:-NRLF 
 
 SB 255 
 
p~ 
 
 REESE LIBRARY 
 
 j UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
\ 
 
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. 
 
 BY LEWIS F. DAY. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT. 
 
MR. LEWIS F. DAY'S 
 
 TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN, 
 Price Three-and-Sixpence each, Crown Svo, bound in Cloth. 
 
 SOME PRINCIPLES OF EVERY-DAY ART: 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS ON THE ARTS NOT FINE. 
 
 In great part re -written from ' Every -Day Art,' 
 and containing nearly all the original Illustra- 
 tions ; forming a Prefatory Volume to the Series. 
 
 THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN. 
 
 Second Edition, revised, 
 With Thirty-six full page Illustrations. 
 
 THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT. 
 
 Second Edition, revised. 
 With Forty-one full page Illustrations. 
 
 THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT. 
 
 Second Edition, revised. 
 With Forty- two full page Illustrations. 
 
 Thick Crown Svo, Cloth Gilt. Price 1 2 s. 6d. 
 NATURE IN ORNAMENT. 
 
 With a Hundred and Twenty-three Plates, 
 
 and a Hundred and Ninety-two Illustrations 
 
 in the text. 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. 
 
 THE 
 
 PLANNING OF ORNAMENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 LEWIS F. DAY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'SOME PRINCIPLES OF EVERY-DAY ART,' 'THE 
 ANATOMY OF PATTERN,' 'THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT,' ETC. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, REVISED, 
 WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN 
 
 1890. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE second of a series of Text Books stands 
 scarcely in need of preface. The aim and 
 scope, as well as the origin, of this series 
 were duly set forth in 'The Anatomy of 
 Pattern.' What was there said applies for 
 the most part to the present volume. 
 
 A new edition gives me the opportunity of 
 revising both the text and illustrations, and 
 of adding some new plates. 
 
 It is encouraging to find that the demand 
 for the Text Books is not exhausted with 
 the first issue, and that they appear to be 
 fulfilling the purpose I had in view in under- 
 taking them. 
 
 LEWIS F. DAY. 
 
 13, Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C. 
 September 2isl, 1890. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY i 
 
 II. THE USE OF THE BORDER 3 
 
 III. WITHIN THE BORDER .. .. 16 
 
 IV. SOME ALTERNATIVES IN DESIGN 27 
 
 V. ON THE FILLING OF THE CIRCLE AND OTHER 
 
 SHAPES 37 
 
 VI. ORDER AND ACCIDENT .. ., 45 
 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 1. PANEL AFTER THE MANNER OF DU CERCEAU Order 
 
 in apparent disorder. 
 
 2. BORDER IN THE MANNER OF FLOTNER Example of 
 
 comparatively important frame. 
 
 3. ROMAN PAVEMENT In which is shown the development 
 
 of a geometric diaper into a more important scheme of 
 ornament. 
 
 4. GREEK BORDER Instance of simple and very formal 
 
 treatment. 
 
 5. DIAPERS Schemed to fit panels. 
 
 6. PAINTED DOOR Showing the influence of the propor- 
 
 tions of the panels upon the design of the decoration. 
 
 7. BOOK COVER OF xvn CENTURY Illustrating the use of 
 
 border within border, 
 
 8. PANEL Invaded by ornament springing from the border. 
 
 9. INTERLACED HENRI II. BOOK COVER In which a 
 
 border line is suggested. 
 
 10. PANEL In which the border is inseparable from the 
 
 filling. 
 
 11. PANEL In which the filling breaks over the border, in 
 
 the Japanese manner. 
 
x List of Plates. 
 
 12. PANEL In which the border is invaded by the field. 
 
 13. INLAY, AFTER BOULE In which the border, so to speak, 
 
 loses itself. 
 
 14. FREE DESIGN Which by the orderly arrangement of the 
 
 parts constitutes itself a border. 
 
 15. BROKEN BORDERS Showing various ways of breaking 
 
 them. 
 
 16. INLAID PANEL Showing a break in the border, and 
 
 the suspension of the principal ornamental feature. 
 
