the introduction
of writing characters. Long, however, before men wanted to make private memoranda, or
cared for any such facilities of writing, they desired to put up triumphant records of victories
won, to mark the resting-places of their heroes, or to inscribe their statues with their names.
Themistocles, about 500 B.C., we read in Herodotus, sent a letter on stone slabs to the
Ionians. The Mosaic law, it will also be remembered, was inscribed on two tables of stone.
Solon is said to have published his laws by having them carved on large blocks of hard
wood.
The Scandinavian nations ascribe to their great god Odin the invention, and gift to
them, of writing characters; these early characters are termed Runic, from the old Gothic
word rune, to cut, or 13/n, a furrow, thus clearly pointing to their incised nature. Our
own capital letters have gradually undergone a change, but our readers will still see that
their general characteristics render them very suitable, from the straightness of their lines
and the clear boldness of the forms, for cutting on the hard surface of stone or the still
denser granite. Many of those whom we address have doubtless carved their names or
initials on the tempting surface of some ﬁne old beech-trunk.
“Not a beech but bears some cipher,
Tender word or amorous text.”—Luz'.r de Gongora.
This carving was no doubt done in capital letters; and the advantage of straight-lined
letters, like L, H, F, K, or T, was at once felt, as they were at once easier to do, and looked
better when done, than curvilinear letters, like S, B, O, or P. In early work these latter
characters were frequently made straight-lined; thus O was made of four straight lines, like
a square standing on one of its angles. This may be seen in the Saxon inscription, Fig. I48.
A good example of the value of rectilineal forms for inscriptions may be seen in Fig. 203,
taken from the pedestal of an old classic statue. If our readers will take the trouble to write
the same name, Posszkiippus, in our ordinary English writing, they will at once see how
suitable the one set of characters is for carving on stone, how appropriate the other for
writing with a pen, and how very unﬁt either would be to take the place of the other.
As a rule, where inscriptions have to be carved in stone or marble the forms are straight-
lined and distinct; where modelled in softer material, like plaster or wax, a greater freedom
is allowed, as in Fig. 218, a Cuﬁc inscription from plaster-work; and where written on a
smooth surface, like parchment or paper, the greatest freedom of all. This latter is known
technically as cursive writing, from the Latin verb eurro, I run; and we still in ordinary
speaking call it a running hand.
Many substances have from time to time been used for writing on, and have more or
less inﬂuenced the forms of the characters employed. Brass, lead, wood, ivory, wax, the
leaves of palm and other trees, the ﬁbre of the papyrus and of many other plants, and the
skins of animals, have all at various periods been employed. The value of the substances
in some cases, 'the great risk of wilful or careless obliteration in others, has led to the
destruction of many things that would now be of the greatest historic and literary value.
This has been more especially the case with parchments, a great many MSS. being what is
technically termed palimpsest-—z'.e., written over some other obliterated work. Attempts have
been made to rescue some of these earlier writings from destruction. A cardinal, Angelo


PAL]1l{PSESTS. . 5 7
Mai, who was born in 1779, threw himself into this labour and research with especial zeal,
and gave back to the world many writings that had hitherto been considered hopelessly
lost. A very interesting account of his work may be found in \Viseman's “Recollections of
the Last Four Popes." The interest of the subject justifies us, we think, in giving an
extract, as it will illustrate at once the difﬁculties to be overcome, the triumph achieved,
and the great value of the result to literature. “The writer of the Middle Ages had taken
down from the shelves a work which he considered of small value (perhaps there were some
duplicates of it)——some letters, for instance, of a heathen emperor to his tutor—and had
scrubbed, as he thought, the parchment clear both of its inky and moral denigration, and
then had written over it the recent production of some favourite author. It is this under-
writing that Mai scanned with a sagacious eye; a wash of gallic acid revived the pallid
reed-strokes of the earlier scribe; ingenuity, patience, learning, and immense perseverance
were requisite for the process. Often only unconnected passages were found——half a sentence
in one page which the next did not continue, but the rest of which, perhaps, he found in
another MS. Sometimes portions of various works were jumbled together under one later
production, upside down, back to back; while perhaps not one page contained the ‘]mz';>z'l,'
or the ‘Explzﬁler _felz'cz'ter Ziéer 1. de ,’ so as to give a clue to what these fragments
contained. Learning was then indeed necessary, for conjecture often gave the ﬁrst intimation
of what had been discovered, from the style, or from the sentence having been fortunately
embalmed or petriﬁed by quotation in some later author. In this way did Mai labour on~—
looking through the tangled mass of confused materials, catching up the ends of different
threads, and pursuing them with patient diligence, till he had drawn each, broken or perfect,
as it happened to exist. He began in 1813, and continued till I819, to pour out an
unintermitting stream of volumes, containing works or portions of works lost, as it was
supposed, irrecoverably. Various orations of Cicero; the lost writings of Julius Fronto;
unpublished letters of Marcus Aurelius, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, and Appian;
fragments of speeches by Aurelius Symmachus; the history of Dionysius of Halicarnassus
from the twelfth to the twentieth book ; inedited fragments of Philo; ancient commentaries on
Virgil; two books of Eusebius; the Itineraries of Alexander and of Constantius Augustus,
son of the Emperor Constantine ; three books of Julius Valerius on the actions of Alexander
the Great; the sixth and fourteenth Sybilline books; ﬁnally, the celebrated Gothic versions
by Ulphilas, of St. Paul, and other parts of Scripture. Such were the principal works recovered
and published, with notes, prefaces, and translations, by this indefatigable scholar at the
period just mentioned, six years. It was a work in which he could have little or no
assistance from others; in fact, it was an art exclusively his own." In many of our old
churches the Ynonumental brasses are found to be palimpsest; the sheet of metal has been
turned over bodily, and a fresh efﬁgy engraved, in deﬁance of all earlier rights of property,
on the fresh surface thus presented.

The Assyrian arrow-head character, Figs. 210, 227, is an especially good illustration of
the rectilinear type of letter. Abundant examples of it may be seen on the sculptures from
Nineveh, preserved in our national museum. The Assyrians had also a cursive style of
writing, but of this, as may naturally be imagined, when we compare the durability of
parchment with stone, there are very few examples known. A manuscript in cursive
Greek has been found in Egypt, and by learned antiquaries ascribed to the third century
before Christ.
From the great ease with which clay can before baking be stamped or scratched, and
I


58 PRIZVCIPLES OF OR1VA2l[E1VTA L AR7".
the equal certainty that after it has passed through the ﬁre any devices stamped or painted
upon it remain an imperishable record, a considerable use has been made from the earliest
times of these methods of transmitting the knowledge of any special matter, as for the
conveying to posterity of the name of any monarch under whose rule any great structure was
erected; thus the sunburnt bricks so extensively used by the Egyptians were made at the
Government works, and stamped with the name of the Pharaoh then reigning. The Assyrian
and Babylonian sovereigns caused their names to be in like manner impressed upon the
bricks before they were burnt. The Assyrian Government potter was also largely employed
in the fabrication of cylinders, or hexagonal prisms of clay. These were stamped all over,
in the curious wedge-shaped characters of Assyria, with the Government records. About
ten thousand of these singular records were found in the palace at Kyonjik, built by
Sennacherib about B.C. 702. Some hundreds of these are now preserved in the British
Museum, the Louvre, and other national collections; many have been translated by experts,
and found to possess historic details of the highest interest and value: thus, to mention
one example alone, we have the history of Sennacherib’s campaign against Judaea. His
defeat is naturally not dwelt upon. The passage runs thus :—“ Hezekiah, the King of
Judah, who had not submitted himself to my authority, forty-six of his principal cities and
fortresses, and villages dependent on them of which I took no account, I captured, and
carried away their spoil. I shut up himself within Jerusalem, his capital city. The fortiﬁed
towns and the rest of his towns which I spoiled, I severed from his country, and gave to
the kings of Ekron, Ascalon, and Gaza, so as to weaken his power. Over and above the
former tribute imposed upon these countries, I added a tribute the nature of which I ﬁxed.”
Roman tiles frequently have the date of their manufacture stamped upon them in bas-relief,
or the names of the consuls at the time in power. The Roman soldiers were employed
during times of peace in potting, road-making, or other useful labour. The bricks made by
the military generally have the name and title of the legion or cohort or its commander
stamped upon them in an abbreviated form; thus those that are found in the numerous
excavations made for building purposes in the City of London are frequently stamped with
the letters P. P. R. B. LON ., an abbreviated form of Propmrlor Brz'tamzz're Londz'nz'z'. Others
have P. C. B. LON., Prima Co/mrs Britanum Londz'nz'z' (“The ﬁrst cohort of the Britons,
stationed at London"). In more modern times this custom of placing upon some part of the
object not exposed to view a distinctive mark has continued in force; thus the Dresden
porcelain of the royal factory at Meissen has two crossed swords, while the ware produced
at the celebrated Chelsea works was marked with an anchor; that of Derby had a D,
surmounted by a crown; while the ware of Swansea has a trident upon it.
The Egyptians recognised three kinds of writing—the hieroglyphic, demotic, and
hieratic. Into the nature of these last our space forbids our entering; but it is with the ﬁrst
alone that we, as ornamentists, have to do, since it is in that character the records on the
temples, obelisks, and tombs are carved. It was the sacred writing, being devoted to the service
of the priests, and its name derived from two Greek words, signifying sacred, and to carve. \Ve
here present our readers with three illustrations of its character. Figs. 208 and 221 are the
name and title of Amunothph II., the Pharaoh conjectured to be the monarch who perished,
together with his army, in the Red Sea. He ruled over Egypt 1,500 years before the Christian
era. VVe may mention in passing that the word Pharaoh, applied in the Bible to the
sovereigns of Egypt, is simply a royal title, being derived from two Egyptian words,
pa-Ouro, “the king,” and does not in itself sufﬁce to indicate any particular ruler. Fig. 204


HIEROGL YPHICS 59
is a still more interesting illustration of this use of hieroglyphic writing. It is represented
on the walls of one of the magniﬁcent palaces built in ancient Thebes by the Pharaoh
Shishak, and the ruins of which still exist. On one of the walls a grand triumphal
ceremony is sculptured, the victorious king being represented as presenting before his gods
the captive rulers of thirty conquered foreign states. Amongst these prisoners of war the
subject of our ﬁgure occurs. The inscription, it will be noticed, is surrounded by a turreted
ring, implying a fortiﬁed city; while the hieroglyphics therein enclosed read louda/m ll/alek,
“the King of Judah." Turning now to the twelfth chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles,
we may read a little more about this Egyptian sculpture. \V e ﬁnd as follows :—“ And it
came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself,
he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. And it came to pass, that in the
ﬁfth year of King Rehoboam Shishak King of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because
they had transgressed against the Lord. Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam,
and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and
said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you
in the hand of Shishak." Of this event no mention whatever appears to be made in profane
history, and it seems to us a point of no little interest thus to ﬁnd the Biblical account
conﬁrmed by the sculptures of a ruined and long-buried temple in Africa. As some of
our readers may not know how men like Champollion and Dr. Young have thus been able
to reveal these ancient secrets, a few words of explanation may not be out of place. In
the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes, B.C. 196, the priests made a decree dwelling on his kingly
virtues, his piety, and noble qualities, and ordered his statue to receive like homage with
that given to the gods themselves; and to the intent that the edict might be more widely
known, and therefore more generally obeyed, it concludes with the words, “It is decreed
to set up a tablet of stone with letters for the priests, letters for writing, and letters for the
Greeks, which proclamations are to be set up in the temples of Egypt on the ﬁrst, second,
and third sides of the pedestal of the statue of King Ptolemy, living for ever, beloved by
Pthah, God Epiphanes most gracious.” One of these tablets, known from the place of its
discovery as the Rosetta stone, may be seen in the British Museum; and it is to this we
owe our knowledge of hieroglyphic writing, the Greek inscription being easily readable,
and known to be identical with the others, thus affording a basis from which to work,
a clue that patient industry and critical scholarship have not been slow to take
advantage of. The inscription, as is usual in Hebrew and other Eastern writing, must
be read from right to left, the reverse of our own custom. The Assyrian arrow-head
inscriptions also read from right to left, while their cursive writing, like our own, reads
from left to right.
Some of the earliest Greek monuments are curious on account of their éozeslrop/zedon
inscriptions: the lines running alternately from right to left, and then from left to right, the
eye moving, as the technical Greek term implies, like an ox ploughing-—passing up one
furrow and down the next. Fig. 225 is an illustration of this peculiar character.
Inscriptions on early coins are frequently wrong in direction, but this has arisen from
want of foresight on the part of the moneyer, allowance not having been ma-de for the
reversal that of necessity follows when the coins are struck, as in the case of the typos of
the printing-ofﬁce or the device on a seal, more familiar examples, possibly, to some of those
under whose eyes these remarks may fall.
The follower of ornamental art should not be content to be a mere blind copyist of other


60 PRIZVCIPLES OF OR./VAJIIEZVTAL A187".
men's labours, nor feel lack of interest in all that does not palpably bear upon his work;
hence the true ornamentist should be also a botanist and lover of nature in all its forms,
adding to these natural studies an intelligent interest in the works of his predecessors.
Archaeology, the study of the past, is a subject not unworthy of the attention which it
has more especially in modern times received, for though at ﬁrst sight a collection of
broken pottery and apparently worthless fragments of stone or metal may seem but of
little interest, and the accumulation of them a matter too trivial for any expenditure of time
or labour, it has nevertheless a deeper interest attached to it than appears on a cursory
glance; for as the zoologist or botanist, while studying the varied forms of nature, so
beautiful in themselves, so admirable in their manifest design, feel impelled to look “from
nature up to nature's God," and to join the glad paean, “The Lord is good to all: and
His tender mercies are over all His works. All Thy works shall praise Thee, O God: and
Thy saints shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of
Thy power. To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty
of His kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Thy dominion endureth
throughout all generations "—so the archaeologist, musing over his fragmentary remains, may
see no less the wonderful workings of an overruling inﬂuence in all the mighty changes that
have taken place in the history of man's dominion on the earth; indeed, if it be true that
“the proper study of mankind is man," little more need be said in justiﬁcation of such a
pursuit, since archaeology, in contradistinction to botany, astronomy, geology, and other
natural sciences, dwells exclusively upon the footprints yet remaining of the bygone
generations of humanity, recalling from the dust of centuries the pursuits of men of like
passions with ourselves, awakening within our minds an essentially human sympathy, a
recognition of the great brotherhood of man.
Inscriptions enter very largely into the ornament of the Moors. The quaint forms
of the Cuﬁc character, and the medium in which the designs were produced—a plaster easily
manipulated either by cutting or modelling—led to great richness of detail and effect, and
the strict commandment imposed on all Mohammedan races by the Koran, not to make
the picture or image of any created thing, still further tended to render their decorations
largely dependent on the ingenious interlacing of inscriptions. The Mohammedans are
divided into four orthodox sects, called Sunnees, and others who, like the old Spanish Moors
and the Persians, do not so strictly in many ways regard the commands of the prophet. \/V e
shall, however, conﬁne our remarks to examples seen in the Alhambra.
The Alhambra, deriving its name from the arabic Kal-’at al /zamra, “the red castle,"
was the great fortress-palace of the Moorish rulers of Granada. The stern grandeur and
massive simplicity of the exterior is in marked contrast to the delicate beauty of the palace
within, where allthat luxury could suggest or the most reﬁned art could effect ministered
to the gratiﬁcation of the conquerors. The buildings were commenced by Ibnu’l Ahmar
in the year I248, continued throughout the whole reign of Abu Abdillah his son, and
completed in I314. Time and wanton destruction, combined with repeated whitewashing
and so-called restorations, have now destroyed much of the original character, though
enough still remains, even if of fragmentary character, to testify to the former beauty
of this great bulwark of the Moorish power in Spain.
VVe have selected the Alhambra in preference to any other building, as our readers
will probably be more or less familiar with its character, owing to several elaborate accounts -
that have been published respecting it, and also to the admirable reproduction of parts of


M0 01:15]; INSCRIPTIONS. 6 I
it at Sydenham; while its unorthodox character is not sufﬁciently marked to prevent its being,
for our present purpose at least, a good example of Mohammedan art. It would be impossible,
without the aid of colour and large and elaborate drawings, to show clearly how completely
the interlacing letters are incorporated and made part of the original effect. The following
examples will, however, at least give some idea of the character of the sentences themselves :—
“ Praise be given to God : there is no power 11or strength but in God ;" “ O God, Thine is the
praise for ever, and Thine are the thanks for ever ;” this, the devotional, is the largest and most
important class. A second class consists of sentences, not from the Koran, like the preceding,
but of general moral tone. One example will sufﬁce—“ Be not one of the negligent." A third
class consists either of general passages from the poets, or sentences in direct praise of the
building they adorn, or of its occupant. They are written in that hyperbolic style so
commonly to be found in Eastern poetry; thus in one of the halls of the Alhambra
the following occurs :—“ Every art has gifted me with its elegance, nay, has given n1e
all its splendour and perfection; indeed, when the spectator has attentively examined my
beauty, he will ﬁnd reality to exceed the most extravagant conceptions of his fancy. He
will see the full moon beam forth from my light, and its halo leave me to enter the
mansions of the sky. I was built by the Iman lbn Nasr. May God uphold his majesty
as an honour to other kings, and perpetuate his glorious rank as long as, like the sun or the
full moon, he continues to rise in the high region of the sky, mercifully to scatter the shadows
of injustice and oppression. If the planets quiver in their orbs, it is through dread of thee;
and if the branches of the Oriental willow bow down, it is perpetually to be thanking thee."
Some of the inscriptions in the Alhambra are in the cursive Arabic character; an example
of this is given in Fig. 213. It is a good instance of the inﬂuence that materials exercise
over writing-forms, the Arabic characters, like those of most other Eastern languages, being
written with reeds. If any of our readers will endeavour to reproduce it, by the aid of an
ordinary steel pen, they will realise at once the difﬁculty of obtaining those ﬂowing lines
and massive strokes that follow so naturally from the use of the reed.
Before the invention of the printing-press, when all books whatsoever were written
or reproduced by the hand of the scribe, one book being often the patient labour of many
years, the desire for abbreviation and saving of work led to the running together of letters
by one stroke of the pen; the word or symbol thus formed being termed a monogram, from
the Greek words monos, one, and gramma, a letter. The word is not, however, now used
in so exact and limited a sense, the term being applied to the ornamental grouping of two
or more letters, as in the designs, Figs. 209, 211, within the quatrefoils. Other examples
may be seen in Figs. 223, 224, and in the three treatments of the letters F E H, seen in
Figs. 229, 230, and 235.
Monograms and abbreviated forms of words, though a great economy of time to the
writer, are afterwards frequently a source of confusion. Many instances of this occur in old
MSS. A notable example is seen in Romans xii. 11, where the words rendered “the Lord"
are in three MSS. read as “the time," the contraction used being such that it would do for
either reading equally well. A great use of abbreviations is met with in MSS. of the Anglo-
Saxon period. In reading them the context often requires to be attentively studied, as the
same letter or sign often has very different meanings; thus P. may mean Pater, or perhaps
Pontifex; while the plural is often expressed by a doubling of the letter, as O. O. for omnes,
or D. N. N. for a'omz'nz'. Many other examples may be found in Forsyth's very interesting
“ History of Ancient Manuscripts," and other works of a like character.


62 PRLVCIPLES OF ORZVAJIIEZVTAL ART
Early inscriptions are generally unpunctuated, or have each word separated from those
that precede or follow it by a simple stop, as in Fig. 148. Occasionally the words are run
together without any interval between them. These peculiarities, added to the great use of
abbreviated forms, amply sufﬁce to render the task of deciphering old writings a by no
means easy one. As an illustration of the running together of words, we have in Fig. 147
a portion of an inscription from Deerhurst Church, Gloucestershire. The inscription, which
is in Latin, is to the following effect :—“ Earl Odda ordered this royal building to be built
and dedicated to the honour of the Holy Trinity for the soul of his cousin fElfric, who
died here. Eaddred, bishop, dedicated it on the 3rd of April, in the 14th year of Saint
Edward, King of England." Our ﬁgure gives the beginning of the inscription—“ Odda dux
jussz't”—only the ﬁrst letter of the last of these words being within the illustration. The
stone, dug up on the site of the chancel, may now be seen amongst the Arundel marbles,
Oxford.
A cipher differs from a monogram in that the letters are repeated and reversed, so
as to form a bi-symmetrical or multi-symmetrical composition. The large illustration, Fig.
231, is an example of this. The three intersecting C’s in Fig. 214 form a good
example of a multi-symmetrical cipher: it is taken from a éiéeron of Oiron ﬁzienee,
or, as it is often termed, Henri Deux ware. A certain amount of doubt exists as
to the meaning of the form, but it is generally-concluded that it is the initial letter
of the queen, Catherine de Medicis; an undercurrent of meaning connecting the
crescent form with the Duchesse de Valentinois, better known as Diana of Poitiers.
Fifty-ﬁve specimens only of the ware are known to exist, and almost all have
this cipher upon them; of these, twenty-ﬁve pieces are in English collections, twenty-
nine in France, and the remaining one in Russia. The cipher, Fig. 238, formed by the
crossed L's, and the more curious than beautiful form, Fig. 205, made by putting two
L P’s back to back, are taken from examples to be met with on the back of Sevres porcelain;
the ﬁrst being on china, made, as the cipher indicates, during the reign of Louis XVI.,
the two C's standing for the date I780, according to a method pursued for marking when
the pieces were produced; and the second during the sovereignty of Louis Philippe.
Those who are curious in such matters, and willing to pursue the subject at greater length,
may ﬁnd many valuable examples of monogram and cipher forms on old deeds, buildings,
stained glass, and coinage; we have here only space to indicate a few of these. Many of
the early monograms are very confused in arrangement, and barbarous in treatment. Of
these, Fig. 222, from a Bull of Pope Innocent III., A.D. 1214, is no bad example. The
original is in the British Museum. Other grotesque examples may be seen in Figs. 223,
224. In the ﬁrst of these, taken from a gold coin of Mary of Scotland, the letters of the
words “ l\/IARIA REGINA” occur; the second, composed of the letters “F. M.," is from a testoon
struck during her marriage with Francis II. of France.
On early deeds and mural inscriptions we frequently ﬁnd the subject-matter prefaced
by a cross, as in Figs. 147, I48, the idea involved being dedicatory, the signiﬁcance “In
the name of God." Amongst the Hindoos the equilateral triangle is the symbol of Siva
the Destroyer, and all detached hills of conical form are regarded with reverence as the
natural symbols of that god. Obelisks and pyramids were thus employed, with symbolic
meaning, by the Egyptians, and were shown in the paintings and sculptures by a form
like the letter T upside down. This same T-like form, but not reversed, was the symbol
of eternal life, and as such was borne by Thoth. The Greeks adopted it in a similar


Mozvoazeu/1.115. . 63
sense, and the early Christians of Egypt at ﬁrst used it instead of the cross, which was
afterwards substituted for it, placing it at the beginnings of inscriptions, as we have
seen that the cross was at a later date used. Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, in his book
on Egypt, speaks of numerous inscriptions headed by the “tau," as this form is called
which are still preserved in early Christian sepulchres throughout Egypt and the great
Oasis; and it has been urged, with at least great probability, that this symbol of life
was the form made by the Children of Israel in blood upon their door-posts when the
Angel of Death passed through the land of Egypt to smite the ﬁrst-born of the nation.
The tau form of cross is in like manner to be met with in the catacombs of Rome, and
the earliest Christian churches were built of this shape in ground plan. Old rings are
occasionally to be seen marked with the tau, a mystical virtue being attached to it, as in
company with the word anaizzlzapta, a Chaldean word which, being translated, means, “ Have
mercy on us, O Judge," it was thought to be a most powerful prophylactic against epilepsy.
The tau, we have seen, was succeeded by the cross, and this in turn frequently gives
place to a monogram, the signiﬁcance remaining the same. We have, in Figs. 215, 216,
sketched two examples from charters in the British Museum: one drawn up in the
reign of Edgar, A.D. 961, the other in the reign of Canute, A.D. I031. The monogram
is composed of the ﬁrst two letters of the Greek word for Christ. It is the form which
is said to have appeared at noonday in the sky, outshining the sun in its splendour,
before the heathen emperor, while a voice was heard to say, “By this sign shalt thou
conquer." Assigning any value we please to this legend, the fact, at least, remains that
Constantine did receive some sudden shock to his old superstitions, and that, joining the
Christian Church, he henceforth removed the old Roman eagle from the standard of the
legions, placing in its stead the sacred monogram. It was also, until the ﬁfth century,
stamped upon the Imperial coinage. It is found on the resting-places of martyrs of
the reigns of Adrian and Antonine, as early as the second century after.Christ. Some
of our readers may, perhaps, without knowing why, have been in the habit of writing
Christmas as Xmas; they will now see the origin and meaning of the X, standing as an
equivalent for Christ.
It is very curious that this form of monogram should have been in later times so
completely supplanted by the I.H.S. with which we are so familiar. Both refer to the
same person, both are equally expressive, and the former one is the easier, in its simplest
form, as in Fig. 159, to carve or paint. The I.H.S. is formed by the ﬁrst three letters of
the Greek word for Jesus. It is often supposed that the letters stand for the initials of
the Latin words, Yesus Homz'1zum Salzzator, “Jesus, the Saviour of men," but this is
not so; though, alike ingenious, appropriate, and beautiful, it is an afterthought, and not
the original intention.
Monograms on Coinage.—The earliest British example, with which we are familiar,
is on a coin—a penny—of the Mercian king, Offa, A.D. 757. Fig. 226, a Saxon coin,
though not of monogrammatic device, falls within the scope of our remarks, as the device
is formed by letters, a series of four F’s, probably the initial of the moneyer who struck
it. Some of the farthings of Queen Elizabeth have her monogram upon them, surmounted
by the regal crown. The result is not, however, very successful, as the designer has
endeavoured to get in all the letters of her somewhat lengthy name, and thus clearness is
lost. On a fourpenny-piece of Charles II. we met with a series of interlacing C's, identical
in design with the ﬁgure seen at No. 214, though from each letter, instead of being


