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 WEST FRONT OF REIMS CATHEDRAL, 1208-1380
 
 HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL 
 
 BY 
 
 A. D. F. HAMLIN, A.M., L.H.D., A.I. A. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 
 WITH 400 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE CENTURY CO.
 
 Copyright, 1916. by 
 THE CENTURY Co. 
 
 Published, October, 1916 
 
 PRINTED IN U. S. A.
 
 Architecture ft 
 Urban Planning 
 Library 
 
 /US' 
 
 TO 
 MY STUDENTS 
 
 IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION 
 OF THEIR INTEREST AND DE- 
 VOTION WHICH FOR THIRTY- 
 THREE YEARS PAST HAVE 
 MADE TEACHING FOR ME 
 A CONTINUOUS PLEASURE
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Books on ornament are so many that to add to their 
 number may seem at first sight a wholly superfluous 
 task. Yet in all the long lists of the bibliographies of 
 the subject there appears a singular lack of systematic 
 treatises on the history of the various styles which have 
 marked the growth and progress of decorative art. 
 Elaborate compendiums of ornament grouped by styles 
 or by other categories are not wanting; the splendid 
 "Grammar of Ornament" of Owen Jones, and "Orna- 
 ment polychrome" of Racinet; the "Ornamentenschatz" 
 of Dolmetsch, the "Handbook of Ornament" of Franz 
 Sales Meyer, Speltz's "Styles of Ornament," and the 
 excellent plates of "Historic Ornament" published by 
 the Prang Educational Company, are examples of such 
 collections of ornament, all meritorious in various ways, 
 and all highly serviceable to students and decorators. 
 But in the whole catalogue of the Avery Library of Co- 
 lumbia University the richest collection in this coun- 
 try of works on architecture and the allied arts I have 
 found but two titles of systematic histories of ornament, 
 one in French and one in German ; neither available for 
 those who read only English, and neither of them, even 
 for those who can read French or German, exactly suited 
 to the needs of the average English or American student 
 of architecture or decoration. 
 
 I have for years felt the need of some such text-book 
 
 vii
 
 PREFACE 
 
 for students in my own courses in Columbia University 
 in the History of Ornament. Of the many works in Eng- 
 lish, French or German, mentioned above, which to any 
 extent recognize the historical element in the styles of 
 ornament, some are too expensive for student use ; some 
 are too brief or too superficial in their text, some inade- 
 quate in their illustrations. In response to many ap- 
 peals from teachers in other institutions, from their stu- 
 dents and from my own, and with a view of meeting my 
 own needs in teaching, I have ventured on the task of 
 attempting such a systematic history of ornament. This 
 volume represents the first half of the work which I hope 
 to complete by a second volume, if this one shall meet 
 with the favor of the public. It is, however, complete 
 in itself, as it covers the ancient and medieval styles, 
 leaving the styles of the Renaissance, of modern times 
 and of the Orient, for the second volume. 
 
 The predominance of illustrations from architecture 
 is due not merely to the fact that these chapters are 
 based on lectures to architects ; but also to the fact that 
 the styles are most clearly exhibited in the progress of 
 architecture as the "mistress art." It is hoped that the 
 "Books Recommended" will enable the reader to supply 
 for himself the illustrations from the other arts which 
 he finds lacking in this work. 
 
 With regard to the illustrations, I may say that the 
 majority are either from my own drawings or reproduced 
 directly from photographs. As they are presented 
 purely to illustrate the subject and not as models of 
 draftsmanship, I trust they will not be too severely 
 criticised on the technical side. The extreme small- 
 
 yiii
 
 PREFACE 
 
 ness of many of them has been made necessary by the 
 desire to keep the volume within modest limits of size 
 and price. For the same reason the number of plates 
 in color had to be restricted. Larger plates, larger 
 cuts and more of them, would have made the book bulky 
 and costly beyond measure, at least for student use. 
 
 I beg herewith to make my acknowledgments to all 
 who have helped me in preparing these illustrations: 
 especially to a number of my students, whose names 
 will be found in the List of Illustrations; to Messrs. 
 Chapman and Hall for the use of several illustrations 
 from Ward's "Historic Ornament"; to Messrs. Long- 
 mans, Green & Co. for the use of a cut of capitals from 
 my "History of Architecture"; to the Prang Educa- 
 tional Company, for the use of a number of illustrations 
 in color from their "Plates of Historic Ornament"; to 
 the publishers of the "Architectural Record" for several 
 cuts from various issues; to the "American Architect" 
 for permission to use a number of my own illustrations 
 in various issues between 1898 and 1901 ; to the Metro- 
 politan Museum of Art, New York, for permission to 
 reproduce a number of the Museum's official photo- 
 graphs of casts and models in the Willard Architectural 
 Collection ; to the house of Bruno Hessling for permis- 
 sion to reproduce a number of illustrations from Meyer's 
 Handbook of Ornament, and my Fig. 332 from Speltz, 
 Styles of Ornament; to my daughter Genevieve for 
 two drawings ; and to the officers of the Avery Library 
 for much valuable assistance cheerfully rendered. I 
 have tried to give credit, in my List of Illustrations, for 
 all such assistance, and to indicate the sources of the il- 
 
 ix
 
 PREFACE 
 
 lustrations as far as possible. Some of them, however, 
 were drawn so long ago, or have come into my posses- 
 sion from sources so long forgotten, that I have not been 
 able in every case to do this. I trust I have not tres- 
 passed on any one's proprietary rights in any case. 
 Many of my own drawings are re-interpretations of sub- 
 jects appearing in other works; in such cases I have, 
 where possible, indicated the source by the words "after" 
 so-and-so. 
 
 There are two classes of figures besides the Plates I 
 to XXII: those in the text, and those gathered into 
 pages distributed through the text. To aid the reader 
 in finding the references to illustrations, I have in the 
 text referred to all of the first class, those in the text 
 by the abbreviation "Fig." or "Figs."; while the word 
 "Figure" refers always to illustrations grouped in 
 pages; the page-reference is sometimes added. 
 
 I desire to express my appreciation of the cordial and 
 generous cooperation of The Century Co. in the prepa- 
 ration of this work. 
 
 I commend this fruit of my labors to the kind con- 
 sideration of teachers and students of architecture and 
 decorative design, and to designers generally, with the 
 hope that it will be found to meet their needs and prove 
 useful both in the class-room and the studio. 
 
 A. D. F. HAMLIN. 
 Christmas Cove, Maine, 
 August 14, 1916
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 3 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I INTRODUCTORY 
 
 II PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT .... 20 
 
 III EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 32 
 
 IV CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA 55 
 
 V WEST ASIATIC ORNAMENT: PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND 
 
 PERSIA 65 
 
 VI PRE-HELLENIC ORNAMENT: ^EGEAN AND ASIATIC 73 
 
 VII GREEK ORNAMENT, I 88 
 
 VIII GREEK ORNAMENT, II 110 
 
 IX ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I .... 127 
 
 X ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 151 
 
 XI POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT 170 
 
 XII EARLY CHRISTIAN OR BASILICAN ORNAMENT . . 187 
 
 XIII BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 206 
 
 XIV ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT: I, ITALIAN AND FRENCH 234 
 XV ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT: II. ANGLO-NORMAN, 
 
 GERMAN, SPANISH AND SCANDINAVIAN . . . 266 
 
 XVI GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 282 
 
 XVII GOTHIC CARVING AND INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY 
 
 ARTS 303 
 
 XVIII PARTICULAR SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT: I. 
 
 FRENCH AND ENGLISH 331 
 
 XIX PARTICULAR SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT: II. 
 
 GERMAN, SPANISH, ITALIAN 366 
 
 INDEX . 393 
 
 XI

 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 In the following List, the sources of the illustrations are indicated wher- 
 ever possible. A number of them, however, have been made from drawings, 
 tracings or engravings in the Author's possession from sources he has been 
 unable to identify. All illustrations not otherwise designated are from 
 original drawings by the Author. Wherever these have been based on or 
 suggested by illustrations in other works, the fact is expressed by "A. after" 
 followed by the source from which the drawing has been derived or on which 
 it is based. Many cuts are from drawings by students of Columbia Uni- 
 versity; these are indicated by the initials C. U., followed in some cases by 
 the student's name. It has not been possible to trace the source of all these 
 drawings. Other abbreviations and references are as follows : A. = Author ; 
 A. C. H. = Haddon, Evolution in Art; A. M. N. H. = American Museum 
 of Natural History, New York; Arch. Rec. = Architectural Record (N. Y.) ; 
 A. p. T. =:L'Art pour Tous; Bond = Introduction to English Church 
 Architecture; Colling = Gothic Foliage, Gothic Ornaments; F. & L. = 
 Furtwangler und Loschke, Mykenische Vasen; F. P. = Flinders-Petrie, 
 Egyptian Decorative Art; Hauser = Sty llehre der architektonischen Formen 
 des Mittelalters; Loftus = Researches in Chaldcea, etc.; Met. Mus. t=> Metro- 
 politan Museum of Art, New York; Meyer = Meyer's Ornamentale 
 Formenlehre; O. J. = Owen Jones, Grammar of Ornament; P. d'A. = Prisse 
 d' Avennes, L'A rt Egyptien; P. & C. = Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de Vart 
 dans I'antiquite; Pho. = Photograph ; Rickman <= A ttempt to Discriminate 
 the Styles, etc.; Ward = J. Ward, Historic Ornament; W. H. G. = W. H. 
 Goodyear, Grammar of the Lotus and articles in Architectural Record. 
 
 In the text of this work, references to cuts intercalated in the printed 
 page are indicated by the abbreviation "Fig." or "Figs." followed by the 
 number. The word "Figure" in full followed by a number refers to illus- 
 trations grouped in full pages. 
 
 PAGE 
 West Front of Reims Cathedral Frontispiece 
 
 1. Grapevine Border: Typographic Ornament, from an Advertise- 
 
 ment 9 
 
 2. An "All-over" Pattern 9 
 
 3. Linear Ornaments: a, Fret; b, Wave or Current Scroll; c, 
 
 Rosettes, etc 9 
 
 4. Carved Ornament, Court of Doge's Palace, Venice 9 
 
 5. A Powdered or Spangled Pattern 9 
 
 6. Radiant Ornament: Carved English Gothic Boss (after an illus- 
 
 tration in Monumental News) 9 
 
 7. Arabic Star Pattern 9 
 
 8. Diaper Pattern, English Art-School Work 9 
 
 xiii
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 9. Carved foliage: Porte de la Vierge, Notre Dame, Paris .... 9 
 
 10. Orange Border, Semi-naturalistic (A. after ill. in Journal of the 
 
 Royal Society, 1892) 9 
 
 11. Persistence in Ornament: Tnlobe Lotus Motives, Egyptian, Greek, 
 
 Roman, Gothic 9 
 
 12. Convergence and Reversion: The Anthemion Motive, Greek, 
 
 Roman, Byzantine 9 
 
 13. Anthemion Motives, Greek and Byzantine 9 
 
 14. Accidental Convergence: a, Egyptian Flower; b, Byzantine Cy- 
 
 presses 9 
 
 15. Primitive Dagger-handle, Neolithic 23 
 
 16. New Zealand Tiki-tiki Pattern: a, Carved; b, Stamped .... 23 
 
 17. Maori Spear-head: Eyes and Tongue 23 
 
 18. Papuan Manhood-belt: Face Motives (A. after A. C. H.) ... 23 
 
 19. Typical Basketry Forms 23 
 
 20. Peruvian Grass-cloth: Animal Motive, Toucan 23 
 
 21. Peruvian Grass-cloth : Animal Motive, Dog 23 
 
 22. Savage Carvings: a, New Zealand; 6, Hawaiian 23 
 
 23. Brazilian "Fish" and "Bat" patterns (A. after A. C. H.) . . . 23 
 
 25. Scratched Ornament on Maori Flute (A. after A. C. H.) . . . 23 
 
 26. Brazilian and New Zealand Face Motives 23 
 
 27. Tusayan (Mexican) Jar (in A. M. N. H.) 23 
 
 28. Chiriqui Alligator Motives (A. after A. C. H.) 23 
 
 29. Maori Paddle: Detail 24 
 
 30. Javanese War-Drum Head (A. after A. C. H.) 26 
 
 31. a, Pueblo Jar; b, Spiral from Vase in PI. II, 8; c, Prehistoric Jar 
 
 from Budmer, Bosnia 28 
 
 32. Mexican Jar, in A. M. N. H 29 
 
 33. Detail from Sarcophagus of Menkaura (A. after P. & C.) . . . 33 
 
 34. Slate Palette in Louvre (A. after Capart) 36 
 
 35. Dish of Fruit, from a Tomb (A. after F. P.) .38 
 
 36. The Lotus: a, Natural; 6, c, Conventionalized 47 
 
 37. Lotus Forms: a, Full Flower; b-c, Trilobe Forms 42 
 
 38. Lotus Border, from a Tomb (A. after O. J.) 47 
 
 39. Lotus Border, from a Tomb (A. after P. d'A.) 47 
 
 40. Lotus Rosette 47 
 
 41. Lotus and Spiral Pattern (A. after P. d'A.) 47 
 
 42. The Papyrus Plant 43 
 
 43. Detail of Campanifonn Capital 47 
 
 44. Lotus or Aquatic Plant 47 
 
 45. Detail of Campaniform Capital, from Luxor 41 
 
 46. Painted Campaniform Capital, Karnak 43 
 
 47. Painted Papyrus-head Cap (A. after P. d'A.) 47 
 
 48. Spiral All-over, with Rosettes (A. after P. d'A.) 47 
 
 49. Fret, or Key-Pattern, with Rosettes 47 
 
 60. Zigzags and Lozenges 47 
 
 51. Spiral Waves and Rosettes 47 
 
 xiv
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 52. Intersecting Circle Pattern .47 
 
 53. Spirals on Scarab Seal (A. after F. P.) .. . .44 
 
 54. Palmette with Tabs (A. after W. H. G.) 47 
 
 55. Palmettes; a, Jewel, 4th Dynasty; b, Painted (A. after W. H. G.) 47 
 
 56. Palmette-and-bead Necklace 47 
 
 57. Vulture, painted on Ceiling (A. after P. d'A.) 47 
 
 58. Winged Globe, Cornice (A. after P. & C.) 47 
 
 59. Uraeus Cresting, Ptolemaic (from an Engraving) 47 
 
 60. Feather Ornament (A. after F. P.) 60 
 
 61. Decoration by Lines, Imbrications and Chevron 45 
 
 62. Typical Egyptian Cornice 47 
 
 63. Three Columns; a, b, c, Upper Part and Plans; d, Lower Part of 
 
 Clustered Shaft (A. after Meyer) 50 
 
 64. Three Egyptian Capitals (A. after Meyer) 50 
 
 65. Osirid Pier (A. after P. & C.) 51 
 
 68. Mosaic Wall-pattern (A. after Loftus) 57 
 
 69. Assyrian Motives: a, Lotus; b, Palmette; c, Rosette (after Meyer); 
 
 d, Imbrications (after O. J.) ; e, winged disk or globe (after 
 Layard) ; /, Guilloche (after P. & C.) ; h, Pomegranate; i, Pome- 
 
 granate-palmette scratched on Ivory (A. after A. C. H.) ... 58 
 
 70. a, b, Pine-cone Lotus Border, carved: c, Part of Sacred tree (after 
 
 Ward) 60 
 
 71. Assyrian Volutes 61 
 
 72. a, Ivory Palmette Terminal Ornament; b, Palm-tree, from Relief 
 
 at Koyunjik 62 
 
 73. Assyrian Winged Monster or Griffin (A. after P. & C.) . . . . 62 
 
 74. Details from Phrygian Tomb-f acades : a, of "Midas"; b, Doghanlou 
 
 (A. after P. & C.) 65 
 
 75. Capital from Neandreia: Proto-Ionic 66 
 
 76. Doorway from Persepolis 67 
 
 77. Persian Details: a, Architrave and Cornice from a Tomb; b. Palm 
 
 Ornament; c, Stairway Parapet; d, Column-Base, all from Per- 
 sepolis (A. after P. & C. and W r ard) 69 
 
 78. Volutes from Persepolitan Capital 70 
 
 79. Ahuri-mazda, from a Relief 71 
 
 80. Cretan Column 75 
 
 81. Cretan Frieze Ornament 76 
 
 82. Cretan Painted Ornament: Rosettes and Vitruvian Scroll (A. after 
 
 P. & C.) 76 
 
 83. Fret or Key Pattern, Knossos 76 
 
 84. Late Minoan Vase (A. after Engraving) 75 
 
 85. Marine Plants, from a Sarcophagus found at Gortyna (A. after 
 
 P. & C.) 76 
 
 86. Ornaments from Cretan Terra-cotta Ossuary (A. after P. & C.) 76 
 
 87. Upper part of Column, Tholos of Atreus 76 
 
 88. Mycenaean Bowl; Basketry Motives 76 
 
 89. Mycenaean Frieze Ornament 76 
 
 XV
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 90. Mycenaean Nature Forms: Plants, Squid, Dolphin 76 
 
 91. Mycenaean Pottery Spirals 78 
 
 92. Cuttle-Fish, from a Vase 76 
 
 93. Scale Ornament from Tiryns 76 
 
 94. Mycenaean Motives: a, b, Heart Forms; c, Branched Spiral (A. 
 
 after F. & L.) 76 
 
 95. a, Current Scroll, Tiryns; b, Vase Ornament, Mycenae .... 78 
 
 96. Plant Forms, Mycenae Pottery (A. after F. & L.) 79 
 
 97. Squids, Mycenae Pottery 79 
 
 98. A Mycenae Button 80 
 
 99. Detail fronrWall Band, Tiryns (A. after P. &C.) 80 
 
 100. a, Gold Inlay, Spirals on Sword; b, from Bronze Stele: both from 
 
 Mycenae 82 
 
 101. a, Mycenaean Vase; b, from Bronze Tripod, Athens 81 
 
 102. Mycenaean Ornament in Alabaster (A. after P. & C.) .... 81 
 
 103. Rosettes : a, Tiryns; b, Mycenae (A. after P. & C.) 81 
 
 104. a, Mycenaean Plant; b, Egyptian Palmette 81 
 
 105. Ivy Band, Mycenaean Pottery 81 
 
 106. From a Phenician Silver Platter 81 
 
 107. From a Mycenaean Silver Cup 81 
 
 108. Phenician Silver: Palmettes and Griffins 81 
 
 109. a, c, Phenician Palmettes; b, Greek Vase Ornament 81 
 
 110. Cypriote Oenochoe (A. after W. H. G., in Arch. Rec.) .... 81 
 
 111. Detail from Cypriote Sarcophagus from Amathus, in Met. Mus. . 81 
 
 112. Cypriote Lotuses (W. H. G. in Arch. Rec.) 81 
 
 113. Cypriote Bronze Stele (A. after W. H. G.) 81 
 
 114. Cypriote Stone Stele in Met. Mus 82 
 
 115. Cypriote Lotus, checkered (W. H. G. in Arch. Rec.) 83 
 
 116. Cypriote Ornaments 83 
 
 117. Phenician Vase from Jerusalem (A. after P. & C.) 84 
 
 118. Detail, Cypriote Vase from Ormidia, in Met. Mus. (A. after P. 
 
 & C.) 84 
 
 119. Cypriote Vase Ornaments; Nature Forms, o, Goose and Lotus; 
 
 6, Astarte (?) and Plants; c, Fantastic Flower (A. after P. & C.) 85 
 
 120. Lotus-and-Bud Borders from Rhodian and Melian Vases ... 86 
 
 121. Greek Vase, Fine Period, in Royal Museum, Naples (Pho.) . . 89 
 121 A. Carved Anthemion Band, from Erechtheion, Athens (Pho.) . . 89 
 
 122. Greek Palmette Ornament; Early Vth Century B.C. (A. after Lau.) 94 
 
 123. Anthemion Band, Typical Linking by Spirals, compared with typi- 
 
 cal Assyrian Linking 94 
 
 124. Typical Geometric Ornament Elements 96 
 
 125. Typical Nature Form-Elements 96 
 
 126. Typical Architectural Forms 97 
 
 127. Carved Rinceau, Temple of Apollo at Didyme, near Miletus: from 
 
 Base of Column (A. from Pho.) 94 
 
 128. Types of Greek Vases: a, Aryballos; b, Lekythos; c, Rhyton; d, 
 
 Alabastron; i, I, Hydria; /. Krater; e, g, Amphora; h, Ointment 
 
 Box; k, Kylix (A. after Meyer) 101 
 
 xvi
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 129. Geometric or Dipylon Vase, from Museum of Sevres (A. after J.) 103 
 
 130. Rhodian Vase, Sevres Museum (A. after Jacquemart) .... 103 
 
 131. Single and Double Frets 94 
 
 132. Guilloche, from Painted Molding 94 
 
 132A. Wave or Current Scroll . . . . , 104 
 
 133. Anthemion with Branding Scrolls .. ,. 105 
 
 134. Types of Anthemion Patterns 105 
 
 135. Types of Anthemions 94 
 
 136. Types of the Lotiform Motive 94 
 
 137. Vine Pattern, from Vase 94 
 
 138. Elementary Rinceau on Pottery i ... 94 
 
 139. Lotus-and-bud Origin of Egg-and-dart Motive 108 
 
 140. Apulian Vase; Sevres Museum (A. after Jacquemart) .... 109 
 
 141. Detail from Handle of Apulian Vase 94 
 
 142. Painted Molding Ornaments 113 
 
 143. Painted Ceiling Panel from Parthenon, (G. K. H. after Meyer) . .111 
 
 144. Carved Egg-and-dart and Water-leaf 113 
 
 145. Details from North Door of Erechtheion: a, Cantilever or Bracket; 
 
 b, Rosette 113 
 
 146. Corinthian Capital, Temple of Zeus, Athens 113 
 
 147. Triple Guilloche on Torus of an Ionic Base 116 
 
 148. Foliage Capital, from Aegae 118 
 
 149. Branching Scroll and Covering-leaf; from Erechtheion .... 113 
 
 150. Painted Terra-cotta Antefix; Athens 119 
 
 151. Acanthus (or Aloes?) on Steles 113 
 
 152. Acanthus and Burdock Leaves 120 
 
 153. Acanthus: a, A. Mollis; b, A. Spinosus 113 
 
 154. Corinthian Capital from Bassae (Phigalaea) 121 
 
 155. Corinthian Capital from "Tower of the Winds," Athens .... 121 
 
 156. Detail of Etruscan Terra-cotta Cresting (A. after A. p. T.) . . 128 
 
 157. Details from Terra-cottas in Campana Collection, Louvre (A. after 
 
 A. p. T.) 128 
 
 158. 159. Borders or Edgings of "Campana" Terra-cottas (A. after A. 
 
 p. T.) 129 
 
 160. Part of an Etruscan Terra-cotta Pilaster; Lilies (A. after Rachel) 130 
 
 161. Etruscan Pilaster Cap. (A. after Durm) 131 
 
 162. Bronze Mirror and Jewels (A. after Meyer and Ward) .... 131 
 
 163. Roman Decorative System: Hall of Baths of Caracalla (Denk- 
 
 maler der Kunst?) 134 
 
 164. Roman Arch and Columns, from Arch of Titus 136 
 
 165. Niche Cap from Baalbek (A. after Durm) 137 
 
 166. Scroll from Temple of Vespasian, in Villa Aldobrandini .... 138 
 
 167. Typical Roman Moldings 139 
 
 168. Ionic Capital with Corner Volutes 140 
 
 169. Corinthian Capital, Temple of Mars Ultor (A. after d'Espouy) . 141 
 
 170. Composite Capital in Lateran Museum 143 
 
 171. Two Pilaster Caps (Meyer) 145 
 
 172. A Modillion 142 
 
 xvii
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 173. Restoration of Cornice of Basilica ^Emilia (from photograph of 
 
 original drawing by R. H. Smythe) 143 
 
 174. Order of Temple of Castor and Pollux; Photograph of Cast in 
 
 Metropolitan Museum, New York 150 
 
 175. Restoration of Arch of Constantine; Photograph of Model in 
 
 Metropolitan Museum, New York 150 
 
 176. Two Standing Acanthus Leaves 151 
 
 177. Varieties of Acanthus Leaf Detail (A. after Durm) .... 152 
 
 178. Pilaster Scroll Nests: a, Late Roman, from an old French Litho- 
 
 graph; b, Fragment in Villa Medici, from Cast in Columbia 
 University 145 
 
 179. Roman Rinceau and Scroll Nest, from Forum of Trajan, in Lnteran 
 
 Museum (A. from Pho.) 154 
 
 180. Candelabrum in Vatican (Meyer) 145 
 
 181. Two Rosette Types 145 
 
 183. Rinceau from Temple of Sun (A. after a French Drawing) . . . 154 
 
 183. Three Roman Anthemion Ornaments 156 
 
 184. Ceiling Panels from Arch of Titus, Baths of Caracalla, and 
 Basilica of Constantine 157 
 
 185. Dolphins, from an Etruscan Terra-cotta (Meyer after Kachel) . . 145 
 
 186. Bucranes and Festoon or Swag (Meyer) 145 
 
 187. Stucco Relief from Tomb in Via Latina (Pho.) 159 
 
 188. Stucco Relief from House exhumed in 1879, now in Museo delle 
 
 Terme, Rome (Pho.) 159 
 
 189. Mosaic Floor Pattern, from Pompeii 145 
 
 190. Detail of Floor Mosaic from Villa Italica near Seville (A. after 
 
 Pfeifer) 163 
 
 191. Roman Marble Vase in Naples Museum (Pho.) 165 
 
 192. Roman Marble Vase, from Cast in Metropolitan Museum, New 
 
 York 165 
 
 193. Details from a Bronze Vase and Jewelry, perhaps Etruscan . . 163 
 
 194. Under Side of a Vase in the "Hildesheim Find," now in Berlin 
 
 ("Workshop") 164 
 
 195. Roman Grotesque; Detail of Relief from Forum of Trajan in 
 
 Lateran Museum (A. from Pho.) 168 
 
 196. Pompeiian Ionic Capital (A. after Watt) 171 
 
 197. Pompeiian Moldings (A. after Mazois and Zahn) 112 
 
 198. Canred Rinceau, from a Tomb in Pompeii (A. from Pho.) . . . 173 
 
 199. Painted Wall, Third Period (Pho.) 176 
 
 200. Painted Wall, Fourth Period (Pho.) 176 
 
 201. Stucco Relief from Stabian Baths (Pho.) 180 
 
 202. Pompeiian Floor Mosaics (A. after Zahn) 181 
 
 203. Mosaic Fountain in Casa Grande, Pompeii (Pho.) 185 
 
 204. Marble Table Supports from House of Cornelius Rufus, Pompeii 
 
 (Pho.) 185 
 
 205. Candelabrum and Table Leg (A. p. T. and Meyer after Botticher) 18:2 
 
 206. End of a Sarcophagus in S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna (C. U.) 188 
 
 207. Interior (Detail) of S. Lorenzo Fuori, Rome (Pho.) . . . . .189 
 
 xviii
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 208. Floor Mosaic in S. M. in Trastevere (from a French Drawing) . . 194 
 
 209. Byzantine Veined Wainscot (Journal of R. I. B. A., 1887) . . . 196 
 
 210. Apse-head Mosaic in S. Clemente, Rome (Pho.) 189 
 
 211. Ornaments in Mosaic: a, from St. John Lateran; b, Sta. Maria in . 
 
 Trastevere 197 
 
 212. Pulpit Detail from Sta. Maria in Ara Coeli, Rome (Ward) . .199 
 
 213. Pulpit Details from S. Lorenzo Fuori, Rome (Racinet) .... 200 
 
 214. Detail of Cloister Arcade, St. John Lateran, Rome (Pho.) . . . 203 
 
 215. Mosaic on Annular Vault of Sta. Costanza, Rome (Pho.) . . . 203 
 
 216. Detail of Order, Tomh in Palace of Diocletian, Spalato .... 207 
 
 217. Capital with Impost Block, San Vitale, Ravenna (A. from Pho.) 208 
 
 218. Corinthianesque Capital, S. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna (A. after 
 
 Dehli) 209 
 
 219. Basket Capital, S. Apollinare Nuovo (C. U.) 210 
 
 220. Byzantine Surface Carving: above, from Hagia Sophia; below, from 
 
 St. Sergius ("Kuchuk Aya Sofia") 211 
 
 221. Frieze from St. John Studios (Emir Akhor Jami) 213 
 
 222. Byzantine Acanthus Molding, from an Abacus 213 
 
 223. Anthemion Ornament from Ravenna 213 
 
 224. Anthemion Cornice from St. Mark's, Venice (V. E. Macy) . . . 214 
 
 225. Byzantine Crosses and Anthemions: above, left, from Hagia 
 
 Sophia; right, from Civic Museum, Venice; below, from Ra- 
 venna 215 
 
 226. Acanthus Leaves and Rinceaux, from Bishop's Palace, Ferentino 216 
 
 227. Vine Border from Carved Pluteal in San Vitale, Ravenna . . . 219 
 
 228. Detail from Fig. 225 220 
 
 229. Peacock Openwork Panel, Torcello (Pho.) 217 
 
 230. Carved Interlace from Spalato (Pho.) 217 
 
 230A. Carved Interlace from St. Mark's, Venice 220 
 
 231. Openwork Panel in San Vitale, Ravenna (Pho.) 217 
 
 232. Basket Capital from St. Mark's, Venice (Pho.) 217 
 
 233. Guilloche Pattern from Hagia Sophia (Meyer) 222 
 
 234. End of a Sarcophagus in S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna (C. U.) 222 
 
 235. Openwork Window Filling, Sta. Maria Pomposa (Pho.) . . . 223 
 
 236. Mosaic, Detail from Tomb of Galla Placidia, Ravenna (Pho.) . . 223 
 
 237. Ivory Throne of Bishop Maximian in Cathedral of Ravenna (Pho.) 223 
 
 238. The Crown of Charlemagne (Ward) 227 
 
 239. Fabric in Bamberg Museum (Bayet) 231 
 
 240. Syrian Carving: a, from Tourmanin; b, from Bakouza .... 231 
 
 241. Russian (Georgian) and Armenian Carving, chiefly from a Litho- 
 
 graph by Gagarin 230 
 
 242. Details of Marble Inlays on Flank of Cathedral of Pisa . . . .240 
 
 243. Mosaic Altar Front from Ferentino (Pho.) 236 
 
 244. Detail from Facade of San Michele, Lucca (Pho.) 236 
 
 245. False Window, San Stefano, Bologna (Pho.) 236 
 
 246. Lintel of a Door, San Guisto, Lucca (Pho.) 242 
 
 247. Pavement Detail from Baptistry of Florence (Pho.) 242 
 
 248. Interior of Cathedral of Monreale (Pho.) 247 
 
 xix
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 249. Capitals from Cloisters of Cathedral of Monreale (Pho.) . . . 247 
 
 250. Painted Cufic Inscription, Palermo (Gen.) 243 
 
 251. Detail from Bronze Doors of Cathedral of Monreale by Bonnano 244 
 
 252. Arcaded Cornice from S. Martino at Palaia (A. from Pho.) . . .215 
 
 253. Wheel Window of Church at Altamura (Pho.) 253 
 
 254. Portal of Church of San Zeno, Verona (Pho.) 253 
 
 255. Lombard Carved "Monsters": above, Capital from Church at 
 
 Aurona; middle, Symbols of St. John and St. Mark on Pulpit in 
 S. Stefano, Bologna; below, from San Ambrogio, Milan (A. after 
 Osten and de Dartein) 246 
 
 256. One Bay and Detail, St. Paul-trois-Chfiteaux (A. after ReVoil) . 250 
 
 257. Portal of Church at Carrenac (Pho.) 259 
 
 258. Portal St. Jean of Cathedral of Rouen (Pho.) 259 
 
 259. Capital from Cathedral of Angouleme (Pho.) 259 
 
 260. Shafts and Figures, West Portal of Chartres Cathedral (Pho.) . . 259 
 
 261. Caps and Arch Carvings, St. Pierre d'Aulnay (Pho.) 259 
 
 262. Double Capital, St. Martin des Champs, Paris (Pho.) .... 259 
 
 263. Romanesque Iron Knocker (Pho. of Cast in Trocadero Museum, 
 
 Paris) 259 
 
 264. Baseo with Spurs 251 
 
 265. Late French Romanesque Capital (C. U., Zetsche) 252 
 
 266. Carved Rinceaux, from Mantes (above) and Vaison (below) . . 255 
 
 267. Acanthus Leaves from Portal of Church at Avallon 256 
 
 268. Carved Rinceau, Avallon 256 
 
 269. Double Rinceau, Notre Dame, Paris (A. after V.-le-D.) . . .257 
 
 270. Romanesque Ornaments (Hauser) 261 
 
 271. Carved Anthemion Bands, Church of St. Aubin at Angers (A. after 
 
 Cahier et Martin) 262 
 
 272. Grotesque, from Church of Notre Dame, Poitiers 263 
 
 273. Leaf Motive on a Tile, St. Omer 264 
 
 274. Corinthianesque Capital, Lincoln Cathedral (C. U.) 267 
 
 275. Capital from St. Peter's, Northampton (C. U.) 267 
 
 276. Ornaments from Doorway of Iffley Church, Oxfordshire (Rick- 
 
 man) 268 
 
 277. Beak or Bird's-head Molding 268 
 
 278. Interlaced Arches (Hauser) 269 
 
 279. Anthemion Ornaments: above, from St. Savior's, Southwark; be- 
 
 low, from Hereford Cathedral 270 
 
 280. Celtic Initials: Q, from an Italian Periodical; O, from Lindisfarne 
 
 Gospels (O. J.); S, from Book of Kells (A. after Sullivan) . . 270 
 
 281. Various Interlaces (Racinet, etc.) 271 
 
 282. Cover of St. Patrick's Bell (Ward) 271 
 
 283. One Quarter of Cover of Molaise Gospels (Ward) . . . . . .272 
 
 284. Capital from Gernrode 273 
 
 285. Capital from Church in Wiirttemberg (Gen.) 274 
 
 286. Doorway from Abbey of Heilsbronn (Hauser) 275 
 
 287. Capital from Tarragona (Gewerbehalle) 276 
 
 288. Capital from Tarragona (Gewerbehalle) 276 
 
 XX
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 289. Norwegian Carving: a, from Church at Stedye; b, Unidentified 
 
 (Gen.) 277 
 
 290. Norwegian Chair or Choir Stall (Gewerbehalle) 277 
 
 291. Details of Candelabrum in Milan Cathedral (Ward) . . . .278 
 
 292. Chandelier at Hildesheim, Detail (A. after illustration in Archi- 
 
 tectural Record) 279 
 
 293. Romanesque Gold Cup in Museum at Bergen (Workshop) . . . 280 
 
 294. Three French Gothic Capitals: a, from Sainte Chapelle, Paris; 
 
 b, from Notre Dame, Paris; c, from North Spire of Chartres 
 Cathedral (A., from his History of Architecture) 283 
 
 295. Decorative Gable over Window, Cologne Cathedral (Hauser) . 284 
 
 296. A Clustered Pier, Plan and Elevation (C. U.) 285 
 
 297. Romanesque Capital from Bayeux Cathedral, and Gothic Capital 
 
 from St Martin-des-Champs, Paris 286 
 
 298. Gothic Clustered Bases, from Cathedral of Halberstadt (Hauser) 
 
 and Rouen (Raguenet) 287 
 
 299. Gothic Pier-Arch Moldings from Chartres, Le Mans, and St. Mac- 
 
 lou (Rouen) (A. after Simpson) 288 
 
 300. Enriched Cornice Molding, Notre Dame, Paris (Hauser) . . . 289 
 
 301. Vaulting Boss, French (Hauser) 289 
 
 302. Vaulting of Apsidal Chapel, Beauvais (C. U.) 290 
 
 303. Tierceron Vaulting: Chapter House of Wells Cathedral; Exeter 
 
 Nave; Lincoln, Lantern (Pho.) 291 
 
 304. a, Nave of Winchester Cathedral; b, Fan Vault, Henry VIFs 
 
 Chapel, Westminster (Pho.) 292 
 
 305 a, Plate Tracery, Etton Church 293 
 
 305 b, Bar Tracery, Meopham Church; c, Perpendicular Tracery, North- 
 fleet Church (A. after Brandon and others) 294 
 
 306. Cusps in Tracery 295 
 
 307. French Rayonnaut Balustrade (C. U. after V.-le-Duc) . . . . 296 
 
 308. French Flamboyant Balustrade, Chateau de Josselyn (C. U.) . . 296 
 309 a, A French Early Gothic Crocket (Hauser) ; b, a French Flamboyant 
 
 Crocket, Evreux Cath. (C. U.) 298 
 
 310. A Gothic Cresting (Meyer, after Jacobsthal) 298 
 
 311. French Flamboyant Tabernacle Canopy, House of Jacques Creur, 
 
 Bourges (Pho.) 299 
 
 312. Gargoyle from Notre Dame, Paris (Pho.) 299 
 
 313. Capital, St. Martin-des-Champs, Paris (C. U., C. S. Haight) . . 304 
 
 314. Corner Leaf, Notre Dame, Paris 305 
 
 315. French Rayonnant Capital (C. U., Zetsche) 305 
 
 316. Capitals, Chapter House of Southwell Cathedral (A. from Pho.) 306 
 
 317. Crocket, Wells Cathedral (C. U.) 306 
 
 318. Capital from Salisbury Cathedral (C. U., J. J. Ide) 307 
 
 319. Tudor Flower (A. after Colling) 307 
 
 320. Arcade of Kings, Amiens Cathedral (Hauser) 308 
 
 321. Tympanum, Porte de la Vierge, Notre Dame, Paris (Pho.) . . .310 
 
 322. Reliefs from Portal of Notre Dame (Pho.) from onst in Trooadero 
 
 Museum) 310 
 
 xxi
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 323. Tomb of St. Stephen, Abbot of Aubazine (Pho. from cast in 
 
 Trocadero Museum) 310 
 
 324. The Last Judgment, Central West Doorway of Notre Dame (Pho.) 313 
 
 325. Rood Screen, Alby Cathedral (Pho.) 313 
 
 326. A Miserere, Beverley Cathedral (A., after Bond) 312 
 
 327. XlVth Century Pew End, Winthorpe Church (C. U.) 315 
 
 328. Detail from Wrought-Iron Screen in St. Sernin, Toulouse . . . 316 
 
 329. "Penture" or False Hinge, Central Doors of Notre Dame, Paris 
 
 (Pho.) 318 
 
 330. Iron Screen in Bourges Cathedral (Pho.) 318 
 
 331. Two French Tile Patterns (A. after Meyer) 319 
 
 332. Manuscript Ornaments, XVth Century (Speltz) 320 
 
 333. A French Medallion Window, Chartres (Arch. Rec.) 323. 
 
 334. a Part of Jesse Window, Chartres Cathedral (Arch. Rec) . . .322 
 
 335. b Upper Part, Canopy Window from Cologne (A. after Hasak) . 322 
 
 335. c Upper Part, Canopy Window from York (A. after Glazier) . . 322 
 
 336. German Grisaille Windows, from Cologne Cathedral (above) and 
 
 Altenburg (below) 324 
 
 337. Leading of a Xlllth Century French Window, "The Wedding in 
 
 Cana" (Arch. Rec.) 325 
 
 338. Upper Part of a French Figure Window in Chartres Cathedral 
 
 (Arch. Record) 326 
 
 339. Part of Pulpit in Strassburg Cathedral (Pho.) 327 
 
 340. Church of St. Maclou, Rouen (Pho.) 327. 
 
 341. Detail, Carving on Front of Sens Cathedral 332 
 
 342. Capital from Sainte Chapelle, Paris (C. U., Zetsche) 332 
 
 343. Detail from Cornice of Notre Dame 335 
 
 344. Detail from Cornice of Church at Norrey, near Caen (A. after 
 
 Nesfield) ' 335 
 
 345. Oak Leaf Cornice of Sainte Chapelle, Paris (Hauser) .... 336 
 
 346. Late Gothic Molding, Choir Enclosure of Notre Dame, Paris . . 336 
 
 347. Rosette-Boss from Sainte Chapelle 337 
 
 348. Vertical Carved Rinceau, Notre Dame, Paris (A. after V.-le-Duc) 337 
 
 349. Reliefs from Base of Portal of Notre Dame, Paris (Gewerbehalle) 338 
 
 350. Early Gothic Grotesque, Chartres Cathedral (Pho.) .... 334 
 
 351. Part of Late Gothic Choir Screen, Amiens Cathedral (Pho.) . . 334 
 
 352. Two Figures from Portal of Amiens (Pho.) 339 
 
 353. XlVth Century Ivory Triptych in Municipal Library, Amiens 
 
 (Pho.) * ... 339 
 
 354. Half of Western Rose Window, Chartres Cathedral (Plate Tracery) 341 
 
 355. Early French Tracery, from Reims Cathedral 341 
 
 356. "Lanterne des Morts," Avioth, Brittany (Pho.) 343 
 
 357. Flamboyant Detail, Church of St. Jacques, Reims (from a French 
 
 Lithograph) 343 
 
 358. Rayonnant Tracery Carved on Wood, from a Church Door (Pho.) 348 
 
 359. Flamboyant Tracery, Church of St. Pierre at Louviers (Pho.) . . 348 
 
 360. a, One Half of Spandrel Carving, Church at Stone, Kent; b. Capital 
 
 from Lincoln Cathedral; r, from Ely Cathedral (from Engrav- 
 ings in Monumental News) 350 
 
 xxii
 
 PAGE 
 
 361. Early English Capitals (Casts in Metropolitan Museum, New 
 
 York) (Pho.) 351 
 
 362. Triforium of "Angel Choir," Lincoln Cathedral (Pho.) . . . . 351 
 3(j3. Wreath Capital, Beverley Cathedral (?) (from engraving in Monu- 
 mental News) 353 
 
 364. a, Finial, Chapter House of Wells Cathedral; b, Crocket from 
 
 Beverley Minster (C. U., Scott, Bartberger) 353 
 
 365. Molding Ornaments, Early, Decorated and Transitional (Rick- 
 
 man) 354 
 
 366. Carved Spandrel, Church at Stone, Kent (C. U.) 354 
 
 367. Detail, Diapered Triforium, Arcade of Westminster Abbey (Rick- 
 
 man), and Detail from Diapering of Main Arcade 355 
 
 368. Detail, W r ooden Screen in Manchester Cathedral, XVth Century 
 
 (C. U., Wilson) 356 
 
 369A. Curvilinear Period Carved Wooden Panels (A. after Colling) . . 357 
 
 369. Carved "Poppy-head" from a Pew-end in St. Mary's, Bury St. 
 
 Edmunds 357 
 
 370. Plate Tracery, Lillington Church, Northants (A. after Bond) . . 358 
 
 371. Geometric Tracery, E. Window, Raunds Ch. (Rickman) . . . 358 
 
 372. Curvilinear Tracery; a, Ithlingboro, Northants; 6, Over, Cambs; 
 
 c, Little Addington, Northants (Rickman) 359 
 
 373. Perpendicular Window, Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick (Rickman) 360 
 
 374. Hammer Beam "Open Timber" Roof, Trunch Church (Rickman) 362 
 374A. Open Timber Roof, Lavenham Church (Bury) 363 
 
 375. Porch of Church of St. Lawrence (Lorenzkirche) Nuremberg (Pho.) 367 
 
 376. North Side Portal, Freiburg Cathedral (Pho.) 368 
 
 377. General View, Freiburg Cathedral with Open Work Spire (Pho.) 368 
 
 378. Central Portal, Strassburg Cathedral (Pho.) 371 
 
 379. North Side Portal, Strassburg Cathedral (Pho.) 371 
 
 380. Altar-piece or Reredos, Church at Esslingen (Hauser) .... 369 
 380A. Carved Pew End, German Middle Gothic (Gewerbehalle) . . .370 
 
 381. Late German Gothic Carving (Gewerbehalle) 373 
 
 382. Shrine or Reredos in Church at Braunau (Arch. Rec.), and Details 
 
 from West Portal, Freiburg Cathedral (Pho.) 372 
 
 383. Interior of "New" Cathedral of Salamanca (Pho.) 367 
 
 384. Patio (Court) of the Infantado Palace at Guadalajara (Pho.) . . 375 
 
 385. Interior of Chapel of the Condestabile in Burgos Cathedral (Pho.) 375 
 
 386. Mudejar Detail (Gewerbehalle) 374 
 
 387. Part of Flank of Cathedral of Florence (Pho.) 376 
 
 388. Part of Front of Orvieto Cathedral (Pho.) 381 
 
 389. Details from Lucca Cathedral: Sculptured Shaft and Marble In- 
 
 lay (Gewerbehalle) 378 
 
 390. Capital from a Tomb in Church of Santa Chiara, Naples . . . 379 
 
 391. Wall-Tomb in San Antonio, Padua (C. U.) 380 
 
 392. Tomb of Can Mastino II Scaligero, Verona (Pho.) 382 
 
 392A. Tomb of Giovanni Scaligero, Verona (Pho.) 382 
 
 393. Facade of Sienna Cathedral (Pho.) 385 
 
 394. Twisted Shaft and Marble Inlay, Campanile, Florence (Pho.) . . 385 
 
 xxiii
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 395. Tracery, Or San Michele, Florence (Pho.) 386 
 
 396. Front of a Gothic Palace in Venice 383 
 
 397. Detail from Altar Canopy, Or San Michele, Florence (Pho.) . . 389 
 
 398. Detail, Painted Wall in a Chapel of Santa Croce, Florence (Pho.) 386 
 
 399. Carving from Arch of "Mandorla" Door, Cathedral of Florence 384 
 
 400. Detail, Choir Stalls of Molfetta Cathedral, now in Museum (Pho.) 389 
 
 401. Capitals from Lower Arcade of Doge's Palace (C. U.) .... 387 
 
 ZZ1V
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL
 
 I
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Definitions. 
 
 The history of ornament is the record of the origins 
 and progressive developments of decorative design. 
 By decoration is meant the adornment or embellish- 
 ment of an object by purposed modifications of its form 
 or color. When decoration is effected by the repetition 
 or combination of specific form-elements according to 
 a predetermined scheme, the form-elements are called 
 motives. Collectively they are denominated ornament, 
 and when combined or repeated according to some defi- 
 nite geometric system, they are said to form a pattern. 
 Thus on page 9, Figure 1 is an ornament; so is Figure 
 2, which shows a geometric pattern formed with the mo- 
 tive aa. Pure ornament is that in which the decorative 
 purpose wholly dominates the design, as distinguished 
 from decorative painting and decorative sculpture, in 
 which the decorative purpose is subordinate to the pic- 
 torial or sculptural representation of a fact, event or 
 idea. 
 
 3
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Thus in the Parthenon the sculptured pediments, 
 metopes and frieze, representing episodes and scenes 
 from Greek mythology and legend, are examples of 
 decorative sculpture; while the triglyphs, antefixas and 
 painted moldings are examples of pure ornament. 
 
 There is a large field of decorative design which par- 
 takes somewhat of the character of both pure ornament 
 and pictorial or sculptural representation. Such are 
 symbolical and grotesque figures, masks, lions' heads 
 and much floral ornament, all of which are at once 
 decorative and representative. Each example of such 
 decoration must be classified according to its predomi- 
 nant purpose. Thus, although Figure 1 plainly pic- 
 tures a grapevine, its formally artificial arrangement 
 shows it to be intended as an ornament and not a picture. 
 There are, however, many cases in which the purposes 
 of representation and decoration are so evenly balanced 
 that they may be with equal propriety assigned to either 
 category. 
 
 Classifications. 
 
 Pure ornament may be classified according to any of 
 several principles : e.g., according to 
 
 A. Its way of covering space. 
 
 B. The manner and means of its production. 
 
 C. The method or principle of its design. 
 
 D. The object to which it is applied. 
 
 E. Its relation to structure. 
 
 A. According to the way in which ornament covers 
 space it may be divided into linear, all-over, and radiat- 
 ing ornament. Each of these may be subdivided into 
 
 4
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 continuous and discontinuous ornament. In linear 
 ornament the motives are arranged in sequence along a 
 single line, to form bands or borders, as in Figure 3, in 
 which a and b are continuous linear patterns, and c dis- 
 continuous. In "all-over" patterns the units are ar- 
 ranged along two or more intersecting systems of lines 
 so as to cover a broad surface ( Figures 2, 5, 8) . In radi- 
 ating patterns the surface is covered by units radiating 
 from a central point (Figures 6, 7). In each of these 
 cases the ornament may be continuous, each unit being 
 connected with its neighbors (Figures 3, a, b; Figure 18, 
 page 23) or discontinuous as in Figure 3, c or Figure 5. 
 Continuous "all-overs" forming a mesh of two sets of 
 intersecting lines are called quarries (from the French 
 carre = square). Discontinuous all-overs are called 
 powderings; more rarely they are said to be spangled 
 (Figure 5). When isolated units are powdered or 
 spangled in the meshes of a quarry, the combination is 
 called a diaper. Figure 5 is a powdering; 2 is a quarry ; 
 8 a diaper pattern. 
 
 B. According to the means by which the ornament 
 is produced, it is classified as plastic or chromatic. Plas- 
 tic ornament is such as depends on light-and-shade for 
 its effect, being produced by raising or depressing the 
 surface in various ways, as bj r molding, carving, hammer- 
 ing, stamping, etc. (Figures 4, 6, 9). Chromatic orna- 
 ment is all such as depends on color (including black 
 and white) for its effect, as in Figure 10 representing a 
 painted band. Certain classes of textile ornament, like 
 lace and embroidery, in which open-work and relief are 
 depended on to produce the pattern, are included under 
 
 5
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 plastic ornament. Chromatic ornament comprises all 
 painted ornament, enamel, inlay, stained glass and 
 mosaic, and all such textile ornament as depends upon 
 effects of color, whether produced by weaving, printing, 
 needle work, or otherwise. 
 
 C. According to the source and principle of its de- 
 sign, ornament is divisible into the three categories of 
 conventional, naturalistic, and conventionalize 'd-natural 
 ornament. Conventional ornament is in general that 
 which is the product of fancy or definite rule working 
 upon pure form, and is for the most part geometric in 
 character. Zigzags, frets, spirals and all geometric 
 patterns fall under this head (Figures 3, 7). Natural- 
 istic ornament comprises all decorative forms derived 
 from Nature directly and with little or no change, such 
 as flower and leaf forms, lion's heads, and the like, as 
 in Figures 1, 10. When, however, natural forms are 
 subjected to purposed modifications to adapt them to 
 decorative effect, they are said to be conventionalized; 
 and this class of ornament constitutes more than half 
 of all the ornament of nearly all the historic styles. The 
 acanthus leaf (Fig. 174), and a whole world of floral 
 motives in both classic and medieval art, belong in this 
 category (Figures 4, 6, 9, 10, on page 9, and 16 b, 20, 
 28 on page 23). The nature-form is subjected to one 
 or more of the operations of regularization of details 
 that in nature occur irregularly or unsymmetrically ; 
 suppression or abstraction of features that occur in 
 nature but are repugnant to the desired decorative effect ; 
 exaggeration of minor details; multiplication of what 
 occurs only once or at rare intervals in the natural ob- 
 
 6
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 ject; and combination, or the union in one design of ele- 
 ments that do not in Nature occur together. 
 
 D. According to the object to which it is applied, 
 ornament is divided into architectural ornament, applied 
 to or executed in or upon fixed structures, and industrial 
 ornament, which adorns movable objects. Capitals of 
 columns, friezes, gargoyles, finials, cornices, and balus- 
 trades are examples of architectural ornament; vase- 
 decorations, furniture-carving, silverware, jewelry, 
 laces, book-covers belong technically in the field of 
 industrial ornament. There is a large class of decorative 
 works that may be placed in either category, such as 
 pulpits, choir-stalls, monumental candelabra and the 
 like. 
 
 E. Ornament may again be divided into two cate- 
 gories according to its relation to structure. Structural 
 ornament is that which belongs to, grows out of, or 
 strongly suggests, the structural framework and consti- 
 tution of the object ornamented: such are capitals, 
 cornices, balustrades, window-trims, tracery, moldings, 
 paneling, metal scroll-work and the like. Applied orna- 
 ment is that which is added to an object already complete 
 structurally; such as painted ornament, mosaic, inlay, 
 paper-hangings, tapestries, etc. 
 
 Significance of Classifications. 
 
 All these classifications are devices for convenience 
 in the discussion and criticism of ornament, and are 
 important only as they serve this purpose. They cor- 
 respond to real differences of design, process and pur- 
 pose, but there is always a wide borderland in which 
 
 7
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 classification is not easy, and perhaps not important. 
 Each classification covers the entire field of ornament, 
 so that any decorative design may be assigned its place 
 in all five classifications. Thus the carving in the 
 spandrels of Westminster Abbey (Fig. 367) would be 
 (A) a diaper, (B) plastic ornament of (C) convention- 
 alized-natural flowers, (D) architectural and (E) either 
 structural or applied, as one may prefer to consider it. 
 A fret-border embroidered on an altar-cloth or painted 
 on a vase, would be a linear, chromatic, conventional, 
 industrial, applied ornament. These classifications 
 depend upon one's critical judgment, especially in C, 
 D and E, so that differences in the classifications of the 
 same ornament by different writers are frequent and 
 unimportant, especially where a design combines ele- 
 ments from different categories of the same class, as 
 when carving and color are combined, or natural forms 
 blended with purely geometric or conventional elements. 
 
 Meaning of History. 
 
 Decorative design appears at first sight to be so 
 entirely a matter of the designer's unhampered fancy, 
 that a history of the art might seem an impossibility; 
 for how can there be a history of millions of indepen- 
 dent, unrelated fancies? But as a matter of fact no 
 designer is or ever has been wholly free. In the first 
 place, he knows but an infinitesimal fraction of the world 
 of possible decorative forms those, in short, which he 
 has been taught or has seen, or has learned by experi- 
 ment. He is hampered by the traditions of his art, by 
 the taste of his age and the demands of the market, by the
 
 tools and materials he uses, by his own mental and artistic 
 limitations. By reason of common limitations and en- 
 vironment, the designers of any one place and time tend 
 to work alike in certain respects, and those character- 
 istics which are common to their work constitute the 
 style of that time and region. The history of ornament 
 is, then, the record of the origin, growth, decay, succes- 
 sion and inter-relation of the various styles of decorative 
 design. 
 
 The Historic Styles. 
 
 "Style" is distinctive character or quality. The his- 
 toric styles of ornament are the distinctive ways, methods 
 and systems of decorative design which have prevailed 
 in different countries at different times, and are desig- 
 nated usually by the names of the peoples who have 
 practised them and by the age, century, period or reign 
 in which they have flourished: as, for example, the 
 Roman Imperial Style, the French Gothic, Italian 
 Early Renaissance and American Colonial Style, etc. 
 
 Each historic style is seen to have passed through the 
 successive stages of infancy and early growth, maturity 
 and decline, after which it disappears, usually giving 
 place to a new style, either derived from some other 
 civilization, or growing up out of the declining style by 
 the introduction of some new germinant principle of de- 
 sign. Of the great variety of ornament- forms produced 
 in any one period, a few find favor and are constantly re- 
 peated, while the others disappear. A tendency thus as- 
 serts itself in a given direction, and by countless in- 
 finitesimal changes of these familiar forms along the line 
 
 10
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 of this tendency the style is developed and then gradu- 
 ally transformed. The historic styles are phenomena of 
 growth, of racial and epochal environments, not sud- 
 denly occurring phases due to chance. No man and no 
 coterie of men can create a real and living style; for 
 style depends not alone upon the designer, but also on 
 his inheritance and environment. 
 
 The "Biology" of Styles. 
 
 The development of styles presents many analogies to 
 biological phenomena. Transmission by inheritance, 
 persistence of type, occasional reversions towards the 
 primitive type, exceptional forms analogous to the; 
 "sports" that occur in Nature all these are met with 
 in the history of ornament, as well as the constant evolu- 
 tionary progress from simple to complex, from the 
 rudimentary to the highly organized. There is also 
 observable in the development of ornament a phenom- 
 enon which may be called convergence, in which two 
 lines of development from different sources approach 
 each other and finally coalesce. The resulting form or 
 pattern resembles somewhat both its ancestors, though 
 constituting a new type in itself. It is therefore often 
 impossible to assign a single origin to an ornament-type ; 
 and much of the discussion and controversy about dis- 
 puted origins might be avoided by recognizing the orna- 
 ment in question as derived by convergence from both 
 or all of the several sources to which the disputants 
 assign it. 
 
 In Figure 11, page 9, a, b and c suggest the pos- 
 sible evolution of the "trilobe lotus," c from its simplest 
 
 11
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 painted form, a in Egyptian ornament, while d f e and / 
 illustrate the persistence of this motive in Greek, Roman 
 and Gothic ornament respectively, the whole covering 
 a period of nearly 3000 years. In Figure 12 a Greek 
 vase ornament of anthemions is shown at a, followed by 
 a Roman derivative modified by acanthus-leaf details. 
 The three lower examples are Byzantine acanthus 
 leaves which have converged towards the anthemion type 
 to such an extent that they may with equal propriety be 
 called anthemions or acanthus leaves. Figure 13 (in 
 which b is an enlargement of c in Figure 12) further 
 illustrates this convergence of the Byzantine acanthus 
 towards the Greek anthemion-type, though this latter 
 was probably quite unknown to most Byzantine artists. 
 In Figure 14 we have a curious example of accidental 
 reversion towards an ancient type: the left-hand form 
 a being an Egyptian representation of some water- 
 plant, while the two anthemion-like forms at the right, 
 b, are late Byzantine conventional representations of 
 the funereal cypress tree ! 
 
 Prehistoric, Primitive and Savage Ornament. 
 
 It remains to consider briefly the relation to historic 
 art of those early forms of ornament which were pro- 
 duced before the dawn of the historic cultures, as well as 
 of the ornament of savage and barbarous peoples that 
 have remained outside the currents of modern civiliza- 
 tion. So far as the arts of the cavemen of the 
 paleolithic and neolithic ages are concerned, there is no 
 traceable connection between them and the earliest his- 
 toric civilizations those of Egypt and Chaldea : the in- 
 
 12
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 termediate links have perished absolutely. With re- 
 gard to savage ornament, the fact that it is contempo- 
 raneous with civilized and even modern cultures, makes 
 possible an influence from the latter upon the savage art 
 which establishes certain occasioned resemblances be- 
 tween the two. But there is no evidence as yet discov- 
 erable of the unaided development of savage art into 
 civilized and progressive art. The essential character 
 of savage art is that of arrested development. It is 
 often interesting and effective, but seems incapable of 
 further progress. It is sterile, and as a subject of study, 
 quite outside the field of the historic styles. 
 
 Primitive ornament, on the other hand, is ornament in 
 the earliest stages of its development. The term may 
 therefore be applied to the beginnings qf historic art or 
 of particular styles, as well as to that of the Stone Age 
 and prehistoric times. Primitive ornament is fre- 
 quently uncouth, while savage ornament is often highly 
 elaborated (see Plates I and II) ; but the latter has 
 ceased to advance, while primitive ornament often re- 
 veals the promise and potency of indefinite life and 
 growth. The one is a dwarf, the other an infant. 
 
 Six Propositions. 
 
 The history of art seems to bear out the following 
 propositions : 
 
 I. The earliest known historic ornament belongs to 
 civilizations already well advanced. 
 
 II. The primitive origins of this earliest known his- 
 toric ornament have yet to be discovered and identified. 
 
 Prehistoric remains in Egypt are being studied, and 
 
 is
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 have thrown some light upon the earliest stages of art in 
 that most ancient of known civilizations; but the prob- 
 lem has not yet been by any means fully solved. 
 
 III. Savage or aboriginal ornament has never yet 
 been known to develop unaided into a civilized and pro- 
 gressive art. 
 
 IV. The ornament of every historic style is found 
 to be chiefly derived from that of some older civilization, 
 until we reach back to the earliest historic art of Egypt 
 and Chaldea, beyond which its sources have not yet been 
 traced. 
 
 V. Each historic culture has imposed upon the decora- 
 tive art thus inherited or borrowed a development and 
 form of its own, either by blending with the borrowed 
 forms others of its own invention, or by progressive 
 modifications of detail, or by both together. 
 
 VI. In these modifications of the imported or in- 
 herited ornament-forms, their original use and signifi- 
 cance are in time lost sight of or ignored. Magical 
 forms become mere symbols, symbolic forms mere orna- 
 ment; and structural forms are applied where the con- 
 struction does not demand them, so that they become 
 in time motives of architectural decoration pure and 
 simple. 
 
 Value of the Study of Ornament Styles. 
 
 The importance of this study lies in its value not only 
 to the designer, in enabling him to design consistently, 
 either by following a given style closely or by diverging 
 from it intelligently ; but also to the archeologist and the 
 student of history. For the style of a work of decora- 
 
 14
 
 . INTRODUCTORY 
 
 tion is frequently a more reliable index of its date than 
 written documents, which have more than once been 
 proved to be incorrect or to have been misinterpreted, 
 by the evidence of decorative style in the work under 
 discussion. The character and relations of the ornament 
 of different countries, peoples and times have often af- 
 forded valuable suggestions, confirmations or corrections 
 as to the historic movements and relations of these peo- 
 ples, and an index of their advancement in civilization. 
 The history of ornament is thus an important division 
 of the general history of civilization. 
 
 Method of this History. 
 
 The history of ornament may be treated according 
 to either of two methods. By one of these the origin 
 and development of the dominant motives of ornament 
 are taken up in succession, each of these being traced 
 through all of the styles in which it is formed. 1 By the 
 other, which is followed in this volume, attention is di- 
 rected to the origin and development of the historic 
 styles of ornament, all the various motives, kinds and 
 types of ornament of each country and period being 
 considered in discussing the style of that time and re- 
 gion. In this volume we shall treat of the styles of 
 ancient and medieval art, leaving the Oriental and mod- 
 ern styles to be treated in another volume. 
 
 Summary of the Sequence of Styles. 
 
 Geographically as well as chronologically, this study 
 
 i This is the method followed by Mr. G. A. T. Middleton in his "Motives of 
 Ornament" (New York, 1914) and by myself in a series of papers on the "De- 
 velopment of Decorative Motives" in the "American Architect," 1898-1901. 
 
 15
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 begins with Egyptian art in the Nile Valley. The art 
 of early Chaldea in the valley of the Tigris-Euphrates, 
 though rivaling that of Egypt in its antiquity, is less im- 
 portant in the domain of ornament than the Egyptian, 
 and less important also than that of Assyria, which de- 
 veloped later in the same river basin. Greek art both 
 inherited and borrowed from both these arts ; little, per- 
 haps, directly, but much through the intermediate arts of 
 Phenicia and of the early Mediterranean cultures in 
 Crete, Mycenae, and other ^Egean centers. All these 
 borrowed elements were completely transformed in 
 Greek art, whose developed forms passed into Roman 
 art and were again transformed by the Roman genius. 
 Greek and Roman art have tinged that of all subsequent 
 ages among the European and Western nations. The 
 growth of Christianity after the fall of Rome developed 
 new centers of civilization and new conceptions in art, 
 giving rise to Byzantine art in the East and to Roman- 
 esque and Gothic art in the West. For a thousand 
 years the forms of Roman art appeared to be forgotten, 
 except for faint reminiscences of them in Italy. Yet 
 like the Egyptian wheat, buried with a mummy but 
 springing to life after a score of centuries in the tomb, 
 the vital elements of Roman art revived with the 
 Renaissance of classic studies in the fifteenth century 
 in Italy, and have largely dominated Western art ever 
 since. 
 
 Meanwhile in the Orient other ideals have prevailed, 
 and although the Mohammedan nations have in each 
 case founded their art on that of the Christian peoples 
 they have conquered, they have developed it under the 
 
 16
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 dominion of their own ideals into something quite apart 
 from Western art. China and Japan have also their 
 own independent though related styles of decoration; 
 while the decorative art of the non-Moslem Hindus rep- 
 resents another group of styles remote in character from 
 those of Europe. 
 
 The problem of early American art in Peru, Central 
 America and Mexico is one of great uncertainty and 
 the subject of no little controversy. The art of these 
 countries offers one of the richest as well as most diffi- 
 cult fields for architectural exploration and study. The 
 expeditions conducted by Professor Bingham of Yale 
 University have added much to our knowledge of the 
 monuments; but the subject has not yet entered the 
 domain of precise history, and must lie outside the scope 
 of a manual like this. 
 
 Books Recommended. 
 
 [The bibliography of ornament is so extensive, and includes 
 so many works of doubtful value to the student, that an ex- 
 haustive list of books on the subject of each chapter of this 
 work is out of the question. The lists of "Books Recom- 
 mended" have been made to include the most important works 
 of reference generally available in the larger libraries of cities 
 and educational institutions, as well as text-books and hand- 
 books of a more popular character, in English, French and 
 German (besides a few in Italian and Spanish). In such a 
 selected list it will inevitably happen that some titles will be 
 omitted which, in the reader's judgment, ought to be included, 
 and others included which might well have been omitted; for 
 individual judgments must differ in many cases. The author 
 and the publishers will welcome suggestions for the improve- 
 ment of these lists in future editions.] 
 
 1. On General Theory of Ornament: BOURGOIX: Theorie de 
 Vornement (Paris, 1883). W. G. COLLJNGWOOD: Philosophy 
 
 17
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 of Ornament (Sunnyside, 1883). H. PFEIFER: Formenlehre 
 des Ornaments (Stuttgart, 1906). GOBLET D'ALVIELLA: The 
 Migration of Symbols (Westminster, 1894). A. C. HADDON : 
 Evolution in Art (London, 1895). A. D. F. HAMLIN: Devel- 
 opment of Decorative Motives (in American Architect, New 
 York, 18981901). J. HAUSELMANN: Studien und Ideen iiber 
 Ursprung, Wesen und Stil des Ornaments (Zurich, 1889). 
 F. E. HULME: Birth and Development of Ornament (London, 
 1893). J. RANKE: Anfdnge der Kunst (Berlin, 1879). ALOIS 
 RIEGL: Stilfragen; Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte der 
 Ornamentik (Berlin, 1893). G. SEMPER: Der Stil m der 
 technischen Kiinsten, oder Praktische Aesthetik (Munich, 1878- 
 79). G. STURM: Animals in Ornament (London, 1895). 
 