 17. CARTOUCHE, AFTER JOST AMMAN A very free treat- 
 
 ment of the frame. 
 
 1 8. PANEL With medallion, &c. 
 
 19. PATTERN In which the detail is grouped so as to give 
 
 medallion shapes not otherwise marked. 
 
 20. DIAPER Not schemed with reference to the panel it fills. 
 
 21. PANEL IN NIELLO With geometric diapers disposed in 
 
 eccentric Japanese fashion. 
 
 22. BANDS Their application to a cylindrical shape. 
 
 23. DOOR PANELS Treated from the ends. 
 
 24. BOOK COVER Treated from the corners. 
 
 25. DOORS One-sided scheme accounted for by the position 
 
 of lock plates. 
 
 26. PART OF CABINET In which the construction has sug- 
 
 gested the scheme of ornament. 
 
 27. LACQUER BOX In which the artist takes the whole 
 
 object for his field. 
 
List of Plates. xi 
 
 28. CABINET DOOR Jacobean panelling. 
 
 29. CARVED DADO With square panel shapes within the 
 
 panels. 
 
 30. DESIGN In which the borders are interrupted. 
 
 31. DOOR In which the disproportion of the panels is recti- 
 
 fied by borders supplementary to the mouldings. 
 
 32. PANEL Where the borders round a. central medallion 
 
 interrupt the borders of the panel itself. 
 
 33. SUBDIVISIONS Each with its own ornamental filling. 
 
 34. PANEL Eccentrically cut in two. 
 
 35. BROKEN SURFACE Japanese diaper without repeat. 
 
 36. STENCILLED ROOF DECORATION Designed in cross 
 
 bands to correct the parallel lines of the joists. 
 
 37. VASES Illustrating lines on which they may be decorated. 
 
 38. DIAGRAMS Explanatory of the subdivision of the circle. 
 
 39. CIRCLES Illustrating lines on which they may be deco- 
 
 rated. 
 
 40. BOOK COVER One ornamental feature designed to 
 
 disappear behind another. 
 
 41. PANELS Jointly symmetrical. 
 
THE 
 
 PLANNING OF ORNAMENT. 
 I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 " The Anatomy of Pattern" concerned itself 
 with the lines on which repeated pattern 
 is built. It is proposed in this second text- 
 book of the series to discuss the order in 
 which ornament not necessarily recurring 
 may be distributed. And it will not be diffi- 
 cult to show that, illimitable as those lines 
 may at first sight appear to be, they too allow 
 themselves to be classed pretty definitely ; 
 and, moreover, that the classes are not by any 
 means so numerous as might be supposed. 
 
 The first step in design, or rather the 
 preliminary to all design, is to determine the 
 lines on which it shall be distributed to plan 
 it, that is to say. 
 
 The more clearly the designer realises to 
 himself the lines on which it is open to him to 
 
 B 
 
2 " The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 proceed, the better ; and if it can be shown 
 (as it can) that these are, comparatively 
 speaking, few and simple, so much the easier 
 will it be for him to make up his mind 
 promptly and determinedly which of them he 
 will in any given case adopt. 
 
 The shape of the actual space to be filled 
 will oftentimes determine for him, more or 
 less, the distribution of his design. That is 
 to say, it may very likely render certain 
 schemes altogether unavailable, and perhaps 
 even limit his choice to a single plan ; but at 
 his very freest a man is limited, in the nature 
 of things, to certain methods of procedure 
 presently to be defined. 
 
 Plainly it would be out of the question to 
 discuss at length the relation of every possible 
 plan to every possible shape. I purpose, 
 therefore, to take the simple parallelogram 
 (which may stand for panel, page, floor, 
 ceiling, carpet, curtain, wall, window, door, 
 fagade, no matter what), and to show the 
 possibilities with regard to the distribution of 
 ornament over its surface. It will then 
 remain only to explain how the same prin- 
 ciples apply, whatever the shape to be 
 filled, 
 
The Use of the Border. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE USE OF THE BORDER. 
 