64 PRINCIPLES OF OR./VAJIIE./VTAL ARI".
.1!
crescent-shaped, being of the same width throughout, the effect of the whole is somewhat
different. On other coins of the same king, as in the twopenny-piece represented at
Fig. 228, two C’s back to back are met with. Charles X., of France, employed a similar
On the half-crown of William and Mary we ﬁnd the form
represented in Fig. 217. It is curious to notice that while, at ﬁrst sight, the eye is satisﬁed
of the presence of both the VV and the M, on closer scrutiny it will be perceived that
neither letter is really complete.
Inscriptions on Coinage.—In addition to such prosaic statements of fact as the value
of the piece, or the reign and year in which it was struck, we frequently meet with examples
of a higher order adorning the coin, not merely from the beauty of the characters, but
from the grace of the idea conveyed, while others again have great historic interest.
form as his monogram.
The following are a few inscriptions out of many that might be brought forward: Agmzs
Dei, qui tollis pecrala mzmdi, mzlrerere 1zoéz's, “Lamb of God, Thou that takest away the sins
of the world, have mercy upon us," is found on the golden lamb, or mouton a"or, of Henry V.,
a coin so-called from the device it bore.
of Christ," is very appropriately found on the coins of Charles I., a ﬁrm believer in the
divine right of kings. Decus et tulamen, “An ornament and a defence," placed round the
rims of coins, is at once an embellishment and a protection against clipping and ﬁling.
Hz' s dijért rege lyrannus, “ In these the tyrant differs from the king,” is a motto found on the
coinage of James VI., of Scotland, a11d refers to the scales and sword of justice borne
[Ilene fer/zelperes, on a coin struck for Perkin Vi/arbeck, is an evident
attempt to represent himself as playing the part of Darius, Henry VII., like Belshazzar,
having, it is implied, been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Rosa sine .y§z'na, “The
rose without a thorn," a motto found on the coins of the Tudors, points to the alliance
of the rival houses, and the happy termination of civil strife.
religious cast are very numerous. Omitting, for brevity’s sake, the original Latin, the
following are illustrations: “The Lord is my strength and shield, my heart shall trust in
Him ;" “God is a just, patient, and powerful judge ;" “ Let God arise and let His enemies be
scattered ;" “ By Thy cross, save us, O Redeemer, Christ ;" “ Blessed be the name of the Lord ;"
“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.”
Pictures are often marked by the artist with his monogram ; we must here only refer
to one characteristic example, the “A. D." afﬁxed by Albert Durer to. his work. \Vhile
possessing, Fig. 219, one advantage-—clearness—it errs in another direction. If any letter
in a combination is made larger than the rest it should be the most important initial that is
thus distinguished. In Durer's monogram the A of the Christian name is far more
conspicuous than the D of the surname; had he placed the A within the D, instead of
about it, the result would have been better. John Thorpe, an eminent architect of the
time of Elizabeth, left behind him some hundreds of drawings of the various buildings
in which he had been concerned. These drawings are carefully preserved in the Soane
Museum, and amongst them may be seen a plan in the form of Fig. 220, and beneath
it the following: “These two letters, I and T, joined together as you see, is meant for a
John Thorpe." No doubt the result, if carried out, would have
been a mansion at once commodious and picturesque, though the motive guiding the planning
is almost as grotesque as that of the Escurial, which, being dedicated to St. Lawrence, who
suffered martyrdom by being roasted on a large gridiron, is built in the form of that useful
aid to the culinary art, the bars being represented by lines of building, and the feet by
Christa auspice rqgno, “ I reign under the auspices
on the centre of the piece.
Inscriptions of a distinctly
dwelling-house for me.


INSCRIPTIONS. 65
four little towers at the angles, the architect being of necessity obliged to turn his gridiron
upside down.
Many of the “ merchants’ marks,” as they are termed, are monogrammatic in character.
They were largely adopted in medimval times by those who, not being of gentle birth, were
forbidden to bear arms. The two examples given in Fig. 207 are from stained glass in
the South Kensington Museum, and are represented on shields like the more orthodox
heraldic charges.. Fig. 202," a branch letter, and Fig. 212, a ribbon letter, are given as
two examples of the various modiﬁcations of letter-form indulged in by the later illuminators,
while the earlier masters of the art frequently employed grotesque animal forms—the lizard,
ﬁsh, or serpent—entwining them into the shape of the required letters.
A great use was made of inscriptions during the Middle Ages as an element of
decoration; thus, at Templenewsam House, near Leeds, the following is carved round the three
sides formed by the front and wings: “All glory and praise be given to God, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost on high; peace upon earth, goodwill towards men; honour
and true allegiance to our gracious king; loving affections among his subjects; health
and plenty within this house." VVedding-rings generally had a posy, as it was termed,
engraved on their inner surface—“ In Christ and thee, my comfort be.” “God alone made
us two one;" “Where hearts agree, there God will be;" “ Seithe God hathe wrought this
choice in thee, so frame thyselfe to comfourth me ;” “ Careful I’le be to comfort thee ;" “As true
to thee as death to me ;” “ As God decreed so we agreed ;" “ Let us share in joy and care ;"
“ A faithful wife preserveth life ;” “ United hearts only death parts.” Several of these posy
rings may be seen in the South Kensington Museum, and it is from these that most of the
sentiments just quoted are taken.
Church-bells frequently have inscriptions upon them. Many of these are very curious. A
very few instances must, however, sufﬁce as illustrations :—“When I do call come serve
God all ;" “My roaring sounde doth warning give, that men cannot heere always lyve;" “I
ring to sermon with a lusty boom, that all may come and none may stop at home;" “I
sweetly tolling men do call to taste of meats that feed the soul;” “All people rejoice when
they hear my voice ;” “ A better bell than I is not beneath the sky."
Many heraldic mottoes are exceedingly interesting, and in a brief and pithy way frequently-
convey much historical information. As these, however, we shall consider in a subsequent
chapter, when we proceed to deal with heraldry as a whole, it seems scarcely advisable
in this place to further refer to them.
The Eastern nations delight greatly in the use of inscriptions as a feature in their
ornament, their houses, weapons, utensils, and furniture being often very elaborately enriched
by bands of interlacing conventional foliage or scroll-work, in the midst of which the letters
of the inscription are entwined. A very characteristic example of this use of inscriptions
is seen in the following one taken from a Malay creese, the formidable double-edged knife,
carried, and very freely used, by the people of the Eastern seas :—“ No need of dispute
or -words, for they are useless, this being the end of all disputes, and bringing peace to
the mind this shall deliver me instantly from my trouble."
Though in all our examples we have dealt with the past rather than the present,
the student must not, therefore, conclude too hastily that the subject is of historic rather
than practical interest. A ﬁne idea ﬁnely treated will be as welcome in the nineteenth
century as in any of those that at longer or shorter intervals have preceded it, and the
capabilities and possibilities of this interesting section of art are not by any means exhausted.
J


66 . PRIZVC./PLES_ OF ORNAMENTAL ART
Words of wisdom, in a graceful setting, can in but few circumstances be out of place. Having,
therefore, now scattered the seed we must be content to let it fructify in its own way, leaving
others to reap or cast away as they see ﬁt.
As we have several times already had occasion to refer to Assyrian art, and shall
frequently require to do so again, the present opportunity seems a very convenient one to
dwell at some little length upon its leading characteristics.
On entering any of the rooms devoted to the Assyrian remains in our national collection
we are at once struck with the immense use made of sculpture. The walls are lined with
large slabs that once occupied a similar position in the palaces of Nineveh. These slabs,
while decorative in character, are more especially devoted to a record of the great events
of Assyrian history. In them we see the warriors of Assyria pursuing the ﬂying foe,
besieging him in his cities, or returning in triumph with the captives and spoils of war.
Others detail the greatness of their monarchs, showing them in the fore-front of the battle,
pursuing the lion, or enthroned in the palace, surrounded by chamberlains and the great
ofﬁcers of the court. Others, religious in character, represent the homage paid to the gods
of Assyria; to Dagon, to Baal, and N isroch sacriﬁces are being made, libations offered. Unlike
the mural paintings from Thebes, that may be seen in an adjoining room, the Assyrian
records throw but little light upon the doings of the common people; for, whereas in
the Egyptian remains we see the operations of the vineyard being carried on; the dancing,
music, and feasting of social gatherings; the butcher cutting up his joints; wrestlers and
acrobats giving their performances; criminals and laggards being bastinadoed; poulterers
plucking their geese ; the jeweller with his blow-pipe; the carpenter, glue-pot on ﬁre, veneering
a slab of wood; the potter at his wheel; women weaving; the baker; the shoemaker;
the farmer; the fowler; all surrounded by the instruments of their callings, and engaged
in their daily work, in the Assyrian remains we get little or no insight into the
national life. The Assyrian sculptures deal exclusively with the national greatness,
as shown in courts and foreign conquests, and record the deeds of monarchs and
warriors alone. Little of what we may strictly term ornament is visible in these
remains. The sovereigns and great counsellers, cup-bearers, and other court functionaries,
are clothed in richly embroidered and heavily-fringed robes, and frequently wear armlets,
bracelets, and necklaces of beads. But- all these details, from the smallness of scale, the
bold manner in which they are treated, and, above all, from the ravages of time, afford but
little information. The bracelets almost invariably have a central patera, or rosette form.
The term patera, in its primary signiﬁcation (Latin, palm, to lie open), is applied to an open
vessel resembling a broad ﬂat dish or saucer, used by the Greeks and Romans in their
sacriﬁces, the blood of the victim being collected in it for the necessary libations. The
term patera is hence, in a secondary sense, applied to any foliate or ﬂoral, ﬂat or concave
circular form, whether painted or carved. The patera form is most commonly met with
in Assyrian, Classic, Renaissance, and Gothic ornament. In the three latter a very
considerable variation of treatment is met with; while the former examples, though
numerous, have a very strong family likeness to each other. Many examples may be
seen on paving-bricks in the British Museum, as in Figs. 234 and 239, the former from the
North-west Palace of Nimroud, the latter from Baashickhah; others from the sculptures
are shown in Figs. 243 and 245. The depression in the centre of each member in Fig. 243
is curious. It would appear to have been suggested by the similar effect so easily produced
on clay vessels before baking, by the pressure of the ﬁnger. To illustrate our meaning


CHARACTERISTICS OF ASSYRIAN ART ' 67
better we have represented, in Fig. 232, a little Assyrian vase, where the depressions have
clearly been thus produced while the material was plastic. The Assyrian pottery furnishes
numerous examples of this, patterns being produced on it either by these rounded depressions
or by more sharply cut forms made by some instrument; characteristics by no means,
howevet, conﬁned to the pottery of this people, but seen almost universally in a certain
stage of the ceramic art. Fig. 237, a vase of early British manufacture, is an especially
good illustration of this, as in it we get the union of both methods, the lower portion being
decorated by soft and rounded depressions, and the upper cut in sharply deﬁned lines. The
anthemion is another exceedingly characteristic Assyrian form. The term anthemion, derived
from the Greek am‘/zos, a ﬂower, is applied ornamentally to a radiate form like that shown in
Fig. 242. The anthemion form is sometimes called the honeysuckle ornament, and in some
few Greek examples is not unlike a cluster of buds of that plant; but in the natural plant
the largest buds form the outer rings, the forms gradually becoming smaller and smaller as
we approach the centre. The anthemion form is directly the reverse of this. Apart from
this the form is seen in styles that draw little or no inspiration from ﬂoral beauty, as in
the present, and in the ornament of far~off lands where the honeysuckle is unknown. Like
the patera, the anthemion form, no doubt, springs from the perception of the inherent beauty
of radiate forms; in the ﬁrst case star-like, and pleasing by simple repetition, like the
forms seen in the kaleidoscope; and in the second case radiating like a fan, having its halves
only alike, and pleasing to the eye in the gradation of the forms, and their due subordination
to the central member, a feature very beautifully seen in nature in the leaves of the
horse-chestnut. The great use made of the patera and anthemion forms in Assyrian art is
very well exempliﬁed in Fig. 245, a portion of a pavement, where the whole effect is
produced by alternate rows of modiﬁcations of these two typical forms. A further curious
example of their use is seen in the details of Fig. 240, a branch borne by one of the
priests represented on a mural slab. It will at once be seen that in this the stellate and
fan-like forms are the chief elements. It is, we think, instructive also as showing how,
without bare and mechanical repetition of its halves, the general effect satisﬁes the eye by
its balance.
Examples of the patera form, in addition to the Assyrian examples already referred
to, will be seen in Fig. 258, a piece of wood-carving from an old chest; in Fig. 261, from
an Indian textile fabric; in Figs. 267 and 268, Greek illustrations; in Fig. 266, a piece
of fourteenth century work, German, from Coburg Castle; in Fig. 269, a piece of Romanesque
ironwork; in Fig. 270, a rosette from Henry VII.’s Chapel; in Fig. 339, Norman work
and in Fig. 398, a piece of ornament from a Greek vase.
Examples of the anthemion form will be found on Plate XXIII. The central ﬁgure,
349, together with Figs. 350, 351, are illustrations of the natural growth of the honeysuckle.
Fig. 345 we ﬁnd on an African calabash. The arrangement of the two dark lobes on the
light ground, and of the light lobe on the darker portion, is a curious and suggestive feature.
Fig. 346 is from a Romanesque string-course. Figs. 347, 348, are Italian Renaissance
examples. The remaining three on the plate, Figs. 352, 353, 354, are from Greek vases in
the national collection. Fig. 362 is an Indian example stamped in silver on the base of
an idol; Fig. 365, a piece of Spanish embroidery; Fig. 366, a. carving on some French
Renaissance furniture in the South Kensington Museum. In Fig. 402, a treatment of the
pink, from a Persian plate, a very anthemion-like character is given—a character, however,
that the general growth of the natural ﬂower is sufﬁcient to justify.


63 PRINCIPLES OF OIL’./VA/IIE./VTAL ARI
The guilloche is a third characteristic Assyrian form; we have already, however, in our
opening chapter dwelt on its nature, and any further remarks are now needless.
\/Vith the exception of the lotus form, no doubt borrowed from Egypt, and a cone or
pine-apple form that frequently recurs, the ornamental details do not appear to have been
based on any natural type; though on the sculptured slabs, where the treatment is
picturesque rather than decorative, some few daisy and lily-like ﬂowers are introduced in
the foregrounds of hunting and such-like scenes, with considerable freedom and appreciation
of natural growth and character; botanical features, like the alternation of leaf.growth,
seen in most of our own plants, or the sheathing of the iris foliage, being evidently
considered.
The Assyrians, like other Eastern nations, made a great use of colour, and sufﬁcient
indications yet remain to convince us that even the large sculptured slabs were richly
painted and gilt; the colours of which, from their mineral base, we now possess the
knowledge, were blue, red, yellow, green, black, and white; and, as large quantities of
gold-leaf are met with in the ruins, we may justiﬁably add gold to our list. Many of the
fragments of bricks yet retain very clearly both the form and colour of the simple designs
painted upon them. A curious use of violently contrasting colours is often met with; thus
in the large anthemion, Fig. 242, the central form is cut sharply up into segments alternately
black and white. The same treatment is seen in some of the lateral members; those
alternating with them being of a dark, dull yellow. We see other examples of the same
characteristic feature in Figs. 241, 244. The character of Assyrian art is distinctly
zoomorphic: it deals almost exclusively with animal life; of phyllomorphic, or foliate form,
there is little or none, such ornament as there is being arbitrary in character, and if suggested
by natural forms at all, so remotely resembling them as to fail to appeal from any such
associations to the eye. \Ve have already, in our paper on the symbolic use of animal
forms, referred to the eagle-winged and human-headed lions and bulls of Assyrian art
and mythology; we need not, therefore, here dwell further upon them than again to remind
our readers how large a part these ﬁgures play in the palace-temples of Nineveh.
Qne very singular feature in Assyrian art consists of the immense use made of
inscriptions. These inscriptions are not placed beneath the slabs to which they relate,
but line after line right over the surface, quite irrespective of what they cross. The subject
was evidently ﬁrst sculptured, and then along the whole face of the work a broad band of
descriptive matter was thrown; the effect where it crosses the mane of a horse, or, Fig. 210,
the embroidered robe of the monarch, being somewhat confusing. The story of the gradual
translation of these inscriptions is one full of interest, not only as a triumph of zeal and
learned acumen, but also on account of the extreme importance of the records thus brought
to light. \Ve have already given an example of these characters, and anything more
mysterious it would be difﬁcult to conceive. Various terms are applied according to the
fancy of the describer: thus in Germany it is known as kez'/ﬁvmrlg, French antiquaries
call it té|le-ti-c/ou, while English writers use the terms cuneiform, wedge-shaped, or arrow-
headed. Though this cuneiform writing is now almost entirely associated in our minds
with the records of the Assyrian Empire, it was at one time, under slight modiﬁcations,
used throughout the greater part of \Nestern Asia—a most fortunate circumstance for our
antiquaries, and one without which the signs must ever have remained a mystery. The
clue was afforded, as in the case of the Rosetta stone already referred to in speaking of
the Egyptian hieroglyphics, by ﬁnding tri-lingual inscriptions, records identical in matter,


ASS YR]/1./V REAIAHVS. 69
but in three different characters. The kings of Persia, until the ﬁnal overthrow of the
empire by Alexander the Great, ruled over three principal peoples—the Persians proper,
the Tartars, and the people of Babylonia and Assyria; hence the government records were
tabulated in the three national languages. The palaces of.Darius and Xerxes at Persepolis,
and the rock-tablets of Behistun, furnish the most important polyglottic inscriptions yet
discovered. The Persian inscriptions, from the small number of signs and the analogy
detected between the ancient dialect and the modern Zend and Sanscrit, were after thirty
years’ patient labour and investigation mastered by Grotefend and Lassen. A young
English ofﬁcer attached to our diplomatic service in Persia, ignorant of the labours of these
" German sat/ans, but ﬁlled with antiquarian zeal, set to work to decipher similar inscriptions,
and arrived at a like result. That Col. Rawlinson the Englishman at Bagdad, and
Professor Lassen at Bonn, should thus unknown to each other arrive at identical
conclusions, is a strong argument in favour of the correctness of the principles of in-
terpretation employed. The patient labour and careful analysis that had laid open the ﬁrst
column were now applied to the second, but in the face of tenfold difﬁculties, for while the
Persian signs were about forty in number, the Assyrian presented some ﬁve hundred
different characters. Much light, however, has been already thrown upon these dark pages
of history.
The antiquity of the Assyrian remains is very great, and it may not be altogether
undesirable if we devote the remaining space at our disposal to some little account
of the history of the Assyrian Empire. Two sources of information are open to us, the
writers of the Bible and the Greek and Roman historians. In the former alone do we meet
with distinct information, as the great historians of Greece were not born at the time of
Assyria's ﬁnal downfall; and though they record many traditions of its power and extent,
they cannot speak with the authority of eye-witnesses of its glory, like Jonah and other
prophets. Going back to a very early period in the world’s history, we ﬁnd that Noah had
three sons, and that these again had a numerous progeny. Of the sons of Shem, with the
exception of Asshur, no record beyond their mere names is given, but of Asshur it is said
that he built several cities, and amongst them Nineveh (Gen. x. II). Various incidental
allusions, as in the prophetic utterances of Balaam, testify from time to time of the growing
power of the state. It is spoken of by various writers as “the rejoicing city that dwelt
carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me," as the “fenced place,"
the “exceeding great city ;" and the might of the Assyrians is repeatedly spoken of as the
instrument of the wrath of God on the Jews. The ﬁrst record of strife between those two
powerful and neighbouring nations was soon after the division, nearly B.C. I0o0, of the Jewish
nation into two peoples, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, when the Jews, weakened by their
internal dissensions, offered a tempting prey to their powerful neighbours. Pul is the ﬁrst
Assyrian monarch mentioned in Scripture; he made war upon Menahem, King of Israel,
exacting heavy tribute, and reducing the state to vassalage. Tiglath-Pileser received feudal
fealty in return for his aid on behalf of Ahaz against the Syrians, but seeing both the richness
and the weakness of the Jews, overran the country. Shalmaneser destroyed Samaria, leading
into captivity the remnant of the ten tribes, and thus destroyed the kingdom of Israel; while
Sennacherib, it will be remembered, made war upon Hezekiah, took Lachish and many of
his principal cities, and exacted a tribute of thirty talents of gold and three hundred talents
of silver. After centuries of power the glory of Assyria began to decline, and six hundred
years before the Christian era it was invaded by Cyaxares with a vast army of Medes


CHAPTER V.
Heraldry or Blazonry—Derivation of the VVord—MSS., Brasses, Seals, and Glass Painting as Sources of Study—Rolls of Arms—-
Pernicious Character of much of the Modem “Restoration"——-Devices of the Heroes of Antiquity—Origin of Heraldry—
Coats of Anns—Arms of Edward the Confessor-—Arrnorial Bearings of David, Samson, Adam, and Eve—Heraldry, an
Incitement to Deeds of Heroism—Seals On Legal D0cuments—Canting Hera1dry——Heraldic Charges—The Language of
Heraldry-—Tinctures—Furs—The Varying Terms applied by Old Writers to these in the Arms of Gentlemen, Noblemen,
and Sovereigns—Honourable Ordinaries—Early Devices Structural in Character—Naval Signal Code-Subordinaries-Forms
of the Cross—Common Charges—The Lion and Eagle—The Cockatrice, Dragon, \Vyvern, Griﬁin, Phoenix, Triton, Mermaid,
Sea Horse, Sea Lion, Harpy, Sphinx, Sagittarius, Salamander, and Unicorn—Legends of the Basilisk—Marshalling-Dimidiation
—Impalement—Quartering—Aggroupment of Arms—The Shields of \Var and Peace—Crests—Family Badges—The Motto-
The Supporters—The Lilies of France on the English Arms—Marks of Cadency—Marks of Augmentation—Marks of Abate-
ment—Mantling—Value of a Knowledge of the Laws of Heraldry.
ERALDRY or Blazonry has played so conspicuous a part in many periods of art, and
more especially throughout the whole series of the Gothic styles, not only in England,
but also in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, &c., that a knowledge of at least its elements
is an indispensable part of the training of the archaeologist or designer, or of any one
interested in even a minor degree in ecclesiastical or baronial architecture, illumination,
stained glass, monumental brasses, and other such-like features of the past. The herald,
in the original and literal meaning of the term, was the shouter; the old French term,
“herald," identical with the English, and the German “herold” being derived from the
German verb “haren,” to shout. It was his duty to challenge to battle, to carry messages
between hostile armies, to read the proclamations of the monarch, and ﬁnally to proclaim
at the tournament the achievements and armorial bearings of the various competitors,
while others would “blasen” or blow trumpets, to attract attention and to give additional
pomp and grandeur to the ceremonial; hence blazonry or heraldry, in its original sense a
public proclaiming, also became of necessity a description and registration of the armorial
bearings of those permitted to assume them.
It is impossible to do more than just dwell on a few of the leading points of our
subject; we can, therefore, only indicate some few of the more marked features and principles,
thus far clearing the way before our readers for their own personal study, pointing out
matters of interest and examples to be studied, books to be consulted, making our remarks as
far as possible useful and suggestive, but after all, of necessity, leaving much of the hard
work to be done by themselves. To those who would desire to work out the present subject
at greater length, we would recommend the study of Boutell's “English Heraldry,” and
Cussan’s “ Manual," as handy text-books. There are many other books, but the two we
have mentioned will sufﬁce to give a very fair knowledge both of the history and practice.
Old MSS., brasses, seals, and glass painting will afford many excellent examples for study.
The “rolls of arms," as they were termed, that were drawn up by the heralds at any
particular battle or siege, of those knights who were present, afford another and very good
source of information. Perhaps the most interesting and instructive of these rolls of arms
that have been preserved to our day is that which, in a metrical form, records in Norman-