 2. General Handbooks and Collections. DOLMETSCH: Der 
 Ornamentenschatz (Stuttgart, 1889; also an English edition, 
 London, 1912). EBE: Die Schmuckformen der Monumental- 
 bauten aus alien Stilepochen (Leipzig, 1896). L. GAUCHEREL: 
 Exemples de decoration appliquee etc. (Paris, 1857). R. 
 GLAZIER: Manual of Historic Ornament (London, 1906). 
 GROPIUS und LOHDE: Archiv fur omamentale Kunst etc. (Ber- 
 lin, 1876-79). E. J. B. GUILLAUME: Histoire de Vart et de 
 Vornement (Paris, 1888). D. GUILMARD: La connaissance des 
 styles de V ornementation (Paris, 1849). A German edition of 
 the same under the title Geschichte der Ornamentik (Berlin, 
 1860). J. HAUSELMANN: Die Stylarten des Ornaments in den 
 verschiedenen Kunstepochen (Zurich, 1882). J. E. JACOB- 
 STHAL: Grammatik der Ornamente (Berlin, 1874; with large 
 wall-plates for class use). OWEN JONES: Grammar of Orna- 
 ment (London, 1857; new edition, smaller size, London, 1910). 
 F. K. KLIMSCH: Ornaments (London, n. d.). MECHIN: Dic- 
 tionnaire de Vart ornemental de tous les styles (Paris, 1888 91 ). 
 F. S. MEYER: Omamentale Formenlehre (Leipzig, 1886): 
 English edition under title Handbook of Ornament (New York, 
 1898?). R. NEWBERRY: Gleanings from Ornamental Art of 
 Every Style (London, 1863). R. PFNOR: Ornementation 
 usuelle de toutes les epoques (Paris, 1866-68). A. RACINET: 
 UOrnement polychrome (Paris, 186987). H. SHAW: En- 
 cyclopaedia of Ornament (London, 1842). J. B. WARING: Il- 
 lustrations of Architecture and Ornament (London, 1871). 
 
 18
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 J. WARD: Historic Ornament (London, 1898). G. E. WES- 
 SELY: Das Ornament und die Kunstindustrie in ihrer geschicht- 
 liche Entwickelung (Berlin, 1877). 
 
 In the above list the Grammar of Ornament of Owen Jones 
 and Ornement Polychrome of Racinet are monumental collec- 
 tions of decorative designs in color, veritable encyclopaedias 
 of ornament of all kinds except the architectural, of which there 
 are only a few examples in Owen Jones, and none in Racinet. 
 The Dolmetsch collection, second only to the above two in rich- 
 ness and elegance of presentation, contains a fair proportion 
 of illustrations from architecture. Meyer's Handbook of 
 Ornament is another standard collection, arranged not by styles 
 but by topics and categories of subjects. Glazier's Manual 
 of Historic Ornament is excellent as far as it goes, but its 
 modest size makes impossible a complete presentation of any 
 of the styles. Speltz's Styles of Ornament is the most compre- 
 hensive of all the smaller collections, covering all the styles 
 both of architectural and industrial ornament with a wealth 
 of illustrations in black-and-white. The new edition, revised 
 by R. Phene Spiers, of London, is especially recommended. 
 The Prang Educational Company publish an excellent series 
 of Plates of Historic Ornament, in color, based on a series orig- 
 inally edited by the late Professor W. R. Ware. 
 
 19
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT 
 
 The Origins. 
 
 When and how did decorative art first begin? The 
 question can never receive a final and complete answer, 
 since the oldest extant specimens of ornamental art, 
 dating back to the palaeolithic age, betray a skill which 
 points to beginnings in a still more remote past. 
 The dagger-handle of carved reindeer bone in Figure 
 15, representing a wounded fawn, is a surprisingly skil- 
 ful adaptation of naturalistic representation to decora- 
 tive use; it dates from the neolithic period of the Stone 
 Age. Chipped flint knives and remarkably life-like 
 sketches of animals engraved on bone, including the 
 prehistoric mammoth, found in strata of great antiquity, 
 likewise suggest long antecedent periods of training. 
 
 The answer to our query is generally sought by 
 anthropologists in the work and processes of modern 
 savage tribes. 1 The most generally accepted theory is 
 that which derives the earliest ornament from primitive 
 superstitions. The savage and presumably primitive 
 man did likewise instinctively animates or personifies 
 all the forces and most of the phenomena of Nature. 
 
 i Consult however the query raised by Dr. Talcott Williams in a paper 
 printed in the "Report of the Smithsonian Institution" for 1896 entitled, 
 "Was Primitive Man a Modern Savage?" 
 
 20
 
 PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT 
 
 He fails to distinguish clearly between the real and the 
 imagined, the animate and inanimate, and ascribes to 
 fancied resemblances the qualities of the thing re- 
 sembled. Hence he seeks to portray, imitate or suggest 
 whatever force or thing he wishes to have or control, as- 
 cribing to these caricatures the powers of their originals. 
 An eye painted on a canoe gives the canoe and its 
 owner the power to steer a safe course ; a bird on the stern 
 gives it speed (see Plate II, 21) ; a human face with a 
 mouth full of fierce teeth imparts fierceness and cour- 
 age to the bearer of the weapon or other object on which 
 it is carved or painted. Figure 17, page 23, illustrates 
 the head of a Mangaia (New Zealand) ceremonial spear 
 to be borne by a chief: it represents, inverted, a tongue 
 protruding from a mouth set with sharp teeth beneath 
 two huge eyes. The protruding tongue signifies defi- 
 ance ; the teeth, ferocity ; the eyes, keen vision ; together 
 they constitute a powerful amulet, magically endowing 
 the chief with bravery, ferocity and far-sightedness. 
 But it will be noted that the entire representation is dec- 
 oratively effective; indeed, the decorative purpose quite 
 overmasters all idea of naturalistic portrayal. A like 
 purpose is observed in the Papuan "manhood belts" 
 (Figure 18), on which the scratched patterns of human 
 features are fetishes imparting to the wearer the manly 
 qualities they symbolize. 
 
 Such a representation is called a fetish, and the super- 
 stition to which it is due, fetishism. It is one manifesta- 
 tion of what is generically known as animism, of which 
 another form is totemism. Among certain tribes, as in 
 Alaska, each family or clan has its own animal or other 
 
 21
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 object not merely as a heraldic symbol, but as a posses- 
 sion conferring its qualities on the whole clan: such a 
 symbol is called a totem. An Alaskan totem-pole, 
 like the quarterings of a coat-of-arms, portrays the 
 pedigree and relationships of the occupants of the tent or 
 tepee before which it stands. According to the animis- 
 tic theory, therefore, primitive and savage ornament is 
 believed to have grown up out of the carving or painting 
 or weaving of fetishes and totems primarily for the 
 sake of their magical use. This practice in time awak- 
 ened the rudimentary decorative instinct; and this in- 
 stinct asserting itself with constantly increasing force 
 has led to the progressive modification of the original 
 semi-naturalistic forms until they are often no longer 
 recognizable as such, as in Figures 17, 18 and 24 
 (page 23) ; Figure 24 showing patterns derived from the 
 head of the frigate-bird. 
 
 The Technic Theory. 
 
 Another theory attributes the awakening of the 
 decorative instinct to the processes and results of primi- 
 tive industries, especially pottery, basketry and weav- 
 ing. In these industries there occur inevitably cer- 
 tain rhythmical repetitions and alternations of form or 
 color which are in themselves decorative. Thus in 
 grass-weaving and basketry, if grasses of two colors are 
 alternately plaited or woven together a checker pattern 
 results, while simple variations in the plaiting produce 
 plaids, quadrangles, stepped triangles and crosses 
 (Figure 19). The awakened decorative instinct seizes 
 upon these effects and develops them purposefully. It 
 
 22
 
 FigIS 
 
 TZtsayan Jar C Mexico) 
 
 l5Rimltve dagger-handle. l&New&aland'tiki-tiki'motiYe.foyaori spear-head. Id&puanface-motNes 
 19, Basketry forms .2o,Zl, ftruvian animal motives. 22, Maori and Hawaiian carvings. Z3Bra- 
 Zi/ian grass cloth patterns, Zf. f&puan frigafabird forms ?SJ1aori flute ornament. 26.tomBmzi/- 
 
 23
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 then begins to appropriate for decorative use fetish and 
 totem forms (Figures 20, 21, 24, 28) and adds to these 
 other nature forms, which it eventually uses as pure 
 ornament, with little or no regard for magical intent. 
 Figure 16 shows in a an apparently conventional orna- 
 ment thus derived from the New Zealand totem-figures 
 of women shown in b, which represent the pedigrees of 
 New Zealand chiefs in the female line. The technic of 
 wood-notching has converted these figures into the orna- 
 ment known as the tiki-tiki-tangata. 
 
 It seems likely that both theories are measurably cor- 
 rect and must be jointly invoked to explain the begin- 
 nings of ornament. The discovery and development of 
 motives originating in technical processes and the de- 
 velopment of nature-forms through animistic impulses 
 have probably been concurrent. It seems quite clear 
 that nearly all spirals, zigzags, plaids, lozenges, and 
 many other geometric motives, have originated in the 
 
 processes of weaving, 
 plaiting and string-lash- 
 ing. Even the fact that 
 modern savage tribes 
 call these motives by the 
 names of animals, winds, 
 etc., does not prove their 
 animistic origin. Thus 
 m PLATE i, 21. in Figure 23 the Indians 
 
 of Central Brazil call a the tunny-fish pattern, b the liz- 
 ard pattern, and c and d bat-patterns! All four patterns 
 were probably technomorphic in origin, and received 
 these names as afterthought explanations of their origin 
 
 24 
 
 : 
 
 ' 
 
 Fio. 29. DETAIL FROM MAORI PADDLE
 
 PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT 
 
 and meaning. For primitive man is always a myth- 
 maker, who seeks to explain everything by a story or by 
 some theory of magic; and the widely different names 
 given to the same form by different tribes suggest that 
 their several explanations are invented after the fact, not 
 handed down by tradition from still more primitive ages. 
 
 Character of Savage Ornament. 
 
 Its artistic quality is often of a high order, revealing 
 a keen sense of decorative propriety, a wise choice and 
 proportioning of means to ends, and great skill in space- 
 filling (Plates I and II) . In boldness and effectiveness 
 of design it often surpasses the work of more civilized 
 peoples. If lacking in subtlety and the higher graces of 
 line and movement, it is often rich, well distributed, and 
 executed with singular patience and skill. Structural 
 ornament, in the strictest sense, hardly exists at all; 
 nearly all savage ornament is pure surface-decoration. 
 It consists largely of patterns of small motives indefi- 
 nitely repeated by painting, stamping or weaving, or by 
 surface carving, so as to cover the whole or a major 
 part of the object. (Figures 16, 20, 22, 23-27; Plate 
 
 I, Nos. 4, 6, 8, 13, 15, 21, 23.) Here and there appears 
 a caricature of the head or body of a bird or beast (Plate 
 
 II, 19, 20) ; or even the grotesque head of a man, as in 
 Fig. 30. 
 
 The South Sea Islands. 
 
 Among the most interesting developments of savage 
 decorative art are those of certain Polynesian peoples, 
 particularly in New Guinea in the north and New Zea- 
 
 25
 
 FIG. 30. WAR-DRUM 
 HEAD, JAVA. 
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 land in the south. Second only to 
 these in interest is the art of the 
 Hawaiian, Friendly or Tonga, 
 Samoan and Fiji Islands. Bas- 
 ketry, weaving and wood-carving 
 are the chief artistic industries of 
 these peoples ; their pottery is unim- 
 portant. Animism is everywhere in 
 evidence in these products: clubs, 
 spears, paddles, stone-headed adzes, 
 often designed for ceremonial and 
 not practical use, are covered with 
 patterns invested with fetishistic or 
 totemistic meanings. Many of these 
 patterns may, however, have had a 
 technic origin in basketry, wood-notching, etc. (Figure 
 29; Plate I, 11, 15,21, 23). 
 
 The patterns in Figure 24 (p. 23), are all derived 
 from the frigate-bird's head ; they are from the Papuan 
 Gulf of New Guinea. The very similar pattern in Fig- 
 ure 25 a pattern scratched on a Maori (New Zealand) 
 flute is claimed by Haddon 2 of Cambridge as having a 
 different origin, as the art of New Zealand appears to 
 be wholly disconnected from the northern Polynesian 
 styles, and the frigate-bird does not otherwise figure in 
 Maori patterns. Figure 22 shows a variation of the 
 tiki-tiki pattern from New Zealand, and two narrow 
 borders from Hawaii, both carved in wood. In Plate I, 
 No. 7 is a specimen of New Zealand tattooing, an art 
 
 2 A. C. Haddon, "Evolution in Art," London, 1895. 
 
 26
 
 PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT 
 
 originating in Polynesia, and carried to high perfection 
 both in New Guinea and New Zealand. Some of the 
 tattoo-patterns appear to be purely decorative, conform- 
 ing to the facial modeling; others have a definite signifi- 
 cance as fetishes or as totems. 
 
 Primitive American Ornament. 
 
 Basketry, weaving and pottery are the chief indus- 
 tries of the primitive and ancient peoples of South and 
 Central America, Mexico and the southwestern regions 
 of the United States. The pottery of these countries 
 is particularly abundant and interesting. As Peru, 
 Central America and Mexico were the seats of a highly 
 developed civilization centuries before the Spanish con- 
 quest, the art of those ages has no place in a discussion 
 of primitive and savage ornament. While the begin- 
 nings have been made in the working out of the Mayan 
 and Aztec chronologies, we must await the decipherment 
 of their written records before we can write the history 
 and chronology of the Peruvian, Mexican and Central 
 American art of antiquity, many of whose monuments 
 have long been known, and others more recently discov- 
 ered by the Yale expeditions under Professor Bingham. 
 Until these problems have been worked out it will be 
 impossible to determine the historical relation of such 
 advanced decorative art as is shown in Plate II, 2, 3 
 and 7, to the more modern pottery shown on the same 
 plate. 
 
 Both the Mexican and the Zuni and Pueblo pot- 
 tery show great fondness for the spiral (Figs. 31, 32: 
 
 27
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Plate II, 8, 11, 13) . According to W. H. Holmes this 
 is due to the derivation of all American pottery from 
 primitive processes of building up the vessel with suc- 
 cessive spiral coils of clay "rope," which process in turn 
 is derived from coiled basketry (see Plate II, 12, a 
 Washoe basket-bowl) . This theory is borne out by the 
 
 occurrence of many 
 basketry patterns in 
 Bolivian and other pot- 
 tery. But the Peruvian 
 spirals in Plate II, 14, 
 may be derived from 
 the coiled snake (II, 
 16). The spiral is 
 common in Pueblo 
 pottery; Fig. 31 a 
 shows an example, 
 
 FIG. 31. a, PUEBLO JAR; b, DETAIL FROM . 
 
 PLATE II, 8; c, PREHISTORIC JAR FROM which CUl'lOUSly rCSCm- 
 
 bles an ancient j ar ( re- 
 versed) from Budmer in Bosnia, illustrated in Hoerner's 
 "Urgeschichte." The spiral b is an enlarged detail from 
 the jar in Plate II, 8. In the same plate the illustra- 
 tions 5 and 8 offer curious analogies to early Greek 
 pottery-ornamentation. Such resemblances, probably 
 wholly fortuitous, have given rise to many specula- 
 tions as to the origin of the ancient American civiliza- 
 tions. 3 
 
 The modern American Indians, especially those of the 
 
 3 All of the illustrations in Plate II are from sketches made in the Ameri- 
 can Museum of Natural History in New York, which possesses a superb 
 collection, in its Anthropological section, of examples of primitive art, both 
 American and foreign. 
 
 28
 
 PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT 
 
 Southwest, are clever potters and particularly skilful 
 in basketry. The blankets, baskets and beadwork of 
 many other Indian tribes are rich in decorative sugges- 
 tion, and will be increasingly val- 
 ued as these arts tend to disap- 
 pear with advancing civilization. 
 The examples shown in these 
 figures and plates can by no 
 means adequately illustrate the 
 richness and variety of savage 
 and primitive ornament; they 
 can only suggest its general 
 character. Every tribe has its 
 own special products and pat- 
 terns; to some extent they FlG - ^ MEXICAK JAB. 
 mingle and overlap through commerce and migration. 
 They seem to have been but little modified in style by 
 the contact of civilization, though this contact is apt to 
 result in the disappearance of the native art and the 
 substitution of manufactured foreign products. 
 
 Summary of Characteristics. 
 
 The main characteristics of savage art may be briefly 
 summarized as follows: 
 
 I. Geometric ideals control generally both the distri- 
 bution and details of the decoration. 
 
 II. Natural forms are invariably of magical signifi- 
 cance. They converge towards the technomorphic 
 treatment because the savage cares nothing for accuracy 
 of representation, provided the type is recognizable ; and 
 
 29
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 exaggeration and caricature resulting from the influ- 
 ence of materials and tools do not destroy the type. The 
 technomorphic geometrization of details is a natural re- 
 sult of the processes of their production. 
 
 III. Of many motives it cannot be determined 
 whether the origin is animistic or technomorphic. Na- 
 tive identifications and explanations of form are by no 
 means always trustworthy. 
 
 IV. The zigzag, quadrilateral, fret and spiral ap- 
 pear in nearly all savage styles, though the coil and 
 spiral are wanting in certain defined districts in the 
 South Seas. 
 
 V. Savage ornament is almost wholly surface orna- 
 ment, in which general effect is the chief concern and is 
 produced by a disposition of parts almost always judi- 
 cious and artistic. It is usually composed of minute 
 motives, more or less crowded. The higher qualities of 
 grace, refined curvature and rhythmic movement, and 
 highly organized and complex composition, are gener- 
 ally wanting. In short, the pursuit of an unattained 
 ideal and the progress that results from it, do not ap- 
 pear in savage art, which remains content with its past 
 which it reproduces with variations but without con- 
 sistent advance. 
 
 Books Recommended. 
 
 As before, the general collections of Dolmetsch, Glazier, 
 Owen Jones, Racinet and Speltz. Also, H. BAI/FOUR: The 
 Evolution of Decorative Art (London, 1893). A. C. HADDON: 
 Evolution in Art (especially for Polynesian art: London, 
 1895). J. RANKE: Anfdnge der Kunst (Berlin, 1879). H. 
 STOLPE: Evolution in the Ornamental Art of Savage Peoples 
 
 30
 
 PRIMITIVE AND SAVAGE ORNAMENT 
 
 (Trans. Rochdale Literary and Scientific Society, 1891); Stu- 
 dier i americansk Ornamentik (Stockholm, 1896). E. B. TY- 
 L.OR: Primitive Culture (London). Consult also W. H. 
 HOLMES: Origin and Development of Form and Ornament m 
 Ceramic Art in Fourth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology 
 (Washington, 1886). 
 
 31
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 "Egypt is the oldest daughter of civilization" ; 1 "a 
 lighthouse in the profound darkness of remote an- 
 tiquity." 2 
 
 Land and People. 
 
 The valley of the Nile was the birthplace of historic 
 civilization, so far, at least, as extant evidence can de- 
 termine it. The history of Chaldea carries us back, it 
 is true, six or seven thousand years, but the oldest monu- 
 ments of Egypt point to a long precedent development, 
 the beginnings of which are lost in the mists of antiquity. 
 It is, however, outside of our purpose to study this twi- 
 light age of Egyptian art. Of the thirty dynasties 
 enumerated by Manetho, the first reigned in Memphis in 
 Lower Egypt at a date variously estimated at from 3600 
 to 4500 years B.C., over a well organized kingdom 
 possessed of cities, a priesthood, established grades of 
 society, and other features of a developed civilization. 
 Hemmed in between the wall-like cliffs of the Nile val- 
 ley, this kingdom flourished for some thousands of years 
 the one civilized nation in a vast world of barbarous 
 nations, developing unaided her own arts and supported 
 
 i Perrot & Chipiez, "History of Ancient Art"; vol. I, page 1. 
 * Rnan, quoted by Perrot & Chipiez ; ibid., page 19. 
 
 32
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 by the inexhaustible fertility of the Nile mud. Herodo- 
 tus rightly called Egypt "the gift of the Nile," which 
 became to the Egyptians a source of endless symbols and 
 cosmic-religious ideas. 
 Within this valley the 
 Egyptians were long 
 untouched by foreign 
 influences, and the ap- 
 parent changelessness 
 of Egyptian art is one 
 of its most striking 
 characteristics. 
 
 The government of 
 Egypt was an autoc- 
 racy, and society was 
 divided into castes, 
 with the priest-caste 
 at its head. To this 
 caste belonged the 
 king, who was deified 
 after death. The re- 
 ligion, grossly idola- 
 trous in its lowest pop- 
 ular form, and polytheistic in its highest phases as un- 
 derstood by the educated priest-caste, possessed many 
 lofty spiritual conceptions underlying its externally 
 complex mythology. Particularly important were its 
 solar deities Amen or Ra, identified with the sun; 
 Osiris and his sister-spouse Isis or Hathor, and Horus 
 their son. The ideas of death and immortality were con- 
 spicuous, making sepulchral art the most important 
 
 33 
 
 FIG. 33. 
 
 DETAIL OF SARCOPHAGUS OF 
 MENKAUBA.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 branch of design next to temple architecture. Primitive 
 fetish-conceptions never wholly disappeared; Maspero 
 declared that "every Egyptian ornament was a talis- 
 man," and symbolism characterized every detail of 
 decorative art. The tombs, designed to be inviolable so 
 far as the intention of their designers was concerned, 
 and hermetically sealed against the entrance of the liv- 
 ing, were internally decorated with -pictures of scenes, 
 objects and pursuits which, it was believed, would be- 
 come realities to the Ka, the shadowy "double" or half- 
 spirit of the deceased, who could thus enjoy the pleasures 
 of feasting and the chase while imprisoned in the tomb, 
 awaiting final release by the judgment of Osiris and his 
 forty assessors. It is from these tombs and from the 
 sarcophagi (Fig. 33) and mummy-cases found in them 
 that a large part of our knowledge of Egyptian life and 
 decorative art have been derived. 
 
 Influence of Climate. 
 
 Except during the short rainy season the Egyptian 
 sky is cloudless, the sun intensely brilliant. Mists, half- 
 lights, soft gray tones and delicate tints such as northern 
 lands and artists know and love, are here unknown. In 
 the blazing sun and black shadows delicate relief and 
 subtle modulations of surface would be lost. Hence 
 strong and bold relief are necessary out of doors : while 
 both there and in the dim interiors color is essential for 
 decorative effectiveness. Egyptian ornament is pre- 
 eminently an ornament of color. The dryness of the 
 air and the absence of frost result in a permanence which 
 cannot be secured in other climates. Wood and cloth 
 
 34
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 seem in Egypt as imperishable as stone and bronze. 
 Hence an influence towards slowness of change, towards 
 permanence both of types and details, which exists no- 
 where else. 
 
 Materials. 
 
 There is almost no timber in Egypt, and where stone 
 was lacking, or was unsuitable or too costly, mud or 
 clay served as the building material, often with a frame- 
 work of reeds or stiff papyrus-stalks bound together to 
 form posts and beams. The palm was the principal tree, 
 with the sycamore for occasional use in cabinet-work. 
 The painted representations of framed woodwork al- 
 ways show long and narrow panels, such as could be 
 framed with long thin pieces from the palm-trunk 
 (Fig. 33). Marvelous was the decorative art which 
 grew up under these limitations. Pottery, glass, enamel 
 and metal-work in copper, bronze and gold were all O 
 known to the Egyptians from an early age, and weav- 
 ing of "fine twined linen," embroidery and the tanning 
 of leather were also practised. 
 
 Historic Periods. 
 
 Without going into details, we may divide the history 
 of Egyptian art into six periods. I, The Prehistoric 
 Age. II, the Old or First Empire, comprising the first 
 ten dynasties ; this is the age of the Great Pyramids and 
 of the earliest tombs, from 3400 B.C. 3 to 2160 B.C. Ill, 
 The Middle or First Theban Empire, two dynasties, 
 
 s These dates are those of Breasted. Some other authorities assign much 
 earlier dates to the Old Empire. 
 
 35
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 2160 to 1788 B.C. IV, The New or Second Theban 
 Empire, the 18th-20th dynasties inclusive, 1588-1150 
 B.C. This is the great age of Egyptian history, the most 
 splendid in its temples and tombs, as well as in war 
 and conquest. It followed a period of two centuries of 
 artistic sterility under five foreign dynasties called the 
 Hyksos or Shepherd Kings. V, the Saitic and Persian 
 Period, comprising the dynasties 21 to 26 inclusive, and 
 the Persian rule which began in 525 B.C.: from 1150 to 
 324 B.C. VI, the Revival or Ptolemaic Period, under 
 the Macedonian Ptolemies and the Roman dominion: 
 324 B.C. to 330 A.D. The first half of this period was 
 one of revived artistic activity after a long decline. 
 
 Prehistoric Ornament. 
 
 FIG. 34. PREHISTORIC SLATE PA- 
 LETTE IN THE LOUVBE. 
 
 It is only within recent 
 years that the pre-Pharaonic 
 art of Egypt has become 
 known by a sufficient number 
 of examples to permit of 
 assigning any dates or se- 
 quences of style. Discoveries 
 at Koptos, Nagada and Aby- 
 dos since 1893 have unearth- 
 ed the products of long ages 
 before the first dynasty- 
 crude painted statuettes of 
 earthenware, ivory pins and 
 combs, spoons and rings, flint 
 knives with ivory gold- 
 plated handles, vases of pot- 
 
 36
 
 tery and slate palettes or ink-mixers (Fig. 34). In 
 none of these is there evidence of a developed decorative 
 style, zigzags and a few crude patterns derived from 
 basketry being almost the only pure ornaments. There 
 is, however, considerable imitation of Nature, more and 
 more realistic and correct as one approaches historic 
 times. Religion and magic account for much of this 
 naturalism. The slate palette from the Louvre shown 
 in Fig. 34 is in its motive so like many "Sacred Tree" 
 compositions from Assyria in which a tree is flanked by 
 erect monsters or human figures, that some authorities 
 refer it to prehistoric Chaldean influence. On the 
 other hand, the entire Asiatic series of figures of beasts 
 facing a central tree or shaft may have originated in 
 Egypt. On the whole these finds throw little light on 
 the origins and early development of the historic orna- 
 ment of Egypt. 
 
 Historic Ornament; General Survey. 
 
 The historic ornament of Egypt may be dated as ex- 
 tending from about 3500 B.C., the date of the earliest 
 examples in the collections, down to the Christian era. 
 From the Old Empire the remains are almost wholly 
 of sepulchral and industrial art scarabs (Fig. 53), 
 mummy-cases, jewelry, furniture and tomb decorations. 
 The Middle Empire has bequeathed us a few examples 
 of its architecture, but the great architectural age is that 
 of the New Empire, though the Ptolemaic is also rich 
 in this field. The Middle and New Empire periods 
 have also left us many examples of sepulchral art. This 
 entire body of decorative art, covering a period of be- 
 
 37
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 tween three and four thousand years, shows an ex- 
 traordinary continuity and uniformity of character and 
 spirit, in spite of the progress observable when it is 
 closely studied. Egyptian art is marked by a highly 
 developed decorative sense which rarely fails to employ 
 both form and color in the most effective and appropri- 
 ate manner. The influence of symbolism and of sur- 
 viving traditions of magic is everywhere observable, 
 though the symbolic significance of the forms used was 
 probably by no means always a controlling influence in 
 the design. In many cases it may not have been at all 
 consciously present in the mind of the designer. 
 
 Sources and Motives. 
 
 The Egyptians employed both geometric and natural 
 forms, the latter always more or less conventionalized. 
 The geometric motives were no doubt chiefly of technic 
 origin, the natural forms magical or symbolic. The con- 
 ventionalizing tendency was always strong, even in 
 purely pictorial and representative paint- 
 ing and sculpture, largely from the influ- 
 ence of heiratic formulae and traditions in 
 sepulchral and temple decoration. In 
 ornament there is rarely any attempt to 
 picture natural objects realistically. Thus 
 the lotus (Figure 36, page 47), which ap- 
 pears in Nature as at a, is usually depicted FIG. 35. 
 in side-elevation, greatly simplified, as at & A jjJ'J. OF 
 and c; and a dish of fruit is shown partly 
 in plan and partly in elevation, the two combined in one 
 representation (Fig. 35). Human figures are drawn 
 
 38
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 with the head in profile, the shoulders in front view, and 
 the legs and feet in side view, both feet planted squarely 
 on the ground, one behind the other. 
 
 Besides the classes of ornament above described, there 
 is the important category of architectural ornament. 
 This consists largely of conventionalized Nature-forms, 
 with only a comparatively limited list of really structural 
 motives. 
 
 General Character. 
 
 Egyptian ornament is characterized by a certain 
 rigidity and formality of character, which permitted of 
 only a very slow and gradual evolution ; there is no such 
 marked change of style, previous at least to the Ptole- 
 maic age, as marks for instance the development of 
 Greek or of Gothic ornament. But there is an ex- 
 traordinary variety of detail in the treatment of a some- 
 what limited stock of fundamental motives. It is pre- 
 dominantly an art of surface-decoration by color: the 
 range of structural and architectural forms is very 
 narrow. Color was largely depended upon for the 
 decoration of buildings as well as of movable objects, 
 and color was used with admirable judgment for decora- 
 tive effects. The colors chiefly used were red, yellow, 
 blue and green, with black and white occasionally as 
 foils; these colors are seldom the pure colors of the 
 spectrum or their nearest pigment analogies, but "re- 
 duced" tones or shades, the red verging towards the red- 
 brown; the yellow a warm tone such as is produced by 
 tinging yellow ochre with burnt-sienna; the blue com- 
 monly of a dark shade, the green ranging from a sap- 
 
 39
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 green to a dark olive. There are of course exceptions, 
 especially in enamels and glass, but they only emphasize 
 the prevailing sobriety and richness of the color in other 
 works. The use of gold in decoration was very sparing. 
 
 
 
 Nature Forms. 
 
 Both plant and animal forms were used in Egyptian 
 ornament. The animal forms chiefly the vulture or 
 hawk, and the urasus or cobra, together with wings 
 and feathers were almost invariably religious or sym- 
 bolic. So also was probably the lotus and perhaps also 
 the papyrus among vegetable forms ; most of the other 
 plants and flowers that occur seem to have been used 
 for purely decorative reasons. 
 
 The Lotus. 
 
 This has been called the sacred flower 4 of Egypt 
 (Figure 36) ; it was the largest and most beautiful of 
 flowers known to that land, and figured prominently in 
 both royal and religious ceremonies. As a product of 
 the life-giving, wealth-bestowing Nile it was symbolic 
 both of that river and of the solar divinities which ruled 
 the river's inundations and imparted to it its fertility 
 and life-renewing powers. It is shown in the hands of 
 kings and gods ; laid as an offering on altars and tied to 
 the tops of posts and columns. It figures in the capitals 
 of columns and is made the basis of endlessly varied 
 borders and all-over patterns. Professor Goodyear in 
 
 * Flinders Petrie, however, denies its sacred and symbolic significance 
 ("Egyptian Decorative Art," page 106). 
 
 40
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 his "Grammar of the Lotus" has endeavored to prove 
 that all Egyptian ornament is based on the lotus and that 
 since all classic ornament can be traced back ultimately 
 to Egypt, and most later styles to the classic, the lotus 
 must be considered to be the parent of nearly all historic 
 ornament. This is surely carrying the thesis too far, 
 but it is undeniable that a very considerable part of 
 Egyptian ornament is of lotus origin, while many forms 
 not lotuses at all, converged towards the lotus type, so 
 that the lotus influence is traceable far beyond the area 
 of actual lotus derivations. 
 
 The Egyptian lotuses used in decoration were the 
 nymphcea lotus and the nymphcea cerulcea respec- 
 tively the white and blue lotus. The rose lotus (nelum- 
 bium) was probably not known till a late date. The 
 Nile lotus is a large water-lily, with four green sepals 
 and a corolla of white or blue petals surrounding the 
 yellow central group of stamens and pistils (Figure 
 36, a). It was represented usually in side-elevation, 
 showing three sepals and usually six petals. The bud 
 was shown with only two sepals visible, and sometimes 
 with no division of sepals at all. The outline of the 
 open flower was either trumpet-shaped, bell-shaped or 
 rectilinear. A derived form was the trilobe, in which 
 the petals were omitted, and the two lateral sepals curled 
 over into volutes; but by a decorative inconsistency, a 
 second set of sepals frequently adorned the trilobe 
 (Fig. 37, c f e). 
 
 As a border ornament, the lotus was alternated with 
 the bud, usually in a pendant position, perhaps in imi- 
 
 41
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 tation of, or convergence towards, fringes of tassels; 
 and with these alternating forms were combined round 
 dots, loops and other details whose meaning is not ob- 
 vious (Figure 38). In late work the lotus-bud is often 
 replaced by bunches of grapes or by nondescript forms 
 generally recalling the oval outline of the bud ( Figures 
 38, 39). 
 
 The lotus was also frequently used as an isolated 
 
 e 
 
 FIG. 37. LOTUS FORMS; a, FULL FLOWER; b-e, TRILOBE FORMS. 
 
 motive, as on paddles, vases and other objects; and as 
 a terminal ornament, e.g., to adorn the prow or stern 
 of a boat (Figure 36, c), or to form the capital of a 
 column (Plate III, 10, 19). Many writers consider 
 Egyptian rosettes in general to be representations in 
 plan of the open lotus, or even of the seed vessel of the 
 flower, but Flinders-Petrie has shown 5 that many 
 rosettes are plainly representations of other flowers, and 
 that others are probably of technic origin. Some 
 rosettes are, however, unmistakably lotus rosettes 
 (Figure 40, page 47) . 
 
 The lotus figures in many all-over patterns in associa- 
 tion with the spiral (Figure 41, page 47). The archi- 
 tectural uses of the lotus are discussed later. 
 
 6 "Egyptian Decorative Art," page 58. 
 
 42
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 42. THE PAPYRUS 
 IN NATURE. 
 
 Other Plant Forms. 
 
 The papyrus (Fig. 42) is the most important of 
 these. Its straight, stiff triangular 
 stem with four root-leaves wrapping 
 its slightly swelling base, is imitated 
 in the clustered shafts of many col- 
 umns (Plate III, 11), and painted 
 as a decoration on walls and on bell- 
 capitals, often alternating with con- 
 ventional lotuses (Figures 43, 45, 
 Fig. 46 ) . The stem bears a bunch of 
 tiny flowers, forming with their 
 stems a group of green filaments 
 with reddish tops, growing out of a calyx of four leaves 
 
 or bracts. These supply the 
 suggestion for many bell-shaped 
 forms in ornament (Figure 
 47), including the great cam- 
 paniform capitals of huge col- 
 umns like those of the Karnak 
 hypostyle hall (Figure &3; 
 Plate III, 10 ). 6 
 
 The daisy, convolvulus, 
 grapes, and thistle occur in 
 ornament; also other plant forms not always recogniz- 
 able. Many rosette and leaf forms are probably mere 
 conventional ornament types, not intended to portray 
 particular plants. The spiked ornament of Figure 44 
 
 In the "Grammar of the Lotus," Prof. Goodyear claims as lotus-forms a 
 host of ornament motives and pictorial representations plainly derived from 
 the papyrus. There are, it is true, many forms in which, by convergence, the 
 two types are blended in one. 
 
 43 
 
 Fro. 46. CAMPANIFORM CAP- 
 ITAL, KAKNAK.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 is identified by Flinders-Petrie as well as Goodyear, as 
 a lotus with the central sepal exaggerated. This does 
 not seem convincing: it is too persistent and uniform 
 a motive in late art, and too unlike the lotus to warrant 
 this explanation without strong proof, and may repre- 
 sent some aquatic plant not now existent in the Nile 
 valley. The palm appears in capitals during and after 
 the XVIIIth dynasty, and is frequent in Ptolemaic and 
 Roman work (Fig. 64, c, page 50; Plate III, 17). 
 
 Animal Forms. 
 
 The vulture, with widespread wings, symbolizing pro- 
 tection and maternal care, is a frequent and a splendid 
 decoration of temple ceilings, and appears in many 
 other applications (Figure 57; Plate III, 20, 23) . The 
 wings alone, with the sun-disk significant of Ra, are 
 still more frequent, especially over the gateways or 
 entrances of temples (Figure 58). The urceus or 
 cobra is a symbol of death, hence of the royal power of 
 life and death, and hence of royalty itself. It decorates 
 the winged disk (Figure 58), the royal head-dress, and 
 the cornices of certain buildings; especially in the 
 Ptolemaic age, of the front screen- walls of the hypostyle 
 halls (Figure 59). The scarabceus or 
 beetle is rarely a purely ornamental mo- 
 tive, but appears isolated on mummy- 
 cases and elsewhere, as a symbol of crea- 
 tion and life, and was the commonest of 
 amulets (Fig. 53). It is occasionally 
 FIG. 53. Scara- found in late all-overs, as in Plate III A. 
 The head of Hathor was used as a sym- 
 
 44 
 
 bceus Amulet 
 (Reverse).
 
 61. ZIGZAGS ; b, 
 IMBRICATIONS; c, CHEV- 
 RONS. 
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 bolic decoration on columns, especially in the Ptolemaic 
 age (Plate III, 9) . The sphinx, a symbolic compound 
 of lion's body with human head (an- 
 drosphinx) or a sculptured ram 
 (criosphinx) , was employed to line 
 the dromos or avenue leading to a 
 temple, and is occasionally found 
 executed in bronze, basalt or diorite, 
 of small size, perhaps as an amulet. 
 But the sphinx belongs rather to 
 sculpture than to ornament. Feath- 
 ers appear not only in representa- FIG 
 tions of great fans or royal insignia, 
 but in the form of scale-like ornament 
 or imbrications (Fig. 61, b; Plate III, 21, 22), which 
 may be derived from the actual use of feathers in cloth- 
 ing. Figure 60 may represent fans, or highly conven- 
 tional lotus forms. 
 
 Conventional or Geometric Motives. 
 
 These are of the greatest variety, and are used with 
 consummate skill, sometimes alone, very often in com- 
 bination with flower-forms, especially the lotus. Fig. 
 61 a illustrates one of many effective examples of the 
 decorative use of simple straight lines. The zigzag 
 occurs with great frequency; it is used often to repre- 
 sent water on the Nile, but may not always have had this 
 significance. Associated with the zigzag is the chevron 
 (Fig. 61, c). Opposed zigzags produce lozenges or 
 diamonds, and occur in simple all-over patterns (Figure 
 50). It is quite likely that all these are primarily of 
 
 45
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 technic origin, from basketwork and weaving. Plaids 
 and check-patterns are undoubtedly technomorphs. In 
 the tombs of Ti and of Ptah Hotep at Sakkarah, mat- 
 tings of plaited rushes or straw are plainly represented 
 as filling the panels of the walls, with patterns of great 
 variety in checks, quarries and zigzags. 
 
 The circle was the basis of a great number of patterns, 
 and intersecting circles forming four-petaled flowers or 
 stars are very common (Figure 52; Plate III, 16, 18). 
 Rosettes are found in unlimited variety. It is impos- 
 sible to affirm in every case whether they are purely 
 geometric and conventional, or floral, or technomor- 
 phic: nor is their origin important except as affecting 
 theories of esthetics and psychology. In many designs 
 they are clearly floral: a beautiful rosette is formed by 
 four spreading lotuses alternating with lotus buds about 
 a common center (Figure 40). 
 
 The spiral, though not as important in Egyptian 
 ornament as later it became in Greek art, was much used 
 both in linear and all-over patterns. Its earliest occur- 
 rence is on scarabs or seals of the very early dynasties, 
 where it appears merely as a decorative space-filler 
 (Fig. 53) or border. It is not frequent on large ob- 
 jects until the XVIIIth dynasty; it is one of the com- 
 monest decorative motives thenceforward until the 
 Decline. It appears occasionally as a current scroll or 
 "Greek wave" (Figure 51). Its most frequent use 
 is in all-over patterns on textiles (or painted represen- 
 tations of them) , and on ceilings in the tombs. Quarries 
 are formed by four (rarely three) lines winding spirally 
 about each of a series of dots arranged in diagonally 
 
 46
 
 6 
 Fig.36 C 
 
 aNduraLb.cCo\/e,niionaIheJ 
 
 FigJlLduaSpirah FigJS. Belt Capital .with 
 fopyrus Decoration 
 
 ? r&rr. ^ 
 
 Conventional Rjfyms 
 
 Fiq.57.Fbinked Vulture 
 
 Fig-62. "Typical Cornke 
 
 Winged DiskorGhbe.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 intersecting rows. The angles are often filled with 
 lotus-blossoms, and the quadrilateral spaces with ro- 
 settes, lozenges or other motives (Figures 41, 48; Plate 
 III, 7, 8) . A variant pattern is formed by series of C- 
 shaped links or volutes in horizontal and vertical pairs. 
 Another variant is seen in patterns of opposed vertical 
 rows of S-scrolls forming lyre-shaped spaces as in 
 Figure 41 and Plate III, 8. 
 
 Fret patterns are the angular or rectilinear counter- 
 parts of spiral patterns, though the quadruple con- 
 vergence on the points of a mesh is rare (Figure 49, 
 which is the counterpart of Figure 48). The fret is 
 but rarely met with as a border-pattern. It will be 
 noted that the pattern in Figure 49 is formed by two 
 intersecting line-motives, and that it produces a series 
 of "swastikas." There is no evidence, however, that the 
 swastika, as a separate motive or as a symbol was used 
 or even known in Egypt. Its occurrence in these pat- 
 terns is purely fortuitous (Plate III, 12, 14). 
 
 The Palmette. 
 
 This is the name given to an ornament which occurs 
 in Egyptian, Assyrian, Phenician, Cypriote and Greek 
 art, in almost countless variations, and of which the 
 Greek anthemion is the direct derivative. It consists 
 (Figures 54, 55, 56) of a group of diverging leaves or 
 petals springing from between two spirals; it is pre- 
 dominantly used as an isolated or terminal motive in 
 Egyptian art. An early example is a gold jewel from 
 the IVth dynasty (Figure 55, a) ; later examples are 
 shown in Figures 55, b, 56. The origin and significance 
 
 48
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 of this ornament are not fully determined. All author- 
 ities agree that it is a lotus-motive, but how the particular 
 combination of a species of semi-rosette with a trilobe 
 lotus came about and what it meant are not wholly clear. 
 One theory makes it a half -plan of the flower above an 
 elevation of the same 7 (see ante, Fig. 35); another 
 sees in it the symbol of the rising sun or Horus, over the 
 lotus or Nile. The spiked flower-motive in Figure 44 
 may perhaps be a variation of the palmette rather than 
 of the lotus or of an unknown aquatic plant. It is not 
 to be confounded with representations of ceremonial 
 royal fans, though somewhat resembling them. Pecu- 
 liar horn-like volutes in some examples (Figure 60) are 
 probably representations of the third and fourth sepals 
 of the lotus-calyx. The oval or semicircular object 
 nesting between the voluted front sepals is probably the 
 core-body or pericarp of the flower seen between its 
 sepals; it becomes an essential feature of all the later 
 and derivative forms persisting through Greek art and, 
 indeed, through all the ages to our own. 
 
 Architectural Forms: Piers, Columns and Cornices. 
 
 The architectural forms of Egyptian ornament were 
 comparatively few and simple. There was no system 
 of uniform orders like the Greek and Roman; but one 
 type of cornice, the cavetto cornice, was universal 
 (Figure 62; Plate III, 9, 11) . This was usually orna- 
 mented with vertical flutings, perhaps as reminiscences 
 of primitive papyrus-stalk framing, and with a torus at 
 
 7 F. P., op. cit., page 70; also Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pas- 
 sim, 
 
 49
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 63. TYPES OF COLUMNS. 
 
 its base, plainly derived from a bundle of reeds bound 
 together. This torus was frequently carried down 
 the corners of pylons and other enclosing walls. A 
 
 winged disk invariably 
 adorned the central 
 part of the cornice 
 over all temple door- 
 ways (Fig. 58). 
 
 Columns had shafts 
 of three types: the 
 circular or cylindrical, 
 the clustered, and the 
 polygonal or proto- 
 doric (Plate III, 10, 11; Fig. 63, a, b, c). The fisrt 
 two tapered upward in most cases, and sometimes had 
 a slight swelling or convexity at the base (Fig. 63, d). 
 The clustered shafts consisted of four or eight members 
 (or rarely even more), which were sometimes cylindri- 
 cal, sometimes formed with an arris or edge (Fig. 
 63, d). The so-called "proto-doric" columns had from 
 eight to thirty-two sides, flat or slightly concaved; they 
 are chiefly found in rock-cut tombs and a few scanty 
 temple-ruins of the Middle Empire (Fig. 63, c). 
 
 The Capitals of columns 
 were of the greatest variety, 
 but divisible into a few main 
 groups: the bud capital, 
 single or clustered (Fig. 63, 
 a, b; Plate III, 11); the 
 bell-shaped or campaniform, 
 
 FIG. 64. 
 
 single or compound 
 (Fig. 64, a, b; also Figure 46 and Figure 43; Plate 
 
 50
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 III, 9, 10) ; the palmiform (Fig. 64, c; Plate III, 17) ; 
 and the Hathoric (Plate III, 9) . The bud-capital was 
 the most common; the campaniform appears chiefly in 
 the central aisles of hypostyle halls, as at Karnak and the 
 Ramesseum ; the compound campaniform, the palmiform 
 and the Hathoric belong chiefly to the Ptolemaic age, 
 which produced also various exceptional forms of which 
 those in Plate III, 15 and 19 are ex- 
 amples. The bell capital was adorned 
 with painted petals around its lower 
 part, and with rows of flowers on erect 
 green stalks. These are apparently 
 survivals or elaborations of the green 
 filaments of the papyrus-head from 
 which this type of capital is probably 
 derived 8 (Figures 43, 45, 47; Fig. 46; 
 Plate III, 10). Indeed, many other 
 features of the Egyptian columns point 
 to the influence of papyrus origins. 
 Every shaft, even when cylindrical, is 
 bound by five or more bands at the top, 
 a detail evidently derived from the bind- 
 ing of clustered supports such as 
 bundles of papyrus stalks ; the clustered 
 shafts often have an edge or arris, like the triangular 
 stem of the papyrus; the slight swelling at the base, 
 swathed in leaves, with the upward taper, is a marked 
 characteristic of the papyrus stalk (see Fig. 42) ; the 
 
 s Prof. Goodyear in his "Grammar of the Lotus" and elsewhere sharply dis- 
 putes this view, contending that this capital is derived from the seed-vessel 
 of the rose-lotus. His authority is weighty, but his arguments not convinc- 
 ing. See ante, page 43, Note. 
 
 51 
 
 FIG. 65. OSIRID 
 PIER, LUXOR.
 
 bound stalks of the bundle-molding plainly point to the 
 structural use of papyrus stalks in primitive times ; and 
 the bell-shaped cap, striped with green vertical lines 
 rising from a calyx of leaves, and with its red lip, is the 
 appropriate architectural interpretation in stone of the 
 spreading papyrus-head of green filaments rising from 
 a pseudo-calyx of leaves, and bearing small reddish tops 
 or heads. The combination of all these features is more 
 easily and naturally explained by the papyrus origin 
 than by any other theory. But there is probably con- 
 vergence towards familiar lotus-types: it is always 
 dangerous to attempt any narrow and exclusive assign- 
 ment of origins to decorative forms. 
 
 The shafts of simple cylindrical columns were gen- 
 erally covered with bands of incised and painted 
 hieroglyphics and pictures, serving both to adorn them 
 and to give scale to their simple masses (Plate III, 10) . 
 
 Osirid Piers. 
 
 Besides the columns there occur in several temples 
 square or rectangular piers, often fronted with colossal 
 
 sculptured figures of Osirid 
 holding a scourge and a 
 "Nile key" or "key of life" 
 (Fig. 65). 
 
 FIG. 66. 
 
 PAINTED PECTORAL ON A 
 MUMMY-CASE. 
 
 Industrial Arts. 
 
 The Egyptians practised 
 the arts of the goldsmith 
 and jeweler; not only have we in our museums gold 
 jewelry of very great antiquity rings, bracelets, pen- 
 
 52
 
 EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 dants, brooches and necklaces (Figures 55, a, 56; but 
 we have on mummy-cases and in pictures representa- 
 tions of necklaces and pectorals of great 
 splendor (Figure 66) . In all these the 
 lotus, bud, and palmette are constantly 
 recurring motives. The art of enamel- 
 ing was understood and practised with 
 skill, especially for amulets. Glass was 
 known, was used for vials and small ob- 
 jects, and was highly prized. Small 
 objects like spoons and perfume-boxes 
 were carved in wood, often in highly 
 artistic designs (Fig. 67; Plate III, 
 25 ) . Textile art was highly developed, 
 linen being the chief material. The 
 figured stuffs, hangings, etc., have per- 
 ished, but the tomb paintings show us 
 the designs once employed: some of 
 these have already been illustrated 
 (Figures 41, 48, 52; Plate III, 6-8, 
 12-14. Pottery and earthenware were 
 produced in large quantities, and were 
 articles of export, but the product did not compare 
 either in grace of form or in decoration with the later 
 ceramic work of the Greeks. Enameled earthenware 
 was used for the finer bowls, platters, etc., and enameled 
 tiles were early used in architecture, as around a door 
 in the stepped pyramid of Sakkarah, but apparently not 
 in buildings after the Hyksos period. Amulets and 
 small ornaments were made of enameled earthenware, of 
 cloisonne enamel on metal (gold or copper), of bronze, 
 
 53 
 
 FIG. 67. CARVED 
 WOODEN SPOON.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 and of diorite and other hard stones. Of these amulets 
 the scarabcei are the most numerous; one side being 
 modeled to represent the scarabseus beetle (an emblem 
 of life after death), the other side, flat, having incised 
 hieroglyphs and spiral or scroll ornaments. 
 
 Not much furniture has been preserved, but the few 
 extant examples, of sycamore wood, and the very numer- 
 ous sarcophagi and mummy-wraps and cartonnages, 
 furnish almost countless examples of painted ornament. 
 Carved spoons and perfume holders were often highly 
 elaborate (Fig. 67; Plate III, 25) . 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 FLJNDERS-PETRIE : Egyptian Decorative Art (London, 1895). 
 W. H. GOODYEAR: Grammar of the Lotus (London, 1891). 
 PERROT and CHIPIEZ: Histoire de Tart dans Vantiquite: Egypte 
 (Paris, 1884) ; also English edition, History of Ancient Art in 
 Egypt, trans. W. Armstrong (New York, 1885). PRISSE 
 D'AVENNES: L 'Art Egyptien (Paris, 1878). ROSELLINI: 
 / Monumenti del E git to e delta Nubia (Pisa, 1832-1844).
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 The valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was 
 the cradle of a civilization second only to that of Egypt 
 in antiquity. Indeed, it is believed by some scholars to 
 reach as far back as that of the Nile Valley, though its 
 origins are buried in obscurity. The two civilizations 
 early came into contact with each other, and there are 
 traces of reciprocal influences between them. The 
 material remains of Chaldean art are far less rich and 
 important than those of Egyptian art, and the most 
 important among them, from the point of view of deco- 
 rative design, belong to a period when Egyptian art was 
 already in its decline. Early Chaldean art lasted from 
 a date reaching back 3000 or 4000 years B.C. to 1250 B.C., 
 when the Assyrian power attained the ascendancy. The 
 Assyrian empire was overthrown 606 B.C. by the second 
 Chaldean or Babylonian empire, and this in turn suc- 
 cumbed to the Persians 525 B.C. The most important 
 monumental art of these three periods is that of the 
 Sargonidae of Assyria, from 900 to 606 B.C. Recent 
 excavations by the Germans at Babylon have brought 
 to light many remains of both the earlier and later 
 Chaldean empire : but our chief concern is with the prod- 
 ucts of the Assyrian dominion. 
 
 55
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Land and Materials. 
 
 From the high table-lands and hills of Northern 
 Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf, the country is almost 
 flat, a vast alluvial plain, abounding in clay, extremely 
 fertile under irrigation, but lacking both stone and 
 timber. All building was consequently of brick, either 
 sun-baked or kiln-burned, and chiefly the former. 
 Timber from the distant mountains or from Syria was 
 costly and was used but sparingly; fuel was expensive 
 and burned brick therefore also expensive. Thin slabs 
 of alabaster or of limestone were the only forms in 
 which stone could be used, except in rare instances. 
 These limitations made all architectural art based on 
 stone construction impossible, and confined decorative 
 art within narrow limits. Ceramics in the form of bricks 
 and enameled tiles and pottery ; textiles, especially rugs 
 and hangings, and bronze in small amounts, were the 
 principal media of artistic expression, although sculp- 
 ture, chiefly in the form of carving in low relief on 
 alabaster, was also practised with a skill which is re- 
 markable when one considers the scarcity and costliness 
 of stone. Of wood carving there are hardly any ex- 
 amples. 
 
 Early Chaldean Art. 
 
 The remains of decorative art from ancient Chaldea 
 are not numerous. Abundant cylinders and inscribed 
 bricks, ruins of temples and palaces, a few statues of 
 kings or deities carved in stone obtained from abroad, 
 some pottery and a few objects in bronze, make up the 
 
 56
 
 CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 bulk of the product of the excavations carried on in 
 Niffer (Nippur) the sacred city, in Warka, Mugheir, in 
 Babylon, and in 
 other places be- 
 longing to this em- 
 pire, 
 arts 
 
 The plastic 
 were appar- 
 ently not in gen- 
 eral highly devel- 
 oped. The most 
 ancient examples 
 of its architectural 
 ornament known 
 are the walls of 
 Warka (Erech), 
 formed with ver- 
 tical reedings and 
 panels, and covered with a simple mosaic (Fig. 68) 
 formed of cones of terra cotta driven into their sun-dried 
 brick facings. The flat exposed bases of these cones, 
 enameled in various colors, form patterns of lozenges 
 and zigzags, apparently derived from familiar mattting- 
 patterns. Flat tiles may have been used in other cases, 
 but they have all perished. 
 
 Assyrian Ornament: Origins and Motives. 
 
 Assyrian decoration depended largely on naturalistic 
 representation: human figures, bulls, lions and other 
 animals appear frequently, not merely in the great 
 sculptured pictures on the alabaster wainscot of palace 
 halls, but in the subordinate decoration of buildings and 
 
 57 
 
 FIG. 68. WALL-MOSAIC, WARKA.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 in the ornament of minor objects. There was also a 
 large group of motives derived from Egyptian art, 
 greatly modified oftentimes in treatment but still recog- 
 
 Fio. 69. ASSYRIAN ORXAMENT MOTIVES. 
 
 nizably Egyptian. Another class of motives are in 
 dispute, but two facts seem clear: first, that the As- 
 syrians originated little in the way of decorative motives ; 
 and, secondly, that whatever they borrowed underwent a 
 transformation into something that is purely Assyrian 
 in character. 
 
 The lotus (Fig. 69, a); lotus-palmette (&), and 
 
 58
 
 CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 winged disk or globe (e) are undeniably derived from 
 Egypt- Tne rosette (Fig. 69, c) and the guilloche (/) 
 are common to both Egyptian and Assyrian ornament, 
 but it is not demonstrated that they were not indepen- 
 dently invented by the Chaldeans from whom the As- 
 syrians probably received them. 
 
 The chevron (Fig. 69, g) and imbricated or scale 
 ornaments (d) are peculiarly Assyrian, but as they are 
 also found in Egyptian art, they belong with the rosette 
 and guilloche in the doubtful class as to origin. The 
 so-called "pomegranate" (Fig. 69, h, i) is probably 
 Chaldean. The pine cone (Fig. 70, a) is an Assyrian 
 form, but as it conforms in outline and in its occurrence 
 to the lotus-bud, it may be claimed as a lotus derivative. 
 The stepped-pyramid, used as a parapet ornament, 
 seems to be purely Chaldean. 
 
 But if the Assyrians borrowed freely from Egypt l 
 they as freely modified what they borrowed. The lotus 
 was carved in low relief with sharply pointed, gracefully 
 curved petals and sepals (Figs. 69, a, 70, a), and was 
 given a wholly new calyx, the three sepals being evi- 
 dently looked upon as petals ; the bud was likewise given 
 an extra calyx and carved sometimes with three instead 
 of two sepals showing (Fig. 70, b). It was alternated 
 with buds and with pine-cones, and combined into elab- 
 
 i Prof. Goodyear quotes Oppert for proof that under Gudea (3000 B. c.?), 
 the Chaldeans imported stone from Egypt during the Fourth Dynasty; 
 points out that under the XVIIIth Dynasty Assyria was a province of 
 Egypt, and calls attention to the later Assyrian conquests in Egypt and 
 Syria and to the importance of Phenician commerce between Assyria and 
 both Egypt and Syria ("Grammar of the Lotus," page 177, note). It must 
 be remembered that the Phenicians not only carried Egyptian products to 
 Asia, but themselves counterfeited or imitated them, so that Egyptian 
 forms and motives were greatly multiplied and widely disseminated. 
 
 59
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 orate rosettes (Plate IV, 8). The lotus-palmette 
 (Fig. 69, b) was often substituted for the lotus (Plate 
 IV, 1) and used in borders; as an isolated terminal 
 
 ornament (Fig. 72, a) ; 
 as the chief detail of the 
 Sacred Tree (Fig. 70, 
 c; Plate IV, 2), and 
 in many other ways, 
 carved in alabaster-re- 
 lief, painted on plaster, 
 enameled on bricks, cast 
 or engraved in bronze. 
 In all borders, the units 
 were connected by vo- 
 luted bands, often curved 
 into semi-circles or semi- 
 ellipses (Figs. 69, a, 70) 
 and frequently fastened 
 together by links. This 
 is a purely Assyrian de- 
 vice, and the organic link- 
 ing of the units no 
 longer merely strung along a straight line as in 
 most Egyptian examples marks a decided decora- 
 tive advance. Whether the frequent use of branch- 
 ing and opposed double volutes (Fig. 71), so com- 
 mon in Assyrian decoration, was derived from the vo- 
 lutes of the Egyptian trilobe lotus and lotus-palmette, 
 or from the curled-over ends of the linked bands, is not 
 clear and perhaps not important. The discussion as to 
 whether the palmette in Assyrian art "is" a lotus or a 
 
 60 
 
 FIG. 70. a, b. PINE 
 BORDER; c, DETAIL 
 TREE. 
 
 AND LOTUS 
 OF SACRED
 
 CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 palm-tree also becomes unimportant if one simply ad- 
 mits that the decorative motive was derived from or 
 suggested by the Egyptian lotus-palmette, but was 
 treated in detail by the Assyrians in a manner plainly 
 suggesting a conventional palm-tree 
 (Fig. 72) ; an example of decora- 
 tive convergence which has scores of 
 parallels in the history of ornament 
 motives and symbols. In the sin- 
 gular "sacred tree" which so often 
 occurs in Assyrian reliefs (Fig. 70, 
 c), the intention is unquestionably 
 to represent or symbolize the palm; 
 in that sense the palmettes which 
 compose it "are" palm-tree forms, 
 while in decorative type and origin 
 they "are" lotus-palmettes. The 
 so-called pine-cones referred to 
 above may represent, as believed by 
 E. B. Tylor, the inflorescence of the 
 male date-palm, or it may be what it 
 appears to be, a pine-cone. 
 
 The rosette is used with such frequency as to deserve 
 to be called the Assyrian motive par excellence. It ap- 
 pears in every branch of Assyrian decoration, and in 
 every possible material. The pomegranate is more 
 exclusively Assyrian but less conspicuous by its fre- 
 quency. All-over patterns are rare ; of architectural or 
 at least of genuine structural forms there are very few. 
 Columns appear only in the form of colonnettes; a few 
 bases and capitals have been found, and the reliefs from 
 
 61 
 
 FIG. 71. ASSYRIAN VO- 
 LUTES.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 the palaces show how they were used, as mullions and as 
 supports for pavilions. In these, as also in furniture, 
 coupled volutes are favorite devices, and undoubtedly 
 
 furnish the first step in the de- 
 velopment of the Ionic capital 
 (Fig. 71). 
 
 Living Forms. 
 
 The human figure, grotesques 
 or monsters, part man and part 
 beast, and representations of 
 animals, all play a large part in 
 Assyrian decorative art; not 
 merely in the great pictures in 
 low relief which wainscoted the 
 lower parts of the interior walls, 
 but in more purely ornamental 
 
 FIG. 72. a, TERMINAL PALM- and symbolic compositions, 
 ; b, PALM-TREE, FROM sometimes carved in relief in ala- 
 
 baster, sometimes in flat color on 
 
 tiles or plaster. The huge symbolic "portal guardians" 
 winged monsters with human heads and bodies of 
 bulls that flanked the arched gateways of the palaces 
 and fortifications, are genuine decorative compositions 
 of extraordinary power and remarkable execution. The 
 details are highly conventionalized; five legs are shown, 
 two appearing in front elevation and four in the side 
 view; the hair and beard are curled into closely coiled 
 spirals and the muscles exaggerated (Plate IV, 7). 
 The winged lion and winged bull, as well as winged 
 human figures representing deities, appear frequently 
 
 62
 
 CHALDEA AND ASSYRIA 
 
 in enameled earthenware tiles. The griffin (Fig. 73), 
 a monster with a lion's or panther's body and the head 
 and wings of an eagle, plays an important part in this 
 decorative system of religious symbolism. It probably 
 originated in Chaldea, and spread thence through West- 
 ern Asia, to appear in Greek and Roman art in later 
 
 FIG. 73. GRIFFIN OR MONSTER, FROM A RELIEF. 
 
 years. In naturalistic pictures the forms and action 
 of animals were rendered often with surprising realism ; 
 but these belong in the field of pictorial relief sculpture 
 rather than of ornament. 
 
 Colors and Technic. 
 
 The Assyrian technic in the representation of nature 
 never fell into the absolute rigidity of hieratic conven- 
 tion observed in Egypt. Within its far narrower field, 
 it was excellent in execution, but less rich in variety of 
 motive and pattern of ornament. The gamut of color 
 was restricted: green, blue, yellow, black and dark red 
 were the colors chiefly employed. The use of black in 
 
 63
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 chevrons as a detail of the decoration is particularly 
 noticeable (Fig. 69, b, c, g, h). Not many examples 
 of painted ornament have been preserved; a few frag- 
 ments of plaster show patterns like those of the enameled 
 tiles. Bronze was used for jars and bowls, for furni- 
 ture and probably also for covering gates and some- 
 times other architectural features; but very few ex- 
 amples of this application of bronze to architecture have 
 been preserved. The gates of Balawat in the British 
 Museum, dating from the time of Shalmaneser II (9th 
 century B.C.) were decorated with strips or bands of 
 sheet bronze bearing repousse reliefs of the campaigns 
 of that king. The recent German excavations in Baby- 
 lon have uncovered the palace with its Gate of Ishtar, 
 whose towers were adorned with plates of bronze which 
 have disappeared. In these excavations it was also 
 found that the Babylonians, lacking stone and alabaster, 
 faced their gateways with enameled bricks bearing large 
 compositions in color, each brick being separately 
 molded and colored to produce its own small fraction of 
 the design. This style of decoration was later adopted 
 in Persia: it is probable that Babylonian artists were 
 imported to Susa to execute the Persian bricks and to 
 teach the art to the Persians, among whom decorative 
 ceramics have been an important art ever since. 
 
 Books Recommended. 
 
 BOTTA and FLANDIN.: Monument de Ninive (Paris, 1849-50). 
 PERROT and CHIPIEZ: Histoire de I'art dans Vantiquite: Clial- 
 dee et Assyr'ie (Paris, 1883); also English translation by W. 
 Armstrong, History of Art in Chaldcea and Assyria (London, 
 1884). PLACE: Ninive et VAssyrie (Paris, 1867-70). 
 
 64
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 WEST ASIATIC ORNAMENT 
 PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND PERSIA 
 
 The northern half of Asia Minor, west of the river 
 Halys, was occupied, during the centuries from the 
 tenth to the sixth B.C., by the Phrygians, originally from 
 
 
 Fio. 74. a, PART OP FACADE OF "TOMB OF MIDAS"; b, DETAIL FBOM TOMB AT 
 
 DOGHANLOU. 
 
 Thrace ; whose empire was overthrown early in the sixth 
 century by the Lydians of the extreme western littoral. 
 Along the Asiatic shore south of Lydia were the Gary- 
 ans and Lycians. In all of these several domains there 
 
 65
 
 Fio. 75. CAPITAL FROM 
 NEANDBEIA. 
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 developed a material civilization which has left numer- 
 ous remains, chiefly of tombs, though excavations now 
 being made at Sardis and others that are still in the 
 future may supply us with products of other arts as well 
 
 as of architecture. The prin- 
 cipal examples of ornament thus 
 far to hand occur in the rock-cut 
 tomb-fa9ades, some of which, 
 like the so-called Tomb of Midas 
 (Fig. 74, a) and a tomb at 
 Doghanlou (b) suggest textile 
 design. This region has from 
 great antiquity been noted for 
 the weaving of rugs; other ornaments are clearly de- 
 rived from wood-construction, while others again show 
 Assyrian, Persian and ^Egean influences. 
 
 Several capitals and fragments of capitals (Fig. 
 75) found in Asia Minor, with branching volutes and 
 with recurved petals, furnish the probable prototypes of 
 the Greek Ionic capital and of certain details of the 
 Persian capitals. 
 