 Given a panel to be filled, how is this to 
 be done ? 
 
 There are two very obvious ways of going 
 to work, either of which, to the sophisticated 
 modern at all events, seems equally natural. 
 You may start as well from the centre as from 
 the edge of it. That is to say, you may boldly 
 attack the centre and let your design spread 
 outwards to the margin ; or you may begin 
 with a border and creep cautiously inwards. 
 
 When once the border is defined, the space 
 within remains to be treated. Theoretically, 
 indeed, you have only reduced the area over 
 which your composition is to be distributed. 
 But practically that is not quite so ; more 
 especially if the border be of any importance 
 For a border may be of such interest that 
 nothing further is needed, and the centre of 
 the panel is best undisturbed by ornament. 
 Especially may this be so if the material in 
 
 B 2 
 
4 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 use be in itself of some intrinsic interest. It 
 is distinctly not desirable to mar the surface 
 of beautiful wood or richly varied marble 
 with added ornament. And, for example, 
 with the cabinet maker it resolves itself pretty 
 generally (unless he should once in a while 
 mean to indulge in ultra lavish enrichment), 
 into a question of whether he shall enrich his 
 panels or the mouldings bordering them. 
 
 The proportion of a border is of more 
 importance to a scheme of design than might 
 be supposed. It makes all the difference 
 whether it is simple or elaborate in character. 
 A very deep rich border has such an entirely 
 different effect from a moderately simple one, 
 that it looks something like a different treat- 
 ment altogether. Compare Plates 2, 3, and 
 4, and see what a different part the border 
 plays in each. The ornament on Plate 2 
 might appropriately enrich a page of text : 
 that on Plate 4 requires obviously some more 
 substantial filling. The strength of the border 
 goes for something as well as its depth. 
 
 Borders may easily be so schemed (and 
 should be so schemed) as to give panels of 
 proportions calculated to allow of the decora- 
 tion proposed for them. If, for instance, a 
 
(Plate 2 
 
 KILL HT-UTHO.,rUW4IVAl ST WOUOKM I 
 
91 ate 
 
<Plate 4 
 
 Ptotolnh London 
 
The Use of the Border. 5 
 
 panel is to be filled with a diaper, arrange- 
 ment should be made for the " repeat " of the 
 pattern within it. It is quite clear that the 
 Arab diaper spread over the panels in Plate 5 
 was devised expressly with that object. Again 
 in Plate 6 the necessity of accommodating 
 one's ornament to shapes so unequal as the 
 panels of the door, has obviously to a con- 
 siderable extent controlled the design. But 
 for those small upper panels, it would never 
 have occurred to one to break up the longer 
 panels just so. 
 
 Panels or other spaces which are to contain 
 figures or figure subjects should be of a pro- 
 portion and size not too difficult to occupy in 
 that way. 
 
 In the case of an isolated panel, this is 
 perhaps of less importance the artist ought 
 to be equal to the occasion but in the case 
 of a series of panels to be treated in accord, 
 the problem is made infinitely more difficult 
 when they are of all manner of shapes and 
 sizes. 
 
 It is no easy matter to scheme even the sim- 
 plest ornament into panels of such awkward 
 and widely different shapes and sizes as the 
 decorator has only too frequently to deal with. 
 
6 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 There is a salon in the palace at Fontaine- 
 bleau in which the proportions of the panel- 
 ling prove to be due almost entirely to the 
 painter, who has brought the larger panels 
 into scale with the smaller by means of a 
 series of borders within the actual mouldings. 
 It is much less trouble, of course, for the 
 joiner, when he has an awkward space to 
 panel, to determine the width of the stiles, 
 and let the panels come as they may. But 
 a very little consideration on his part would 
 save the decorator, who comes after him, an 
 infinity of pains. And though it may be the 
 business of the decorator to get over difficul- 
 ties of the sort, his work is not so easy that 
 there is any occasion to put difficulties in his 
 way. 
 
 The stiles which frame a panel may be con- 
 sidered as its border ; the mouldings again, 
 are so many borders within borders. 
 