72 PRINCIPLES OF ORNA1l{E./VTAL ART
French the siege and capture of the fortress of Carlaverock, on the Scottish frontier, by
Edward I., in the year I300. The banners and shields of the princes, the nobles. and
knights engaged are set forth and coloured with minute exactness. Many of the shields
are without any device whatever, their distinctive character being produced by some
peculiarity in the bands of colour. Such may be considered to be derived from the earliest
times, and have generally been deemed of greater honour, as they certainly are of greater
antiquity, than the majority of those that bear more complex devices. Early glass, too,
possesses a great recommendation—that we see the original colours still preserved. Unlike
painted decorations in panels, &c., there is no great risk of its having been touched up, or as it
is termed, restored. Restoration should never, it appears to us, be more than is honestly
implied in the word—just so much as is alone necessary to preserve the fabric and to avert
decay. Instead of this it appears too ordinarily to be considered an opportunity of starting
de 1zo2/o; thus side by side in our cathedrals we may see portions, some white and spick-
and-span new, elaborately pointed, and with crudely-coloured scroll-work or other ornament,
while other portions, from the proximity of the restored work, gain at least additional
interest by contrast, as in them every stone has a history, and there is a charm in seeing
even the wreck of the earlier decoration that no nineteenth century thirteenth century work
can for a moment impart. The iconoclast and the restorer have between them robbed us
in many cases of what can never now be replaced. Ancient glass may be, broadly
speaking, divided into two great classes—the ecclesiastical, with Scriptural or legendary subjects,
to be met with in our cathedrals and abbeys; and the heraldic, emblazoned with coats
of arms and other devices of chivalry, to be commonly found in old palaces and halls, both
in England and abroad. Many good and easily accessible illustrations of this latter class may
be seen at the palace of Hampton Court.
In all ages of the world, so far as we have any record, we see that there has been the
desire on the part of nations, tribes, and individuals to distinguish themselves by certain
recognised devices or badges or peculiarities of dress (as in the Scottish clans), or by titles.
In the Book of Numbers, for instance, we read that the Israelites pitched by their standards,
every one after their families, according to the house of their fathers. Virgil and other
classic writers refer to the special badges adopted by their heroes and chieftains; thus Astur
bears a silver swan, while other shields are distinguished by stars, serpents, or dolphins. In
other cases special epithets are employed, which, though of course not in any way heraldic,
serve further to illustrate the desire for personal distinction, which was one great motive
in the origin of heraldry; such as, in our own history, Edmund Ironside, Richard of the
Lion-heart, Edward the Confessor.
It was not until the thirteenth century that heraldry as a science began to receive
full attention. Faint traces of it are perceptible in the closing years of the twelfth century.
In the Bayeux tapestry the shields of the Saxons are simply charged with lines and
crosses, while some of the Normans bear extremely grotesque heraldic animals; but in
the reign of Henry III., A.D. I216 to I272, it became possessed of a system, a classiﬁcation,
and a technical language of its own, that have ever since been recognised and adopted;
such records, therefore, as the roll of Carlaverock already referred to, are as intelligible to
a modern student of heraldry, and as deﬁnite in their meaning, as to those who caused them
to be drawn up. About this time, too, the practice of embroidering the arms upon the
surcoat worn over the armour was adopted; hence the expression “coat of arms" applied
to armorial bearings. The arms of Edward the Confessor are sculptured on his tomb in


USE OF HERALDIC INSIGNIA. 7 3
\Vestminster Abbey, but they were placed there in the reign of Edward II. There is
n0 shadow of proof that he ever bore them. In the days in which every prominent person
b0re heraldic arms, and when blazonry had attained to great renown, it became a custom
t0 bestow such heraldic arms also upon the men of rank of former times, both to distinguish
them, and also, as it was thought, to treat their memories with a becoming honour and
respect. Heraldry, like symbolism, has suffered ridicule and undue depreciation from the
c0nsequences of the writings of its too enthusiastic adherents, some such having gravely
discussed and settled the armorial bearings of David and Gideon, Sampson and Joshua,
making a true coat of arms out of Joseph's coat o'f many colours, and crowning the
absurdity by declaring that on the marriage of Adam and Eve Adam adopted on his
own red shield Eve's plain shield of silver, Abel bearing the same arms, but with the
addition of an apple.
Until the time of the Crusades a knight was free to choose any device that he liked,
without the express permission of the king or any reference to the heralds; but when so
great a number of men of all nationalities were gathered together in the Holy Land, it
became absolutely necessary, to prevent the confusion arising from so many leaders bearing
very similar arms, and those in subordinate positions also bearing devices identical with
those of the chiefs of the expeditions, to re-arrange the various devices in some recognised
and positive order. Towards the close of the reign of Edward III. heraldry had perhaps
arrived at the summit of its fame, in the respect paid to it, and in its inﬂuence on men's
minds, in inciting them to deeds of heroism, as in the case of the heart borne by the family
of Douglas, granted to them to commemorate the duty entrusted by Robert Bruce to Sir
James Douglas-—that he should bear with him to the Crusades the heart of his sovereign,
and bury it in the Holy Land. The handing down from sire to son of such records of
noble service would be in itself an incentive to subsequent wearers to tread in the same
path of honour, that the discrepancy between the heroic ancestor and his degenerate
successor might not be too patent to all beholders. To quote the words of Ben Jonson-
“ Boast not the titles of your ancestors, brave youths ;
They're their possession, none of yours ;
Vt/hen your own virtues equalled have their names,
’Twill be but fair to lean upon their fames,
For they are strong supporters ; but till then
The greatest are but groing gentlemen.”
Heraldry was soon found to possess other advantages besides those more intimately
connected with its use in war or the tournament; thus, very soon after the Norman
Conquest, in consequence of their presence being required to give validity to legal
documents, seals became instruments of the greatest importance; and it would at once
be obvious that heraldic insignia, from their simplicity, and also as the distinctive bearings
of those who thus used them, were exactly suited to the purpose. And to the fortunate
circumstances of the legal importance attached to such deeds and charters we are indebted
for the careful preservation of these interesting relics, possessing historic and heraldic
value of the highest order. Many of the early arms bore obvious allusion to the bearer—
a kind of symbolism easily remembered. By English authorities this is termed “canting"
heraldry; in France, armes parlanles, arms that speak, or in other words, that explain
themselves. A few illustrations will show this more clearly. The family of VVhalley
bear three whales’ heads on their shield; Yard, three yard-measures ; De Vele and Calverly
K


74 PIEIZVCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ARI?
both have a calf; Ramsey, a ram; Lambert, a lamb; Beeston, bees; Shelley, snails;
Rossal, roses; Falconer, a falcon; Butler, cups. Others, from the change of language,
are not at ﬁrst so obvious. The house of Arundel bore swallows—in French, /u'ro1za'elles,'
Martel, hammers, from the French word marleau. On the door of the ruined church
of Bivalle-le-Martel, near Rouen, we ﬁnd curious nails, the heads in the form of a hammer,
thus recalling the name and armorial bearings of the family of Martel, the lords of this
ancient domain. Other examples are seen in the bear borne by Fitz-urse, ours in French,
or ursa in Latin, being a bear; and the otter, Zoutre, borne by the Luttrels. Others,
again, allude to the occupations of the bearers, as the teazel-plant borne by the Clothworkers’
Company, and largely employed in the manufacture of cloth; or the horseshoes borne by
the Company of. Farriers.
All the various ﬁgures and devices represented on a shield, no matter what their
characters, are termed charges, and the shield is said to be charged with them. As
in the olden time the heraldic charges were borne by their owners on their surcoats and
shields, so in the present day the conventional form of shield is still employed. There
is no ﬁxed rule for the form of shield used, except that unmarried ladies and widows
always bear their armorial‘ devices on a lozenge. The vocabulary employed in heraldry
is used with studious exactness, speaking a language that would be equally well understood
in former times as in our modern revival, or on the Continent as well as at home, so that
if we write the description of a shield—say, for instance, “Azure, a chevron dancetteé or,
between three mullets argent”—and send it to ﬁve hundred students of heraldry in England,
France, or Germany, the drawings that we receive in return will be absolutely identical in
form and colour. We cannot, however, now go into such detail as this exact use of technical
terms implies, as a new language can hardly be acquired in one short chapter.
The. various parts of a shield all have special names, in order that the position of any
given charge may be accurately deﬁned. The face of the shield may be divided by lines
in various directions; thus we get per pale, when it is cut by a line vertically through the
centre; per fess, when by a line horizontally through the centre; per cross, or quarterly,
when two or more such lines cut the shield into rectangles; quarterly does not, however,
mean in heraldry, as in ordinary conversation, a division into four parts; there may be
many more. Other modiﬁcations are: per bend, when a diagonal line is employed; per
saltire, when two diagonal lines cross in the centre; and per chevron, when two such
slanting lines, springing from the lower angles of the shield, stop at their meeting-place in
the centre. These dividing-lines are not necessarily straight; they may be indented, or
notched like the edge of a saw; embattled; rayonnée, when ﬂame-like or rayed; wavy,
and several other forms. Shields are distinguished further by various colours, and owe
to the brilliancy of such colouring much of the beauty of their effect when employed in
art, the ruling motive, however, we need scarcely say, being the great value that such
brilliancy and precision of colour gave to them as a means of identiﬁcation in earlier times,
in the dust and turmoil of the strife. The heraldic term for this brilliant enhancement
is “tincture;" the term comprises metals, colours, and furs. The metals employed in
blazonry are gold, heraldically known as “or," and silver, “argent.” The colours are red,
or “gules," from an old Norman-French word for the mouth and throat, in evident allusion
to the deeply ruddy colour of those parts; blue or “azure;” black or “sable;” green,
“ vert;" purple, “purpure." \/Vhere metal or colour can be employed there is, of course,
no further difﬁculty in representing any coat of arms, but as in engravings, coins, and


76 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENTAL ART
uniform, and their features could not be distinguished through the bars of the helmet;
hence the only means of identiﬁcation left was in the sound of the voice or observation of
the device borne on the shield and horse-trappings. \Ve see the importance of this principle
fully comprehended, for instance, in the signal-code of our war and merchant navy. Any
elaborate devices would be lost in the distance at which signalling is often carried on, and the
messages attempted to be thus conveyed would often be completely misunderstood. To
avoid this it will be observed that the colours employed are such as give clear and
distinctive contrasts, and the forms adopted are of the most simple character—mere lines,
spots, chequers, or bands.
The cross form is capable of many varieties that ought, perhaps, to be rather regarded
as common charges. Edmonson, in his “Complete Body of Heraldry,” names 109
varieties. Many of these no doubt originated in the Crusades, when the cross form
was so universally borne, and yet with a desire to as far as possible make recognisable
differences in appearance, either by colour or by some more or less elaborate modiﬁcati0n
of the typical form. The crosses pommée, ﬂeurie, cross/et, moIz'/ze (as in Fig. I 57),
four:/zée, corn-/ée, palonre, &oto1zée,c/ea/zée, pafée are most ordinarily met with. During
the Crusades, apart from any personal device, the English collectively, and as a badge of
nationality, wore white crosses; the French, red; the Italians and F lemings, green; the
Germans, black.
The subordinaries are the quarter, canton, gyron, bordure, orle, tressure, inescutcheon,
lozenge, fusil, rustre, fret, and pall. The tressure may be very well seen on our ﬂorin, where,
like an ornamental fringing, it surrounds the rampant lion of Scotland; while of the
inescutcheon a very good example may be seen on a George shilling or half-crown,
where the arms of Hanover are borne on an inescutcheon, or smaller shield, in the
centre of the English arms. The gyron, a triangular form, is never in English heraldry
met with alone; it is always grouped. The pall is exclusively met with in ecclesiastical
heraldry.
It would be impossible to even name all the common charges, as there is no object,
real or imaginary, that may not be thus borne; and examples are so numerous that we must
all be familiar with at least many of the forms employed. Amongst animals the lion seems
to have ever held the highest place in men’s regard; and to render it distinctive many
modiﬁcations of position have been adopted. VVe have the lion rampant when in
the position seen in the Scottish arms; rampant regardant, when—the general position being
the same as the last—the head is shown, as in the lion supporting the royal arms, in full
view instead of in proﬁle; statant, when standing on all four legs; passant, when the
right fore-paw is raised as if in walking; salient, when both fore-paws are raised together
as if in the act of springing. In other cases a portion only of the animal is represented—
a demi-lion, or the head, or leg, or paw, or tail; thus the family of Cork bears for arms
three lion-tails. Boars, wolves, foxes, stags, bulls, and many other beasts are also commonly to
be met with. Amongst birds the eagle holds the same pre-eminence that we have found
the lion enjoying amongst beasts. Its presence frequently betokens a German alliance.
The Germans adopted it in support of their claims to be considered the successors of the
Cxsars. The eagle has also been introduced by France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, and
America in their national insignia. Amongst numerous other birds, we most commonly
meet with the falcon, cock, pelican, heron, swallow, and raven. Bats, ﬁsh, reptiles, and
insects are occasionally used. The sun, moon, stars, trees, wheat-sheaves, arrows, crosses,


MYTHICAL AZVI./IIALS USED. 77
buckles, gauntlets, swords, keys, cups, spurs, various forms of knots, hearts, anchors, sceptres,
are all examples of well-known charges.
Amongst mythical beings we ordinarily meet with the cockatrice, dragon, grifﬁn,
wyvern, phoenix, triton, mermaid, sea-horse, sea-lion, harpy, sphinx, sagittarius, salamander,
and unicorn. The cockatrice or basilisk, the fabled progeny of the union of cock and serpent,
was during the earlier ages of the world regarded as a dread reality, and as such is mentioned
by Pliny, Galen, Dioscorides, and many other writers. The glance of its eye was fatal, its
breath a deadly poison. It will be remembered that Shakespeare makes Lady Anne say
to Richard' IlI., with reference to her eyes, “Would that they were basilisks, to strike
thee dead!" The mediaeval Italians speak of a herb-basilisque that, handled gently, yielded
a pleasant savour, but if trodden on engendered serpents. A certain amount of ambiguity
as to the appearance of the cockatrice is met with. This is naturally excusable, since
those who had seen it, and were therefore best able to describe it, died beneath its fatal
glance. One old writer, Aldrovandus, represents it as a huge lizard having a cock’s head
and four pairs of legs; others call it the king of serpents (Greek, éasz'!z'si:os, diminutive form
of éasileus, “a king”), and represent it in true serpentine form, but having a diadem or crest
on its head. In modern heraldry the cockatrice has the head and legs of a cock, duly
wattled and spurred, a scaly, serpent-like body, and dragon wings. The phoenix is eagle-like
in form, but always represented as issuing from the midst of ﬁre. The phoenix, mentioned by
Pliny, Herodotus, Hesiod, and others, was believed to live ﬁve hundred years, and then,
collecting its own funeral pyre, to perish in the ﬂames created and fanned by the beating of its
wings, and thence to rise again from its ashes to renewed life; hence it became in mediaeval
times an emblem of immortality, or of the purifying effects of sorrow and pain, and is
frequently referred to in this sense in old monastic legends. The phoenix is at times referred
to by our poets, as in Moore's “ Lalla Rookh : "—
“ Sleep on, in visions of odour rest,
In balmier airs than ever yet stirred
Th’ enchanted pile of that lonely bird,
\Vho sings at the last his on death-lay,
And in music and perfume dies away ! ”
The dragon is a winged monster like the cockatrice, but having four legs and a different
character of head. The grifﬁn is an animal produced by the combination of the eagle
and lion, as in Fig. 391, the head, wings, and feet being like those of the eagle; and the
general effect of the body leonine. The wyvern is a winged serpent; it is in general
appearance very like the cockatrice, but the head is that of a dragon. The triton is a
monster of which the upper half is the similitude of a man, while from the waist
downwards the form is that of a ﬁsh; in the mermaid, the sea-horse, and sea-lion the
underlying idea is very similar to that seen in the triton, except that in these latter
cases the upper parts are those of a woman, a horse, and a lion, respectively. The harpy
was a form having the body and wings of a vulture, and the head of a woman. They were,
according to classic mythology, employed by the higher gods in the punishment of the sins
of mortals. The other forms to which we have referred are sufﬁciently well known to
need no further comment.
It is a fundamental law in heraldry that colour shall not be placed upon colour, nor
metal upon metal; thus, blue and red, or white and yellow employed together would be


78 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAJVENTAL ART
false heraldry. The only exception to this is where any object is represented in its natural
colour, in heraldry termed “ proper,” and marked “ P.P.R." in descriptions of blazonry. A tree
might therefore be blazoned vert on an azure ground. In marshalling several arms
together into one shield, each is treated as being complete in itself ; thus, in our national arms,
the blue shield of Ireland stands side by side with the red shield of England without being
deemed a violation of the law; or we might suppose a case where two shields are combined
together into one armorial bearing, each in itself correct in colouring, the one having a black
eagle on a golden ground, the other a silver key on a red ﬁeld. Their combination into
one shield is, so to speak, an accidental circumstance arising from an alliance; each is
correct in itself, and the accident of the black eagle of the one coming in juxtaposition
with the crimson ground of the other does not in any way prove an infringement of the rule.
The method of showing two bearings upon one shield by the representation of half of each
of them is termed dimidiation. It is not altogether satisfactory, as it mutilates both shields,
and often cuts up the charges very awkwardly. Impalement, where both are represented
in their entirety, is far preferable. Impalement is largely used in all ofﬁcial arms; bishops,
for instance, impale the arms of the bishopric with their own family arms. Quartering is
another method of combining several bearings together into one armorial device; we see it,
for instance, in the arms of Great Britain, as borne by our sovereign, where the English,
Scottish, and Irish arms are thus treated. There may occasionally be mere agroupment,
where each shield is complete in itself, and merely combined in some ornamental way
with the others by ribbons, panelling, &c. The English, Scottish, and Irish arms thus
grouped may be seen on our ﬂorin. A distinction was sometimes made between the
shield of war and the shield of peace, the ﬁrst being the heraldic arms of the bearer, the
second an arbitrary device. An especially good example of this may be seen on the
monument of Edward the Black Prince, in Canterbury Cathedral, where the two shields are
sculptured in alternate panels. Old tombs in our cathedrals and churches often supply
excellent and most reliable examples of heraldic devices, and the nature of the armour and
costume worn at the time of their erection.
“ The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth ere gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour ;
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”
Crests were originally adopted and worn upon the helmet as further distinctive signs.
Badges were employed on the horse-trappings, or the breasts or sleeves of the common
soldiers and retainers of the nobility; the badge of the Percys, for instance, was the
crescent moon; of the house of Lancaster, a red rose, or columbine-ﬂower; Plantagenet,
the broom-ﬂower; the Black Prince, three ostrich-feathers, a device borne ever since
by the Princes of Wales ; Richard II., a white hart, or the rays of the sun issuing from behind
a cloud.
The motto was originally the battle or rallying-cry of the knight who bore it; thus
the motto of the Percys was, Esperance en Dieu. Those of our readers who are of
Shakespearian tastes will remember the exclamation of Hotspur—“ Now, Esperance! Percy,
A motto, unlike the arms, can be changed at pleasure, or need not be
possessed at all. It may be in any language. It is often chosen from a punning allusion
to the bearer; the family of Vernon, for instance, have Vernon semfer 2/fret, which
and set on."


HERALDIC JIIOTTOES. 79
may be read either as “ It is not always spring,” or “Vernon ever ﬂourishes.’ Sometimes
the mere ring of the words has apparently greatly inﬂuenced the choice, as in Astra
castra, numen lumen, “The stars my canopy, Providence my light ;” or the old Norman-
French, Un ray, une oy, une lay, “One king, one faith, one law ; " or again, Pro rege, lege,
grege, “For the king, the law, the people." Mottoes are not the exclusive property of any
one family or corporation, but may be borne by several. The last motto we have just given
is that selected by three families, the Bessboroughs, Broughams, and Ponsonbys all
adopting it. A great proportion of the mottoes in use are chosen from conveying a religious
feeling; thus, “Without God there is nothing; with God, enough;” C/zrz'stz' crux est mea
lax; Spes tutissima azlis, recalling to mind Cowper’s line—
“ All hope, despair, that stands not on the cross.”
Another large class may be considered not so strictly religious, as appealing to morality
in a somewhat lower sense. These, too, are very numerous: “Do well, and doubt not;"
“ Dread shame ; ” or again, “ Be just, and fear not,” sufﬁciently illustrate this section. Some,
again, are chosen to commemorate events in which the bearer of the motto, or his ancestors,
took prominent and honourable part, as “ Algiers," “Vimiera,” “China,” or the “Ready,
aye, Ready," more obscure in meaning, but well illustrated in one of Scott's stirring
stanzas :
“ His ready lances Thirlestane brave
Arrayed beneath a banner bright,
The tressuredﬂeur-dz-[is he claims
To wreath his shield, since royal James,
Encamped by I-‘ala’s mossy wave,
The proud distinction grateful gave,
For faith midst feudal jars ;
What time, save Thirlestane alone,
Of Scotland’s stubborn barons none
Would march to southern wars ;
And hence, in fair remembrance wom,
Yon sheaf of spears his crest has borne;
Hence his high motto shines revealed-
‘READY, AYE, READY ’ for the ﬁeld.”
Other mottoes startle us by their tone of arrogance. Of the,se we may quote, Honzo
sum, “ Beware ;" “Follow me,” “Never behind,” Alte volo. The supporter of the
arms is sometimes an angel, man, or animal, or at other times an imaginary creature, placed
as if protecting and sustaining the arms; their use, except under special circumstances by
direct license of the monarch, is conﬁned to peers and knights of the Bath. There are
almost invariably two, in early heraldry alike, in later times very rarely so. Our national
lion and unicorn afford us a good and familiar example. Elizabeth, Mary, and Henry VIII.
had a lion and a greyhound as supporters to their arms. Richard III. used either a golden
lion and silver boar or two silver boars; Edward III. a lion and eagle; Edward IV. a
lion and bull; Edward VI. a gold lion and red dragon; Richard II. two white stags;
Henry VII. a red dragon and white greyhound. The lion and unicorn were ﬁrst employed
at the union of England and Scotland under James I., and have continued in use ever since.
The lion. has been almost invariably employed as one of the supporters as a badge of
England. The Scottish arms have always been supported by two unicorns; hence, at the
union of the two kingdoms, the lion and the unicorn were naturally chosen as the


80 PRINCIPLES OF ORZVAME./VTAL ART
supporters of the armorial bearings of the realm. George Ill. was the last king who carried
the French lilies on his shield. His arms were, ﬁrst quarter, England and Scotland
impaled; second, France; third, Ireland; and fourth, Hanover. The lilies of France
were ﬁrst assumed by Edward III., in the year 1340, and continued in use until I801,
though, except in one reign during that long period, it was a mere pretence and shadow of
sovereignty. The French lily, orﬂeur-a/e-!z's, is supposed by some to have derived its name from
the river Lys, on the borders of Flanders, on the banks of which it is said to be particularly
abundant; and no doubt many of our readers are familiar with it under the name of yellow
iris or yellow ﬂag, and have admired the brilliant and graceful yellow ﬂowers as they
rise up by the sides of our streams in the midst of their long, sword-like leaves. It was
at one time considered as particularly sacred to the Virgin Mary. Others deny that it
is an iris-ﬂower at all, thinking it a conventional form, derived perhaps from a triple leaf
or the head of a halberd or spear, but of which nothing conclusive as to origin can now
be known.
\Ve occasionally ﬁnd, in addition to the inescutcheon, various little accessories to the
shield known as marks of cadency, augmentations, or abatements. The ﬁrst of these—the
marks of cadency—though now to some extent fallen out of use, have been till lately strictly
observed as a means of showing the seniority of the different members of a family. All
the sons of a family having a right to bear the paternal arms, it became necessary to devise
some small distinction that should at once give the necessary difference, and also show the
status of each member of the house. To accomplish this, the eldest son bears a form known
as a label (it may be very well seen in the arms of the Prince of Wales), the second son
a crescent, the third a ﬁve-pointed star, the fourth a martlet (a bird very like a swallow),
the ﬁfth an annulet or ring, the sixth a fleur-de-/is, the seventh a rose, and so on. These
signs are placed in the centre of the upper part of the shield. Marks of augmentation are
certain honourable additions granted by the sovereign for some special and extraordinary
act of national service, and generally in some way allude to the service rendered; thus
Charles ll. granted to Penderell, who saved his life at Boscobel, an oak-tree, in allusion
to the circumstances of his escape. Sir Cloudesley Shovel bore as augmentation of honour
two crescents and a ﬂeur-dz-/is upon his own proper arms, for distinguished naval victories
gained over the Turks and French. As an additional mark of honour these marks of
augmentation can be transmitted to one’s posterity; thus Robert Bruce, once closely
pursued by English soldiers, only escaped through two men named Torrance rowing him
across an arm of the sea. The family still bear as arms two oars crossed, with the motto
“I saved the king." The family of Hicks-Beach bear three golden ﬂezu's-a'e-/z's,- they refer
to three French standards .captured by Sir Elias Hicks, who for his bravery was also
created a knight by the Black Prince; and as a concluding example, an owl, the crest of
the Fowlers of Staffordshire, originated in the vigilance of Richard Fowler, a Crusader of the
time of Richard I., who saved the Christian camp from a nocturnal surprise, and for this service
was made a knight, and ordered by the king to assume as his crest the owl. Marks of
abatement are now never used; but in the olden time, when heraldry entered into the
architecture, the daily costume, the seals of documents, and in a hundred other ways made
itself felt, it must have been a crushing disgrace to be obliged, willing or unwilling, to bear
everywhere, and openly, before every one, marks of infamy, to be forced to mix with other
knights, and yet be shunned by them as one detected in treachery and cowardice-—a disgrace
and reproach to his order. Formerly there were nine different acts of dishonour, each