 Persian Ornament. 
 
 The art of Asia Minor bears no comparison in splen- 
 dor and variety with that of the great Medo-Persian 
 empire of the Achsemenid kings Cyrus, Cambyses, 
 Darius, Xerxes and their successors. This empire, 
 which began its conquering career in 608 under the 
 Mede Cyaxares, and fifty years later attained greatness 
 under Cyrus (559-529) and his successors, developed 
 a grandiose architecture of palaces, halls, gates and 
 
 66
 
 PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND PERSIA 
 
 tombs in which Egyptian and Assyrian motives were 
 blended with others derived from wooden construction 
 and from the early art of the Ionian Greeks of Asia 
 Minor. This brilliant and showy art expired with the 
 fall of Persia before the Macedonian armies of Alex- 
 ander (330 B.C.) ; but the art instinct of Persia, though 
 under an eclipse for several centuries, was destined to 
 revive under the Sassanian rule, and in still later cen- 
 turies to affect profoundly the development of Moham- 
 medan decorative art. 
 
 Architectural Ornament. 
 
 The ruins of Persepolis, Pasargadae and Susa reveal 
 a remarkable develop- 
 ment of columnar archi- 
 tecture of stone with 
 wooden ceilings and 
 roofs. The walls were 
 of stone, or of brick with 
 stone dressings to the 
 doors and windows. 
 These have banded 
 architraves with pa- 
 pyrus-bundle moldings 
 and cavetto cornices, 
 evidently derived from 
 Egypt (Figs. 76, 77, a). 
 Stone was used for 
 
 embankment walls and stairs, for the great palace 
 terraces, for the window-dressings just mentioned, 
 and for the columns; the walls were chiefly of sun- 
 
 67 
 
 FIG. 76. DOORWAY, PERSEPOLIS.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 dried brick, though at Susa enameled bricks were 
 used with extraordinary effect, to produce huge wall- 
 pictures in low rounded relief, and bands of elaborate 
 decoration, all in rich colors enameled or fused upon 
 the surface of the bricks (Plate IV, 14, 15). Decora- 
 tive relief-sculpture in stone was employed, based 
 primarily on Assyrian models, but treated in a taste 
 peculiar to the Persians, and always highly decorative. 
 
 The most striking feature of Persian architecture was 
 the columns with forked capitals representing the fore 
 parts of bulls set upon an elaborate composition of 
 double scrolls, upright and inverted bells, and carved 
 beads (Plate IV, 9, 10). These are typical of Persian 
 eclecticism; one recognizes the Egyptian bell capital (see 
 Fig. 46) ; the Assyrian and Phenician double scrolls 
 (Fig. 71) ; the Asia Minor recurved leafage (note the 
 astagal or necking in Fig. 75) ; and the primitive 
 wooden forked post which has been used from im- 
 memorial antiquity, in Media and Phrygia, to support 
 the timber roofs of peasant huts. 
 
 The shafts were finely fluted, and rested on elaborate 
 molded bases, often bell-shaped (Fig. 77, d; Plate IV, 
 9) carved with elaborate leaf -patterns. The slender 
 proportions of the shafts, their small flutings and 
 molded bases, all point to a common origin with that of 
 the Greek Ionic column which came to its full develop- 
 ment a century later than the Persian column. Both 
 probably had their origin in Asia Minor, though the 
 remains of their prototypes thus far discovered are 
 scanty. 
 
 The same is true of the banded architrave and the 
 
 68
 
 PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND PERSIA 
 
 dentils of the Ionic order; 
 they are found both in Per- 
 sian (see Fig. 77, a) and 
 Lycian architecture, in 
 both of which they plainly 
 reveal their origin in tim- 
 ber construction. 
 
 Persian Ornament Motives. 
 
 These were chiefly de- 
 rived from Egypt and 
 Mesopotamia ; the lotus, 
 lotus-palmette and rosette 
 are those most frequently 
 employed, but treated with 
 details which differentiate 
 them clearly from the 
 Egyptian, Assyrian or 
 Chaldean forms. In linear 
 bands of lotus-palmettes 
 and buds the units are con- 
 nected by nearly semicir- 
 cular loops instead of the 
 flattened links of the As- 
 syrian style (Plate IV, 
 14). Plate IV, 12, and 
 Fig. 77, b, show the lotus 
 palmette on a stem like that 
 of some palms which grow 
 by successive pairs of 
 leaves rising one out of the 
 
 69 
 
 FIG. 77. 
 
 d 
 
 PERSIAV DETAILS. 
 
 a, Architrave and Cornice from a 
 Tomb; b, Rosettes and Palm; c, 
 Stair Parapet; d, Column-Base, 
 Persepolis.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 other; evidently, therefore, not intended at all for a 
 lotus, but as a purely conventional plant- form, perhaps 
 even a palm-tree. Spiral and voluted forms are also 
 common, both in flat ornament (see Plate IV) and in 
 the mighty grouped vertical volutes of the capitals of 
 columns (Fig. 78). The Assyrian stepped parapet 
 also appears in the decoration of the platforms and stairs 
 of Persepolis (Fig. 77, c). From Egypt were de- 
 rived the fluted cavetto cornice (Fig. 77, a) and the 
 winged disk, converted into a winged ring encircling the 
 figure of a god, Ahuri-Mazda (Fig. 79). The sculp- 
 tural representations of warriors, winged lions and 
 winged bulls were based on Assyrian prototypes. The 
 wood-constructions of Media and Asia Minor gave the 
 
 suggestions for the 
 forked capital, the 
 banded architrave and 
 the dentil. The leaf 
 ornaments on the bases 
 (Fig. 77, d) and the 
 shorter leaf-ornaments 
 resembling eggs and 
 darts (Fig. 77, c) are 
 possibly remote deriva- 
 tives from the lotus 
 bud and from lotus 
 bands ; more directly, 
 however, derived from 
 
 Fio. 78. VOLUTES OF A CAPITAL, Assyria, as is also the 
 
 PERSEPOLIS. * 
 
 stepped-pyramid para- 
 pet. The bead-and-reel molding, which occurs in some 
 
 70
 
 PHRYGIA, LYDIA AND PERSIA 
 
 capitals, is possibly derived from the papyrus-bundle 
 molding. The torus, which appears in the column bases, 
 the bead-and-reel, the shaft-fluting, the decorated col- 
 umn-base, the banded architrave, were all destined to be- 
 come important elements in the architectural decoration 
 
 FIG. 79. AHURI-MAZDA FROM A RELIEF. 
 
 of the Greeks. Whether their origination is to be cred- 
 ited to the Persians, or, as is more likely, to the Ionian 
 and other races of Asia Minor, is not clear; but the Per- 
 sian was the earliest developed architecture in which they 
 were systematically employed. 
 
 Persian ornament is of interest partly on account of 
 its own splendor, partly on account of its relations on 
 the one hand to the Semitic art of Mesopotamia and on 
 the other to the Aryan art of Greece. It stands inter- 
 mediate between the two, alike in time, place and char- 
 acter. It is an eclectic style, borrowing freely from 
 every source, but profoundly modifying whatever it 
 adopted, and displaying a genuine creative originality, 
 as well as a remarkable power of ingenious adaptation, 
 
 71
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 in its use and development of what it borrowed to new 
 purposes and in new combinations. 
 
 Books Recommended, 
 
 DIEULAFOY: UArt antique de la Perse (Paris, 1883). 
 FELLOWS: Account of Discoveries in Lycia (London, 1841). 
 FLANDIN and COSTE: Voyage en Perse (Paris, 184354). PER- 
 ROT and CHIPIEZ: Histoire de Vart dans Vantiquite: Perse; 
 Phrygie, Lydie, Carle et Lycie; Sardaigne et Judee (Paris, 
 1885-1890). The same in English: History of Art in Persia; 
 History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia; History of 
 Art in Sardinia and Judaea (London, 1886-1891). TEXIER: 
 Description del* Armenie et la Perse (Paris, 1842-52).
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PRE-HELLENIC ORNAMENT 
 AND ASIATIC 
 
 Intermediate between the art of Egypt and Meso- 
 potamia on the one hand, and the distinctively Occi- 
 dental art of Greece on the other, stands the group of 
 styles that developed in the islands and along the shores 
 of the ^Bgean and the Mediterranean Seas during a 
 period of thirteen to fifteen hundred years previous to 
 the first Olympiad (776 B.C.). The cradle of the civi- 
 lization represented by these styles was the island of 
 Crete Crete "of the hundred cities," as it is called in the 
 Homeric poems. The Cretan civilization, as made 
 known to us by the discoveries of Evans and others at 
 Knossos, Phaestos and in other parts of the island, 
 beginning in a remote past in the third millennium B.C., 
 had attained a high development by the end of the XXth 
 century B.C., and reached its culmination in the XVIth 
 and XVth centuries. This progress was interrupted 
 by repeated catastrophes which mark its division into 
 periods, 1 and was finally overwhelmed, about 1400 B.C., 
 by a foreign invasion, perhaps of Pelasgi or Achaeans 
 from Greece. 
 
 i First, Middle and Late Minoan eras, each subdivided into periods. The 
 name Minoan is derived from that of the more or less legendary King Minos. 
 
 73
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 The influence of the Cretan culture which though 
 contemporary with the Middle and New Empires in 
 Egypt seems to have borrowed but little from that coun- 
 try, dominated that of prehistoric Greece and Asia 
 Minor. Out of this influence was developed the art of 
 Mycenae, Tiryns and Troy (Ilios, Ilion), commonly 
 called Mycenaean, which flourished from 1500 to 1300 
 B.C., and after two centuries of decline was in turn ex- 
 tinguished by the Dorian migration of 1104 B.C. Artis- 
 tic activity, however, continued in certain islands like 
 Melos and Rhodes, while Assyrian art was flourishing 
 in Asia (1100-600 B.C.), and while the Phenicians were 
 distributing and imitating the art-products of both 
 Egypt and Assyria and making them known through- 
 out the whole Mediterranean basin. On the island of 
 Cyprus all these various currents of art-influence con- 
 verged into a singularly mixed product, which partakes 
 by turns of the characteristics of each of its components, 
 and in its later phases also reflects the influence of early 
 Greek art. 
 
 Cretan Ornament. 
 
 The excavations at Knossos, Phaastos, Hagia Triada 
 and other Cretan sites have disclosed the remains of a 
 well-developed civilization with an art vigorous and full 
 of character, which strongly influenced that of the whole 
 ^Egean and eastern Mediterranean. Of its architecture 
 nothing is left but foundations of extensive palaces and 
 fortifications, fragments of a few columns and archi- 
 traves, and bits of painted plastering on walls. The 
 columns (Fig. 80) tapered downward and bore sim- 
 
 n
 
 FIG. 80. 
 COLUMN FHOM 
 
 KNOSSOS. 
 
 AEGEAN AND ASIATIC 
 
 pie heavy torus capitals. A notable architectural mo- 
 tive, frequently recurring in Mycenaean art, is that shown 
 
 in Figure 81 (page 76) composed of a f *nF[| 
 
 pair of semi-rosettes flanking a vertical 
 rectangle. Its significance and origin are 
 uncertain. On plaster and on pottery the 
 circle, rosette and spiral wave or " Vitruvian 
 scroll" are frequent, in various combina- 
 tions (Figure 82) ; also a heart-shaped mo- 
 tive which was carried into Mycensean 
 decoration. The elaborate "key" or fret- 
 pattern of Figure 83 is from a plastered 
 wall at Knossos. 
 
 Of Cretan pottery comparatively little 
 has survived, but the elaborate late Minoan 
 vase from Knossos shown in Fig. 84 reveals a highly 
 developed pattern of conventional leaf -forms. Fig. 85 
 from a sarcophagus found near Gortyna, shows a curi- 
 ously conventionalized portrayal of marine plant-life. 
 Figure 86 shows two all-over patterns from a large pot- 
 tery ossuary; one resembles a common Egyptian pat- 
 tern (see Figure 52) ; the other is peculiarly Cretan. 
 
 The interior of the same ossuary 
 is decorated with representations 
 of waves, fishes and shells. 
 
 Mycensean Ornament. 
 
 The art-products of the My- 
 cenaean culture include those 
 from Tiryns, Troy, Argos, 
 FIG. 84. LATE MINOAX VASE. Nauplia, Menidi and other sites, 
 
 75
 
 Fig.81, Cretan Frieze Ornament 
 
 Fig.85. Fret Rrttemfinossoa. 
 
 Fig86.Cretari4//&verf : ltttern3 
 
 Fiq SQ.JIanne. Life.Mycencean Fbttery 
 
 Fig 94 Mycenaean Motives
 
 AEGEAN AND ASIATIC 
 
 as well as from Mycenae proper, besides specimens 
 found in Rhodes, Cyprus and other islands, which 
 were obviously imported from Mycenaean centers. This 
 culture was especially proficient in the minor arts, in 
 pottery, goldsmith's work and bronze. It was less no- 
 table relatively in its architecture, although the great 
 tomb known as the Tholos of Atreus, and the Lion Gate, 
 both at Mycenae, attest the power to produce a certain 
 amount of architectural splendor. The ruins of Troy, 
 Tiryns and Mycenae show extensive stone structures 
 of a somewhat primitive character. Figure 87 shows 
 the upper part of one of the columns of the Tholos door- 
 way, with a capital and downward-tapering shaft evi- 
 dently derived from Cretan prototypes. 
 
 Of sculpture there is very little, no free statues having 
 come down to us; but the so-called "island stones" or 
 carved gems exhibit a high degree of artistic skill, and 
 there are fragmentary reliefs showing intelligent study 
 of nature. 
 
 Mycenaean ornament displays many motives from 
 Cretan art (e.g., that in Figure 89 from a frieze), and 
 is itself continued in many works of Cypriote, Rhodian 
 and Phenician art. Each has its own characteristic 
 forms, but connected more or less by common motives. 
 Pottery and metal work were the fields most success- 
 fully cultivated, and the ruins of Tiryns have also re- 
 vealed much clever decoration on plaster. Primarily 
 growing out of Cretan art, Mycenaean ornament displays 
 frequent traces of Egyptian influence, and in addition 
 exhibits a considerable amount of indigenous design, 
 both naturalistic and technomorphic. The example in 
 
 77
 
 FIG. 91. MYCENAEAN POTTERY, SPIRALS. 
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Figure 88 shows pat- 
 terns derived from 
 basketry, singularly like 
 many found on South 
 American pottery ; while 
 in Figure 90, a, b, c. and 
 Fig. 97, the representa- 
 tions of marine plants 
 and animals reveal an 
 instinct for the observa- 
 tion and imitation of Nature, of which traces are found 
 in Cretan art, and which later, in Greek art, flowered 
 into the superb sculpture of the Periclean age. 
 
 Besides the architectural forms already referred to, 
 the motives characteristic of Mycenaean ornament are 
 the zig-zag (Figure 87), spiral (Fig. 91); the run- 
 ning scroll; a heart-shaped motive (Figure 94) perhaps 
 converging towards the cuttlefish (Figure 92) ; the 
 rosette, both carved and 
 painted (see Figure 89) ; the 
 double-branched volute recall- 
 ing the lotus trilobe (Figure 
 94, c) ; a peculiar variant of 
 the guilloche (or the current 
 scroll?) shown in Fig. 95, a 
 and in the detail of Figure 89 ; 
 and a number of unnamed mo- 
 tives, e.g., the imbricated pat- 
 tern from Tiryns in Figure 93. 
 A somewhat similar motive in a linear repetition on 
 vases, suggests an inverted egg-and-dart (Figure 95, b) . 
 
 78 
 
 Fio. 95. a, CURRENT SCROLL, 
 TIRYNS; b, VASE ORNAMENT, 
 MYCENAE.
 
 AND ASIATIC 
 
 Figs. 96 and 97 show various Na- 
 
 ture-forms, apparently derived 
 
 from marine life ; Fig. 97 is a vase 
 
 from lalyssos bearing a squid as its 
 
 chief ornament. The cuttlefish 
 
 squid, dolphin (?), and sea- weed 
 
 are common, besides many forms 
 
 like those in Figure 90, d, Figs. 
 
 96 and 97, impossible to identify. 
 
 On the so-called "Mycenae buttons" 
 
 thin plates of gold stamped or 
 
 repousse in low relief, appears the 
 
 peculiarly Mycenaean motive of a 
 
 band winding in and out around Fl - 9G - PLANT -FORMS, 
 
 small eyes or round dots, with ex- 
 
 cellent decorative effect (Fig. 98) . 
 
 The lotus and the multiple scroll, so common in Egyp- 
 
 Fio. 97. SQUIDS, ON MYCENAEAN VASES. 
 
 tian decoration, appear frequently, as in a slab from a 
 tomb-ceiling in Orchomenos, 2 in the band from a wall- 
 
 2 Figured in P. & C., "Histoire de 1'Art"; Sturgis, "History of Architec- 
 ture," vol. I, 125; Tarbell, "A History of Greek Art," page 55; Marquand, 
 "Greek Architecture," page 155. 
 
 79
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 
 
 painting in Tiryns (Figure 99), the ornament from a 
 Mycenaean sword shown in Figure 100, a, and the 
 Mycenaean stele b. The spiral also ap- 
 pears in other forms, as in Figure 101, 
 page 81, on the base a and in the bronze 
 work detail b ( from a tripod in Athens ; 
 its Mycenaean origin is problematic). 
 98. A MY- I* 1 Figure 103 we have rosettes from 
 BUTTON. Tiryns and Mycenae obviously de- 
 rived from Cretan prototypes like those in Figure 82. 
 Figure 102 shows a Mycenaean double-rosette frieze 
 ornament in alabaster very similar to the Tirynthian ex- 
 ample of Figure 88, both being nearly identical with the 
 Cretan example in Figure 81. Figures 104, 105 and 
 107 exhibit other Mycenaean nature-forms. In Figure 
 104, a is a common Mycenaean plant form (see also Fig. 
 96) which it is interesting to compare with the Egyp- 
 tian lotus-palmette b. 
 
 Phenician Ornament. 
 
 During the decline of ^Bgean art, from 1500 B.C. on, 
 the Phenicians were developing 
 and extending their commerce and 
 industries. This presumably Sem- 
 itic people, occupying a narrow 
 strip of the Syrian coast, north of 
 Palestine, were the mercantile car- 
 riers of the ancient world, with 
 prosperous colonies along the 
 Mediterranean shores, of which Carthage became the 
 chief. They were traders and imitators rather than 
 
 80 
 
 FIG. 99. PAINTKD WALL- 
 PATTERN, TIRYNS.
 
 'igJOlM/ceiKeanSpirab a jtycen? Plant; 
 
 FigJOffivmaPhenkianPhtler' 
 
 fletail.5ilverCup. 
 
 Figl08Phenkian:Silver 
 
 Fig.ntCypnoteJ/vma 
 
 Fig.H5.Cypriote Stele, 
 Bronze. 
 
 81
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 originators in art; they carried and exchanged, and 
 freely counterfeited, Egyptian and Assyrian or 
 Babylonian wares and stuffs. The detail from a silver 
 
 a 
 
 FIG. 100. MYCENAE SPIRAL ALL-OVERS; a, GOLD IKLAY oir 
 SWORD; b, BRONZE STELE. 
 
 platter in Figure 106 is plainly an imitation of Egyp- 
 tian work. Sidon was for a long period under Egyp- 
 
 I tian rule. The Phenicians were 
 skilful weavers, dyers and bronze- 
 workers. Solomon's temple at 
 Jerusalem was largely of Pheni- 
 cian workmanship, and the ac- 
 counts in I Kings, vii, 13-45 and 
 I Chronicles iii, 15-iv, 17 prove 
 the Phenicians of 1000 B.C. to 
 have been capable of cast- 
 ing large objects of "brass" 
 (bronze), such as the columns 
 "Jachin" and "Boaz" and the 
 huge "laver" borne on twelve oxen. 
 
 Distinctive Phenician ornament motives are few. 
 
 82 
 
 FIG. 114. CYPRIOTE STONE 
 STELE.
 
 AEGEAN AND ASIATIC 
 
 The most characteristic is a species of palmette springing 
 
 from the concave side of a voluted 
 crescent (Figures 108, 109, a, c), 
 derived from the Assyrian pal- 
 mette with horns, converging with 
 the Phenician crescent, symbol of 
 the goddess Astarte. It persists 
 into Greek art of the fifth century 
 B.C. appearing as a vase band-mo- 
 
 FIG. 115. CYPRIOTE LOTUS, 
 FROM VASE. 
 
 tive (Figure 109, b). 
 
 Cypriote Ornament. 
 
 Cyprus was an important entrepot of Phenician com- 
 merce, and its art is peculiarly interesting because of the 
 mingling of Egyptian, .ZEgean, Phenician and early 
 Greek influences which it betrays. In general character 
 it resembles sometimes the Mycenaean, sometimes the 
 Phenician. Its principal motives are 
 the lotus, almost grotesquely trans- 
 formed from the Egyptian type 
 (Figure 112, also Fig. 115) ; the lotus 
 palmette in several variant forms, 
 one the Phenician palmette with up- 
 turned volutes (Figure 111), and 
 others such as those in Figure 113 and 
 Figure 114, used as finials or cap for 
 steles and pilasters. A curious de- 
 sign, compounded of palmettes, trilobes and horns is 
 that in Figure 111 from a sarcophagus in the Metropoli- 
 tan Museum in New York, from Amathus ; in a variant 
 form which may be a lotus and not a palmette, it ap- 
 
 83 
 
 FIG. 116. CYPRIOTE 
 ORNAMENTS ON 
 
 VASES.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 117. PHENICIAN VASE FROM JERUSALEM. 
 
 pears also in Fig- 
 ure 110, appar- 
 ently related to the 
 Assyrian Sacred 
 Tree (see Fig. 70, 
 c). It will be ob- 
 served that this 
 entire composition 
 recalls the primi- 
 tive Egyptian de- 
 sign of Fig. 34. 
 The type con- 
 stantly reappears in Asiatic art. Rectangles, lozenges, 
 
 and checkerings applied even to the central sepal of the 
 
 lotus betray the persistent influence of primitive basketry 
 
 patterns (Fig. 115, in which note also the swastikas). 
 
 The lotus is always ungraceful in Cypriote art. The 
 
 recurved or voluted 
 
 sepals in Figure 112 
 
 and Fig. 115 are 
 
 closely related to the 
 
 branching volutes in 
 
 Fig. 116, the lower 
 
 ornament in which 
 
 a four-petaled flower 
 
 is probably, like 
 
 the checkers, lozenge 
 
 and triangle of Fig. 
 
 T -r-i. tin FIG. 118. DETAIL FROM CVPRIOTE VASE 
 
 L15 and rigure 1A ^^ QRMIDIA (MET. MUSEUM, N. Y.). 
 
 a reminiscence of 
 
 primitive pottery and basketry (see Chapter II).
 
 AEGEAN AND ASIATIC 
 
 C. 
 
 FIG. 119. CYPHIOTE VASE ORNAMENTS: 
 a, GOOSE AND LOTUS; 
 6, TREES AND ASTARTE; 
 c, A LOTUS. 
 
 This survival appears also in the splendid Phenician 
 vase from Jerusalem (Fig. 117) and the Cypriote 
 vase from Ormidia (Fig. 118) the latter in the New 
 York Metropolitan Museum. Animals, human figures 
 and plant forms appear on vases the horse, goose 
 (Fig. 119, a) and bull, and caricatures of the human 
 form (Fig. 119, b). 3 The swastika or fylfot 
 appears occasionally as a minor detail, probably as 
 a solar symbol, as in Fig. 115. The affronting 
 
 3 Compare the queer plants beside the figure (is this Astarte?) with 
 those from Mycenae, in Fig. 96 and Figure 104. 
 
 85
 
 FIG. 120. LoTTJS-AND-BiRD BORDERS 
 ON RHODIAK AND MELIAN VASES. 
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 of two opposed birds or beasts on either side of a 
 central shaft or column, as in Figure 110, preserves 
 
 or repeats a common 
 Asiatic (Assyrian, My- 
 cenaean, Hittite, Pheni- 
 cian) symbolic motive, of 
 which probably the earli- 
 est examples is the prehis- 
 toric Egyptian slate-carv- 
 ing shown in Fig. 34. 
 Whether the goose, horse, 
 swastika, etc., are solar 
 symbols, is a question not 
 yet certainly answered. Fig. 119, c, from a Cypriote 
 cenochoe in the Metropolitan Museum, illustrates the sin- 
 gular mixture of lotus and other forms frequently met 
 with in Cypriote art. 
 
 The ornament of Rhodes (Kameiros, lalyssos, etc.) 
 and of Melos, is a later development from the My- 
 cenaean, less mixed with Egyptian and Assyrian forms 
 than the Cypriote. It is found chiefly in pottery re- 
 mains, covering the period from the ninth century B.C. 
 down to historic Greek art, thus supplying a connecting 
 link, though a slight one, between the Hellenic and pre- 
 Hellenic cultures. Examples are shown in Fig. 120 
 of a Rhodian lotus-band (above) and a Melian (be- 
 low), the latter an almost exact duplicate of that on 
 the Cypriote vase from Ormidia shown in Fig. 118. 
 Comparison of both with the Mycenaean jars of Figure 
 88 and Fig. 117 sufficiently demonstrates the inter- 
 relation of these three phases of pre-Hellenic art. 
 
 86
 
 AEGEAN AND ASIATIC 
 Books Recommended. 
 
 A. P. DI CESNOLA: Salaminia, Cyprus (London, 1884). M. 
 COLLIGNON: Archeologie grecque (Paris, 1887), also an Eng- 
 lish edition. FURTWANGLER and LOSCHKE: Mykenische Vasen 
 (Berlin, 1886). MITCHELL: History of Ancient Sculpture 
 (New York, 1883). PERROT AND CHIPIEZ: Histoire de Vart 
 dans I'antiquite, la grece archaique (Paris, 1903). H. SCHLIE- 
 MANN: Mycence and Ilios (New York, 1881). 
 
 87
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 GEEEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 The Hellenic peoples were gifted with an especial 
 endowment of the artistic faculty. While their geo- 
 graphical situation brought them early into contact with 
 the older civilizations of Egypt, the Mediterranean 
 basin and Mesopotamia, their own esthetic aptitudes 
 enabled them to assimilate all that they borrowed, and 
 in transforming it, to endow it with a wholly new ele- 
 gance and refinement. Two characteristics are con- 
 spicuous in all their intellectual and artistic activity: 
 their attitude of persistent inquiry in the presence of 
 every fact and phenomenon of their experience; and 
 their recognition and pursuit of ideals. The Greek 
 asked Why? Whence? How? where other peoples had 
 simply acquiesced unquestioningly in Nature's order or 
 the teachings of tradition, and he strove unceasingly 
 after unrealized perfections in every undertaking. The 
 progress of Greek civilization stands therefore in sharp- 
 est contrast with the slow advance and slow decline of 
 Egyptian art bound by ancient and sacred traditions, 
 and with the stagnation of Assyrian art. It was from 
 the earliest stages progressive, and in this respect 
 breathes the modern spirit and appeals to modern tastes. 
 
 88
 
 FIG. 121. GREEK VASE, "FINE" PERIOD. (NAPLES MUSEUM) 
 
 FIG. 121A. ANTHEMION BAND AND CAP MOLDINGS, FROM THE ERECHTHEION
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 Greek art in its keen observation of Nature, its vivacity, 
 charm and grace, its refinement of proportion, its deli- 
 cacy combined with vigor, and its artistic restraint, is 
 not only vastly superior to the arts that preceded it, 
 but at its best, and within certain clear limitations, un- 
 surpassed by any that have succeeded it. 
 
 The People. 
 
 The Greeks were not a nation, but a group of small 
 states, bound together by a common language and re- 
 ligion, and by certain common ethnic traditions. Greece 
 proper was the center and focus of their culture, but 
 Greek colonies established themselves in Southern Italy, 
 Crete, Cyprus, Rhodes, the ^Egean islands, while a 
 large part of Asia Minor was inhabited by Ionian 
 Greeks. In spite of this division into small states, often 
 rivals and even enemies in war, the Greek culture was 
 fundamentally one: all Greeks called themselves Hel- 
 lenes, and the rest of the world Barbarians, and all the 
 states took part in the quadrennial Olympic games. 
 The Dorians and lonians were the leaders in the de- 
 velopment of Greek art, and their names have been 
 given to the two principal "orders" originally distinct 
 styles of Greek architecture. 1 The other two chief 
 constituent races of the Hellenes were the Achseans and 
 jiEolians. 
 
 Periods of Greek Art History. 
 
 Between pre-Homeric art, discussed in the last chap- 
 
 i For a concise summary of the historical beginnings and race movements 
 of the Greeks, consult W. M. West's "Ancient History," 80-100 (Allyn 
 & Bacon, Boston). 
 
 91
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 ter, and that of historic Greece there is a noticeable 
 hiatus. Dorpfeld, it is true, derives the Doric style of 
 architecture directly from the palace architecture of 
 Mycenae and Tiryns, but there are grounds for ques- 
 tioning this derivation. In any case, the ornament of 
 that age seems to have died with the civilization to which 
 it belonged, and historic Greek art differs in quality and 
 spirit as well as in its forms from that of the ^Egean 
 culture. 
 
 Dated Greek history begins with the first Olympiad, 
 776 B.C. It is customary for convenience to divide the 
 history of Greek art into six periods. The first or 
 Archaic may be considered as lasting from the first 
 Olympiad or from 650 B.C. when the earliest Doric 
 temples known to us were begun to 500 B.C. ( Some 
 writers prefer to specify an early and a late Archaic 
 Period, divided at 550 B.C. and lasting until 480 B.C., 
 the date of the Persian invasion.) The next or Tran- 
 sitional Period, beginning at 500 (or at 480) B.C., lasts 
 until the middle of the fifth century, and ushers in the 
 great age of Greek art, commonly called the Periclean, 
 which followed the final victories over the Persians in 
 466 B.C. This occupied the second half or the last two- 
 thirds of the fifth century B.C., and was followed by the 
 Decline of the first half of the fourth century. A bril- 
 liant revival manifested itself during the last half, which 
 constitutes the Alexandrian age. A further decline en- 
 sued, more rapid and complete, lasting until the Roman 
 conquest in 146 B.C.: this we may designate as the Post- 
 Alexandrian Period. But even in its decline Greek art 
 produced many noble and beautiful works; while after 
 
 92
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 the Roman conquest, Greek artists wrought for Roman 
 masters and infused a new artistic element into the 
 Roman taste and art ; so that a complete sketch of Greek 
 ornament must take into account works produced as 
 late even as the time of the Antonines. 
 
 All these periods are but vaguely defined, for historic 
 Greek art was continuously progressive; the change of 
 style was gradual and constant. Hence they are to be 
 considered merely as arbitrary devices for facilitating 
 the grouping and classifying of the works of different 
 times and styles, and for marking certain well-defined 
 stages of development. 
 
 Some General Characteristics. 
 
 Whereas in Egyptian ornament color predominates 
 over form, it plays a subordinate part in Greek orna- 
 ment, in which plastic form, as expressed and revealed 
 by outline and light and shade, is the controlling element, 
 The Greeks seem to have been the first people to delight 
 in pure beauty of form and of line-movement apart from 
 symbolism and representation, and it was their constant 
 reaching out after an ideal perfection of form that gave 
 to their works their immortal freshness of beauty and 
 vitality of interest. 
 
 The Greeks cared little for mere patterning; there is 
 no characteristic Greek all-over ornament. But in 
 every work of Greek decoration the idea of structure is 
 present; not necessarily of the structural framework of 
 the object decorated, though this is generally recognized; 
 but an organic and logical relation between the object 
 and its decoration, and between the various parts of the 
 
 93
 
 Fia.]<Z$Oreekand Assyrian 
 
 n?1S24rt#R*aeUB.tolia\frC Ornament -Links fig.&HJaekFhib 
 
 fig 127 Carved Rmceau from Miletus (Late). 
 a b c 
 
 /"Zg A5?. Varieties oftfnthemion Motive 
 
 Fig.158 Elementary Rinceau on Vase 
 
 Fiq.136 Varieties of LottibrnJIolfve 
 
 94
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 decoration. This quality also appears in the way in 
 which the ornament itself is designed and its elements 
 put together; they are never merely strung together; 
 they are organically united into a coherent design 
 (Figure 122). This structural quality is by no means 
 confined to architectural ornament, though it is there 
 most conspicuously in evidence ; it appears in the paint- 
 ing of a vase or the composition of an anthemion band 
 as truly as in the ornament of the Erechtheion. Com- 
 pare, for example, the monotonous and inorganic string- 
 ing together of lotuses and buds in Egyptian bands, or 
 even the stiff linking of Assyrian forms, with the or- 
 ganic structural combination of alternating motives in 
 the Greek anthemion bands figured in Plate V and 
 Figure 123. 
 
 Another unfailing quality of Greek ornament is its 
 artistic restraint. The Greek artist knew when to hold 
 his hand, when to leave a surface plain, when not to 
 elaborate a motive or pattern. 
 
 These qualities of plastic beauty, grace and vivacity 
 of rhythmic movement, structural fitness and artistic 
 reserve, impart to Greek ornament a distinction which 
 sets it apart from all other decorative styles, unless it 
 be that of the early Gothic period in France. 
 
 The examples of Greek decorative art that have come 
 down to us consist chiefly of two classes: architectural 
 ornament, for the most part carved, though often en- 
 hanced by added color; and pottery, for the most part 
 painted. But so marked is the architectural feeling in 
 the vase decoration, that many motives were carried 
 from pottery into the architecture; while not a few of 
 
 95
 
 FIG. 124. GEOMETRIC ELEMENTS. 
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 the architectural details were executed in terra-cotta 
 and painted, much like the vases. 
 
 The Motives. 
 
 These constitute an alphabet of only moderate extent. 
 
 The greatness of Greek orna- 
 ment lies in the variety and 
 originality of the combina- 
 tions of these few funda- 
 mental forms, and the ele- 
 gance of the results, rather 
 than in the number of the 
 primary motives. So nearly 
 endless are the variations of 
 these, that instances of exact reduplication of any orna- 
 ment on different objects are almost unknown. Even 
 such forms as the Doric capital, or the egg-and-dart 
 molding, are never exactly alike on two different build- 
 ings. 
 
 In framing any list of 
 motives, it is difficult to 
 draw the line between re- 
 lated forms and to deter- 
 mine when it is proper to 
 distinguish them as really 
 separate motives, and 
 when not. With regard 
 to certain nature-forms, 
 also, there may be differ- 
 ences of judgment as to whether they should be ac- 
 counted as ornament or as sculpture or painting. We 
 
 96 
 
 FIG. 125. NATURE-FORMS.
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 group the motives listed below into three groups 
 geometric, natural and structural. 
 
 The geometric motives (omitting simple dots, circles 
 and parallel lines) are six: the fret or meander; the 
 wave or Vitruvian scroll; the spiral, both single and 
 branched ; the S-curve or " line of beauty" ; the rosette 2 
 and the guilloche (Fig. 24). 
 
 The principal natural forms are : the lotus and lotus- 
 bud, the palmette or anihemion, the vine, and the 
 acanthus leaf, from the vegetable world (Fig. 125) ; 
 and from the animal kingdom human heads or masks, 
 heads of animals, paws, wings, griffins or chimeras and 
 sphinxes (Plate VI, 25, 26, 29, 35) . Festoons of flow- 
 ers and fruit (called the "swag" in English books), ox- 
 skulls (bucrania) and fluttering ribbons also occur in 
 late Greek art, usually on altars, with symbolic signifi- 
 cance. Purely pictorial 
 representations of men, 
 horses and beasts, whether 
 painted or carved, are ex- 
 cluded from the list, as 
 belonging to pictorial art 
 rather than to pure orna- 
 ment. 
 
 The chief architectural 
 motives not included 
 above are seven (Fig. 
 126): moldings; fluting s or channelings; dentils; the 
 egg-and-dart and its derivatives; the bead-and-reel; 
 
 - The star which occurs in rare instances may be considered as a variant 
 of the rosette. 
 
 97 
 
 FIG. 126. ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 scales and imbrications ( also used in painted ornament ; 
 not shown in the figure), and the rinceau ot branching 
 scroll (Figure 127). 
 
 The swastika or fylfot has been omitted from these 
 lists, although occurring on early vases, because it is 
 there used rather as a symbol than as a systematic orna- 
 ment, and was early dropped from Greek art. The 
 guttce of the Doric order might perhaps be added, though 
 their use is very restricted, and they do not form a 
 motive capable of variation and combination into mani- 
 fold patterns. 
 
 Of all these motives three, the lotus (bud and blos- 
 som), the palmette, and the egg-and-dart, are clearly 
 traceable to Egyptian origins. Four others, the fret, 
 guilloche, rosette and wave, occur in Egyptian orna- 
 ment, but it cannot be proved that they came into Greek 
 art from Egypt, though this may quite possibly be the 
 fact. The spiral has been the common property of all 
 decorating races, and it was the Greeks who first dis- 
 covered the real beauty of its combination with the S- 
 curve and developed it into the most important single 
 contribution to the art of pattern-design made by any 
 people since the Egyptians first discovered and exploited 
 the value of contrasted alternation in their lotus-and- 
 bud bands. In the adaptation of the acanthus leaf to 
 carved ornament they further increased the debt of sub- 
 sequent ages to Greek art. The rinceau (Figure 127), 
 which is a combination of the S-line, the spiral, the vine- 
 motive and the acanthus leaf, was developed during the 
 Alexandrian age into an ornament which has contributed 
 
 98
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 a most important element to the splendor of Roman, 
 medieval and modern art. 
 
 Pottery Decoration. 
 
 A brief sketch of the historic development of Greek 
 pottery is essential for the intelligent discussion of its 
 decoration. 
 
 The potter's art was transmitted from the pre- 
 Homeric to the post-Homeric civilization without inter- 
 ruption, and practised in various centers of which 
 Rhodes, Melos, Athens, Corinth, Ccere in Etruria 
 (though the majority of the vases found in Etruscan 
 tombs were of Greek and not local manufacture), and 
 in the post- Alexandrian period Apulia and Campania 
 in Southern Italy, were the most important. Burnt 
 clay, though fragile, is an almost imperishable material, 
 and tens of thousands of vases have been preserved to 
 our day, for the most part in ancient tombs, from as 
 far back as the seventh century B.C., and covering 
 the entire period from that time to the Christian Era. 
 All these vessels were made on the wheel 3 and painted, 
 chiefly in black and red. Very few of these were 
 modeled in relief, notwithstanding the Greek predilec- 
 tion for sculpture. The Greek potters preferred the 
 simplicity of a pure and refined silhouette to the more 
 complex effects of relief-modeling (Figure 121, Fig. 
 128). The same reserve was shown in their long-time 
 preference of the simple black-and-red decoration, with 
 
 3 Note that the dates given above exclude from consideration the archaic 
 Mycenaean and other pre-Homeric pottery, of which some of the earlier 
 examples are crude vessels molded free-hand and not turned on a wheel. 
 
 99
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 only occasional and sparing use of other colors, to the 
 more showy effects possible with a varied palette, such 
 as became fashionable to a limited degree in and after the 
 Alexandrian age. Thus their pottery decoration was 
 in sober colors, while in their architectural ornament 
 they employed brilliant reds, blues, green and gold. 
 This is in striking contrast to the modern taste which 
 prefers sobriety of coloring in its architecture and 
 brilliant tones for pottery and porcelains. 
 
 Changes of Style. 
 
 The earliest pottery was of a light red color, with 
 decorations in black and dark red or brown. In the 
 sixth century B.C. the color of the earthenware of the 
 vases was often a yellow-red, nearly orange, and the 
 decorations almost exclusively in black, while the forms 
 were more refined, profiled with more subtle curves 
 than formerly. In the early fifth century or second 
 archaic period, the ware was of a darker red, and the 
 black slip employed in the decoration really a black 
 paint covered with a thin slip or glaze became very 
 perfect and was used as a solid background, the decora- 
 tions being left of the natural dark red of the ware. 
 This change of technic led to a complete change in the 
 character of the ornament, as will later be shown. Dur- 
 ing the fourth century a further change occurred; the 
 ornament became complex and overcharged, varied 
 colors were added to the black and red to brighten the 
 effect ; the vase-profiles lost their earlier refinement, and 
 modeling of figures and details in relief became more or 
 less common, especially in Apulian and other Italo- 
 
 100
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 Greek vases, which were often of great size. The art 
 declined rapidly under Roman rule; as bronze, marble, 
 
 FIG. 128. TYPES OF GREEK VASES: a, ARYBALLUS ; b, LEKYTHOS; c, RHYTON; 
 d, ALABASTROX; e, g, AMPHORA; /, KRATEH; h, OINTMENT Box; i, HYDRIA; 
 k, KYLIX; /, HYDRIA. 
 
 alabaster, glass, gold and silver came more and more 
 into use for the finer vessels, the plain clay earthenware 
 ceased to be a medium for artistic expression. 
 
 The grace and beauty of the Greek vases of the 6th- 
 
 101
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 4th centuries B.C. are due, first to the innate artistic 
 spirit of the people; and secondly to the use of terra 
 cotta vases as gifts and prizes. They were regarded as 
 works of art, and the painters who decorated them were 
 proud to sign their works. The decoration of these 
 vases was executed with a bold, free hand which the 
 published illustrations generally fail to reproduce. 
 Special care and attention were bestowed upon the 
 form, proportions and silhouette of these vases, in spite 
 of their humble material. A singular elegance of shape 
 characterizes nearly all of the Greek pottery ; the profiles 
 are composed of exquisitely subtle curves harmoniously 
 blended. The chief among many types are the amphora, 
 a tall two-handled (or three-handled) jar for wine 
 
 (Fig. 128, e, g)\ the 
 cenoclioc, a large-bodied 
 wine- vessel ; the hydria (i,l), 
 a wide-mouthed water- jar; 
 the lekyihos (&), a small 
 slender-necked vase for per- 
 fumes or for votive and 
 funereal uses ; the somewhat 
 similar aldbastron, usually 
 of alabaster (d) ; the krater 
 (/) ; a cup or jar with a 
 spreading mouth; the kylix 
 (k), a broad, dish-like ves- 
 sel (these two types merge into one another) ; the rhyton 
 (c) , a drinking horn, shaped often like an animal's head; 
 the aryballos (a), and various other forms. 
 
 Fio. 129. GEOMETRIC VASE, SEVRES. 
 
 102
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 Development of Motives. 
 
 In an important group of early archaic vases the deco- 
 ration consists of successive bands alternately of orna- 
 ment and pictures (e.g., the Dodwell vase, a in Fig. 
 128). Another group, in the so-called "geometric" 
 style, 4 are adorned with bands of parallel lines, zigzags, 
 curious frets, concentric circles, stars or flowers, swas- 
 tikas irregularly disposed, and checkered patterns 
 imitated from basketry or textiles (Fig. 129). In 
 others, mostly from the islands or from Asiatic Greek 
 factories, Oriental influences are evident ; lions, sphinxes 
 and gazelles, horses and the solar goose are pictured 
 upon them, and in the ornament proper the lotus and 
 lotus-palmette are common (Fig. 130; this may pos- 
 sibly be a Rhodian vase). 
 
 As the potter's art advances, the fret, wave and an- 
 themion are increasingly used and developed into the 
 greatest possible va- 
 
 riety of forms. The 
 fret occurs in several 
 varying types ; the sim- 
 ple fret as in Figure 
 131, a (page 94), the 
 compound fret, formed 
 by two intersecting 
 lines of alternate 
 "keys" and "humps" 
 crossing to form a series of swastika motives (ib., b) ; 
 the resetted fret in which the key-motive alternates with 
 
 * Called also "Dipylon style," "Dipylon vases," because of the number of 
 vases in this style exhumed near the Dipylon gate in Athens. 
 
 103 
 
 FIG. 130. EARLY VASE; RHODIAN?
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 a square or round rosette (Plate VI, 5, 9) ; the oblique 
 fret, and the double fret (Figure 131, c). All these 
 were drawn free-hand, usually in such manner as to 
 
 make the black stroke and 
 red background of about 
 equal thickness. 
 
 The spiral wave was not, 
 
 FIG. 132A. as hag been frequently as- 
 
 serted, a representation of water, and hence always 
 placed at the foot of the vase: it was used as a border 
 alike above and below the picture or vase-painting, as 
 a variant of the fret, from which it was probably de- 
 rived (Plate VI, 1, 3; Fig. 132 A) . 
 
 The Anthemion. 
 
 The anthemion is the most important and most beauti- 
 ful of all Greek ornament motives. Its origin can be 
 clearly traced back through Phenician and Assyrian 
 forms to the Egyptian lotus and lotus-palmette. 5 Its 
 resemblance to the blossoms of the honeysuckle, recog- 
 nized by the Greeks in its name dv0e>iov, is a fortui- 
 tous resemblance or an afterthought, more noticeable in 
 the late examples than the earlier, and is not an explana- 
 tion of its origin. In the Assyrian lotus-and-palmette 
 borders (see Plate IV), the units are connected by 
 linked voluted bands; the Greeks substituted for these 
 the double-curved or S-scroll (Figure 123), introducing 
 thereby a wholly new element of grace and rhythmic 
 movement into the composition (see Plates V and VI). 
 They also curved the "petals" of the palmette in vari- 
 
 s For an exhaustive discussion of this derivation, cf. Goodyear, "Grammar 
 of the Lotus" (London, 1891). 
 
 104
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 ous ways, elaborated the connecting scrolls, and refined 
 their forms and combinations in an extraordinary variety 
 of ways, creating out of the somewhat monotonous and 
 lifeless Oriental pal- 
 mette an entirely new 
 and exquisitely beauti- 
 ful ornament (Figs. 
 133, 134). Fig. 134 
 represents diagram- 
 matically a few of the 
 principal types of 
 Greek anthemion bands single and double, opposite 
 and alternate, vertical and oblique; the anthemion open 
 as in a, c, d or framed as in &., e, almost always alter- 
 nating with a contrasting motive derived from the lotus. 
 
 FIG. 133. ANTHEMION- WITH VOLUTED 
 SCROLLS; FROM A VASE. 
 
 
 FIG. 134. TYPES OF AXTHEMIOX PATTERNS. 
 105
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 which we may call the lotiform motive (Figure 136). 
 Figure 135 illustrates a number of typical treatments 
 in detail of the anthemion proper, which springs from a 
 triangular-shaped spot or nucleus (or rarely a simple 
 dot) set between opposed spirals or volutes. In Figure 
 136 are shown a few of the variants of the lotiform mo- 
 tive. Very admirable is always the skill with which the 
 ornament is distributed and the spaces occupied. 
 
 The change in the fifth century from the black- 
 on-red to the red-on-black technic led to a change in 
 the character of the anthemion patterns. To economize 
 the labor of painting-in the black background, the spaces 
 between the leaves or other elements of the design were 
 reduced, the ornament became more crowded and richer 
 in effect, and the hair-like lines of the black-on-red type 
 were omitted or replaced by broader lines of red ( Figure 
 135, e). Some of the anthemion patterns of the late 
 fifth and of the fourth centuries are remarkably rich and 
 elaborate; they were made in the later vases to cover 
 large areas on the body of the vase, taking the place of 
 a picture on one side of the vase, especially in the 
 Apulian pottery (Plate V). 
 
 Next to the fret and anthemion, the vine is the most 
 important motive in pottery decoration (Figure 137; 
 also Plates V and VI). It occurs sometimes with a 
 straight stem, sometimes with a wavy stem, and may 
 represent in different examples the laurel, ivy or grape- 
 vine. The laurel crown of victory in athletic and 
 literary contests is symbolized by the laurel "vines" on 
 vases intended as prizes or honorary awards; while the 
 ivy and the grapevine were both sacred to Dionysos, 
 
 106
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 and naturally figured on vases for wine as well as on 
 those presented as gifts in token of good fellowship. 
 
 The type of vine in which a wavy stem throws out its 
 leaves alternately on either side to fill the hollows of the 
 waves (Figure 137), furnished one of the most impor- 
 tant elements in the development of the rinceau. The 
 substitution of branching scrolls (already common as a 
 subordinate detail of certain anthemion patterns in the 
 Periclean period, see Fig. 133) in place of the leaves 
 and berries, produced the elementary rinceau of Figure 
 138. 
 
 The Guilloche. 
 
 This is found in its simplest form in both Egyptian 
 and Assyrian ornament (see Fig. 69, /) ; but was de- 
 veloped by the Greeks into a richer band-pattern by 
 doubling and even trebling the rows of "eyes" and 
 braided interlacings. Only the simpler forms are, how- 
 ever, common on pottery (Figure 132). 
 
 Other Forms. 
 
 The "egg-and-dart" appears frequently on the lips 
 of vases, and both it and other U-shaped and scale-like 
 imbrications (Plate VI) are used on the bodies. These 
 related forms are probably derived from the lotus-and- 
 bud, as suggested in Fig. 139 ; 6 but it is equally likely 
 that the scale-ornament was derived from the use of 
 feathers, scales in armor, or other like industrial im- 
 brications. 
 
 e This derivation was first pointed out in "Comptes-rendus de la Socie'te' 
 Centrale d'Architectes" for 1875, and later elaborated by Professor W. H. 
 Goodyear. 
 
 107
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Spirals and branching scrolls are common in the de- 
 tails of pottery-decoration, especially the spirals of the 
 wave or Vitruvian scroll; but the branching scroll as 
 
 FIG. 139. EVOLUTION OF EGO-AXD-DAHT. 
 
 an independent motive is never used except in late 
 rinceaux. The scrolls of anthemion frames and links 
 sometimes branch twice or even three times, as in Fig. 
 133, but never more than this. 
 
 Alexandrian and Apulian Pottery. 
 
 The Alexandrian age brought in a new taste for mag- 
 nificence in all branches of art, and the pottery of the 
 late fourth and early third centuries reflects this changed 
 spirit in the excessive elaboration of the decoration. 
 The coloring was enriched and varied, all parts of the 
 vase were covered with pictures and ornament, in which 
 branching scrolls played an important part. Simplicity 
 and grace of movement were lost in the complexity of 
 multiplied spirals and fantastic details. The potter's 
 art was developed in new manufacturing centers in 
 southern Italy (Apulia and Campania), which became 
 celebrated for the size and splendor of the vases they 
 produced. The handles were made especially impor- 
 
 108
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, I 
 
 tant, and modeled heads and figures were often intro- 
 
 duced into the decoration. Fig. 140 illustrates one 
 
 of these Italo-Greek vases, and 
 
 in Plate VI and Figure 141 
 
 (page 94) are shown some of 
 
 the complicated details com- 
 
 mon in this pottery. 
 
 Architectural Ceramics. 
 
 Painted terra-cotta orna- 
 ments were long used on build- 
 ings of stone or wood, though 
 stone and marble displaced 
 them on the more important 
 buildings from a very early 
 date. Moldings, especially 
 crown-moldings on cornices, 
 
 , . , 
 
 antenxaB, acrotena and ridge- 
 tiles were the chief of these ceramic ornaments. They 
 display many of the motives and patterns of pottery- 
 decoration, in modified form and richer coloring, in which 
 green and yellow were used as well as red and black: 
 frets, anthemions, the egg-and-dart, guilloche and scale- 
 motive are the commonest decorations. Similar orna- 
 ments were later painted on marble and formed an im- 
 portant element in Greek architectural ornament. 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 List follows next Chapter. 
 
 FK- 14 - APUUAK VASE; 
 
 SEVRES MUSEUM. 
 
 109
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, II 
 
 Architectural Decoration. 
 
 In the application of the arts of decoration to architec- 
 ture, the Greeks attained an extraordinary degree of 
 perfection within a comparatively narrow field. The 
 artistic reserve was even more noticeable in their archi- 
 tecture than in their pottery. Accordingly we find a 
 sparing use of ornament upon their buildings, but its 
 scale and distribution were determined by the most 
 judicious taste, and its execution was as nearly perfect 
 as the artist's utmost skill would permit. In the Doric 
 buildings the ornament proper is chiefly painted and 
 confined to certain well-defined members ceiling- 
 panels, moldings, capitals and the like (Plate VI, 32- 
 35). The most important decorative effects depended 
 not upon the ornament but upon sculpture pediment 
 groups, metopes and friezes. The plastic ornament 
 of Doric buildings, as distinguished from the sculpture 
 and the painted details, consisted chiefly of the moldings, 
 triglyphs, mutules and guttse, the antefixse ranged along 
 the edge of the cornice, the lions' heads serving as spouts 
 at each end of the long horizontal lateral cornices, 
 acroteria at the angles of the pediments, and the flutings 
 and very simple capitals of the columns. Most of these 
 
 no
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, II 
 
 are shown in the lower part of Plate VI. Of the bronze 
 gates, grilles, lamps and other adjuncts of these build- 
 ings we have no remains. 
 
 The painted ornament of architecture comprised (a) 
 molding ornaments (Figure 142, page 113) ; (b) ceil- 
 ing-panels (Fig. 143) ; (c) 
 solid color applied to tri- 
 glyphs (blue), metopes 
 (red) (Plate VI, 33), and 
 sometimes to walls and pos- 
 sibly columns; (d) the 
 painting of the woodwork 
 of the interior ceilings; (e) 
 mural pictures on the in- 
 terior walls. Of d and e 
 
 FIG. 143. PAINTED PANEL, CEILING 
 OP PLEROMA, PARTHENON. 
 
 no remains are extant. 
 We do not certainly know 
 the exact tones of the colors used in a, b and c, owing to 
 the faded condition of such vestiges of color as still ex- 
 ist. Modern restorers usually represent them as some- 
 what brilliant (Plate VI, 33-35) : perhaps they were less 
 intense than these representations would indicate. 
 
 With the development of the Ionic style in the sixth 
 and fifth centuries, carved ornament assumed greater 
 importance and took on increased richness and variety, 
 which reached the highest point of splendor in the Alex- 
 andrian age, especially in Asia Minor, and gave birth 
 in the fourth century to a variant form, the Corinthian, 
 in which the capital of the column was the most impor- 
 tant and ornate feature (Plate VII, 14). The carved 
 egg-and-dart and "water-leaf" molding ornaments 
 
 ill
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 (Figure 144; Plate VII, 8, 11), the carved anthemion- 
 band (Figure 121 A), rosette and guilloche, the acan- 
 thus-leaf and rinceau, and the splendid carved stele- 
 heads of the fourth century (Plate VII, 13, 15), were 
 all important fruits of this development. 
 
 Style History. 
 
 The earliest architecture of "historic" Greece, i.e., 
 subsequent to the first Olympiad (776 B.C.), was of the 
 Doric style. It was characterized by massive columns 
 with 16 to 20 shallow channels meeting in sharp arrises, 
 set directly upon the stylobate (the stepped platform 
 supporting the building) without bases, capped by 
 simple capitals, and bearing an entablature consisting 
 of a plain architrave, a frieze divided into square panels 
 or metopes by triglyphs, and a simple cornice with 
 mutules under the overhanging cornice (Plate VI, 
 33-35; VII, 6). A triangular pediment filled with 
 sculpture framed between the horizontal and raking 
 cornices, marked the gable-ends of the low-pitched roof. 
 Carved ornament was almost wholly lacking. This 
 style was employed for six hundred years or more, vary- 
 ing only in its proportions and minor details. It reached 
 its culmination in the Parthenon (438 B.C.), and was 
 the style chiefly used for temple architecture in 
 European Greece, including Magna Grsecia (Southern 
 Italy and Sicily). 
 
 Towards the end of the sixth century the Ionic style, 
 originating in Asia Minor, began to dispute the suprem- 
 acy of the Doric, and became the dominant style in the 
 Greek cities of Asia Minor. Its slender proportions 
 
 112
 
 fig. 153 a flcanthu3 Moll is. RgW Cawed Moldings. 
 
 ng.15? 
 
 Acanthus Sptnosus 
 
 T. T-f-Wi MHU\V 
 
 fmjjff. Corinthian Capita 
 
 Fig. 149 Branching Scrofland Leaves 
 
 113
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 and some of its details betray the influence of early pro- 
 totypes in wood. Its distinguishing features are the 
 slender columns adorned with twenty-four flutings 
 separated by narrow fillets and standing on molded 
 bases, bearing capitals formed by spiral volutes con- 
 nected by a horizontal band ; the doubly or triply banded 
 architrave, unbroken frieze, and cornice without mu- 
 tules, often (especially in Asia Minor) adorned with 
 dentils and invariably crowned by a cymatium (Plate 
 VII, 9). As already remarked, carved ornament took 
 the place of painted ornament on the moldings and on 
 other parts, although color was still used as a subordi- 
 nate element to enhance the decorative effect. The 
 carved anthemion was used with fine effect both on flat 
 bands and on the high cymatia of the cornices (Plate 
 VII, 5, 11) . Carved rosettes, "cantilevers" or brackets 
 (Figure 145) and other enrichments also occur. The 
 style reached its highest magnificence in such splendid 
 Asiatic monuments of the fourth century as the Apollo 
 Temple at Didyme near Miletus, the Artemision 
 (temple of Diana) at Ephesus and the Mausoleum at 
 Halicarnassus. 
 
 In the variant form known as the Corinthian, which 
 was in time, especially under the Romans, developed into 
 a distinct order, the column was made still more 
 slender, and the capital, more than a diameter in height, 
 was composed of one or two rows of acanthus leaves 
 under coupled volutes which supported the corners or 
 horns of a molded abacus (Figure 146, page 113; Plate 
 VII, 12, 14) . Employed at first only for small decora- 
 tive structures like the Choragic Monument of Lysicra- 
 
 114
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, II 
 
 tes, it was later applied to propylzeas (Eleusis), shrines 
 or treasuries (Epidaurus) , and later even to the colossal 
 temple of Zeus at Athens (170 B.C.). Carved orna- 
 ment was in these buildings carried to the furthest limit 
 of elaboration known in Greek art, as in the three- 
 branched finial of the Lysicrates Monument (330 B.C.), 
 shown in Plate VII, 3; the capitals from Eleusis (240 
 B.C.), the rinceaux on column-bases at Didyme (Fig. 
 127, page 94), and later under Roman rule, the frieze 
 and cornice of the Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi. 
 
 Painted Details. 
 
 In the decoration of moldings with color, the object 
 in view was to emphasize the profile by means of re- 
 peated motives of the general character of the egg-and- 
 dart or U-motive, modified in outline to suit the profile 
 (Figure 142). Flat surfaces, such as the corona of a 
 cornice or the edge of a Doric abacus, were often painted 
 with a fret, though the wave, the guilloche and the 
 anthemion-band were also often used, both on terra- 
 cotta and on marble (Plate VI, 28, 32). 'The an- 
 themion also figures in beautiful symmetrical patterns 
 in gold on a blue ground in the ceiling-panels or coffer- 
 ings of the pteroma or peristyle of the Parthenon and 
 other buildings (Fig. 143), recalling by their grace 
 and freedom of line the finest of the black-on-red vase 
 decorations. Acroteria, antefixas and stele-heads were 
 in the earlier examples painted, in the later ones carved ; 
 the anthemion was the almost exclusive ornament used 
 on all these, sometimes combined with the acanthus-leaf 
 as a subordinate detail (Plate VII, 1, 13, 15). 
 
 115
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Carved Details. 
 
 In nearly all the carved ornament we may trace the 
 imitation and elaboration of painted ornament derived 
 primarily from pottery-decoration. Let us first con- 
 sider the moldings. Five chief motives occur in their 
 decoration by carving: the bead-and-reel for small 
 bead-moldings; the egg-and-dart on convex profiles; 
 
 the "water-leaf" 
 on cyma-reversa 
 moldings ; the guil- 
 loche on torus 
 moldings ( Fig. 
 147) ; and the an- 
 themion on the 
 high Ionic cyma- 
 
 FIG. 147. CARVED TRIPLE GUILLOCHE ON TORUS tium Or CrOWn- 
 
 OP IOKIC BASE. molding. All but 
 
 the first and fourth are carved elaborations of the 
 painted molding ornaments described above as them- 
 selves derived from pottery-motives, or from pottery 
 directly; the bead-and-reel is an importation from Asia 
 Minor and may have been derived, via Asia Minor and 
 Persia, from the Egyptian papyrus-bundle molding. 
 All these carved ornaments were designed and executed 
 with extraordinary skill and care, and their beauty and 
 perfection have seldom been approached and never sur- 
 passed in later ages. Apart from the beauty of their 
 decoration, moreover, the Greek moldings are remark- 
 able for the refinement of their profiles, composed of 
 curves as subtle and delicate as the silhouettes of the 
 
 116
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, II 
 
 Greek vases. It was the Greeks, indeed, who first dis- 
 covered and developed the artistic possibilities of mold- 
 ings in architecture. The unvarying Egyptian com- 
 bination of the bundle-torus and cavetto or gorge was 
 effective but monotonous, and neither in Assyrian nor 
 in Persian architecture is there apparent any sense of 
 the beauty of effect inherent in moldings of varied pro- 
 file artistically combined. 
 
 The Ionic Capital. 
 
 The origin of this peculiar architectural feature, with 
 its twin spiral volutes and lateral "bolsters," set above 
 a carved echinus and supporting a molded abacus, has 
 been a subject of much controversy. 1 As in so many 
 other cases, it was probably the result of convergence 
 of more than one line of development. The volutes can 
 be traced back to the branching voluted forms of As- 
 syrian (see ante, Fig. 7) and JEgean art, and finally 
 to the trefoil-lotus of Egypt. This seems to have 
 blended with reminiscences of primitive "bracket" caps 
 used on Asiatic wooden columns, and a wooden origin 
 is further suggested by the slender proportions of the 
 shaft and its setting on a well-marked base. The oblong 
 voluted bracket cap was apparently combined with what 
 seems to have been originally an independent form of 
 capital a crown of one or two rows or rings of leaves 
 like "oves," clearly derived from nature and not from the 
 egg-and-dart motive, toward which, however, it con- 
 
 i Cf. W. H. Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," and his article in the 
 "Architectural Record," vol. Ill, No. 3, "The Lotiform origin of the Ionic 
 Capital." Also in Perrot and Chipiez, "Histoire de Part dans Pantiquete," 
 vol. VII, 618 seq. 
 
 117
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 verged to form the carved echinus of the Ionic capital. 
 One form of this foliated capital, shown in Fig. 148, 
 is probably a prototype of the high bell or basket of 
 
 the later-developed Corin- 
 thian capital. 
 
 The fully developed cap- 
 itals of the Erechtheion are 
 among the most elegant 
 forms in classic architecture, 
 and were executed with 
 
 FIG. 148. CAP FROM AEGJE. ,. .. n 
 
 extraordinary perfection of 
 
 detail. The high necking adorned with a carved an- 
 themion is peculiar to this one building (Plate VII, 7). 
 
 The Carved Anthemion. 
 
 This was, next to the capitals, the most characteristic 
 motive in Ionic decoration. Its origin in the anthemion 
 bands of painted vases has already been explained. 
 The technic of carving brought about a number of 
 modifications of detail, such as the ridging and furrow- 
 ing of the stems, leaves and scrolls, the elaboration of 
 the "lotiform" motive (Plate VII, 4), and the intro- 
 duction of the acanthus leaf (or in some cases apparently 
 the leaf of a thistle or aloe) to mask the junction of 
 fluted scrolls where they branch (Figure 149). The 
 most celebrated example of the carved anthemion is that 
 which adorned the north and west sides of the Erech- 
 theion, and which is much like that on the neckings of 
 the columns (Figure 121 A; Plate VII, 11). 
 
 The commonest application of the carved anthemion 
 band was to the high cymatium of the Ionic cornices. 
 
 118
 
 There are many fragments of such carved cymatia of 
 great beauty. One of these on the Acropolis at Athens 
 shows a bird perched upon its scrolls an almost isolated 
 instance in Greek art of a purely naturalistic represen- 
 tation in the midst of a bit of formal ornament. 
 
 Another and quite a different use of the carved an- 
 themion is found in carved marble antifixae and acro- 
 teria which replaced the earlier painted terra-cotta 
 and painted marble. Plate VII, 1, illustrates a marble 
 antefix (or possibly a ridge-cresting unit) from the 
 Parthenon, which may be compared with Fig. 150, 
 a painted acroterium or antefix of terra-cotta, and the 
 stele-heads in Plate VII. 
 
 Stele-heads. 
 
 Closely related to the acroteria and antefixse are the 
 stele-heads, i.e., the upper 
 ends or finials of memorial, 
 sepulchral or votive stones. 
 Apparently the earliest 
 sepulchral steles w r ere 
 topped with a gable- 
 formed finish suggesting 
 the end of a sarcophagus, 
 and adorned with a painted 
 anthemion springing from 
 a nest of acanthus leaves. 
 This combination perhaps 
 recalled an ancient prac- 
 tice of planting an acan- 
 thus or similar plant 
 
 FIG. 150. PAINTED TEBRA-COTTA 
 AXTEFIX. 
 
 119
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 (aloe?) on the flat top of a square or round stele (Fig- 
 ure 151, page 113) . With the increased vogue of carved 
 decoration the painted stele-heads disappeared and the 
 carved type was elaborated into a remarkably beautiful 
 design, especially in the fourth century, to which belong 
 the fine examples in Plate VII, 13, 15. 
 
 The Acanthus. 
 