 A border which is made up of many lines 
 really constitutes a series of borders one 
 within the other. The use of border within 
 border as a deliberate scheme of ornament is 
 common enough, as was the case in certain 
 tooled bookbindings of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, one of which is represented on Plate /. 
 
<Pla1e 6 
 
H^late 7 
 
 . RCU, rMOTO-UTHO.e.rUHNIVAL ST HOt.lOHM,C.O. 
 
Plate 8 
 
 FURNIVAt f * HOLBORN.L ' 
 
The Use of the Border. 7 
 
 You may even add border to border (as was 
 sometimes done) until the whole field is 
 occupied. It is not altogether uncommon in 
 Renaissance cabinet-work to find the panel en- 
 croached upon by border after border of mould- 
 ings until it dwindles practically to nothing. 
 
 The obvious and simple thing to do with a 
 border is to keep it of one uniform and equal 
 width. But such equality of width is by no 
 means essential. You may see -in mediaeval 
 illuminations the effect, more or less satisfac- 
 tory, of emphasising two sides of the page. 
 Nor need the border necessarily be continued 
 all round the space at all. Curtains have 
 often a border on two sides only, and some- 
 times only on one, marking what one may 
 call the lips of the hangings. You may look 
 upon the architrave of a door as a border on 
 three sides of it only. And in the same way 
 a mantelpiece partly frames the fire-grate, the 
 fender completing the scheme. A certain 
 reasonableness is the most complete justifica- 
 tion of such partial bordering. 
 
 Every frame is a border. No matter how 
 irregular the shape of it may be, a frame's a 
 frame " for a' that." It may take the archi- 
 tectural form of cornice, pilasters, and dado, 
 
8 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 or it may be arched ; and in either case 
 the architectural members are but unequal 
 borders. All this applies, it need scarcely be 
 said, not only to an architectural picture 
 frame, but to architecture itself, and to 
 whatever may be framed. 
 
 Something like a new departure occurs 
 when the border, so to speak, invades the 
 field or centre of the panel, as it very often 
 does in French Renaissance work, sometimes 
 to such an extent that little or no further 
 decoration of the field is necessary. There is 
 an indication of such trespass in Plate 8, 
 where the " swag " and corner ornaments, 
 which belong to the border, cut deliberately 
 across the face of the panel. In some of the 
 interlacing strap work of the Henri II. period 
 (the French equivalent to our Elizabethan 
 ornament), you cannot always clearly tell 
 where the border begins and ends, or even 
 whether a border was intended at all. It 
 looks sometimes as if the designer had 
 started with the notion of a border, but had 
 allowed it so to encroach upon the field, or 
 the field upon it, that in the end it is not at 
 all clearly recognisable as such. An example 
 of the kind occurs in Plate 9. You may 
 
Plate ) 
 
 C F KtLL , PHOTO-U7HO, fc.FURNIVAL ST I 
 
-TIT" by J.n,r, Alc.rm.n 
 
91 at e 11 
 
 "PMOTO-TIMT" ty Ji 
 
The Use of the Border. 9 
 
 see the idea of a border here ; but you 
 cannot be quite so certain that the designer 
 intended it. 
 
 Nearly allied to this is another variety of 
 border, also devised so as to be quite in- 
 separable from the filling ; in which, in fact, 
 frame and filling are so ingeniously mixed up 
 that but for the emphasis of colour, the effect 
 would be confused. There is an instance of 
 this in Plate 10, where the scroll, whilst to 
 some extent acknowledging the boundary 
 line, invades, and indeed entirely occupies, 
 the border. In such a case there is at all 
 events no fear of the exceeding preciseness 
 which is one of the dangers to beware of in 
 border design. 
 