THE “ zvoaza SCIENCE.” 3,
bearing its distinctive mark to be afﬁxed to the shield during- the king’s pleasure—a terrible
disgrace, obvious to all and understood by all—such as withdrawing from a challenge
made, deserting the banner of the king, vain-glorious boasting, killing a prisoner when not
really needful for defence, uttering a lie to his sovereign, drunkenness and licentiousness of
conduct, or acting as a traitor towards his king and companions; for this, the most'
disgraceful offence, he was compelled for the rest of his days to bear his arms reversed.
The monarch had thus, in marks of augmentation on the one hand, and marks of abatement
on the other, a very complete and universally recognised system, ready made to his hand,
for rewarding the loyal, patriotic, and devoted, and of bringing very speedy and complete
punishment upon those who proved false to the vows of chivalry they had solemnly taken.
\/Ve might now proceed to give some little insight into the various forms of coronets and
helmets, since their correct representation is an essential point, but we feel that we must,
in a mere sketch of the subject, perforce leave much unsaid. In representing the arms of a
lady a crest is never introduced. If its original intention be remembered—to distinguish the
wearer in the turmoil of the ﬁght—the inconsistency of adding it to the armorial bearings
of a lady will, according to the authorities, at once be evident; though it seems to us that
if this line of reasoning be carried but one step further the lady should also bear no shield
of arms, for the shield in its primary use was as much an accessory in the strife of war
as the crest, and any arguments that apply to the one seem to be equally binding on the
other. On the same principle of consideration of the original use—as a mark to distinguish
one leader from another—it is inconsistent to represent two or more crests over any
armorial bearings, though in the case of matrimonial alliances between two families of rank
it is often done, the arms of the wife being impaled or quartered with those of the husband,
and the crest of the lady’s father being added to the joint arms. Behind a shield, and
issuing from the crest, we often see folds of drapery represented; this is known heraldically
as the mantling. The royal mantling is of gold; that of peers, of crimson. Both are lined
with ermine.
\/Vhether heraldry deserves the consideration that it yet receives, now that its primary
use has for ever passed away, may be an open question, but we trust that we have at
least succeeded in showing that it is guided by positive rules of its own which cannot with
impunity be violated. If, therefore, employed at all in church restoration or glass painting,
illumination, &c., it can only be properly introduced after some little attention has been
paid to rules which, though in themselves arbitrary in character, have received the sanction
of centuries, and the ignorance of which cannot fail to be speedily detected. Illustrations
of the need of this special knowledge may from time to time be met with, and it is not a
sufﬁcient reason for the violation of the special rules of the subject to deride it as obsolete,
arbitrary, or absurd. It may be all this, and yet, if the thing be introduced at all, it
should be rightly done, according to those rules. If the verdict on heraldry be an
unfavourable one, it should at least spring from knowledge, not from want of knowledge.
VVe are not, however, here called upon to decide upon the claims of heraldry itself on
our attention, as to whether it is a “noble science," as one old book calls it, or, as another
says of it, “the science of fools with long memories ;" we have merely to deal with it as a
fact that we ﬁnd prominently brought before us when we deal with much of the archaeological
work of the past, and we must as such accept it, and endeavour to comprehend the
laws by which it is governed. In drawing our remarks to a close we cannot do better
than quote some few lines of excellent common sense that we met with once while studying
L


84 PRHVCIPLES OF ORZVAJIIEZVTAL ART
intervals. Good examples may be seen in the architecture of Italy, Arabia, India, and
Cairo. In some districts of England a similar effect is produced by alternate layers of ﬂint
and sandstone. Construction, as we have already hinted, ﬁnds the horizontal line well
adapted to its exigences; and hence we ﬁnd it fulﬁlling, in string-courses, &c., its proper
work, and taking its rightful place, an essential feature of construction made beautiful by
art treatment. This principle, the decoration of construction, in opposition to the common
but false lack of principle, the construction of decoration, is so essential a feature in all pure
design that it will be found that where ornamental art is of a debased type it has also
little or no regard to constructive features, while the best period in any style of art is that
where constructive utility has been ﬁrst appreciated. In the writings of John Bell we ﬁnd
a passage that so exactly illustrates the relation of art to use that we gladly quote in
preference to venturing on any deﬁnition of our own. “Ornament," he says, “is, so to
speak, the immediate parasite of architecture. It is the lichen that rises from it-—a natural
growth; the ivy or honeysuckle that clings to its pillared trunk; the mistletoe which buds
out amid its branches. Decoration is not a substantive, but an adjective. It does not
stand alone; it is not a thing of itself; it decorates something else: it is an adjective. On
the other hand, a painting, a piece of sculpture, or an architectural structure, is a noun-
substantive—a thing of itself. Not so decoration. Decoration clings: it needs support.
It follows: it does not lead the way. It enhances : it does not originate. This is its restricted
province.”
The horizontal line, in the same way, is admirably adapted to fabrics produced by
weaving; hence we ﬁnd.in all periods of art a great use made of parallel bands in textile
fabrics as a decorative feature, the effect being sometimes produced by the alternation of a
dead and glossy surface, or more generally by variation of colour. It is also very largely
met with in ceramic art; the process of manufacture in this case, too, being very favourable
to its introduction. Any of our readers who have had the opportunity of visiting the seat
of such manufacture will doubtless remember with what ease the potter, by the instantaneous
touch of a pointed instrument, or brush of colour, formed a perfect ring on the vessel as it
was revolving, in a plastic state, with great rapidity on the horizontal wheel or disc, before
him. The like manipulation has produced like results in the ceramic art in all ages.
Archaic in style as much of the early pottery is we cannot help feeling that even in this
simple treatment of concentric rings and bands there is also considerable beauty; and
indeed, in these examples the very rudeness of the work has its own special charm, as it
testiﬁes alike to the antiquity of the potter's art and to that inherent love of the beautiful
which, not content with the utility alone of an object, seeks to make it pleasing also to the
eye. Of the extreme antiquity of the potter’s art there can be no question; it is so
evidently coeval with the ﬁrst dawn of civilisation that we look in vain for any account of
its origin, as long before men had written records the potter’s productions were in constant
demand. Most early nations ascribe their knowledge of the art to the beneﬁcent regard
and direct instructions of their gods. The Hebrew Scriptures contain numerous allusions ,
to the creations of the potter, and the processes employed by him. Thus, in the denunciations
uttered by the prophet Jeremiah, we ﬁnd the following passage :—“ The Lord said to Jeremiah,
Arise and go down to the potter's house. Then I went down, and behold he wrought a
work on the wheels; and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the
potter, so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.
And the Lord said, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Behold, as


SYMOVETRY. 37
in our work, “Plants, their Natural Growth and Ornamental Treatment," illustrated these
natural examples much more fully than here seems desirable, nor do we care to travel over
the same ground twice; to that work, therefore, we would refer our readers, should they
care to have a greater number of examples presented to them. '
Symmetry is a principle of great value in decorative art; for however poor a form may
be in itself, if it but form part of a symmetrical arrangement it at once becomes more
pleasing. We may see this well illustrated in the kaleidoscope, where very rich and
beautiful forms are produced by the reﬂection and symmetrical arrangement of rough,
irregular pieces of glass that in themselves are worthless, destitute of all inherent beauty.
Even the schoolboy experiment of making a great ragged blot, and then folding the paper
through its centre, is another illustration of the value of symmetry; for the bi-lateral form
thus produced, though meaningless, is certainly far more pleasing to the eye than the
original smear from which it was developed.
Burnet, in his essay on the “Education of the Eye,” is not insensible of the value of a
symmetrical arrangement even in the freer domain of pictorial art, and to illustrate his
remarks, employs a very similar means to that just referred to, as he says, “ If we take a
pen and sketch in a row of buildings, trees, &c., running from one side to a point in the
centre, blotting in shadows broad and dark on the near objects, and while the ink is wet
fold the paper across, so as to take off an impression on the opposite side, the eye is not
only gratiﬁed by a greater mixture of sharp and soft portions, but by a greater unity and
balance of parts, one side with another, and a repetition of the sky line with the lines of the
ground; or if we draw in a group of trees, and fold the paper across at the base of their
stems, so as to take off a faint impression, as if reﬂected in water, the same agreeable
sensation will be produced." Symmetry, however, of the grand divisions of a design, whether
architectural or ornamental, is the nobler form in which we meet with the principle; wherein
a general harmony and balance appeal to the eye, while a constantly recurring variation in
the details is no less grateful to the mind and taste when a closer scrutiny of the work is
made. This naturally entails more thought, careful labour, and play of fancy in the
designer than any mere repetition of parts, however pleasing in themselves. The higher
the order of the work the less must the mechanical symmetry become obtrusive: for
instance, in the mouldings of a church-window the cusps on one side will just agree in
position and be identical in form with those on the other; but in the stained glass occupying
the window itself the apostles and martyrs must, while maintaining a unity of grouping,
show also a variety of position and action. A design composed of foliate and ﬂoral forms
may be in exact symmetry, and the resulting effect will be good; but two human or angelic
forms thus treated will be repulsive; the mechanical repetition will have degraded them.
Hence, in the noblest Greek work-—such, for instance, as the Parthenon, the shrine and
dwelling-place of Pallas Athene, “the ﬁnest ediﬁce on the ﬁnest site in the world,"
according to Dr. VVordsworth, the grand result of the united labours of Ictinus, Callicrates,
and Phidias—the groups of ﬁgures in the pediments were symmetric as a whole, and were
thus in just harmony with architectural requirements, and yet treated with the greatest
freedom, balancing, but certainly not repeating, each other. The same remarks apply
with equal force to the ﬁgures of the metopes and frieze. Examples of these may be seen
in the British Museum. A copy of the Panathenaic frieze may also be seen on the building
devoted to the Athenaeum Club, in Pall Mall. Any of our readers who care to consult
Zahn’s ﬁne work on Pompeii will not fail to be struck with the general balance and harmony


88 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAJMENTAL ART
of the various groups or isolated ﬁgures so freely employed in the mural decoration; while
the immense variety of attitude is a feature equally striking: there is a due balance, but no
repetition, no sameness; for “beautiful forms must necessarily be composed both of uniformity
and variety,""' and this “variety is one of the chief sources of beauty."'|'
Having given examples sculptural and decorative, we may be allowed to cite one
other notable instance of the principle for which we are contending; this time a pictorial
example. There is, perhaps, no picture more markedly symmetrical in treatment than
the “ Last Supper" of Leonardo. da Vinci. A long table, parallel to the plane of the picture,
stretches almost from end to end of the composition. The three-light window on the back
wall of the room is so exactly in the middle that the lateral jambs on each side are of
identical width; while the lines of the ceiling-rafters, wall-panels, ﬂoor-lines, even the
folds on the horizontal surface of the table-cloth, in accordance with the requirements of
perspective, all converge to a point in the centre of the window. In the centre of the
composition sits our Saviour, the central light of the window being immediately behind
Him, and all the lines, therefore, of the walls, ceiling, and ﬂoor converge to a point
immediately over His head, and carry the eye most unmistakably to Him. On either side
of this noble and isolated ﬁgure we ﬁnd six apostles, each six in two groups, so that we
get four groups, each containing three ﬁgures, and two of these groups on each side of
the central ﬁgure of our Lord; nevertheless, so varied are the positions, some of the
ﬁgures being seated, others springing to their feet—some advancing with eagerness to
repel the idea of treachery, while others shrink, in one case in conscious guilt, in others
at the bare idea of betraying their Lord—that the mind rests with wonder and delight
on the skill that has produced so grand a result out of materials apparently so difﬁcult
thus to treat, while the eye is equally satisﬁed with the grand simplicity and balance -
of the composition. Should any of our readers feel inclined to think somewhat lightly
of this, we would strongly advise them, a horizontal line being given as the edge of a table,
to attempt the grouping of thirteen ﬁgures behind it, and we are persuaded that they
will rise from the problem with a greatly increased respect for the genius of Leonardo
da Vinci.
If we turn to the writings of those who are entitled, by their experience, to speak
with more or less authority, we ﬁnd a marked unanimity in their opinions, and our own
dicta very fully conﬁrmed; thus Ruskin, for instance, speaking of symmetry, in the second
volume of “Modern Painters,” says, “I only assert respecting it, that it is necessary to the
dignity of every form, and that by the removal of it we shall render the other elements
of beauty comparatively ineffectual; though, on the other hand, it is to be observed that
it is rather a mode of arrangement of qualities than a quality itself; hence symmetry has
little power over the mind unless all the other constituents of beauty be found together
with it. A form may be symmetrical and ugly, as many Elizabethan ornaments, yet not so
ugly as it would have been if unsymmetrical, but betters always by increasing degrees of
symmetry." Wornum, in his “Analysis of Ornament,” says, “It seems to be a law 0
nature that every individual thing shall be ’composed of similar parts in its outward
appearance; and as the internal arrangement is often different, as in the animal creation, this
similarity of externals would appear an evidence of the design of beauty ;” while Hudson says,
“Symmetry of form in leading lines is almost essential."
' Alison. 1' M ontesquieu.


99 PRLVCIPLES OF ORNAAIENTAL ART
reproduction. \/Ve see the principle very largely introduced in designs for paper-hangings,
muslins, and all kinds of work that are produced by the agency of machinery in any form,
stencilling, block-printing, and such-like. Alternation of form springs out of this, and is but
a richer development of the same principle; we see it, for instance, in the Greek egg and
tongue moulding, where two very dissimilar forms are brought into juxtaposition, each by
contrast mutually assisting the effect of the other. An illustration of the principle may be seen
in the small bordering shown in Fig. 307. If the student will draw the larger forms alone, he
will at once see how decided a gain the insigniﬁcant spot alternating between them really is, and
how out of all proportion to its apparent importance is the real loss in omitting it. In Fig. 301,
from a Greek vase, the variety of effect is produced by alternation of the direction of the unit,
while in many instances the variety is produced not merely by reversing the unit, but is still
further intensiﬁed by change of its colour. In fabrics and wall-papers this modiﬁcation is often
met with, as it prevents the monotony that mere repetition may result in; a large pattern
spread at intervals over a ground, frequently having a smaller form occurring at regular
intervals equidistant from the larger units. There may naturally also be alternation of colour
as well as of form merely; hence a very considerable variety may result from but few
elements, as we may have repetition of form in one colour, the simplest possible treatment;
repetition of form varied by alternation of colour; repetition of colour enlivened by alter-
nation of form; or the most complex development herein possible, alternation both of form
and colour.
Other offshoots of the principle of repetition are radiation, counterchange, and
interchange. Radiation is the repetition of a form so arranged as that all the units
should spring from one point, either spreading out like a fan, as in the anthemion,
or arranged in a stellate manner, as in Figs. 234, 243, 261, 268. The term counter-
change is applied to a pattern so arranged that the unit of repetition, the repeat as it is
in technical language perhaps more generally called, and the ground on which it occurs,
shall be of the same form. Instances of this modiﬁcation of the principle, some of them of
an extremely rich character, occur very frequently in Moresque, Persian, Arabian, and
Turkish ornament. The term interchange, though very similar to the last, is used
in an arbitrary manner, and with a certain limitation of meaning, as it refers to colour
only and not to form. Its use is almost exclusively conﬁned to heraldic technicalities. If,
for instance, a shield has an eagle or other device displayed 011 it, the colours of the
ground and charge are sometimes interchanged; that is to say, the shield is divided
perpendicularly down the centre, and if on the dexter side the portion of the eagle that
falls within the half is golden on a black ground, on the sinister side it will be black on a
golden ground; in more complex arrangements the interchange may be quarterly, so that
if we, for example, have a cross in the centre of a shield, it and the shield, as a whole, will
be bisected horizontally and vertically, and the colours of the resulting quarters will then
interchange; if, therefore, in the ﬁrst quarter the part of the cross that is included in it
be silver on a ground of azure, in the second the cross will be azure and the ﬁeld silver,
and the same alternation will be carried out in the two lower quarters.
There is undoubtedly a certain charm in the continuous repetition of a pleasing form;
hence the abundant use of it in the decorative art of all periods. In the Greek and
Roman temples all the capitals in a given structure were alike in character, and in the
same way the mouldings and other enrichments, as dentels, &c., were repetitions of the
same form throughout. In Egyptian ornament, though commonly found, as in the rows


VARIATION AND REPETITIOM - 91
of sphinx-forms leading up to the temple, it was not so marked a feature as in the classic
styles. The satisfaction to be derived by the eye in the repetition of a given form is at
the bottom of the abundant use of forms so diverse as the Assyrian guilloche, the Greek
vase-necking, Fig. 283, and the diaper in colour and relief so characteristic of medimval
work. \/Ve are struck again by a parallel feature in literary art; the ballads of “Oriana”
and the “May Queen,” by Tennyson, and the “ Raven " of Edgar Allan Poe, with its
dirge-like refrain of “ Never more," owe some of their charm at least to the regular reiteration
of a certain name or phrase.
Variation as a principle in ornamental art is, we need scarcely say, the opposite to
the various forms of repetition we have just been considering. As symmetry in the lower
sense of the word implies the likeness of part to part, and consequently is based on a
repetition more or less obvious, so symmetry in the higher sense deals with the general
harmony and balance of the mass, but admits due variation of the subordinate details;
we say due variation, because where it is carried to excess the work, no matter how
pleasing in itself when examined in sections, violates decorative requirements. The true
end of variety is to relieve the eye, not to perplex it. Variety of character without a
certain distinctness of plan, without certain marked and uniform features on which the eye
can dwell, may very readily be felt to be a blemish instead of a charm.
The Gothic cathedrals, where the tracery of each window, the carving in each capital,
differs from all the rest, testify to greater mental power, even though imperfectly expressed,
than is found in the rigid symmetry and repetition of forms of a classic building; while
the Chinese, neglecting symmetry, and overriding it in a morbid desire in much of their
work for variation, show still more grievously in the other direction the error of exceeding
the golden mean; hence, comparing these, and in doing so we are aware that opinions
on the point differ, we should place them in the following order :—Chinese art, symmetry
of the whole subordinated to variations of details, low type; Classic art, symmetry of the
masses, repetition in the details, good type; Gothic art, symmetry of the masses, variation
in the details, highest type. i .
Amongst the marked features of Egyptian art, one of the most conspicuous is the
studied avoidance of anything approaching to uniformity. This variation, both of the
masses and of the details, is sometimes so evident as to be at once perceptible, at other
times so subtle that though it tells in the general effect unconsciously to the eye, it can only
by careful investigation be detected and analysed. In the great hall of the temple of Karnac
the capitals are of different heights, and so distinctly so, that the intentioncan only have
been in such an arrangement to avoid a tedious sameness. The outer area of Medeenet
Haboo has capitals of fully expanded papyrus on one side, and on the other pillars of
Osiride type. These Osiride pillars are so called from each consisting of a square pillar
having a ﬁgure of Osiris carved in full relief on its face. The ﬁgure of the god did
not support any part of the fabric. In this respect it differed from the caryatides of Greece,
as these latter ﬁgures took the place of columns, and bore on their heads the superincumbent
weight. Some of the Renaissance architects, carrying a disagreeable idea still further,
made these ﬁgures crouching and bending as if in pain beneath their burden.
Machinery, as we have already seen, favours repetition, while on the other hand, where
. liberty of choice is afforded, variation will naturally result in the work of the human mind
and hand. The latter is, however, unfortunately a principle in direct opposition to these days
of hurry and contract-making, and it also requires a greater amount of thought. The


Q3 PR I1/V C IPLE S OF OR./V.4 JIE 1/VT A L AR If
architecture and ornament of the Early English and Decorated periods of Gothic afford
many ﬁne examples of it, while in the Perpendicular the opposite principle has full sway,
so that if we have a small fragment of a building of that late period we have the key to
the whole, all the rest, panelling, Tudor roses, &c., being but repeats. Henry VII.’s Chapel
and the Houses of Parliament afford conveniently accessible illustrations of this. In
conclusion, several of the modiﬁcations of Renaissance art, as the cingue-cem‘o and Louis
Quinze work, owe a large portion of their characteristic effect to the variation that, with
more or less of good taste, is dominant as a principle in their ornamental forms.
Turning now to our illustrations for further examples, we ﬁnd instances of repetition as a
dominant feature in Fig. 42, a Chinese fret; Fig. 59, a Greek fret; Fig. 149, an Egyptian
example; Fig. 259, a design on a Chinese vase in the South Kensington Museum; Fig.
283, Greek in its origin; Fig. 295, a Chinese diaper; Fig. 320, a piece of Gothic stone-
carving; Fig. 369, Byzantine ivory work; Fig. 370, a design for wood-carving; Figs. 394,
396, bands of ornament from Greek vases; Fig. 399, German Gothic metal-work; and Fig.
409, a portion of a Norman string-course. These are selected as fairly characteristic
examples. Many others will be found on turning over the plates.
Repetition, modiﬁed by alternation of form, direction, and colour, may be seen in Figs. 1 1,
14, 16, 17, 19, 38. Repetition of form, modiﬁed by alternation of colour alone, is seen in
Figs. 23,41, 108, 241, 244, 304, 310, and 326. Repetition of form modiﬁed by alternation of
direction will be found in Figs. 63, 66, 283, 353, 354, 367, 393, and 397; while repetition
modiﬁed by the alternation of size alone is exempliﬁed in Figs. 264 and 315.
Alternation, as a principle in the construction of the design, may be noticed in Fig.
37; in Figs. 131, 141; in Fig. 135, a very good Egyptian example; in Figs. 169, 195; in
Fig. 299, a Greek border, wherein the alternation is both of form and colour, as it also is
in Fig. 316, a very rich piece of Indian embroidery; in Figs. 300, 303, Indian examples,
where the alternation is that of ﬂower and leaf; Fig. 302, a design for a ﬂooring tile,
wherein the alternation consists of a simple form of leaf with a richer type; as may be
seen, too, in Fig. 306, a portion of a Byzantine string-course; Fig. 308, a Greek treatment,
the alternation of leaf and fruit; Fig. 314, the alternation of ﬂower and bud; Fig. 309,
part of the border of a plate of Hispano-Moorish manufacture, where forms of purely
arbitrary character mutually enrich each other by their alternate arrangement; Fig. 352,
an early form of Greek anthemion pattern; Fig. 364, a design based on the nut, wherein
the foliage and fruit alternate; Fig. 376, a piece of modern wall-paper; and Figs. 398,
413, 417, Greek borderings from vases in the British Museum. '
Counterchange we have already in a previous chapter dwelt upon; examples of it may
be found at Figs. 3, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 32, 35, 36,90, 111,112, 122, 129, 244,304, 305.
The principle of variation is illustrated in Fig. 61, a Chinese fret-like pattern, and a
very characteristic way amongst the Celestials of ﬁlling up any required space; Figs. 332,
335, 339, Norman examples; in Fig. 333, a piece of Indian window-piercing; in Figs.
334, 336, Italian examples; in Fig. 338, a piece of Perpendicular wood-carving, wherein
it will be noticed that, in spite of the stiffness of treatment so characteristic of the period,
the principle of variation has been worked out in the diversiﬁed treatment of the leaf-lobes.
Fig. 337 on the same plate is a natural example, a piece of the large scabious; the variation
both of form and size in the foliage will be easily recognisable. Many plants show this very
well. \7e must not, however, linger on this point; but our readers will ﬁnd both interest
and proﬁt in trying to ﬁnd out for themselves natural objects wherein the leading principles


" STYLES.” 9 3
of ornamental art may be seen duly developed. Examples of symmetry, repetition, alternation,
simplicity, complexity, contrast, ﬁtness, and many other art features may, at very little
expenditure of trouble, be readily found. Resuming the analysis of our illustrations, we
ﬁnd a very good example again of variation on Plate XXVI., Fig. 371, a portion of a
Norman capital, from Mildenhall Church, W/iltshire; and we see it again in Figs. 383, 390,
both being taken from stained glass in the South Kensington collection. Fig. 383 is
Rhenish; Fig. 390 English, of the ﬁfteenth century.
\Ve have repeatedly in our remarks to bring forward examples of the various “styles,"
as they are termed, of ornament. It is no part of our present plan to deﬁne the general
nature of these styles, nor to indicate their special and characteristic features; nor, indeed,
is such a course at all necessary, since there are several works of high order that already do this,
in some cases dealing with all the leading styles; in others, as the works of Heideloff or
Zahn, dealing with some special period. A few words, however, as to the use and abuse
of the word itself may not, to our student readers, be altogether out of place, since,
while in most works on the subject much is made of the differences, but little often is said
of the unity that nevertheless may be found underlying the surface distinctions, nor is it
indicated how clearly all these isolated styles are links in one long chain, binding together
the present and the past.
The ﬁeld covered by the follower of ornamental art is so large that there is but little
need to run any risk of ﬁnding the subject tiresome, since so many avenues of thought
are open for our consideration, so many and varied phases of the subject strike us according
to the view we take; thus, while one student may give his attention to the various principles
that underlie the practice of art, and that crop up with curious persistency and unanimity
in styles of ornament apparently most diverse from each other, another follower of the
decorative arts may ﬁnd greater interest in tracing the development and history of the
various manual processes by which the mind of the designer becomes translated into a
language that all who run may read. To such, the study of the different medz'a, the arts of
fresco, mosaic, enamelling, engraving, modelling, and many others, become matters of concern.
Other minds, according to their bent, will ﬁnd yet other sources of interest; while one will
diligently seek examples of the inﬂuence of religious belief on the modiﬁcations of artistic
treatment to be encountered in various countries and at various chronological eras, another
ﬁnds pleasure in tracking the inﬂuence of civilisation, and contrasting the rude forms of
an earlier era with the latest manifestations of art power of the same people when time
and greater experience have produced a digest of art formula that at length produce what
we term a style, a certain mannerism of treatment that enables us at a glance to declare
an isolated fragment Greek, Gothic, or whatever else it may be. \Ve can thus pronounce
decisively that a given ornament is Egyptian, even if, perfectly unable to account for its
existence there, we were to plough it up in some fair English shire, in just the same way
and by the same experience that archaiologists, excavating among Egyptian remains, are
at once able to say that certain small vases found there are Chinese, though it is by
no means easy to say how such things could have found their way to the banks of the Nile.
In using the term style we must be careful not to fall into the error of considering
the various epochs of ornamental art as so many distinct periods having no connection
with those that have preceded or followed them; allowing nothing for the continuous change,
the old giving place to the new, and the external inﬂuence brought about by contact with
other men and other ideas. \’e may rather, perhaps, compare ornamental art, as a whole,