 The acanthus is a common plant in Greece and Italy, 
 related to the common burdock (Fig. 152). The 
 
 variety known as the 
 acanthus spinosus of- 
 fers, by its formally 
 regular growth and its 
 crisp, crinkly and 
 prickly leaves, excel- 
 lent suggestions for 
 decorative convention- 
 alization (Figure 153, 
 b). The date of its 
 first appearance in 
 Greek ornament is uncertain; it began to be quite fre- 
 quently used, however, by the latter part of the fifth 
 century B. c., as a covering leaf to mask the branching 
 scrolls of carved anthemions, as in the example from 
 the Erechtheion (Figure 149). These earlier examples 
 suggest the thistle and the aloe quite as much as the 
 acanthus; but this may be merely fortuitous resem- 
 blance. Another early example is shown in Fig. 154, 
 probably the earliest type of the Corinthian capital 
 found in the ruins of the Apollo temple at Phigalaea 
 
 120 
 
 FIG. 152. ACANTHUS LEAF (above) 
 BURDOCK (below).
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, II 
 
 (Basso?) in Attica, but now lost. With the develop- 
 ment of carved ornament the leaf was more and more 
 highly elaborated, almost always in association with 
 volutes or spiral scrolls, chiefly applied to one or an- 
 other of four decorative uses: the anthemion-band, the 
 Corinthian capital, carved stele-heads, and the carved 
 rinceau. The last three were executed with especial 
 richness of detail in the Alexandrian age. 
 
 The Corinthian Capital. 
 
 This, the richest of all capital-types, developed only 
 gradually into the final form which the Romans adopted 
 
 FIG. 154. EARLY CORINTHIAN CAPITAL FIG. 155. CAPITAL FROM "TOWER OF 
 
 FROM BASS-iE. THE WlNDS," ATHENS. 
 
 and made their own. Contemporary with the over- 
 elaborate "Lysicrates" example in Plate VII, 14, we 
 find the much simpler form from the "Tower of the 
 Winds" shown in Fig. 155. A capital from the Tholos 
 of Epidauros shows an approach towards the later form 
 from the Temple of Zeus at Athens (Figure 146) , which 
 dates from 170 B.C., and furnished the prototype for the 
 
 121
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Roman Corinthian. In this, sixteen volutes spring in 
 branching pairs from eight caulicoli or leaf-nests, to 
 meet in pairs under the centers and corners respectively 
 of the hollow-curved and molded abacus, each caulicolus 
 rising from between two upright acanthus leaves of the 
 upper or second of two rows of eight leaves each which 
 encircle the bell or core of the capital. The plain bell- 
 type of Fig. 155 suggests a possible imitation of Egyp- 
 tian palm-capitals ; but its late date makes this explana- 
 tion of its form less probable than that of derivation by 
 simplification from the more elaborate contemporary 
 type of Epidaurus or the Lysicrates monument. Very 
 complicated variations were produced in Eleusis, while 
 at Didyme near Miletus, at Priene, and in some other 
 examples, piers or pilasters were capped with the curi- 
 ous form shown in Plate VII, 10. 
 
 The Greeks never developed any type of modillion 
 cornice for the Corinthian entablature, which remained 
 essentially Ionic in character. 
 
 The Rinceau. 
 
 The foliated scroll known by this French name does 
 not appear, at least in carving, until the Alexandrian 
 age. Its origin in painted ornament has already been 
 suggested (see ante, page 98) ; in carved ornament it 
 appears to be an extension of the branching scrolls which 
 accompanied the anthemion on some Ionic cymatia, on 
 the anthemion band of the Erechtheion (Plate VII, 11) 
 and on the more elaborate types of stele-heads (Fig. 
 150; Plate VII, 13, 15). In these examples the scrolls 
 branch only twice or thrice in diminishing repetitions. 
 
 122
 
 * 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, II 
 
 On the gable of one of the splendid sarcophagi 
 Sidon in the Museum at Constantinople, twin scrolls 
 branch symmetrically from the center to form not a 
 'subordinate feature, but the entire decoration, of the 
 pediment (Plate VII, 1). The Choragic Monument 
 of Lysicrates was capped by a superb finial of triple 
 branching and interlaced scrolls, springing from three 
 scroll-arms which spanned the flattened dome of the 
 roof, and supporting presumably the prize tripod 
 awarded to the choir-leader Lysicrates (Plate VII, 3). 
 It was an easy and natural step from these to a con- 
 tinuous line or band of equal branching scrolls, with an 
 acanthus-leaf wrapping and partially masking the 
 several branchings. The base of one of the colossal 
 columns of the Didymseon near Miletus (the Temple 
 of the Didymgean Apollo) bears a superb carved rin- 
 ceau, the earliest and almost the only example of a com- 
 plete continuous rinceau in Greek architecture (Figure 
 127, page 94). The Greek rinceau generally lacks the 
 reversed calyx or cup-flower at each branching that char- 
 acterizes the Roman type; the acanthus-leaf is simple, 
 thick and rather flat ; the scrolls end in a sharp point in- 
 stead of a rosette or flower, and are formed by deeply 
 channeled bands and not by round stems like the Roman. 
 It was reserved for the Romans to develop and elaborate 
 this type, as will appear in a later chapter. But al- 
 though the rinceau as a continuous band-motive is rare 
 in Greek carved ornament, it appears frequently as a 
 limited motive after Alexander's time, and several 
 elaborate examples of its use are in the British Museum 
 from Eleusis. 
 
 123
 
 Other Carved Motives. 
 
 Carved scales representing tiles adorned the dome- 
 like roof of the Monument of Lysicrates, and the gabled 
 cover of the great "Alexander" sarcophagus (so-called) 
 from Sidon, now at Constantinople. The latter also 
 has a finely executed frieze of a grapevine with a con- 
 tinuous waving stem. The carved fret appears occasion- 
 ally, as on a marble funereal monument in the form of 
 a vase, in Athens. Lions' heads are carved to decorate 
 the spouts for discharging roof-water through the 
 cymatium, as on the Parthenon (Plate VII, 29, 35) , the 
 Temple of Apollo at Delos and other examples. The 
 griffin was carved in the round as an acroterium orna- 
 ment, and in relief on either side of a central tree or 
 vertical motive an Oriental device already referred to 
 (see ante, page 86). Beautifully executed examples 
 of these grotesques or monsters adorned many of the 
 capitals of the Temple of Apollo at Didyme. The fine 
 marble table-supports found in Pompeii were very 
 probably of Greek workmanship, but will be noticed 
 later under the head of Pompeiian ornament (see page 
 186). 
 
 Relation to Roman Ornament. 
 
 Greek ornament may be said to have finally passed 
 over into and been absorbed by Roman art. With the 
 conquest of the Greek states, Greek artists became the 
 servants of Roman wealth and power with all the Roman 
 love of magnificence, and contributed greatly to the 
 decorative beauty and refinement which are so often 
 
 124
 
 GREEK ORNAMENT, II 
 
 present in Roman works. In Asia Minor the Greeks 
 retained in considerable measure their independence of 
 taste under Roman rule; the remarkable crocket orna- 
 ment from the frieze of the Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi, 
 of the time of the Antonines, as well as many other de- 
 tails of this and other temples and tombs in Asia Minor, 
 exhibits the Greek originality of design. The capitals 
 of pilasters of the Arch of Hadrian at Athens (dr. 
 120 A.D.) reveal something of the same originality, 
 crispness and independence of the Imperial formalism. 
 Southern Italy and Sicily abounded in works and prod- 
 ucts more Greek in style than Roman; and the entire 
 decorative system of Pompeii, in all its branches, dis- 
 plays a Grecian delicacy, fancifulness and charm, 
 which are due either to the employment of Greek artists, 
 or to the large element of Greek blood in the popula- 
 tion of all Magna Grsecia. Doubtless the walls of 
 Pompeii represent the last corruscation of the Greek 
 mural painter's art, and they are the only examples 
 which have come down to us. 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 ANDERSON AND SPIERS: Architecture of Greece and Rome 
 (London, 1907). BAUMEISTER: Denkmdler des klassischen 
 Altertums (Berlin, 1881-89). BOTTICHER: Die Tektonik der 
 Hellenen (Berlin, 1874-81). CHIPIEZ: Histoire critique des 
 orders grecs (Paris, 1876). DURM: Antike Baukunst (in 
 Handbuch der Architektur series, Darmstadt, 1885). L. FEN- 
 GER: Dorische Polychromie (Berlin, 1886). A. FLASCH: Die 
 Polychromie der griechischen Vaseribttder (Wiirzburg, 1875). 
 FURTWANGLER AND REICHHOLD : Griecliisclie V asenmalereien 
 (Munich, 1900). J. I. HITTORFF: Restitution du Temple 
 d'Empedocle a Selinonte, ou L' Architecture polychrome chez les 
 Grecs (Paris, 1851). G. KACHEL: Kunstgewerbliche Vorbilder 
 
 125
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 aus dem Alterthum (Karlsruhe, 1881). A. MARQUAND: Greek 
 Architecture (New York, 1909). LAU: Die griechischen Vasen 
 (Leipzig, 1877). M. MEURER: Die Ur sprung sformen des grie- 
 chisclien Akanthusornamentes, etc. (Berlin, 1896). STUART 
 AND REVETT: Antiquities of Athens (London, 1762); also 
 French and German editions of the same. TARBELL: History 
 of Greek Art (New York, 1902). L. VULLIAMY: Examples of 
 Ornamental Sculpture in Architecture . . . Greece, Asia Minor 
 and Italy (London, 1824). W. R. WARE: Greek Ornament 
 (Boston, 1878). J. C. WATT: Examples of Greek and Pom- 
 peiian Decorative Work (London, 1897). J. R. WHEELER 
 AND H. N. FOWLER: Handbook on Greek Archeology (New 
 York, 1909). 
 
 126
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 The Roman Genius. 
 
 With Roman ornament we enter upon a new chapter 
 of the history of art. Roman art grew up under condi- 
 tions almost the opposite of those under which Greek 
 art developed. Instead of a group of rival and fre- 
 quently hostile states, allied only by race, religion and 
 language, we have in the case of the Romans a single 
 state comprising peoples of many races, languages and 
 religions, welded together into a powerful and highly 
 organized military empire. Lacking the prevailing 
 artistic and philosophical instincts of the Greeks, the 
 Romans possessed on the other hand a remarkable genius 
 for organization and administration, and a spirit at once 
 practical and progressive. With the growing wealth 
 and power which followed upon their long career of 
 conquest, the Romans developed, somewhat late in their 
 national life, a taste for luxury and splendor. The arts 
 which flourished under the direction of these tastes were 
 chiefly of foreign origin, though they took on in time a 
 distinctively Roman character. The Romans became a 
 nation of mighty builders and engineers, and architec- 
 tural decoration and all the decorative arts that are 
 concerned with personal comfort and luxury were car- 
 
 127
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 156. ETRUSCAN TERRA-COTTA CRESTING. 
 
 ried to a remarkable, and in some cases an extraordinary, 
 degree of elaboration and splendor. Sculpture, on the 
 other hand, was never a characteristic medium for the 
 
 FIG. 157. ETRUSCAN DETAILS. 
 128
 
 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I 
 
 expression of the Roman genius. Roman ornament 
 lacked somewhat of the refine- 
 ment and restraint of the Greek, 
 but was more varied and more 
 flexible. It was eminently 
 adapted to the purposes which it 
 had to serve, and is well worthy 
 of study for its elegance and 
 versatility of design. 
 
 Etruscan Ornament. 
 
 Before the conquest of the FIGS. 158 AND 159. ETKUS- 
 Greek states introduced Greek CAN TERRA - COTTA Btm 
 art into Roman life, the Romans depended mainly upon 
 the Etruscans for such forms of art as their modest 
 requirements called for. This singular people, whose 
 race-origin and early history are still shrouded in ob- 
 scurity, possessed an architecture of their own betray- 
 ing a certain remote kinship with the Greek, but crude 
 and undeveloped artistically. Their frequent use of 
 the arch, and the character of their ornament, so far 
 as it appears in their works in bronze and gold, sug- 
 gest an Asiatic influence, chiefly Phenician, possibly via 
 Carthage. Their ceramic art, especially in its later 
 phases, was based on Greek models. The Campana 
 collection of terra-cotta reliefs in the Louvre, belonging 
 to the first century B.C., show much technical cleverness 
 in adapting Greek pictorial subjects, and even the 
 painted scroll ornaments on late Greek and Campanian 
 vases, to modeling in relief. The ornamental borders 
 
 129
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 160. DETAIL OF A PILASTER. 
 
 of these reliefs retain a curiously Asiatic character (Fig. 
 159). In Figs. 156-160 a number of typical Etrus- 
 can forms are shown. Painted terra-cotta ornaments, 
 such as were used on the wooden superstructures of 
 their temples, are preserved in the museums of Italy; 
 they strongly resemble others found in Pompeii and 
 southern Italy, which are very likely of Etruscan work- 
 manship. These represent the highest development of 
 Etruscan architectural decoration, but plainly exhibit 
 their Greek derivation. The cap shown in Fig. 161 
 illustrates the crudity of native Etruscan details and 
 
 130
 
 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I 
 
 strongly suggests a 
 Phenician or Ori- 
 ental influence. 
 
 The Etruscans 
 were skilful bronze- 
 founders, and ap- 
 pear to have prac- 
 tised also at an 
 early period the art 
 
 FIG. 161. ETRUSCAN PILASTER CAP. 
 
 of spheirelaton or sheet-metal 
 hammered into relief on a base of 
 carved wood. The fine bronze 
 chariot in the Metropolitan Mu- 
 seum at New York appears to be 
 a product of Etruscan work of 
 this sort of the seventh century 
 B.C. 
 
 Etruscan jewelry and filigree 
 were often of great beauty 
 brooches, pendants, chains, etc., 
 of gold sometimes set with gems. 
 Some of it is possibly, however, 
 of Greek manufacture (Fig. 
 162). 
 
 The pottery of Etruria was un- 
 important compared with that of 
 Greece. The most interesting of 
 its products were black vases 
 
 131 
 
 FIG. 162.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 modeled in relief (bucchero nero), but these display lit- 
 tle pure ornament except flutings on the body. It ap- 
 pears to have no relations with the prehistoric black 
 pottery of the so-called Terramare and Villanova pe- 
 riods. 
 
 The Greek Conquests. 
 
 The conquest and absorption of the Greek colonies 
 in southern Italy and Sicily in the late third century B.C., 
 and of the states of Greece proper, ending, with the fall 
 of Corinth (146 B.C.), in the establishment of the Greek 
 province of Achaia, not only made the Roman cam- 
 paigners familiar with the marble magnificence of the 
 Greek cities and the beauty of Greek art, but brought 
 to Rome itself countless treasures of that art and hosts 
 of Greek artists and artisans. Roman architecture un- 
 derwent a gradual transformation, which accompanied 
 and expressed the change in the Roman taste. Mum- 
 mius, the conqueror of Corinth, was in all matters of art a 
 boorish ignoramus ; Sulla, who sixty years later captured 
 Athens in the course of his final campaign against 
 Mithridates, was a cultivated admirer of literature and 
 art. As a result of this process of education and growth 
 in refinement of taste, the Etruscan city of Rome, built 
 of brick, terra-cotta and timber, was transformed into 
 a Greco-Roman city of stone and marble. The Greek 
 orders, radically modified in detail, were adapted to new 
 uses, in combination with Etruscan forms of column 
 and Etruscan types of plan and the Etruscan arch and 
 Asiatic vault, and entirely new decorative forms and 
 effects devised in connection with new constructive ma- 
 
 132
 
 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I 
 
 terials and processes. Sculpture, mostly by Greek 
 artists, received new decorative applications ; the arts of 
 the bronze-founder, the modeler in stucco and the mural 
 painter were developed rapidly to a high pitch of excel- 
 lence ; and the modest alphabet of Greek ornament-forms 
 was expanded into a remarkably rich and varied system 
 of decorative devices. In all these arts it is not always 
 possible to distinguish between true Greek handiwork 
 and that of the Roman imitators, who were probably in 
 many cases Etruscan by race. 
 
 The Decorative System. 
 
 The Romans created for architecture wholly new 
 requirements, applications and uses. To meet these 
 they devised equally new methods and processes of con- 
 struction, employing combinations of brick, rubble, 
 cement, concrete, stone and marble never known before. 
 The Roman genius for organization and system asserted 
 itself in the erection, by means of the vast armies of 
 unskilled labor at their disposal, of ingenious and stu- 
 pendous structures, massively built of coarse materials, 
 and producing novel effects of scale and grandeur made 
 possible for the first time by the use of the arch and 
 vault. This massive construction of coarse materials re- 
 quired a decorative skin or dress, both internally and ex- 
 ternally, of finer material, such as stucco, mosaic, marble 
 wainscot or veneer, or facings of cut stone, with mold- 
 ings, panels, friezes, cornices, carving, sculpture and the 
 like, besides such structural features and adjuncts as 
 columns, porticoes and porches, which must be wholly 
 made of the finer materials. This system was funda- 
 
 133
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 mentally different from that of Egyptian or Greek ar- 
 chitecture, in which stone or marble was the only ma- 
 terial, and temples the chief subjects of architectural 
 design. In these the decoration, other than painting 
 and free sculpture, was of necessity an integral part of 
 the construction, or at least incorporated in it or exe- 
 cuted directly upon it. With the Roman system, a 
 large part of the ornament was, equally of necessity, ap- 
 
 Fio. 163. TEPIDARIUM, BATHS OF CARACALLA. 
 
 plied ornament, executed after the completion of the 
 massive structural frame or core of the building (Fig. 
 163) . This is the system which has prevailed, and must 
 prevail, in all styles and in all regions in which the chief 
 building-materials are coarse or undecorative in them- 
 selves, or in which, even where stone and marble abound, 
 the exigencies of building require the use of the com- 
 moner and coarser materials for the main fabric of the 
 edifice. It is the system in general use in modern prac- 
 tice, and is entirely reasonable and artistically proper, 
 in spite of the objections raised against it by certain 
 
 134
 
 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I 
 
 critics who assail it as "false" and "illogical," because 
 the construction is not identical with the decoration but 
 is concealed by it. But solid masonry of cut stone or 
 of brick and terra-cotta, and in some cases wooden or 
 steel construction, afford the only opportunities for the 
 Greek or Gothic system in which construction and 
 decoration are, or may be made, inseparable; and even 
 with these the interior must in most cases be concealed 
 by plaster, wainscot, tiles, ceilings and the like. The 
 analogy of the skin of human beings and animals affords 
 a justification from Nature, of the Roman, Byzan- 
 tine and modern system, in its decorative concealment 
 of the internal organism and construction, revealing only 
 the general masses of the structure. 
 
 By the Roman system, the unskilled labor of hordes 
 of slaves, soldiers and peasants could be turned to 
 account in the heavier work of construction, and great 
 numbers of vast buildings be erected with comparative 
 rapidity, leaving the decorative work to be later executed 
 by artists and artisans, upon this structural core. The 
 Roman genius for organization and adaptation, guiding 
 and directing these artists, who were chiefly foreigners, 
 at least in the earlier periods, developed new forms of 
 decoration, in which conventional ornament took the 
 place of figure sculpture. 
 
 The principal types of decorative work thus developed 
 were: (1) the decorative use of architectural features, 
 such as columns, entablatures, pediments, moldings, 
 panels and ceiling-coffers; (2) carved ornament in ex- 
 traordinary variety; (3) figure-sculpture, such as groups 
 in pediments, free statues on columns or entablatures in 
 
 135
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 certain classes of structures, and reliefs in panels, 
 spandrels and other defined spaces; (4) the chromatic 
 effects of colored marbles and granites in columns, 
 
 wainscoting and 
 pavements; (5) 
 mosaic of glass or 
 marble in floors and 
 ceilings; (6) stucco- 
 relief in delicate 
 patterns, often com- 
 bined with (7) 
 mural painting in 
 brilliant colors, and 
 (8) bronze work on 
 ceilings, in grilles 
 and doors, and in 
 decorative adjuncts 
 like tripods and 
 candelabra. 
 
 Architectural 
 Features. 
 
 FIG. 164. ROMAN ARCH (ARCH OF TITUS). The remarkable 
 variety of the Roman buildings and structural devices 
 lent itself to a corresponding variety of decorative ef- 
 fects in which the purely decorative use of various 
 structural features played a prominent part. Pilas- 
 ters and engaged columns with their entablatures, pedi- 
 ments over doors, windows and niches, recessed arches 
 and deep ceiling-panels were the chief elements of 
 this pseudo-structural decoration. The combination 
 
 136
 
 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I 
 
 of the arch adorned with its archivolt and keystone 
 with engaged columns carrying entablatures (Fig. 
 164) was the most important of these decorative de- 
 vices, and has been in more or less constant use ever 
 since Roman times. In the later Imperial age, and 
 particularly in the provinces, as at Spalato in Dalmatia 
 
 FIG. 165. NICHE-CAP, BAALBEK. 
 
 and in Syria at Baalbek and Palmyra, there was, under 
 the Antonines and later emperors, a remarkable increase 
 in the variety of these decorative applications of archi- 
 tectural features. Curved and broken pediments, 
 colonnettes on brackets, spirally fluted columns, and 
 niches with shell hoods are among the features most 
 widely used. Some of these works have a singularly 
 modern look, as if of the Palladian Renaissance, which, 
 indeed, independently re-invented many of these devices 
 thirteen hundred years later * (Fig. 165) . 
 
 i This use of structural forms as mere decoration has been condemned 
 as "sham" and "false" design by certain purist critics, who contrast it un~ 
 favorably with the "truthful" architecture of the Greek and Gothic builders. 
 
 137
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Conventional Ornament. 
 
 In developing the details of this system the Romans 
 were obliged to employ Greek artists and to begin with 
 Greek models for the most part. The Greek orders, the 
 Greek fret and anthemion, molding-ornaments, rosette, 
 acanthus-leaf and rinceau, were appropriated, but not 
 without radical modifications. With such stupendous 
 
 //V 
 
 FIG. 166. FRAGMENT FROM TEMPLE OF VESPASIAN, IN VILLA ALDOBRANDINI. 
 
 aggregations of buildings as the Romans raised in their 
 cities both in Italy and abroad structures often many- 
 storied and of vast dimensions figure-sculpture was 
 out of the question as the chief decoration, not so much 
 on account of its enormous cost as because it would have 
 been wasted and ineffective. Carved conventional 
 ornament, on the other hand, with its repeated units, 
 (Fig. 166) enriches such buildings without requiring 
 
 But even in Greek architecture there are analogous "shams," like the 
 pseudo-structural paneling of the Greek pteroma-ceilings, while the useless 
 false gables and the rich wall-traceries of Gothic art are perfect examples 
 of the purely ornamental use of forms primarily structural. The fact is 
 that in all advanced stages of art the structural forms of earlier stages have 
 been similarly turned to decorative account. 
 
 138
 
 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I 
 
 that semi-isolation and that nearness to the eye which 
 are essential for the best effect of figure sculpture. 
 Plastic ornament was carried by the Romans to the 
 highest perfection of appropriate design, of rich effect, 
 and often of exquisite execution. Moldings were 
 combined and profiled with the greatest care, though 
 the profiles were generally less subtile than those of the 
 Greek moldings. In monumental buildings nearly all 
 
 FIG. 167. ROMAN MOLDINGS. 
 
 a, SIMPLE WATER LEAF; b, ENRICHED WATER LEAF; c, d, ACANTHUS 
 LEAF ENRICHMENTS. 
 
 the moldings were enriched by carving, the ornamenta- 
 tion being more elaborate than in the Greek prototypes 
 sometimes, indeed, too minute for the best effect, but 
 almost always appropriate and beautiful (Fig. 167). 
 The general effect of all this decoration was one of 
 great dignity and splendor. The striving for magnifi- 
 cence sometimes led to offenses against good taste, and 
 the execution is occasionally coarse, but such offenses 
 are rare, . and beauty, refinement, delicacy and charm 
 frequently characterize even the grandest works. 
 
 139
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 The Orders. 
 
 The most conspicuous adornment of Roman buildings 
 was effected by the use of columns and pilasters with 
 their entablatures, in one or more of the so-called "Five 
 Orders" the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and 
 Composite (Plate VIII). In reality there are but 
 
 FIG. 168. ROMAN IONIC CAPITALS. 
 
 three, the Tuscan and Doric being mere variants of 
 one type and the Composite and Corinthian of another. 
 Upon their so-called Doric column, which was really 
 an enriched and refined form of the Etruscan ( Tuscan ) 
 column, the Romans placed an entablature derived from 
 that of the Greek Doric order, with its triglyphs and 
 mutules. The Ionic was but slightly varied from the 
 Greek Ionic type of Asia Minor. The capital occurs 
 in two forms : one following the Greek model, but with 
 a straight band between the volutes, on the front and 
 
 140
 
 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I 
 
 rear faces, instead of a depressed curved band (see 
 Plate VIII, 3) ; and the other with four double volutes 
 at the angles of the abacus, in order to make the four 
 faces of the capital alike; this is sometimes called 
 erroneously the "Scamozzi Ionic" (Fig. 168). The 
 Corinthian, an elaboration of the Greek Corinthian but 
 
 FIG. 169. CORINTHIAN CAPITAL, TEMPLE OF MAES 
 ULTOR. 
 
 with a special type of cornice, is the really distinctive 
 Roman order. With the Greeks it had been a mere 
 variant of the Ionic; the Romans developed its capital 
 into a type generally recognized as one of the most beau- 
 tiful ever devised. In its most perfect examples, as in 
 that of the Pantheon, the Temple of Castor and Pollux 
 and the Temple of Faustina, it consists of two rows of 
 erect acanthus-leaves surrounding and concealing the 
 lower two-thirds of a bell-shaped core on which rests a 
 
 141
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 molded abacus with concave sides. The upper part is 
 concealed by sixteen spiral volutes which spring in 
 branching pairs from eight caulicoli or leaf-nests, set 
 between the eight leaves of the upper row. These 
 volutes meet in eight pairs under the four corners of the 
 abacus and under rosettes at the centers of its four sides 
 (Fig. 169, Figure 174; Plate VIII, 4, 6) . The details 
 of this type are endlessly varied; in late examples ani- 
 mals and human figures sometimes take the place of the 
 
 FIG. 172. MODILLKW. 
 
 corner volutes. The Composite capital, having volutes 
 only at the angles, and larger than in the Corinthian, 
 may be considered an inferior variant of the Corinthian, 
 though sometimes very splendidly carved (Plate VIII, 
 2, 7; Figure 170) . It somewhat resembles a four-faced 
 Ionic capital placed upon the lower part of a Corinthian 
 capital. Pilaster caps show a greater variety of design 
 than capitals of columns (Plate VIII, 8; Figure 171). 
 To these improvements upon the Greek order they 
 added that of a special type of base, an elaboration of 
 the Attic base, consisting of two tori separated by two 
 
 142
 
 3 
 
 FIG. 170. COMPOSITE CAPITAL (LATERAN MUSEUM, ROME) 
 
 Fia. 173. RESTORATION OF CORNICE, BASILICA /EMILIA (FROM DRAWING BY R. H. 
 
 SMYTHE)
 
 145
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 scotias and a single or double bead. In late examples 
 these moldings were all carved, reproducing at the base 
 something of the elaborate richness of the capital (Plate 
 VIII, 9, 10, 11). 
 
 But the Romans not only perfected the Greek Corin- 
 thian capital and base ; they developed also a new type 
 of cornice which completed the Corinthian as a distinct 
 order (Figure 174, page 151). This was accomplished 
 by the simple but epoch-making device of introducing 
 modillion brackets beneath the corona and above the bed- 
 mold of the typical Ionic cornice. The modillion 
 (Fig. 172) was a completely new architectural in- 
 vention. The recently excavated fragments of the 
 Basilica Emilia (86 B.C.) show a primitive form com- 
 posed of a mutule decorated on the under side with a 
 reversed scroll (Figure 173). 2 The modillion of the 
 Maison Carree at Nimes (4 A.D.) somewhat resem- 
 bles this type; the more perfect type is shown in 
 Plate VIII, 4. 
 
 Variety in the Roman Orders. 
 
 It is frequently asserted that the Romans reduced 
 their Orders to a purely mechanical system of mathe- 
 matically formulated dimensions for each part. This 
 assertion springs from a blind acceptance of the rules 
 laid down by Vitruvius (or of the later formulae of 
 Vignola and other Italian Renaissance writers) as if 
 they represented the actual historic practice of the 
 Romans. In reality nothing could well be further from 
 the truth. There are no two examples of any of the 
 
 2 Tliis appears to have been used over an Ionic order. 
 
 146
 
 ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ORNAMENT, I 
 
 orders from different buildings that are alike, either in 
 general proportions or details. The Roman Doric is 
 at least as varied as the Greek Doric, and the variety 
 in Corinthian capitals and entablatures is simply aston- 
 ishing. There was, no doubt, throughout the Imperial 
 age a tendency towards uniformity in certain general 
 features and proportions, but this never hardened into 
 cast-iron formulae, and the beauty and vitality of Roman 
 ornament are largely due to the variety and individual- 
 ity of the designs of different buildings, and of different 
 times and places. 
 
 Decorative Uses of the Orders. 
 
 In Roman architecture columns were not only used 
 for their original function as true structural supports 
 in porticoes and colonnades, but also, with their entab- 
 latures, for decorative purposes, by engaging them in 
 the walls, which were thus architectually divided into 
 bays and stories. In arcaded structures the columns, 
 apparently engaged into the piers between the arches, 
 were in reality parts of the piers themselves, acting to 
 that extent as buttresses; but their chief function in 
 such buildings was esthetic, not structural. They were 
 expressive as well as decorative, emphasizing to the eye 
 the lines of vertical support and of concentrated thrust 
 of the building, while indicating externally the internal 
 structural divisions. At the same time they broke the 
 surface of the edifice into rectangular panels or units, 
 outlined by strong lights and shades, in which the arches 
 were effectively framed. 
 
 The Romans also invented the pilaster, a flattened 
 
 147
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 replica of the column, used as a wall-decoration, and 
 as a respond behind free-standing columns, as in tri- 
 umphal arches and forum walls. Over columns so 
 placed in front of pilasters the entablature was made to 
 project in a salient block, while between the columns 
 it was set back nearly to the wall-face, thus producing 
 the much criticized ressaut or "broken entablature." 
 When this projecting block and the column below it 
 together serve as a pedestal for a statue, as in the Arch 
 of Constantine (Figure 175), they serve at least a real 
 esthetic function. In other cases the order thus used 
 becomes a purely factitious decoration, unexplained to 
 the eye, as it supports nothing even in appearance. 
 
 The shafts of columns and of pilasters were sometimes 
 fluted, sometimes smooth. When monolithic shafts of 
 polished granite or marble were used, as was general in 
 the later Imperial age, the decorative splendor of the 
 colored material took the place of enrichment by fluting, 
 as a characteristic Roman practice. 
 
 The use of pedestals, by means of which an order of 
 smaller-scaled parts could be used for a given height of 
 story, was another distinctively Roman device to add to 
 the flexibility of the Orders (Figure 175). 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 See List at end of Chapter X. 
 
 148
 
 B a 
 
 a 2 
 
 *r * 
 
 a 
 
 '. Q 
 fl O 
 
 2 3
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 
 
 Carved Ornament. 
 
 In this field Roman art surpassed all previous styles 
 in the variety and splendor of its achievements, and 
 originated types which have persisted through all the 
 centuries since. The beauty of the Corinthian capital 
 and entablature has already been alluded to, as well 
 as the richness of the Roman carved moldings. Roman 
 
 FIG. 176. TYPICAL ACANTHUS LEAVES. 
 
 friezes, bands and panels were adorned with a like rich- 
 ness of conventional carving. Practically the whole of 
 this ornament was based on Greek prototypes the an- 
 
 151
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 themion and rinceau supplying the motives for the 
 greater part of it. If we add to these the rosette, 
 festoon or garland, 1 and the use of symbolic and 
 grotesque forms, and note that the acanthus-leaf in an 
 endless variety of modifications, was worked into every 
 possible detail, we have the key to the greater part of 
 this ornament. But with these few fundamental 
 motives the Roman artists developed a quantity and 
 variety of designs which for richness and appropriate- 
 ness of effect and extraordinary flexibility of application 
 have never been surpassed. Some of it is heavy and 
 over-wrought; but the beauty and refinement of the 
 great majority of examples entitle them to high praise. 
 
 The Acanthus. 
 
 This constitutes a type rather than a particular form 
 of leaf. As compared with the 
 Greek type, it is less massive, less 
 pointed, more minutely modeled; 
 it suggests a larger, thinner, more 
 flexible and more complex leaf, 
 with well-developed "eyes" at the 
 bases of the lobes and "pipes" or 
 ribs curving from these to the base 
 of the leaf (Fig. 176) . The stand- 
 ing leaves in the figure may be 
 compared with the natural acan- 
 thus mollis in Figure 153, a (p. 
 113). There are many leaves in 
 nature which are divided in much 
 
 Fio. 177. TYPES OF 
 ACAXTHCS. 
 
 i Or "swag," as it is often called by English writers. 
 
 152
 
 ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 
 
 the same way, and the Romans varied the carved type 
 almost ad infinitum, so that it recalls various leaves, and 
 modern writers have given them fanciful names accord- 
 ingly the "olive," "palm," etc. though in each case 
 we have a purely conventional variation of the type. 
 Fig. 177 shows a few of these variants. 
 
 The acanthus was used (a) as a standing leaf in 
 capitals and on some moldings; (b) as a molding orna- 
 ment (Fig. 167, c, d) ; (c) as a nest or bunch of leaves 
 from which to start a rinceau (Plate IX, 1, 10, 12; Fig- 
 ure 178, Fig. 179) ; (d) as a caulicolus or wrapping- 
 leaf to mask the branching of the scrolls (Plate IX, 10; 
 Figs. 166, 179) ; (e) as an ornament around the 
 stems of candelabra and the bellies of vases (Plate X, 
 13; Fig. 180) ; (f) as a conventional plant to alter- 
 nate with or replace the anthemion (Plate IX, 8), and 
 (g) to form the petals of a rosette (Fig. 181; Plate 
 IX, 9). All these applications may be studied in 
 Plates VIII, IX and X. 
 
 The Rinceau. 
 
 The origin and development of the rinceau have al- 
 ready been traced in Greek ornament (pages 000). 
 The Roman version of it became the most important of 
 all Roman motives, and has been perhaps the most pro- 
 lific of all historic ornament-forms except the lotus. A 
 round stem, springing from a nest of acanthus-leaves 
 (Figs. 166, 179, 182), branches into scrolls alternately 
 winding upon one and the other side, each terminating, 
 not in a point as in the Greek type, but in an elaborate 
 flower or bunch of leaves (Figure 181, page 143) . Each 
 
 153
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 branching is concealed by an elaborate caulicolus or 
 wrapping-leaf, which springs from a calyx-like cup- 
 flower at its base. Such spaces as would otherwise be 
 
 FIG. 179. RINCEAU, FORUM OP TRAJAN. 
 
 left bare are often filled with subordinate scrolls and 
 tendrils, and in rare instances animal life is introduced 
 in the form of birds, mice and insects (Plate IX) . 
 
 FIG. 18;?. RINCEAU, FROM TEMPLE OF THE SUN. 
 
 While some examples of the rinceau are heavy and 
 overcrowded, as in the example from the Temple of the 
 Sun (Fig. 182), others are remarkable for their deli- 
 
 154
 
 ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 
 
 cately handled relief and exquisite details (Fig. 179). 
 There is the greatest possible variety of effect both in 
 the composition and detailed treatment. 
 
 The rinceau was used (a) for friezes and bands; (b) 
 for pilasters, either single, filling the whole width of the 
 pilaster-panel, or doubled symmetrically on either side 
 of a central axis (Figure 178) ; (c) on flat surfaces or 
 panels of almost any form symmetrically repeated on 
 either side of a vertical axis. Examples are shown in 
 Plate IX. 
 
 The Anthemion. 
 
 The preceding examples illustrate the applications 
 of the acanthus listed under c and d (page 153) ; Fig. 
 183 and Plate IX, 8, illustrate a group of forms based 
 on the anthemion. While some examples resemble 
 quite closely the Greek carved anthemion, others depart 
 widely from the type, constituting a new and original 
 ornament form. 
 
 Ceiling Decoration. 
 
 The wooden ceilings of the basilicas and private 
 houses have perished. Vaulted ceilings were decorated 
 in either two ways : by stucco ornament, modeled in re- 
 lief and painted, or by paneling in deep "coffers" or 
 "caissons." These were derived originally through 
 Greek architecture from wooden ceilings framed with 
 intersecting beams. In the Pantheon they appear to 
 have been hewn out of the solid brick masonry of the 
 dome, long after its original completion, its 28 rows of 
 panels fitting but indifferently over the eight-fold 
 
 155
 
 divisions of the architec- 
 ture below. An early 
 and elegant example of 
 vault-paneling is seen in 
 the soffit of the Arch of 
 Titus (80 A.D.). The 
 panels were in most cases 
 simple geometric forms 
 squares, octagons, "loz- 
 enges," etc.; the sides of 
 each caisson were molded 
 and the fields of the pan- 
 els adorned with splen- 
 didly carved rosettes or 
 with mosaic patterns, or 
 else left plain (Fig. 184) . 
 Ceiling decoration in 
 stucco is treated in a later 
 paragraph (page 161; 
 see Figures 187 and 201) . 
 
 Figure Sculpture. 
 
 Figure sculpture played 
 a far less important part 
 in the decoration of Roman buildings than in the Greek 
 monuments. The reasons for this have been already 
 touched upon (page 138). Nevertheless the splendid 
 decorative value of the figure was not ignored, but was 
 availed of in many decorative reliefs of high artistic 
 excellence. The Romans were especially successful in 
 the sculpture of symbolic grotesques and of infant fig- 
 
 156 
 
 FIG. 183. 
 
 ROMAN CARVED ANTHEMI- 
 ONS.
 
 ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 
 
 ures (genii and amorini) . By a grotesque is meant an 
 artistic combination of heterogeneous Nature-forms, as 
 in Fig. 195, where an infant figure is provided with 
 wings, and terminates in a superb acanthus scroll in 
 place of legs. The festoon or "swag" and garland, 
 bound with fluttering ribbons representing sacrificial 
 
 FIG. 184. 
 
 fillets (Figure 186; Plate VIII, 3, 6) ; the bucrane or 
 ox-skull, likewise a sacrificial symbol (Plate IX, 7) ; the 
 dolphin and steering-paddle symbolizing Neptune and 
 water (Figure 185) ; the Imperial eagle, and trophies 
 of arms and armor, are common in Roman decorative 
 art. 
 
 The most beautiful of Roman relief decorations are 
 perhaps the charming reliefs modeled in plaster on the 
 ceilings and walls of houses and thermse, as noted in a 
 later paragraph. 
 
 157
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Wall Decoration. 
 
 Three methods were employed : marble veneer, paint- 
 ing and stucco-relief. Both in the richer private houses 
 and palaces, and in the thermae, basilicas and temples, 
 the lower part at least of the interior walls was wains- 
 coted with slabs of variegated marble, so set as to pro- 
 duce symmetrical patterns of veining. This practice 
 was probably introduced from Asia Minor, where 
 marble abounds, although it has been contended 2 with 
 a good deal of force, that it came from Alexandria 
 together with the sort of mosaic called Opus Alexan- 
 drinum. The origin is less important than the result. 
 A special emporium was established on the Tiber for 
 the traffic in marble, of which enormous quantities were 
 required for columns, wainscots and pavements. The 
 ancient wall-incrustations have mostly disappeared, torn 
 away to supply materials for medieval and even Renais- 
 sance buildings. One important example, however, 
 remains; the interior wall of the Pantheon, up to the 
 main cornice, still retains for the most part its original 
 lining, in perfect condition. This style of decoration 
 has survived in the Early Christian basilicas and Byzan- 
 tine churches (see Chapters XII and XIII). 
 
 Stucco Relief. 
 
 It was the Romans who first, with the aid, most prob- 
 ably, of Greek artificers, developed the artistic possibili- 
 ties of work in stucco for interior decorations, especially 
 of vaulted ceilings. This art had evidently reached 
 
 2 See "Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects," vol. Ill, 
 New Series; 1887. 
 
 158
 
 5 
 
 FIQ. 187. STUCCO RELIEF; TOMB ON VIA LATINA 
 
 FIG. 188. STUCCO RELIEF, FROM A ROMAN HOUSE (IN MUSEO DELLE TERME)
 
 ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 
 
 a high state of perfection by the middle of the first 
 century A.D. The substructions of the Golden House 
 of Nero (who died A.D. 68), and of the Baths of Titus, 
 built in 74 on the same site, together with numerous 
 examples in Pompeii, which was overwhelmed by the 
 eruption of 79 A.D., afford abundant proof of the bril- 
 liance, delicacy and originality of the Roman stucco- 
 work of this time. The Roman stucco, made in part 
 with pounded marble and thoroughly slaked lime, was 
 extraordinarily fine and durable. It was applied only 
 as fast as it could be worked into decorative form, and 
 molded partly by mechanical means, partly freehand, 
 while still wet. The area to be decorated was laid off 
 in panels of various geometric forms, outlined by mold- 
 ings of delicate profile, often enriched with eggs-and- 
 darts, leaves or other ornaments. The panels were 
 then adorned with paintings, with glass-mosaic (as in 
 the Baths of Caracalla), or more frequently, with relief 
 arabesques or figures modeled in the stucco; and it is 
 in these last that the highest skill was manifested. The 
 exquisite charm of this work, its delicacy of low relief, 
 the freedom and dash of its execution indicate artistic 
 ability and taste of a very high order (Figures 187, 188) . 
 Important examples of various handlings of this 
 material are: at Rome, Tombs on the Via Latina, the 
 substructions of the Baths of Titus and of Nero's 
 Golden House, ruins on the Palatine and fragments in 
 the Musec delle Terme from a house uncovered in 1879 
 near the Villa Farnesina, in excavations for the new 
 Tiber embankments; at Pompeii, the Baths of the 
 Forum (the tepidarium), Stabian Baths and a few 
 
 161
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 examples in private houses. The great majority of 
 these date from the first century A.D., after which a 
 more robust and monumental decoration of walls and 
 ceilings appears to have gradually displaced this charm- 
 ing but minute and intimate form of art. 
 
 The ornaments of stucco in low relief were often com- 
 bined with painting, on walls as well as ceilings. The 
 labyrinth of piers and vaults under the ruins of the 
 Baths of Titus on the Esquiline (part of them belong- 
 ing to the Golden House of Nero) are doubly interest- 
 ing because they furnished the models from which 
 Raphael drew his inspiration for his remarkable painted 
 stucco-relief decorations in the Loggie of the Vatican, 
 and less directly, Giulio Romano and Giovanni da 
 Udine for those in the Villa Madama. 
 
 Painting. 
 
 The above examples, especially those from the house 
 uncovered in 1879, and others in the Villa of Hadrian 
 at Tivoli, and in the so-called Casa di Livia on the 
 Palatine, prove the substantial identity of style of the 
 mural paintings in the Capital with those at Pompeii, 
 with only such differences of quality as one might expect 
 between the Capital and a provincial town, somewhat 
 hastily rebuilt after the earthquake of 63. This phase 
 of Roman ornament will be treated in the next chapter, 
 devoted to Pompeii, on account of the great number 
 and importance of the Pompeiian examples. 
 
 Pavements. 
 
 The floors of all important buildings were of marble 
 
 162
 
 FIG. 190. 
 
 DETAIL, FLOOR, MOSAIC, IN VILLA 
 ITALICA, SEVILLE. 
 
 ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 
 
 or mosaic. Marble 
 was used in large 
 panels of various 
 colors in circles, 
 squares and simple 
 geometric forms ; but 
 as with the wains- 
 coting, most of these 
 pavements have dis- 
 appeared to provide 
 materials for the 
 floors of Christian 
 basilicas. That of 
 the Pantheon may be in part original, and fragments of 
 the floor of the Basilica Julia have also been preserved. 
 Mosaic floors were paved with minute tesserae or 
 roughly squared fragments of 
 colored marble, tile or other ma- 
 terial, set in patterns usually of 
 a plain field with a decorative bor- 
 der in the larger rooms, though in 
 smaller rooms all-over patterns 
 were not uncommon (Plate XI, 
 9, 11, 12). Outside of Rome, in 
 Asia Minor and in other remote 
 provinces as well as in Pompeii, 
 elaborately pictured floors were 
 executed in tessera? of variously 
 colored marbles. The most fa- 
 mous example from the House of 
 the Faun in Pompeii is now pre- 
 163 
 
 FIG. 193. ORNAMENTS, 
 BRONZE AND GOLD.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 served in the Naples Museum (see page 182). Figure 
 189 illustrates a floor pattern of "swastikas" from a 
 house in Pompeii. There are some fine examples in the 
 Museum of Constantinople. Fig. 190 shows a detail 
 of the mosaic floor of a Roman villa near Seville, Spain. 
 
 Furniture and Utensils. 
 
 Whatever furniture was of wood has perished; but 
 the more important and permanent objects in the equip- 
 
 Fio. 194. UNDER SIDE OF SILVER VASE, HILDESHEIM TREASURE. 
 
 ment of houses were of marble and bronze, and of these, 
 together with the smaller utensils and furnishings in 
 bronze, we have many examples in the various museums. 
 As, however, the great majority of these are from 
 Pompeii, they will be briefly discussed and illustrated in 
 the following chapter on Pompeiian art. Plate X and 
 Figures 191, 192 and Figs. 193, 194 show illustrations 
 
 164
 
 FIG. 191. MARBLE VASE, NAPLES MUSEUM 
 
 FIG. 192. ROMAN VASE (FROM CAST IN METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK)
 
 ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 
 
 of pedestals, candelabra and vases, mostly in the muse- 
 ums of the Vatican and of the Capitol at Rome and in 
 the Museo Nazionale at Naples. Large vases of marble, 
 elaborately sculptured, were used in the decoration of 
 villas, presumably in the gardens, serving most probably 
 as vases for the planting of flowers, vines and small trees 
 or shrubs. In these, Roman decorative art reached a 
 high degree of excellence and supplied models which 
 the Renaissance artists of Italy and later of France 
 imitated with success but hardly surpassed. The 
 Museum of the Louvre possesses a colossal marble vase 
 with spiral flutings and figures in relief, and other ex- 
 amples are found in the Capitoline and Vatican museums 
 at Rome and the Nazionale at Naples (Figures 191, 
 192). Convex and concave flutings, acanthus-leaves 
 and guilloches, the vine and grotesques are the most com- 
 mon adornments of these fine vases, the grace of whose 
 outlines is fully equal to the splendor of their decoration. 
 
 Goldsmith's Work and Jewelry. 
 
 Skill in jewelry was shown by the Etruscans, who 
 may have furnished the greater part of the jewelers 
 even in Imperial times. The character of the later 
 jewelry bracelets, brooches, pendants and pins does 
 not differ essentially from that of the earlier Etruscan 
 work except in greater variety of form. The bronze 
 and silver mirrors deserve notice for the beauty of the 
 handles and backs. The famous Hildesheim Treasure, 
 discovered in 1868 at Hildesheim, Germany, com- 
 prising gold and silver bowls, platters and other vessels 
 magnificently decorated with figures, vines and orna- 
 
 167
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 ments in relief, reveals the same excellent taste and fine 
 workmanship observable in Roman works in bronze and 
 marble (Plate X and Figure 193). 
 
 FIG. 195. 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 As before, ANDERSON and SPIERS, BAUMEISTER, JACOBSTHAL, 
 KACHEL, VULLIAMY. Also, F. ALBERTOLLI: Fregi trovati negli 
 Scavi del Foro Trajano (Milan, 1824) ; Ornamenti d'wersi An- 
 tonini (Milan, 1843); Manuale di varii ornamenti . . . e fra- 
 menti antichi (Rome, 1781-1790). J. BUEHLMANN: The 
 Architecture of Classical Antiquity and the Renaissance (New 
 York, 1900). G. P. CAMPANA: Antiche Opere in Plastica 
 (Rome, 1851). J. DURM : Baukunst der Etrusker; Baukunst 
 der Romer (Darmstadt, 1885). G. EBE: Die Schmuckformen 
 
 168
 
 ROMAN ORNAMENT, II 
 
 der Monumentalbauten (Leipzig, 1896). H. D'ESPOUY: Frag- 
 ments de I 'architecture antique (Paris, 1896-1905). P. Gus- 
 MAN: UArt decoratif de Rome (Paris, 1908). S. HESSEL- 
 BACH: Vergleichende Darstellung der antiken Ornamentik, etc. 
 (Wiirzburg, 1849). J. DE MARTA: L'Art Etrusque; Archeol- 
 ogie etrusque et romaine (Paris, n. d.). STRACK: Baudenk- 
 maler Roms. (Berlin, 1891). C. H. TATHAM: Etchings 
 (London, 1810). TAYLOR AND CRESY, Antiquities of Rome 
 (London, 1824). THIERRY: Klassische Ornamente. C. UHDE: 
 Architecturformen des Klassischen Altertums (Berlin, n. d.); 
 also an edition in English (New York, 1909). 
 
 Consult also various volumes of the engravings of PIRANESI 
 (to be found only in the larger libraries) ; the volumes of 
 L'Art pour Tous (Paris, 1863 ) ; and the printed transactions 
 of various archaeological societies, for valuable material. 
 
 169
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 The decorative art of Pompeii was a provincial phase 
 of Roman art differing from that of the capital in cer- 
 tain aspects, precisely as in Dalmatia, in Syria and in 
 North Africa, local conditions modified the detailed 
 forms of decorative expression while the Roman impress 
 was nevertheless over all. It is pervaded by a spirit 
 of Grecian delicacy and refinement, due to the strong 
 Greek element in the population of Southern Italy; but 
 there are details on the other hand which smack of the 
 Etruscan. The importance of Pompeiian art is due to 
 its wonderfully complete preservation by burial under 
 the scoriae after the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. 
 Its progressive excavation since 1748 has laid bare the 
 aspect, life and art of a provincial South Italian city of 
 the first century, while all other Roman cities (except 
 Herculanum, still buried) have suffered complete trans- 
 formation by successive rebuildings through eighteen 
 centuries. 
 
 Two facts must be kept in mind in all study of Pom- 
 peiian art: first, that the majority of houses and many 
 of the temples and public buildings were, at the time 
 of the eruption, newly built to replace those destroyed 
 by the earthquake of 63 A.D.; and that in consequence 
 
 170
 
 POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 of the earthquake they were mostly low buildings, un- 
 like the more lofty and monumental architecture of 
 most other cities; secondly, that they represent the 
 relatively early Roman art of the first century, previous 
 to the time of Domitian, and not of the later and more 
 splendid Imperial age. Yet in the matter of decoration 
 there is less difference of style than one would expect 
 from the work of the same age in the Capital (e.g., the 
 
 FIG. 196. IONIC CAP, CORKER VOLTTTES. 
 
 House of Livia and the frescoes in the Museo delle 
 Terme) or even of a later period as seen in the Villa 
 of Hadrian. 
 
 The ornament of Pompeii will be discussed under 
 four heads: (1) Architectural detail ; (2) Mural decora- 
 tion; (3) Mosaic; (4) Furniture and utensils. It will 
 be seen that in all these divisions, while the motives are 
 essentially Roman, there is a freedom, a lightness of 
 touch and delicacy of treatment, which suggest Greek 
 workmanship, and which are probably due to the per- 
 sistent strain of Hellenic blood in the population of all 
 Southern Italy. 
 
 171
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Architectural Detail. 
 
 The Orders were handled with great freedom, whether 
 executed in cut-stone, or, as more frequently, in rubble 
 or brick finished in stucco. The Doric order was often 
 of the Greek rather than of the Roman type ; the Ionic 
 capital usually had doubled corner- volutes and a very 
 slight projection or width as compared with both Greek 
 and Roman types (Fig. 196), and the Corinthian 
 
 FIG. 197. POMPEIIAN MOLDINGS. 
 
 capital was considerably varied, both in the number and 
 character of its leaves. The Roman type of acanthus 
 is not found, a more bluntly crinkled leaf being pre- 
 ferred. The Doric columns had no bases, those of the 
 other orders often lacked plinths ; the moldings differed 
 from the Roman, in having profiles more varied and 
 delicate, with an almost feminine refinement (Fig. 
 197). The entablatures have for the most part 
 perished. The few fragments that remain intact show 
 the same characteristics in varying from the fashions 
 of Rome and in refinement of detail. A common 
 Pompeiian feature was the filling-up of the lower part 
 
 172
 
 POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 of the flutings of stuccoed columns, to prevent the 
 chipping and marring of the fragile arrises ; sometimes a 
 convex "flute" or bead inserted in this portion protected 
 without quite filling the fluting, and this has become a 
 common decorative device of modern architecture. 
 
 All this Pompeiian architecture of rubble and stucco 
 was embellished with color, of which traces still remain. 
 Even capitals were painted and the carved and molded 
 
 FIG. 198. CARVED POMPEIIAX RINCEAU. 
 
 details were adorned in like manner. One house is 
 known as the Casa del capitelli colorati, the House of 
 Painted Capitals, because of the perfect preservation 
 of the color on its stucco or cement capitals; but it was 
 originally but one of hundreds so adorned. Figure 198 
 illustrates the elegance of detail in a carved rinceau in 
 stone. 
 
 Mural Decoration. 
 
 In this field the Pompeiian remains are unrivaled. 
 The chief means of decoration was by painting on 
 stucco ; the use of rich marbles, whether for construction 
 
 173
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 or wall-incrustation, although increasingly common in 
 Rome for at least a half century before the destruction 
 of Pompeii, was not common in the provincial town. 
 The surprising thing is that within less than sixteen 
 years after the destructive earthquake of A.D. 63, this 
 town should have been rebuilt with such elaboration of 
 elegance in its painted decorations as the remains have 
 exhibited. Many of the paintings have been trans- 
 ferred to the Royal Museum at Naples, but the wealth 
 of decoration still remaining in place is astonishing, in 
 quality as well as quantity. Some of the more recently 
 excavated houses that of Queen Margherita, of the 
 Vettii, and others, equal or surpass the splendors of the 
 Museum (Figures 199, 200). 
 
 Four well-marked periods or styles (for doubtless 
 they overlap independently of period-limits) are recog- 
 nized. The first, supposed to be Etruscan or Cumaean, 
 and dating as far back as 100 B.C., is that of walls simply 
 divided into panels of different colors with occasional 
 painted imitations of marble wainscot. The second, 
 called the Greek, supposed to have been introduced 
 about 80 B.C., is distinguished by the earliest use of 
 pictures copied from Greek originals, or reminiscences 
 of them, the subjects being mostly taken from Greek 
 mythology. A very simple type of painted archi- 
 tectural embellishment accompanies many of these pic- 
 tured decorations: painted columns, bases and entab- 
 latures serving to mark off the wall-divisions. The 
 third and fourth styles are Roman or Pompeiian; both 
 are found in the houses rebuilt after the earthquake, 
 and both are characterized by a light and fantastic archi- 
 
 174

 
 POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 tecture painted in a conventional perspective, with 
 slender columns as of gold, with extraordinary entab- 
 latures, pediments and balconies, giving vistas of the 
 clear sky above, and enclosing pictures of varied sub- 
 jects, sometimes of large size, or simpler colored panels 
 in the centers of which float airy figures of nymphs, 
 cupids and other mj^thological beings, In the Fourth 
 or Florid style this "dream" architecture is still more 
 complex, attenuated and fantastic than in the Third, 
 and the simpler and more obvious wall-decorations 
 of friezes and arabesques play a smaller part in the 
 scheme. 
 
 In the painted details, apart from pictures and the 
 architecture, there is a great variety of conventional 
 patterns for bands of ornament; a remarkably elegant 
 treatment of the rinceau motive, in varied colors on 
 black or red (Plate XI, 6) ; and a corresponding inter- 
 pretation of carved pilaster arabesques in painted 
 arabesques of yellow and other colors on a red, green or 
 dark background (Plate XI, 1-6). Much of this 
 decoration has the character of mere artisanship, but it 
 is extremely clever artisanship, and one has no right to 
 call for the higher qualities of art in the decorations of 
 ordinary houses. 
 
 The technic of the painting has been much discussed ; 
 but it is now quite generally believed to have been 
 executed in true fresco on the wet plaster, at least in 
 the majority of examples; and then touched up and 
 many of the details worked over, in the finer examples 
 with encaustic painting. In this last process the pig- 
 ments were mixed in melted wax on a hot metal palette 
 
 177
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 and applied with a hot iron instrument instead of a 
 brush. 1 
 
 Stucco Relief. 
 
 This form of mural decoration, as applied both to 
 walls and ceilings, has already been touched upon (see 
 ante, page 158). A comparison of the examples from 
 Rome and Pompeii respectively, discloses no funda- 
 mental difference of style or even quality between the 
 work in the two cities. The most notable examples in 
 Pompeii are those in the two chief baths the Thermae 
 of the Forum and of Stabii. In these we have a rinceau 
 frieze, delicate panel-moldings, ideal or mythological 
 figures, Tritons, winged figures, dolphins and the like, 
 and free-hand arabesques, all treated with an animation 
 of design, a freedom from mechanical repetition and 
 hardness, and a delicacy of handling, worthy of Greece 
 and of the Capital, and surprising to find in a relatively 
 small provincial city (Figure 201; Plate XI, 7, 10). 
 This and the Roman stucco-work ought to be fruitfully 
 suggestive to modern decorators, for its effects are full 
 of charm, and yet not unduly costly or difficult to pro- 
 duce. 
 
 Besides these interior decorations in low relief, there 
 should be mentioned the decorations of the exteriors of 
 buildings by stucco details molded upon a rough core 
 of rubble or brick, and also the use of stucco for columns 
 and capitals in place of stone. It is easy to criticize 
 adversely this substitution of a fragile for a monumental 
 
 i In the Metropolitan Museum of Art at New York there are several sec- 
 tions of wall from a villa at Boscoreale, with decorations of the Third 
 Period, mostly landscapes of buildings and farms. 
 
 178
 
 FIG. 201. POMPEIIAN STUCCO RELIEF; FROM THE STABIAN BATHS
 
 POMPEIIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 material in exterior ar- 
 chitecture; but given a 
 scarcity of marble and of 
 good building stone with 
 an abundance of soft tufa 
 and of "pozzolana" for 
 the making of cement- 
 stucco; given also the ne- 
 cessity of a rapid re- 
 building of almost an 
 entire town after the 
 earthquake of 63, and it 
 would be hard to imagine 
 a more artistic and satis- 
 factory result than the 
 Pompeiians produced in a 
 few short years with rub- 
 ble, stucco and paint. 
 
 Mosaic. 
 
 FIG. 202. MOSAIC FLOOR PATTERNS. 
 
 Mosaic floors were al- 
 most all of Opus Grecanicum, laid in small tesserae of 
 marble and other stone or even tile, in patterns which 
 frequently suggest rug-designs. Each floor has a bor- 
 der and either an all-over patterned field (see Fig. 189) , 
 a central medallion, or a spangled field (Fig. 202; 
 Plate XI, 9, 11, 12). The swastika appears in some of 
 these. The chained dog with the inscription Cave 
 Canem ("beware the dog") was a common decoration 
 of the prothyrum or vestibule. The finer houses boasted 
 elaborate pictures in color, made with very small tesseraa, 
 
 181
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 and in some cases, no doubt, copying parts or the whole 
 of celebrated Greek pictures. Genre pictures and ani- 
 mal subjects were common. The greatest and finest of 
 
 FIG. 205. TABLE-LEO (MARBLE) AND BRONZE CANDELABRUM DETAILS. 
 
 NAPLES MUSEUM. 
 
 all mosaic pictures was found in the House of the Faun 
 and transferred to the Naples Museum; it represents 
 presumably the Battle of Issus, in a panel measuring 
 
 182
 
 POMPEIIAN ORNAMENTS/I^ , , 
 
 A 1 1 ^Hlt 
 
 over 9 by 17 feet, and probably reproduces some cel0 A^ ^Ti 
 brated Greek painting in Alexandria, from which city, 
 after Pompey's victory in 69 B.C., a strong Hellenic in- 
 fluence was exerted on Roman art. The portrait of 
 Alexander is unmistakable; the light and shade, fore- 
 shortening, drawing and color are remarkable and the 
 execution extraordinarily fine. 
 
 Mosaic was employed on walls as well as floors, though 
 sparingly. A singular freak or novelty of design was 
 the occasional combination of stucco-relief and mosaic. 
 Another use of mosaic was in the decoration of the 
 entire visible surface of various edicules, such as shrines 
 and niche-fountains (Figure 203, p. 185), upon which 
 the most brilliant colors of blue, red and green were 
 applied by the use of glass tessera?, and varied effectively 
 sometimes by scallop-shells inserted in bands or lines. 
 
 Furniture and Utensils. 
 
 The excavations at Pompeii and Herculanum have 
 thrown a light on the more intimate details of Roman 
 life not elsewhere to be obtained ; not only by the paint- 
 ings of scenes from daily life and by the sgraffiti or 
 scribblings on walls, but even more by the great wealth 
 of utensils, implements and furniture of metal and 
 marble exhumed from the ruins and for the most part 
 transferred to the Naples Museum. Everything of 
 wood and cloth was destroyed by the eruption, but 
 marble and bronze and even iron were preserved by 
 their burial in the volcanic ashes, and we have set before 
 us the marble tables that adorned the atrium and peri- 
 style, the fountains and marble vases or basins, the 
 
 183
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 bronze couch-heads and frames, the candelabra and tri- 
 pods of bronze, the braziers, water-heaters, mirrors, 
 lamps, hair pins, fibulce or clasps, and innumerable other 
 objects of metal. Here again the Greek refinement 
 appears in all the details. Grotesques are sculptured 
 with consummate skill (Fig. 204) ; especially notice- 
 able are the lion's paws terminating in human or in 
 beasts' heads (Plate X, 11, 12) and the winged monsters 
 on table-supports. The lightness and grace of the 
 bases and fluted standards of tripods and candelabra 
 suggest that from them in part came the inspiration 
 for the fantastically slender columns of the wall-paint- 
 ings (Fig. 205). It is interesting to compare these 
 slender candelabra and tripods with the massively splen- 
 did forms of Roman candelabra in bronze and in marble 
 in the Vatican (see Plate X). The Pompeiian tombs 
 and altars compared with the Roman show a somewhat 
 similar contrast in the detail, though less strongly 
 marked; there is more reserve, less monumental bold- 
 ness in the composition and in the detail. 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 MAU, trans, by KELSEY: Pompeii (New York, 1902). 
 MAZOIS: Les mines de Pompeii (Paris, 1824). NICCOLINI: Le 
 case ed i monumenti di Pompeii (Naples, 185496). PRESUHN: 
 Die neueste Ausgrabungen zu Pompeii (Leipzig, 1882). 
 ZAHN: Ornemens de Pompeii (Berlin, 1828); Omamente oiler 
 Klassischen Kunstepochen (Berlin, I860). 
 
 184
 
 FIG. 203. MOSAIC FOUNTAIN, IN COURT OF 
 CASA GRANDE 
 
 FIG. 204. MARBLE TABLE SUPPORTS; HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIAN OR BASILICAN ORNAMENT 
 
 It would be hard to point to two successive styles of 
 architecture and ornament further apart in spirit and 
 detail than those of Imperial Rome and Early Christian 
 Rome, yet they form no exception to the rule of style- 
 development by gradual transition. This transition is 
 for us obscured first by the widespread destruction of 
 early churches in the East during the Moslem conquests 
 and in the West during the persecutions under Dio- 
 cletian, and also by the fact that the beginnings of Chris- 
 tian symbolic art in Europe were made in the catacombs 
 and not above ground, and were thus humble and incon- 
 spicuous. But the Christian artists were Romans, 
 working upon the basis of Roman art traditions which, 
 up to the legalization of Christianity by Constantine in 
 312 A.D., were applied alike to secular and religious 
 buildings. It was the predominance after that date of 
 religious art employing a wholly new symbolism that 
 most effectively differentiated the Christian from the 
 pagan Imperial style. 
 
 Christian art began, then, nowhere as a consciously 
 new art, but everywhere in Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt, 
 Italy and Greece as a phase of the existing local art. 
 In the Eastern empire, with Constantinople as its center, 
 
 187
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 religious architecture and decoration diverged rapidly 
 under Greek influence from the style of the West to 
 become what we call the Byzantine. In Italy, with 
 Rome as its center, they took on the development com- 
 monly called the Early Christian, or Latin, or from 
 the resemblance of the churches to the secular basilicas 
 of the Empire the Basilican style. 
 
 Early Christian Art Sepulchral. 
 
 The beginnings of Christian art are not, however, to 
 be looked for in architecture. Until the edict of Con- 
 stantine legalizing Chris- 
 tianity, its rites were, at 
 least in the West, prac- 
 tised in private, largely in 
 secret, and the language 
 of symbols took on in- 
 creased importance where 
 persecution so often fol- 
 lowed open speech. Upon 
 the walls of the cata- 
 combs, which served not 
 merely as places of sep- 
 ulture but also as meet- 
 ing-places for worship, 
 were painted scriptural 
 scenes and symbolic com- 
 positions : the Good Shep- 
 herd as a yOUng man FlG - ~ 06 - SARCOPHAGUS END, RAVEX if A. 
 
 carrying a lamb on his shoulder, in evident reminiscence 
 of the classic Herakles Kriophoros ; the fish, the letters of 
 
 188
 
 FIG. 207. DETAIL, SAN LOKENZO FUORI LE MURA 
 
 FIG. 210. APSE MOSAIC, SAN CLEMENTE
 
 BASILICAN ORNAMENT 
 
 which word in Greek (frflw) form an acrostic of the 
 Greek words for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior"; 
 the vine, in allusion to Christ's saying, "I am the Vine," 
 and other like representations. Later many other forms 
 were added : the Labarum the standard borne by Con- 
 stantine's army after his victory of the Milvian Bridge, 
 in both forms ^ and -f- ; the letters I H S, the first 
 three letters of the Greek IHSOYS, later taken to signify 
 both lesus Hominum Salvator and In Hoc Signo 
 (vinces), the words heard or seen by Constantine in his 
 vision at the Milvian Bridge; the cyress-tree, symbolic 
 of the cemetery and hence of death and burial and 
 finally baptism, which was regarded as the burial of 
 the sinful nature ; * the emblems of the four evangelists 
 the ox for Matthew, the lion, for Mark, the head of a 
 man for Luke, the eagle for John; angels and cherubs, 
 funereal wreaths and festoons and finally the cross itself, 
 equal-armed after the Greek fashion, or with a long 
 standard after the Latin. Sheep to represent the flock 
 of the Church; the Paschal cup, the peacock and other 
 emblems of various significations were little by little 
 added to the list, and appear both in Latin and Byzan- 
 tine art. It is somewhat remarkable that the cross does 
 not appear until late ; hardly at all before the latter part 
 of the fifth or the early sixth century. Many of the 
 Christian emblems were already familiar forms in 
 Roman pagan art. Angels were but Roman winged 
 genii endowed with a new significance; the vine, origi- 
 nally a Bacchic emblem, became a Christ-symbol; the 
 wreath and festoon were transferred from the service 
 
 i Romans vii, <t.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 of Roman sacrifices to that of Christian burial. Most 
 of these forms were used at first with purely symbolic 
 intent, having significance only for the initiated. In 
 time, however, the symbolic intent, as always in the 
 evolution of decorative art, because subordinate to the 
 decorative: the symbol became a common ornament, 
 multiplied and endlessly varied in the decoration not 
 merely of sarcophagi (Fig. 206) and funereal chapels, 
 but of churches, baptisteries, oratories and tombs. All 
 the resources of mosaic, painting and carving were en- 
 listed in their representation. Figure sculpture alone 
 remained for centuries undeveloped, largely in conse- 
 quence of the hatred of pagan idolatry with which it 
 was so generally associated in the popular mind. 
 