 It is interesting to notice the difference 
 between the last-mentioned method and the 
 practice of the Japanese, who will, in the most 
 unhesitating manner, allow the panel pattern, 
 whatever it may be, to break over the margin 
 or border, as the impulse may prompt. It is 
 a proceeding which may or may not result in 
 confusion, according to the relative strength of 
 the border and the pattern that cuts across it. 
 In Plate 1 1 the border pattern is so subdued 
 that the more important floral growth is very 
 
I o The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 well able to take care of itself. In the case 
 of a panel in which the enrichment only 
 partially occupies the ground, it is often 
 advisable to introduce some sort of subsidiary 
 border, losing itself behind such more pro- 
 minent enrichment. 
 
 One appreciates the freak of the Japanese 
 as a relief from the monotony of absolutely 
 formal disposition ; but it is not a thing to 
 indulge in very freely. It is refreshing to 
 see that a man is not afraid of infringing 
 occasionally upon the margin on sufficient 
 grounds ; but the licence needs always to 
 be justified by some excuse other than the 
 artist's impatience of order. We have to 
 be on our guard against a certain spirit of 
 anarchy which appears to have taken posses- 
 sion of so many a modern artist. There is 
 a class (one cannot call it properly a school) 
 which will repudiate, not only all the laws of 
 art, but the need of all law whatsoever. 
 Urgent need there may be of reform in our 
 ideas of art, perhaps even of revolution ; but 
 sobriety recognises in the artistic anarchist 
 only the enemy of art. 
 
 There is no peculiar sanctity implied in a 
 margin, that it should be held inviolate ; but 
 
<Wate 13. 
 
The Use of the Border. 1 1 
 
 the very idea of ornament implies order. And 
 the artist cannot afford to be forgetful of 
 order, even when he allows his border to 
 overgrow the field, or his filling pattern to 
 extend beyond the frame. 
 
 There was a fashion in vogue in the seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth centuries borrowed 
 probably from the East according to which 
 the border is invaded rather by the field or 
 ground than by the pattern on it ; where the 
 field, in fact, seems to eat into the border. 
 It is usually, as you may observe in Plate 12, 
 rather a symmetrical mouthful that it takes. 
 
 A border may be lost in a sort of confusion 
 with the panel it began by pretending to 
 enclose. No one ever managed that more 
 cleverly than Boulle, a panel of whose design 
 is given in Plate 13. There is considerable 
 ingenuity in the way in which the pattern is 
 made to appear alternately light on dark and 
 dark on light, without actually confining such 
 alternation within strict border lines, as on 
 Plate 1 6. But a border remains a border, 
 however undefined. Boundaries may be un- 
 derstood rather than expressed. Yet that 
 makes no difference as to the lines upon which 
 a design is constructed. You may discard the 
 
1 2 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 very idea of formality ; you may determine 
 that you will have none of it; that you will 
 merely sketch upon your page such and such 
 marginal forms, natural or ornamental ; but if 
 you dispose them in anything like an orderly 
 manner, you arrive at something which comes 
 as clearly under the category of border treat- 
 ment as though it had been enclosed by hard 
 and fast boundary lines. The winged heads 
 and boys and ribands on Plate 14 form, after 
 all, a border. 
 
 Every margin or marginal line is in its 
 degree a border. The white margin of this 
 printed page borders the type. In Indian and 
 other Oriental work you often see the orna- 
 mental details so closely packed as to define 
 the border-shape even without actual boun- 
 dary lines. And the Germans of the sixteenth 
 century (Jost Amman, for example) sometimes 
 did with very different details just the same 
 thing. The looser borders of the looser times 
 of Louis XIV., XV., XVI., do everything they 
 can to hide the lines of their construction ; 
 but you may take it as a sign of artistic 
 demoralisation to be afraid of a straight line. 
 Hogarth, who preached "the line of beauty," 
 was not exactly an apostle of the beautiful. 
 
Arbitrary 
 
 p 1J5 or J cr by Gi ov^.1-) i? i . 
 
 l,PNOTO-ilTMO..FUnilVAL 8T HOUOM,t.O. 
 
(Plate 16 
 
 PHOTO-UTMO.e.FURNIVAL ST HOU 
 
The Use of the Border. 1 3 
 
 So great is the use of the border, that even 
 they who least like formal lines are bound to 
 adopt it ; although they are perpetually re- 
 belling against its formality, and doing their 
 best to break it up, as in the case of the 
 encroaching and interrupted borders already 
 mentioned. 
 