9 4 PJELVC IPLE S OF ORZVAI/llli ZVT A L A R T.
to some great river ever advancing on its course, receiving on each side tributary streams,
and incorporating them into its own volume of waters, inﬂuenced by various circumstances,
here expanding into broad quiet pools, there conﬁned by rocks and sandbanks, causing
tortuous deviations. The view that many gather from mere book reading, unaccompanied
by personal study, is rather, if we may be allowed to continue our ﬁgure, that of a series
of lakes, some large, others small and insigniﬁcant, some abounding in features of beauty,
others having but little charm, dotted about in no perceptible order or plan, and having
no connection one with another.
It is convenient, for the purposes of classiﬁcation, to take the central period of any
~ aggregation of characteristic features, and to call that the development of a given style;
but in reality there is no pause, style is always changing and cannot be so exactly mapped
out and rigidly dated. If we take, for example, our Early English Gothic style, or, as some
writers term it, the Early Pointed, we ﬁnd that some of its most characteristic features are
seen in the grouping of shafts, the bold conventional foliage, the deep hollow mouldings, and
the dog-tooth ornament ;‘ but all these may be traced gradually issuing and changing from the
preceding style, the Norman, and in their turn pass in various modiﬁcations into a period
ﬁtly termed transitional, and duly emerge from it to form what is known as Decorated or
Middle Pointed Gothic.
No matter how debased a people, how remote from civilisation, and isolated from all
other examples of art, we always ﬁnd the instinctive desire and love for ornament. The
results may appear to us exceedingly rude, quaint, barbarous, even outrageous in their
ugliness, but nevertheless we cannot refuse to see in them the evidence of a desire to
beautify the forms that their requirements had developed. Hence, we ﬁnd clubs, spears,
paddles, all carved in low relief with geometric designs or grotesque animal ﬁgures; the
rude pottery, as we have seen in Fig. 237, while still soft, is dented into simple patterns, or
slashed by a knife or tusk into concentric or zig-zag furrows; the reed mats, which would
have been quite as serviceable for all practical purposes if of one uniform colour, are
nevertheless chequered over in many-colour devices, in obedience to this great fact—the
instinctive desire for the added grace; not content merely, brute-like, with the meat that
perishes, but in some dim way feeling something of the Divine, of that spirit that paints the
little wayside ﬂower with loveliness, while scattering it broadcast over the earth; that,
while enthroned in a majesty no eye can see, no heart conceive, tints with effulgent beauty
the little earth-born beetle that glitters in the sunlight.
The inﬂuences that have resulted in our modern English decorative art may, strange
as it may appear to some of our readers, be traced back for thousands of years, and only
cease when we at last reach the land of the Pharaohs. Egypt has been the ﬁrst parent of
almost all European art, and of a great deal of that of Africa and Asia. The Egyptians
greatly inﬂuenced all those who came in contact with them either in commerce or in war,
and more especially, perhaps, the Jews, the Greeks, the Assyrians, and the Persians. We
are unable positively to say what the architecture of Solomon's temple was like, but its
description in the Bible tallies remarkably with many of the features that are characteristic
of Egyptian art. On the occasion of the plunder of Thebes, Egypt's greatest city, by
Cambyses, the conqueror carried away with him into Persia a large number of Egyptian
artists, and their inﬂuence is everywhere yet seen in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates,
at Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepolis; hence it is we ﬁnd a great similarity in the elements
of ornament and an almost identical mode of treatment in the forms of Assyria, Persia, and


PEDIGREE OF ORIVAJIEIVTAL ART 95
Egypt. The Egyptian ornament and ﬁgure-sculpture, in its quiet dignity and simple repose,
possesses a great charm, and if it had not been so rigidly bound down by the decrees of
the priesthood, might have developed to an even greater extent. The Assyrians, not so
much fettered by restrictions, introduced more spirit, variety, and action into their work,
but lost the grand simplicity of the Egyptian sculptures in petty details and trivial ornaments,
elaborately curled beards, heavily-fringed drapery, bracelets, and such-like subordinate
matters. In the Asiatic colonies of Greece, and more especially in Ionia, owing to its greater
proximity to Persia and Assyria, a similar art-feeling was manifested, but the Greeks of
the mother-country derived, together with their commercial intercourse, their ideas on art,
sculptural, pictorial, and ornamental, from the purer source of Egypt. The Etruscans, a
people of the north of Italy, had originally migrated from Asia Minor, where they had
been under the inﬂuence of Assyrian ideas, so that many of the remains, such as bronzes
and other things, dug up in the north of Italy, bear what, except for the knowledge of
this fact in the early history of the people, would be an inexplicable resemblance to similar
works found in South-west Asia. The capture of Sardis by the allied Persians and Medes,
in the year 11.c. 546, opened up another important avenue for the spreading of Eastern
inﬂuence upon the Western nations. The Greeks borrowed, but speedily improved on
their originals, and (though at ﬁrst, as in the Early Doric, the forms are almost identical
with those of Egypt) the two styles rapidly became divergent. At the tombs of Beni-
Hassan, executed some two thousand years before the Christian era, are open porticoes
supported by ﬂuted columns so similar in every respect to the Early Greek Doric that
Champollion and other writers refer to them under the title of ‘ proto-Doric.’ These tombs,
like the caves of Elephanta, and many other rock-cut remains, are, though carved out of
the solid rock, and therefore really monolithic, made to imitate in their details the pillars
and ceiling-beams of ordinary building construction. The Romans borrowed the idea of the
arch from the Etruscans, who had themselves brought it with them from Asia Minor,
where it was largely used by the builders of Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepolis. In the
year B.C. 167 a Roman army under Paulus /Emilius overthrew Perseus, king of Macedonia,
and pillaged his territories. On the return to Rome of the conquering army with their spoils,
a public entry was made into the city. In addition, according to Plutarch, to all the armour
and weapons, cups, vases, and general “loot,” the pictures and statues alone ﬁlled 250
chariots. In the year B.C. 146 the conquest of Greece was completed, and most of the
ﬁnest works of art were carried off to Rome. The conquest of Greece was consummated
in the same year that saw Carthage razed to the ground. The Carthaginians and Greeks
had always themselves regarded works of art as fair spoil; they but reaped in turn, at the
hands of the all-conquering Roman, the fruit of what they had sown, and supplied the
victor with a precedent he was not loth to avail himself of. Napoleon I., in recent times,
was a notable offender in this direction, the choicest statues of Italy and other lands that
came under his sway being transported to Paris. In ancient Rome the sight of these art-
treasures created a body of connoisseurs desirous themselves of possessing such things,
and Greek artists were at ﬁrst employed to supply the demand, and even, when in
after years the Romans had themselves acquired sufﬁcient skill to undertake such work
for themselves, we yet see the Hellenic inﬂuence very strongly marked, so that, either in
sculpture, ornament, or architecture, we perceive a great similarity to the Greek types, though
almost invariably with the unfortunate drawback of being inferior in point of merit to the
forms that had suggested them. \Ve might in the same way indicate many other instances


VIE IVS OF RE YNOLDS. 97
In the ﬁrst of these he describes the pretensions of ignorant and presuming would-be
connoisseurs, who, trusting to narrow rules, are often guided by false principles, and even
though these should be correct, are still totally unqualiﬁed to form a just estimation of the '
higher beauties in works of genius; and in this same essay he states as an axiom, that
whatever part of an art can be executed or criticised by rules, that part is no longer the
work of genius, which implies an excellence that mere rules will not impart; so that, he
adds, if a man has not correct perceptions it will be in vain for him to endeavour to supply
their places by rules, which, though they may certainly enable him to' talk more learnedly,
will never teach him to distinguish more acutely. In laying down these positions he does
not, however, assert that rules are absolutely injurious to a just perception of works of taste
and genius, or to their execution, but merely censures that servile attention to minute
exactness that is sometimes inconsistent with higher excellence. In his second essay, in
dealing with the question of the direct imitation of nature, he shows that a mere literal
adherence would balk every ﬂight of fancy in the painter, such imitation being a species
of drudgery to which the painter of genius will not, cannotstoop; one in which even the
understanding has no part, being merely a mechanical effort. These remarks were written by
him in reference to pictorial art, but they bear with equal force on our present subject.
Rules are the product of past experience, and are herein of great value, since we are thus
able to proﬁt by the labours of others, and by this means to carry forward our art to a
higher excellence; for not to know what has been done in former times is, as Cicero
remarks, to continue always a child; while Dr. Johnson, no less explicit, afﬁrms that
“ if no use be made of the labours of past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy
of knowledge. The discoveries of every man must terminate in his own advantage, and
the studies of every age be employed on questions which the past generation had discussed
and determined. V\'e may, with as little reproach, borrow science as manufactures from
our ancestors; and it is as rational to live in caves till our own hands have erected a palace
as to reject all knowledge of architecture which our understandings will not supply."
Throughout the whole course of our remarks we have been careful, while laying down our
own opinions, to give extracts from the writings of others, whether those extracts told for
or against our own ideas; and we would earnestly advise all who are really desirous of
attaining a good knowledge of the subject to read carefully and diligently sift the opinions
of others, and then, but not till then, exercise their own right of judgment, following only
the laws of a guide because they feel him to be right, not merely because they are the
utterances of one deemed an authority. The man who has thus thought out the matter
has a great advantage over the student who trusts merely, with an indifferent assent, to
the dicta of others, since, while the one has settled convictions, the other drifts helplessly
amidst the turmoil of conﬂicting opinions. As an example of these disturbing inﬂuences,
and a further illustration of the proverbial disagreement of authorities, we may mention that
while Dresser advocates the use and juxtaposition of green and purple in a design, these
colours thus employed are, according to Sir Gardiner \Vilkinson, the worst kind of discord.
Ruskin says that blue and green form the most beautiful harmony of all, instancing the
tints seen in the plumage of the peacock, and the beauty of the fresh green spring foilage
when seen against the azure of the sky. \Vilkinson, on the other hand, holds in his writings
that these colours, when combined together, are deﬁcient in harmony. Dyce, in his report
on foreign art schools, says, in speaking of one of them, that “the only questionable
point is the regulation which obliges all the pupils to undergo a course of study of the
N


100 PRINCIPLES OF OR./VAIIIENTAZ- ART
illustrating the purpose of any building or monument; thus, for example, amongst the
mosaics adorning the tomb of Napoleon I. we ﬁnd the sceptre wreathed with oak, the sword,
and Imperial crown, and we recognise an especial appropriateness in their introduction under
such circumstances. Drapery is occasionally used, not as an accessory to the human ﬁgure,
but as a principal; its use under such circumstances cannot well be defended. A very favourite
design in some old houses of Perpendicular period is known as the “linen pattern,” or
“ napkin" ornament. The whole of the lower portion of a room is frequently divided into
small panels, each being ﬁlled by a design of this character. The false use of armour,
instruments of music, and drapery, for decoration, is mainly conﬁned to Roman and
Renaissance work, but the false use of architecture itself, as an ornament and element of
decoration, is conspicuous at times even in some of the noblest examples of mediaeval art.
In all bas-relief work architecture may be legitimately introduced as an explanation of the
scene in which the ﬁgures are actors, though the details require to be kept in a subordinate
place, as in the accessories to some of the groups of Roman warriors ﬁgured on Trajan's
column, or, again, in the panels of the celebrated gates of Ghiberti. All representation of
human work as an ornament is, as Ruskin has clearly illustrated in his “Stones of Venice,"
conditional on its being necessary to the representation of a scene, or as being explanatory
of some action or event. On no terms whatever, it appears to us, can any such subject
be independently admissible. The porches of Bourges, Amiens, Dijon, and Notre Dame
may be noted as supplying illustrations of this error, as in all of them small models of
towns with diminutive battlements, doorways, and windows, cathedral spires and towers, are
introduced as independent elements of decorative effect.
All ornament may be classed under one of two great heads—surface ornament, or relief
ornament; that is to say, ﬁat, like a wall-paper for example, or rounded, like stone-carving;
in the one case the work of the painter, in the other the work of the sculptor. Occasionally
ﬁctitious effects of relief are produced in surface decoration, while we often ﬁnd that relief
ornament has its effect legitimately enhanced by the application of colour, as in Egyptian,
Moresque, and Gothic work. In view of this we need scarcely say how important a
principle the use of colour in orniamental art becomes, while it is perhaps of all others
the most difﬁcult to settle and control by ﬁxed laws, for, as the shades and modiﬁcations of
tone in colour may be varied inﬁnitely, it is evident that a very slight deviation from the
letter of the law will result in quite different conditions of effect. If, for instance, a law of the
colourists requires scarlet in a given place, and a scarlet inclining to orange is used, it will
have quite a different effect in itself, and upon all the other colours with which it is in
juxtaposition, to that produced by a scarlet inclining towards crimson. If, for instance, again,
we desired our readers to colour us any given design yellow and purple, it is extremely
probable that though all came within the required conditions, no two would be alike in colour.
Rules of colouring it will therefore be seen, are necessarily vague, since, while they are
valuable in deﬁning general principles, in the application of them a great deal must of
necessity be left in the details to the more or less educated eye and taste of the designer.
'\/Ve do not propose to go at any length into the theory of colour as inﬂuenced by light and
optical laws, but for our present purpose dwell rather on the general principles that may
prove of value to the practical designer in the management of his pigments, There are
three colours incapable of being produced by any mixture of other colours—red, blue, and
yellow; these, therefore, are termed the three primaries. From the combination of any two
of these the secondary colours are produced, and they, too, are three in number—green,


104 PR1./VCIPLES OF 0RA7AME4VTAL ART
~- _.*_u~-~ _._--.-
produces positive discord; thus slate colour and green, drab and lilac, blue, black, and green,
blue, pink, and green are not suitable, if used alone, for ordinary decorative purposes. The
naturalistic argument, if we may so term it, is occasionally brought forward in defence of
certain colour arrangements; it certainly, however, does not follow that combinations of colour
found in nature will always bear transferring to art. If we are prepared to go to the length
of asserting that all we ﬁnd in nature is beautiful and suitable for reproduction, we shall
speedily ﬁnd that our theory requires us to receive, as equally good, the most opposite
combinations of colour, the most diverse forms; to admire equally the livid purple of the
nightshade, the pure gold of the buttercup, the rich crimson of the pheasant's eye, to see
equal grace in the antelope and the pig. VV e derive, to take an instance, a great deal
of pleasure from the pure turquoise blue of the forget-me-not ﬂower, as it springs from
the midst of its verdant surrounding foliage. This, doubtless, is to some extent caused
by the associations connected with the ﬂower, and the enjoyment we have felt in its
contemplation while wandering in the sunshine by the banks of the river—an enjoyment
insensibly heightened by all the collateral rural inﬂuences; but, whatever the inﬂuence, it
is one of those examples of perfect natural beauty that will scarcely serve as suggestions in
colour, since light blue and bright green alone can rarely be quite satisfactorily brought into
juxtaposition in a design. A similar difﬁculty would occur in adopting the beautiful warm
and cold purples of the blossom of the annual garden pea, for beautiful as they appear to us
in the natural ﬂower, it would be scarcely possible to bring the two colours pleasingly together
in an ornamental composition. The contrast of blue and green is satisfactory in the corn-
ﬂower, where the green is subdued in tone and in somewhat small quantity, the deep pure
blue of the ﬂower being dominant. It is not a common combination in plants. If our
readers have never thought of it before, they will be surprised to ﬁnd how few the blue
ﬂowers are in nature when compared with those of other colours. \-Ve see and admire the com-
bination in the deep blue of the sky, seen through the rich green masses of the early summer
foliage,- but it is one thing to enjoy that with all the pleasant thoughts derivable from the
scene and season, and quite another to introduce dead masses of blue and green paint in an
ornamental scheme of colour, in the hope that as the one was so enjoyable, so, too, the other
must of necessity be. \Ve trust that we shall not be misunderstood in these remarks, for while
we desire to caution the student against the erroneous idea that every form and combination
of colour found in nature must necessarily be suited to the purposes of ornamental art, we
desire also most fully at the same time, and that, too, very warmly, to advocate the closest
study of natural growth, being very fully persuaded in our own mind that he who studies
Nature most thoroughly in all her varied phases will be of necessity a better designer-—granting
equal amount of technical knowledge and skill—than the man who contents himself with a
few abstract types and forms, beyond which he never suffers himself to stray into the profusion
of natural beauty around him. In colouring a design it is necessary to consider the effect
that juxtaposed colours will have on each other, a matter that necessitates more thought
than is at ﬁrst sight apparent. If, for instance, we take a band of orange and place it between
two bands of yellow, it will, by force of contrast, look almost scarlet; if, however, we place
that same band of orange between scarlet bands, it will, by the same force of contrast, appear
yellow. It will be seen, therefore, that we cannot depend upon a colour even looking what
we intended it to look, as it may thus act upon others, and in turn be so re-acted upon as
to completely alter its tone, unless we ﬁrst carefully think over our general scheme of colour,
and in so doing make allowance for this disturbing inﬂuence. \Ve might easily multiply


C -OL O UR BL]./VD./VESS. 1 0 5
' instances, but one more example will sufﬁce. Red and blue bands of colour side by side will,
as we have seen, borrow from each other and give a purple effect; if, however, a thin band
of white be interposed, each will then have its own proper quality of colour. There are
several other general considerations that a designer will soon feel the necessity of bearing in
mind, such as the different effect of a coloured decoration by daylight or artiﬁcial light; the
desirability of a reasonably even distribution of colours, so as to avoid having large masses
of a colour in one part, and little or none of it elsewhere; and the inﬂuence of symbolism
in controlling the -choice of colours under certain circumstances. We need not, however, dwell
upon these.
In conclusion, we would desire to bring before our readers some notice of a peculiarity
that may possibly, we may charitably hope, account for some of the examples of bad
colouring that occasionally meet our eyes—the inability of some persons to truly see
colour—a peculiarity generally termed colour-blindness. VV e have, from time to time, in our
own experience, met with such cases, and we need scarcely say that this defect at once very
seriously unﬁts a man either to follow the arts pictorial or decorative, or to sit in judgment
on the works of others, while a signalman on the railway, to whom green and red lights
looked alike, would speedily be the cause of disaster. \Ve see the importance of the
consideration again in the case of sailors, lighthouse-men, coastguards, and all concerned in
coloured signals, the draper with his goods, or the chemist or doctor’s assistant, who, in all
good faith, might serve out the poisonous green crystals of the sulphates of iron or copper
for the harmless white crystals of alum, or the yellow ones of sulphur. Colour-blindness seems
to be a modern affection of the eye; it is, at least, nowhere referred to by ancient or
IT1€(lléEV8.l writers. The most remarkable cases are those where people are blind to all colours,
and see everything in black, white, and varying shades of grey. When we consider how much
pleasure and beauty are utterly shut out from such, we are glad to know that such cases are
extremely rare. Somewhat more common cases occur in which the person is unable to
distinguish such colours as browns and greys, while, perhaps, the most common of all is
the inability to distinguish between red, blue, and yellow, and their complementary secondaries,
green, orange, and purple. Instances have been known where blue and yellow were the only
colours visible, everything appearing of one or other of those colours. We met recently
with a case where a gentleman, to whom we were showing the sketch of a plant, confessed
himself unable to distinguish the yellow ﬂowers from the green leaves, either in nature or the
sketch. Inability to distinguish pink from pale blue is a common failing. A Dr. \Vilson
in the course of his practice met with so many cases that he wrote a bulky volume on the
subject, and it is his opinion that about one person in every ﬁfty mistakes red for green,
brown for red, brown for green, purple for green, or red for black; and including all kinds
and greater or less degrees of this colour-blindness, he goes so far as to say that one in
every twenty is to some extent colour-blind. \Ve cannot but think, however, that this
estimate is too high. The doctor’s opportunities of judging would probably be chieﬂy
amongst those who were in delicate health, and though this colour-blindness is a permanent
defect, and not a thing that comes and goes according to the general state of health, still
such persons, in consulting their medical adviser, would probably speak also of their inability to
see colours as others saw them, either as a thing in itself, or in the belief that it might be one
of the symptoms of the ailment for the cure of which the doctor’s aid was desired. ¥Ve must
bear in mind the obvious truth that those only who suffered would speak of it. He would
hear nothing of it from the thousands who were exempt; and with, all respect, therefore,
o


106 PRINCIPLES 0F ORNAMENT/IL ART
to his far superior opportunities for coming to a right judgment, we yet, as we recall the
hundreds of artists, designers, art-students, and others we have met with, cannot but think
the average too high. It is a curious fact that many persons have been colour-blind
for years before at all suspecting it. Where colour-blindness does occur, it is generally a
family and hereditary failing. In one family, for instance, that came under Dr. V\/ilson's
observation, were three brothers; one could only see anything black and white, while the
other two confused orange and green. In another instance a man saw always pink and blue,
red and green, and could, therefore, for example, only tell cherries from the leaves by the
difference of form; his father, one of his sisters, and her two sons, all had the same defect.
In another case six sons in one family were all colour-blind. According to Prevost, it occurs
in one person out of twenty. Leebeck found ﬁve cases amongst forty men indiscriminately
chosen in Berlin ; while a Professor Kelland, of the University of Edinburgh, found only three
cases amongst one hundred and ﬁfty students. On the continent this peculiarity is called
Daltonism, from a Professor Dalton, who was only himself conscious of yellow and blue,
and quite unable to distinguish any difference in colour between the green grass and his
scarlet Oxford Doctoral gown. In the city in which Dr. Wilson resided, and wherein he
made the greater number of his inquiries, he found amongst others, four artists, three surgeons,
two dyers, two stationers, a manufacturer of shawls, and a clothier, all decidedly colour-blind.
VVe mention these instances more particularly because one would imagine that in such cases
detection of the failing must of necessity speedily have taken place; in fact, that its existence
would at once have debarred the subject of it from carrying on their callings. It is a very
curious fact that out of the hundreds of cases that have been brought forward by the various
writers on the subject only six are on record in which women have suffered in any way
from this Daltonism or colour-blindness.


CHAPTER VII.
- Naturalism and Conventionalism—Old Work not necessarily Good \Vork—Egyptian Art Based on Natural Forms of Egypt—The
Acanthus—Conventional Character of Eastem Art—Moorish and Persian Art—The Fountain of Lions, Alhambra—Chinese and
Japanese Art-—Ruskin on Naturalism and Conventionalism—Opinions of Worman, Hudson, VVilkinson, and others—Sir
Joshua Reynolds on Imitation of Nature in Art-—Chinese Pottery often a Fac-simile of some Natural Fruit Form—The Principle
of Fitness—The Distinction between the words Designer and Decorator—Horse-shoe Breast Pins—The Demand for Novelty—
Improvement in Design since 1851—Omament Subordinate to Utility——Venetian Glass—Fitness of Omament to Material
Employed—Earthenware Baskets and Straw Hats—Fitness of Omament to its Scale and Position—Natural Instances of Fitness :
the Pine, Dodder, Ivy, Water-Buttercup, &c.—The Tiger, Penguin, Apteryx, Humming Birds, and Swift—The Principle of
Contrast-Contrast of Texture, Surface, Form, or Colour—The Value of Analysis of Omarnental For1ns—Simplicity or
Complexity of Treatment—Complexity often a Sign of Decay—The Doric Order—Na.tural Examples of Simplicity and
Complexity of Form-—The Interlacing of Lines—Strap \Vork—Cord Interlacing—Old Irish Crosses and MSS.—Early Italian
Art—Heralclic Kn0ts-Intersection—Interpenetration.
E now propose to enter at some little length into the 1/exam guzstzb of the naturalistic
or non-naturalistic treatment of the various organic forms, animal or vegetable, that
enter so commonly into the details of our ornamental treatment; to endeavour to throw
some light on this moot point; and to indicate to the student not our own ideas alone, but
also more especially to bring forward the opinions of some of the numerous writers who,
from their position and experience, we feel justiﬁed in citing as authorities. The student,
on turning over the pages of one writer after another, will probably on this point, as on
many others, ﬁnd himself growing somewhat bewildered by the varying advice he receives
from his authors, ﬁnding precepts that are, if not directly antagonistic, at least so arbitrary
in their differences, that he derives little or no help from their perusal; the question of the
due amount of healthy naturalism or decorative conventionalism being, like the ﬁghts of
the Guelphs and Ghibellines, or the more modern contests of the Classic and Gothic
factions in architecture, a question that is apparently repeatedly being settled, and yet as
persistently breaking out afresh; hence, while we have ﬁxed ideas_of our own on the
point, it is only just to say that there is considerabledifference of opinion, since the whole
question is one of degree, and one will more stringently than another, in such a case,
draw the line. As the trumpet on the eve of battle should give forth no uncertain
sound, we will at once, as clearly as possible, indicate our own feeling in the matter,
and naturally, holding this opinion, we think it the true one, the solution of the difﬁculty.
The forms of nature, so varied in character, so rich in detail, are full of suggestive
material for the designer, and will ever be found a storehouse ﬁlled with graceful and
appropriate motzfs to aid him in his work. As the best reproduction, however, of these
would be but imperfect, and could only fail in its endeavour to convey to the mind
a dim suggestion of the pristine gratiﬁcation afforded by the real plants in all their
natural loveliness, and as such attempt, even if successful, would be out of place, being
pictorial, not decorative, adaptations of these natural forms, suggestions of their natural
beauty under such measure of conventionalism as would render them pleasing ornamental
features, while at the same time reminding us of the natural ﬂoral form, so far as the