 Architectural Ornament. 
 
 Early Christian art in the West made little of archi- 
 tecture. Two types of building predominated, the 
 basilican church and the baptistery. The first was a 
 simple three-aisled hall with a wooden roof, a semi- 
 circuliar apse for the clergy at the further end, and a 
 transverse porch or narthex across the entrance-front. 
 The two rows of columns which separated the broad cen- 
 tral aisle or nave from the side-aisles, supported each a 
 clearstory wall rising above the roofs of the side-aisles 
 and carrying the lofty central roof: these walls were 
 pierced with windows to light the nave. In the larger 
 basilicas there were double side-aisles, and in some in- 
 stances a transverse aisle, called the transept, as high and 
 nearly as wide as the nave, crossed it directly in front 
 of the apse. The arch forming the front of the apse 
 
 192
 
 BASILICAN ORNAMENT 
 
 was generally called the triumphal arch, though in tran- 
 septal basilicas the name is applied to the great arch by 
 which the nave enters the transept. Excepting the half- 
 dome over the apse, no vaulting was employed in these 
 churches. The columns were taken from pagan ruins, 
 and so indifferent were the churchmen to architectural 
 regularity that the columns of the same row often dis- 
 play a great variety of sizes and even different orders 
 of capitals (Figure 207). This was partly due to the 
 poverty of the churches during the gloomy centuries fol- 
 lowing the fall of Rome, but all the evidence points to a 
 strangely prevalent indifference to architecture as an 
 art, which the three great basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul 
 and Sta. 2 Maria Maggiore (all three originally built be- 
 fore the final fall of Rome) only emphasize by contrast. 
 The builders of basilicas were chiefly engrossed with the 
 applied decorations of their churches. Even in this 
 field, Roman art remained almost stationary for centu- 
 ries, depending largely upon Byzantine artists for a part 
 of this decoration. 
 
 Elements of Latin Ornament. 
 
 The architectural ornament consisted of the following 
 elements: (a) pavements of colored marble and hard 
 stone, in a combination of opus sectile and opus Alex- 
 andrinum; 3 (b) marble sheathing or wainscot on the 
 lower walls; (c) mosaic on the apse and its arch, on the 
 triumphal transept arch, and on the clearstory walls; 
 rarely, in late examples, on the exterior of the front or 
 
 2 Hereafter S. and Sta. will be used for San, Santo and Santa. 
 Sectile =3 cut to shape ; A lexandrinum =. of small geometric units. 
 
 193
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 narthex and on cloister arcades; (d) the ornamentation 
 of the fixed furniture of the church; and (e) , the decora- 
 tion by painting or otherwise of the wooden ceilings of 
 nave and aisles. 
 
 A. Floor Pavements. 
 
 Dates and periods are hard to fix and signify little in 
 this field of design, as the style remained practically un- 
 
 FIG. 208. FLOOK MOSAIC, SAN CLEMENTS, ROME. 
 
 changed for centuries. The nave floor was commonly 
 divided into rectangular panels by broad bands of 
 colored marble in which were set guilloche patterns (Fig. 
 208) in opus sectile combined with Alexandrinum. 
 The panels were filled with field patterns of Alex- 
 andrinum surrounding discs or slabs of solid color 
 (see Plate XIII, 12). Porphyry, verd-antique, ser- 
 
 191
 
 BASILICAN ORNAMENT 
 
 pentine, and white and yellow marble were the usual ma- 
 terials employed, and the resulting effects were rich and 
 yet sober, indestructible, and soft in color-harmony. 
 The round disks were cut from antique columns sawed 
 into slices, and all the ruins of antiquity were a quarry 
 for paving materials. 
 
 This form of floor-decoration is probably the most 
 effective ever devised. The contrast of the solid dark 
 red or green of the disks with the sparkle of the minute 
 patterns of Alexandrinum and the sweeping curves of 
 the huge guilloches surrounding them, produce a decora- 
 tive ensemble in every way admirable. Splendid ex- 
 amples survive in the churches of Sta. Maria in 
 Trastevere, Sta. Maria Maggiore, San Lorenzo, San 
 Marco and San Clemente. Floors of this description 
 were in vogue throughout the entire Middle Ages, in 
 Rome and its neighborhood and even in remote Italy, as 
 in the floor of the Byzantine St. Mark's Church at 
 Venice, dating from the llth century. 
 
 B. Marble Wainscoting. 
 
 This system of wall decoration, often called incrusta- 
 tion, was inherited from ancient Rome, but was used 
 more extensively in the Eastern than in the Western 
 churches. The Roman basilicas have moreover been so 
 often remodeled that nearly every vestige of their in- 
 crustations has disappeared. Exceptions are found in 
 Sta. Agnese and in Sta. Sabina; in the latter the arch- 
 spandrels are inlaid with formal conventional patterns. 
 Usually the practice was followed of symmetrically pair- 
 ing slabs having similar veinings, as is shown in Fig. 
 
 195
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 209. BYZAKTIKE WAINSCOT. 
 
 209, a Byzantine example from Constantinople. This 
 practice is common to the Basilican and Byzantine 
 styles. 
 
 C. Mosaic. 
 
 In this art, at least in that branch of it in which small 
 cubes or tessera of glass are employed to form pictures 
 and patterns on walls and vaults (opus Grecanicum), it 
 is impossible to distinguish sharply between the Byzan- 
 tine and Basilican or Latin styles. Greeks from Con- 
 stantinople doubtless were often employed to execute 
 mosaics in Rome, and were probably the originators of 
 
 196
 
 BASILICAN ORNAMENT 
 
 this form of Christian art. By means of minute tesserae 
 of glass "paste," pictures and patterns can be formed of 
 any desired combination and gradation of colors, gold 
 and silver effects being produced by gold- or silver-leaf 
 imprisoned between two layers of glass paste fused to- 
 gether. The deep blues, from lapis-lazuli to a soft 
 green-blue, the rich reds, soft yellows and greens and 
 brilliant gold and silver of this sort of mosaic made pos- 
 sible a splendor of color far transcending any form of 
 painting, and unrivaled in depth and intensity except by 
 the later invention of stained glass. Its magnificence 
 appealed strongly to the taste of the early Christian cen- 
 turies, and its adaptation to pictorial representation 
 fitted it to express that symbolism which the mental 
 habit of the times demanded. Accordingly there is 
 more of picturing than of pure ornament, which is con- 
 fined chiefly to narrow borders, often simulating jewels 
 set in gold. It remained for the Byzantines to develop 
 the possibilities of mosaic in the field of pure ornament. 
 The most important mosaics were in, or on, the apse- 
 vaults, and represented such subjects as the Kingdom of 
 God by the symbolism of the Shepherd and twelve sheep, 
 or some like composition. Similar subjects, with angels, 
 adorned the spandrels by the apse arch, and the trium- 
 phal transept-arch. The clearstory often bore pictures 
 of saints, angels and apostles, and Biblical scenes. 
 Among the finest of all Latin mosaics are those of the 
 apses of Sta. Pudenziana and Sta. Maria in Trastevere, 
 the apse and triumphal arch of St. Paul without the 
 Walls ( S. Paolo fuori le mura) recovered from the ruins 
 of the original basilica and incorporated in the modern 
 
 197
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 reconstruction; of Sta. Prassede and Sta. Sabina, all at 
 Rome; and of the two San Apollinare churches at 
 Ravenna (sixth century). Of later date is the superb 
 rinceau decoration in the apse-head of San Clemente 
 (1096-1104) : an exceptional example of conventional 
 ornament in mosaic in a basilica (Figure 210). Apart 
 from such applications of the rinceau, there were 
 few distinctive ornament motives in the mosaic decora- 
 
 Fio. 211. EARLY CHRISTIAN MOSAIC BORDERS. 
 
 tions. Fig. 211 shows two examples of mosaic bor- 
 ders, a from the palace of St. John Lateran, a mosaic of 
 the eighth century ; b from the f aade of Santa Maria in 
 Trastevere, both in Rome. 
 
 D. Ecclesiastical Furniture. 
 
 The chief elements in the fixed furniture of the 
 churches were the ciborium or baldaquin the canopy 
 over the altar and tomb of the saint; the altar itself; 
 the choir-enclosure; and the two pulpits or ambones, 
 affected respectively to the reading of the Gospels and 
 of the Epistles, the former being adorned with a 
 
 198
 
 BASILICAN ORNAMENT 
 
 columnar candelabrum. The 
 seats for the clergy were orig- 
 inally simple steps of marble set 
 around the apse, and the bishop's 
 throne was apparently of very 
 simple design. Later the clergy- 
 seats were removed from the 
 apse or bema and the altar 
 placed there in their stead, 
 though the ciborium remained 
 in its original position to mark 
 the tomb of the martyr or saint. 
 All this fixed furniture was of 
 marble, usually built up of flat 
 slabs inlaid with opus Alexan- 
 drinum. The ciborium was a 
 structure of four columns with 
 a pyramidal roof; the altar a 
 simple rectangular box or table 
 of marble; the choir-enclosure a Fm ' 2l2 ' ARA CoELI ' RoME * 
 paneled marble parapet about three feet high; the am- 
 bones, elevated reading-desks on either side of the choir 
 reached by flights of steep stairs. The decoration of 
 these simple forms was often very rich, especially of the 
 pulpits and altar frontals (Fig. 212). It consisted of 
 inlaid patterns of opus Alexandrinum combined with 
 disks and guilloches of sectile, in principle like the floor- 
 mosaics, but finer in scale and execution. In the later 
 work, the geometrical units of the Alexandrine mosaic 
 triangles, squares, circular segments, etc. were often of 
 glass paste, producing much more brilliant effects than 
 
 199
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 the marble and porphyry units of the earlier works. It 
 appears to have been first used in the spiral flutings of 
 the gospel or Easter column. This brilliant form of 
 Alexandrine work, whatever its origin, became espe- 
 cially common in Southern Italy, and was practised 
 there and in Rome as late as the thirteenth century. It 
 is found in the cloisters of Monreale (twelfth century), 
 
 FIG. 213. MOSAIC DETAILS, PULPIT IN SAX LORENZO Fcow. 
 
 in Sicily, and in those of San Paolo fuori and St. John 
 Lateran at Rome (thirteenth century). Rome became 
 the center of an important school of marmorarii and of a 
 great industry in marble mosaic, and its artists traveled 
 far to execute orders for church furniture and cloister- 
 arcades. The family of the Cosmati (from Cosmatus 
 or Cosmas, grandson of the founder of the school) , were 
 especially noted for several generations, and their name 
 is often applied to the combination of sectile and Alex- 
 andrinum which they used and developed (Figs. 212, 
 213 from Ara Coeli and San Lorenzo Rome. See 
 Chapter XIV). 
 
 200
 
 BASILICAN ORNAMENT 
 
 In the cloisters above mentioned, in the Easter 
 columns, and frequently also in the ambones (Fig. 
 212), twisted shafts or spiral flutings were used. The 
 introduction of this form of column, theoretically inap- 
 propriate for a support, into Italian art, may be traced 
 to the rich but ugly twisted column now in St. Peter's 
 at Rome, brought in the sixth century from Jerusalem, 
 where it was believed to have been a part of the "Gate 
 Beautiful" where St. Peter healed the lame man (Acts 
 iii, 2-10) . It belongs probably to the decline of Roman 
 Imperial art, much later than St. Peter's time. 
 
 E. Ceilings. 
 
 Not one of the ceilings of the earlier basilicas remains 
 to us in its original form. It is unlikely that in churches 
 resplendent with marble and mosaic the ceilings were 
 as bare and barnlike as are to-day most of those which 
 have not been entirely remodeled in comparatively re- 
 cent times. We are, however, left to speculation as to 
 their precise treatment. The painted open-trussed 
 ceilings of several medieval churches of the eleventh and 
 twelfth centuries (Messina, 4 Monreale, San Miniato 
 near Florence) show a somewhat similar treatment 
 though belonging to different styles, which points to the 
 existence of a strong ancient tradition (see Chapter 
 XIV). It is likely also that in some cases the trusses 
 were concealed by a decorative ceiling of wood, paneled 
 in coffers with rosettes, after the fashion of many Greek 
 and Roman ceilings, and richly painted and gilded. 
 But no such ceilings remain to our day. It may be, 
 
 * Destroyed in the earthquake of 1909. 
 
 201
 
 however, that the splendid ceiling of Sta. Maria Mag- 
 giore is a reproduction or imitation of the original of 
 the fifth century. 
 
 Vaulted ceilings were chiefly confined to baptisteries 
 and tombs. The earliest of these are the dome over the 
 central space and the annular vault over the encircling 
 aisle of Sta. Costanza at Rome, erected by Constantine 
 presumably as the tomb of his daughter Constantia, but 
 from early times used as a baptistery. The decorations 
 of the dome have perished, but among the well-preserved 
 mosaics of the aisle- vault are vintage scenes (Figure 
 215), apparently pagan, but here transferred to the 
 service of Christian symbolism; and geometrical pat- 
 terns combined with small figure subjects. But in 
 nearly all domical and vaulted buildings after the fourth 
 century the Latin and Byzantine styles are one and 
 the same, and the ornament of such buildings will be 
 taken up in the chapter on Byzantine art. 
 
 From the preceding paragraphs it may be rightly in- 
 ferred that the Early Christian builders were singularly 
 lacking in architectural inventiveness. There is not a 
 single structural form, not an architectural innovation, 
 not an ornament of purely architectural character, that 
 can be credited to their initiative. Their art was sta- 
 tionary and unprogressive, and contrasts surprisingly 
 with the rapid progress and splendor of achievement of 
 the contemporary Byzantine art in the Eastern Empire. 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 BUNSEN: Die Basiliken des christlichen Roms (Munich, n. d.). 
 ESSENWEIN: Ausgange der klassichen Baukunst (in Hand- 
 buch der Architektur, Darmstadt, 1886). A. L. FROTHING- 
 
 202
 
 1.1 
 
 FIG. 214. DETAIL FROM CLOISTER, ST. JOHN LATERAN 
 
 FIG. 215. MOSAIC IN VAULT OF STA. COSTANZA
 
 BASILICAN ORNAMENT 
 
 HAM: Monuments of Christian Rome (New York, 1908). 
 GERSPACH: La Mosa'ique (jParis, 1889). GUTENSOHN AND 
 KNAPP: Denkmale der christlichen Religion (Rome, 1822-27). 
 HUBSCH: Monuments de V architecture chretienne (Paris, 
 1866). PORTHEIM: Uber dem dekorativen Stil in der altchrist- 
 lichen Kunst (Stuttgart, 1886). VON QUAST: Die altchrist- 
 lichen Bauwerke zu Ravenna. DE Rossi: La Roma Soter- 
 ranea Christiana (Rome, 1864-77). N. H. J. WEST-LAKE: 
 History of Design in Mural Painting, from the Earliest Times 
 to the 12th Century (London, 1915). 
 
 205
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 In striking contrast to the architectural poverty of the 
 Latin or Western ornament of the early church stands 
 the architectural richness of the decorative art which 
 grew up in the East Roman or Byzantine empire, and 
 which was founded upon and largely dominated by the 
 architecture. With the decline and fall of Rome, the 
 lamp of civilization passed to Constantine's eastern 
 capital on the Bosphorus and into the hands of the 
 Byzantine Greeks of Thrace, Macedonia, Asia Minor 
 and Syria. These Greeks, largely Asiatic, borrowing 
 freely and impartially from classic Greek, Roman and 
 Asiatic sources, developed with singular rapidity in the 
 fifth and sixth centuries new types of vaulted construc- 
 tion and a system of decoration of remarkable original- 
 ity and beauty, in which the Oriental love of brilliant 
 color and surface ornament was blended with the Occi- 
 dental appreciation of logical construction and pure 
 form. This Byzantine art culminated under Justinian 
 (527-565) ; invaded Italy, especially after the Byzantine 
 conquest of Ravenna; and spread through the entire 
 extent of the Byzantine empire. The decline that set 
 in soon after the brilliant reign of Justinian was a slow 
 decline, so that we find this art still productive in the 
 
 206
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries. Indeed, St. Mark's at 
 Venice, one of its most brilliant works, dates from 1047, 
 while offshoots from the parent stem throve for cen- 
 turies in the ecclesiastical buildings of Russia and 
 Armenia, and later in the impressive mosques of the 
 Ottoman Turks. 
 
 Leading Characteristics. 
 
 The. Byzantine system of design and decoration was 
 in fundamental prin- 
 ciple like the Ro- 
 man in its use of a 
 decorative skin or 
 veneer of marble, 
 mosaic, or other fine 
 material upon a 
 structural mass or 
 core of brick, con- 
 crete or like coarser 
 material. The chief 
 difference, structur- 
 ally, was in the use 
 of the dome on pen- 
 dentives in place of 
 groined vaulting; Fl - 216 - DETAIL >M SPALATO. 
 and decoratively, in an entirely new and original treat- 
 ment of detail. For the classic Roman play of light 
 and shade by means of relief carving and architectural 
 features the Byzantines substituted a system of decora- 
 tion in color and surface-etching, reducing all surfaces 
 as nearly as possible to unbroken planes or curves, sup- 
 
 207
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 pressing all avoidable projections and recessings. Mar- 
 ble incrustations and pavements were used with even 
 greater splendor than in Rome, and all vaults covered 
 with superb mosaics, or, when means were lacking for 
 the more splendid adornment, with pictures in fresco on 
 plaster. 
 
 Architectural Ornament. 
 
 Such details of architecture as were inherited from 
 classic Roman precedent were subjected to a flatten- 
 
 Fio. 217. IMPOST CAP, S. VITALE. 
 
 ing process by which they lost all their strong reliefs, 
 high lights and deep shadows. This process had begun 
 as far back as 300 A.D. in the Palace of Diocletian at 
 Spalato (Fig. 216), in another part of which one also 
 
 208
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 observes arches carried directly on columns, as in 
 Byzantine buildings. In the Spalato entablature, by 
 changes of profile and proportion the architrave has 
 been exaggerated, the frieze reduced to a mere molding, 
 the corona to a fillet, and the general profile of the cor- 
 nice almost to a 45 splay. In Hagia Sophia, the 
 masterpiece of Byzantine art, we find a similar treat- 
 
 Fio. 218. CORINTHIANESQUE CAP, S. APOLLINARE Ntrovo, 
 RAVENNA. 
 
 ment of cornices and moldings, while capitals, shafts, 
 archivolts and all other features depart in an equally 
 striking degree from Roman models (Plate XII, 1, 2). 
 
 Impost Blocks. 
 
 The Byzantines invented a new feature, the impost- 
 block, to replace the bits of entablature which the 
 
 209
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Romans in their vaulted buildings interposed between 
 the capital and the spring of the vaulting. The Byzan- 
 tine impost-block, shaped like the inverted frustum of a 
 pyramid (Fig. 217; Plate XII, 3) was decorated 
 with monograms, crosses, lambs or other symbols, or sur- 
 
 Fio. 219. "BASKET" CAP, S. APOLLINAHE Nuovo, RAVENNA. 
 
 face-carving. The capital proper sometimes retained a 
 semblance of the Corinthian (Fig. 218) or Ionic 
 type; but was in other cases greatly simplified in mass 
 and covered with lace-like or basket-like patterns, some- 
 times deeply undercut the basket type Fig. 219 ; Figure 
 232, page 221. These occur alike in Ravenna, Parenzo, 
 Constantinople, Salonica, Venice and Syria. In the 
 magnificent capitals of the great columns of Hagia 
 Sophia the impost-block is dispensed with (Plates XII, 
 
 210
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 2; XIII, 2), and the 
 
 - vigorous but graceful 
 mass of the capital, 
 with its corner volutes 
 and surface carving of 
 flat acanthus-leaves, 
 performs adequately its 
 true function of carry- 
 ing the heavy arches 
 that rest upon it. A 
 frequently occurring 
 type with central and 
 corner ridges (Fig. 
 219) may have been 
 suggested by uncut or 
 roughed-out Corinthian 
 caps, blocked-out in this 
 way for the subsequent 
 detailed cutting of the 
 central rosettes and volutes and the corner volutes, cau- 
 licoli and leaves. 1 
 
 Shafts. 
 
 Shafts are of polished marble, granite or porphyry, 
 sometimes, as in Hagia Sophia, ringed with a number 
 of astragals or annulets, a treatment detrimental to the 
 best effect. 
 
 Spandrels and Soffits. 
 
 The soffits were decorated either with mosaic, as in 
 S. Vitale at Ravenna and the upper arcades of Hagia 
 
 i This ingenious and plausible suggestion seems to have originated with 
 the late Professor W. R. Ware. 
 
 211 
 
 FIG. 220. ABOVE, CARVED SPANDREL FROM 
 HAOIA SOPHIA; BELOW, FRIEZE FROM 
 ST. SERGITJS.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Sophia, or with marble, which was sometimes carved in 
 bands of lace-like patterns as in the lower arcades of 
 Hagia Sophia. The archivolt was marked by small 
 moldings (Plate XII, 2). Spandrels were commonly 
 incrusted with marble without other ornament, as in St. 
 Mark's; sometimes mosaic or fresco was used in either 
 pictorial or arabesque patterns (Plate XIII, 2), or 
 surface-carving was executed on the marble incrustation 
 (Fig. 220). The nave of Hagia Sophia shows both 
 of the last two treatments. 
 
 Carving. 
 
 In all Byzantine decorative carving, figure-sculpture, 
 high relief and indeed true relief of any kind are singu- 
 larly lacking. In their place the Byzantine artists de- 
 
 Fio. 221. FRIEZE, ST. Jonx STUDIOS, COXSTAXTIXOPLE. 
 
 veloped a system of carving by incision, the entire pat- 
 tern lying in one plane, so designed that the background 
 formed a series of isolated pits or depressions, the total 
 effect being rich and highly decorative in spite of its flat- 
 ness. The patterns were chiefly based on the acanthus 
 and rinceau (Figs. 220, 221, 222) ; but the leaves and 
 stems were flattened, the lobes made pointed, the pipes 
 suppressed, the calyx-flowers and caulicoli of the rinceau 
 
 212
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 obliterated, and the points of the leaves so disposed as 
 to touch the concave sides of the stems of their neighbors, 
 or to meet each other point to point, forming innumer- 
 able triangular or quadrilateral pits or spots of back- 
 ground. The leaves were channeled with V-section 
 channels, and the whole produced an effect as of stone 
 lace work applied to a flat background (Figs. 224, 226) . 
 The origin of this peculiar treatment of classic motives 
 has been variously explained. Viollet-le-Duc credits 
 
 FIG. 222. ACANTHUS ANTHEMIONS. FIG. 223. 
 
 it to Syrian, and chiefly to Jewish influence. Early 
 Christian and pre-Christian tombs in Palestine show a 
 somewhat similar style of dry and flat surface-carving, 
 with frequent use of the vine-motive which is also com- 
 mon in Byzantine ornament. In Central Syria inter- 
 esting remains from the third to sixth centuries also dis- 
 play kinship with Byzantine work (Fig. 240). On 
 the other hand, the same tendencies are visible in the 
 palace at Spalato (see ante, Fig. 216) in Dalmatia, 
 and to some extent in works of Constantine's time. The 
 
 213
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 most probable explanation of the genesis of the style, 
 so far as its decorative art is concerned, is found in the 
 influence of the Asiatic Greeks, who would most natu- 
 rally combine the Asiatic love of surface decoration in 
 minutely detailed all-over patterns, with the traditional 
 motives of Greek classic and Roman art. It was the 
 rise and preeminence of Constantinople in the sixth cen- 
 
 Fio. 224. AXTHEMION FKIEZE, ST. MARK'S, VENICE. 
 
 tury under Justinian, that gave to this nascent style its 
 first great impulse. The artificers in mosaic, ivory- 
 carving, enamel and other arts from Constantinople, 
 many of whom had, during the preceding century, found 
 their chief employment in Italy and other foreign coun- 
 tries, were now abundantly and constantly employed in 
 their home Capital. Under Justinian's strenuous and 
 splendor-loving rule, the arts of design were developed 
 with an almost feverish activity. The flat surface-carv- 
 ing harmonized better with the flat color-decoration in 
 marble and mosaic than the more vigorous relief of the 
 
 214
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 Roman and Greek prototypes; and architectural light- 
 and-shade was treated in a wholly new spirit, and the old 
 types of capital and entablature gradually disappeared. 
 
 Moldings. 
 
 The profiles were weak; effect was sought by enrich- 
 ment rather than pro- 
 filing; and splay faces 
 covered with acanthus- 
 leaves frequently occur 
 (Fig. 222 and Plate 
 XII, 1, 
 most 
 molding 
 
 2, 4). The 
 
 characteristic 
 
 was the so- 
 called billet molding, 
 cut into small blocks or 
 dentils, often in two 
 rows in which the 
 blocks of one are op- 
 posite the spaces of the 
 other, as appears in the 
 lower part of 1 in Plate 
 XII. This molding 
 was especially used for framing the slabs of marble 
 veneer, and contributed strongly to the general effect of 
 a sparkling play of minute spots of light and shade 
 which the Byzantine artists loved. 
 
 Bands and Borders. 
 
 The fret, anthemion, vine and rinceau of classic art 
 all appear in Byzantine borders and friezes, but in 
 
 215 
 
 FIG. 225. CROSSES AND AKTHEMIONS.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 modified forms, often exhibiting a singular reversion 
 towards earlier, long- for gotten types in Greek pottery. 
 The artists of the sixth to twelfth centuries could hardly 
 have known or even seen any antique Greek vases, and 
 it is hard to explain how and why this reversion took 
 place ; it most probably came about through Roman ver- 
 sions of the anthemion and other vase ornaments, sur- 
 
 Fio. 226. ACANTHUS LEAVES (above) ; and RINCEAU 
 FROM BISHOP'S. 
 
 viving in Roman carvings and mosaics (compare 
 Fig. 225 with Fig. 135). What makes this rever- 
 sion the more interesting is that most of these Byzantine 
 anthemions are really acanthus leaves in disguise, as 
 may be seen by comparing them with unmistakable 
 acanthus leaves like those in Figs. 218 and 221. The 
 Byzantine carvers, by flattening the leaf and altering 
 its lobes, gradually worked it into a quasi-anthemion 
 form, and then under a similar decorative impulse did 
 
 216
 
 12 
 
 F(g.Z29 Psacock Fbnel Idrcelb Fi&230 Interlace (Man). 
 tig JHJ RrfbivtedfcnelSydale
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 with it much as the Greek pottery-painters had done 
 with the anthemion and palmette, nearly or quite a thou- 
 sand years earlier. 
 
 The Rinceau. 
 
 This has already been alluded to. The friezes from 
 St. Sergius (Fig. 220) and St. John Studios (Emir 
 Aklior Jami) at Constantinople (Fig. 221), are fine 
 examples of the typical Byzantine continuous rinceau- 
 movement uninterrupted by calyx-flowers, and the 
 merging of stem and caulicolus into one flat, flowing leaf 
 design; while in Fig. 226, b it is seen in its most de- 
 generate form, in a carved slab from the Bishop's Palace 
 at Ferentino. The vine also occurs frequently, espe- 
 cially in Italy, singularly recalling painted vine-patterns 
 on Greek vases (Fig. 227). 
 
 Symbols. 
 
 Symbolism played an important part in the carved 
 decoration as well as the mosaics of the Byzantines. 
 The vine, already alluded to, is often represented as 
 springing from the Paschal " 
 
 cup or chalice (Plate XII, 
 5 ) ; the cross often studded 
 with jewels and always 
 with spreading ends (Figs. 
 225, a, b; 228 and Plate Fl0 ' 227 ' VlNE BoRDER ' s ' VlTAU! - 
 XII, 3, 9) ; the cypress-tree, symbol of the grave, and 
 hence of the mystic burial of baptism (see ante, page 
 189), and in this sense carved on baptismal fonts and 
 plutei and elsewhere in baptisteries (Fig. 228) in a form 
 
 219
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 singularly like an anthemion; the 
 peacock, as the symbol of the soul 
 (Figure 229; Plate XII, 9)- 
 these are the most frequently re- 
 curring symbols. An effective 
 decoration for square or circular 
 panels was devised by making the 
 four arms of the cross frame four 
 acanthus-anthemions, as in Fig. 
 225, a from Hagia Sophia. 
 
 In later work, especially in 
 Italy where Lombard influence 
 may account for it, monsters and 
 grotesques sometimes appear. It 
 is curious to note how often pea- 
 cocks (as in Figure 229; Plate 
 XII, 9) , lions or monsters, even griffins, as in the exam- 
 ple from Sta. Maria Pomposa (Figure 235) are placed 
 symmetrically at the base of a cross or tree, recalling a 
 favorite device of Greek and Roman art, derived origi- 
 nally from Assyrian and Hittite prototypes. 2 
 
 FIG. 228. DETAIL OF 
 CROSS IK FIG. 225. 
 
 Guilloches and Interlace. 
 
 The Byzantine artists expanded the ap- 
 plications of the Greek guilloche-motive 
 into a whole system of interlaced patterns, 
 in which squares, lozenges and circles, 
 large and small, are combined with great 
 variety and ingenuity. The more elab- 
 
 Fio. 230A. 
 
 2 See Figure 34 and cf. Goblet d'Alviella, "The Migration of Symbols," 
 pages 122-140. 
 
 220
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 orate examples belong to the later developments. 
 Some of the most complex designs are found in Ar- 
 menia, where they almost rival the Celtic interlaces (see 
 page 271 ). Whether these are due to Celtic manuscripts 
 carried into Armenia, or whether the Celtic interlaces 
 were themselves descended from Byzantine sources is 
 not clear (Fig. 230A; Figures 230, 231 ; Plate XII, 10) . 
 Perforated panels were a special delight of the Italo- 
 Byzantine designers ; they are found chiefly at Ravenna, 
 serving as parapet-panels. Figure 231 shows a detail 
 of one of the most splendid of these remarkable works 
 (see also Plate XII, 9). 
 
 Floors and Incrustations. 
 
 The rich and varied marbles of the East supplied 
 abundant materials for decorative pavements and wall- 
 veneers. In principle these resemble those of the Latin 
 buildings; guilloche-patterns or borders frame large 
 circles or rectangles of marble, porphyry and verd-an- 
 tique in the floors ; while thin slabs of veined marble set 
 so as to form symmetrical veining-patterns, encrust the 
 walls up to the spring of the main arches and vaults ( Fig. 
 209; Plate XII, 1). The monotony of their smooth 
 surfaces was broken by the billet-moldings with which 
 the slabs and bands were framed. The composition of 
 this wall-paneling was not always good; the apse of 
 Hagia Sophia, for example, is a jumble of panels with 
 little or no organic system in their arrangement. The 
 general effect, however, of this veneering in veined 
 marbles is always rich and yet sober; and in St. Mark's 
 at Venice it reached the highest perfection of internal 
 harmony. 
 
 221
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Mosaic. 
 
 The crowning splendor of Byzantine decoration was 
 in its mosaics. These at first 
 differed in no wise from the 
 Latin (see page 196), which 
 were, indeed, probably executed 
 in many cases by Byzantine ar- 
 tists. But the domes and vaults 
 of the East gave special oppor- 
 tunities for the application of 
 this noble form of decoration, 
 and these were freely availed 
 of. Conventional ornament was 
 made to play a far more im- 
 portant role in the Byzantine 
 than in the basilican churches, 
 
 Fio. 233. FROM HAGIA 
 SOPHIA. 
 
 though figure-subjects 
 and pictures still form the 
 chief decoration. Hagia 
 Sophia and the Kahrie 
 Mosque (once a Byzan- 
 tine church called Mone 
 tes Choras) at Constan- 
 tinople and the two 
 churches of San Apolli- 
 nare, the Episcopal pal- 
 ace and San Vitale at 
 Ravenna offer the finest 
 examples of this art, the 
 cubes or tessera? of glass 
 being very small, espe- 
 
 222 
 
 FIG. 234. SARCOPHAGUS END, 
 RAVEXHA.
 
 FIG. 235. FROM STA. MARIA POMPOSA FIG. 236. MOSAIC, TOMB OF GALLA 
 
 PLACIDIA 
 
 FIG. 237. IVORY THRONK OF BISHOP MAXIMIAN, RAVENNA
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 cially in the first-named. One of the earliest examples 
 of the application of glass mosaic of this type to vault- 
 ing is the tomb of Galla Placidia, the daughter of Theo- 
 dosius, at Ravenna; the barrel- vaults of the cross arms 
 and the rude dome of the central lantern being adorned 
 with remarkably effective pictures and patterns, some 
 on a blue and some on a gold ground (Figure 230). 
 The gold ground predominates in Hagia Sophia and in 
 some other examples and imparts a richness of effect not 
 otherwise attainable (Plate XIII). 
 
 In many Byzantine mosaic pictures there appear rep- 
 resentations of shrines, niches and other architectural 
 subjects derived from sarcophagi, church furniture and 
 minor structures of which no trace has survived. Simi- 
 lar forms are seen in manuscript illuminations and in 
 ivory carvings and sarcophagi (Fig. 236). 
 
 Church Furniture. 
 
 Few examples remain of this branch of decorative 
 design for which the Byzantines were so celebrated. 
 The accounts of the furniture of Hagia Sophia given 
 by Paul the Silentiary describe an almost incredible 
 splendor of jewels, gold and silver. The most impor- 
 tant work of this sort in metal now extant is the "Pala 
 d'Oro" or silver-and-gold altar-piece of St. Mark's in 
 Venice, by Constantinople artists of the twelfth cen- 
 tury (but much altered in more recent times). Plate 
 XII, 8, figures the end of an Italo-Byzantine silver chest 
 in Florence. Of works in marble there exists in the 
 basilica of S. Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna a By- 
 zantine baldaquin or ciborium, and in Venice the much 
 
 225
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 later ciborium of St. Mark's, besides a fine octagonal 
 canopy and pulpit in the north aisle. In the cathedral 
 of Ravenna the ivory throne of Bishop Maximianus is 
 carefully preserved (sixth century, Figure 237) . Ivory 
 carving, indeed, was one of the special arts of Byzan- 
 tine civilization; book-covers, diptychs and triptychs in 
 this material exist in museums and private collections. 
 Ivory was a precious material in the Middle Ages, and 
 the art displayed in these small works combined the 
 pictorial composition of the manuscript illuminators 
 with the technic and the ornament of the marble-carvers, 
 but with more freedom in the relief. The cross, pictorial 
 scenes and grapevine borders of the throne of Maxim- 
 ianus just referred to, are precisely in the style of the 
 diptychs, though on a larger scale. 
 
 In many of the minor works of church equipment and 
 furniture enamel was used with or without the accom- 
 paniment of gems in elaborate settings, to impart rich 
 color to the object decorated. The field of each color 
 was slightly hollowed out in the metal silver, gold or 
 copper and in this shallow pool the separate colors 
 were fused in the furnace. This process, called 
 champleve enameling, was carried in the path of Byzan- 
 tine trade to France where, at Limoges, an important 
 center of this art-industry was developed in the twelfth 
 to fourteenth centuries. Fig. 238 represents the 
 Crown of Charlemagne, a fine example of late Byzan- 
 tine goldsmith's work of the ninth century. There are 
 in various libraries highly ornate book-covers in gold, 
 enamel and precious stones of the ninth to twelfth cen- 
 turies. 
 
 226
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 Textile Ornament. 
 
 The arts of weaving and embroidery were highly de- 
 veloped by the Byzantine civilization, which delighted 
 
 FIG. 238. THE CROWST OF CHARLEMAGXE. 
 
 in splendor of official apparel. Byzantine stuffs, fabrics 
 and embroideries are found in many museums, mostly 
 those of the later phases of the art (ninth to twelfth 
 centuries). Fig. 239 shows an example from the 
 Museum of Bamberg. 
 
 Manuscript Illumination. 
 
 Christianity has been called the religion of a book. 
 In no other religion has the written word played so 
 important a part. Long before the final fixing of the 
 canon of the New Testament, individual books gospels, 
 epistles, writings by the early Fathers were being 
 
 227
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 multiplied by skilful scribes and widely circulated by 
 missionaries. The development of monasticism stimu- 
 lated the production of books and led to the establish- 
 ment of schools of calligraphists and miniaturists or 
 illuminators. With increasing veneration for the sacred 
 writings there came increasing splendor in the manu- 
 scripts, which were embellished by pictures, illuminated 
 initials and decorative borders. In this new art the By- 
 zantine Greeks showed the highest skill, and the result 
 was the final domination of the Byzantine taste and 
 style in this field, as in the closely allied art of mosaic 
 picturing and ornament. 
 
 The initial letters of chapters or books were made 
 into ornamental designs covering a considerable por- 
 tion of the page, and painted with brilliant red, blue, 
 green and gold, often with accompaniments of an archi- 
 tectural character with or without figures. Illustrations 
 of scriptural scenes and allegorical compositions were 
 often introduced, covering an entire page. In these 
 the drawing and coloring followed the formulas that 
 governed the design of like figures in mosaic and fresco 
 decorations of the churches; formulas that became 
 hieratic and were finally written down in inflexible rules 
 that have survived to modern times in the monasteries 
 of Mt. Athos, 3 and in the icons of the Russian churches. 
 This stiff and conventional style of painting was the 
 parent of Italian religious painting in the Middle Ages ; 
 and indeed of all Christian medieval painting, architec- 
 tural as well as in manuscripts. For the Byzantine 
 manuscripts were scattered through the monasteries and 
 
 3 Cf. Crowninshield, "Mural Painting." 
 
 228
 
 Carvings from Chbrch&s ot J^lokhcta ancl Chonamta; Georgia. 
 
 FIG. 241. GEORGIAN AND ARMENIAN CARVING
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 239. BYZANTINE FABRIC, 
 BAMBERG. 
 
 ern myths, even those of 
 pagan origin, to supply 
 motives for elaborate in- 
 terlaces in borders and in- 
 itials. 
 
 Syrian Christian 
 Ornament. 
 
 In Syria, Christian art 
 took on a special form in 
 the absence of the brick, 
 timber, marble and glass 
 on which Latin and By- 
 zantine art so largely de- 
 pended for artistic ex- 
 pression. The buildings 
 of central Syria show a 
 
 churches of Western as 
 well as Eastern Europe, 
 and formed the models 
 from which both the 
 Celtic and Scandinavian 
 schools of manuscript 
 decoration took their ear- 
 ly inspiration. In these 
 interlace, which is a sub- 
 ordinate element in the 
 Eastern models, became a 
 dominant feature, though 
 it made use of the North- 
 
 FIG. 240. SYRIAN CARVING. 
 
 231
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 dry, restricted style of stone carving, akin in its flatness 
 to the Byzantine, making much use of geometric patterns 
 and retaining classic details only in forms so changed 
 as to be little more than travesties of the originals, as 
 at Kelat Seman, Rouheiha, Tourmanin, etc. In cer- 
 tain cities, however, Byzantine artists introduced marble 
 and mosaic, as in the famous Golden Church at Antioch, 
 no longer extant. The Moslem conquest under Omar 
 (638) put an end to the life of Syrian Christian art and 
 resulted in the destruction of most of the Christian 
 churches. (Figure 240, from Tourmanin and Ba- 
 kouza. ) 
 
 Russian, Georgian and Armenian Ornament. 
 
 The Eastern Church, in the Balkan peninsula, and in 
 what is now the Russian Empire, including Georgia and 
 Russian Armenia, highly interesting phases of Byzan- 
 tine art. Aside from the singular architecture of the 
 Russian churches with high pinnacled lanterns, this art 
 is especially rich in manuscript illumination, enameled 
 and jeweled silver- and goldsmith's work, and surface 
 carving. In this last department of design intricate in- 
 terlaces suggest the reacting influence of the Celtic 
 manuscripts; although it is possible that both may hark 
 back to a common derivation from the simpler interlaces 
 of early Byzantine art in Constantinople. They fre- 
 quently betray also the influence of Moslem art and have 
 a strongly Oriental character throughout. 
 
 Figure 241 exhibits a number of examples of this 
 architectural carving from Mokheta and Chouamta in 
 Georgia and Gelathi in Armenia. 
 
 232
 
 BYZANTINE ORNAMENT 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 BYZANTINE 
 
 As before, ESSENWEIN, GERSPACH, HUBSCH, VON QUAST. 
 Also, BAYET: L'Art byzantin (Paris, n. d.). H. C. BUTLER: 
 Architecture and other Arts in Northern Central Syria (New 
 York, 1903). A. DEHLI: Selections of Byzantine Ornament 
 (New York, 1890). DIEHL: Manuel de I'art byzantin (Paris, 
 1910). G. G. GAGARIN: Sbornik bisantiskikh i drevnerusskikh 
 ornamentor (St. Petersburg [Petrograd], 1887). Moscow 
 MUSEUM OF ART : Histoire de I'ornement russe du X m * au XVI me 
 sietcle d'apres les manuscrits (Paris, 1870). ONGANIA: La 
 basilica di San Marco (Venice, 1881-88). R. P. PULLAN: On 
 the Decoration of Basilicas and Byzantine Churches (Papers of 
 the R. I. B. A.; London, 1875-76). SALZENBERG: Die alt- 
 christlichen Baudeukmale von Constantino pel (Berlin, 1854). 
 N. SIMAKOV: L'Ornement russe (St. Petersburg [Petrograd], 
 1882). TEXIER AND PULLAN: Byzantine Architecture (Lon- 
 don, 1865). VIOLLET-LE-DUC : L'Art russe (Paris, 1877). 
 DE VOGUE : Syrie Centrale (Paris, 1865-77). 
 
 233
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 1. ITALIAN AND FRENCH 
 
 A strictly chronological treatment of ornament his- 
 tory might be held to require taking up at this point the 
 beginnings of Mohammedan ornament; but a due re- 
 gard for continuity prescribes rather the following of 
 the current of European Christian art through the Mid- 
 dle Ages before taking up the diverging art of the Mos- 
 lems, which will therefore be reserved for another vol- 
 ume. 
 
 The name Romanesque has been so widely applied to 
 the various phases of European art in its transition from 
 the Latin and Byzantine phases to the so-called Gothic, 
 that it will be retained in this discussion. It is, indeed, 
 not an inappropriate term, since the art of Italy and 
 Western Europe from about the ninth to the thirteenth 
 century sprang from roots easily traced back to pri- 
 mary sources in the art of classic Rome. 
 
 The Romanesque Period. 
 
 Throughout all Europe, except in parts of the Byzan- 
 tine Empire, the centuries from the fall of Rome to the 
 twelfth constituted a period of chaos, upheaval, and 
 gradual evolution. War, famine, and pestilence re- 
 
 284
 
 15 
 
 FIG. 243. ALTAR FRONT, FERENTINO 
 
 FIG. 244. DETAIL FROM FRONT OF 
 SAN MICHELE, LUCCA 
 
 FIG. 245. FALSE WINDOW, SAN 
 STEFANO, BOLOGNA
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 peatedly devastated Italy; the Arabs and Moors over- 
 ran Sicily and Spain and threatened France; there was 
 commotion and turmoil among the German and Scandi- 
 navian tribes, who poured over the lands occupied by the 
 older civilizations. Out of this chaos Christian insti- 
 tutions were slowly emerging, and it was the Church 
 which first reared its majestic form, appearing as the 
 one universal and invincible fact, everywhere claiming 
 supreme authority and divine power. Of its two chief 
 manifestations, the papacy and the monastic system, the 
 last was nearer the people, visible and tangible, and in 
 the confusion of warring authorities it gained steadily 
 in favor and influence. Uneasy souls gave or be- 
 queathed to the monasteries treasures of land and 
 money ; peace-loving souls fled to them as asylums from 
 war and oppression, and the great monastic brother- 
 hoods multiplied their chapters, grew rich, built churches 
 and cherished such arts and such learning as the Church 
 demanded or favored. Architecture, decorative reli- 
 gious sculpture and carving, manuscript illumination 
 and other decorative arts flourished in the monasteries 
 as they grew in wealth and the centuries brought in- 
 creased peace and order. 
 
 As, in the preceding ages, there was a marked differ- 
 ence between the art of Eastern and Western Chris- 
 tendom, so in this Romanesque period Italian art dif- 
 fered in important ways from that of France and west- 
 ern Europe. That of Germany stood midway between 
 the two, the Italian Lombard influence predominating. 
 But in all these styles Byzantine influence is discernible, 
 exerted through the medium of those artistic products 
 
 237
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 for which Constantinople was famous, manuscripts, 
 ivory-carvings, ecclesiastical goldsmith's work and em- 
 broideries. Mosaic, however, was never in demand in 
 the West; form rather than color dominates Roman- 
 esque art, and the resources of the abbeys and parishes 
 were bestowed upon large and spacious edifices rather 
 than upon such costly adornments as that of mosaic. 
 
 Italian Romanesque Ornament. 
 
 Italy being not a state but a group of states and prov- 
 inces, there appear at least five more or less distinct 
 styles in her early medieval art ; the Basilican or Latin 
 in Rome and its neighborhood ; the Byzantine in Venice, 
 Ravenna and on the East coast generally; the Tuscan 
 in Etruria (Tuscany) from Pisa to Florence and even 
 Siena; in the South, especially in Sicily, the Siculo- 
 Arabic, a compound of Arabic, Byzantine, Latin and 
 Norman elements; and in the North the Lombard, in 
 which the Germanic spirit of the race which overran 
 northern Italy in the seventh century expressed itself 
 in new forms and combinations. 
 
 But while these may be properly called distinct styles, 
 they so frequently overlap and mingle that it is not 
 always easy, nor indeed reasonable, to classify a given 
 building definitely in one of these categories. The 
 unity of the Church, the migrations of monks and other 
 ecclesiastics and especially of builders and carvers, con- 
 tributed to a constant blurring of the boundary lines of 
 these styles. 
 
 The Basilican and Byzantine styles have been already 
 discussed, but in many examples from the other styles 
 
 238
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 their influence is clearly seen in various details. More- 
 over, these two styles in their later manifestations un- 
 derwent developments and changes, from the influence 
 of Western art, which differentiate them from their ear- 
 lier phases. Basilicas of the Latin type continued to 
 be built until the thirteenth century, and the art of the 
 mosaicist in opus Alexandrinum was developed in great 
 splendor by successive generations of the Cosma family 
 and their apprentices, in altars, pulpits, and other archi- 
 tectural applications, so that this sort of inlaid geometric 
 mosaic is commonly known as Cosmati work. Roman 
 artists carried it into southern Italy and Sicily, where 
 it mingled with the Siculo-Arabic work. The ex- 
 amples referred to in Chapter XII, and illustrated in 
 Figs. 211-213, may be compared with the altar-front 
 from Ferentino in Figure 243 and the columns from 
 Monreale in Figure 249. In Florence especially, ex- 
 amples of the persistence of this art may be seen in va- 
 rious details of the cathedral and Giotto's campanile 
 (Figure 394). 
 
 Tuscan Romanesque. 
 
 In Pisa, Lucca, Pistoia and the neighborhood there 
 was developed in the llth-13th centuries an ecclesias- 
 tical style based on the basilican plan but dressed in an 
 architectural apparel of black and white marble in 
 stripes, adorned with purely decorative arcades; re- 
 cessed arches springing from pilasters against the lower- 
 story walls, and superposed tiers of free arches on 
 columns in the upper stories of the front. Inlaid pat- 
 terns, chiefly geometric, adorned the tympana and 
 
 239
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 spandrels of the lower arches (Fig. 242). Carving 
 was sparingly used, but the capitals were carefully 
 carved on classic models, and the shafts sometimes 
 carved with rinceaux of equally classic character (Ca- 
 thedral and Baptistery of Pisa, eleventh century) . In 
 Lucca the Cathedral and the later church of S. Mi- 
 
 FIG. 242. IN-LAID PATTERN'S, PJSA CATHEDRAL. 
 
 chele (Figure 244) show rich inlays of black on white, 
 with fantastic grotesques, due perhaps to Lombard in- 
 fluence which is also seen in some of the columns, and in 
 the lions or monsters which serve as bases to columns in 
 many churches. Some of the carving at Lucca sug- 
 gests Byzantine influence. The use of striping in dark 
 marble and of inlay is seen as far east as in Bologna. 
 Figure 245 shows a window of the Baptistery of S. 
 Stefano, where Byzantine influence appears in the inter- 
 laces of the perforated panels set in the striped wall. 
 The richly carved lintels of doors in the church of S. 
 Giusto, Lucca (Figure 246), show the mixture of influ- 
 ences which impinged on art in Tuscany. 
 
 In Florence and San Miniato, paneling in black and 
 white takes the place of striping a less correct treat- 
 
 240
 
 1 O 
 
 FIG. 246. LINTEL, SAN GIUSTO, LUCCA 
 
 FIG. 247. DETAIL, PAVEMENT OF BAPTISTERY, FLORENCE
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 ment structurally though more decorative. In some 
 churches, especially in the Baptistery at Florence and 
 in San Miniato, the pavements show inlaid patterns in 
 black and white which could hardly be surpassed for 
 decorative beauty (Figure 247). Altar and altar-rail 
 at S. Miniato are treated with inlays of the same 
 sort. 
 
 The style was occasionally imitated in remote cities, 
 as at Troja in southeast Italy, where the cathedral is 
 decorated with recessed arcades after the Pisan manner. 
 
 The Siculo-Arabic Style. 
 
 The Arab conquest of Sicily and the subsequent ex- 
 pulsion of the Mohammedans by the Crusaders, with the 
 establishment of a Norman 
 kingdom, and the persist- 
 ence of Byzantine tradi- 
 tions, all combined to de- 
 velop a singularly mixed 
 but effective style of decora- 
 tion. The Arabic pointed 
 arch, inlaid marble wain- 
 scot with a serrated parapet-cresting after the fashion 
 of Cairo, Byzantine glass-mosaic on the upper walls and 
 occasional vaults, are conspicuous in such edifices as the 
 cathedrals of Monreale (Figure 248), the Martorana 
 and Palatine chapels at Palermo, and others. Latin or 
 ''Cosmati" mosaics inlaid in twisted shafts adorn the 
 cloisters of Monreale (Figure 249; see also Figure 214) , 
 and some of the pulpits and altars. The open-timber 
 ceilings are richly painted and gilded ; Cufic inscriptions 
 
 243 
 
 FIG. 250. CUFIC DECORATION, 
 PALERMO.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 251. DETAIL FROM BRONZE DOORS, 
 MONHEALE CATHEDRAL. 
 
 appear in these 
 (Fig. 250) and 
 Arabic geometric 
 interlace in the 
 pavements. The 
 bronze doors are 
 by North Italian 
 artists (Fig. 251), 
 and here and 
 there even Lom- 
 bard details occur. 
 Color appears ev- 
 erywhere, in Ori- 
 ental profusion. 
 Except in the cap- 
 itals, many of which are antique, carving is little used, 
 but some of the cloister capitals at Monreale are fine 
 examples of decorative sculpture, showing both Norman 
 and Byzantine influences (Figure 248 ). 1 It was a 
 brilliant, confused, and short-lived style. 
 
 Lombard. 
 
 This style was not confined to Lombardy ; it prevailed 
 through Emilia and as far east as Verona, and south 
 even into Calabria and Apulia. The Lombards, a Ger- 
 manic race by origin, introduced into Italian art an 
 entirely new note of solemnity and somber humor, ex- 
 pressed in the rugged massiveness of their churches and 
 the grotesques in their carving. They contributed to 
 architecture decorative forms and devices which spread 
 
 i The spirnl and zigzag flirtings shown in Figure 249 were originally filled 
 with Cosmati-work of inlaid mosaics. 
 
 244
 
 into western Romanesque art. Among these were the 
 arcade cornice (Fig. 252), long pilaster strips flat, 
 semi-cylindrical, or spirally twisted ; the round or wheel- 
 window (Figure 253), the col- 
 umn resting on a monster's 
 back; the splayed doorway 
 adorned with many columns in 
 the jambs and with successively 
 recessed or stepped arches above 
 the door-lintel (Figure 254). 
 The open arcade under the FIG. 252. AHCADED CORN- 
 eaves of many Lombard ^E, s. MAETIKO, PALAIA. 
 
 churches is a part of the architecture rather than orna- 
 ment. Many of these features are common in the 
 French and Germanic Romanesque, though they origi- 
 nated in Italy. There was a constant interchange be- 
 tween the Benedictine monasteries of these countries; 
 the Crusades brought Western hordes into Italy, and 
 such commerce as there was aided the dissemination of 
 architectural ideas as well as of commodities. More- 
 over the maestri comacini, the skilled masons and carvers 
 organized into guilds of traveling artisans, were almost 
 wholly recruited from the North Italian country, and 
 they carried their art into remote regions of Italy and 
 into other lands. 
 
 Grotesques. 
 
 The medieval "bestiaries," of which copies have come 
 down to our day, prove the symbolic significance of 
 many of the grotesque sculptures, each beast and part 
 of a beast having a specific meaning, so that each com- 
 
 245
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 bination of heterogeneous parts to form a grotesque 
 monster, signified a particular combination of definite 
 ideas, as in a symbolic language. But the medieval 
 
 sculptors of Lom- 
 bardy, with imagi- 
 nations saturated 
 with the medieval 
 superstitions which 
 peopled air, earth 
 and sea with count- 
 less invisible be- 
 ings, mostly mal- 
 efic, loving to blast 
 and blight every 
 perfect and beauti- 
 tiful thing, but 
 which could be di- 
 verted by charms, 
 incantations and 
 symbols, and even 
 by marring in ap- 
 pearance the seem- 
 ing perfection of 
 a human work 2 
 these Germanic 
 Italians of the 
 North treated with 
 a species of humor- 
 ous decorative art the wild and fantastic symbols and 
 
 2 This superstition survives in a real but attenuated form in the jettatura 
 of Italy and the "evil eye" of the Eastern Mediterranean. 
 
 246 
 
 FIG. 255. CAP FROM AUHONA; SYMBOLS OF 
 
 EVANGELISTS OK A PCLPIT; CENTAUR 
 
 FROM SAN AMBHOGIO, MILAN.
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 talismans which grew out of this superstition (Fig. 
 
 255). 
 
 Other Forms. 
 
 Not a little of the Italian ornament of the Roman- 
 esque period is hard to classify under any particular 
 style-name, being the product of local or of conflicting 
 influences. Thus the wheel-windows show considerable 
 variety. The marble perforations of the Cathedral of 
 Troja suggest Oriental prototypes, while the traceries 
 of those of S. Pietro and of Sta. Maria at Toscanella 
 are designed on quite different principles. Certain 
 Italian manuscripts of this period betray the hand or 
 influence of Irish scribes. This variety of stvle in 
 
 V > 
 
 Italian Romanesque art presents an interesting contrast 
 to the impressive unity of general effect in Western, es- 
 pecially French, work of the same period. 
 
 THE FRENCH ROMANESQUE 
 
 General Character. 
 
 French Romanesque ornament is completely domi- 
 nated by the monastic architecture. Previous to about 
 1020 architecture in France was extremely crude, ex- 
 cept in Provence, while Roman traditions still imparted 
 a certain elegance to ecclesiastical buildings. 3 By 1000 
 A. D. the feudal system on the one hand, and the monastic 
 on the other, had attained coherent form, and were domi- 
 nant over the developments of the nascent civilization. 
 Architecture was chiefly military and monastic, and 
 while the feudal lords built strong castles, the monks 
 
 8 Consult ReVoil, "Architecture romane du Midi de la France:" plates. 
 
 249
 
 were learning to build stone 
 churches with vaults. In 
 the absence of antique ruins 
 to serve as quarries of ready- 
 made decorative material, 
 and without either models or 
 trained artisans for the pro- 
 duction of mosaic, carving 
 and inlay, the arts of decora- 
 tion had to be created anew. 
 The art that slowly emerged 
 from this destitution was a 
 struggling art, at first crude 
 in design and execution. To 
 its earliest phase the French 
 give the name of Carolingian 
 art. The architecture was 
 massive, thick- jointed, spar- 
 ing in ornament except about 
 
 FIG. 256 DETAILS FROM CHURCH tne doOl'WayS, at which the 
 OF ST. PAUL-TROIS-CHATEAUX. _ 
 
 builders' highest art was be- 
 stowed. As the eleventh century advances, this art be- 
 comes finer, richer, more knowing, still vigorous but bet- 
 ter in technic; the accessory arts multiply and grow in 
 perfection. There developed a certain unity of general 
 style throughout France, controlled to a remarkable ex- 
 tent by a rigid logic of construction. More than in any 
 previous style in any land, the forms not merely of the 
 structure proper, but also of its decoration, were deter- 
 mined by the special exigencies of materials and struc- 
 tural science. Although provincial schools appear in 
 
 250
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 the architecture (Provence, Charente, Auvergne, Bur- 
 gundy, Normandy, Ile-de-France) the decorative de- 
 tails do not vary greatly. True, the Byzantine influ- 
 ence is more clearly traceable in some districts, the clas- 
 sic in others, especially in Provence (Fig. 256), but 
 it requires a closer discrimination to detect these pro- 
 vincial variations in the ornament than in the architec- 
 ture, in the details than in the composition, and far more 
 than is required to classify Italian ornament of the same 
 period. This is due to the dominance of the great mon- 
 astic orders, especially of the Benedictines; uniformly 
 skilful artists, they tended to develop a common style 
 wherever they established their abbeys. 
 
 Architectural Ornament: Columns and Capitals. 
 
 The French Romanesque column is a descendant from 
 the classic column, modified by its new uses as a mem- 
 ber of a compound pier or as a jamb-shaft or nook-col- 
 umn in a door or window. Lombard or comacine influ- 
 ences seem to have had a share in its development. The 
 shaft is straight, without en- 
 tasis or taper (Figure 257) ; 
 sometimes, in late doorways, 
 richly carved with geometric 
 patterns (Figure 260). The 
 base is of the Attic type, 
 often with corner-leaves 
 ( Figure 264 ). The capitals 
 are generally of the Corinthian type, but with a heavy 
 abacus added, and the proportions and details modified 
 in innumerable ways (Figure 265; Plate XIV). At 
 
 251 
 
 FIG. 264. BASEO 
 SPURS.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Moissac they have a decidedly Byzantine character. 
 The introduction of grotesques, both human and bestial, 
 gave rise to new types (Figures 259, 261). Occasion- 
 ally a species of cushion capital is used, especially in 
 Normandy, the upper part square, with a heavy abacus ; 
 
 the lower part scalloped or 
 convex-fluted once or more 
 times on each face. A very 
 beautiful double capital is pre- 
 served in the Museum at Tou- 
 louse (Plate XIV, 1). An- 
 other double cap is Number 
 2 in the same Plate, from 
 Chalons-sur-Marne. The con- 
 trast in style illustrates the 
 difference between the carving 
 of Provence, with strong By- 
 zantine tinge, and that of the 
 Ile-de-France in the North. 
 Some of the earlier work is 
 hewn out with the mason's-ax ; 
 
 later the chisel comes into more general use, and the 
 established types are greatly varied by the introduction 
 of figures, jewel-studded bands, and foliage of new 
 types. 4 In Plate XIV, 3, 4, 5, the Corinthian tradition 
 is clearly shown in all the capitals. 
 
 Carving; Bands and Panels. 
 
 The classic acanthus-leaf, rinceau, and even anthe- 
 mion appear constantly in various modifications, and in 
 
 FIG. 
 
 265. LATE ROMANESQUE 
 CAPITAL, PARIS. 
 
 * Consult article "Sculpture" in V.-le-Duc 
 1'architecture." 
 
 252 
 
 ; 'Dictionnaire Raisonnd de
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 Provence the fret is 
 used as a carved run- 
 ning ornament, as at 
 St. Gilles. The acan- 
 thus-leaf and rinceau 
 preserve in some cases 
 an extraordinarily 
 classic character, even 
 in comparatively late 
 examples, suggesting 
 direct copying from 
 antique fragments 
 (Avallon, Fig. 267, 
 St. Denis, etc.). 
 Even late in the 
 twelfth century the 
 Roman tradition 
 sometimes appears 
 very strong in carved 
 rinceaux, as in Figs. 
 266, 268. But gen- 
 erally the classic tra- 
 dition was gradually 
 lost, and a sort of naturalism began to creep in, though 
 not yet the direct copying of Nature. The rinceau has 
 a round stem but no wrapping-leaves ; the stem is fluted 
 or ridged to suggest the bark ; the branches spring from 
 it like grafts, with little ridges around their starting- 
 places ; the leaves are still strongly conventional but not 
 at all like acanthus-leaves, having rounded lobes and 
 spoon- like hollows ; they are broad and massive, and the 
 
 255 
 
 FIG. 266. CARVED RINCEAU: UPPER, FROM 
 MANTES; LOWER, FROM VAISON.
 
 A HISTQBJBOF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 267. AC- 
 ANTHUS 
 
 LEAVES FROM 
 AVALLOX. 
 
 entire IJsidto is carved in high relief and 
 sometimes weeply undercut (Figs. 266, 
 268). The double rinceau sometimes ap- 
 pears, enclosing the large leaves in ovals 
 or in heart-shaped openings (Fig. 269). 
 In almost all cases the rinceau represents 
 the grape-vine and its ecclesiastical sym- 
 bolism is obvious. 
 
 The framed anthemion, so common in 
 Byzantine carving, hardly occurs in 
 French Romanesque friezes or bands. 
 Towards the end of the twelfth century, 
 however, we find in its place, and evidently 
 descended from it> an ornament consisting of broad 
 fluted triple or five-lobed leaves enclosed by branching 
 leaves often adorned with jewels. 
 Sometimes the central leaf of the 
 trilobe is carried up under the fram- 
 ing leaves and curled over it (Fig- 
 ure 262). This motive seems to 
 have come in from Germany, and is 
 frequently found in painted orna- 
 ment, both on walls and on manu- 
 scripts. 
 
 In certain regions along the paths 
 of Byzantine and Lombard influ- 
 ence, beasts and human figures are 
 shown twined into the convolutions 
 of the rinceau (Plate XIV). Ar- 
 cading as a decorative external fea- 
 ture never attained in France the 
 
 256 
 
 FIG. 
 
 268. UIXCEAU, 
 
 AVALLON.
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 importance it achieved in 
 northern Italy. The two 
 most noted examples are 
 the fronts of Notre Dame 
 at Poitiers and of the 
 Cathedral of Angouleme 
 (about 1130). These be- 
 tray Italian and Byzan- 
 tine influence; the arches 
 are not free as at Pisa, 
 but attached to (or re- 
 cessed in) the wall, fram- 
 ing statues, windows or 
 reliefs. Internally, how- 
 ever, wall-arcades occur 
 frequently, especially as 
 decorations of the side- 
 aisle walls under the win- 
 dows; such arcades are 
 called arcatures. In 
 Normandy the arches are 
 sometimes interlaced, and 
 this device was later 
 adopted in England and is common in Anglo-Norman 
 churches. 
 
 FIG. 269. DOUBLE RINCEAU, 
 NOTRE DAME, PARIS. 
 
 Moldings. 
 
 With the new types of building a new art of molding- 
 profiles begins to appear. Whether its origin is in the 
 Lombard doorways or is local, its development was con- 
 trolled by that logic of structure to which allusion has 
 
 257
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 already been made, and which specially distinguishes 
 French Romanesque architectural art. All arches being 
 stepped, and their square edges, as already described, 
 cut into roll-moldings between chamfers, there resulted 
 in doorways and pier-arches an alternation of plane, 
 hollow and convex surfaces which proved extremely ef- 
 fective (Figures 257, 258). Out of this simple treat- 
 ment was developed a more elaborate system of varying 
 hollows, rolls and flat surfaces, which the English Gothic 
 artists were to carry in later times to the highest per- 
 fection (see Chapter XVIII). In contrast with the 
 classic tradition, according to which all important mold- 
 ings project from the general surface, the medieval 
 builders developed the contrary system of moldings cut 
 into the surface. The exception is in the projecting 
 drip-moldings which defined the extrados of the arch on 
 exterior walls, especially over doorways. 
 
 Doorways. 
 