 The very naivest way of getting over the 
 difficulty it is a difficulty, there is no denying 
 is by, so to speak, snipping a piece or two 
 out of the panel, and carrying the border round 
 the incisions, so as to get a more or less irre- 
 gular central space instead of the four-square 
 parallelogram. 
 
 In the Certosa near Florence, there are some 
 windows by Giovanni da Udine (the border 
 of one of them is illustrated on Plate 15), 
 in which he has deliberately snipped pieces 
 (a) out of the space to be filled, and left them 
 as so many gaps in the design. We can 
 forgive this kind of thing once in a way ; 
 but it stands very much in need of justifi- 
 cation. 
 
 Where a gap has some meaning it is 
 different. In the case where there is a square 
 block or patera occupying the corner, as 
 you sometimes see in seventeenth century 
 
1 4 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 wood-panelling (and on Plates 15 and 16), 
 that seems to account for the break in the 
 border. It is as though the border went out 
 of its way in order to escape the patera. 
 
 Nor is there any objection to the doubling 
 of the border round an imaginary line (b 
 on Plate 15); by which means the same 
 end of irregularity is arrived at without the 
 brutality of da Udine's method. The Italians 
 of the Cinque Cento resorted freely to the 
 foregoing plans in their schemes of ceiling 
 decoration to wit ; and with marvellously 
 beautiful results. Perhaps, however, they 
 were rather too ready, certainly the artists 
 of the later Renaissance were too ready to 
 adopt any device which would enable them to 
 depart from the simple panel form. In not a 
 few instances, the further they went from it 
 the worse it fared with them. 
 
 A separate treatise might be written upon 
 the construction of the border itself. It may 
 be continuous or broken, and broken at all 
 manner of intervals, and in all manner of 
 ways. It may flow, or grow. It may be 
 symmetrical or absolutely free. The outer or 
 the inner edge may be accentuated, or both, 
 or neither. It may spread outwards from 
 
The Use of the Border. 15 
 
 a well-defined central feature or inwards from 
 the margin, diffusing itself, and giving a less 
 definite central shape. 
 
 But it is not so much the design of the 
 border that we are considering at present as 
 the place of the border in design on which 
 point enough for the present has been said. 
 
1 6 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 III. 
 
 WITHIN THE BORDER. 
 
 Though you abandon all idea of bordering, 
 and elect to place, as you well may, some 
 arbitrary shape within the parallelogram, the 
 space round about that shape may indeed be 
 considered as an irregular border to the same. 
 If, for example, you plant in the centre of the 
 space a medallion, and round that medallion 
 design a cartouche, after the manner of Jost 
 Amman in Plate 17, the cartouche and its 
 accessories may be called the frame or border 
 of the medallion ; and, again, the ground 
 beyond the edge of the ornament may be 
 taken to be the margin or border to that. 
 But it is going rather out of the way to look 
 at Amman's design in that light. 
 
 In the example chosen for illustration we 
 have shapes, fitted one to the other; but one 
 might just as well have two or more indepen- 
 dent and unconnected shapes. Nothing is 
 easier than to take a simple field, and to spot 
 
'Plate 18. 
 
(Plate 19. 
 
Within the Border. 1 7 
 
 about upon it any shapes you please. That is 
 one way, not a very ornamental way, but one 
 way, of occupying the space. 
 
 When you proceed to connect such shapes 
 in any way, you bring in another principle of 
 design which, however, will be more con- 
 veniently approached from the other side, 
 when we come (as we presently shall) to the 
 discussion of the lines enclosing various shapes 
 and subdivisions. 
 