108 PRINCIPLES OF OR./VAI/IIE./VTAL ART
circumstances of the case render desirable, are far preferable to any attempt at realism.
Nature should not be merely copied and applied, her beauties should be rather adapted;
the rose that in the sun-lighted garden is loveliness itself is monstrous when, with full
attempt at relief, we see it attempted in its delicate tints and gradations of colour in the
square stitches of wool-work in a chair-cover. The more perfect the imitation of nature,
moreover, the greater the mistake. Our objection to the rose on the carpet or chair-back
does not, therefore, arise from its being a distortion and libel of nature merely, but from
the fact that in any case its presence is undesirable, its place being inappropriate. The
greater respect we have for the loveliness of nature, the less should we care to crush
its counterfeit presentment beneath our feet; while in addition to this, the wealth and variety
of nature is singularly ill-represented when a naturalistic group of ﬂowers is by the exigencies
of manufacture rigidly repeated in fac-simile at regular intervals. While, however, it appears to
us totally wrong to merely reproduce nature imitatively as nearly as our imperfect means
will allow, it is, we think, almost as great an error persistently to ignore her. \-Vhile, on
the one hand, the naturalistic treatment of oak spray in Fig. 392, from a Decorated
Gothic example, errs on the ﬁrst ground, the Elizabethan carving, Fig. 384, is as
objectionable on the other account, since in it the designer, while professing to give
ornament of a foliate character, has persistently ignored the ﬁrst principles of vegetable
growth. In the Decorated example, the spray of oak is strictly naturalistic in treatment;
beyond a general balance of masses, there is nothing done to in any way adapt it to its
new function; nor has it any connection, as in the purer style that preceded the Decorated,
with the surrounding mouldings; for while in the Early English or Early Pointed style the
conventional foliate ornament always sprang from the mouldings, was thus incorporated
with the work, as in Fig. 360, and became part and parcel of it, in the Decorated the forms
are not merely more naturalistic, but cease to show this principle of growth, and instead
of springing from the constructive lines, appear only as wreaths encircling the columns,
or as detached sprays in some way adhesive to the face of the work, a feature by no
means so pleasing to the eye nor so satisfactory to the mind. In the best ornament it
will always be found that the point of attachment is clearly to be traced, that there is
always somewhere a deﬁnite growing point from whence all the lines spring, Fig. 387,
and to which they can again be traced. The Egyptian remains, so valuable in many
directions as guides, do not fail us here; we feel at once, on looking at Fig. 195, the great
and additional beauty that the deﬁnite and rigid line gives as a base to all the forms that
spring from it. This very beautiful example may be seen on a kind of tablet before one
of the large ﬁgures in the British Museum. The ﬁgure is of a black basaltic stone, and
stands amidst the efﬁgies of gods and goddesses that fringe the central walk in the large
Egyptian saloon. Only a portion of the ornament is here shown, for above this other
lines of equally characteristic forms are introduced, and only the necessity of gaining
as great a variety as possible in our illustrations has prevented our giving more of these.
The Early Decorated is perhaps the art period best ﬁtted to furnish us with exemplars
of the true treatment of vegetable forms; for while the Early English or thirteenth
century Gothic, though often exceedingly ﬁne, errs perhaps somewhat in presenting little variety
of form, and the fourteenth century work, avoiding monotony, is too literal in its treatment
of the profusion of natural forms therein represented, the intermediate and transitional
period neither errs in ignoring natural beauty nor in too servile a treatment of it. Fig.
397, a portion of a running moulding, from the doorway of the Chapter House at


1 I 3 PR1./VCIPLES OF OR1'VA1l[E1VTAL ART
work, however captivating in some respects, it is wholly wanting in the real, deep, and intense
qualities of ornamental work.” It appears to us that the following remarks by the same
writer exactly express the requirements of the case:——“ Ornamentation should be natural,
that is to say, should, in some degree, express or adopt the beauty of natural objects; it
does not hence follow that it should be an exact imitation of or endeavour to supersede God's
work. It may consist only in a partial adoption and compliance with the usual forms of
natural things, without at all going to the point of imitation; and it is possible that the
point of imitation may be closely reached by ornaments, which nevertheless are entirely
unﬁt for their place, and are the signs only of a degraded ambition and an ignorant dexterity.
Bad decorators err as easily on the side of imitating nature as of forgetting her, and the
question of the exact degree in which imitation should be attempted under given circumstances
is one of the most subtle and difﬁcult in the whole range of criticism." There may be
conventionalism of colour; conventionalism by cause of inferiority, where a subordinate part
requires subordinate treatment; conventionalism on account of imperfect means, or the
restraints of production, as in stencilling, weaving, or braid-work, where, as in Figs. I31, I41,
the ornament must run in continuous lines, so as to prevent the necessity of frequently cutting
the braid, and many other such-like processes where the tools or the materials at the
designer's command will not permit much freedom; conventionalism as a religious
requirement; or ﬁnally, the conventionalism of free choice. \Vornum thus deﬁnes the
difference between naturalism and conventionalism:—"A natural treatment implies natural
imitation and arrangement, but an ornamental treatment does not necessarily exclude imitation
in the parts; as, for instance, a scroll may be composed of strictly natural parts, but as no
plant would grow in an exactly spiral direction, the scroll form constitutes the ornamental or
conventional arrangement (as in Fig. 378). \Ve may, however, have conventionalism of
details as well as conventionalism of arrangement. There can be no question," he goes
on to say, “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 he 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 merely geometrical form can really
have no individual associations, and yet at the same time may present an extremely beautiful
effect, the whole of that effect is simply auxiliary to the general effect of the object decorated;
the ornamentation is purely accessory." Again in another place he says: “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 in nature it has
no afﬁnity whatever." Hudson is equally explicit: “There is a great difference between
the terms applied and adapted ; they in fact express the wrong and the right use of vegetable
forms. All natural forms require certain modiﬁcations to adapt them for other than their
own natural situations, and it is the neglect of this, and the simple application of these
forms without adapting them, which constitutes a false principle." Dresser says: “Mere
imitation is not ornamentation, and is no more art in the higher sense of the term than writing
is itself literature, for in order to the production of ornament there must at least be
adaptation. Our so-called natural wall-papers will illustrate the ﬁrst or most elementary
step taken towards the production of ornament, for adaptation has here been considered
so far as is absolutely necessary, in order that the design may repeat in the mechanical


USE OF NATURAL FOR/IIS. 113
manner necessary to its production, and no further. If mere imitation is ornamentation,
then the ornamentist must at once give place to the photographer, who by his art repeats
natural objects with far more accuracy than the most careful draughtsman; but photography
cannot invent, as it is devoid of the mental or imaginative faculty, for the working of the
mind is essential to the production of decoration. Vegetable nature, treated conventionally,
will not be found to be far removed from truth, but will be merely a natural form,
or a series of natural forms, neither marred by blights nor disturbed by winds, adapted
to the fulﬁlment of a special purpose, and suited to a particular position; for the most
perfect examples of what is usually termed conventionalised nature are those which express
the intention of nature, if we may thus speak, or are manifestations of natural objects as
undisturbed by surrounding inﬂuences and unmarred by casualties.” Sir Gardiner \Vilkinson
says: “The imitation of natural objects for mere ornamental purposes usually disagrees
both with the materials used and the place where they are introduced ; it is also an indication
of poverty of invention and a deﬁciency of taste for design. To obtain ideas for ornamental
art, nature should be carefully studied, and the beauties she presents should be fully
understood, but she should not be directly copied in any unsuitable material; however
good the copy, it has the fault of being an imperfect representation of what it vainly
attempts to imitate, while it should have been satisﬁed with its proper and humbler ofﬁce
of merely ornamenting." Owen Jones is, in his “Grammar of Ornament," equally clear
on the point: “Flowers or other natural objects should not be used in ornament, but
conventional representations of them, sufﬁciently suggestive to convey the intended image
to the mind without destroying the unity of the subject they are employed to decorate."
And in another passage he thus repeats the idea: “In all the best periods of art, all ornament
was rather based upon an observation of the principles which regulate the arrangements of
form in nature, than on any attempt to imitate the absolute form of those works; whenever
this limit was exceeded in any art, it was one of the strongest symptoms of decline, true art
consisting in idealising, and not copying, the forms of nature. Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his
“Discourses on Painting," is equally explicit. He says that “amongst the painters and the
writers on painting, there is one maxim universally and continually inculcated: ‘Imitate
nature’ is the invariable rule; but I have known none who have explained in what manner
this rule is to be understood: the consequence of which is, that every one takes it in
the most obvious sense, that objects are represented naturally when they have such relief
that they seem real. It may appear strange, perhaps, to hear this sense of the rule
disputed; but it must be considered that, if the excellence of a painter consisted only in
this kind of imitation, painting must lose its rank, and be no longer considered as a liberal
art, and sister to poetry, this imitation being merely mechanical, in which the slowest intellect
is always sure to succeed best; for the painter of genius cannot stoop to drudgery in which
the understanding has no part; and what pretence has the art to claim kindred with poetry,
but its powers over the imagination? To this power the painter of genius directs his aim;
in this sense he studies nature, and often arrives at his end, even by being unnatural in
the conﬁned sense of the world. The grand style of painting requires this minute attention
to be carefully avoided, and must be kept as separate from it as the style of poetry from
that of history. Poetical ornaments destroy that air of truth and plainness which ought
to characterise history; but the very being of poetry consists in departing from this plain
narrative, and adopting every ornament that will warm the imagination.”
If safety be found in the multitude of counsellors, our readers will, we trust, not think
P


114 PRINCIPLES OF ORNAJIIENTAL ART.
our preceding quotations superﬂuous or monotonous, since even the very repetition of the
same principle by writer after writer will tend the more to impress the recurring truth on
the mind of the reader. In modern decorative art we ﬁnd'a great use of naturalism;
into this we shall, however, go at greater length when we deal with the principle of ﬁtness
in design. Renaissance art, often very beautiful. both in general effect and in its details,
is characterised as a whole by a great use of natural forms, though these are ordinarily
conventional in their arrangement, and at other times unnaturally combined. as in Fig. 386,
where a stem surmounted by a poppy capsule has lateral leaves of the oak, an arrangement
that can scarcely be considered justiﬁable. The great use of grotesque animal forms
in combination with plant forms is another very characteristic feature; the tail of a grifﬁn,
as in Fig. 391, often terminating in elaborately foliated spirals, or at other times, as in
Fig. 405, these may spring from a human head, and supply the place of the more usual
hirsute appendages. The consideration of the various styles or periods of the Revival
would require far more space than we here feel justiﬁed in devoting to it, but many excellent
works are open to the student; many excellent examples well worthy of study may be seen
in the South Kensington Museum, in some respects supplying illustrations of what should
be avoided, but containing very much, too, that is well worthy of the consideration of our
designers. i
We now proceed to point out such other illustrations on our plates that bear on the
subject as we have not yet had occasion to refer to, making any comments on them that
the peculiaraties of the treatment appear to call for and justify. Fig. 74, a stained glass
example, though sufﬁciently naturalistic in the form of its foliage to enable us to
pronounce it based on the maple, is, in its general arrangement, decidedly conventional.
Fig. 95, Chinese in its origin, is naturalistic. Many of the earthenware vessels of the
Chinese are of this character, being not merely suggested by some natural form but a
fac-simile of it; thus a gourd, for instance, will form the body of a teapot, while over it a
spray of the plant wanders, and being in one place raised from the general level, becomes
the handle. We remember, in the International Exhibition of I862, to have noticed a very
similariidea in many of the Javanese exhibits, these being, in several instances, direct
imitations of thefruits of the country. Fig. 248, an Indian example, is, like almost all
Indian art, thoroughly conventional in character, in colour, in form, and in arrangement.
Figs. 266, 270, 272, are good idealised suggestions of the general principles of ﬂoral form,
the central convex boss, and the radiating, equal, and more or less concave members
surrounding it, though it would be impossible to assign any particular natural ﬂower to
any of them as the type. Figs. 278, 279, 281, are all rigidly conventional. Fig. 320, a
Gothic ﬂoral form of cruciform character, is very pleasing, containing a pleasant suggestion
of nature, while it yet thoroughly satisﬁes the eye as an ornament, and the same may be
said of the medizeval diaper, Fig. 326. Fig. 324, 325, designs of our own -to ﬁll the little
vacant space on the plate, appear to us fair examples of what we believe to be correct
treatment, since in them the natural beauty of the ivy and mallow foliage respectively has
been studied, while the natural character has been kept in subordination to the special
decorative use. Fig. 328, on the same plate, appears to be a conventionalised cactus; the
original is from an old Mexican MS. Figs. 334, 336, 340, 342, are all very arbitrary in
character. Fig. 355, a piece of English embroidery, is a very free rendering of the violet,
the actual natural forms of the leaf and ﬂower being shown in Figs. 356, 357. Fig. 358 is
probably based on the similar radiate form that is seen crowning the capsule of the poppy.


TREATMENT OF NATURAL FOR./VS. I I 5
It forms a very good and rich decoration. Fig. 359 is a piece of Early French Gothic, a very
quaint treatment of the blackberry. Fig. 361, also Early French, appears at ﬁrst sight to
be suggested by the ﬁg-leaf,' but the sheathing of the main stem by the petiole of the leaf
is not a character of growth in that plant, such a form being more especially characteristic
of the umbel-bearing plants. Fig. 363 is given as an instance of the conventionality
that often results from a special method of work, the swollen masses on the leaves being
an especial feature in much of the metal-work, both of the past and of the present day;
since the effect is very easily produced by the workman, and is very effective when done,
as the polished surface of the metal is rendered much more beautiful and telling by the
strong lights and shades thus produced than if the whole design were in one plane. In
much of the later and poorer Decorated stone-carving this idea is carried to. excess. Fig. 375
is an example from work of that date. Possibly the forms of one or two of our commoner
sea-weeds may have originally suggested this globose swelling in the midst of the leaves;
they are, at least, very similar in character. In Figs. 364, 367, we have treatments of the
common hedge nut, the natural growth, for comparison, being given at Fig. .368. Figs.
379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 390, though dimly suggestive of natural forms and laws of growth, are
all rigidly arbitrary. Fig. 385, one of several heraldic devices from some Swiss glass, A.D. 1660,
in the South Kensington Museum, is clearly suggested by the bulrush. Fig. 395, an Early
English tile in the collection of the British Museum, is exceedingly interesting, as it
represents the Talbot, an old English hunting-dog now extinct. The holly behind it is
effectively treated, the spiny character of the leaves being very suggestively indicated. Fig.
429, the design made up of interlacing boughs, is of a character often seen in the later
German work, many of the designs, really geometric in character, being rendered by these
gnarled and knotted arboreal forms. Fig. 431, a rich piece of Tunisian embroidery, is, like
other Mohammedan work, conventional from religious obligation. It is a very ﬁne and
suggestive example, and well worthy of attentive study.
Having entered at some little length into the question of naturalism and conventionalism
in ornamental art, and having, as we would fain hope, led the student into the right path,
and furnished him with reasons and examples for his guidance, we found that these remarks
of ours naturally led to the consideration of the principle of ﬁtness as one of the guiding
principles of the designer, and by no means one of the least important, since it opens
out the whole question of the relation of art to daily use. Were it more studied, we should
ﬁnd the beneﬁt in even the commonest things. At present the housewife buys a great
tub-like jug without the slightest pretensions to beauty, in lieu of those that have certain
claims to ornament; since, putting aside the question of enhanced price, the one is a thing
at least of utility, while the other, if beautiful at all, has frequently in the attainment of it
sacriﬁced all consideration of use. The ﬁrst, with its broad base and swelling neck, will stand
where it is put, and can always be kept clean and serviceable; the other, with its ﬂowing
curves, graceful foot, and narrow neck, appears ready at any slight jarring to lose its balance ;
while its constricted opening effectually prevents the hand entering the vessel: hence it is
beautiful in exterior and unclean within.
To be a designer, it cannot be too clearly understood, is to occupy a position higher
than we associate with the word decorator, though the two terms are often used as if
synonymous. Decoration is the clothing with beautiful form or colour of some object we
desire thus to adorn, while design refers to the construction of any work both for use and
beauty. The true designer will, therefore, consider the utility in the ﬁrst place, and having


1 16 PRIIVCIPLES OF OR1VA.VE1VTAL ART.
realised the limitations thus imposed upon his fancy, will embody his idea as gracefully
as these limitations will permit. Our readers will gather from our previous remarks in
discussing the amount of naturalism permissible in a design, -that direct transcripts of natural
forms form a marked instance of a violation of the law of ﬁtness. One of the most selling
things for a long time, though it has now given place to some extent to other extravagances
of fancy, was a fae-simile of a horseshoe; a horseshoe for an inkstand, surrounding the
glass bottle for the ink; a horseshoe of gold, and duly furnished with turquoise nail-heads,
as a locket or a breast-pin; a horseshoe as a muslin pattern; in fact, for everything and
everywhere, since, as it was everywhere alike meaningless and absurd, it could be used
with the greatest freedom, no article or fabric being less appropriate for its display than
another. This is a good though lamentable instance of that morbid craving for something
startling that all must have known who have had anything to do with manufacturers. The
question very naturally is, what will sell? The designer ﬁnds that racking his brains for
such ideas is far more proﬁtable than the thinking out of graceful forms, since the manu-
facturer does not care to invest largely in what he fears may be unsaleable, while the public,
in turn, defends its purchases as being really the only things procurable. This state of
things must of necessity remain until a more general appreciation of correct taste has spread
amongst us, that is to say, until the majority, who will always be catered for because they
are the majority, demand good taste. At present, those who would desire to surround
themselves with graceful forms and objects correct in design and feeling, are in a minority,
and consequently meet with considerable difﬁculty in gratifying their wish. Some little
time ago we were asked our opinion by a lady of a purchase. \/Ve could only truthfully say
that it was quite wanting in taste and ﬁtness for its use, when the matter was at once clenched
by the statement that it was quite the fashion. So long as this is the best argument, there
can be no good art. Sometimes things may be better than at others, but as all alike rest
on caprice, so the good will in itself be no better, nor the bad worse, in the eyes of the
purchaser. VVall-papers will still show us endless perspectives of Chinese pagodas, and race-
horses at full speed on the tops of pins will continue to be stuck into shirt-fronts, printed
over with terriers’ heads; or the terrier himself, fac-similed in earthenware, may have his
head lifted off, in order that the proud possessor of the brilliant idea may get at the internal
store of tobacco. Another great difﬁculty arises from the constant demand for novelties,
since a man can hardly with much spirit throw his heart into the creation of things that,
no matter how beautiful, will so shortly be under the heavy ban of being old-fashioned; and
fashion here again holds sway, as it is far less culpable to have six dresses in a season, all
equally outrageous in taste, than to keep to one or two that happen to be becoming. It
is only just to say that within the last few years rapid strides have been made in many
directions, and while much is still capable of improvement, we can look back on the past
and feel that the teachings of the various International Exhibitions have borne valuable fruit;
a result that has also undoubtedly been still more furthered by the excellent schools of art that
are now established in all our great towns. The following extract from Redgrave's “Report
on Design," as illustrated by the articles shown by British exhibitors in the ﬁrst great
gathering, that of 1851, will show that while much remains yet to be done, still solid
progress has been made :-—“ Stems, bearing ﬂowers for various uses, arise from groups of
metal leaves, standing tip-toe on their points, and every constructive truth and just adaptation
to use is disregarded for a senseless imitative naturalism. In the same way, and doubtless
supported by great authority past and present, enormous wreaths of ﬂowers, ﬁsh, game,


/\-\_____
ZIIISUSE OF JVATURAL FOR./VS. I17
fruit, &c., imitated ti mew/ez'Zle, dangle round sideboards, beds, and picture-frames. Glass is
tortured out of its true quality to make it into the cup of a lily or an anemone; not that
we may be supposed to drink nectar from the ﬂower, but that novelty may catch those for
whom good taste is not piquant enough, and chaste forms not sufﬁciently showy. In fabrics
where ﬂatness would seem most essential, this imitative treatment is often carried to the
greatest excess, and carpets are ornamented with water-lilies ﬂoating on their natural bed,
with fruits and ﬂowers poured forth in overwhelming abundance in all the glory of their
shades and hues; or we may be startled by a lion at our hearth, or a leopard on our rug,
his spotted coat imitated even to its relief as well as to its colour, while palm-trees and
landscapes are used as the ornaments of muslin curtains."
The theory of the disciples of the naturalistic school appears to be that, as natural
forms are in themselves beautiful, they cannot but be pleasing when reproduced in art. That
this is a fallacy, however, our readers will, we trust, see, if they consider that in nature the
animal or plant is fulﬁlling its proper functions, while in its reproduction in art work altogether
foreign to its associations is required of it; hence, however graceful the head and antlers
of a stag may be when seen beneath the spreading beeches or amidst the bracken, it is
a grave error of judgment to decapitate the animal and place its head between the bottles
on an inkstand, using its spreading antlers as convenient pen-rests. However beautiful
the chalice of the lily may be in nature, it is but degraded when from its counterfeit present-
ment a gas jet is made to issue. All ornament is but accessory; it adorns utility, and
should not itself be the principal feature in the work ; hence it is wrong, in place of a gas-jet
with its appropriate ornaments, to substitute one of nature's loveliest ﬂowers, the very type of
purity, that in place of its delicate odour, and all the charming associations of its life, it may
breathe out ﬁre and smoke. The eternal ﬁtness of things is disregarded, and the result
to all thinking minds is not unpleasant merely, but absolutely repulsive.
Fig. 422, an ancient Egyptian drinking-cup, based on the favourite lotus ﬂower, is
perhaps as near an approach to the natural ﬂoral form as the designer is justiﬁed in
attempting. The original may be seen in the British Museum; it is about ﬁve inches
high, of a dark blue green, the lines that deﬁne the forms being black and somewhat
coarse in execution. We need not devote any of our illustrations to modern examples of
want of ﬁtness, as a little observation on the part of our readers will, we fear, soon enable
them to detect examples for themselves. The Murano glass is a good instance of perverted
taste in the. manufacture, as the forms it assumes are often such that the vessels could have
been of little or no practical use, and though on many accounts interesting, yet, since they .
fail in the most important feature, we must perforce consider them artistically as examples
of a perverted ingenuity.
Fitness is not only to be studied in a consideration and just conception of the use
of the required object, but also as to how far the adaptability of the material at command
will inﬂuence the form, since some materials may be woven, others cast, blown, hammered,
or modelled as they revolve, while plastic, on a wheel. It is an error of judgment painfully
to imitate in some antagonistic material the effect that might very naturally be produced in
some more pliable medium. All sense of ﬁtness is set at nought when forms are worked
out in one material that belong properly to another; as, for instance, an elaborate attempt,
faulty at best, but apparently very popular, to imitate basket-work in earthenware. We
have seen a butter-dish made exactly like a straw hat, the plaiting of the straw, the band
of blue ribbon, being horribly real—the junction of the dish and lid being concealed by


1,3 PRINCIPLES OF ORIVA,IIENTAL ART.
the ribbon. These things err in good taste and common sense no less than in the painful
imitation of processes of weaving and plaiting in an inappropriate material, since no one
would really have the milk brought up to table in wicker-work, nor the butter put under
a hat; hence the more realistic the effect the more objectionable every way the result.
The square stitches of wool-work, and their imitation in wall-papers and printed stuffs,
are a parallel case; in the former the manipulation requires them, but to place the design
in the latter cases under such a limitation of effect, thus imitating a process far less elastic
than the case would permit, is a grievous error of judgment. We may see the same
degradation of the material in the ﬁctitious examples of mosaic, where the work produced
in one piece is afterwards marked over with lines to represent the junctions of tessere.
The design should have immediate reference to the material in which it is to be produced,
that thus the capabilities of that material may be considered, and the maximum of good
result obtained. Not only should iron and earthenware, for instance, have their special
adaptabilities considered, but the design that would be suitable for cast-iron must differ
from that intended to be worked in wrought-iron; while oak and mahogany have each
special characteristics of grain and surface that would make the character of design that
worked out well in one not so good for the other.
The ﬁtness of ornament to its scale and position must also be considered, ﬁne and delicate
work and colouring being best seen when near the eye, and a larger and bolder class of forms
being required when farther removed. Fitness of position, too, must be considered in what
we may be allowed to call its moral sense, as the same ornaments could scarcely be used
for a cathedral and a music-hall. A running band of hops and barley, that we remember
to have seen carved round the door of a tavern, had more of this quality of ﬁtness in it
there than it could have had in any other position. Fitness is considered when, in a fabric
of a delicate nature, the ornament also is delicate; hence plants like the crane’s-bill, Gerzuziunz
Roéertianum, the hare-bell, Cam/mnzala rolundzfolzkz, and many species of ferns are especially
suitable for muslins and such-like fabrics. Plants grouped together in a design should be
of one season with each other; the only exception to this rule would be in the design
for a calendar border, wherein all the seasons of the year might furnish their contributions,
as the inner meaning would give a unity to the whole, and render it not justiﬁable merely,
but especially appropriate.
Nature has ever been the great storehouse ﬁlled with boundless wealth of suggestions
for the designer’s service, and we see, as we proceed, that all the great principles of
ornamental art ﬁnds their counterpart in her works. If we seek for justiﬁcations of the use
of symmetry, we ﬁnd them amply in the crystals of the falling snow, the rays of the
sea-anemone, the painted wings of the butterﬂy, as shown in Fig. 415, the corolla of the
ﬂower, the varied forms of the leaf. Repetition is seen in the whorl of leaves that surrounds
the stem of the goose-grass, or the ring of petals in the primrose, anemone, or buttercup.
Variation is no less clearly illustrated in the gradual transition of form in the leaves of many
plants, the lower ones, as in the columbine, being full and rich in character, the upper small
and~simple in form; while in other plants the reverse is seen, the ﬁrst leaves being simple
in character, thence gradually merging into others deeply cut and full of beautiful
suggestiveness of form. Contrast is seen no less distinctly both in form and colour. VVe
see it in the smooth round scarlet berries and glossy green leaves of the holly, in the yellow
and purple of the pansy ﬂower; while not further to multiply such examples, we may, in
conclusion, point out that the principle of ﬁtness is equally well illustrated in natural