 As a general rule the outer step or "order" of a series 
 of stepped doorway-arches was brought down upon 
 an inpost carried by a column set flush with the outer 
 face of the wall, or upon the square pier formed by the 
 wall itself. Sometimes, however, it was returned into 
 the wall, as in Figure 258, or abutted into projecting 
 members, as in Figure 259. Each "order" of the series 
 of diminishing arches was carried by its own distinct 
 supports, whether columns (jamb-shafts) or piers, as 
 in Figures 257, 258. The various orders were either 
 plain, with roll-moldings, as already explained, or 
 carved with enrichments often of great splendor of ef- 
 
 258
 
 19 
 
 ChartiesCaJh 
 
 Fig '259 From flngoulemeGtih Fig 261 From J/. Pierre d flu/nay
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 feet. It was upon the church doorways 
 that the monastic artists lavished their 
 richest ornaments. In the North, geo- 
 metric motives were especially promi- 
 nent, and among these the zigzag was 
 particularly favored in Normandy (d 
 in Fig. 270), cut into the face of the 
 arch, or into the soffit, or both; the 
 "broken-stick" ("batons-rompus") , the 
 lozenge and dog-tooth or pyramid (i) 
 are also common. Byzantine influence 
 is discernible in the billet (e, Fig. 270), 
 and in the flat treatment of figure-re- 
 liefs in the tympanum as at Carrenac 
 (Figure 257). Imbrications (g), 
 checkers (6), "nail-heads," foliage- 
 forms and grotesques are also of fre- 
 quent occurrence. Figures 261, from St. Pierre at 
 Aulnay, and 258 from Rouen Cathedral (Porte St. 
 Jean) show the extraordinary richness of some of these 
 Romanesque doorways. The Rouen example belongs 
 to the early 13th century and is therefore early Gothic, 
 but it is still full of the spirit, and shows many of the 
 details, of the Romanesque. 
 
 Horizontal moldings receive but little emphasis in 
 French Romanesque ornament, and there are no dis- 
 tinctly typical horizontal moldings, except those of the 
 Attic bases of the columns already mentioned. Hori- 
 zontal bands, however, are not uncommon, richly carved, 
 often with anthemions or palmettes (Fig. 271) which 
 betray the ever-present Byzantine influence. In place 
 
 261 
 
 I 6 
 
 FIG. 270. RO- 
 MANESQUE OB- 
 
 NAMENTS.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 271. CABVED BANDS! 
 FBOM ST. AUBIK, ANGERS. 
 
 of the classic cornice the monastic 
 builders had only the Lombard 
 arcaded cornice, or the more elab- 
 orate corbel table. In minor posi- 
 tions the simplest copings with one 
 or two moldings suffice. 
 
 Corbel Tables. 
 
 These may have originated in 
 the classic modillion-cornice, or 
 they may have been evolved out of 
 the necessity of providing a pro- 
 jecting shelf at the top of the wall. 
 In Provence (Southern France) the first is doubtless 
 the correct explanation, as the corbel-table of the gable 
 over the porch of St. Trophime at Aries has corbels 
 carved with the acanthus in evident reminiscence of 
 classic modillions. In Central and Northern France 
 the corbels are usually grotesques of masks or monsters. 
 In some cases they are found in conjunction with the 
 Lombard arcaded cornice, particularly in Auvergne and 
 in Southern France. Corbels for other purposes than 
 the support of a corbel-table were of varied forms, often 
 resembling capitals with a "drop" or "cul-de-lampe" at 
 the bottom, formed either of foliage or of figures or gro- 
 tesques. 
 
 Figure Sculpture. 
 
 It was during this period that the French began the 
 development of that wonderful art of decorative sculp- 
 ture which they carried to so marvelous a height of artis- 
 
 262
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 tic beauty in the portal-sculptures of their Gothic cathe- 
 drals, at Chartres, Amiens and Reims. At first they 
 were contented with reliefs in the portal tympanium 
 (Figure 257) but free statues were later set in the deep 
 jambs of the portals, representing saints and apostles 
 and martyrs : this practice appears to have begun about 
 
 FREJTCH ROMANESQUE GROTESQUE. 
 
 the middle of the 12th century (Figure 260). By- 
 zantine and classic influences and traditions dominate in 
 the earlier sculpture (Plate XIV, 3, 5) ; but the French 
 soon impressed upon all their sculpture, whether of stat- 
 ues, reliefs or grotesques, the stamp of their own orig- 
 inal genius (Fig. 272; Plate XIV, 7). Both in tech- 
 nical execution and in appropriateness to its architec- 
 tural setting, these later Romanesque sculptures mark 
 the opening of a new chapter in decorative art. 
 
 Painted Decoration. 
 
 The scanty remains of the painted decoration in 
 
 263
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 French Romanesque churches indicate a prevailing sim- 
 plicity, marked by effective composition with rather 
 crude coloring and execution. The painted ornament 
 was generally restricted to certain well-defined portions 
 of the edifice, such as the apse and chapels. Wall sur- 
 faces were marked with conventional masonry joints or 
 simple quarries, spangles or diapers in red ochre and 
 black; sometimes the effect was varied by painted wall- 
 arcades and representations of wall-draperies with con- 
 ventional folds. Columns were striped or painted with 
 chevrons or zigzags in red, dark green and yellow or 
 gold, and the capitals were enriched in the same colors. 
 Figure painting was rare; when employed it was 
 strongly Byzantine in character, like the contemporary 
 manuscript pictures, as at St. Ceneri, or Ste. Rade- 
 gonde, Poitiers. Leaf-forms were sometimes used for 
 borders and narrow bands. 
 
 Accessory Arts. 
 
 In iron-work, tiles and wood-carving the French mo- 
 nastic artists executed works of considerable merit, em- 
 ploying generally forms akin to the architectural orna- 
 ment or else inspired from Byzantine models ; but they 
 
 by no means equaled the variety 
 and richness of the Italian deco- 
 rators. Figure 263 shows a 
 door knocker of the 12th cen- 
 tury, from a cast in the Troca- 
 museum ' At Limoges 
 
 FIG. 273. LEAF PATTERN, there Was a flourishing School of 
 
 a, ST. OMEB. workers in enamel by the chant- 
 
 264
 
 ' I 
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 pleve process. In this work, as in the other minor arts, 
 the Byzantine influence is prominent. Fig. 273 is a 
 characteristic leaf-detail from the red-and-brown tiling 
 in the cathedral of St. Omer. The tile floors of chan- 
 cels and chapels of the late Romanesque period were 
 often of great elegance, in simple and effective patterns 
 in buff, red, brown and black. 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 As before, HUBSCH. Also: BAUM: Romanesque Architecture 
 in France (London, 1912). CAHIER AND MARTIN: Melanges 
 d'archeologie (Paris, 1868). CATTANEO: U Architecture en 
 It alie (Venice, 1890). COURAJOD: Lemons professees, etc. 
 (Paris, 1903). CUMMINGS: A History of Architecture in Italy 
 (Boston, 1901). DE DARTEIN: Etudes sur V architecture 
 lombarde (Paris, 1882). DEHIO AND BEZOLD: Die Kirchliche 
 Baukunst des Abendlandes (Stuttgart, 1887-1901). F. M. 
 HESSEMER: Arabische und alt-it alienische Bauverzierungen 
 (Berlin, 1842). LECOY DE LA MARCHE: Les manuscrits et la 
 miniature (Paris, 1886). E. MOLINIER: L'Orfevrerie civile et 
 religieuse du- F e a la fin du X^sie'de (Paris, 1899). Musee de 
 sculpture comparee du Trocadero (Paris, no date). F. OSTEN: 
 Bauwerke in der Lombardei (Frankfort, n. d.). H. REVOIL: 
 Architecture romane du Midi de la France (Paris, 1867). 
 ROHATTI/T DE FLEITRY: Les Monuments de Pise (Paris, 1866). 
 E. E. VioKLET-LE-Duc : Dictionnaire raisonne de V architecture 
 francaise, etc. (Paris, 1868). 
 
 265
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 II. ANGLO-NORMAN, GERMAN, SPANISH AND 
 SCANDINAVIAN 
 
 Anglo-Norman Ornament. 
 
 Previous to the Norman conquest of England in 
 1066, the architecture of that country was of the crudest 
 description, and, the ornament of the style, the so-called 
 Saxon, was so rude and scanty as hardly to deserve men- 
 tion. With the incoming of the new and foreign ele- 
 ment, however, there began a remarkable development, 
 both architectural and decorative ; and, as is so often the 
 case, the result of the blending was in some respects 
 more brilliant than even the stronger of the parent styles. 
 While the Norman (more properly "Anglo-Norman") 
 architecture derived its chief inspiration from French 
 Norman models, it rapidly diverged from them into a 
 strongly national style in which carved decoration was 
 very liberally employed. This Anglo-Norman orna- 
 ment is remarkable for its vigor, variety and effective- 
 ness. Its fundamental elements were comparatively 
 few, and chiefly of French origin, but it was more 
 abundant and varied in its details and applications. 
 
 Norman Columns. 
 
 The bases, of the Attic type, have spur-leaves some- 
 times but not always; the shafts are usually plain, but 
 
 266
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 sometimes carved with zigzags, spiral flutings, or large 
 quarry-patterns (as at Durham). The capitals are 
 rarely of the Corinthianesque type (Fig. 274; Plate 
 XV, 5) , except in late instances under French influence. 
 The prevailing type is the cubic or cushion type (Fig. 
 275) ; next the foliated or Corinthianesque, and the least 
 frequent are the grotesque capitals. Sometimes two 
 
 Fio. 574. CAPITAL 
 
 FROM LINCOLN 
 
 CATHEDRAL. 
 
 Fio. 275. CAPITAL FROM ST. PETER'S, 
 NORTHAMPTON. 
 
 types are combined side by side, as in Plate XV, 1. The 
 abacus is heavy, molded, sometimes carved with saw- 
 teeth, zigzags or other ornaments. The scalloped 
 cushion type is also very common (Plate XV, 3) . Cor- 
 bels are either plain or grotesque. 
 
 Doorways, Arches and Moldings. 
 
 The doorways are often extremely rich, especially 
 after 1130. The zigzag is the ornament most fre- 
 quently used; it is carved on each of several arch-steps 
 and sometimes carried down the jambs in lieu of nook- 
 
 267
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 276. ORNAMENTS FROM 
 IFFLKY CHURCH. 
 
 shafts, as at Iffley. 
 Zigzags on the face and 
 soffit of an arch are ar- 
 rayed to produce al- 
 ternate pyramids and 
 lozenge-shaped holes ; al- 
 ternate zigzags are con- 
 vex and concave in 
 section. Saw-teeth, star- 
 flowers and pyramid jew- 
 els abound (Fig. 276). 
 Round jewels or "nail- 
 heads" are applied in hollow moldings, and rosettes 
 or flowers are not uncommon. Another characteristic 
 ornament is the beak-head, a grotesque bird's head with 
 enormous beak, applied 
 to the voussoirs of an 
 arch, the beak pointed in- 
 wards, and sometimes 
 spanning several mold- fy 
 ings (Fig. 277). Gro- 
 tesques occur in arch or- 
 naments, but rarely. The 
 billet-molding also oc- 
 curs occasionally, but usu- 
 ally with round billets in- 
 stead of square. 
 
 The effect of the 
 crowded ornament of the 
 Anglo-Norman doorways 
 is often extremely rich, 
 
 FIG. 277. BEAK-HEAD MOLDING, 
 IFFLEY CHURCH. 
 
 268
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 the multiplied points of light on projecting details show- 
 ing brilliantly against the dark shadows. Famous ex- 
 amples of such doorways are those of Iffley Church, 
 Barfreston Church and the Prior's Door of Ely Cathe- 
 dral, and many others. 
 
 Arcatures are of frequent occurrence, usually with in- 
 terlaced arches. These are found sometimes even on 
 the exterior, though more usually employed for interior 
 walls (Fig. 278). 
 
 Other Carved Ornament. 
 
 Free figure sculpture is almost unknown, but figures 
 in relief are sometimes seen, and grotesques, both human 
 and animal are very frequent. Foli- 
 age is rare, and when it occurs is 
 highly conventional and very simple. 
 The anthemion motive is not uncom- 
 mon (Fig. 279) ; it is obviously of 
 Byzantine derivation by way of the 
 French Romanesque. Interlace is oc- 
 casionally met with, probably due to 
 Celtic influence. 
 
 Painted ornament appears to have been occasionally 
 used in the chancels and wooden roofs of churches, but 
 extant examples are very rare. That of the east end of 
 St. Cross Church, near Winchester, discovered late in the 
 last century and restored, shows simple conventional pat- 
 terns in red ocher and black. The ceiling of Peterboro' 
 reproduces the painted lozenge-pattern of the original 
 which it replaces. That of Ely is also a modern decora- 
 tion based on Norman precedents. 
 
 269 
 
 FIG. 278. INTER- 
 LACED ARCHES.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Fonts; Metalwork. 
 
 A few "Saxon" or pre-Norman fonts have been pre- 
 served, all of crude 
 workmanship, the 
 more elaborate 
 
 among them suggest- 
 ing an effort to copy 
 Byzantine details. 
 The Norman fonts 
 are of better work- 
 manship, cut in stone 
 or cast in lead, usu- 
 ally in the form of 
 a square or round 
 bowl on a short shaft 
 (or several shafts) 
 and base, and quite 
 frequently adorned 
 with figure subjects, 
 poorly executed. The Byzantine influence is often evi- 
 dent in the Norman fonts, some of which resemble 
 
 FIG. 279. CARVED ANGLO-NORMAN AN- 
 
 THEMIONS: FROM ST. SAVIOR'S, SoUTH- 
 
 WAHK (ABOVE); HEREFORD CATHEDRAL (BE- 
 
 Fio. 280. CELTIC Mss. INITIALS. 
 270
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 Venetian-Byzantine well- 
 curbs. Metal work does not 
 appear to have been carried 
 to an advanced degree of 
 perfection in this period. 
 The celebrated bronze can- 
 dlestick of Gloucester Ca- 
 thedral is evidently of for- 
 eign, probably of Italian,, 
 workmanship. It is of an 
 alloy of bronze and silver. 
 (But see below.) 
 
 FIG. 282. COVER OR SHRIXE FOR ST. 
 PATRICK'S BELL. 
 
 271 
 
 FIG. 281. CELTIC INTERLACES. 
 
 Celtic Ornament. 
 
 The artists in the 
 Irish monasteries de- 
 veloped a remarkable 
 skill in certain depart- 
 ments of decorative 
 art, notably and fore- 
 most, in manuscript il- 
 lumination; almost to 
 an equal degree in 
 ecclesiastical metal- 
 work. Interlace of 
 an extraordinary in- 
 tricacy is a character- 
 istic of their art in 
 both fields. In this 
 they display a close 
 kinship of spirit with
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Scandinavian art, in which the representation of the 
 Great Tree Yggdrasil, whose branches cover Earth, 
 Heaven and the Underworld, are interlaced with the 
 convolutions of the serpent or dragon Nithhoggr. 
 Whether these interlaces originated in the North or were 
 developed from Byzantine interlace it is difficult to de- 
 cide. Fig. 280 illustrates various forms of Celtic inter- 
 lace initials; Fig. 281 shows carved interlaces and the 
 
 curious spiral ornament called 
 the "trumpet pattern." Fig. 
 282 is the famous shrine or cover 
 of the iron bell of St. Patrick, 
 decorated with jewels and inter- 
 laced filigree of flat silver wires; 
 while Fig. 283 shows one quar- 
 ter of the cumdach or case made 
 for the Molaise Gospels, of sil- 
 ver on bronze with jewels and 
 the grotesque symbolic lion of 
 St. Mark. This is dated about 
 1020. The bell shrine is later. 
 The Celtic crosses serving as grave stones particu- 
 larly the so-called "high crosses" present the best ex- 
 amples of Irish stone-carving. The cross-arms are con- 
 nected by a circle, and the angles between them cut into 
 by curved notches; the flat faces and often the sides of 
 the stone are covered with patterns (rarely with figures 
 as at Monasterboice) in low relief; the patterns show the 
 characteristic interlaces, often very complex and elabo- 
 rate. Such a cross is shown in Plate XV, 16. 
 
 FIG. 283. ONE QUARTER 
 
 OP COVER OP MOLAISE 
 
 GOSPELS. 
 
 272
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 German Romanesque Ornament. 
 
 In Germany, as in France and England, architectural 
 decoration may be said to have its real beginning in the 
 eleventh century, the earlier works being crude and al- 
 most bare of ornament. The architectural awakening 
 began in Saxony, but its most brilliant and prolific 
 
 FIG. 284. CAPITALS FROM GERNBODE. 
 
 achievements were in the Rhine provinces, where a truly 
 splendid style of church architecture grew up in the 
 llth-13th centuries, in which the ornament is remark- 
 able for its admirable propriety and its force and rich- 
 ness of design. It would be hard to find better capitals 
 in any of the medieval styles than those of these Rhenish 
 minsters, and the carving of grotesques fully equaled 
 that in any other country. The decorative forms are 
 all of foreign origin, French, Lombard and Byzan- 
 tine, but combined with remarkable skill and wealth 
 of fancy. The medium of transmission of these vari- 
 
 273
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 ous influences is complex; commerce, the interchange 
 between Eastern and Western monasteries, the circula- 
 tion of Byzantine and Irish manuscripts and Byzantine 
 
 ivories and ecclesiastical 
 work, and other causes, all 
 united in giving form to the 
 German Romanesque types. 
 The Byzantine is the strong- 
 est influence in the details of 
 the ornament ; the acanthus- 
 anthemion, jeweled bands 
 and shallow surface carving 
 are frequent (Plate XVI, 
 
 Fio. 285. FROM WUBTTEMBEBG. 4> 5> 1Q> 12> 15) . The Ger- 
 man capitals vary from strongly Byzantine types to al- 
 most Gothic foliage. Thus the cap from Gernrode 
 (Fig. 284) shows Byzantine massiveness with its im- 
 post-black and jeweled bands. Fig. 285 shows a capital 
 on an octagonal shaft with molded abacus and a some- 
 what free and loose treatment of the Byzantine-Roman- 
 esque framed anthemion motive. The zigzag occurs oc- 
 casionally, and grotesques abound, not only in capitals 
 and corbels but also in shafts, bands and other places. 
 The execution of most of the ornament is excellent. 
 
 The Lombard influence appears in the grotesques, 
 though these often give evidence of independent 
 German design, but also in such architectural fea- 
 tures as the deeply-splayed doorways (Fig. 286, 
 from Heilsbronn), the arcaded cornices, pilaster- 
 strips and open arcades under the eaves of apses and 
 sometimes of fa9ades. At Rosheim, in Alsace, is a 
 
 274
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 church-front of almost pure Italian or Lombard design. 
 
 The arts of metal were practised with skill. Both 
 
 wrought-iron and cast bronze were employed for grilles, 
 
 gates, hanging lamps or crown-lights and for candela- 
 
 FIG. 286. PORTAL FROM HEILSBHONK. 
 
 bra and church vessels. Gold, silver and enamel were 
 also employed for richer and finer products (of which 
 an early example, perhaps of real Byzantine manufac- 
 ture, at Aachen was illustrated in Fig. 238). Manu- 
 script illumination reached a high pitch of development 
 in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and stained glass 
 in the thirteenth; the former following purely Byzan- 
 tine models, the latter retaining its Romanesque charac- 
 ter in the face of the growing Gothic influence. In all 
 
 275
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 these arts Germany was influenced both from the West 
 and the East, France, Italy and Byzantium contributing 
 to the final result. Examples of some of these various 
 phases of German art are illustrated in Plate XVI. 
 
 Spanish Romanesque Ornament. 
 
 The Spanish peninsula was the field of successive in- 
 vasions, conquests and internal struggles through the 
 
 FIG. 287. TARRAGONA. 
 
 Fio. 288. TAEBAGONA (?). 
 
 entire Middle Ages, and there was little chance for the 
 development of any independent national style. The 
 few great churches erected in the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries show a dominant French influence (Zamorra, 
 Avila, Tarragona, Salamanca, Barcelona, Compo- 
 stella) ; and while the composition is vigorous and effec- 
 tive and the ornament well disposed, it presents no strik- 
 ing novelty of detail (Figs. 287 and 288 illustrate two 
 
 276
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 capitals which are thoroughly German in style) . A re- 
 markable characteristic of this style is its absolute free- 
 dom from Moorish details or influence, although the 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed the culmination 
 
 FIG. 289. NORWEGIAK CARVING: 
 LEFT SIDE, FROM STEDYE CHURCH; 
 RIGHT SIDE, UNIDENTIFIED. 
 
 FIG. 290. CHOIR SEAT, 
 NORWEGIAN. 
 
 of that brilliant art. This exemption was doubtless due 
 to the hostility between the Christians and Moslems. 
 
 Scandinavian Ornament. 
 
 The decorative art of the north of Europe, in the 
 Scandinavian peninsula especially, took on a special 
 character, the precise origin and relations of which to 
 Byzantine art on the one hand and to Celtic art on the 
 other, are still subjects of controversy. As in Celtic 
 ornament, elaborate and complicated interlace is the 
 dominant characteristic; and as in the Celtic manu- 
 
 277
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Fio. 291. DETAILS OF CANDELABRUM, 
 
 scripts, the interlace 
 is based largely on 
 the convolutions of a 
 dragon or serpent, 
 Nithhoggr, with the 
 branches of the great 
 earth-covering tree 
 Yggdrasil. The most 
 characteristic exam- 
 ples of this art are in 
 the wood-carvings of 
 doors and doorways 
 of ancient churches, 
 some dating from the 
 eleventh or even the 
 tenth century (Fig. 
 289). As these are 
 of later date than 
 many masterpieces of 
 Irish manuscript or- 
 nament, some of which 
 belong to the eighth 
 and possibly to the 
 seventh century, it 
 seems likely that this 
 Scandinavian art is, 
 in part at least, rooted 
 in Irish art, though 
 
 MILAN CATHEDRAL. 
 
 this doubtless derived its first inspiration from Constan- 
 tinople and Byzantine church fittings, ivories and Gos- 
 pels. Fig. 290 shows a Norwegian chair (or rather stall 
 
 278
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 from a choir) of perhaps the twelfth century, in which 
 the character of the earlier art still appears. 
 
 Romanesque Metal Work. 
 
 It is difficult to assign precise national limits to some 
 of the phases of metal work of the Romanesque period, 
 
 FIG. 292. DETAIL, CHAXDELIER AT HILDESHEIM. 
 
 especially in the line of ecclesiastical gold and silver and 
 silver-gilt copper. Some of this work found in Western 
 churches was undoubtedly from the Constantinople 
 workshops e.g., the famous Pala d'Oro or jeweled 
 golden altarpiece of St. Mark's, Venice. The Byzan- 
 tines taught the art to the artisans of Italy, France and 
 Germany, and Figs. 291-293 illustrate some of the 
 most famous examples of this work. Fig. 291 shows 
 two details of the magnificent bronze candlestick in 
 Milan Cathedral. A very similar candlestick, at least 
 as to its base, is among the treasures of Reims Cathedral. 
 Fig. 292 is from a bronze candlestick at Hildesheim. 
 The fine chalice in Fig. 293 is a part of the treasure of 
 a church at Bergen (Norway) , and illustrates the use of 
 
 279
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 filigree with jewels, which was a characteristic Byzan- 
 tine form of the goldsmith's art. A very similar chalice 
 is, or was, in the treasury of Reims Cathedral. 
 
 FIG. 293. GOLD CUP, BERGEX. 
 
 The architectural styles, thus grouped under the gen- 
 eral name of Romanesque, gradually passed over into 
 what are called the Gothic styles. The transition was 
 not sudden, but the change though gradual, was a real 
 one : not alone a change of details or of structural prin- 
 ciples, but of spirit and character. The Gothic styles 
 
 280
 
 ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 expressed the new order which came in with the final 
 establishment of settled institutions, religious, political 
 and social, throughout all Western Christendom. 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 As before, DEHIO and BEZOLD, HUBSCH. Also, BOND: In- 
 troduction to English Church Architecture (London, 1913); 
 Cathedrals of England and Wales (London, 1912)- DAHL- 
 ERUP, HOLM AND STORK : Tegnmger of aeldre Nordisk Architek- 
 tur (Stockholm). FORSTER: Denkmdler deutscher Baukunst 
 (Leipzig, 1855-69). J. T. GILBERT: Facsimiles of National 
 Manuscripts of Ireland (Dublin, 1871). A. HARTEL: Archi- 
 tectural Details and Ornaments of Church Buildings, etc. (New 
 York, 1904). HASAK: Die romanische und die gotische Bau- 
 kunst (Stuttgart, 1899). T. KUTSCHMANN: Romanesque 
 Architecture and Ornament in Germany (Text in German; 
 New York, 1906). C. MOLLINGER: Die deutsch-romanische 
 Architektur (Leipzig, 1891). H. OTTE: Geschichte der 
 romanischen Baukunst in Deutschland (Leipzig, 1874). T. 
 RICKMAN: An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles, etc. (Lon- 
 don, 1817). E. SHARPE: Churches of the Nene Valley; Orna- 
 ments of the Transitional Period; The Seven Periods of Eng- 
 lish Architecture (London, various dates). E. SULLIVAN: 
 The Book of Kells (New York, 1914). W. R. TYMMS: The 
 History, Theory and Practice of Illuminating (London, 1861). 
 
 For Spanish Romanesque, consult the fine work of LAMPEREZ 
 Y ROMEA, Historia de la arquitectura cristiana espanola, etc., 
 also the incomplete series entitled Monumentos Arquitectonicos 
 de Espana, to be found in a few of the larger libraries. 
 
 281
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 Gothic architecture was the result of the development 
 which took place in the effort to solve the problem of 
 constructing a vaulted cruciform church of stone, with 
 a clearstory to light the central aisle or nave. All the 
 special forms and details of this architecture are more 
 or less directly incidental to this development: vault- 
 ribbing, buttresses and pinnacles, clustered shafts, 
 pointed arches, moldings and tracery, were all evolved 
 in this process of working out the above problem. The 
 greater part of the ornament of the medieval churches, 
 chapels and even secular buildings, consisted of the 
 adornment of these structural features. Whatever dec- 
 oration was not structural, either in function or origin, 
 was symbolic or pictorial. The sculpture and the stained 
 glass of the great cathedrals constituted an illustrated 
 Bible which even the most illiterate could in a measure 
 understand. 
 
 This style-development took place first of all in 
 France. Other countries borrowed from France both 
 the general composition and the details of their Gothic 
 architecture. England alone among them retained a 
 large measure of independence, developing her own 
 Gothic style freely along national lines from germs 
 
 282
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 brought over from France, grafting upon the foreign 
 plant their own original additions. Germany copied 
 French models much more closely in some cases, while 
 manifesting in others an originality verging on caprice. 
 Spain and Portugal borrowed from all three, though 
 mostly from France; Belgium was hardly more than a 
 province of France in her architecture ; while the Italians 
 developed no truly Gothic style, but grafted Gothic 
 decorative details, much altered, on structures in which 
 the Gothic principles, both of construction and compo- 
 sition, were wholly ignored. 
 
 Periods. 
 
 It is convenient to divide the history of the style in 
 all the above countries except Italy into three periods 
 those of development, culmination and decline, or Early, 
 
 FIG. 294. GOTHIC CAPITALS: a, EARLY FRENCH, FROM THE SAINTE 
 
 CHAPELLE; 6, 14rH CENTURY CAP FROM TRANSEPT OF NOTRE DAME; 
 
 c, FLAMBOYANT, FROM NORTH SPIRE OF CHARTRES. 
 
 Developed, and Florid. These correspond to the so- 
 called Early French, Rayonnant and Flamboyant 
 phases of Gothic architecture in France, and the Lancet, 
 Decorated and Perpendicular in England; these names 
 being derived from the form and tracery of the windows. 
 
 283
 
 In the English styles these phases belong roughly to the 
 thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, respect- 
 ively : in France they appear from twenty to fifty years 
 earlier : in Germany somewhat later. The ornament of 
 the Early Period (in France 1160 to 1240 or 1250) is 
 the simplest and most vigorous, the imitation of natural 
 forms least literal. In the Developed Period design 
 and execution are finer, ornament more profuse and 
 more naturalistic, and window tracery ( and in England 
 vault-ribbing also) became more important elements in 
 the decorative scheme. In the Florid Period the styles 
 diverge considerably in the different countries, but in all, 
 the ornament is more complex and often overloaded, and 
 also often more thin, wiry and dry, technical cleverness 
 
 and minute detail taking the 
 place of restraint and vigor 
 of artistic design. The orna- 
 ment oscillates between the 
 extremes of realism and con- 
 ventionalism. This sequence 
 is illustrated in the three 
 capitals of Fig. 294. 
 
 Structural Ornament. 
 
 Every important struc- 
 tural feature was either made 
 ornamental in itself, like the 
 clustered shafts, capitals, tri- 
 forium-arcades, window-tra- 
 ceries, roof-balustrades and 
 water-spouts ; or adorned 
 with carved adjuncts and de- 
 
 284 
 
 FIG. 295. DECORATIVE GABLE 
 OVER A WINDOW, COLOGNE.
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 V V 
 
 tails, like the crockets, finials, 
 gablets and tabernacles of pin- 
 nacles and buttresses, or the foli- 
 age and flowers on enriched mold- 
 ings ( See Plate XVII ) . In the 
 Developed and Florid Periods, 
 by the operation of a never-fail- 
 ing law of decorative evolution, 
 certain forms and features orig- 
 inally structural came to be used 
 as pure ornament. Thus gables, 
 originally used only at the ends 
 of gabled roofs, came to be used 
 as purely decorative features, 
 adorned with surface or open- 
 work tracery, over doors and win- 
 dows where no such roofs existed 
 (Fig. 295) ; in England the vault- 
 ribs, serving in earlier buildings 
 as a framework upon which to 
 build the fillings, became finally 
 a mere patterning in relief on 
 the vault-surface ; in Germany the spire, at first a steep 
 roof over a bell tower, became a gigantic ornament of 
 open tracery and not a roof at all. 1 
 
 Piers, Shafts and Columns. 
 
 Except in some of the earlier French and later Bel- 
 gian and Dutch churches, all the piers were clustered, 
 
 i See pages 134, 135, and 137 note for other examples of this law of devel- 
 opment, and comments upon it. 
 
 285 
 
 FIG. 296. CLUSTERED 
 GOTHIC PIER.
 
 slender shafts being grouped around a central core, 
 sometimes joined to it, sometimes quite separate. 
 These shafts were usually circular, but sometimes pear- 
 shaped, springing from bases at a common level, except 
 in the later examples and carrying elaborate foliated 
 capitals (Fig. 296). Sometimes, in England espe- 
 
 PARIS 
 
 a. 6* 
 
 FIG. 297. ROMANESQUE AND GOTHIC CAPITALS; a, FROM BAYEUX CATHEDRAL, 
 6, FROM ST. MARTIN DBS CHAMPS, PARIS. 
 
 cially, the shafts are belted at intervals with molded 
 bands. Vaulting shafts are often sprung from carved 
 corbels high up, instead of bases on the ground, or set 
 on the caps of the main piers. Gothic shafts are never 
 carved, but are sometimes painted. 
 
 Capitals display a a great variety of designs, usually 
 employing foliage as their chief adornment. The earlier 
 French capitals generally recall the Corinthian type by 
 their bell-shaped core, square abacus with the corners 
 cut off, and volute-like corner crockets, but the abacus is 
 always massive in proportion to the cap and shaft, and 
 the development of the type from the Romanesque is 
 
 286
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 evident (Fig. 297). Later capitals have the foliage 
 more complex and more naturalistic in detail ( Fig. 294 
 b) ; the abacus is octagonal or round; in England the 
 plain molded bell-capital without foliage occurs fre- 
 quently, and the Corinthian type is lost in the convex 
 wreaths or bunches of foliage in the foliated caps. In 
 the Florid Period capitals are often omitted, and when 
 
 FIG. 298. GOTHIC BASES: EARLY TYPE, FROM 
 HALBERSTADT; LATE TYPE, FROM ROUEN. 
 
 used are often poor in design ; they vary between extreme 
 naturalism and capricious convention (Figure 294c). 
 
 Bases show a very interesting progressive develop- 
 ment. The simple Attic type of the Romanesque styles 
 survives for a while but first loses its corner spurs, then 
 changes gradually, the plinth taking on a constantly in- 
 creasing importance until it becomes a high pedestal, 
 with the moldings above it much reduced and simplified. 
 The lower torus also becomes higher and larger, assum- 
 ing the later phases an ogee or pear-like profile. 
 The corners of the plinth were cut off in many Roman- 
 esque bases; in the Gothic the plinth (i.e., each member 
 of a complex base) is almost always frankly an octagon 
 
 287
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 or semi-octagon in plan (Fig. 298) . In the later period 
 of the style it is often in two stages, constituting a 
 pedestal rather than a simple base. 
 
 Moldings. 
 
 The simple roll molding of the Romanesque styles is 
 replaced by increasingly complex profiles, in which pear- 
 shaped sections frequently alternate with deep hollows, 
 producing effective contrasts of multiplied narrow lines 
 of light and shadow. In the first two periods the pro- 
 
 Char 
 
 FIG. 299. FRENCH PIER-ARCH MOLDINGS OF THREE PERIODS. 
 
 files are sharp and vigorous, and in the pier-arches the 
 grouping of rounds and hollows conforms more or less 
 closely to the stepped profile of the arch-construction. 
 In the Florid Period the steppings of the arch-section 
 generally disappear in a generally splayed effect. The 
 profiles in this period are less vigorous than in the pre- 
 ceding, the hollows being broad and shallow, the convex 
 moldings smaller, and fine fillets are multiplied, giving 
 at times a thin and wiry appearance to the grouped pro- 
 files (Fig. 299). 
 
 Enriched moldings are more frequent in English than 
 in French work, though they occur in all the periods in 
 France (especially in late work), England, Germany 
 
 288
 
 FIG. 300. CORNICE-MOLDING, 
 NOTHE DAME, PARIS. 
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 and Spain. Convex moldings are rarely enriched, but 
 the hollows between them are adorned with leaves, 
 crockets, ball-flowers, and 
 in early English work with 
 pyramid-flowers or "dog- 
 tooth" ornaments. In place 
 of a cornice or corbel-table, 
 the wall (especially in 
 France) was often crowned 
 with a high, deep cavetto 
 filled with standing leaves (Fig. 300). In the Florid 
 Period, the French sometimes filled the broad hollows 
 between the finer members of a molding-group with ex- 
 quisitely carved naturalistic vines. This treatment oc- 
 curs in English examples (e.g. the portals of Southwell 
 Chapter House) in the Decorated Period. In the fol- 
 lowing (Perpendicular) Period in England the hollows 
 
 w r ere more often enriched with 
 widely spaced square rosettes. 
 In both France and Ger- 
 many moldings of different 
 profiles were made to cross and 
 intersect in work of the latest 
 phase of the Gothic, the intri- 
 cate cutting of their intersec- 
 tions giving occasion for that 
 display of technical cleverness 
 which characterizes that period. 
 Vaulting. 
 
 Gothic vaulting is based upon the principle of a 
 framework of ribs supporting the filings of masonry of 
 
 289 
 
 FIG. 301. CARVED VAULT 
 Boss: FRENCH.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 small stones. The rib framework is simple in the early- 
 work of all countries, the only ornament being the mold- 
 ings of the ribs and sometimes a carved keystone or boss 
 at their intersections (Figure 301). In France this 
 simplicity persists nearly to the end (Fig. 302). In 
 
 FIG. 302. VAULTING, APSIDAL CHAPEL, BEAUVAM. 
 
 England the ribs were multiplied by the addition of tier- 
 cerons (Figure 303) and of subordinate connecting ribs 
 or liernes, and combined into highly ornamental pat- 
 terns ("star" and "net" vaults), with carved bosses at 
 each intersection. This patterning developed finally 
 into "fan vaulting," in which the ribs were purely decora- 
 tive moldings cut in the stones of the inverted semi- 
 conoids of the vaulting (Figure 304, b; a sump- 
 tuously ornate form of stone ceiling, but without that 
 
 290
 
 EXETER CATHEDRAL 
 
 LINCOLN CATHEDRAL; half of Tower Vault
 
 L 
 
 FIG. 304A. INTERIOR, 
 
 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL: LIERNE VAULTING 
 
 FIG. 304B. FAN VAULT, HENRY VII's CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 clear expression of structure which marked the earlier 
 vaulting. 
 
 In Germany and Spain the vault-ribs were, as early 
 as the latter part of the Developed Period, built to fit 
 predetermined conventional patterns, in which the lines 
 were not always, as they always were in England, true 
 plane curves. The builders in these two countries de- 
 lighted in tours-de-force, displays of cleverness in creat- 
 ing and solving difficult problems of vault-rib construc- 
 tion; but the results are neither so rich nor so pleasing 
 as in England. 
 
 Window Tracery. 
 
 This was one of the most decorative and characteris- 
 tic features of Gothic architecture. Its development 
 may be followed from the Romanesque coupling of win- 
 dows under a discharging arch through successive stages 
 
 in which the separating 
 pier became a column or 
 a slender chamfered or 
 molded pier of cut stone, 
 while the spandrel above 
 was perforated with a cir- 
 cle; then treated like a 
 thick plate of stone with 
 decoratively cusped or 
 foiled openings cut 
 
 ETTOX 
 
 Fio. 305 a. 
 
 PLATE TRACERY, 
 CHVRCH. 
 
 through it (plate tracery 
 Fig. 305 a). Then the 
 window was further divided into three, four, or more 
 lights by slender molded or shafted mullions, and 
 
 293
 
 the space between their pointed-arched heads and the 
 main window-arch filled with circles or geometric pat- 
 terns of stone work, the interest of the design being now 
 transferred from the shapes of the openings to the shapes 
 of the stone work (bar tracery, Fig. 305 b). Towards 
 the end of the middle Period the circular arcs and circles 
 of this type of tracery (which was carried to the highest 
 perfection in the great East and West windows of Eng- 
 
 FIG. 305 6. BAR TRACERY, MEOPHAM CHURCH; c, PERPENDICULAR 
 TRACERY, NORTHFLEET. 
 
 land and the great wheel- windows of France) reverse 
 curves were introduced, giving a swaying movement to 
 the lines. In France this is continued through the next 
 period, giving it the name of Flamboyant from the 
 flame-like forms of the very intricate tracery patterns 
 used both in arched and circular windows. In England 
 on the contrary there supervened, from about 1375, a 
 rapid change, leading to the Perpendicular style of 
 tracery ; huge windows being filled with a very mechan- 
 ical, though structurally excellent, system of vertical 
 bars, sometimes crossed by transoms on small flattened 
 
 294,
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 arches (Fig. 305 c). In Germany there was less uni- 
 formity, but a general resemblance to the French flam- 
 boyant forms. These various developments are illus- 
 trated in Fig. 305 and Plate XXI. 
 
 Noticeable in all developed Gothic tracery is the intro- 
 duction of cusps, separating or enclosing foils, also the 
 branching of the moldings, so arranged that the main 
 mullions and circles have a section composed of the ag- 
 gregate of all the subordinate arch or mullion mold- 
 
 Fio. 306. VARIETIES OF CUSPS. 
 
 ings which came together in them. The several com- 
 ponent groups of moldings are called orders. Cusps 
 may consist of only the inmost molding widened into a 
 point, or of a molding or complete order branching off 
 so as to form a small triangular opening (Fig. 306). 
 Sometimes one of the outer moldings of the arch of a 
 door or window was pointed with cusps terminating in 
 small finials (Plate XVII, 2, shows this treatment ap- 
 plied to a flying buttress-arch in Germany) . 
 
 Wall and Gable Tracery. 
 
 During the course of the Developed Period the deco- 
 rative richness of the window-tracery led to the repeti- 
 tion of like forms on certain wall-surfaces, upon which 
 they formed ornamental panels framed in the lines of the 
 
 295
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 tracery in relief; a prac- 
 tice especially common in 
 English Perpendicular 
 and German Florid 
 Gothic work, but found 
 in all countries (see Plate 
 XVII). In France it 
 also became an increas- 
 ingly frequent practice to 
 erect over doorways and 
 windows false gables i.e. 
 gables having no roof behind them but employed as or- 
 naments filled with openwork tracery similar in char- 
 acter to that in the arched heads of the windows. Such 
 gables were especially elegant in design in the Flam- 
 boyant churches of France (Figure 359). 
 
 Balustrades. 
 
 These were at first composed of small columns carry- 
 ing round or pointed arches under the capstone or rail. 
 Later the geometric forms of open tracery were applied, 
 
 FIG. 307. RAYONNANT GOTHIC 
 BALUSTRADE. 
 
 FIG. 308. FLAMBOYANT FRENCH BALUSTRADE; CHATEAU OF JOSSELYN. 
 
 296
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 circles, triangles and quadrilaterals with closed or open 
 cusps predominating. Such balustrades are used at the 
 lower edges of roofs as well as for balconies, tower-para- 
 pets and (rarely) stairways (Fig. 307, Plate XVII, 
 14, 17) . They became as complex as other features in 
 the Florid Period (Fig. 308) especially in Germany, 
 where they often formed veritable geometric puzzles. 
 
 Pinnacles, Crockets and Finials. 
 
 These are as characteristic of the Gothic styles as is 
 the tracery. The buttresses both the clearstory wall- 
 buttresses and the outer buttresses external to the side- 
 aisles were commonly terminated by a tall slender 
 pyramid, square or octagonal in plan, rising from gab- 
 lets crowning two or four faces of the buttress-top, or 
 from minor pinnacles at the corners (Plate XVII, 1, 2, 
 5). These pinnacles were adorned along the hips or 
 edges with crockets (Plate XVII, 4) outward-curl- 
 ing leaf-like or flame-like protuberances richly carved; 
 and terminated in a finial, composed usually of a cen- 
 tral stem ending in a ball or bud and branching out be- 
 low this into four or more crockets, forming a remark- 
 ably effective terminal flower or ornament (Plate 
 XVII, 6, 11). 
 
 Crockets (Fig. 295) are also used to fret the salient 
 edges of the saddleback copings of gables; along the 
 hips of spires; as ornaments to the outer drip-moldings 
 of arches, especially in the Florid Period; and (rarely) 
 between the clustered shafts in doorways and triforiums. 
 Finials, of like character with those on pinnacles, are the 
 usual termination of the summits of gables, and of ogee- 
 
 297
 
 arches in late Gothic design (Plate XVIII, 5). In 
 early work the crockets, alike those of the finials and of 
 gable-edges or spire-angles, invariably curl outwards, 
 
 a b 
 
 Fio. 309. CROCKETS: a, EARLY FRENCH; 6, FLAMBOYANT. 
 
 like the curled-up volutes of fern in the Spring (Fig. 
 309 a). Later they took on more elaborate foliage- 
 forms with complex, wavy outlines, often in the last 
 period of the style losing all decision and character in 
 their mass and detail (Fig. 309 b) . 
 
 Crestings of 
 stone, of cast-lead, 
 of terra-cotta were 
 employed to deco- 
 rate the ridges of 
 most of the roofs, on 
 which the covering 
 
 Fio. 310. GOTHIC CRESTING. W3S Usually of lead, 
 
 copper or slate. They were customarily of rather sim- 
 ple design, ending against finials of metal of a more 
 elaborate sort (Fig. 310). 
 
 Tabernacles. 
 
 Not strictly structural in themselves, these were em- 
 
 298
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMENT: STRUCTURAL 
 
 bellishments of structural features or parts, chiefly of 
 buttresses and of the jambs of deep doorways. They 
 consist of a niche or recessed arch to hold a statue, a 
 corbel to support it, and a decorative gable or canopy 
 over it, the canopy often running up into an elaborate 
 spire. The decorative function of the whole was that 
 of breaking up the bare mass of a vertical strip or but- 
 tress, or of a wall, or of the doorway jambs with a 
 deep shadow and the brilliant lights of the statue, and 
 to emphasize the vertical movement of the lines of the 
 whole composition. The canopy was made increasingly 
 elaborate as the style progressed, and in late examples 
 was composed of a bewildering intricacy of minute 
 arches, pinnacles and traceries, the whole forming an 
 extraordinarily rich decoration ( Figure 311). 
 
 Corbels were of frequent occurrence in all the Gothic 
 styles, as supports for statues, for vaulting-ribs, for 
 vaulting-shafts and for columns ; they were not used, as 
 in Romanesque buildings, to support a cornice or corbel- 
 table. They were almost invariably carved with foliage, 
 after the general fashion of the capitals, though some- 
 times in England made very long vertically (e.g. Lich- 
 field Nave). Grotesque heads and human figures ap- 
 pear in the third period; they are rare in the two pre- 
 ceding. A late French corbel and crocket are shown in 
 Plate XVIII, 13, 14. 
 
 Gargoyles. 
 
 Gothic eaves-spouts and those also which projected 
 from the buttresses were invariably carved into the sem- 
 blance of long-necked, vomiting monsters, called gar- 
 
 301
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 goyles (Plate XVII, 1). Remarkable skill was dis- 
 played in the composition and anatomy of these gro- 
 tesque monsters. They are among the most striking 
 examples of the decorative-symbolic treatment of purely 
 utilitarian members (Figure 312) . 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 As before, BOND, DEHIO AND BEZOLD, HARTEL, VIOLLET- 
 LE-Duc. Also, G. L. ADAMS: Recueil de sculptures gothiques 
 (Paris, 1856). BAUDOT: La Sculpture francaise au 
 moyen-age et a la renaissance (Paris, 1884). ENLART: 
 Manuel d'archeologie francaise (Paris, 1902). A. L. FROTH- 
 INGHAM: A History of Architecture, vol. iii, iv (New York, 
 1915). L. GONSE: L'Art gothique (Paris, n. d.). HASAK: 
 Die romanische und die gotische Baukunst; Der Kirchen- 
 bau; Einzelheiten des Kirchenbaues (Stuttgart, 1903). A. 
 HAUSER: Stillehre der architektonischen Formen des Mit- 
 telalters (Vienna, 1899). K. A. HEIDELOFF'. Ornamentik 
 des Mittelalters (Nuremberg, 1838-55). T. G. JACKSON: 
 Gothic Architecture (London, 1915). KLINGENBEHG: Die 
 ornamentale Baukunst, etc. (Leipzig, n. d.). C. MARTIN: 
 L'Art gothique en France (Paris, 1915). C. MOORE: De- 
 velopment and Character of Gothic Architecture (New York, 
 1899). NESFIELD: Specimens of Mediaeval Architecture (Lon- 
 don, 1862). PARKER: Introduction to Gothic Architecture; 
 Glossary of Terms in Gothic Architecture; Companion to 
 Glossary (London, 1861-66). A. N. W. PTJGIN: Glossary of 
 Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume (London, 1868). M. 
 SCHMIDT: Meisterwerke der dekorativen Sculptur, XI XVI 
 Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1894-95. This is a German edition 
 of the work listed after Chapter XIV under the title Musee de 
 Sculpture Comparee du Trocadero). E. SCHMUZER: Gothische 
 Ornamente (Berlin, 1892). G. G. UNGEWITTER (tr. by Mon- 
 icke) : Gothic Model Book (London, 1862); Sammlung mit- 
 telalterlicher Ornamentik (Leipzig, 1866). 
 
 302
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 GOTHIC CARVING AND INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 Decorative Carving and Sculpture: Foliage. 
 
 The tradition of the classic acanthus and of its By- 
 zantine modifications, clearly evident in all Romanesque 
 carved foliage, gradually disappeared in Gothic art. In 
 the second half of the 12th century the French carvers 
 began to turn for inspiration and suggestion to the com- 
 mon vegetation about them, and developed an entirely 
 new category of foliage-forms. This change was due 
 to the formation of guilds of free or non-monastic ma- 
 sons and carvers who traveled from one site to another 
 to ply their art, untrammeled by the monastic traditions. 
 They were the counterpart in France of the maestri 
 comacini of Italy, and their appearance was synchro- 
 nous with the cathedral-building movement in France, 
 to which was chiefly due the impulse toward progress 
 and innovation which produced the Gothic style. As 
 Viollet-le-Duc has pointed out, 1 these artists first con- 
 ventionalized the simple forms of the earliest sprout- 
 ing Spring herbage, thick and crisp, suggestive of 
 the new life and energy of Nature. The crocket, de- 
 scended no doubt from the Corinthian corner-volute, 
 was carved like a thick flattened shoot bearing a globular 
 bunch of uncurling leaves (Fig. 309). Like the Cor- 
 
 i Article "Sculpture" in "Dictionnaire raisonn" (vol. viii). 
 
 303
 
 inthian volute, it was the dominant feature of capi- 
 tals, as in Fig. 313; see also Plate XVIII, 1, 2, 3. 
 The other leaves were massive and concave in modeling, 
 and all the foliage was made to grow out of the capital 
 
 Fio. 313. CAPITAL, ST. MARTI N-DES-CHAMPS, 
 PARIS. 
 
 or other member which bore it (Fig. 314). As the 
 carver's skill increased, the stiffness of the early conven- 
 tionalism disappeared, and a beautiful type of foliage 
 was evolved, still conventional and thoroughly archi- 
 tectural, but with grace and delicacy of detail, and varied 
 by a closer study of particular plant-types (Plate 
 XVIII, 1). This study led to an increasing natural- 
 ism, to a more and more realistic copying of more com- 
 
 304
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 plex and more mature leaf- 
 types from shrubs and trees, 
 and these were wreathed 
 about the architecture in- 
 stead of seeming to grow out 
 of it (Figs. 294 b and 315) . 
 By the end of the 14th cen- 
 tury this tendency was being 
 carried to extremes, though 
 with remarkable technical 
 beauty of execution, and 
 thereafter the design oscil- 
 lates between dry conven- 
 tionalism and excessively 
 minute realism (Figs. 294 c 
 and 316) . In England the 
 
 FIG. 314. CORKER LEAF FROM 
 NOTRE DAME, PARIS. 
 
 first stage of develop- 
 ment is hardly at all 
 represented. The 
 
 crocket from Wells 
 Cathedral (Fig. 317) 
 is an exception in its 
 resemblance to early 
 French models. The 
 early English capitals, 
 crockets and corbels of 
 the 13th century show 
 instead an extraordi- 
 narily beautiful han- 
 dling of minute curl- 
 
 Fro. 315. FREXCH RAYONNANT CAPITAL. 
 305
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 316. CAPITALS, CHAPTER HOUSE OF 
 SOUTHWELL CATHEDRAL. 
 
 ing trefoils, often highly intricate and of marvelous ex- 
 ecution (Fig. 318). The naturalistic stage is seen in 
 innumerable late thirteenth and early fourteenth cen- 
 tury churches, in which, as in France, the flowers and 
 foliage are applied to the architecture 
 in wreaths and hunches, as in the re- 
 markable doorways of Southwell 
 chapter-house (dr. 1294; Fig. 315). 
 Foliage is scanty in Perpendicular 
 work, and the mechanical form of the 
 Tudor rose (Fig. 319) is the most 
 characteristic floral adornment. In 
 Germany there is no systematic de- 
 velopment of foliage design, though 
 there is much very beautiful foliage; it is, however, in 
 great measure copied or imitated from French models. 
 
 306 
 
 Fio. 317. CROCKET, 
 WELLS CATHEDRAL.
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 Figure Sculpture. 
 
 Figure sculpture applied to the decoration of build- 
 ings had become almost a lost art during the Dark Ages, 
 
 FIG. 318. CAPITAL, SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. 
 
 and the monastic builders of the eleventh century and the 
 first half of the twelfth had only partially and sporadi- 
 cally renewed it. We have already seen, however, that 
 in occasional instances the French sculptors had dis- 
 played great skill in such works as the porches of St. 
 Trophime and St. Gilles at Aries 
 (Plate XIV), and the west portal 
 of Chartres (Figure 260), and the 
 widespread use of grotesques had 
 developed both technical and artis- 
 tic ability in the use of the chisel. 
 In the cathedral and church arch- 
 itecture of the Gothic period 1160 
 to 1500 and particularly during 
 
 307 
 
 FIG. 31!). TUDOU FI.OWEH.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the free develop- 
 ment of art which succeeded the monastic period brought 
 into being an entirely new phase of decorative figure- 
 sculpture. The French cathedrals were people's 
 churches quite as truly as bishops' churches, and their 
 builders made them into picture-Bibles in stone. The 
 portals were especially rich in plastic representations of 
 saints and angels, kings, prophets and martyrs, and the 
 
 figures were modeled with 
 fine regard for their archi- 
 tectural setting. The deep 
 jambs and the central door- 
 pier were adorned with 
 standing figures, often of 
 heroic size, sometimes of 
 great beauty. The great 
 tympana over the doorways 
 bore reliefs of Christ or the 
 Virgin enthroned amid 
 scenes of life of the Virgin, 
 of the Last Judgment or equally solemn subjects (Fig- 
 ure 321 ) . The cavernous arches were studded with con- 
 centric ranks of throned and adoring angels. An arcade 
 high up on the facade was filled with figures of crowned 
 kings of France or of Judea (Fig. 320) , while from tab- 
 ernacles on buttresses and rood-screens and transept- 
 fronts angels and saints looked down upon the throngs 
 below. The earlier sculpture is the most architectural 
 in character: as the thirteenth century advanced the 
 treatment was more realistic, with more of positive 
 beauty of pose and feature (Figure 322) reaching its 
 
 308 
 
 FIG. 320. PART OF "GALLERY OF 
 KINGS," AMIEXS CATHEDRAL.
 
 PIG. 321. TYM- 
 PANUM OF PORTE 
 
 E LA VlERGE, 
 
 NOTRE DAME 
 
 Fia. 321 
 
 FIG. 322. RELIEFS FROM PORTAL OF NOTRE DAME 
 FIG. 323. TOMB OF ABBOT STEPHEN OF AUBAGINE
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 culmination in the "Beau Dieu" and other superb fea- 
 tures of Reims (Plate XVIII, 10; Figure 323) though 
 the transept porches of Chartres are perhaps, taken all 
 together, the most magnificent examples in medieval art 
 of the perfect balance between architecture and sculp- 
 ture. The most notable Gothic sculptured portals in 
 France are those of Chartres, Reims and Amiens; out- 
 side of France, those of Strassburg, Freiburg and Bale. 
 The later sculptures were excessively pictorial, small in 
 scale and wonderful in their minute realism and delicate 
 detail, as in the choir-screens of Amiens and Chartres. 
 
 Outside of France figure sculpture was far less abun- 
 dant and less skilful: that of Lichfield and of Wells for 
 instance, though decoratively effective, has only inferior 
 merit as sculpture. The "Angel Choir" of Lincoln 
 (Figure 362) is charming from both points of view, but 
 is an exceptional work. It is in the porches and rood- 
 screens of the fourteenth century that the best English 
 figure-sculpture is found. The figure-sculpture of Ger- 
 many is hardly of importance, except at Strassburg and 
 Freiburg, and the marvelously minute and realistic fig- 
 ure-work of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, 
 especially in pulpits, screens and the like. That of Spain 
 and of the Low Countries is relatively unimportant. 
 
 Minor Architecture. 
 
 Choir screens, stalls and thrones, pulpits, tombs (Fig- 
 ure 323), shrines, altars and fonts were designed with 
 the fundamental features of monumental architecture, 
 but with greater richness and greater freedom and mi- 
 nuteness of detail (Plate XVIII, 16). As the tend- 
 
 311
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 ency toward minute ornamentation grew, through the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and as such minute 
 decoration was better adapted for works of less monu- 
 mental scale than for the churches themselves, these 
 minor works became more and more the characteristic 
 masterpieces of the stone-carver's art. The intricacy of 
 the canopy-work with its bewildering network of arches, 
 cusps and pinnacles is only equaled by the perfection and 
 delicacy of the execution. Verbal descriptions can give 
 little idea of the marvelous detail of some of these works, 
 and even the illustrations fail to convey a complete im- 
 pression to which the works themselves give rise. The 
 most beautiful of these works are generally the French, 
 though the Germans at times press them closely (see 
 Figure 339), and some even of the French works, as 
 the rood-screens at Bourg-en-Bresse and Alby, are at- 
 tributed to German artists (Figure 325). 
 
 Wood-Carving. 
 
 Choir-stalls offered a specially rich field for the wood- 
 carver's chisel. Each seat was provided with a high 
 back usually terminating in a projecting canopy, which 
 
 in turn was finished 
 with gablets, pin- 
 nacles and a high and 
 complex spire. The 
 arms separating the 
 seats were richly 
 carved, and the 
 
 MIIEBE.E, BEVEHLEY hinged Seat, when 
 
 CATHEDRAL. folded back, dis- 
 
 312
 
 FIG. 324. TYMPANUM, CENTRAL DOORS OF NOTRE DAME, PARIS: 
 THE LAST JUDGMENT 
 
 FIG. 825. ROOD SCREEN, ALBY CATHEDRAL
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 closed a grotesque cor- 
 bel, called the "mise- 
 rere" (Fig. 326). In 
 the later Gothic the 
 choir stalls were extra- 
 ordinarily elaborate. 
 Other specimens of 
 wood carving are found 
 in the pew-ends of Eng- 
 lish churches, with 
 elaborate finials (Fig. 
 327) ; in the bosses and 
 hammer beams of Eng- 
 lish wooden ceilings 
 (see Fig. 374) ; in 
 chests and furniture for 
 the sacristy, and in the 
 details of half-timbered 
 houses in England, 
 France and Germany; 
 as well as in domestic 
 furniture (chests, ta- 
 bles and chairs), espe- 
 cially of the 15th and 
 16th centuries. The 
 details are all derived 
 from the contemporary 
 stone architecture and 
 carving, though modi- 
 fied to suit the material. 
 
 FIG. 327. 
 
 PEW EXD, WlNTHOBPE 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 315
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Metal Work. 
 
 Iron was costly in the Middle Ages, and, except for 
 clamps and drainages, and in Italy for tie-rods in the 
 
 vaulting, was rarely 
 used for primary 
 construction. Its 
 chief uses were for 
 nails and bolts, for 
 hinges and door-fit- 
 tings, for gates and 
 grilles, and for locks, 
 latches, keys, armor 
 and arms. Cast-iron 
 was rarely employed, 
 although a late 
 Gothic example is 
 shown in Plate 
 XVIII, 17. The 
 medieval wrought 
 iron, especially of 
 France, Italy, Ger- 
 many and Flanders, shows marvelous skill in forging, 
 decorative effects being produced by splitting, twisting, 
 welding and riveting the bars by scroll-work, rosettes, 
 and repousse or hammered work in sheet metal (Fig. 
 328; Figures 329, 330). 
 
 Lead was used for crestings and for covering spires 
 and dormers. Bronze, brass, copper and silver were 
 handled with skill in the movable furnishings of the 
 church, candelabra, pyxes, monstrances, chalices, cro- 
 ziers, pastoral staves and the like. Enamel and jewels 
 
 316 
 
 Fio. 328. CRESTING OF IRON GRILLE, ST. 
 SEBXIN, TOULOUSE.
 
 FIG. 329. IRON SCREEN, BOUHGES CATHEDRAL 
 
 'Fio. 330. IRON FALSE HINGE (Penture); NOTRE DAME, PARIS
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 were employed to heighten the richness of these objects. 
 The goldsmith's and silversmith's art derived most of its 
 origins from Byzantine art, but departed rapidly from 
 it and developed a style wholly Western and Gothic. 
 
 Textile Ornament. 
 
 The remains of medieval embroideries, laces and tap- 
 estries are not abundant. There was little richness of 
 dress or textile furnishings except in ecclesiastical dress 
 and among the few who were rich and powerful in 
 Church and State, and to a remarkable extent the ec- 
 clesiastical robes and embroideries have disappeared, 
 though they were undoubtedly often of great beauty 
 and even magnificence. Those preserved to this day 
 are mostly of the fifteenth century, except a respectable 
 number of Spanish and Sicilian embroideries and silk 
 damasks of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries which 
 show a strongly Oriental inspiration. 
 
 Tiles. 
 
 Fine pottery was an almost unknown art in western 
 Europe in the Middle Ages except among the Moham- 
 medans of Spain and Sicily. Ceramic tiles were, how- 
 ever, used in floors, especially about the altar in France, 
 
 FIG. 331. 
 
 FRENCH TILE PATTERNS. 
 319
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 and examples of their simple but effective patterning are 
 seen in Fig. 331. 
 
 Manuscript Decoration. 
 
 This art, derived originally from Byzantine, elabo- 
 rated in Ireland, England and France in the Roman- 
 
 Fio. 332. LATE GOTHIC MANUSCRIPT ORNAMENTS. 
 
 esque period, reached a very high state of perfection in 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, developing into 
 different schools of design in France, Flanders, Eng- 
 land, Germany, Spain and Italy. Three different 
 classes of design are to be distinguished : pictorial deco- 
 ration (the so-called miniatures), initials, and borders. 
 The first belongs to the art of painting, though it al- 
 ways displayed a highly decorative character; the other 
 two belong to the domain of pure ornament. They 
 drew largely upon the contemporary art of stained glass, 
 
 320
 
 a 
 
 FIG. 334. a. JESSE WINDOW, CHARTRES 
 FIG. 335. b. UPPER PART OF A CANOPY AViNDOw, COLOGNE 
 c. CANOPY WINDOW, YORK
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 both for the color scheme and the details, but with much 
 freer handling and frequent use of foliage and of free 
 abstract design in flourishes, scrolls and interlaces. 
 Gold was used with fine effect though sparingly. The 
 name of Jean Fouquet stands conspicuous in the bril- 
 liant French school of the late fifteenth century. The 
 most notable production of the Flemish school was the 
 Grimani Breviary, now in Venice; but every consid- 
 erable collection of manuscripts possesses beautiful ex- 
 amples of the various schools in breviaries, books of 
 hours, psalm-books, chant-books and secular works- 
 chronicles, histories and editions of the classics. Fig. 
 
 FIG. 333. A FRENCH MEDALLION WINDOW. 
 32$
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 332 illustrates a few details of this brilliant and fascinat- 
 ing phase of medieval design ; other examples are shown 
 in Plate XX. 
 
 Stained Glass. 
 
 Of all the arts allied to Gothic architecture, that of 
 
 the stained glass win- 
 dows is the most char- 
 acteristic as a special 
 product of the style. 
 From timid begin- 
 nings in the Roman- 
 esque buildings l it de- 
 veloped rapidly as the 
 size and splendor of 
 the traceried windows 
 increased. The depth 
 and brilliancy of color 
 attained by the glass- 
 makers of the thir- 
 teenth century pro- 
 vided a new decorative 
 resource for the 
 church-builders and 
 window-designers ; a 
 richness and intensity 
 of blues, reds, yellows 
 and greens rivaling 
 the splendor of mo- 
 saic. The mechani- 
 
 Fio. 336. GERMAN GRISAILLE. ABOVE, 
 
 FROM COLOGNE; BELOW, FROM 
 
 ALTEXBURO. 
 
 1 The Germans claim an active production of mosaic glass as early as 
 1000 A.D. at Tegernsee (Meyer, "Ornamentale Formenlehre"). 
 
 324
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 cal imperfections of the early glass made it only the 
 more sparkling, while the heavy leading employed 
 gave a suitable foil to the glowing colors by its black 
 lines which tended to harmonize as well as separate oth- 
 erwise crude juxtapositions of color. 
 
 The early windows were arranged in medallions, each 
 containing a picture in mosaic, as it were, made up of 
 small units of color 
 separated by the 
 lines of the leading 
 (Fig. 337). The 
 spandrels between 
 the medallions were 
 filled with quarry- 
 work or foliage in 
 grisaille (lines of a 
 semi-opaque brown 
 pigment fused onto 
 the glass at a com- 
 paratively low tem- 
 perature). A border of leaves or other conventional 
 units framed the whole. A few such windows have 
 come down from the 12th century (the earliest stained 
 glass extant is at St. Denis, said to be of 1108) , and they 
 continued to be used through the greater part of the thir- 
 teenth century. "Jesse-tree" windows and medallion 
 windows entirety composed of foliage, conventional or- 
 nament and grisaille were also common through this 
 century (Fig. 335). The invention of the yellow stain 
 (stannic oxide) led then to the making of "canopy" win- 
 dows, with large figures standing under elaborate trac- 
 
 325 
 
 Fio. 337. LEADING OF AX EARLY FRENCH 
 WINDOW: THE MARRIAGE AT CANA.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 cried canopies of yellow glass (Figures 335, from York 
 Cathedral). Ribbons with inscriptions were increas- 
 ingly used, the coloring was less pure and intense, the 
 composition more involved, with much painted detail. 
 With the 15th century there was a further decline in rich- 
 ness of color; much white or nearly transparent glass 
 
 is used, and the treat- 
 ment is more pictorial 
 and less decorative. 
 With the advent of the 
 Renaissance the art in 
 western Europe passed 
 into eclipse, except for 
 occasional artists in 
 France, in Flanders and 
 in Germany. In Italy, 
 where windows had us- 
 ually been of moderate 
 size in medieval times, 
 the art of decorative 
 stained glass had not 
 flourished; but with the Renaissance it received a sud- 
 den impulse, and some beautiful works were produced, 
 by Ghiberti among the first. The most splendid me- 
 dieval glass is to be found in France, Chartres Ca- 
 thedral and the Sainte Chapelle being especially rich; 
 the transepts of Notre Dame, Paris, and the clearstory 
 of Tours Cathedral also supplying notable examples. 
 Unhappily, the superb glass which was once the glory 
 of Reims Cathedral has been completely destroyed by 
 the German bombardment. In England the icono- 
 
 326 
 
 FIG. 338. EARLY FRENCH FIGURE 
 WINDOW: CHAHTRES.
 
 INDUSTRIAL AND ACCESSORY ARTS 
 
 clasm of the Puritans and the havoc of Wyatt in the 
 early nineteenth century have left but scanty remains 
 of the old glass. Canterbury and York possess fine 
 glass and there are a few good pieces still left in Salis- 
 bury Cathedral. Very late examples are to be seen in 
 King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and in St. Jacques 
 at Liege. The best German glass is in the Cathedrals 
 of Cologne, Altenburg and Strassburg (Fig. 336). 
 Figs. 337 and 338 illustrate the leading of the early 
 glass, a most important element in the decorative effect 
 of the window. 
 