 Abandoning all thought of border, or sup- 
 posing a border already in existence, you 
 may, as I said, plant any independent shape, 
 medallion, shield, cartouche, tablet, what you 
 will, within it. This form may be left, as it 
 were, floating in space, or it may be sup- 
 ported by ornament ; which ornament may 
 literally seem to hold it up ; or, if you will, 
 the ornament may appear to be suspended 
 from it, as was most frequently the case with 
 the festoons and garlands of the later Re- 
 naissance. Instances of such support and 
 suspension are given in Plates 16, 17, 18. 
 Finally, the ornament may be unconnected 
 with the central shape, and comparatively 
 independent of it, as a powdering or sprig- 
 diaper would be. 
 
 C 
 
1 8 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 The central feature need not, of course, in- 
 clude a frame of any kind ; it may be a figure, 
 a spray of flowers or ornament, a vignette, a 
 spot, a spray as free as painter's heart could 
 wish. Or, just as in the case of the closely- 
 packed border whose shape was marked 
 without the aid of boundary lines, so any 
 central sprig of ornament or foliage may be 
 so densely massed within a square, circle, 
 quatrefoil, or other imaginary form, as to 
 assume a quite regular outline. Such group- 
 ing of the ornament is shown very plainly 
 in Plate 19, where the circular shape is 
 emphatically pronounced without the aid of 
 any enclosing line. You see the same thing 
 very commonly in Indian art. 
 
 A number of sprays, or other features, free 
 or formal, group themselves into a sort of 
 diaper. Such diaper should naturally have 
 some reference to the space it fills, or it will 
 appear less than trivial. The interlacings on 
 Plate 5 form panels, Plates 20 and 35 are 
 only bits of diaper work. Whether the com- 
 ponent units of such a decoration be all alike, 
 or of various design, is a question independent 
 of the lines of their distribution. The variety 
 in Plate 21 is at all events amusing. Had 
 
Tlale 
 
 OTQ-LITHO.S.FUHNIVAL STHOL0N,t 
 
c ?1ate 21. 
 
 Aieimati Phofo-litti Loud 
 
?late 22, 
 
Within the Border. 19 
 
 there been evidence of order within this dis- 
 order, of any plan on which the various 
 diapers were put together, one would have 
 welcomed it as a relief from obvious geometry. 
 The merely accidental patchwork is perhaps 
 condonable once in a way. It is instanced 
 here as a freak of Japanese perversity, not as 
 a model of design. But it has its charm : one 
 does not readily grasp all that is in it : 
 there is always something to find out ; 
 which is just what there would not be in a 
 simple and orderly geometric pattern of the 
 European type. 
 
 A mere series of bands or stripes across the 
 field (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, waved, or 
 in whatever direction), is an obviously simple 
 way of getting over the ground, about which 
 not much further need be said. As the 
 filling of a panel, such a treatment as that 
 shown on Plate 22 is not very adequate. 
 Rightly employed it forms, however, a very 
 fit and proper method of decoration : for the 
 slight enrichment of a vase or cylinder nothing 
 could well be more apropos than this banded 
 scheme of ornament. 
 
 Such filling as a scroll or anything of the 
 kind may be quite freely drawn, as on Plates 
 
 C 2 
 
2O The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 II and 25, or disposed symmetrically in rela- 
 tion to an imaginary central line or spinal 
 cord, as in Plates 10, 13, 16, &c. ; or it may 
 radiate from the centre, as it naturally would 
 in a ceiling, pavement, carpet, or other object 
 demanding an all-round treatment. Some- 
 thing like radiation of the design occurs in 
 Plates 3 and 9. 
 
 The scroll work, or what not, may equally 
 proceed from two ends of the panel, as in 
 Plate 23, or from the sides, or from both 
 sides and ends, either symmetrically or at 
 irregular intervals ; or it may spring from 
 the corner or corners, as in Plate 24. 
 
 The treatment from the corners is, again, 
 adapted to, and often adopted in, ceiling 
 decoration. In principle it is very right 
 indeed ; but in practice it is not invariably all 
 that decorator could desire. The "line and 
 corner " tune, as it may be called, has been 
 harped upon until one is pretty well sick of 
 it, even when it is played in time which is 
 not always the case. 
 
 A corner-wise treatment is seen to advan- 
 tage when it has been suggested by use, as in 
 the metal garniture of old book-bindings, and 
 in the clamps of coffers such as German 
 

<P1ate 24. 
 