_ ...__._._._ ﬁ_—
FITZVESS. 1 1 9
examples. Fitness is the perfect adaptation of the form to the circumstances of the plant's
existence: thus the slender pea, too delicate to support itself unaided, is furnished with
numerous tendrils, by means of which it climbs and rears its head amongst its sturdier
neighbours; while the ﬁeld-bean, an allied plant, being strong enough to sustain itself
without any such adventitious aid, is witho-ut these appendages. The ivy climbing a wall
is furnished with little root-like members, which, inserted in the crevices of the face of the
stone-work, amply sufﬁce to support it. While it is yet trailing on the ground, or when
it has reached the summit of the wall, the rootlets being unnecessary, are not developed.
The dodder, a slender parasitic plant, supports itself by suckers. We see the same principle
again in the growth of the pine-tree, which, from the bleak localities, the bare mountain
sides on which it ﬂourishes, requires special modiﬁcation of the more ordinary charac-
teristics of tree-growth. This is seen in the tall, slender stem, the absence of any heavy
lateral ramiﬁcation. The leaves are thin and needle-shaped, thus offering individually and
in the aggregate but little resistance to the force of the gale; while the roots, instead of
striking far down, like those of most trees do in softer ground, stretch horizontally for
a considerable distance just below the surface, making up by their large area for their
comparatively slight hold of the rocky soil. In the case, too, of the water-buttercup
—RanuncuZus aguatz'lzs—a common plant in most country streams, the upper leaves ﬂoat
on the water; these, therefore, are ﬂat, and but slightly cut up into lobes, while the
leaves that are submerged are cut into very ﬁne, thread-like strips, thus offering no
resistance to the water, their length merely turning in the direction of the current, no
large surface, as in the case of the ﬂoating leaves, being offered to the action of the stream,
as if so, the leaves would., by their constant resistance, tend to loosen the plant, and would
themselves speedily be torn to shreds. \/Ve see the same characteristic ﬁliform growth in
the sea-weeds that, exposed to the dashing and turmoil of the waves, have an equal need of
special modiﬁcation of growth. In Fig. 41 I the algals—known botanically as the (a) Sp/zacc/arm
plumosa, (Z5) C/zomirus crzkpus, and (c) the Sargassum éacczﬁzrum—are fair illustrations of
this, though many other species are still more thread-like. The stems and leaves of
water-plants being either ﬂattened in the direction of the stream, or else triangular in section
(see Figs. 414, 416), furnish us with another illustration, both forms offering but slight
resistance to the action of the water. This grand law of ﬁtness not only holds sway in the
vegetable kingdom, but is equally discernible throughout the whole extent of nature; thus
the tiger's striped and brilliant-looking coat is really very similar in effect to the tall grass
in which he lurks, and only really becomes conspicuous when isolated from the natural
circumstances of the animal's life. In the case of the penguin and apteryx, birds incapable
of ﬂight, all the bones of the skeleton are solid. In proportion as other birds enjoy the
power of ﬂying, so their bones vary in this respect, until, in the skeletons of the humming-
birds and our English swift, birds almost constantly on the wing, every bone, down to
the last joints of the toe, is hollow and permeated by air. Throughout the whole realm of
nature the external form and the internal structure will alike be found to possess this great
principle, for which we equally contend in all artistic work worthy of the name—ﬁtness to
the requirements of each particular case.
Another valuable feature in ornamental art will be found in the due use of the
principle of contrast. Contrast may make itself felt in many ways; we may, for instance,
have contrast of texture and surface, a feature that may often be seen in Perpendicular
carving, where the foliage, so twisted spirally as to show alternately its upper and lower


120 PRINCIPLES or OJBNAZIIENTAL ARI'.
surfaces, has these still more emphasised by the one being tooled over, or drilled, with
an exaggerated effect of the pores, while the other is left plain. There may be contrast
of general form, a principle very fully carried out in classic and mediazval mouldings,
where rectilinear and curvilinear forms each gain by juxtaposition, and where, too, we
may frequently ﬁnd a richly-carved moulding the richer in effect from being placed
amongst simple mouldings and lines. There may be contrast of colour, as in a pavement
of black and white marble, or the squares of a chessboard. A still richer effect is produced
when both forms and colours are varied. This is a very valuable principle in designing,
as it gives a greatly increased charm to any ornamentation. The ﬁrst idea of a beginner
desirous of richly decorating any surface—we will say, for instance, the side .of a room—
is to cover it all over with brilliant ornament, unlimited crimson and gold; but he soon
ﬁnds that that will not do, but that by enriching some surfaces and keeping others back, by
the use of strong colour in some parts and delicate or subdued colours in others, in the
use of bold and decided forms in one place, of delicate curves in another—in fact, in the
use of that principle of contrast and due subordination that we are now advocating, he has
got a far richer effect than before.
Hogarth, in his “Analysis of Beauty,” writes as follows :—“\/Vhen the eye is glutted
with succession of variety it ﬁnds relief in a certain degree of sameness, and even plain
surface becomes agreeable; and properly introduced and contrasted with variety, adds
to it more variety.” l/Vhile Sir Gardiner \/Vilkinson says, “A whole wall, ceiling, or open
space should not be entirely covered over with rich ornament; and so also in~ a coloured
piece of drapery, or any ornamental work, it is better to leave some parts of it much less
rich and of less complicated pattern than the rest. It is apt to fatigue the eye when over-
loaded with equal richness of detail throughout. This is still more important in a coloured
building, where, if the whole walls, columns, and other parts are covered with elaborate
and coloured patterns, the eye feels a want of repose; and the same when a building
is covered entirely with sculptured ornament; the richly-carved part not only requires an
unsculptured portion in order that it shall not fatigue the eye, but is improved and set
off by the contrast. Contrast is as necessary for effect in form, quantity of detail, and
the position of lines, as it is in colour.’ The cornice of the Corinthian order is a good
example of the matter in hand, plain mouldings and dentals being combined with the forms
of the egg and tongue, and other enriched mouldings and lines of ornament. Many of the
most famous temples of India positively lose in effect by the excessive richness of the
ornamentation; the eye seeks in vain to relieve itself by dwelling amidst the redundancy
of carving upon some plainer portion, as all alike is covered with decorative details, and
the designers have thus defeated their own object. The same objection, in a less degree,
makes itself felt in Moorish work; in a less degree because, though the mural diapers
themselves, when examined, frequently exhibit this excess of richness, and cause us to feel
a want of repose, the effect, as a whole, is not so decided, as running round each room we
have a mosaic dado of a much simpler design, and thus obtain the needful variety and
subordination.
I
The value of contrast has been appreciated at all periods of art ; amongst the Egyptians,
for example, we see it exempliﬁed in the placing together of the slender and aspiring obelisk
and the massive temple, with its long horizontal sky-line; while in the Assyrian remains
we see it most clearly developed. Our 239, 241, 242, and 244th ﬁgures are good illustrations
of this. They are all derived from ﬂooring-bricks in the British Museum, the 'colours employed


CONTRAST 121
being buff or green as a ground-work, with the forms sharply deﬁned upon the ground in
black and white. The Greeks were equally alive to its value, as we may see on observing
the numerous anthemion forms met with on their pottery, almost all being based on the
alternation of two dissimilar forms. We have in Figs. 108 and 398 two other examples
from the same source, one a simple chequer of sharply contrasting colours, red and black, the
other a patera, or ﬂoral device. Contrast of form alone, and its value, may be readily
seen in Fig. 421, a capital from the Temple of the Winds. Fig. 409, a Norman example;
Fig. 326, from a sculptured efﬁgy of Gothic work; and Fig. 418, a piece of modern inter-
lacing, are three good examples of contrast of form; in the ﬁrst the rectilinear and curvilinear
lines, the ﬂat surface, and the raised; in the second, the central form, composed entirely
of curved lines in its enclosure of straight lines; and in the third, the combination of straight
lines, horizontal and oblique, with others strongly curved, being all contrasting features
of distinct decorative value. The forms of nature, when studied and duly conventionalised,
will supply much valuable material: as, for example, the white water-lily, with its central
globular mass of petals, surrounded by its large and simple leaves; the hawthorn, when
in ﬂower or fruit; the fruit and foliage of maple or of oak. Fig. 412 presents us with a
bold and good example (Norman) of valuable contrast of form, produced by freely con-
ventionalised fruit and leaf forms. In Figs. 17, 22, 25, the forms composing the pattern
and the ground are identical. In these cases the only way to develop the design is by
variation of colour; while in Fig. 316 the principle of contrast is employed both in form
and colour,-the richest development of the principle. Fig 408 is sketched from a bowl
of Deruta ware, of the sixteenth century, in the South Kensington Museum Collection of
Ceramic Art; while Fig. 300 is from a piece of Indian embroidery, a particularly pleasing
example, as the alternate foliate and ﬂoral forms, raised in silver from a ground of crimson,
have a very rich and beautiful effect.
\/Ve need not now stay to point out any further examples of these principles in our
plates, as the reader will, we trust, ﬁnd enhanced interest and proﬁt in searching for them
himself. We need scarcely say that many of our illustrations serve to exemplify much
more than the one point with which, in our comments upon them, they may have been so
far identiﬁed; thus Fig. 316, recently referred to as a good example of (a) contrast, is an
equally good illustration of (é) the use of conventional foliate forms, (c) the principle of
alternation in form and colour, and (al) of a running and repeating pattern. The analysis
of a given form in this way, the endeavour to understand the various principles involved
in its construction, will be found to be a study at once entertaining and beneﬁcial.
While many of the leading principles of decorative art are of almost universal application
—-symmetry, for instance, being observed in the ornamental work of almost all periods,
pervading the labours of those who are separated from ourselves, either by lapse of time
or by thousands of miles of ocean, and in many ways under the inﬂuence of conditions
the opposite of those that affect ourselves—there are others that are not of such general
application, or not so readily detected when met with: thus, though many inﬂuences are
at work and greatly modify our power of expressing any generalisation, we can yet say
that simplicity is a principle in the art work of some periods, complexity a ruling feature
in the designs of other periods; though, in most styles, examples of each treatment are
freely met with, and the recurrence of one or the other is to be in these cases regarded
as the result of external inﬂuences, rather than the exercise of a principle. Simplicity,
as a rule, is to be met with in the beginning of a style, while men were yet feeling their
Q


122 PRINCIPLES OF 0RNAME1VTAL ARIZ
way, painfully and laboriously striving after an ideal; hence ornament is a growth, a
development that in most cases can be easily traced. A style of ornament does not
spring Minerva-like into existence. The middle period of each style is generally the
ﬁnest. In its earlier history its course is often erratic, the forms rude, the conceptions
barbarous; time, however, brings a change in all these respects, and for some few years
the reﬁned ideal of the artist seems almost, if not quite, reached. A period, however,
shortly, and too soon arrives, when men, proud of past success. degrade their art by making
it the medium for a display of their own exceeding cleverness; art beauty for its own sake,
or its teachings’ sake, is no longer the high consideration, the lofty aim, and the style that
under purer aims slowly grew, arrived at length at a time when manual dexterity enables
the designer clearly to express his meaning, is approaching the most perilous period in
its history, since this very dexterity speedily becomes its pride and weakness, and the art,
once so expressive and reﬁned, loses its hold of men’s regard, and expires, choked by the
wanton excess of ornament and fatal complexity and redundancy everywhere manifesting
themselves. Complexity is, however, not of necessity a sign of decay, though it frequently
accompanies it, as at one and the same time both principles, simplicity and complexity,
may be found. Much depends upon the nature and position of the thing ornamented;
obviously an ornament on the level of the eye may be more complex than one that will
always be seen from a distance. In the one case every detail tells and has its value; in
the other these details would not merely represent wasted work and ill-directed ingenuity,
but they would be positively hurtful, as by their presence they would, while in no way
enhancing the beauty of the work, destroy that breadth of effect that in a decorative work
intended for distant inspection is so charming and in fact essential. The materials at
command must also largely inﬂuence the work, some being susceptible of high ﬁnish and
elaboration of effect, while others necessitate bold and simple work. The outlay that may
be indulged in, the cost in time, the labour available, will be other matters for consideration,
matters that must strongly bias the mind in the choice of treatment. Where arrangements
permit of it, the introduction of both features, simplicity and complexity, will, as we have
already indicated on a preceding page in our remarks on contrast, be a mutual beneﬁt,
each deriving increased beauty from the presence of the other. There is, moreover,
frequently a moral ﬁtness to be observed ; some parts of a building, for instance, are of higher
use than others, and it is only seemly that on these more honourable parts greater richness
of decoration and more lavish exercise of thought and ingenuity should make itself felt.
The hinge of a stye-door may very ﬁtly be less complex in design than that that attracts
the eye at the portals of the baronial hall. This our readers may say is an extreme case,
but it may on that account more clearly convey our meaning; and the principle it involves,
when once impressed on the mind, will assist the designer in coming to a right conclusion
in cases less widely separated. This consideration of the ﬁtness of the ornament to its
place should run through all such work: thus, to give but one example out of many, a
supporting pillar, be it Corinthian column or Gothic shaft, will ordinarily be found to be
clearly divisible into three main features—a spreading base, a central shaft, a crowning
capital. The base must not only be strong enough to support the superincumbent weight,
but it must also convey that impression to the eye. This double requirement is best met by
a bold simplicity of treatment. Moreover, good ornament would be wasted in such a
position; it is too low to be conveniently seen, too exposed to chance injury for it to be
desirable to expend much ﬁne design on it. Ornament, if applied at all, should either be


124 PRI./VCIPLES OF ORJVA./IIENTAL ARZI
or Early Greek and the Early English Gothic are, perhaps, the best examples of the
principle of simplicity (a very different thing to poverty of thought, we must remember);
while the Moresque, with its elaborate interlacing, its delicate network of geometric
tracery, its vivid colouring, scarlet, blue, gold, black, and profusion of ornament everywhere,
is an excellent example of a style in which complexity is a dominant feature. A Doric
temple is at once recognisable by its simple, massive proportions; its few ornaments,
such as the triglyphs, were the memorials of real utility, representing in this case the ends
of the beams in the earlier wood construction. The Romans, in adopting the order, made
several modiﬁcations and to a great degree impaired its individuality. In the Greek work the
columns were without pedestal or base, the end of the shaft resting directly on the paved
ﬂoor. The capital was of a very simple character, a few plain ﬁllets, a projecting ovolo
moulding, very slight and delicate in its curvature, and surmounting all a plain abacus,
without ﬁllet or any other ornament. The columns, very massive in character, being
sometimes only six diameters high, have considerable lightness of effect owing to the
ﬂuting. The ﬂuting of the Greek Doric is peculiar, being composed of twenty
shallow depressions, the junctions of the ﬂutes being marked by a sharp line;
whereas in the Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite orders, the ﬂutes are twenty-four
in number, and have small intervening ﬁllets; the curves, too, are much rounder in
character. Fluting may or may not be used in the preceding orders, but in the Tuscan
order it is never in any case met with. The famous temples of Athens, that of Minerva,
better known as the Parthenon, and that of Theseus, are ﬁne examples of the Doric, and
from their general beauty of composition and simple grace of detail are worthy of the
most attentive regard. The Roman Doric is seen in the theatre of Marcellus, the only
example of its use now extant. The Early English Gothic, though not so severe in
treatment as the Greek order we have just referred to, affords us a very good example
of like simplicity of treatment. \Ve need not here dwell at any length upon it, as excellent
examples of it are easily accessible, the cathedrals of Salisbury, VVinchester, Peterborough,
York, Lincoln, Beverley Minster, the abbeys of \-Vestminster, Romsey, Netley, and many
others, affording good illustrations. VVe may, however, brieﬂy indicate some few of the
salient points, such, for example, as the bold and simple forms of the shafts, the mouldings
and windows, the delicate grace of the foliage, the simplicity and beauty of the designs
for ﬂooring-tiles and stained glass, leaving our readers to work out the clue thus afforded
either by actual study of the remains, or, if these are inaccessible, by aid of the numerous
excellent works that in these days may so facilitate the labours of the student, if only he
be willing to avail himself of their aid. As the Early Gothic has simplicity of treatment
and detail as a conspicuous feature, so in Later Gothic do we ﬁnd the reverse. As illustrative
of our statement we may refer to buildings so well known as Henry VII.’s Chapel at
\Vestminster, and the Cathedral of Milan. In each of these we ﬁnd a great complexity of
treatment, an overloading of ornament, a want of the repose that is so agreeable a feature
in earlier works, and that, as in an equally well-known building, Salisbury Cathedral,
imparts a feeling of such quiet dignity to the whole. Much of the German Gothic errs
greatly in this overloading of ornament. The Oriental nations, guided by what almost
appears to be instinctive good taste, while delighting greatly in quaint and complex
arrangements of lines and colours, do not destroy the beauty of their work by a too great
prominence of these features. The metal-work and embroidery of India, the textile fabrics
and MSS. of Persia, are rich in ornamental details of the greatest beauty. Many of the.


SIMPLICITY AND COMPLEXITK 125
forms are complex in the highest degree, yet nothing is strained for the sake of effect; all
appears to spring naturally from the circumstances of each case, and never interferes with
the use. We see this very well in Fig. 31, a Cairene example. In the sultry East, as we
saw in our ﬁrst chapter, that on geometry, it is essential to comfort that the window openings
should be numerous and at the same time small, that the refreshing breeze might enter, but
not the ﬁerce rays of the sun. Hence the walls are pierced by a series of small apertures,
and to render these more pleasing to the eye they are. ordinarily arranged in some
geometric pattern and enclosed in an ingenious arrangement of strapwork. Much of the
early work of the northern and western nations is very complex in its character. Celtic,
Runic, and Scandinavian art is almost entirely composed of the interlacing of grotesque
animals or of simple bands, but though thus limited in its aims, exhibits a wonderful
development of skill in this narrow ﬁeld.
Nature, ever the ornamentist’s court of appeal, presents many ﬁne examples both
of the most reﬁned simplicity of form and of the richest complexity. We need not
dwell at any length on these, but if we consider the forms of foliage alone, as being
those perhaps most commonly employed in ornamental compositions, we are struck
with the variety displayed, some being, like the leaves of the ﬁr, needle-shaped; others
like a spearhead, as in the privet; or, like those of the box, elliptical; while, on the other
hand, the leaves of the hemlock, carrot, fennel, peony, and many others, are exceedingly
rich in outline. We need scarcely say that in choosing the plant upon which we propose
to base an ornamental composition we must be greatly guided by a consideration of the
amount of simplicity or richness we wish to throw into our work, as the character of leaf
will greatly inﬂuence the character of the design. A simple leaf, like that of the olive or
laurel, will, as we see in Fig. 283—a very common ornament upon Greek vases—produce
a bold simplicity of design, while leaves deeply serrated, like the violet, or cut into bold
masses, as in the maple or buttercup, are of themselves sufﬁcient, as we observe in
Decorated Gothic work, to give a very considerable richness and complexity of effect to
the work in which they are introduced. It is therefore a not unimportant consideration in
commencing any decorative work, to reﬂect, ﬁrst on the effect we really wish to produce,
and secondly, on the means that, judiciously employed, will best aid us in our endeavours.
This, when stated in so many words, seems too self-evident to need mentioning; the want
of, this consideration nevertheless is especially hampering to the novice, who too frequently
commences work without a settled plan, trusting to the chapter of accidents to supply in
the end that which should have been the natural product of forethought at the beginning.
This forethought may justly be deemed another development and offshoot of that
consideration of the principle of ﬁtness that we have already in a previous chapter
advocated. Simplicity of effect is largely assisted by the continuous repetition of units,
a simplicity still more apparent when the units themselves are of simple character, and
arranged methodically according to a plan that the eye easily detects; thus, for example,
Figs. 286, 287, a series of round spots all similar in size and equidistant, placed in a series
of horizontal lines, gives a much greater effect of simplicity than if we modify these spots
and make them into stars, some ﬁve-pointed, some six-pointed, and varying in size,
further breaking up the methodic arrangement and scattering them broadcast like the stars
of heaven, though in each case the elements of our design are of a very simple character.
Complexity of effect is greatly aided by the principle of variation, as the eye does not
so readily comprehend the full scope of that which is presented to it. Fig. 339 is a good


, 26 PRINCIPLES or ORNAJIIENTAL AR7'.
example of this; it is derived from a Norman window-head at Birkin Church, in Yorkshire.
In the original these forms are placed in juxtaposition round the semicircular line of the arch.
They are verynumerous and varied in design. VVe have here merely selected three fairly
representative specimens. Our readers will, we think, readily feel the increased complexity
and richness of effect that result from the marked variation and contrast of these disc forms.
A cast of this window-head may be seen, by those to whom the original is not readily
accessible, in the permanent collection in the museum at South Kensington. Colour, at
the will of the ornamentist, is a powerful agent either in assisting the effect of simplicity
or of adding to the richness and complex character of a decorative design. A familiar
example of this latter effect may be seen in the tile pavements now so frequently to be met
with, where the combination of very simple forms, such as the square, oblong, and right-angled
triangle, results, owing to the colour, in designs frequently of great richness and beauty, as by
this means particular combinations of forms simple in themselves may be developed and
emphasised, and almost any amount of intricacy of design may thus be produced. As
an illustration of what ingenuity may effect in producing the maximum of effect out of
the most uncompromising and unyielding materials, Fig. 99, a Chinese fret pattern, is
not uninteresting. If we put the problem in this way-—Given, a number of lines parallel
and equidistant, crossed at right angles by other and similar lines, to produce a pleasing
design, we shall, we think, decide that the difﬁculties have been fairly met and equally
fairly overcome. The Arabs are no less clever, Figs. 9o and 101, in producing the
most complex designs out of combinations of such straight lines; and many of the more
elaborate Greek frets are almost as ingenious in their conception as the works of the Orientals.
In some Byzantine and German Gothic work, Figs. 89 and IOO, we meet with very elaborate
interlacings of straight lines on capitals, &c. Our space forbids our giving many illustrations of
these, but any good illustrated book on the subject, such as “ Heideloff," will furnish numerous
examples.
The interlacing of lines has in some styles become a very marked principle; it appears
sometimes to be an imitation of weaving, or, more correctly, a form derived from and suggested
by it, the bands being contiguous, Fig. 428, as in woven material, and not having any open
spaces between them. It is thus met with in Assyrian ornament, and very commonly indeed
- in Byzantine work, and more especially on the capitals of the columns. Our readers may,
in the “Stones of Venice," see many excellent illustrations of this use of it. More frequently,
however, it is found, Fig. 427, as an open interlacing of straps or cords, while in German
Gothic, Fig. 429, the forms often simulate the branches of trees. The strap form is abundant
in Byzantine, Mohammedan, Elizabethan, and Italian work. A good example of it is seen
-in Fig. 31, the pierced stone screen from Cairo. In some of these Eastern piercings
the openings are more stellate than in the one we have here represented, producing a
very pleasing and suggestive effect when viewed from the inside of the apartment, or
when, the sun shining brilliantly through them, their forms are transferred in golden light
on to the opposite wall or the ﬂoor beneath. It is to an effect thus produced by these
openings of ornamental form that Victor Hugo alludes, except that in his charming poem
the forms are cast by the moon’s milder rays in silver on the walls—-
“ Quand la lune, Z1 travers les mille arceaux arabcs,
Some les murs de tréﬂes blancs !”
The more ﬂowing and rounded form that, for distinction's sake, we have named cord-


INTERLA CING FORMS. 1 2 7
interlacing, in opposition to strapwork, which is ordinarily ﬂat, is of constant application
in Early Irish, Runic, Celtic, Scandinavian, and Anglo-Saxon art, both in illumination
and stone-carving. The crosses that may from time to time be met with in Ireland
abound with beautiful .examples of interlaced patterns, wonderfully intricate in form and
faultless in execution, sometimes being merely a cord, as in Figs. 424, 426; sometimes,
as in Fig. 430, the pattern is developed by dots, and in other instances formed into
writhing masses of snakes, birds, and nondescript monsters, their tongues, crests, legs,
and tails being knotted and entwined in endless variety. \Ve see the same marked features
again in the Celtic MSS. On one page alone of the Gospel of St. Chad, a MS. of this
early period, more than one hundred of these fanciful animal forms occur. Interlacing
was very largely introduced in MSS. during the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries,
and to a certain extent in the eleventh century. After this time it does not become in
any degree a characteristic, though scattered examples of it may frequently be found in later
work. Interlacing patterns occur very commonly in classic work. The mosaic pavements,
Roman, Carthaginian, &c., in the British Museum, afford numerous examples, some of
them of a very complicated character; and the very popular patterns known as the speira
or plait, and the guilloche, that are more or less met with throughout the whole range of art,
no doubt owe a great deal of their charm to their interlacing lines. Interlacing forms
also enter very largely into thirteenth century Italian art, Fig. 427. They are ordinarily
far less complex in character than the northern examples, but what they may lack in
complexity is ordinarily fully compensated for in the reﬁnement of their forms. A very
good example of interlacing conventional foliate forms is seen in Fig. 382. A highly
curious set of chessmen, carved in walrus ivory, was found at Uig, Isle of Lewis, and
may now be seen in the British Museum. The bishops are sitting ﬁgures, and the
ornament represented in our illustration is carved on the back of one of the episcopal
chairs. The love of interlacing forms reveals itself again in heraldry, in the numerous
varieties of knots employed as charges in blazoning arms. Of these the most pleasing are
the Bourchier, Boven, Harrington, Heneage, Lacy, and Stafford; the ﬁve ﬁrst being
borne by the families after whom they are named, while the sixth is a county device,
tradition stoutly afﬁrming that in mediazval times the Staffordshire men were such
scoundrels that it was necessary to devise a knot that would facilitate the hanging of three at
once. Be that as it may, the inhabitants of the county are proud of their device, and most
of our travelled readers must be familiar with it, as it is painted on all the carriages and
general rolling stock of the North Staffordshire Railway. Badges in heraldry are frequently
knotted together by various interlacings at the union of two houses: thus the Dacre knot
unites the escallop shell borne by that family with the historic ragged staff of the Beauchamps.
The idea is a good one, as it at once pleasingly unites two dissimilar forms into one composition,
and at the same time symbolises the closeness of the tie between the houses. Ruskin, in
the “Stones of Venice,” has some such thoughtful and interesting remarks on the love
of all early nations for interlacing that we shall make no apology to our readers for
quoting them, and more especially as in these pages our desire is not simply to give ex
parte statements of ours, but also to direct the reader to other sources of information,
being “well content if,” in the words of Quintilian, “I can say what is right, though it
may not be of my own invention." After referring to the works of the Scandinavians
and Anglo-Saxons, the author goes on to say, “ It is not often that any idea of utility
has power to enhance the true impressions of beauty; but it is possible that the enormous


CONCLUDING REMARKS. 129
that is neither desirable nor indeed justiﬁable. The numerous breaks of line that result
in this system of interpenetration are, if not really a source of weakness, at least apparently so,
and on this ground also offend the eye.
We conclude, as we commenced, with a strong feeling of the magnitude of the task that
lies before any one who would desire to treat the subject exhaustively. Should our labours,
slight as they are, prove in any way a help to those desirous of gaining some insight into the
principles and practice of ornamental art, we trust that they will thank us rather for what
little help we may thus have afforded them than dwell, as we too well know that they
might do, upon all the sins of omission that might so readily be charged to us.
VVe shall not indulge in the usual formula by saying that if but one student ﬁnds
himself the better for our work we shall feel amply repaid, since such assertion appears to
us often a little hypocritical, and at best but the expectation of a result that does not bear
due proportion to the labour expended. We would rather say that we cherish the hope
that many who read these pages will rise from them prompted by a desire to search more
deeply into matters than we are here able to go, but nevertheless deriving from our labours
at least this desire to know more.
Many kindly expressions of appreciation have reached us from those to whom personally
we are quite unknown, and from some—since even far Australia has contributed—whose
faces we may never see. We therefore gladly take this opportunity of thanking all such
well-wishers, assuring them that in the feeling that ourilabours are of use we ﬁnd our highest
reward, and in the appreciation of those who have thus beneﬁted we derive our greatest
encouragement.