 With the later years of the fifteenth century the 
 Gothic style approached its extinction by the rapidly- 
 spreading art of the Renaissance. But while it had 
 reached the final limit of structural development, and 
 architecture was sensibly declining, the arts of ornament 
 were still at the highest point of richness and of technical 
 perfection (Figures 339, 340) . This splendor of minute 
 decoration, of complex tracery, realistic pictorial sculp- 
 ture, sumptuous embroidery and showy furniture was, 
 however, the final coruscation of an expiring flame. 
 The decorative details of the style long resisted the in- 
 vasion of the Renaissance style from Italy, in France, 
 England, Germany and Spain. But the new style was 
 more than a fashion ; it was but one symptom of a funda- 
 mental change of spirit of the artistic point of view, of 
 civilization and ideals, and by the middle of the six- 
 teenth century Gothic art had passed away. 
 
 329
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 As before, DEHIO AND BEZOLD, ENLAET, GONSE, HASAK, 
 MARTIN. Also, H. ADAMS: Mont St. Michel and Chartres 
 (N. Y. and Boston, 1913). DECLOUX AND DOURY: La Sainte 
 Chapel du palais (Paris, 1865). F. H. EGGERT: Sammlung 
 gothischer Verzierungen (Munich, 1865). E. HERDTL: 
 Flachenverzierungen des Mittelalters und der Renaissance 
 (Hannover, 1875). A RACINET: L'Ornement polychrome 
 (Paris, 1869-87). J. ROSENTHAL: UArt du Hire au Mot/en- 
 age et dans les temps modernes (Munich, 1901). H. SHAW: 
 Alphabets, Numerals and Devices of the Middle Ages (London, 
 1845). V. TEIRICH: Eingelegte M armor-Ornamente des Mit- 
 telalters und der Renaissance (Vienna, 1875). VIOLLET-LE- 
 Duc: Articles "Peinture" and "Vitrail" in the Dictionnaire 
 raisonne, etc., previously cited (Paris, 1868). J. B. WARING: 
 Examples of Weaving and Embroidery (London, 1880). 
 
 330
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 PARTICULAR SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC OENAMENT 
 
 I. FRENCH AND ENGLISH 
 
 In the general discussion of Gothic ornament in the 
 last two chapters, while the chief attention was given to 
 the developments in France, many references were made 
 to the diverging practice of the English, German and 
 Spanish schools. This chapter and the following will 
 be devoted to a more detailed treatment of the several 
 national styles or sub-styles of Gothic decorative art. 
 
 French Gothic Ornament. 
 
 The Gothic style in France may be considered as 
 lasting from the beginning of Notre Dame at Paris in 
 1163, to the accession of Francis I in 1515. It is cus- 
 tomary to divide this period into three divisions or 
 periods, the Early French, from 1163 to 1250 or there- 
 about; the Rayonnant, 1250 to 1375, and the Flam- 
 boyant, 1375 to 1515. These are somewhat arbitrary 
 divisions, as the progress from one stage and phase of 
 development to another, whether in window-tracey, carv- 
 ing or stained glass, was continuous and gradual. 
 Through all this development French Gothic ornament 
 was marked by certain characteristics which distinguish 
 it from the English and other national styles. 
 
 331
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Carving. 
 
 The carving of foliage underwent a progressive devel- 
 opment which has already been described (pp. 303-306) , 
 
 FIG. 341. CAHVED BAKD, FRONT OF SENS CATHEDRAL. 
 
 from the simple and strongly conventional early type 
 (Fig. 341) , to the highly naturalistic and detailed foliage 
 of the Rayonnant period, and 
 thence through the decline of the 
 Flamboyant. But in all these 
 stages it was marked by a vigor of 
 design, a crispness of execution, 
 and a strongly architectural char- 
 acter hardly equaled elsewhere. 
 
 Capitals were tall and bell- 
 shaped at first, with high square or 
 octagonal abaci (Figs. 297, 313, 
 342; Plate XVIII, 1, 2, 3) ; later 
 the foliage, which in the earlier 
 stages of the style seemed to grow 
 out of the shaft and was strongly 
 
 332 
 
 Fio. 342. CAPITAL FROM 
 SAINTE CHAPELLE.
 
 r r^::,jjr'tvy;\'v 
 
 4Mfe^Sfe 
 
 :N<=I^ 
 
 - : ;** 
 r& 
 
 :^<
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 conventional, was 
 made more naturalis- 
 tic and applied to or 
 wreathed around the 
 bell in less organic 
 fashion, as in the 
 splendid caps of the 
 nave-piers of the Ca- 
 thedral of Reims 
 (Plate XVIII, 7) . In the Flamboyant period capitals 
 are often dispensed with altogether between the piers 
 and pier-arches. 
 
 Moldings. 
 
 Until that period foliage was occasionally employed 
 in the hollows of moldings, especially in cornices formed 
 by rows of standing leaves or crockets occupying the 
 
 Fio. 343. DETAIL FROM CORNICE, NOTRE 
 DAME, PARIS. 
 
 FIG. 344. CORNICE MOLDING, FROM NOHREY. 
 
 high hollow or cavetto between convex moldings above 
 and below (Figs. 343-346). In the series shown in 
 
 335
 
 these figures we may trace the progress of the treatment 
 from conventional through naturalistic carving to the 
 weaker conventionalism of the later Gothic. In the 
 Flamboyant period elaborate vines were carved in highly 
 
 FIG. 345. OAK LEAF MOLDING, SAINTE CHAPELLE, PARIS. 
 
 naturalistic fashion in the hollow moldings, as in the ex- 
 ample from the porch of Troyes Cathedral in Plate 
 XVIII, 15. A more conventional rendering of foliage 
 is seen in the example from St. Urbain at Troyes in the 
 
 Fia. 346. LATE GOTHIC MOLDING, CHOIR ENCLOSURE, NOTRE DAME, PARIS. 
 
 same Plate, No. 18. Foliage was throughout all these 
 periods employed with admirable effect in crockets, 
 
 336
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 finials, vaulting-bosses and the 
 like (Fig. 347). Surface- 
 carving is seldom employed. 
 The rinceau survives in early 
 work in occasional pilaster-like 
 vertical bands and horizontal 
 lintels (Fig. 348), but passes 
 out of use very early in the 
 thirteenth century. 
 
 Figure Sculpture. 
 
 FIG. 348. CARVED VERTICAL RINCEATT, 
 NOTRE DAME, PARIS. 
 
 337 
 
 FIG. 347. Boss FROM VAULT 
 OF SAINTTE CHAPELLE. 
 
 The free figure- 
 sculpture of the great 
 portals of cathedrals 
 has already been al- 
 luded to (page 307). 
 The throned angels in 
 the portal arches, the 
 standing figures of 
 apostles, martyrs and 
 saints in the deep 
 jambs (Figure 352), 
 the reliefs on the pedes- 
 tal courses of the jambs 
 (Fig. 349) constitute 
 a combination of 
 deeply significant and 
 artistically appropri- 
 ate sculpture never 
 elsewhere equaled, be- 
 fore or since (see
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 ante, page 308 and Figure 323; also Figs. 320, 349). 
 Grotesques often mingle effectively with carved 
 foliage, as in Figure 350 from Chartres Cathedral. 
 Very striking and nobly decorative also are the 
 colossal angels standing in the pinnacled tabernacles 
 
 surmounting the but- 
 tresses of Reims Cathe- 
 dral. 
 
 The culmination of 
 minute realism, alike in 
 statues and reliefs, 
 came in the fifteenth 
 and early sixteenth 
 centuries, in choir-en- 
 closures like those in 
 Amiens Cathedral 
 
 (Figure 351) and 
 
 FIG. 349. RELIEFS FROM BASE OF Chartres, and in choir- 
 POBTAL, NOTRE DAME. screens and tombs, as 
 
 in the famous examples in the Brou church at Bourg- 
 en-Bresse. In no other country did figure-sculpture 
 play so important a part in the decorative system. 
 Equally appropriate and decorative with these archi- 
 tectural sculptures was the minor decorative figure- 
 work in wood and ivory, as evidenced, for example, in 
 the beautiful ivory triptych from the Municipal Library 
 of Amiens, of which Figure 353 illustrates the central 
 panel. 
 
 Tracery. 
 
 In the Early French period the tracery was at first 
 
 338
 
 FIG. 352. Two FIGURES FROM FIG. 353. IVORY TRIPTYCH, IN AMIENS LIBRARY 
 
 PORTAL, AMIENS CATHEDRAL FRENCH, X\"TH CENTURY
 
 ' 35 *' HALF OF WEST ROSE, CHARTRES. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 extremely simple. The Cathedral of Chartres shows the 
 
 finest examples of plate tracery in its western rose 
 
 window (Fig. 354) and the tops of the clearstory win- 
 
 dows of the nave. In the windows of St. Denis, Notre 
 
 Dame at Paris, Reims 
 
 and the nave of 
 
 Amiens we have the 
 
 simpler types of bar- 
 
 tracery (1225-1240; 
 
 Fig. 355). In the 
 
 Sainte Chapelle at 
 
 Paris the choir Of 
 
 Amiens and the external chapels of Notre Dame at 
 Paris, bar-tracery takes on a greater geometrical 
 elaboration; very possibly under the influence of Eng- 
 lish examples (see page 360) ; and throughout the 
 
 Rayonnant period, both in the 
 splendid rose windows of the 
 transepts, as in those of Notre 
 Dame and of Reims (Plate 
 XVIII, 9), and in the side win- 
 dows, especially of the clear- 
 stories, there is a great variety of 
 rich geometrical patterning. 
 While the English during the 
 thirteenth and early fourteenth 
 centuries unquestionably sur- 
 passed the French in the rich- 
 ness and variety of their bar- 
 tracery, the French rose win- 
 dows of the same period are un- 
 
 341 
 
 355. EARLY 
 REIMS CATHEDRAL.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 equaled elsewhere in their kind ; and it is they that give 
 the name Rayonnant (= radiating) to the period, on 
 account of their radiating or wheel-like design. The 
 illustration in Plate XVIII, 12, from the fine model of 
 a portion of the church of St. Urbain, Troyes (about 
 1260), in the Trocadero Museum, Paris, shows the more 
 slender and open type of the French geometric bar- 
 tracery of the thirteenth century which developed out 
 of the simpler early types. 
 
 Cusping is an important element in these designs 
 (Plate XVII, 10, 15; Plate XVIII, 5, 9, 12), both the 
 closed and the open cusp being employed. An unusual 
 treatment is the cusped fringe on the intrados of the 
 outer arch in the portals of Amiens (about 1280) . 
 
 As the style developed, tracery-design became more 
 and more important as mere ornament, in openwork 
 gables and tracery cut in relief on solid walls as a mere 
 surface decoration. Plate XVII, 10, shows a detail 
 from the transept of the Cathedral of Meaux; ib. 15, a 
 detail from the south transept of Notre Dame, Paris, 
 showing a bit of the great rose window and the wall- 
 tracery on the spandrel. Balustrades, which in the 
 first period were hardly more than rows of colonnettes 
 or narrow arches supporting a rail (Plate XVII, 14, 
 17), were in the two following periods composed of 
 openwork tracery of great beauty (see ante, Figs. 307, 
 308). 
 
 Flamboyant Tracery. 
 
 By the middle of the fourteenth century the increas- 
 ing taste for minute and fanciful decorative detail began 
 
 342
 
 pq 
 
 *w /
 
 to affect the design of window-tracery, by the substitu- 
 tion of flowing and waving lines for the simpler geo- 
 metric combinations of circles, pointed arches and cusps 
 which had hitherto satisfied all requirements for over a 
 century. The "ogee" arch was substituted for the arch 
 formed by simple circular arcs, and the flame-like forms 
 which result from dividing a circle through the center 
 by a wave-line, became almost the dominant motive in 
 the tracery-design. The resulting style of design, 
 though less logical structurally than the earlier geo- 
 metric types of tracery, was more flexible and capable 
 of a greater variety of combinations. It dominated the 
 entire architecture of France from 1375 to 1515, and 
 covered the exteriors of churches with an extraordinary 
 wealth of traceries, both of openwork and of blind or 
 wall-tracery (Figures 340, 356, 357; Figs. 358, 359). 
 It was especially effective in the rose windows, as in 
 the front of St. Ouen, Rouen, the fronts of Rouen 
 Cathedral, the Sainte Chapelle, Paris, Tours, Amiens, 
 and Reims Cathedrals, and the transepts of Beauvais. 
 In several cases these Flamboyant roses were inserted 
 in earlier f^ades (Amiens, Sainte Chapelle). The 
 front of Rouen Cathedral, long unfinished, but com- 
 pleted within recent years, is the most elaborate and 
 splendid example of this Flamboyant design; next to 
 it stands the exquisite little church of St. Maclou at 
 Rouen; while the north spire of Chartres Cathedral, 
 and the charming little church at Louviers (Figure 359) , 
 are others among many examples of the marvelous rich- 
 ness and delicacy of which the style was capable. 
 
 The origin of this change in tracery design is gen- 
 
 345
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 erally now ascribed to English influence. A considerable 
 part of northern France was in English hands in the four- 
 teenth century, and (as will be later shown) the English 
 had before the middle of that century developed their 
 "flowing" or "curvilinear" tracery. While they soon ex- 
 changed this for the more rigid "Perpendicular" tracery, 
 the French developed the suggestion of the wavy line to 
 its utmost possible results of decorative splendor. 
 
 Stained Glass. 
 
 The development of the art of stained glass was so 
 closely associated with the progress of Gothic architec- 
 ture that Fergusson, in his "History of Architecture," 
 claims it as the one exclusively distinguishing feature of 
 the Gothic style, which might properly be called "the 
 stained glass style." The Romanesque churches, with 
 their thick walls and small windows, offered little scope 
 or suggestion for pictured windows. The Gothic style, 
 with its concentrated supports and gradual reduction of 
 wall areas, developed a progressive increase in the size 
 and loftiness of its windows, and this progress stimu- 
 lated the art of pictured and decorative glass by giving 
 it greater opportunities. Indeed, the larger the win- 
 dow, the more necessary became colored glass to reduce 
 the excessive glare; while the more splendid the glass 
 and the deeper and richer its tone, the greater was the 
 tendency to enlarge the windows. The structural 
 progress of the French Gothic style was thus closely 
 associated with the progress of window decoration by 
 colored glass. While the French led in this, as in so 
 many other branches of decorative art, and while more 
 
 846
 
 FIG. 358. RAYONNANT TRACERY, CARVED, ON A CHURCH DOOR 
 
 FIG. 59. FLAMBOYANT TBACERY, CHURCH OF ST. PIERUE, LOUVIEBS
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 fine glass has survived in France than in any other 
 country (see ante, page 326), there was at the same 
 time less fundamental difference in style between the 
 French and other national schools than one might per- 
 haps expect. Figure design, in all three periods, was 
 more nearly universal than either in England or Ger- 
 many, and the colors were generally at least in the 
 first period deeper and richer. In purely decorative 
 effect it may be doubted whether any later glass ever 
 equaled the three lancet windows and the western rose 
 of Chartres Cathedral, the earliest of these dating from 
 the end of the 12th century. 1 It is to be noted that 
 in the borders and decorative details of the early Gothic 
 windows Romanesque forms are persistent, as also in 
 the illumination of manuscripts. See Figs. 334, 337, 
 338 ; Figure 335 ; and Plate XIX. 
 
 Painted Decoration. 
 
 As in the Romanesque period, it is probable that wall- 
 painting in France was confined to the chapels and to 
 a few important spaces in the general design. Possibly 
 all the capitals and chief moldings may also have been 
 picked out with bright color in the hollows and gilding 
 on the projecting fillets. We know that most of the 
 figure-sculpture was painted, and vestiges of the original 
 color decoration can still be detected in some cases. The ' 
 vault-fillings were in many cases not painted, their care- 
 ful jointing showing that they were not meant to be 
 plastered. There were, however, exceptions to this rule, 
 
 i See the admirable account of these windows in Henry Adams' "Mont 
 St. Michel and Chartres," published for the American Institute of Archi- 
 tects, Boston, 1913. 
 
 349
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 and it is likely that not a few were painted blue with 
 gilt stars. From vestiges of the original painting dis- 
 covered in the Sainte Chapelle at Paris a complete in- 
 terior decoration in color was carried out in that chapel 
 about 1860. The result is gorgeous, but the opaque 
 colors of the brilliantly painted walls suffer under the 
 glare of transmitted color through the windows, and this 
 
 FIG. 360. EARLY ENGLISH CARVING, a, FROM CHURCH AT STONE, KENT; 
 b, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL; c, ELY CATHEDRAL. 
 
 probably explains why interior coloration was not more 
 general after the 12th century. The essays in color- 
 decoration by Viollet-le-Duc in the chapels of Notre 
 Dame are far less brilliant, but also less interesting. 
 
 In conclusion, it should be noted that the French 
 handling of decorative detail of all kinds was in general 
 more logical, more strictly architectural, than in other 
 countries, with the possible exception of England. Ele- 
 gance and propriety of design are combined in an 
 eminent degree in nearly all French Gothic ornament. 
 
 350
 
 FIG. 361. EARLY ENGLISH CAPITALS, FROM CASTS IN METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 '//jskX'W'J.BjAN -'///^-^-' Jj 
 
 FIG. 362. DETAIL OF ANGEL CHOIR, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL
 
 FIG. 363. DECORATED 
 
 CAPITAL: BEVERLEY 
 
 CATHEDRAL. 
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 English Gothic Ornament. 
 
 The English work of the first two periods, as com- 
 pared with the French, shows a general predominance 
 of decorative over structural f ^\ 
 
 conceptions, but without sacri- 
 fice of structural propriety. It 
 displays less of severe logic, but 
 often more of charm ; less vigor, 
 but often greater delicacy and 
 richness. English cathedral in- 
 teriors, while far less lofty and 
 majestic than the French, are 
 generally more ornate, richer in the play of light and 
 shade, often more beautiful. All the details are on a 
 
 smaller scale, and re- 
 markable effects are 
 produced by mul- 
 tiplied repetition. 
 The moldings are 
 finer and more num- 
 erous, the shaft-clus- 
 terings more com- 
 plex, the carved orna- 
 ment more varied 
 and abundant (Plate 
 XX, 1-; Figures 
 362,363,364). On 
 the other hand, the 
 exteriors were far 
 less ornate than the 
 
 FIG. 364. a, FINIAL, WELLS CHAPTER ti v j.u n 
 
 HOUSE. 6, CROCKET, BEVEHLEY. -French; the ngUTe- 
 
 353
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 365. ENGLISH MOLDING ENRICH- 
 MENTS. 
 
 sculpture was great- 
 ly inferior, both in 
 amount and quality. 
 
 Carving. 
 
 Its variety is 
 equaled by its rich- 
 ness, in the first two 
 periods, cir, 1200- 
 1375. The foliage 
 was at first of min- 
 ute trilobes, perhaps 
 of the herba sacra 
 or water-arum, with 
 globular leaflets 
 
 beautifully curled 
 and deeply under- 
 cut in dense clusters 
 in capitals, corbels, 
 crockets, hollow 
 
 Fro. 366. SPANDREL, CHURCH AT STONE, KENT. 
 354
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 moldings and spandrels, the leaves growing, as it were, 
 out of the shafts or moldings (Fig. 360; Figure 361). 
 Later the foliage became highly naturalistic, wreathed 
 
 FIG. 367. ABOVE, THIFOHIUM, WESTMINSTER ABBEY; BELOW, DETAIL OF 
 DIAPERING OF MAIN ARCADE. 
 
 in bunches about the capitals (Fig. 363; also ante Fig. 
 316), or forming vines in the arch-moldings of door- 
 ways, as in that of the chapter-house of Southwell or 
 those of Lichfield Cathedral. The oak and maple oc- 
 cur most frequently (Fig. 364 a) ; later sea-weed and 
 
 355
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 other intricate forms 
 appear (Fig. 364 b) ; 
 and finally there ap- 
 pears a mingling of 
 highly conventional 
 forms with naturalistic 
 vines and flowers. 
 The hollows of mold- 
 ings are studded with 
 leaves, dogtooth orna- 
 ments and ball-flowers, 
 or filled with running 
 vines (Fig. 365), un- 
 til about 1350, after 
 which molding-enrich- 
 ments became more 
 rare. Surface carving 
 in panels and on arch- 
 spandrels is much more 
 frequent than in 
 France (Fig. 366). Diaper patterns occur on flat 
 surfaces, especially spandrels of arcades, as in the nave 
 of Westminster Abbey (Fig. 367). 
 
 English figure-sculpture is decidedly inferior to the 
 French ; there is nothing like the stupendous porches of 
 the French cathedrals with their wealth of statues and 
 reliefs. The west front of Wells Cathedral is the only 
 example of an English west front adorned profusely 
 with sculpture, and but little remains of the original 
 figures there. Some of the late porches, however, 
 erected in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, are 
 
 356 
 
 FIG. 368. PART OF WOODEN SCREEN, 
 MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL.
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 FIG. 368 A. "CURVILINEAR" PANELS IN WOOD. 
 
 richly adorned with figures in niches, as at Exeter and 
 Canterbury. Very rich in fig- 
 ure-sculpture were also some 
 of the great loth-century 
 reredoses of English cathed- 
 rals, as those of Winchester, 
 St. Saviour's at Southwark 
 (cathedral), and some others. 
 Mention has already been 
 made in Chapter XVI I of the 
 "Angel Choir" of Lincoln, il- 
 lustrated as to its sculptured 
 triforium-spandrels in Fig- 
 ure 362. 
 
 Woodwork of all sorts the 
 English excelled in, especially 
 in the 14th and 15th centuries. 
 
 357 
 
 Fio. 369. "POPPY HEAD."
 
 Fio. 370. PLATE TRACERY, LIL- 
 
 LINGTON, NOHTHAXTS. 
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 The wooden choir-screens, 
 choir-stalls, pew-ends, font- 
 covers and the like, were 
 often of great beauty (see 
 ante, Fig. 327), with elabo- 
 rate surface-tracery, can- 
 opy-work, and carved gro- 
 tesques. Very character- 
 istic are the "poppy-head" 
 finials to the pew-ends. 
 Fig. 368 illustrates part of a carved wooden screen, of 
 which there are many in English parish churches; Fig. 
 368A, 14th-century surface-paneling in wood; Fig. 
 369 a poppy-head finial. But the greatest glory in the 
 later woodworkers was the oaken ceilings of halls and 
 churches; these will be discussed later. 
 
 Moldings were generally richer, more minute and 
 more varied than the French, 
 more subtile in profile, and 
 more often enriched, as al- 
 ready explained Fig. 365). 
 The English composed their 
 groups of Gothic moldings 
 so as to produce successions 
 of deep undercut hollows 
 contrasting with boldly pro- 
 jecting roll-moldings or bow- 
 tels. There was continuous 
 increase in richness and com- 
 plexity until 1350, after 
 which there is observable a 
 
 358 
 
 Fio. 371. EAST WINDOW, 
 RAUNDS, NOBTHANTS.
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 falling-off in vigor and effectiveness: the hollows are 
 flatter and broader, the rolls and bowtels less vigorous 
 in their contrast with the hollows. The bowtel a roll- 
 molding with a slightly salient lip or fillet, giving it an 
 almost pear-shaped section is peculiar to English archi- 
 
 FIG. 372. Ftowixo OR "CURVILINEAR" TRACERY; a, ITHI.IXGBORO', 
 
 NOBTHANTS; 6, OVER, CAMBRIDGESHIRE; C, LlTTLE ADDINGTOK, 
 NORTHANTS. 
 
 tecture. Another noticeable English feature is the 
 label or drip-molding over the pier-arches in church in- 
 teriors, as well as over exterior arches, doors and win- 
 dows; the French confined this feature wholly to ex- 
 teriors. The English never affected the intricate inter- 
 secting moldings of late French and German Gothic 
 art. 
 
 859
 
 Tracery. 
 
 In this the English equaled and even surpassed the 
 French architects. There is a more systematic and 
 logical progression from lancet-windows coupled or 
 grouped under a discharging arch (Plate XX, 6), 
 through the stages of plate or perforated tracery (ib. 7 
 and Fig. 370) ; of molded tracery in the window-head 
 
 springing from mullions of slen- 
 der clustered shafts (8), to the 
 perfection of "Decorated" bar- 
 tracery, with two or three "or- 
 ders" of moldings and open cusp- 
 ing (9). The "Decorated" pe- 
 riod is generally considered to last 
 till the "Perpendicular" period, 
 i.e. to about 1375. But the 
 Geometric style of tracery, com- 
 posed chiefly of circles or wheels 
 and pointed arches, began as 
 early as 1320 or earlier to give 
 way to flowing lines, as in an 
 
 Fio. 373. PERPEXDICULAB J 
 
 TRACERY, BEAUCHAMP early example at Wells. This 
 
 CHAPEL, WARWICK. , , , . ,, , ,. 
 
 ushered in what is called the 
 
 Curvilinear style of tracery, which has already been men- 
 tioned as the probable prototype and parent of the 
 French Flamboyant style of tracery. Examples of 
 Flowing or Curvilinear tracery are in Plate XXI, 10, 
 and in Fig. 372. This phase of tracery design was of 
 short duration in England. Instead of developing, as 
 in France, into a style of ornate fantasies, it gave way, 
 somewhat suddenly, to the mechanical rigidity of the 
 
 360
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 Perpendicular style (Plate XXI, 11, and Fig. 373). 
 This last was structurally the most correct form of tra- 
 cery, though decoratively inferior to the two preceding 
 stages. Thus English tracery passed from a structural 
 origin through a decorative development, to a structural 
 culmination and decline; while in France the progress 
 was throughout to the end in the direction of a purely 
 decorative evolution. 
 
 Round windows were less important in England than 
 in France. The transepts of Lincoln show an early 
 "plate" circular window (the "Dean's eye"), and a late 
 curvilinear rose, called "the Bishop's eye." The tran- 
 sept roses of Westminster Abbey (Plate XXI, 13) are 
 almost French in character. The English preferred 
 vast East and West windows to the round windows of 
 France, and made of them sometimes superb composi- 
 tions, unequaled in their kind elsewhere, as were the 
 French rose windows in theirs. Tracery was carried 
 across wall surfaces to form rich paneling, especially in 
 the Perpendicular period. Openwork gables and balus- 
 trades are not important. 
 
 Vaults and Ceilings. 
 
 In these the English developed phases of art wholly 
 their own. Skilled in shipbuilding and framed struc- 
 tures, they simplified the problem of vault-construction 
 by multiplying the ribs, thus breaking up the twisted 
 surfaces of the fillings into long narrow triangles easy 
 to handle. These additional ribs were called tiercerons 
 (Figure 303) ; they terminated in a horizontal ridge-rib 
 at the summit of the vault. Later, short bridging ribs, 
 
 361
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 called liernes were added to the system, forming complex 
 patterns ("star" and "net" vaults), as in Winchester, 
 Norwich, Canterbury Cathedrals, Gloucester choir and 
 Lady-chapel, and many other examples (Figure 304 a) . 
 
 Fio. 374. HAMMER BEAM ROOF, TRUNCH CHURCH. 
 
 The decorative idea thenceforth predominated; the 
 tiercerons being given the same curvature throughout, 
 generated surfaces of revolution like inverted semi- 
 conoids of concave profile, their bases meeting at the top, 
 leaving lozenge-shaped voids which were filled up by 
 various decorative devices. The ribs, no longer struc- 
 tural, were simply carved in relief on the conoids, and 
 the whole vault was covered with a patterning of these 
 fine decorative ribs and adorned with rosettes and often 
 
 362
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 long pendants (retro-choir of Peterboro; cloisters of 
 Gloucester; King's College Chapel, Henry VII's chapel 
 at Westminster, etc.) . The decorative splendor of the 
 
 FIG. 374 A. OPEN-TIMBER CEILIXO, LAVEXHAM CHURCH, SUFFOLK. 
 
 English vaulting is of the highest order, and nothing 
 equal to these vaults is found in any other school of 
 Gothic design (Figure 30 b). 
 
 No less remarkable are the superb oaken ceilings 
 borne on huge arched trusses, of which the highest de- 
 velopment is the hammer-beam type as illustrated in the 
 
 363
 
 roof of Westminster Hall (1395-1525). All the de- 
 tails of these roofs were rich and appropriate to the ma- 
 terial, and the ends of the horizontal hammer-beams were 
 frequently adorned with carved heads or sculptured 
 angels, while the glow of discreetly-used color and gild- 
 ing added to the effect (Figs. 374, 374 A). 
 
 The English stained glass differed from the French 
 less in fundamental character than in detailed treat- 
 ment. The English windows were generally lighter in 
 tone than the French, at least after the earliest period 
 when it is likely that there was a strong French in- 
 fluence. The English developed to great splendor the 
 "canopy" window, in which each "light" or vertical divi- 
 sion is occupied by a life-size figure of a saint, prince or 
 noble, under a canopy of splendid architecture executed 
 usually in yellow glass, as if to represent gold. An 
 example is illustrated in Figure 335, from York Cathe- 
 dral. 
 
 Unhappily the destruction of "idolatrous" glass by 
 the Puritans and by various "restorers," beginning with 
 Wyatt in the early nineteenth century, has left but little 
 of the old glass to our day, at least compared with the 
 wealth of France in such glass. Some of the finest ex- 
 amples are in Canterbury Cathedral. 
 
 Painting. 
 
 As in France, but little painted decoration remains 
 from the Middle Ages in England, except in moldings 
 and minor details : but there is no doubt that polychrome 
 decoration was almost universal. A few examples of 
 such decoration are shown in Plate XX. 
 
 364
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 As before, DEHIO AND BEZOLD, FROTHINGHAM, MOORE, 
 PARKER, SIMPSON. Also for English Gothic, Architectural 
 Association Sketch Book (London). ATKINSON AND ATKIN- 
 SON: Gothic Ornaments selected from various Cathedrals and 
 Churches in England (London, 1829). F. BOND: Gothic 
 Architecture in England; Cathedrals of England and Wales; 
 Wood Carvings in English Churches; Fonts and Font Covers; 
 Screens and Galleries in English Churches; Westminster Ab- 
 bey; Introduction to English Church Architecture (Oxford and 
 London, 19051913). BRANDON: Analysis of Gothic Archi- 
 tecture (London, 1849) ; Open Timber Roofs of the Middle 
 Ages (London, 1849). T. T. BURY: Remains of Ecclesiastical 
 Woodwork (London, 1847). J. K. COLLING: English Mediaeval 
 Foliage; Details of Gothic Architecture; Gothic Ornaments 
 (London, 1848-1856). E. A. FREEMAN: An Essay on the 
 Origin and Development of Window Tracery in England (Lon- 
 don, n. d.). C. MOORE: The Mediaeval Church Architecture of 
 England (New York, 1912). PALEY: A Manual of Gothic 
 Mouldings (London, 1845). T. RICKMAN: An Attempt to Dis- 
 criminate the Styles (London, 1817). E. SHARPS: Mouldings 
 of the Six Periods; Treatise on the Rise and Progress of Win- 
 dow Tracery in England (London, 1871). Spring Gardens 
 Association Sketch Book (London). Consult also monographs 
 on particular churches and cathedrals. 
 
 865
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 PARTICULAR SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 II. GERMAN, SPANISH, ITALIAN 
 
 German Gothic Ornament. 
 
 Cleverness of technical execution and a tendency 
 towards displays of skill rather than purity of design 
 mark the German Gothic work. There is much borrow- 
 ing from French models and Cologne, the greatest of all 
 Gothic cathedrals, is clearly modeled after Amiens and 
 Beauvais. Most of the German Gothic details of the 
 first two periods are based on French types. In the 
 naturalistic rendering of the leaves of the oak, maple, 
 vine, etc., the German cleverness of technic found free 
 scope, and in the 14th century began to show independ- 
 ence of French models. There is abundant use of the 
 grotesque, in which a very Germanic broad humor often 
 takes the place of the French artistic refinement. 
 
 The moldings generally resemble the French. In the 
 Florid period intricate intersections of moldings of dif- 
 ferent profiles seem to have given special delight to the 
 German stone-cutters and wood-carvers because of the 
 technical difficulty of their execution (Figures 339, 1 
 375,381). 
 
 lit is difficult to distinguish between some of the French, German and 
 Flemish work of the late Gothic period. The Strassburg pulpit may be 
 either a French or a German work. 
 
 366
 
 FIG. 375. PORCH OF CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, NUREMBERG 
 
 FIG. 383. VAULTING, CATHEDRAL OF SALAMANCA
 
 
 
 B 
 

 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 Tracery. 
 
 It was in this 
 the German love 
 of intricate and fan- 
 tastic design and 
 clever workmanship 
 achieved its highest 
 successes. Such win- 
 dows as those of 
 Cologne, St. Cather- 
 ine at Oppenheim, 
 the Frauenkirche, 
 St. Sebaldus and St. 
 Lorenz at Nurem- 
 berg, the minster at 
 Ulm and the choir of 
 the Palatine Chapel 
 at Aachen, show skil- 
 ful geometric design 
 with extraordinarily 
 long, slender mul- 
 lions. Often the tra- 
 cery is doubled, the outer plane of the window being 
 adorned with purely decorative mullions and tracery, all 
 quite useless, in addition to that which holds the glass 
 ( Ulm, Strassburg) . In the fifteenth century the design 
 becomes flamboyant, the vesica ( Fischblase = fish blad- 
 der) or palm-leaf form constituting a favorite and much- 
 multiplied detail in the intricate patterning. Quadri- 
 laterals and triangles with curved sides are frequent. 
 Balustrades are often of perplexingly ingenious patterns. 
 
 369 
 
 FIG. 380. ALTAR-PIECE OH REREDOS, Ess- 
 LJNGEX CHURCH.
 
 FIG. 380 A. CARVED PEW END; GER- 
 MAX MIDDLE GOTHIC. 
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Openwork or traceried spires are peculiarly German 
 features, as at Freiburg in Baden, Esslingen, Strass- 
 burg, and the modern reproductions of old designs at 
 Cologne, Ulm and Ratisbon (Regensburg). The spire 
 
 loses its function as a 
 true roof, but the ef- 
 fect is highly decora- 
 tive (Figure 377). 
 
 Openwork gables 
 and traceried walls are 
 frequent; and the trac- 
 ery of pinnacles and 
 canopies for taber- 
 nacles, shrines ( Sac- 
 ramentshaiislein ) choir-stalls, pulpits and rood-screens 
 is intricate beyond description and executed with 
 consummate skill. Some of the richest screen-work in 
 France (e.g. at Alby) is thought to be of German work- 
 manship. Branch-tracer y, an utterly illogical and mon- 
 umentally inappropriate naturalistic copying of vine- 
 branches or rustic-work, appears as the last stage of de- 
 cline in German Gothic art. Figures 378 and 379, from 
 Strassburg, illustrate the richness of the best German 
 late Gothic work. 
 
 Stained Glass. 
 
 A window from the earlier apse of Cologne cathedral 
 has been preserved in the present structure begun in 
 1248; in which there are also fine examples of German 
 14th century glass. Others are to be seen of various 
 dates at Altenburg, Nuremberg (see Fig. 336), Strass- 
 
 370 
 
 f 
 ft
 
 h
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 burg, etc. In principle German glass is like the French, 
 but with much more of grisaille, foliage and geometric 
 patterning, and less of figures until the 15th century, 
 when a pictorial style came in 
 with much painting in place of 
 mosaic or pot-metal coloring, and 
 a very frequent use of figure-sub- 
 jects. 
 
 In the minor arts wood-carv- 
 ing, metal-work, etc. the Ger- 
 mans produced much that is in- 
 teresting, generally marked by 
 the same qualities of fantastic ca- 
 price, quaint humor and technical 
 excellence, to which attention has 
 already been called in other de- 
 partments of art (Figs. 380, 381; 
 Figure 382). 
 
 Spanish Gothic Ornament. 
 
 Medieval Christian art in Spain 
 was subject to diverse influences, 
 which prevented a homogeneous 
 organic development of style, but 
 helped to impart to it a highly 
 picturesque character. The con- 
 temporary Moorish art stimulated the tendency towards 
 surface ornamentation, while German, French and even 
 English characteristics occur in not a few cases. The 
 Spanish fondness for unrestrained exuberance of orna- 
 ment overrode the structural logic of Gothic design and 
 
 373 
 
 Fro. 381. GF.RMAX LATE 
 GOTHIC CARVIXG.
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 produced, in the fifteenth century especially, composi- 
 tions of extraordinary and fantastic richness (Figure 
 384). 
 
 Spanish Gothic ornament is especially rich about the 
 doorways of churches and in the arcades of cloisters and 
 patios of the 14th and 15th centuries. Tabernacle work, 
 tracery and cusping of great complexity, and heraldic 
 escutcheons form the chief resources of such decoration 
 as is not directly inspired from foreign models. 
 
 The traceried 
 spires of Burgos 
 suggest German 
 work ; the general 
 decorative details of 
 the facade suggest 
 both Amiens and 
 Ratisbon. The in- 
 FIO. 386. MUDEJAB DECORATION. terior decoration of 
 this and other churches is hard to classify or formulate, it 
 is so varied and so capricious in character, though almost 
 always effective (Figure 385). Vault decoration fol- 
 lowed in Spain no well-defined principle, but in its use of 
 multiple ribs resembles the German rather than the Eng- 
 lish Gothic. The rib-patterns though often designed as 
 abstract decorations rather than as a structural frame- 
 work (Figure 383), are nevertheless always true ribs, 
 not mere moldings carved out of the masonry as in Eng- 
 lish fan-vaulting. An occasional admixture of Moor- 
 ish details with the Gothic (Fig. 386) produces what is 
 called the Mudejar style. 
 
 Window tracery is of less importance in Spain than 
 
 374-
 
 FIG. 384. PATIO (COURT) OF PALACE OF THE INFANTADO, GUADALAJARA 
 
 FIG. 385. INTERIOR OF CHAPEL OF THE CONDESTABILE, RI:KGOS CATHEDRAL
 
 FIG. 387. DETAIL, FLANK OF FLORENCE CATHEDRAL
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 in more northern countries because of the small size of 
 windows required in a hot climate; on the other hand, 
 tracery as a surface decoration is carried to the extreme 
 of elaborate complexity. 
 
 A striking characteristic frequently met with in Span- 
 ish decorative work is the effective way in which the 
 most fanciful and overwrought ornamentation is brought 
 into close contrast with the most severely plain surfaces, 
 and minute detail with grandeur of scale. 
 
 Italian Gothic Ornament: the System, 
 
 The principles of design that dominated the Gothic 
 styles of western Europe never found acceptance in 
 Italy. The structural logic of the French and Eng- 
 lish builders and their system of ribbed vaulting, isolated 
 supports and external buttresses were foreign to Italian 
 traditions and ideals. The opportunist methods of the 
 Italian Romanesque builders and the persistent tradi- 
 tions of Roman design, with its pilasters, round arches, 
 cornices and acanthus leaves, were more in accord with 
 Italian taste. When the intercourse between French, 
 German and Italian chapters of the Benedictine and 
 Cistercian orders began to make the splendid church 
 architecture of the West known to the Italians, the re- 
 sult was only a very inadequate attempt to add some of 
 the superficial details of that architecture to buildings 
 constructed after the traditional Romanesque fashion. 
 Pointed arches, steep gables, pinnacles, finials and 
 crockets, and tracery strangely modified or travestied, 
 were applied to buildings wholly Italian in design, with- 
 out reference to the principles underlying the design and 
 
 377
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 use of these details in the West (Figure 387). Each 
 building was conceived of as a walled enclosure some- 
 times vaulted, sometimes roofed with wood upon which 
 to spread decoration, not as an organic structure to be 
 made decorative in itself. The form and outline of a 
 church facade had no necessary relation to the form of 
 
 FIG. 389. DETAIL FBOM PORTAL OF CATHEDRAL, LUCCA: CARVED RIXCEAU 
 AXD MARBLE INLAY. 
 
 the church behind it; it was a screen, a surface to be 
 ornamented like a frontispiece (Figure 388). The 
 flanks might or might not be similarly adorned. The 
 interior provided areas for mural paintings. The ma- 
 terials for exterior decoration were round and pointed 
 windows, gables, pinnacles, pilaster-strips, panels, sta- 
 tues, colored marble, inlays, mosaic, anything that would 
 produce patterns in light and shade, form and color 
 (Plate XXII). The facades of Sienna Cathedral 
 (1284) and Orvieto (1310), and the flanks and east end 
 
 378
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 of the Duomo at Florqnce (1357-1408) illustrate this 
 conception of the relations of architecture and ornament. 
 The superb campanile at Florence (1334-50) by Giotto, 
 Gaddi and Talenti, is its most perfect embodiment in 
 the admirable harmony of the ornament with the struc- 
 
 FIG. 390. CAPITAL FROM A TOMB IN STA. CHIARA, NAPLES. 
 
 tural lines and mass (Plate XXII). Polychromy 
 rather than light and shade was the chosen medium of 
 decoration ; the use of Gothic forms was a concession to 
 fashion which prevented a truly rational development of 
 style. In the works just mentioned and countless 
 others, black, red, green, yellow and white marbles, in 
 panels, stripes and inlays, are mingled with pseudo- 
 Gothic and half-classic details. The Roman tradition 
 refused to die (Fig. 389), and Corinthian capitals 
 (Fig. 390) , the Attic base, round arches with archi volts, 
 acanthus leaves, rinceaux and moldings of Roman pro- 
 
 379
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 file, are used with no sense of their incongruity with 
 pointed arches, twisted shafts, crockets and tracery. 
 
 Architectural Details. 
 
 All the Gothic forms are capriciously varied. The 
 most notable single feature is the spirally twisted shaft, 
 
 FIG. 391. TOMB IN SAX ANTONIO, PADUA. 
 
 frequently used as a mullion in subdivided openings, and 
 as a jamb-shaft in recessed doorways. It is clearly a 
 survival from Romanesque practice (Fig. 391; Plate 
 XXII, 5, 6). Mosaic and inlay the Italians could 
 never give up, and as their Gothic decoration was pre- 
 eminently a decoration of surfaces, inlaid bands and 
 panels of colored marbles in geometric patterns appear 
 perfectly in place alongside of Gothic pinnacles and trac- 
 ery (Figure 394). The tracery was rarely except in 
 Venice and in a few churches built by foreign artists 
 designed as a structure to be built up in stone after the 
 true Gothic fashion ; it was rather a surface of stone to be 
 
 380
 
 FIG. 388. CENTRAL PORTION, FACADE OF CATHEDRAL OF ORVIETO
 
 FIG. 392. TOMB OF CAN SIGNORIO SCALIGER, VERONA 
 
 FIG. 392A. TOMB OF GIOVANNI SCALIGER, VERONA
 
 perforated and carved, as in the Duomo windows and 
 the Or San Michele at Florence (Figure 395). In 
 Venice, however a remarkable and more truly structural 
 type of tracery was de- 
 veloped in the 14th cen- 
 tury in secular build- 
 ings; first in the majes- 
 tic arcades of the Doge's 
 Palace, and then in pri- 
 vate palace fa9ades, in a 
 style singularly vigorous 
 and original (Fig. 396). 
 The triforium tracery of 
 San Martino (cathe- 
 
 FIG. 396. FACADE OF A GOTHIC 
 dl'al) at LuCCa (1370), PALACE, VENICE. 
 
 has much of the Western character. That of Milan 
 cathedral (1386 ) is presumably of German design. 
 
 Minor Works. 
 
 In these the Italian decorative genius found its most 
 congenial expression. Tombs, altars, chapels, shrines, 
 ciboria, choir-stalls, fountains and pavements afforded 
 free scope for Italian fancy and love of color. In these 
 inlay and mosaic, Cosmati-work (see ante page 200) and 
 surface decoration were perfectly appropriate. The al- 
 tar of the church of Or San Michele, Florence, by 
 Orcagna (Figure 397) ; the tombs of the Scaligers in 
 Verona (Figure 392) ; wall-tombs and canopy- tombs in 
 Venice and elsewhere, are not surpassed by works of like 
 purpose anywhere. 
 
 383
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Decorative Painting. 
 
 The remarkable schools of painting which arose and 
 flourished in Florence in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries and in Sienna in the fourteenth, fall outside the 
 field of a history of ornament, except as to the sub- 
 ordinate details of their mural decorations. The cul- 
 mination of this school is seen in the frescoes of Giotto 
 (1267-1337), especially in the church of S. Francesco 
 at Assisi, and of his followers, the Gaddi, etc. The 
 decorations of vault-ribs and of borders of pictured 
 panels on walls and vaults show a mingling of classic 
 survivals with geometric details 
 evidently inspired from Cosmati 
 work and geometric inlays (Fig. 
 398). The persistence of classic 
 rinceaux and acanthus leaves ap- 
 pears often like a foretaste or an- 
 ticipation of the Renaissance, in- 
 stead of a lingering reminiscence 
 of traditions never quite lost since 
 the days of the Roman Empire. 
 Carvings like those on the Man- 
 I dorla door of the Florentine 
 I Duomo (dr. 1399; Fig. 399) are 
 11 evidences of the vitality of those 
 1 traditions, which the foreign Gothic 
 4 1 fashion could not wholly drive out. 
 ^Other painted decorations, as in S. 
 
 FIG. 399. DETAIL FROM * AT j & \ j 
 
 THE MANDORLA DOOR. Anastasia, Verona and S. Andrea, 
 
 FLORENCE CATHEDRAL. Vercilli, and the cloisters of the 
 
 384,
 
 FIG. 393. CATHEDRAL OF SIENA 
 
 FIG. 394. TWISTED COLUMN AND INLAY, CAMPANILE, FLORENCE
 
 FIG. 395. CARVED TRACERY, OR SAN MICHELE, FLORENCE 
 
 FIG. 398. DETAIL, PAINTED WALL AND VAULT, SANTA CROCE, FLORENCE
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 Spanish Chapel of Sta. Maria Novella at Florence, are 
 of a more distinctly Gothic character. The upper 
 chapel of Sta. Maria in the Palazzo Pubblico at Sienna 
 is another noted example. 
 
 Wood and Metal, 
 
 Choir-stalls and furniture offered abundant oppor- 
 tunity for the decorative skill of the Italian wood-carv- 
 
 
 FIG. 401. CAPITALS, DOGE'S PALACE, VENICE. 
 
 ers, who often combined wood-inlay or intarsia with 
 their carving. But so many of these medieval wood- 
 carvings were removed to be replaced in the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth centuries with the works of the Renaissance 
 
 387
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 artists, that this phase of Italian medieval art is less im- 
 pressive than some others. A single example is shown 
 in Figure 400 from Molfetta; it shows a curious survival 
 of earlier tradition in the almost Romanesque aspect of 
 the animal reliefs. There are a number of fine medieval 
 iron grilles in Italian churches, and the grilles surround- 
 ing the tombs of the Scaligers (Figure 392) are elegant 
 examples of this form of art. 
 
 The foregoing paragraphs have sketched only in the 
 barest outline the Gothic ornament of Italy. The whole 
 country is a vast museum of decorative art of all periods, 
 for its people, from the days of ancient Rome to our 
 own, have always been decorators first of all, and an 
 encyclopaedic volume would be required to treat ade- 
 quately the history of their achievements in the decora- 
 tive arts. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 With the closing years of the fourteenth century in 
 Italy, and a century later in western and northern Eu- 
 rope, the Gothic style began to be extinguished by the 
 rapidly-developing and widely-spreading art of the 
 Renaissance. Architecture had already reached the 
 final limit of its structural development under the Gothic 
 system, and was sensibly declining in power and 
 grandeur. But, as we have seen, a splendid decorative 
 flowering accompanied this decline in structural origi- 
 nality, and reached its highest level of richness and tech- 
 nical perfection in the fifteenth century, in France, Eng- 
 land, Germany and Spain. This splendor of minute 
 decoration, of complex tracery, realistic pictorial sculp- 
 
 388
 
 FIG. 396. DETAIL, ALTAR IN OK SAN 
 MICHELE, FLORENCE 
 
 FIG. 399. DETAIL FROM STALLS, 
 MOLFETTA CATHEDRAL
 
 SCHOOLS OF GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 ture, sumptuous embroidery and showy furniture was, 
 however, the final coruscation of an expiring flame. In 
 Italy, meanwhile, the new flame of the Renaissance had 
 been kindled and had been growing in brilliancy and 
 spreading as it grew brighter. The Western arts long 
 resisted the Italian invasion; they refused to kindle from 
 this new flame, to copy the new fashion. But the new 
 style was more than a fashion; it was the expression of a 
 fundamental change of spirit, of a new artistic point of 
 view and attitude, of a new civilization and new ideals. 
 The old order was passing away, and by the middle of 
 the sixteenth century Gothic art was dead. 
 
 Books Recommended: 
 
 As before, ADAMY, DEHIO AND BEZOLD, HASAK, FROTHING- 
 HAM, UNGEWITTER. Also, for the German Gothic, BOISSEREE: 
 Histoire et description de la cathedrale de Cologne (Munich, 
 1842). FOERSTER, Denkmale deutscher Baukunst (Leipzig, 
 1855-69). HARTEL: Architektonische Details and Ornament 
 der Kirchlichen Baukunst (Berlin, 1891). KLINGENBERG: Die 
 ornament ale Baukunst (Leipzig, n. d.). E. ATJSM WERTH: 
 Kunstdenkmaler der christlichen Mittelalters in den Rheinlan- 
 den (Leipzig, 1858). For the Spanish Gothic, LAMPEREZ Y 
 ROMEA: Historia de la arquitectura cristiana Espanola, etc. 
 (Madrid, 1908-09). Monumentos Arquitectonicos de Espana 
 (Madrid). D. ROBERTS: Sketches in Spain (London, 
 1837). SMITH: Sketches in Spain (London, 1883). G. E. 
 STREET: Gothic Architecture in Spain (New Ed., London, 
 1913). WARING: Architectural Studies in Burgos (London, 
 1852). WARING AND MACQUOID: Examples of Architectural 
 Art in Italy and Spain (London). 
 
 For the Italian Gothic, CUMMINGS: A History of Architec- 
 ture in Italy (Boston, 1901). GRUNER: Terra-Cotta Archi- 
 tecture of North Italy (London, 1867). KING: Study Book 
 of Mediaeval Art (London, 1868). NESFIELD: Specimens of 
 
 391
 
 A HISTORY OF ORNAMENT 
 
 Mediceval Architecture (London, 1862). SCHULTZ: Denkmaler 
 der Kunst des Mittelalters in Unteritalien (Dresden, n. d.). 
 G. E. STREET: Brick and Marble Architecture in the Middle 
 Ages in N. Italy (London, 1874). WARING: The Arts Con- 
 nected with Architecture in Central Italy (London, 1858). 
 
 S92
 
 LIST OF PLATES
 
 . SAVAGE ORNAMENT: POLYNESIAN 
 
 1. Carved Window-Head, New Zealand (after Pho. in A. M. 
 
 N. H.). 
 
 2. Detail, New Zealand Paddle-Handle (after O. J.)- 
 
 3. Detail, New Zealand Canoe (after Racinet). 
 4, 5. Hawaiian Stamped Cloth (after O. J.). 
 
 6. Detail, New Zealand Paddle-Handle (after O. J.). 
 
 7. Tattooed Mummy-Head, New Zealand (after O. J.). 
 
 8. Samoan Grass Cloth, String Decoration (A. M. N. H.). 
 
 9. New Zealand Grass Cloth (A. M. N. H.). 
 
 10. New Zealand Club (Racinet). 
 
 11. Scratched Pattern on a Tongan Club, New Guinea (after 
 
 A. C. H.)- 
 
 12. Hawaiian Stamped Cloth (after O. J.). 
 
 13. New Zealand Club (after Glazier). 
 
 li. From a New Guinea Spatula (after A. C. H.). 
 
 15. Detail, Handle of New Zealand Paddle of 21; Faces and 
 
 Figures. 
 
 16. New Zealand Club (A. M. N. H.). 
 
 17. Frigate-Bird Ornament, New Guinea (after A. C. H.). 
 
 18. Frigate-Bird Scrolls. New Guinea (after A. C. H.). 
 
 19. Samoan Fan (A. M. N. H.). 
 
 20. New Zealand Stamped Cloth (after O. J.). 
 
 21. Blade of New Zealand Ceremonial Paddle (after O. J.). 
 
 22. Scratched Ornament on Pipe, New Guinea (after A. C. H.). 
 
 23. Carving from New Zealand Canoe (Racinet). 
 
 24. Painted Eaves Boards, New Zealand (after Pho. in A. M. 
 
 N. H.).
 
 II. SAVAGE ORNAMENT: AMERICAN 
 
 1. Bolivian Cloth. 
 
 2. From Temple of Uxmal, Mexico (Racinet). 
 
 3. Mexican Terra-Cotta Head. 
 
 4. Indian Basketry Patterns. 
 
 5. Ancient Mexican Pottery Border. 
 
 6. Bolivian Hanging Jar. 
 
 7. Sculptured Stele or Pillar, Uxmal. 
 
 8. Mexican Jar with Spiral. 
 
 9. Mexican Serpent Jar. 
 
 10. Neck of Mexican Jar: Pseudo-Anthemions. 
 
 11. Mexican Bowl; Spirals and Zigzags. 
 
 12. Washoe Basket (after print in Yale News). 
 
 13. Mexican Duck Jar. 
 
 14. Peruvian Gold Disk. 
 
 15. Mexican Platter with Grotesque. 
 
 16. Peruvian Platter with Snake Ornaments. 
 
 17. Carving from a Mexican "Throwing Stick." 
 
 18. Peruvian Cloth, Toucan Pattern. 
 
 19. Mexican Pipe-Bowl, Carved Stone. 
 
 20. Prow of Alaskan War Canoe. 
 
 21. Stern of Alaskan War Canoe. 
 
 All the above, except 2 and 12, are original sketches from ob- 
 jects in the American Museum of Natural History, New York; 19 
 by Miss G. K. Hamlin; the rest by the author.
 
 'exuan(Wood) ' Urn-Cloth
 
 III. EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 1-5. Painted Lotus Borders from Tombs (chiefly after P. d'A.). 
 6-8. All-Over Patterns from Tomb Ceilings (after P. d'A. and 
 
 P. & C.). 
 9. Hathoric Capital and Entablature, Temple of Nectanebo, 
 
 Philse (after P. & C.). 
 
 10. Column, Campaniform Type. 
 
 11. Lotus-Bundle Column, Temple of Thothmes III, Karnak 
 
 (after P. & C.). 
 12-11. All-over Patterns from Tomb Ceilings (after Meyer and 
 
 P. d'A.). 
 
 15. Floral Capital, Ptolemaic, from Philae (after P. d'A.). 
 16,18. Circle All-over Patterns (after P. d'A.). 
 17. Palm Capital, Temple of Edfu (after O. J.). 
 
 19. Lobed Lotus Capital from the Tbeban Oasis (after O. J.). 
 
 20. Vulture with Plumes of Royalty; from Ceiling of a Hypo- 
 
 style Hall (after P. d'A.). 
 21,22. Imbri Patterns (after Dolmetsch). 
 
 23. Vulture or Hawk in Gold and Enamel (P. & C.). 
 
 24. Enamel Rosette for Inlay (in Metropolitan Museum). 
 
 25. Carved Perfume-Spoon of Wood (Meyer). 
 
 26. Scarabaeus or Beetle.
 
 H!A EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 1. Various Lotus and Other Borders from Tombs (chiefly after 
 
 Prisse d'Avennes and Dolmetsch). 
 
 2. Campaniform Column, from Ramesseum. 
 
 3. Lotus-Bud Clustered Column, Luxor. 
 
 4. All-Over Patterns Painted in Tombs (after Dolmetsch, 
 
 Prisse d'Avennes and Perrot and Chipiez). 
 
 5. Ptolemaic Capitals, Hathoric and Floral from Philae (after 
 
 Prisse d'Avennes and Owen Jones). 
 
 6. Ptolemaic Capitals, Lotus and Palm, from Theban Oasis and 
 
 Edfu (as above). 
 
 7. Feathers as Insignia (after Owen Jones). 
 8,9. Imbrications (Dolmetsch). 
 
 10. Floral Ornaments (after C. H. Walker). 
 
 11. Furniture, in part from Tomb Paintings (after Meyer). 
 
 12. Wooden Shrine (Dolmetsch). 
 
 13. Detail from Facade of Tomb (after Perrot and Chipiez). 
 
 14. Utensils and Jewelrv. 
 
 Illustrations not otherwise designated are from original draw- 
 ings by the author.
 
 41
 
 IV. ASSYRIAN AND PERSIAN ORNAMENT 
 
 1. Assyrian Double Palmette Border, Tiles (after P. & C.). 
 
 2. Assyrian "Sacred Tree" (after O. J.). 
 
 3. Imbrications or Scales: a, Painted; b, Carved (after O. J.). 
 
 4. Pavefent Slab, Koyunjik. 
 
 5. Pomegranate Border, Nimrond (after O. J.). 
 
 6. Assyrian Chair, from a Relief (P. & C.). 
 
 7. Assyrian "Portal Guardian" Winged Bull, from Khorsabad 
 
 (P. & C.). 
 
 8. Lotus Rosette from a Pavement, Koyunjik (after O. J.). 
 
 9. Column from Susa (after P. & C.). 
 
 10. Column from Persepolis (after P. & C.). 
 
 11. Lycian Tomb (P. & C.). 
 
 12. Detail from Persepolis: Palms and Rosettes (after P. & C.). 
 
 13. Details from Staircase Parapet (after Ward). 
 
 14. Palmette Tiles from Susa (after P. & C.). 
 
 15. Enameled Brick Wall-Facing from Susa (after P. & C.). 
 16, 17. Details from Rock Tomb, Naksh-i-Rustam. 
 
 18. Detail, Architrave, from Persepolis.
 
 /2 From Hsnepolia 
 1 5. Susa: Brick Wall.
 
 V. GREEK ORNAMENT, PAINTED: CHIEFLY ON POT- 
 TERY 
 
 1. Anthemions, Black on Red. 
 
 2. Dish, Geometric or Dipylon Period (P. & C.). 
 3, 7. Palmettes, Black and Brown on Red. 
 
 4. Framed Anthemions Red on Black. 
 
 5. Palmette or Framed Anthemion and "Lotus" Motive: Black 
 
 and Brown on Red. 
 
 6. Hydria, Early Fifth Century (Art Pour Tous). 
 
 8. Oblique Anthemions, Black on Red. 
 
 9. Anthemions and Fruits. 
 
 10. Double Palmette-and-Lotus Band: Red on Black. 
 
 11. Anthemion Pattern, from an Apulian Vase in Xew York. 
 12, 13. Vine Bands, Red on Black. 
 
 14. Ivy Band, Black on Red. 
 15, 16. Small Vertical Laurel and Ivy Bands. 
 
 17. Painted Terra Cotta Antefix (incorrectly labeled as of Mar- 
 ble), Athens. 
 
 18. Hydria, Fine Period. 
 
 19. Painted Marble Antefix. 
 
 20. Framed Anthemions, Red on Black. 
 
 21. Foliated Scroll or Rinceau, on a Late Apulian Vase. 
 
 22. Anthemions, Black on Red. 
 
 23. Vertical Vine Band. 
 
 The above illustrations are from various sources: Owen Jones, 
 Kachel, Art Pour Tous, Lau, and original sketches from the object.
 
 ff&lmette -Stack and brown onffed 
 
 S.Fblmetteeic. -Black and Brown on Red. 
 
 8 OMiaueflnlhemions-dlacKonRed.
 
 VI. GREEK ORNAMENT, PAINTED: POTTERY AND 
 ARCHITECTURE 
 
 1,2,3. "Vitruvian" Waves and Scrolls. 
 4, 5, 9, 10. Various Fret or Meander Bands. 
 6, 11. Anthemions, Red on Black. 
 
 7. Imbrications. 
 
 8. Flower Band (Lotuses?). 
 12. Lotus-Bud Band. 
 
 13, 14. Plant and Vine Ornaments. 
 
 15. Egg-and-Dart and Laurel Band. 
 
 16, 18, 19, 22. Anthemions and Palmettes, Black on Red. 
 17,20,21,23,30. Anthemion Bands, Red on Black. 
 
 24, 27. Large Anthemion Ornaments, Black on Red. 
 
 25, 26. Late Painted Decorations, Apulian. 
 
 28,31,36. Painted Guilloches on Terra-Cotta Strips and Moldings. 
 29, 32-35. Polychrome Decorations of Architectural Members. 
 
 Nos. 1, 2, 3, 20, 23, 25 are from drawings by the author after 
 Owen Jones and Kachel; 28, 30, 36 from drawings by the late 
 Prof. M. K. Kress of Columbia University; 32 is from Perrot and 
 Chipiez; the rest from the late Prof. W. R. Ware's "Greek Or- 
 nament."
 
 IFLAT 

 
 VII. GREEK ORNAMENT, ARCHITECTURAL 
 
 1. Carved Pediment Rinceau, from one of the "Sidon" Sar- 
 
 cophagi at Constantinople. 
 
 2. Marble Antefix, supposedly from the Parthenon. 
 
 3. Carved Finial of Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, Athens: 
 
 Restored. 
 
 4. Typical Carved Lotiform Motive, from the Erechtheion. 
 
 5. Carved Anthemion on an Ionic Cymatium. 
 
 6. Doric Order of the Parthenon. 
 
 7. Ionic Capital from the Erechtheion. 
 
 8. Moldings from the Erechtheion : Water Leaf, Bead-and- 
 
 Reel, and Egg-and-Dart. 
 
 9. Ionic Order of the Erechtheion. 
 
 10. Capital from Eleusis (after Meyer). 
 
 11. Anta-Cap from the Erechtheion (Meyer). 
 
 12. Greek Corinthian Volutes. 
 
 13,15. Stele Heads from Athens, Fourth Century. 
 
 14. Corinthian Capital from the Choragic Monument of Lysic- 
 rates : Restored. 
 
 All the figures on this Plate are from original drawings by the 
 author except 8 and 1 1 which are taken by permission from Meyer's 
 "Handbook of Ornament"; and 5, from an unidentified source.
 
 PLATE YE GREEK ORNAMENT 
 
 I 'Carved Rinceau. 
 
 'Sidori 'Sarcophagus 
 
 SFragmentofaCymalium W^ 
 
 15. 5tele-HeadMero ^Century 
 
 ChoragicMon-. of Lysccrates JS Stele -Head flthens, ^Century
 
 VIII. ROMAN ORNAMENT, THE ORDERS 
 
 1. Doric Order, Thermae (Baths) of Diocletian. 
 
 2. Composite Order from the Arch of Titus. 
 
 3. Ionic Order from the Temple of Fortuna Virilis. 
 
 4. Corinthian Order, Temple of Castor and Pollux. 
 
 5. Middle Band of Architrave, Temple of Castor and Pollux. 
 
 6. Greco-Roman Corinthian Order of Temple of "Vesta" (so- 
 
 called) at Tivoli. 
 
 7. Composite Capital, Thermae of Caracalla. 
 
 8. Unidentified Corinthian Pilaster Capital; Late Greek or 
 
 Greco-Roman. 
 
 9. Enriched Attic Base in Capitoline Museum (after Meyer). 
 
 10. Enriched Corinthian Base in Baptistery of Constantine 
 
 (after Meyer). 
 
 11. Enriched Corinthian Base from Temple of Concord (Meyer). 
 
 All the figures on this Plate are from original drawings by the 
 author, based on various authorities (7 is after a photograph), ex- 
 cept 12 which is taken directly from Meyer's "Handbook of Orna- 
 ment."
 
 SnMMnaMOMMOMlL^VLmOMK^^ 
 
 FX ^~^7^-~^^c2-fJfJK^^ 1 ^^f^P/f^ I*" 
 
 2 Order of the. ftrcJi of Titus :Compasite 
 
 S-MxldkExind of flrchitrme; Temple of(astorand fbllux
 
 IX. ROMAN ORNAMENT, CARVING 
 
 1. Taenia Molding, Arch of the Silversmiths. 
 
 2, 3. Moldings between Architrave Bands, Temple of Vespasian 
 (from Photographs of French Restorations). 
 
 4. Semicircular Panel in Court of Mattei Palace, Rome, with 
 
 Rinceaux and Rosettes; its source is unknown (after 
 Vulliamy). 
 
 5. Detail from Border of a Silver Platter (after Kachel). 
 
 6. Rinceau, from Temple of Vespasian. 
 
 7. Bucrane, from an Altar (after Tatham). 
 
 8. Fragments from Forum of Trajan in Lateran Museum (after 
 
 a Photograph). 
 9, 10. Details from so-called "Florentine Tablet" (after Kachel). 
 
 11. Enriched Ove, Temple of Vespasian (after an old French 
 
 Lithograph). 
 
 12. Pilaster Fragment in Villa Medici, Rome (from Cast in Co- 
 
 lumbia University). 
 
 13. Oak-Leaf and Rosette Band (Unidentified; after an old 
 
 French Lithograph). 
 
 14. Pilaster Fragment with Double Rinceau, in Palazzo Fano, 
 
 Rome. 
 
 All the above illustrations are from drawings by the author. 
 The sources of 6 and 14 cannot be verified.
 
 4? 
 
 ROMAM ORNAMENT: CARVING 
 
 Detail from border 
 of a Silver Platter 
 
 4. RmdunknwnSource. m Court of Mattel fbbce. Rome [Marble) 
 
 10 fl &rt rf the'noicnceTdUeL.nthe IJfizi 
 celabld. 
 
 12 Pilaster Fragment mVlUa, Media 73 Oak Leaf and RosetteBand 
 
 . ] " H Pilaster Fragment in fol rtono. 
 (Double Rinceau lype-cpvUh 12)
 
 X. ROMAN ORNAMENT, MINOR ARTS 
 
 1. Cinerary Urn in British Museum (after Glazier). 
 
 2. Silver Crater from Hildesheim (Meyer, after Kachel). 
 
 3. Silver Patera from Hildesheim (after Kachel). 
 
 4. Marble Hydria from Pompeii (after Photograph). 
 
 5. Bronze Saucepan, Naples Museum (Meyer). 
 
 6. Cinerary Chest and Urn in Vatican Museum (after Piranesi). 
 
 7. Bronze-Tripod in Berlin Museum (after Meyer). 
 
 8. Marble Support or Stand in Villa Borghese, Rome (aftev 
 
 Piranesi). 
 