, J
. 4 1./vpzx
Gubbio \Vare, 19.
Guidobaldo II., Duke of Urbino, 18.
Guilloche Form in Ornament, 14, I6.
Gules in Heraldry, 74.
C-urge or Whirlpool, I7.
H.
Hampton Court Palace, Glass at, 72.
Hand of the Lord, 33.
Harmony of Colour, I03.
Harpocrates, God of Silence, 46.
Harpy in Blazonry, 77.
Hawk and Vulture, Sacred to Re, 27.
Hebrew Alphabet : its Nature, 55.
Heidelotf on Byzantine Decoration, 93, I26.
Hell in Mediaval Representations, 25.
Henri Deux \Vare, I4, 62.
Henry ll., Badge a Broom Plant, 47.
Henry IV., Badge a Columbine Flower, 47.
Heraldry or Blazonry, 71.
Herb-basilisque, 77.
Hercules the Hydra-slayer, 27.
Herodotus, on the Assyrian Empire, 7o ; on the Phoenix, 77.
Hesiod, the Phoenix, 77.
Hexafoil in Ornament, I5.
Hieroglyphic Characters of Egypt, 58, 59.
Higher Animal Forms Bi-symmetrical, 86.
Hippopotamus, Ass, and Pig dedicated to Typho, 3|.
“ History of Ancient MSS.,” Forsyth, 61.
“ History of Egypt,” Sharpe, 55.
Hittorf on the Colouring of the Greeks, I02.
Hogarth, “ Analysis of Beauty,” I20.
Holly, Design founded on the, H5.
"' Holy \Var :” its Pictorial Imagery, 22.
Honeycomb: its Geometric Character, I2.
Honeysuckle, Natural Growth of the, 67, 86.
Honourable Ordinaries in Heraldry, 75.
Horizontal Line in Ornament, 83.
Horned Snake in Egyptian Art, 26.
Horse, an Emblem of Strength, 29.
Horus, Throne of, 25.
Hudson on Symmetry in Design, 88; Naturalism and Con-
ventionalism, H2.
Hues of Colour : their Nature, 103.
Human Form in Christian Art, 32.
Humboldt,“Atlas Pittoresque,” 55.
Hydra in Art, 27.
Hyperbolic Character of Eastern Poetry, 6|.
Ibis of the Egyptians, 27.
“ Idler,” Papers on Art in, 96.
I.H.S., Sacred Monogram, 63.
Imitation of one Material in another, faulty in Principle, II7-
Impalement in Heraldic Bearings, 78.
Incarnation of Vishnu, 52.
incongruous Combinations in some Renaissance \V0rk. 114.
Indian Lotus or \Vater-bean, 44.
Inﬂuence of Commerce and War on Art, 94, 9;.
Inherent Beauty of Geometric Forms, 3.
Inquisition in Spain, 36.
Inscriptions, as Elements of Ornamental Art, 53; of the
Alhambra, 60, 6|; on Coinage, 59, 64; prefaced by
the Cross, 62.
Insect Forms in Art, 26; in Heraldry, 76.
Interchange as a Principle in Design, 90.

Interlacing of Animal Forms in Celtic Art, 89, I25, 127.
Interlacing of Lines in Ornamental Art, I27, 128.
Interpenetration of F onns in Ornamental Art, I28.
Intersection of Lines in Ornamental Art, I28.
Ionic Capital, 17.
Ivory as a Substance for Writing on, 56.
Ivy, Design based on the, 114.
J.
Jackal of Anubis, 22, 30.
Jameson on Symbolism, 34.
James IV. of Scotland; the Thistle, 46.
Javanese Treatments of Fruit Forms, H4.
Jerome on the Evangelistic Symbols, 3|.
Jewels as expressive of Tinctures, 75.
Jewish Animal Worship, 26.
Jewish Church, Figure symbolising the, 32.
John St., Symbol, the Eagle, 31.
Johnson on the Use of the Labours of Others, 97.
Josephus on the Assyrian Empire, 70.
Juclaea, Symbolic Figure of, on Coinage, 4!.
Jupiter Ammon, I7.
Jupiter, Thunderbolt of, 52.
Justin on the Assyrian Empire, 70.
Juxtaposition of Colours: its Modifying Effect, rot, I05.
K.
Kaleidoscope, Multi-symmetrica.l Forms in, 67, 87.
Karnac, Temple of, 91.
Katharine of Arragon, Badges adopted by, 47.
K ei/furmzlg, or TL’/e-ti-¢'/ou, 68.
Kelland on Colour~b1indness, I06.
Kells, Book of, 4.
Key Patterns or Frets, 8.
Keys of St. Peter, 22.
Kilklispeen, Celtic Cross of, 8.
Kimmeridge Coal-money, I3.
Knots, various Forms of, as Heraldic Devices, 77, 127.
Koran. the Dog, 29 ; the Inﬂuence of, on Mohammedan
Art, 60, 111.
Kyonjik, Pavement from, 2, 44.
L.
Label as Mark of Cadency, 80.
Labour available a Consideration in Design, I22.
Lamb as a Symbol of Christ, 32.
Lamp as an Emblem, 51.
Lancastrian Rose, 21, 78.
Language, Symbolism of, 22.
Lardner on Snow-crystals, n.
Lassen and Grotefend, Labours of, 69.
‘ Last Supper,” of Leonardo da Vinci, 88.
Laws in Art : how far binding, 96.
Laws of Moses, Solon, and Themistocles, 56.
Layard, Botta, and Rich, Labours of, 70.
Lead as a Substance for Writing on, 56.
Leaves of Trees as Substances for Writing on, 56.
Lecterns, Durham, 29; Messina, 32; and Norwich, 29.
Leebeck on Colour-blindness, I06.
Legend, of Prometheus 48 ; of the Phtenix, 77.
Lens found at Nineveh, 9.
Leonardo on Colour Harmony, 103.
Lepidotus of the Egyptians, 24.
Levitical Priesthood, Rites of the, 2 3.
Lilies of France in English Heraldry, 80.


INDEX 1 35
Lily, its Symbolic Signiﬁcance, 43; of the Bourbons, 21 ; of
the Nile, 44.
Linen-pattern in Late Gothic Work, 100.
Lion, Emblem of St. Mark, 31 ; Heraldic Device, 75 ; in
Ornamental Art, 31 ; sacred to Hercules, 30.
Lizard, Object of Worship, 26.
Lote-tree of the Koran, 45.
Lotus Form in Art, 44 ; Indian Treatment, 45.
Love of Ornament universal Feeling, 94.
Love of the Marvellous and Mysterious, 4, 128.
Loving-cups of Civic Feasts, 22.
Lower Animal Forms ordinarily Multi-symmetrical, 86.
Luke, St., Ox the Symbol of, 31.
M.
Machinery, Inﬂuence of, on Design, 90.
Madras School of Art, Drawings from, 7.
Magi of Persia, 48.
Magpie and Raven in Christian Art, 28.
Mai, Literary Labours of, 57.
Majolica: its Nature and History, 18.
Malay Creese, Inscription on, 65.
Mantling in Heraldry, 81.
“ Manual of Heraldry,” Cussans, 71.
Marine Signal-code, 76.
Mark, St., Symbol, the Lion, 31.
Marks on Chelsea, Dresden, and Swansea \Vare, 58.
Mars, the Star of the Warrior, 48.
Marshalling in Blazonry, 78.
Martes, Sacred Fish of the Egyptians, 24.
Martlet as Mark of Cadency, 80.
Martyrs, Christian, of Rome, 23, 25, 42.
Material inﬂuencing Form of Design, 122.
Matthew, St., Emblem, the Angel, 31.
Maximinian, St., Chair of, at Ravenna, 42.
Medeenet Haboo, Temple of, 91.
Merchants’ Marks, 65.
Mercury, Caduceus of, 52.
Mermaid as Heraldic Device, 77.
Messina, Lectern at, 32.
“ Metal Work,” Digby Wyatt, 32.
Mexican, God of the Air, 25 ; Picture-language, 54; Pottery, 2.
Milton : the Amaranth, 45.
Minerva, Olive, Symbol of, 27 ; Owl, Symbol of, 27.
Mohammedan Ornament conventional, 111.
Mohammedan Sects, 60.
Monograms, on Coinage, 63 ; on Pictures, 64 ; Origin and
Nature, 61.
Montesqueu on Taste, 88.
Moore, “ Paradise and the Peri,” 45 ; the Phoenix, 77.
Moors, Use of Geometry by the, 2, 4.
Mosaic: its Nature and History, 8, 33.
Mottoes in Heraldry, 65, 78, 79.
Motto from Exeter Cathedral, 53.
Multifoil Figures in Ornament, 15.
Multi~symmetrical Forms, 86.
Murano Glass, 117,
Musical Instruments, Representations of, as Decorations, 99.
Mythical Animal Forms, 24, 31, 77.
N.
Napkin-ornament in Late Gothic, 100.
Napoleon I., Tomb of, 29, 1oo.
Natural Geometric Forms, 11.
Naturalistic Argument for use of Colours, 104,
Naturalism and Conventionalism of Treatment, 107.
N ebuchadnezzar, Golden Image of, 36.
Nehushtan of Hezekiah, 26.
“ Nenzo ma implme lacessz't," 46.
Neph, Asp of, 26. '
Neptune, Trident of, 22, 52.
New Guinea, Fret Fomt on Pottery, 8.
New Zealand, Woven Geometric Patterns, 7.
Nimbus Forms, 50, 51.
Nisroch, Vulture dedicated to, 27.
Norwich, Lectern at, 29.
O.
Oblong in Ornament, 12.
Odin the Originator of Written Characters, 56.
Oiron or Henri Deux Ware, 14, 62.
Olive, Symbol of Pallas, 27.
Or: its Use in Heraldry, 74.
Omament based on Geometric Construction, 2.
Ornament of Past not necessarily Good, 109.
Osiride Pillars in Egyptian Architecture, 91.
Osiris, Sacred Bull of, 3o.
Ostrich Feathers as a Badge, 78.
Outlay available a Consideration in Decoration, 122.
Overthrow of Perseus : Inﬂuence on Art, 95.
Owen jones, “ Alhambra," 4 ; “ Grammar of Ornament,” 83,
102 ; Naturalism and Conventionalism, 113.
Owl, Emblem of Desolation and Ruin, 29 ; Object of
Veneration in Tartary, 27; Symbol of Pallas, 27.
Oxyrhinchus of the Egyptians, 24.
P.
Palimpsest MSS., 56.
Pallas, Olive and Owl Symbols of, 27.
Palm-branch as a Symbol in Christian Art, 41.
Palm-tree on Jewish and Scottish Coinage, 41.
Papyrus as a Substance for writing on, 1, 56.
“Paradise and the Peri,” Moore, 45.
“ Paradise” of Dante, 29.
Parsees of India, 48.
Parthenon or Temple of Pallas Athene, 27, 87.
Pasht, Cat dedicated to, 30.
Passion-ﬂower: its Signiﬁcance in Ecclesiastical Art, 43.
Passion Symbols in Christian Art, 49.
Patera Form in Ornament, 66.
Pavia, Majolica at, 18.
Peacock, Burmese, 15 ; in Christian Art, 28.
Pelican, in Heraldry, 76; in Sacred Art, 28; Emblem of
Desolation, 29,
Penrose on Colouring of Greek Architecture and Sculpture.
102.
Pentalpha in Byzantine Work, 13.
Persecutions of the Early Christian Church, 23.
Perseus the Dragon-slayer, 27.
Perugia Ware, 19.
Pesaro, School of Pottery at, 19.
Phagrus of Egyptians, 24.
Pharaoh, Meaning of the Word, 58.
Philae, Resting-place of Osiris, 30.
Phoenician Relics in England, 14.
Phcenix, in Art, 27 ; in Heraldry, 77.
Pictorial Allegories, 21.
Picture-language of Mexico, 54.
Pictures marked by Monogram of Artist, 64.
Pig an Emblem of Gluttony, 29.
“ Pilgrim’s Progress,” Pictorial Imagery of, 22.


1 36 I./VDEX.
Pillar of Fire in the Wilderness, 48.
Pine-apple or Cone Form in Assyrian Sculptures, 68.
Pine-tree : Natural Example of Fitness of Form to Growth,
H9.
Plait Form or Speira, 16.
Planets as expressive of Heraldic Tinctures, 75.
Planets as Symbols of the Classic Deities, 48.
Plantagenista Badge, 47.
Plants largely used in Biblical Teaching. 41.
“ Plants : their Natural Growth and Ornamental Treat-
ment,” 11, 87. '
Plato on the Sameness of Egyptian Work, 39.
Plautus on the Polter’s Vl/heel, 85.
Pliny, on Mosaic, 9; the Phoenix, 77.
Polygonal Forms in Ornamental Art, 13.
Pomegranate, Badge of Katharine of Arragon, 47 ; in Jewish
Ornament, 43.
Portcullis of Westminster, 50.
Portraits of Christ, 51.
Posy-rings : their Nature, 65.
Potter's Art Antiquity of, 84.
Prevost on Colour-blindness, I06.
Primary Colours, Nature of the, ioo.
Principal Figures made larger in Early \/Vork, 32.
Proto-Doric Columns of Beni Hassan, 95.
Prussia, Eagle Symbol of, 29, 76.
Pseudo-buttresses in Decorative Work, 15.
Pthah of the Egyptians, 26.
Ptolomy Epiphanes and the Rosetta Stone, 59.
Publius Lentulus, Description of Christ, 51.
Purpure in Blazonry, 74.
Pythagoras and Thales as Geometricians, 2.
Q.
Quartering of Armorial Bearings, 78.
Quatrefoil in Ornament, 14.
Quintilian, Extract from, I27.
R.
Radiation as a Principle in Ornament, 90.
Rano, Asp dedicated to, 26.
Raphael, Cartoons of, 5o.
Raphael Ware, 18.
Ravenna, Chair of St. Maximinian, 42.
Ravenna Vi/are, I9.
Raven, in Blazonry, 76 ; the Standard of Vikings, 28.
Raven and Magpie in Christian Art, 28.
Rawlinson, Labours of, at Bagdad, 69.
“ Recollections of the Last Four Popes,” Wiseman, 57.
Redgrave, “ Report on Design,” 116.
Red : its Symbolic Signiﬁcance, 36, 38.
Rehoboam a Captive in Egypt, 59.
Reisner Work, 10.
Relief, Simulation of, 7, 100, n7.
Repetition as an Art Principle, 89.
Reptile Forms in Design, 26; in Heraldry, 76.
Restoration : its Use and Abuse, 72.
Re, Vulture and Hawk sacred to, 27.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, on Laws in Art, 96; on Naturalism
and Conventionalism, H3.
Rhombus in Ornament, I3.
Ribbon-letters, 65.
Right-angled Triangle in Ornament, 12.
Robin, a Symbol of Christmas, 29.
Rock-tablets of Behistun, 69.
Rolls of Arms, 71.
Roman Churches, Majolica alﬁxed to, 18.
Roman Stamped Tiles, 58.
Rome, Catacombs of, 23,- 32, 41, 42.
Rosa Sine S /)/Illl, 47, 64.
Rose, as a Mark of Cadency, 30 ; dedicated to Virgin Mary,
46; Heraldic Use of, 75 ; in Classic Mythology. 46 ;
in Christian Art, 46 ; of Pagan Art, 46; of the Popes.
46 ; of Sharon, 46 ; of York and Lancaster, 47.
Rose or Vi/heel Windows, I4.
Rosetta Stone, 59, 68.
Rosette Form in Ornament, 66.
Rules of Colouring vague in their Nature, 97, too.
Runic Characters of Scandinavia, 56.
Ruskin, Advancing and Retiring Colours, I02 ; Juxtaposition
of Green and Blue, 97 ; “ Modern Painters,” 88 ;
Naturalism and Conventionalism, Ill ; on Inter-
lacing, 127 ; “ Stones of Venice,” 100, I26, 127 ; Study
of the Figure, 98 ; Symmetry, 88.
Russia, Eagle a Symbol of, 29, 76.
S.
Sable in Blazonry, 74.
Sacred Fire of the Vestal Virgins, 48.
Sacred Fish of the Egyptians, 24.
Sacred Geese of Rome, 28.
Sacred Monogram, Forms of the, 4!, 63.
Sagittarius in Blazonry, 77.
Salamander in Heraldic Devices, 77.
Santa Apollonica, Pisa, Majolica at, 18.
Santa Alnria n?-Ila Rum, 46.
Saturn 1 a Symbol of the God of Time, 48.
Saxon Coin, the VVolf and Children, 30.
Scale and Position of Ornament to be studied, I18.
Scale Form in Ornamental Art, 14.
Scarabazus or Sacred Beetle, 24, 26.
Scotland, Thistle of, 46.
Scottish Clans, Badges of the, 47.
Sea Horse and Sea Lion as Heraldic Devices, 77.
Seals, Value of Emblazoned Devices on, 73.
Seb, Goose sacred to, 27.
Secondary Colours, Nature of, I00.
Semicircle in Ornament, 14.
Semper on the Colouring of Classic Architecture and
Sculpture, 102.
Seneca Indians, Custom of, 22.
Sennacherib, King of Assyria, 27, 58, 69.
Sense of Flatness in Floor-coverings, 6.
Serpent in Mythology and A11, 25.
Seven, the Number of Perfection, 39.
Shades and Tints of Colour, Nature of, 103.
Shaft-sections Geometric in Character, II.
Shalmanezer, King of Assyria, 31, 69.
Shamrock of Ireland, 46.
Sharpe, “ History of Egypt,” 55.
Sheaf of Arrows, Badge of Katharine of Arragon, 47.
Shushan, Mosaic at Palace of, 8.
Signal-code, Marine, 76.
Silver, its Symbolic Signiﬁcance, 36, 37.
Simplicity as a Principle in Design, I21, I22.
Simulation of Relief Work, 7, ioo, 117.
Siva, Equilateral Triangle a Symbol of, 62.
Six, its Symbolic Meaning, 39.
Skins of Animals as Substances for Writing on, 56.
Snowdrop dedicated to Virgin, 37, 43.
Soul of Man symbolised in Art, 32.
Speira or Plait Form, 16.
Spenser, “ The Faerie Queene,” 37.


-.-gr ~>w>|Ir
INDEX.
Sphinx Forms, in Blazonry, 77; in Ornamental Art, 25.
Spiral Line, in Nature, I7 ;~ in Ornament, 17, 123.
Stag, in Blazonry, 76 ; Christian and Classic Symbol, 30.
Standards, of the Caliphs, 38 ; of Constantine, 25, 63.
“Stones of Venice,” Ruskin, Ioo, 126, I27.
Strap Form in Interlacing, 126.
Study of the Figure, Dyce and Ruskin on, 97, 98.
Stupidity, Ass a Symbol of, 29.
Style in Ornament, 93.
Sub~ordinary Charges in Blazonry, 75, 76.
Substances used for writing on, 56.
Sun-worshippers, 48.
Supporters in Heraldic Devices, 79.
Symbolism: its Nature and Use, 20.
Symmetry as a Principle in Ornamental Art, 85.
T.
Talbot Dog represented on Tile, 1 I5.
Tarsia Work or Tarsiatura," Io.
Tau Form in Early Christian Work, 63.
Temples of the Earth and Heaven at Pekin, 40.
Temple of Solomon, Symbolic Ornaments, 41, 43.
Temple of the Winds, Capital from, 121.
Tertiary Colours, the Nature of, IoI.
Tertullian on the Early Christian Church, 22.
T é'le-ti-Clou, or K eilfnrmzlg, 68.
Thales and Pythagoras as Geometricians, 2.
Thebes, Mural Paintings at, 30, 66 ; Tombs of 30, 85, 95.
Thistle, a Symbol of Scotland, 46.
Thoth, Ape dedicated to, 30; Ibis dedicated to, 27.
Three : its Symbolic Meaning, 39.
Tigris : its Representation in Assyrian Art, 48.
Tinctures in Heraldry, 74.
Tints of Colours : how obtained, 103.
Tones and Lines of Colour : their Nature, I03.
Tooba-tree of the Mohammedans, 45.
Tortoise the Incarnation of a Deity, 26.
Trajan, Column of, I00.
Tree of Life, 45.
Trefoil in Omament, I4.
Triangle in Design, 12.
Trident, marked on Swansea Ware, 58 ; Symbol of Neptune,
22.
Trinity, Symbols of the, 32, 33, 39.
Tri-symmetrical Forms, 86.
Triton as a Device in Blazonry, 77.
Tudor Rose, IO.
Twelve : its Symbolic Signiﬁcance, 39.
Twining on Symbolism, 34.
Typho, Ass, Hippopotamus, and Pig dedicated to, 31.
U.
Uig, Carved Chessmen found at, I27.
Ulphilas, Writings of, 57.
Unicorn as a Device in Blazonry, 77.
Unsymmetrical Character of Chinese and Japanese Work, 89.
Urbino Ware, 19.
V.
Vagaries of Early Heralds, 73, 75.
Vair in Armorial Bearings, 75.
Variation as a Principle in Ornament, 89, 91, I26.
137
Venice, Mosaics of St. Mark’s Church, 33.
Venus of Classic Mythology, 48.
Vert in Blazonry, 74. .
Vesica Form in Omament, 14, 51.
Vestal Virgins clothed in White, 37.
Vine, a Symbol of Bacchus, 42; Foliage of, an Example of
Bi-symmetry, 86 ; in Christian Art, 42, 43 ; on Jewish
Coin, 41 ; Symbolic Meaning in Old Testament, 42.
Virgin Mary, Lily dedicated to, 43; Snowdrop dedicated
'¢°i 37- 43-
Vishnu, Incamations of, 52,
Vision, of Ezekiel, 31 ; of St. John, 31, 41.
Vulture and Hawk sacred to Re, 27.
Vulture Symbol of N isroch, 27.
W.
Watchman Beetle, 26.
Water-bean, Indian, 44.
Water : how symbolised in Ancient Art, 48.
Waved Line in Ornament, 14.
Wax as a Substance for Writing on, 56.
VVeathercock, 28.
Wedding-rings, Inscriptions on, 65.
Westwood on Celtic Art, 4.
Wheel or Rose Windows, I4.
\Vhirlpool or Gurge in Heraldry, 17.
White Hart as a Badge, 78.
White : its Symbolic Signiﬁcance, 36, 37, 38.
Whit-Sunday, Origin of the Name, 37.
Wilkinson, on Colour and Taste, I01; Egypt, 63; Juxta-
position of Green and Purple, 97 ; Naturalism and
Conventionalism, I 13.
Wilson, Dr., on Colour-blindness, I05.
Winckelman, on Colour in Classic Art, Ioz; on Egyptian
Mosaic, 9.
Wisdom, Owl the Bird of, 27.
Wiseman, “Lives of the Last Four Popes,” 57.
VVolt', in Blazonry, 76 ; Emblem of Cruelty, 30 ; of the
Capitol, 30.
Wood as a Substance for Writing on, 56.
Wonnan, “ Analysis of Ornament,” 88 ; Naturalism and
Conventionalism, 112 ; Symmetry, 88.
Wreath or Crown as Symbols, 51.
Writers of Antiquity on the Potter's Art, 85,
VI/yckliffe on the Evangelistic Symbols, 31.
Wyvern in Blazonry, 77.
X.
“Xmas ” as an Abbreviation of Christmas, 63.
Y.
Yellow : its Symbolic Signiﬁcance, 36.
Yorkist Rose, 21.
Z.
Zahn’s VVork on Pompeii, 87, 93.
Zeuxis, Anecdote of, 21.
C/~.sszL1. Pnrrizn & GALPIu- BELLE SAUVAGE WORKs- Lounou. E.C.


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