 9. Bronze Tripod, Naples Museum (after Meyer). 
 
 10. Candelabrum on Triangular Pedestal in Vatican Museun.' 
 
 (after Piranesi). 
 11, 12. Marble Table Legs, Vatican Museum (after Meyer). 
 
 13. Bronze Candelabrum Base, Naples Museum (after engrav- 
 ing in "The Workshop"). 
 
 All the illustrations on this Plate are from the author's drawings, 
 based on the sources indicated.
 
 48
 
 XI. POMPEII AN ORNAMENT 
 
 1. Detail from Temple of Isis (R. Paufve after Zahn). 
 
 2. From a Painted Wall in Naples Museum (R. Paufve, after 
 
 Niccolini). 
 
 3. From House of Marcus Lucretius (H. W. Haefele, after 
 
 Niccolini). 
 
 4. Painted Border (R. Paufve, after Zahn). 
 
 5. From House of the Vestals (Author, after Zahn). 
 
 6. Frieze in Temple of Isis (Author, after Zahn). 
 
 7. Fragment of Stucco Relief from Excavation Near Villa 
 
 Farnesina, Rome (Author, after Photograph). 
 
 8. From a Wall not now Extant, in Pompeii (H. W. Haefele, 
 
 after Niccolini). 
 
 9. Detail of Pompeiian Floor Mosaic (R. Paufve, after 
 
 Zahn?). 
 
 10. Figure in Stucco Relief, from Excavation Near Villa Farne- 
 sina, Rome (Author, after Photograph). 
 11,12. Details from Pompeiian Floor Mosaics (H. W. Haefele).
 
 FloorMosa/c, 
 
 10 Stucco (Rome). te-Mosaic Border
 
 XII. BYZANTINE ORNAMENT, CARVED 
 
 1. Capital, Impost, Mosaic and Marble Paneling, Hagia Sophia, 
 
 Constantinople. 
 
 2. Spandrel with Surface Carving in Marble, Hagia Sophia, 
 
 Constantinople. 
 
 3. "Basket" Capital and Impost Block, San Vitale, Ravenna. 
 
 4. Pier and Cap in Front of St. Mark's, Venice, from St. 
 
 John of Acre. 
 
 5. Inlaid Capital and Impost Block, St. Mark's, Venice. 
 
 6, 7. Details from Bronze Doors of the Vlth Century, Hagia 
 Sophia, Constantinople. 
 
 8. Italo-Byzantine Silver Chest in Museo Nazionale, Florence. 
 
 9. Puteal (Perforated Parapet), San Vitale, Ravenna. 
 
 10. Panel from Crypt of St. Mark's, Venice; Xth Century. 
 
 All the above illustrations are from photographs or photo-prints.
 
 5( 
 
 2 Spandrel. tfag'ia.5ophia. 
 
 1 Capital. Ftinels and Mosaic, 
 
 i __^^^rffc. 
 
 
 5 Inlaid Cap, 5t Mark's. Venice. 
 
 Pe 
 
 -/ 
 
 In ffbnt qfSt Marfc, Venice 
 
 * 
 
 -\ ^^>4^ 
 
 8 Silver C/Jest. Florence,. 9 Openwork fbnel.SMtale,
 
 XIII. BYZANTINE ORNAMENT, MOSAIC 
 
 1. Mosaic Detail, Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. 
 
 2. Spandrel and Capital, Gallery Arcade of Hagia Sophia, 
 
 Constantinople. 
 3, 4. Details of Mosaic from Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. 
 
 5. Detail of Mosaic in St. George, Salonika. 
 
 6,7,8,10. Details of Mosaic from Hagia Sophia, Constantinople. 
 9,11,14. Mosaic Details from San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, Rome. 
 12, 13. Details of Floor Mosaic in San Marco, Rome. 
 
 Of the above illustrations Nos. 1, 2, 6-10 are from student- 
 drawings by S. Y. Ohta, after Prang and Salzenberg; 11 and 14 
 from student-drawings by H. J. Burke; 3, 4, 5 and 6 are repro- 
 duced by permission from Prang's Plates of Historic Ornament; 12 
 and 13 are from measured drawings by the author.
 
 51 
 
 14-3. Lorenzo fuart. Rome
 
 XIV. ROMANESQUE OKNAMENT, FRENCH 
 
 1. Double Capital from La Dalbade, Toulouse, in the Toulouse 
 
 Museum. 
 2.^ Double Capital from Church of Notre Dame at Chalons- 
 
 sur-Marne. 
 3, 5. Details from Central Portal of Church of St. Gilles, near 
 
 Aries. 
 4. Capital from Church of St. Pierre-le-Moutier. 
 
 6. Carved Rosette, from Portal of Church at Moissac. 
 
 7. Carved Tympanum from a House at Reims. 
 
 8. Rosette (unidentified). 
 
 9. Detail from Porte Ste. Anne, Cathedral of Notre Dame, 
 
 Paris. 
 
 10. Fragment of P'rieze from Portal of Church of St. Gilles, 
 
 near Aries. 
 
 11. Carved Monster from Portal of Church at Moissac. 
 
 All the illustrations on this Plate are reproduced from photo- 
 graphic post cards of casts in the Museum of Comparative Sculpture 
 of the Trocadero, Paris.
 
 ! Double Cap'dai La Dalbade. Tbuloux.dnloulouseSluxum) 2DoubteCapilal, Notre Dame de Chalons jurrfome. 
 
 4 Capital from St.Pierre-le-J1outier. 5. Porch of5t.Gilles (Arle$. 
 
 6 Rosette, Mo&sac . 
 
 7 Tympanum fmmaHousen Reims. 
 
 9 ^/7; fyte&JIme. ND Kins 
 
 10. Fragment. Frieze , Fbrch qjSt. Gill es>( Aries) 
 
 }] Monster.Sb/s-wc.
 
 XV. ANGLO-NORMAN AND CELTIC ORNAMENT 
 
 1. Voluted Capitals from Harmston Church, Lines (after 
 
 Bond). 
 
 2. Grotesque and Scrolls, Shobdon Church, Herefordshire 
 
 (after Rickraan). 
 
 3. "Scalloped"-Type Capitals, New Shoreham Church (after 
 
 Bond). 
 
 4. Anglo-Norman Anthemion Ornament (unidentified). 
 
 5. Capital, Canterbury Cathedral (after Rickman). 
 
 6. Peterboro Choir, Two Bays (illustration by Author in Van 
 
 Rensselaer, "English Cathedrals"). 
 
 7. Zigzag Arch-Ornament from Malmesbury Abbey (after 
 
 Parker). 
 
 8. Star-Flower on an Arch in Romsey Abbey (after Rickman). 
 
 9. Anglo-Norman Cushion Capital (unidentified; C. U. Student- 
 
 Drawing). 
 
 10. Billet or Checker Molding from Winchester Cathedral 
 
 (after Parker). 
 
 11. Anthemion Ornament from Hereford Cathedral. 
 
 12. Initial P, from Book of Kells (after Sullivan). 
 
 13. Detail from Celtic Cross at Ruthwell, Ireland (after 
 
 Champreys). 
 
 14. Interlace from Cross at Mugle, Ireland. 
 
 15. Interlace Border from an Irish MS. (after Racinet). 
 
 16. The South Cross at Aheny, Ireland (after Champreys). 
 
 All the above illustrations are from the author's drawings ex- 
 cept 9, which is an unidentified student's drawing.
 
 i Caps Vo/uted 
 
 2 Shobdon . Herefordshire - 3 . Caps. Scalloped 
 
 12. Initial (F) //aw Boo* of 'Kelts'
 
 XVI. GERMAN ROMANESQUE ORNAMENT 
 
 1. Carved Pier in Church at St. Jak, Hungary (from a draw- 
 
 ing by Stein). 
 
 2. Twelfth Century Capital from Cathedral at Naumburg (C. 
 
 U. Student-drawing). 
 
 3. Twelfth Century Capital from Gelnhausen (from Hauser, 
 
 "Stillehre . . . des Mittelalters"). 
 
 4. Double Capital, Minster at Limburg-on-the-Lahn (Hauser, 
 
 "Stillehre"). 
 
 5. Detail of Bronze Ornament, Aachen. 
 
 6. Rosette from Heiligenberg near Vienna (Meyer's "Hand- 
 
 book" etc.) Gelnhausen. 
 
 7. German Romanesque Capital (from an unidentified engrav- 
 
 ing). 
 
 8. Twelfth Century Bronze Knocker (Meyer). 
 1). Rosette from Cathedral of Bale (Meyer). 
 
 ](). Anthemion Band from Church at Hersfeld, Saxony. 
 
 11. Acanthus Molding from Miinzenberg, Hesse ("Gewerbe- 
 
 halle"). 
 
 1 1 2. Anthemion Band from Fulda, Hesse-Cassel (after Prang). 
 13. Romanesque Stained Glass from Heiligenkreuz (Hauser, 
 
 "Stillehre"). 
 
 Ik Carved Band from Liebfrauenkirche, Halberstadt (after 
 "Klingenberg, Mittelalterliche Ornamentik"). 
 
 15. Anthemion Frieze from South Germany (after Prang). 
 
 16. Carving from Tomb in St. Thomas', Strassburg. 
 
 17. Carved Band from Anhausen-an-dem-Brienz, S. Germany 
 
 ("Gewerbehalle"). 
 
 Illustrations not otherwise attributed are from drawings by the 
 author.
 
 PLATE 3TML 
 
 O. Capital. Ml (esitury 
 
 \.Church at Jaktiungay 
 
 AT. UehfiauenlriKhe. Halberytadt 
 
 IRfS 
 
 /3. Glass. HeilLgenKrtuz 
 
 ISfrieiz. South Gemvry ft. fiomaTomb.StlfomaiOxjrch. 17 From South Germany.
 
 XVII. GOTHIC STRUCTURAL ORNAMENT 
 
 1. Buttress Pinnacle from Notre Dame (Hauser). 
 
 2. Flying Arches, Sta. Barbara, Kuttenberg (Hauser). 
 
 3. Decorative Gable, Cologne Cathedral; Middle Period Tra- 
 
 cery (Hauser). 
 
 4. Crocket from St. Urbain, Troyes (Hauser). 
 
 5. Buttress Pinnacle, Notre Dame, Paris (C. U. Student Draw- 
 
 ing). 
 
 6. Early French Finial. 
 
 7. French Gothic Vault Rib (Hauser). 
 
 8. English Pier Arch Moldings (Hauser). 
 
 9. Late Gothic Crocket, Rouen (Hauser). 
 
 10. Wall Traceries, Transept of Meaux Cathedral (C. U. Stu- 
 
 dent Drawing). 
 
 11. Finial Cathedral of Troyes (Hauser). 
 
 12. Half-Plan and Elevation, Clustered Pier, Notre Dame, 
 
 Paris (C. U. Student Drawing). 
 
 13. Pier Cap and Arch Moldings, Chartres Cathedral (Hauser). 
 
 14. Early Gothic or Transitional Balustrade (C. U. Student 
 
 Drawing). 
 
 15. Detail from Transept of Notre Dame, Paris (C. U. Stu- 
 
 dent Drawing, after Lassus and V.-le-Duc). 
 
 16. Flamboyant Balustrade, Chateau of Josselyn (C. U. Stu- 
 
 dent Drawing). 
 
 17. Early Gothic Balustrade, Notre Dame, Paris (C. U. Stu- 
 
 dent Drawing).
 
 PLATE 
 
 oo 
 
 GOTHIC ORNAMEMT. STRUCTURAL 
 
 /f Balusliade.Tronsitional Detail from 5 Transept. Notre Datm.fbrb 17 f&rly Gothic Balu5tia(fe>.
 
 XVIII. GOTHIC ORNAMENT, CARVING 
 
 1. Capitals, North Porch of Chartres Cathedral; XII Ith Cen- 
 
 tury. 
 
 2. Capitals, Northwest Portal, Laon Cathedral; Early Xlllth 
 
 Century. 
 
 3. Early French Gothic Capital. 
 
 4. Pedestal, North Porch, Chartres Cathedral. 
 
 5. From St. Urbain, Troyes. 
 
 6. Arch Ornament, North Portal, Bourges Cathedral. 
 
 7. Nave Piers, Reims Cathedral. 
 
 8. Bishop's Throne, Toul Cathedral, Early Xlllth Century. 
 
 9. Transept Rose (as before Alteration), Reims Cathedral. 
 
 10. The "Beau Dieu," Reims Cathedral. 
 
 11. Vault-Boss, from an Apsidal Chapel, Seez Cathedral. 
 
 12. Model of Apse of St. Urbain, Troyes; in Trocaderp Mu- 
 
 seum. 
 13, Ik Corbel and Crocket, Rouen: Flamboyant. 
 
 15. Vine Molding, Window of St. Urbain, Troyes, XlVth Cen- 
 
 tury. 
 
 16. "Bahut" in Cluny Museum, XVth Century. 
 
 17. Cast-Iron Knocker, from House in Rue du Lion, Troyes 
 
 (XVth Century). 
 
 18. Molding, Porch of Troyes Cathedral (XVth Century). 
 
 19. Fragment, Hotel de la Tremoille, in Court of Ecole des 
 
 Beaux-Arts. 
 
 All the above illustrations are from photo-print post-cards of casts 
 in the Museum of Comparative Sculpture in the Trocadero, Paris.
 
 / Caps N. Porcti. Chartrc 
 
 2. Capitab NW Fbrtul. Loon Cathedra 
 
 .3 Earfy Capital StJxttf) 
 
 ' ^j^^| &>bbopsThrone .Tout 'Cathedral 
 , Reins 
 
 9 Transept Rose, l&ims Gu 
 
 K MaCtloJ/ipse. St. Urban, Trcyes 
 
 16 'Bu/iut (fjaenstyQKJt, tii
 
 XIX. GOTHIC ORNAMENT, STAINED GLASS 
 
 1. Border, Window in Bourges Cathedral (Prang). 
 
 2. Border, Jesse Window in Chartres Cathedral (H. W. 
 
 Miller). 
 3,4. Figures from Chartres Jesse Window (H. W. Miller). 
 
 5. Border, Window in Bourges Cathedral (Author, after Owen 
 
 Jones). 
 
 6. Grisaille, Window in Bourges Cathedral (Owen Jones). 
 
 7. Border, W T indow in Bourges Cathedral (Owen Jones). 
 
 8. Border, Window in York Cathedral (Owen Jones). 
 
 9. Border from Window in Church of St. Thomas, Strass- 
 
 burg (Author, after Owen Jones). 
 10. Window Detail from St. Denis (Prang).
 
 o < 
 
 I Border. >ourgej Gath 
 
 2 Border, Jesse wnao*/. C/TartnssGjfo , End of- M* Century 
 
 3 and 4 Figures from Jesse Window, Chartrcs Cathedral. 
 
 6 Grtsaille. Bourses Cbml. 7 Dourcje. 
 
 .5 ' B>order.Dourge5 9 51 Thomas Church. Strassburg
 
 XX. GOTHIC ORNAMENT; PAINTED, CERAMIC AND 
 MSS. DECORATION 
 
 1. Painted Molding, Ely Cathedral. 
 
 2. Painted Enriched Molding, Beverley Cathedral. 
 3, 4. Painted Decorations from Brunswick Cathedral. 
 
 5. Painted Decoration from Reims Cathedral. 
 
 6. Painted Decoration, Salisbury Cathedral. 
 
 7. Painted Decoration, Winchester Cathedral. 
 8,12. Tile Units from French Churches. 
 
 9. Painted Decoration from Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse. 
 
 10. Painted Decoration from Ranworth Church, Norfolk. 
 
 11. From West Walton Church, Norfolk. 
 13. French Tiling, Xlllth Century. 
 
 14,16,17,19-24. Ornaments from Manuscripts of the Xllth and 
 
 Xlllth Centuries. 
 15, 18. Borders from Manuscripts of XlVth and XVth Centuries. 
 
 Of the above illustrations, Nos. 1 to 7 inclusive and 9, 10, 11 are 
 from Prang's "Plates of Historic Ornament," by permission, Nos. 
 8 and 12 to 24 inclusive are from Owen Jones, "Grammar of Orna- 
 ment."
 
 58 
 
 3 
 
 m 
 
 Q, TILE UNIT 
 
 IO. RANWORTH CH-, Norfolk . 1 1 WtST VA1.7DN CH V NorfolK , 
 
 HO 27. 2- 
 
 /!0 /Vb Is. A? /D 24indU3ivf one from Manuscripts: ffafld IQ are 
 the others are o/ JheAI/ ! as?dJ(/ll- Cesitur/e.5- _^ 
 
 24.
 
 XXI. ENGLISH GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 1. One Bay, Salisbury Cathedral. 
 
 2. One Bay, Choir of Lincoln Cathedral. 
 
 3. One Bay, Lichfield Cathedral, Nave. 
 
 4. Detail from King's College Chapel, Cambridge. 
 
 5. Perpendicular Wall Tracery. 
 
 6. Lancet Windows, Warmington Church. 
 
 7. Plate Tracery, Carlisle Cathedral. 
 
 8. Geometric Tracery, Rippington Church. 
 
 9. Geometric Tracery, Chapter House, York Cathedral. 
 
 10. Curvilinear Tracery, St. Michael's, Warfield. 
 
 11. Perpendicular Tracery, Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick. 
 
 12. Curvilinear Tracery, Oxford Cathedral. 
 
 13. Transept Rose, Westminster Abbey. 
 
 14. Capital from Lincoln Cathedral: Early English. 
 
 15. Capital from Beverley Cathedral: Decorated. 
 
 16. Cresting Ornament, Arundel Church: Perpendicular. 
 
 17. "Decorated" Finial. 
 
 18. "Decorated" Crocket. 
 
 19. "Decorated" Capital, Beverley Cathedral. 
 
 20. Carving from Trull Church. 
 
 21. One unit of a Diaper Decoration. 
 
 22. A "Perpendicular" Doorway and Door Paneling. 
 
 Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are reproduced by permission from the Au- 
 thor's drawings in Van Rensselaer's "English Cathedrals" (The 
 Century Co.). No. 4 is from part of an illustration in Simpson's 
 "A History of Architectural Development" (Longmans); 5 is from 
 Speltz, by permission; 6-11 are by the author; 12-15 are from 
 Gwilt's "Encyclopedia"; 17, 18 by the author after Speltz; 20-22 are 
 from drawings by Columbia students, from unidentified sources.
 
 'Decorated' Fmiat Oak leaf packet #
 
 XXII. ITALIAN GOTHIC ORNAMENT 
 
 1. Detail, Portal of Cathedral of Messina. 
 
 2. Open Tracery, Venetian Style. 
 
 3. Central Doorway, Cathedral of Messina. 
 
 4. Traceried Window, from a Town Hall. 
 
 5. Twisted Columns, from Niche in Fa9ade of Church of Or 
 
 San Michele, Florence. 
 
 6. Detail from Upper Story of Campanile, Florence. 
 
 7. Porch of Cathedral of Amalfi. 
 
 8. Gothic Detail in Terra-Cotta, Bologna. 
 
 9. Capital, Lower Arcade of Doge's Palace, Venice. 
 
 All the above illustrations are from photographs or photographic 
 prints except 9, which is from a student's drawing. Nos. 1, 3 and 
 7 are from photo prints published in the magazine Stone, reproduced 
 here by permission.
 
 4. Wmaou of an Italian Ibwn -Ha/I 
 
 ^Tv? 
 7. Porch, Cathedral oJAma/fL 
 
 8.Tem-cottaDetoil,E>ol<yna. Q.Cap/tal, Doqesfblacz.Venice
 
 INDEX
 
 INDEX 
 
 AACHEN, Palatine Chapel, 369 
 
 Acanthus: in Byzantine O., 211, 
 216; in French Romanesque O., 
 252, 255; in Greek O., 98, 120; in 
 Italian Gothic, 379; in Roman O., 
 152 
 
 yEgean Culture and art, 73 sq. 
 
 Ahuri-Mazda, 70, 71 
 
 Aizanoi, 115, 125 
 
 Alaska, 21; Totem Poles, 22 
 
 Alby, Cathedral, 312, 370 
 
 Alexandria, 158, 185 
 
 Alexandrian and Apulian Pottery, 
 108 
 
 Altenburg, 370 
 
 American Indians, 28 
 
 Museum of Natural His- 
 tory, 28 note 
 " Ornament, Primitive, 27 
 
 Amiens Cathedral, 363, 311, 338, 341, 
 
 342, 374 
 " Triptych in Library, 338 
 
 Angel Choir, Lincoln Cath., 311, 357 
 
 Anglo-Norman: Anthemions, 269; 
 Arches, Corbels, Doorways, Mold- 
 ings, 267; Carved Ornament, 269; 
 Fonts and Metal Work, 270; Or- 
 nament in General, 266; Painted 
 Decoration, 269 
 
 Angouleme, 257 
 
 Animal Forms in Egyptian O., 44 
 
 Animism in Primitive O., 21 
 
 Anthemion in Anglo-Norman O., 
 269; in Byzantine O., 215, 216; in 
 French Romanesque O., 269; in 
 German O., 274; in Greek O., 104, 
 118, 119; Greek Types of, 105; in 
 Roman O., 155 
 
 Antioch, Golden Church at, 232 
 
 Applied ornament defined, 7 
 
 Apollo Temple, Didyme, 114; Phig- 
 alaea (Bassae), 120 
 
 Apulian pottery, 99, 100, 108, 244 
 
 Ara Coeli (Santa Maria in), Rome, 
 200 
 
 Arcatures, 255, 269 
 
 Arch: of Constantine, 148; of Ha- 
 drian at Athens, 125; of Titus, 
 136, 156 
 
 Arches: Anglo-Norman, 267; French 
 Romanesque, 258; Gothic, 288 
 
 Architectural Ceramics: Greek, 109; 
 Etruscan, 130; Pompeiian, 130 
 
 Architectural Motives in Greek O., 97 
 
 Architectural Ornament: Defined, 7; 
 Byzantine, 208; Early Christian, 
 192; Egyptian, 38, 49, 52; Gothic 
 in General, 284; Greek, 110; Pom- 
 peiian, 172; Roman, 136; Roman- 
 esque, in General, 251 
 
 Aries, 307; St. Trophime at, 262 
 
 Armenia, 207, 221 ; Ornament of, 232 
 
 Artemision (Temple) at Ephesus, 
 114 
 
 Asia Minor, 65, 66, 111, 112, 114, 116, 
 140, 158, 163, 206 
 
 Assisi, 384 
 
 Assyrian: Lotus, 58, 59; Ornament, 
 Origins and Methods of, 57; Sa- 
 cred Tree, 36, 60, 84; Stepped 
 Parapet, 70; Volutes, 60, 61 
 
 Athens, 99, 115, 119, 121, 125 
 
 Aulnay, St. Pierre at, 261 
 
 Auvergne, 251 
 
 Avallon, 255 
 
 Avila, 276 
 
 B 
 
 BAALBEK, 137 
 
 Babylon, 57; Gate of Ishtar at, 64 
 
 395
 
 INDEX 
 
 Balawat Gates, 64 
 
 Bale Cathedral, 311 
 
 Balustrades, Gothic, 296 
 
 Bamberg, 227 
 
 Baptistery: Florence, 243; of S. 
 Stefano at Bologna, 240 
 
 Barcelona, 276 
 
 Barfreston Church, 269 
 
 Bases: Gothic, 287; Greek, 114, 115; 
 Roman, 142; Romanesque, 251 
 
 Basilican Ornament, 187 sq. 
 
 Basilicas, Christian: Sant' Agnese, 
 195; San Apollinare at Ravenna, 
 198, 2-20, 223, 225; Ara Coeli, 200; 
 San Clemente, 195, 198; St. John 
 Lateran, 198, 200; San Lorenzo 
 fuori le Mura, 200; San Marco, 
 Rome, 195, 198; Santa Maria Mag- 
 giore, 193, 201; Santa Maria in 
 Trastevere, 195, 196; St. Paul with- 
 out the Walls (San Paolo fuori le 
 Mura), 193; St. Peter, 193; Santa 
 Prassede, 198; Santa Pudenziana, 
 198; Santa Sabina, 198 
 
 Basilicas, Pagan: ^Emilia, 144; Julia, 
 163 
 
 Bassae (Phigalaea), 120 
 
 Basketry, 22, 27, 28, 78 
 
 Baths: of Caracalla, 161 ; at Pompeii, 
 161, 178; of Titus, 161, 162 
 
 Battle of Issus, Mosaic, 182 
 
 "Beau Dieu" of Reims, 311 
 
 Beauvais Cathedral, 366 
 
 Belgium, 283, 285 
 
 Benedictines, 245, 249, 377 
 
 Bergen, Golden Chalice at, 279 
 
 Biology of Styles, 11 
 
 Bologna, Baptistery of S. Stefano, 
 240 
 
 Books Recommended (see end of 
 each chapter). 
 
 Bosnia, Jar from, 28 
 
 Bourg-en-Bresse, Brou Church, 311, 
 338 
 
 Bowtels, English Gothic, 359 
 
 Brazil, Central, 21 
 
 Brou Church, 311, 338 
 
 Budmer in Bosnia, Jar from, 28 
 
 Byzantine Details: Acanthus, 211, 
 216; Anthemions, 215, 216; Bands 
 and Borders, 215; Carving, 212; 
 Church Furniture, 225 ; Floors and 
 Incrustations, 219; Guilloches and 
 Interlace, 218; Moldings, 215; 
 
 Mosaic, 220; MSS. Illumination, 227; 
 Rinceau, 217; Shafts, 211 
 
 Byzantine Influences, 237, 240, 243, 
 244, 249, 252, 255, 261, 264, 265, 
 270, 273, 274, 275, 277, 279, 319 
 
 Byzantine Ornament, 206 sq.; Archi- 
 tectural 208; Chief Characteristics 
 of, 207; Textile, 227 
 
 CALABRIA, 244 
 
 Campania, 99, 108 
 
 Campanile, Florence, 239, 379 
 
 Canopy Windows, 325, 364 
 
 Canterbury Cathedral, 329, 362, 364 
 
 Capitals: Anglo-Gorman, 267; By- 
 zantine, 210, 211; Egyptian, 50; 
 Etruscan, 130; Gothic, 283, 286, 
 332; Greek, 113; from Neandreia, 
 66; Persian, 68, 70; Pompeiian, 
 173; Roman, 140-142, 144, 147; 
 Romanesque, 251, 252, 273 
 
 Carolingian Art, 250 
 
 Carrenac, Portal of Church, 261 
 
 Carved Ornament: Anglo-Norman, 
 269; Byzantine, 212; English 
 Gothic, 354; French Gothic, 332; 
 French Romanesque, 250; Gothic 
 in General, 332; Greek, 111; Ital- 
 ian Gothic, 384; Italian Roman- 
 esque, 240, 245; Roman, 138, 149 
 sq. 
 
 Casa dei Capitelli Colorati, 172 
 
 Casa di Livia, 162 
 
 Castor and Pollux, Temple of, 141 
 
 Cathedrals: Alby, 312, 370; Alten- 
 burg, 329; Amiens, 262, 311, 338, 
 341, 342, 345, 366; Bale, 311; Can- 
 terbury, 329, 362, 364; Chartres, 
 263, 307, 311, 326, 338, 341, 345, 
 349; Cologne, 329, 366, 369, 370; 
 
 396
 
 INDEX 
 
 Durham, 267; Ely, 269; Florence 
 (Duomo) 379, 383, 384; Freiburg, 
 311, 370; Gloucester, 363; Lich- 
 field, 311, 355; Lincoln, 311, 357, 
 361; Lucca (S. Martino), 383; 
 Paris (Notre Dame), 326, 341, 342, 
 350; Peterboro', 269, 363; Ratis- 
 bon, 370; Reims, 263, 279, 280, 326, 
 335, 338, 341, 345; Rouen, 261, 345; 
 Salisbury, 329; Sienna, 378; South- 
 well, 289, 306; St. Denis, 255, 325, 
 341; Strassburg, 311, 329, 369, 370; 
 Tours, 326, 345; Troyes, 334; 
 Wells, 305, 311, 356, 360; Winches- 
 ter, 357, 362; York, 326, 329, 364 
 
 Ceilings: of Basilicas, 201; English, 
 269, 361 ; Roman, 155, 156 
 
 Celtic: Art, 221, 231, 271; Crosses, 
 272; Influence, 219, 297; Interlace, 
 271, 272, 277, 278; MSS., 219, 232, 
 271, 277 
 
 Central American Art, 27 
 
 Chaldea and Assyria: Land and Ma- 
 terials, 56; Chronology, 55; Early 
 Art, 56 
 
 Chalons-sur-Marne, 252 
 
 Chapter House, Southwell Cathedral, 
 289, 306 
 
 Character: of Anglo-Norman O., 266; 
 of Byzantine O., 207; of Egyptian 
 O., 36; of Gothic O., 284, 303, 331, 
 353, 366, 377; of Greek O., 93; of 
 Roman O., 127, 132, 149; of Roman- 
 esque O., 238, 239, 244, 249 
 
 Charente, 251 
 
 Charlemagne, Crown of, 224, 227 
 
 Chartres Cathedral, 263, 307, 311, 
 326, 338, 341, 345, 349 
 
 Chevron: in Assyrian O., 59, 64; in 
 Egyptian O., 45 
 
 Choir Stalls, 311, 312, 387 
 
 Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, 
 114, 121, 123, 124 
 
 Chouamta, Georgia, 232 
 
 Chromatic O., Denned, 5 
 
 Church Furniture: Byzantine, 223; 
 Early Christian, 198; Romanesque, 
 279;*Gothic, 316 
 
 Cistercians, 377 
 
 Classic Influence and Tradition: in 
 French Romanesque O., 249, 255; 
 in Gothic O. generally, 303; in 
 Italian Gothic O., 377, 380; in Tus- 
 can Romanesque, 240 
 
 Classifications of Ornament, 4; their 
 Significance, 7 
 
 Cloisters, Gloucester Cathedral, 363 
 
 Coere in Etruria, 99 
 
 Cologne Cathedral, 366, 373 
 
 Color: in Assyrian O., 63; in Egyp- 
 tian O., 38; in Gothic O., 323, 324, 
 349, 364; in Greek O., 109, 111; in 
 Italian Architecture, 378, 384; in 
 Pompeiian O., 177; in Roman O., 
 162 
 
 Columns: Anglo-Norman, 266; Cre- 
 tan, 74; Early Christian, 139; 
 Egyptian, 49, 50; Gothic, 285; 
 Greek, 112, 114; Persian, 68; 
 Roman, 136, 137, 140, 147; Roman- 
 esque, 240, 251 
 
 Comacini, Maestri, 245, 303 
 
 Composite: Capital, 142; Order, 
 140 
 
 Compostella, 276 
 
 Conclusion on Gothic O., 388 
 
 Constantine: Arch of, 148 
 
 Constantinople, 123, 124, 164, 196, 
 210, 214, 238, 278, 279 
 
 Conventional Ornament: Defined, 5; 
 in Egyptian Art, 45; in Roman 
 Art, 138 
 
 Convergence in Ornament, 12 
 
 Corbels: Gothic, 301; Norman, 267 
 
 Corbel Tables, French Romanesque, 
 262 
 
 Corinth, 99, 132 
 
 Corinthian Capital: in Gothic O., 379; 
 Greek, 121; Roman, 141 
 
 Corinthian cornice, 144 
 
 Corinthian Order: Greek, 114, 121, 
 144; Roman, 122, 141, 142, 144 
 
 Cosmati and Cosmati Work, 200, 
 239, 243, 383 
 
 Crestings, Gothic, 298 
 
 Crete, 73 
 
 397
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cretan: Columns, 74; Spiral Scroll, 
 
 75 
 
 Crockets, Gothic, 297, 301, 303, 305 
 Crown of Charlemagne, 224, 227 
 Curvilinear Tracery, 346, 360 
 Cusping, 295, 342 
 
 Cuttlefish in Pre-Hellenic Art, 78, 79 
 Cypress, in Byzantine Art, 217 
 Cypriote: Lotus and Palmette, 83, 
 
 84; Ornament, 83 
 Cyprus, 77 
 
 D 
 
 DALMATIA, 107, 170, 213 
 
 "Decorated" Style, 283, 289, 360 
 
 Decorative Carving: see Carved Or- 
 nament 
 
 Decorative Painting: Anglo-Norman, 
 269; English Gothic, 364; French 
 Gothic, 349; French Romanesque, 
 263; Italian Gothic, 384; Pom- 
 peiian, 177; Roman, 162 
 
 Decorative System: of Italian Gothic 
 Style, 377; of Roman Architecture, 
 133 
 
 Definition of Terms in Ornament, 3 
 
 Delos, Apollo Temple, 124 
 
 Developed Period in Gothic O., 293, 
 295 
 
 Didyme, 114, 115, 122, 124 
 
 Dipylon Pottery, 102, 103 
 
 Doge's Palace, Venice, 385 
 
 Doghanlou, Tomb at, 66 
 
 Doric Order: Greek, 92, 112, 113, 117, 
 140, 147; Pompeiian, 172; Roman, 
 140, 147 
 
 Doric Style and Temples, 92 
 
 Dorpfeld, Theory of Doric Order, 92 
 
 Drip Moldings, English, 359 
 
 Duomo of Florence, 379, 383, 384 
 
 Durham Cathedral, 267 
 
 E 
 
 EARLY Chaldean Art, 56 
 Early Christian: Architectural orna- 
 ment, 192; Ceilings, 201; Church 
 
 Furniture, 198; Floors, 194; Mo- 
 saic, 196; Ornament in General, 187 
 sq.; Sepulchral Art, 188 
 
 Early French Style, 283, 284, 331 
 
 E. B. Tylor, 61 
 
 Egg-and-Dart in Greek Ornament, 
 107, 108 
 
 Egypt: Influence of Climate, 33; 
 Land and People, 31 ; Materials, 34 
 
 Egyptian Art, Periods, 34 
 
 Egyptian Ornament: Architectural, 
 38, 49, 50-52, 54; Columns and 
 Piers, 49, 50, 51, 52; Frets, 48; 
 Furniture, 54; General Survey, 36, 
 38; Industrial Arts, 52; Jewelry, 
 49; Lotus (see Lotus); Pottery, 
 34, 53; Prehistoric, 35; Rosettes, 
 46; Sources and Motives, 37; Swas- 
 tika, 48; Trilobe Lotus, 41, 42, 60, 
 78 
 
 Elements of Latin Ornament, 193 
 
 Eleusis, 115, 122, 123 
 
 Ely Cathedral, 269 
 
 England, 255, 282, 285, 286, 287, 290, 
 293, 294, 305, 315, 320, 326, 360 
 
 English Gothic: Carving, 354; Dec- 
 orative Painting, 364; Drip Mold- 
 ings, 359; Foliage, 354; Figure 
 Sculpture, 356; General Character, 
 353; Influence on French Tracery, 
 341, 346, 360; Moldings, 356, 358; 
 Tracery, 360; Woodwork, 361 
 
 English Romanesque (See Anglo- 
 Norman). 
 
 Epidauros, Tholos of, 121, 122 
 
 Erechtheion, 118, 120, 122 
 
 Esslingen, 370 
 
 Etruscan Ornament, 129 
 
 FAUSTINA, Temple of, 141 
 Feathers, in Egyptian Ornament, 45 
 Ferentino, 239 
 
 Fergusson, on Stained Glass, 346 
 Fetishism, Animism, Totemism, 21 
 Figure Sculpture: English Gothic, 
 356; French Gothic, 337; French 
 
 398
 
 INDEX 
 
 Romanesque, 262; Gothic in Gen- 
 eral, 307; Roman, 156 
 
 Fiji Islands, 26 
 
 Finials, Gothic, 297 
 
 Flamboyant Period, 253, 283, 331, 
 336, 360; Tracery, 294, 342, 360 
 
 Flanders, 320, 326 
 
 Flinders Petrie, 40 note, 44, 49 note 
 
 Florence, 240, 379, 380, 384, 385; Bap- 
 tistery of, 243; Campanile, 239, 
 379; Duomo, 379, 383, 384; Or San 
 Michele, 383; Santa Maria Novella, 
 387 
 
 Florid Period in Gothic O., 284, 288, 
 289, 296, 297 
 
 "Flowing" Tracery, 346, 360 
 
 Foliage: English Gothic, 354; French 
 Gothic, 332; Gothic in General, 303 
 
 Fonts, Anglo-Norman, 270 
 
 France, 249, 282, 283, 284, 288, 289, 
 294, 296, 303, 315, 316, 320, 326, 
 360, 362, 364, 388 
 
 Freiburg Cathedral, 311, 370 
 
 French Gothic Ornament: Carving, 
 332; Figure Sculpture, 337; Foli- 
 age, 332, Moldings, 333; Painted 
 Decoration, 349; Rose Windows, 
 294, 341, 342, 345; Stained Glass, 
 326, 346; Tracery, 338 
 
 French Influence in Spanish Roman- 
 esque O., 276 
 
 French Romanesque Ornament : 
 Arches, 255 ; Carving of Bands and 
 Panels, 250; Classic Influence in, 
 249, 255; Corbel Tables, 262; Door- 
 ways, 258; Figure Sculpture, 262; 
 General Character, 249; Moldings, 
 257; Ornaments, 261; Painted 
 Decoration, 263 
 
 Fresco, in Pompeiian Art, 177 
 
 Fret or Meander: Egyptian, 48; 
 Greek, 97, 98, 103 
 
 Friendly Islands, 25 
 
 Frigate Bird, 26 
 
 Furniture: Egyptian, 54; Pompeiian, 
 185 
 
 Furniture, Ecclesiastical (see Church 
 Furniture) 
 
 G 
 
 GADDI, 379, 384 
 
 Gargoyles, Gothic, 301 
 
 Gates: of Balawat, 64; of Ishtar at 
 Babylon, 64; Lion Gate at My- 
 cenae, 77 
 
 Gelathi, Armenia, 232 
 
 General Character of: Byzantine O., 
 207; Egyptian O., 38; 'French Ro- 
 manesque, O., 249 ; Greek O., 93 
 
 General Survey of Egyptian O., 36 
 
 Geometric or Dipylon Pottery, 102, 
 103 
 
 Geometric Motives: in Egyptian O., 
 45; in Greek O., 96, 97 
 
 Geometric Tracery, 360 
 
 Georgian Byzantine Carving, 232 
 
 German: Branch Tracery, 370; 
 Gothic Moldings, 366; Gothic Or- 
 nament, General, 366; Minor Arts, 
 375; Moldings, 370; MSS., 375; Ro- 
 manesque O., 273; Spires, 285; 
 Stained Glass, 275, 372; Tracery, 
 369 
 
 Germany, 237, 256, 273, 279, 283, 285, 
 295, 297, 306, 315, 316, 320, 326, 
 329, 388 
 
 Gernrode, 274 
 
 Giotto, 239, 379, 384 
 
 Gloucester Cathedral: Candlestick, 
 271 ; Cloisters, 363 
 
 Golden House of Nero, 161, 162 
 
 Goodyear, W. H., 41, 43 note, 44, 49 
 note, 51 note, 59 note, 107 note 
 
 Gothic: Architecture Defined, 282; 
 Architectural Periods, 283; Balus- 
 trades, 296; Bases, 286, 287; Capi- 
 tals, 283, 286, 332; Carving, 303, 
 332; Crestings, 298; Crockets, 297, 
 301, 303; Cusping, 295, 342; Dec- 
 orative Painting, 349, 369, 384; 
 Figure Sculpture, 307, 337, 356; 
 Finials, 297; Foliage, 303, 332; 
 Gargoyles, 301; Minor Architec- 
 ture, 311; Metal Work, 316; Mold- 
 ings, 288; MSS. Decoration, 320; 
 Piers, Shafts and Columns, 285; 
 Pinnacles, 297; Stained Glass, 324, 
 
 399
 
 INDEX 
 
 564; Structural Ornament, 324; 
 Tabernacles, 298; Textiles, 319; 
 Tiles, 319; Tracery, 293, 282, 283, 
 293, 338-346, 360-361, 374, 380; 
 Vaulting, 289, 361, 374; Wood- 
 work, 812, 357, 373 
 
 Gothic Schools and Styles (see under 
 separate titles) 
 
 Greco-Roman Art, 93, 124 
 
 Greek: Acanthus, 98, 120; Anthe- 
 mion, 104, 118, 119; Architectural 
 Ceramics, 109; Architectural Dec- 
 oration, 110; Art Periods, 91; 
 Carved Details, 116; Conquest by 
 Rome, 124, 132; Corinthian Order, 
 114, 121, 144; Doric Order, 112, 
 113, 117, 140, 147; Doric Style, 92; 
 Geometric Motives, 96; Griffins, 
 Grotesques, 124; Guilloche, 98, 
 107; Ionic Order, 113, 117, 140; 
 Moldings, 109, 111, 115; Nature 
 Forms, 96, 97; Ornament, General 
 Characteristics of, 93; Ornament, 
 Introductory, 88; Ornament, Mo- 
 tives of, 96, 97; Ornament, Related 
 to Roman, 124; Painted Details, 
 Polychromy, 115; People, 88; Pot- 
 tery, Changes in style of, 100; Pot- 
 tery, Decoration of, 99-109; Pot- 
 tery, Geometric or Dipylon, 102, 
 103; Pottery, Types and Forms of, 
 102; Rinceau, 98, 108, 122; Stele 
 Heads, 119; Style History, 112 
 
 Greek Wave or Spiral Scroll: in 
 Egyptian O., 46; in Greek O., 104 
 
 Griffins: Assyrian, 63; Greek, 124 
 
 Grimani Breviary, 323 
 
 Grisaille, 325 
 
 Grotesques: Anglo-Norman, 268; 
 French Gothic, 338; Greek, 124; 
 Pompeiian, 185; Roman, 157; Ro- 
 manesque, 245 
 
 Guilloche: Assyrian, 59; Byzantine, 
 218; Early Christian, 199; Greek, 
 98, 107 
 
 H 
 
 HADDOX, A. C., 26 
 
 Hagia Sophia, 209, 210, 212, 220, 221, 
 222, 225 
 
 Hagia Triada, Crete, 73, 74 
 
 Hammer Beam Ceilings, 363 
 
 Hathor Head in Egyptian O., 44, 50 
 
 Hawaiian Islands, 26 
 
 Heilsbronn, 274, 279 
 
 Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster, 
 363 
 
 Herculanum, 183 
 
 Hildesheim: Candlestick, 279; Trea- 
 sure, 167 
 
 Historic Styles, Survey, 10 
 
 History, meaning of, 8 
 
 Holmes, W. H., 28 
 
 House: of the Faun, Pompeii, 182, 
 183; Golden, of Nero, 161, 162; of 
 Livia, Rome, 171; of the Painted 
 Capitals, Pompeii, 173; of Queen 
 Margherita, of the Vettii, Pompeii, 
 174 
 
 IALYSSOS, Rhodes, 79, 86 
 
 Iffley Church, 269 
 
 Ile-de-France, 251, 252 
 
 Imbrications: Assyrian, 59; Egyp- 
 tian, 45; French Romanesque, 261; 
 Greek, 107 
 
 Impost Blocks, Byzantine, 209 
 
 Indians: American, 28; of Central 
 Brazil, 21 
 
 Industrial Ornament: Defined, 7; 
 Egyptian, 52 
 
 Intarsia, 387 
 
 Interlace: Byzantine, 221, 272; Celtic, 
 221, 271, 272, 377, 278; Scandina- 
 vian, 277 
 
 Introduction to Greek Ornament, 88 
 
 Ionic Order: Greek, 113, 140; Pom- 
 peiian, 171, 172; Roman, 140 
 
 Irish Art, 271, 274, 278; also see 
 Celtic 
 
 Islands: Fiji, 26; Friendly, 26; 
 Hawaiian, 26; South Sea, 25; 
 Samoan, 26 
 
 Italian Gothic: Architectural De- 
 tails, 380; Decorative Painting, 
 
 400
 
 INDEX 
 
 384; The System, 377; Tracery, 
 380, 385; Wood and Metal, 387 : 
 
 Italian Romanesque: Carving, 240; 
 Cosmati Work in, 239; General, 
 238; Grotesques, 245; Inlay and 
 Striping, 240; Lombard Style, 244; 
 MSS., 249; Siculo-Arabic Style, 
 243; Wheel Windows, 249 
 
 Italy, 234, 245, 303, 316, 319, 320, 
 326, 329, 388 
 
 Ivory Carving, Byzantine, 224 
 
 Ivory Throne of Maximian, 224 
 
 "JACHIN and Boaz," 82 
 Java, War Drum Head, 26 
 Jean Fouquet, 323 
 Jerusalem, 82, 85 
 "Jesse Tree" Windows, 325 
 
 K 
 
 KAHRIE Mosque (Mone tes Choras 
 
 Church), 222 
 Kameiros, Rhodes, 86 
 Karnak, Hypostyle Hall, 43 
 Kelat Seman, Syria, 232 
 Knossos, Crete, 73, 74, 75 
 
 LABEL or Drip Moldings, English, 359 
 
 Lancet Style, 283 
 
 Leading Characteristics of Byzan- 
 tine Ornament, 207 
 
 Lichfield Cathedral, 301, 311 
 
 Liernes, 290, 362 
 
 Limoges Enamels, 224, 264 
 
 Lincoln Cathedral: Angel Choir, 311, 
 357; Circular Windows, 361 
 
 Lion Gate, Mycenae, 77 
 
 Living Forms in Assyrian Ornament, 
 63 
 
 Loggie of Vatican, 162 
 
 Lombard Doorways, 258 
 
 Lombard Style, 238; Influence of, 
 218, 258 
 
 Lombards, The, 244 
 
 Lombardy, 246 
 
 Lotiform Motive, Greek, 106 
 
 Lotus: Assyrian, 58, 59; Egyptian. 
 
 40-42, 58, 60, 69, 83, 84, 98, 104; 
 
 Trilobe Lotus, 41, 42, 60, 78 
 Louviers, Church of St. Pierre, 345 
 Lucca, 239; San Guisto at, 240; San 
 
 Martino at, 383 
 Lycian Architecture, 69 
 Lydia, 65 
 Lysicrates, Choragic Monument of, 
 
 114, 121, 123, 124 
 
 M 
 
 MAESTRI Comacini, 245, 303 
 
 Maison Carree, Nimes, 144 
 
 Mandorla Door, Florence Cathedral, 
 384 
 
 Mangaian Ornament, 21 
 
 Manuscript Illumination, 219, 227, 
 232, 277, 320 
 
 Martorana, La, at Palermo, 243 
 
 Maximian, Ivory Throne of, 224 
 
 Meaning of History of Ornament, 8 
 
 Meaux, Cathedral, 342 
 
 Medallion Windows, 325 
 
 Melos, Melian Pottery and O., 74, 86, 
 99 
 
 Metal Work, Gothic, 316 
 
 Method of this History, 15 
 
 Metropolitan Museum of Art, N. Y., 
 vii, 85, 131, 178 note 
 
 Mexican Pottery, 27 
 
 Milan Cathedral, 279, 383 
 
 Miletus, 114, 122, 123 
 
 Minor Architecture, Gothic, 311 
 
 Minor Arts, German, 373 
 
 Modillion, The Roman, 144 
 
 Moissac, 252 
 
 Mokheta, Georgia, 232 
 
 Molaise Gospels, 272 
 
 Molding Ornaments, Gothic, 289, 358 
 
 Moldings: Anglo-Norman, 267; By- 
 zantine, 215; Drip or Label, 359; 
 Egyptian Torus, 49, 50; English 
 Gothic, 358; French Gothic, 288, 
 
 401
 
 INDEX 
 
 333; French Romanesque, 257; 
 German Gothic, 306; Greek, 109, 
 111, 115; Roman, 139, 153 
 
 Molfetta, 388 
 
 Monasterboice, Ireland, 272 
 
 Mone tes Choras (Kahrie' Mosque), 
 222 
 
 Monreale, 200, 201, 239, 243, 244 
 
 Monument of Lysicrates, 114, 121, 
 123, 124 
 
 Mosaic: Byzantine, 220; Chaldean at 
 Warka, 57; Early Christian, 196; 
 Italian Gothic, 380; Pompeiian, 
 181; Roman, 162 
 
 Motives in Ornament: Assyrian, 57- 
 59; Denned, 3; Egyptian, 37, 45; 
 Greek, 96-98 
 
 Mudejar Style, 374 
 
 Mural Painting: Italian, 384; Pom- 
 peiian, 173; Roman, 162 
 
 Museums: American of Natural His- 
 tory, 28 note; of Capitol, Rome, 
 167; Metropolitan at New York, 
 vii, 85, 131, 178 note; of Naples, 
 164, 167, 174, 182, 183; of Toulouse, 
 252; of Trocade>o, Paris, 264, 342; 
 of Vatican, 167, 186 
 
 Mycenae, 74, 77, 92 
 
 Mycenaean: Buttons, 79; Ornament, 
 77; Spirals, 82 
 
 Myth-making Faculty in Savages, 25 
 
 N 
 
 NAPLES, Museum of, 164, 167, 174, 
 182, 185 
 
 Nature Forms: in Egyptian O., 40; 
 in Greek O., 96, 97; in Myce- 
 naean O., 79 
 
 Neandreia, Capital from, 66 
 
 New Guinea, Art of, 25, 27 
 
 New Zealand: Art of, 24, 25; Maori 
 Flute from, 26; Tiki-Tiki Pattern, 
 26 (see also Mangaian) 
 
 Nippur (Niffer), 57 
 
 Nithhoggr, 272 
 
 Norman (see Anglo-Norman) 
 
 Normandy, 251, 257 
 
 Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, 326, 
 
 341,342 
 
 Notre Dame Church, Poitiers, 257 
 Nuremberg, Churches at, 369, 370 
 
 OPPEKHEIM, St. Catherine's at, 369 
 
 Opus Alexandrinum, 158, 193, 199, 
 239; Grecanicum, 181, 196; Sectile, 
 193, 199 
 
 Orcagna, 385 
 
 Orchomenos, 79 
 
 Orders of Architecture: Composite, 
 140; Corinthian, 114, 121, 122, 14], 
 142, 144; Doric, 92, 112, 113, 117, 
 140, 147, 172; Ionic, 113, 140, 171, 
 172; Tuscan, 140 
 
 Origins of Ornament, 30 
 
 Ormidia, Vase from, 86 
 
 Ornament: Classifications of, 4; De- 
 fined, 3; Origins of, 20 (and see 
 Table of Contents) 
 
 Orvieto, 378 
 
 PAINTED Decoration (see Decorative 
 Painting) 
 
 Painting, Mural (see Mural Paint- 
 ing) 
 
 Pala d'Oro, 223, 279 
 
 Palace of Diocletian, Spalato, 208 
 
 Palatine Chapel, Aachen, 369 
 
 Palazzo Pubblico, Sienna, 387 
 
 Palermo,. 243 
 
 Palestine, 213 
 
 Palm Tree in Assyrian O., 61 
 
 Pahnette: Assyrian, 61; Cypriote, 
 83; Egyptian, 48; Greek, 104; Per- 
 sian, 69; Phenician, 82, 83 
 
 Pantheon at Rome, 140, 155, 158, 163 
 
 Papuan Art, 21, 25, 27 
 
 Papyrus in Egyptian O., 43, 51, 52 
 
 Parenzo, 216 
 
 Paris, 326, 331, 341, 342, 350 
 
 Parthenon, 115, 119, 124 
 
 Pasargadae, 67 
 
 402
 
 INDEX 
 
 Pattern Defined, 3 
 
 Pavements, Decorative (Floors): in 
 Baptistery, Florence, 243; Byzan- 
 tine, 208; Pompeiian, 181; Roman, 
 162; Romanesque, 265 
 
 Periods: in Egyptian Art, 34; in 
 Gothic Styles, 283, 331; in Greek 
 Art, 91; in Pompeiian Art, 174 
 
 Perpendicular Style, 244, 283, 289, 
 296, 306, 346, 360, 361 
 
 Persian: Architectural O., 67; Col- 
 umns, 68; Ornament Motives, 69; 
 Stepped Parapet, 70 
 
 Persistence of Motives, 11 
 
 Peruvian Art, 27 
 
 Peterboro' Cathedral, 269, 363 
 
 Phaistos, Crete, 73, 74 
 
 Phenician Ornament, 79, 82, 83 
 
 Phigalaea (Bassae) Apollo Temple, 
 120 
 
 Phrygia, 65, 68 
 
 Piers: Egyptian, 49, 51, 52; Gothic, 
 285 
 
 Pine Cone in Assyrian Ornament, 59 
 
 Pinnacles in Gothic Architecture, 297 
 
 Pisa, 238, 239, 240, 257; Baptistery, 
 240 
 
 Pistoia, 239 
 
 Plant Forms: in Egyptian Ornament, 
 43; in Mycenaean O., 79; in Gothic 
 O. (see Foliage) 
 
 Plastic Ornament Defined, 5 
 
 Plate Tracery, 293, 360 
 
 Poitiers, Notre Dame at, 257; Ste. 
 Radgonde, 264 
 
 Polychromy: Greek, 109, 111; Italian, 
 378, 379, 384 
 
 Polynesian Ornament, 25 
 
 Pomegranate in Assyrian O., 59 
 
 Pompeii, 125, 130, 162, 163, 164 
 
 Pompeiian: Architectural Detail, 
 172; Decorative Art, 170; Furni- 
 ture and Utensils, 183; Mosaic, 
 181; Mural Decoration, 173; 
 Periods in Mural Decoration, 174; 
 Stucco Relief, 178 
 
 Pomposa, Santa Maria, 220 
 
 "Portal Guardians," Assyrian, 62 
 
 Portugal, 283 
 
 Pottery: American, 27, 28; Apulian, 
 
 99, 100, 106, 244; Bolivian, 28; 
 
 Cretan, 75; Egyptian, 34, 53; 
 
 Greek, 99; Melian, 74, 86, 99; 
 
 Mexican, 27; Peruvian, Pueblo, 27, 
 
 28; South American, 28; Zuni, 27 
 Pottery Decoration, Greek, 99-109 
 "Powdered" Ornament Defined, 5 
 Prehistoric and Primitive Ornament, 
 
 12 
 
 Prehistoric Egyptian Ornament, 35 
 Priene, 122 
 
 Primitive American Ornament, 27 
 Provence, 249, 251, 252, 255, 262 
 Pueblo Pottery, 27 
 
 Q 
 
 QUAERY Defined, 5 
 
 R 
 
 RATISBON (Regensburg) Cathedral, 
 370 
 
 Ravenna, 206, 210, 211, 220, 223, 224, 
 238 
 
 Rayonnant Style, 283, 331, 332, 341, 
 342 
 
 Reims Cathedral, 262, 278, 279, 280, 
 326, 335, 338, 341 
 
 Rhine Provinces, 273 
 
 Rhodes, 77, 86, 99 
 
 Rinceau: Byzantine, 217; French 
 Romanesque, 255, 256; French 
 Gothic, 337; Greek, 98, 108, 123; 
 Pompeiian, 177; Roman, 153-155 
 
 Roman: Acanthus, 152; Anthemion, 
 155, 156; Architectural Features, 
 136; Carved O., 138, 149 sq.; Ceil- 
 ing Decoration, 155; 156; Con- 
 quests of Greece, 93, 124, 132; 
 Conventional O., 138; Decorative 
 System, 133; Figure Sculpture, 
 156; Floor-Pavements, 162; Fur- 
 niture and Utensils, 164; Gro- 
 tesques, 157; Moldings, 139, 153; 
 Mural Painting, 162; Orders of 
 
 403
 
 INDEX 
 
 Architecture, 140, 144, 147; Ilin- 
 ceau, 153-155; Stucco Relief, 158, 
 178; Wall Decoration, 158, 162 
 
 Roman Genius, The, 127 
 
 Romanesque, English (see Anglo- 
 Norman) 
 
 Romanesque, French (see French 
 Romanesque) 
 
 Romanesque, German (see German 
 Romanesque) 
 
 Romanesque Metal Work, 279 
 
 Romanesque Ornament: Italian in 
 General, 238; Lombard, 244; Tus- 
 can, 239; Scandinavian, 277; Span- 
 ish, 276 
 
 Romanesque Period, The, 234 
 
 Rose Windows: English, 361; 
 French Gothic, 341, 342, 345, 361 
 
 Rosettes: Assyrian, 61; Cretan, 80; 
 Egyptian, 46; Gothic (Vaulting 
 Bosses), 290; Greek, 98; Myce- 
 naean, 78; Persian, 69; Roman, 
 142, 143, 153 
 
 Rosheim, Alsace, 274 
 
 Rouen: Cathedral, 261, 345; St. 
 Maclou, St. Ouen, 345 
 
 Rouheiha, Syria, 231, 232 
 
 Russian Byzantine Ornament, 232 
 
 S 
 
 SACRED Tree, Assyrian, 36, 60, 84 
 
 Sakkarah, Tombs at, 46 
 
 Sainte Chapelle, Paris, 326, 341, 345, 
 350 
 
 Salamanca, 276 
 
 Salisbury Cathedral, 329 
 
 Salonica, 210 
 
 Samoan Islands, 26 
 
 San Andrea, Vercelli, 384 
 
 San Apollinare Churches at Ra- 
 venna, 198, 220, 223, 225 
 
 San Francesco, Assisi, 384 
 
 San Lorenzo fuori, Rome, 200 
 
 San Marco, Rome, 195, 198 
 
 San Martino, Lucca, 383 
 
 San Paolo (see St. Paul) 
 
 San Miniato, 201, 240, 243 
 
 San Stefano, Bologna, 240 
 San Vitale, Ravenna^ 211, 220 
 Sant' Anastasia, Verona, 384 
 Santa Costanza, Rome, 202 
 Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, Rome, 
 200 
 
 " " Maggiore, Rome, 193, 
 201 
 
 " " Novella, Florence, 387 
 " Pomposa, 220 
 
 " " in Trastevere, Rome, 
 
 195, 196 
 
 Santa Prassede, Rome, 198 
 Santa Sabina, Rome, 195 
 Sardis, 66 
 Savage Ornament, Characteristics 
 
 of, 25, 29 
 Saxony, 273 
 Scaligers, Tombs of the, 382 (ill'n) ; 
 
 383, 388 
 
 Scandinavian Ornament, 277 
 Scarabaeus in Egyptian Ornament, 
 
 44, 54 
 
 Sicily, 238, 239, 243, 319 
 Siculo-Arabic Style, 238, 239, 243 
 Sidon Sarcophagi, 123, 124 
 Sienna, 238, 384, 387; Cathedral, 378 
 Significance of Classifications, 7 
 Six Propositions on History of O., 
 
 13 
 
 Solomon's Temple, 82 
 Sources and Motives of Egyptian O., 
 
 37 
 
 South Sea Islands, 25 
 Southwark, St. Saviour's, 357 
 Southwell Chapter House, 289, 306 
 Spain, 283, 293, 311, 319, 320, 329, 
 
 398 
 Spalato in Dalmatia, 137, 207, 208, 
 
 209, 213 
 Spanish: Chapel of Santa Maria 
 
 Novella, Florence, 387; Gothic 
 
 Ornament, 373 ; Romanesque 
 
 Style, 276 
 
 Sphinx in Egyptian Art, 45 
 Spirals: JEgean and Pre-Hellenic, 
 
 78, 82; Egyptian, 46; Greek, 98; 
 
 in Savage Ornament, 28, 30 
 
 404
 
 INDEX 
 
 St. Ceneri, 264 
 
 St. Denis, 255, 325, 341 
 
 St. Gilles, near Aries, 255, 307 
 
 St. John Lateran, Rome, 198, 200 
 
 St. Maclou, Rouen, 345 
 
 St. Mark's, Venice, 195, 207, 212, 
 
 223, 224, 279 
 St. Omer, Cathedral, 265 
 SI. Ouen, Rouen, 345 
 St. Paul without the Walls (San 
 
 Paolo fuori le Mura), Rome, 198, 
 
 200 
 
 St. Paul-Trois-Chateaux, 250 
 St. Pierre, Louviers, 345 
 St. Saviour's, Southwark, 357 
 St. Trophime, Aries, 262 
 St. Urbain, Troyes, 336, 342 
 Stained Glass, 320, 324; English, 
 
 366; French, 346; German, 370 
 Ste. Radegonde, Poitiers, 264 
 Stepped Parapet: Assyrian, 59; 
 
 Persian, 70 
 Strassburg, Cathedral, 311, 329, 369, 
 
 370 
 Structural Ornament: Denned, 7; 
 
 Gothic, 283 
 Stucco Relief: Pompeiian, 178; 
 
 Roman, 158, 178 
 Styles: "Biology" of, 11; Historic, 
 
 10; Summary of Sequence of, 15; 
 
 Value of Study of, 14 
 Summary: of Characteristics of 
 
 Savage Ornament, 29; of Sequence 
 
 of Styles, 15 
 Sun Disk on Egyptian Buildings, 
 
 44 
 
 Susa, 64, 67, 68 
 Swastika: in Cypriote Ornament, 
 
 84, 85, 86; in Egyptian O., 48; in 
 
 Greek O., 98; in Pompeiian 
 
 Mosaics, 181; in Roman O., 164 
 Syria, 206, 210, 213, 229 
 Syrian Christian Ornament, 229 
 System: of Italian Gothic Orna- 
 ment, 377; Roman Decorative, 133 
 
 TALENTI, Architect of Campanile, 379 
 
 Tarragona, 276 
 
 Technic Theory of Origins of Orna- 
 ment, 22 
 
 Tegernsee, Earliest Stained Glass, 
 324 note 
 
 Temples: of Apollo at Didyme, 114, 
 115, 122, 124; of Apollo at Phi- 
 galaea (Bassae), 120; of Castor and 
 Pollux, Rome, 140; of Egypt, 43, 
 51; of Erechtheion, Athens, 118, 
 120, 122; of Faustina, Rome, 
 140; of Parthenon, Athens, 115, 
 119, 124; of Zeus, Athens, 121 
 
 Textile Ornament: Byzantine, 227; 
 Gothic, 319 
 
 Theories of Origins of Ornament, 
 20, 22 
 
 Tholos: of Atreus, Mycenae, 77; of 
 Epidauros, 121, 122 
 
 Throne of Maximian, 224 
 
 Tiercerons, 290, 361 
 
 Tiles: Chaldean and Assyrian, 57, 
 63; Romanesque, 265; Gothic, 319 
 
 Tiryns, 74, 75, 77, 78, 92 
 
 Titus: Arch of, 136, 156; Baths of, 
 161 
 
 Tombs; of Abbot of Aubazine (ill.), 
 309; at Doghanlou, 66; of Galla 
 Placidia, Ravenna, 223; "of 
 Midas," 65, 66, 68; Persian, 67; 
 at Sakkarah, 46; of Scaligers, 
 Verona, 383, 388; on Via Latina, 
 161 
 
 Toscanella, Churches at,, 249 
 
 Totemism, 21 
 
 Totem Poles, Alaskan, 22 
 
 Totems, New Zealand Female, 24 
 
 Toulouse, Capitals in Museum of, 
 
 252 
 
 Tourmanin, Syria, 231, 232 
 Tours Cathedral, 326, 345 
 Tracery, Gothic Window: English, 
 360; French, 338; German, 369; 
 Italian, 380, 383; Spanish, 374 
 Trilobe Lotus, 41, 42, 60, 78 
 Triptych in Amiens Library, 338 
 Trocade>o Museum, Paris, 264, 342 
 Troja, 243, 249 
 
 405
 
 INDEX 
 
 Troy, 74, 75, 77 
 
 Troyes: Cathedral, 334; St. Urbain 
 
 at, 334, 342 
 Tudor Rose, 306 
 Tuscan Order, 140 
 Tuscan Romanesque Style, 239 
 
 ULM, Minster at, 370 
 Uraeus (Adder) in Egyptian Orna- 
 ment, 44 
 
 VALUE of Study of Styles, 14 
 Variety in Roman Orders, 144 
 Vatican Museum, 167, 186 
 Vaulting: English Gothic, 285, 361; 
 
 German, 293; Gothic in General, 
 
 289 
 
 Vaults and Ceilings, English, 361 
 Venice, 207, 210, 219, 223, 380, 383; 
 
 Doge's Palace at, 383; St. Mark's 
 
 at, 195, 207, 223, 231, 238, 282; 
 
 Tracery, 380, 383 
 Vercelli, San Andrea at, 384 
 Verona, 244, 391, 392 
 Vignola's Rules for the Orders, 144 
 Vine in Byzantine Ornament, 106; 
 
 in Greek O., 106 
 Viollet-le-Duc, 303; His Restoration 
 
 of Chapels in Notre Dame, 350 
 Vitruvius, 144 
 
 W 
 
 WALL Decoration: Byzantine, 219; 
 
 Pompeiian, 173; Roman, 158, 162 
 Wall and Gable Tracery, 295 
 Wall Mosaic at Warka, 57 
 Ware, W. R., 211 note 
 Warka (Erech), 57 
 Wells Cathedral, 305, 311, 356, 360 
 Westminster: Abbey, 361; Hall. 
 
 364; Henry VII's Chapel, 363 
 Wheel Windows: French, 294; 
 
 Italian, 249 
 Winchester: Cathedral, 357, 362; St. 
 
 Cross at, 269 
 Window Tracery (see Tracery, 
 
 Gothic Window) 
 Wood Carvings, Gothic, 312 
 Wood and Metal in Italian Gothic 
 
 Art, 387 
 Woodwork, English, 357, 363 
 
 YGODRASIL, 272 
 
 York Cathedral, 326, 329, 364 
 
 ZAMOHRA, 276 
 
 Zigzags: Anglo-Norman, 267; Egyp- 
 tian, 45; French, 261; German, 
 274; Savage, 24, 30 
 
 Zufii Pottery, 27 
 
 406
 
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