 Akermaii.Photo-'lith. London 
 
Within the Border. 2 1 
 
 smiths of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 
 elaborated with workmanlike pride. In the 
 tooled binding of the Henri II. period, 
 given on Plate 9, the corner is very carefully 
 taken into consideration, such consideration 
 being very possibly a survival from the times 
 when the corners were habitually protected 
 by metal-work. There is an instance of this 
 on Plate 40. You see also in book covers 
 of all times instances of a treatment where 
 the design is manifestly " to be continued in 
 our next," the side unseen being necessary 
 to its symmetrical completeness. 
 
 Further examples of the same thing occur 
 in the mediaeval cabinet doors given in 
 Plate 25. 
 
 The need of clasps, hinges, and so forth, 
 no doubt gave the hint of such a manner, 
 which, in spite of the one-sided forms it gives, 
 is wholly satisfactory in effect We do not 
 sufficiently realise how readily the mind 
 makes good what the eye does not see in 
 design ; assuming, that is to say, a certain 
 workmanlike reasonableness in it. In Plate 
 26 (which is only one half of a cabinet) the 
 design is in a very noticeable degree the 
 outcome of the constructional idea. The 
 
2 2 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 artist relied greatly upon the locks and hinges 
 for his effect 
 
 It is worth while to compare the above- 
 mentioned scheme, in which the symmetry is 
 suggested rather than expressed, with the free 
 and easy way in which the Japanese lacquer- 
 worker will overrun the limits of a box top or 
 cabinet front, and trail his ornament over all 
 or any of its sides indiscriminately. The 
 front of the box is not enough for the dragon 
 on Plate 27. Yet you will observe that there 
 is a certain consideration for ornamental pro- 
 priety in the disposition, for example, of the 
 creature's claws. 
 
 There also, the artist, in his very different 
 fashion, chooses to consider the whole object 
 his field, and not just the portion of it he sees 
 before him. There is a certain logic in his 
 licence, too especially as it appears to be 
 good manners in Japan minutely to examine 
 your neighbour's nicknacks ; but the more 
 restrained manner of the mediaeval workman 
 is, in proportion to its restraint, the more to 
 be preferred. 
 
 Where the design scroll, foliage, or what- 
 ever it may be bears no relation at all to the 
 shape or space it occupies, like the diapers 
 
<Pla.te2*>. 
 
?late26. 
 
Within the Border. 23 
 
 on Plates 20 and 35, it ceases to be surface 
 design, and is merely a means of breaking the 
 surface. It is only as a background that 
 such hap-hazard distribution of forms has any 
 meaning. But then a good deal of decorative 
 design pretends to be no more than back- 
 ground. 
 
 A very satisfactory and effective result is 
 sometimes reached where the artist starts, as 
 it seems, with the idea of a diaper more or 
 less geometrical, and, as he approaches the 
 centre of the panel, gathers together the 
 pattern, so to speak, into points of emphasis. 
 You see this in the Roman pavement repre- 
 sented on Plate 3. 
 
 That is a case in which the design was 
 unmistakably set out first of all in geometric 
 divisions, certain of which divisions were 
 afterwards grouped together to give point to 
 the pattern. If you analyse any of the old 
 Jacobean ceiling designs, or the Italian 
 originals on which they are but variations, 
 you will find that many of them may be 
 resolved into very simple diapers, on a rather 
 large scale, adapted to the space they fill, and 
 emphasised here and there by figure subjects 
 or other special filling of some of the more 
 
24 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 prominent geometric compartments. The 
 panelling of the Jacobean cupboard door on 
 Plate 28 resolves itself into just such a diaper, 
 to which the figure in the central octagon 
 gives point 
 
 The difference between the method of design 
 employed in Plate 3, and the plan adopted in 
 the kind of design shown on Plate 9 is, that 
 in this last the main shapes appear rather 
 to have suggested the corresponding interlace- 
 ments than the interlacements to have led up 
 to them. But even in such a case it seems 
 desirable that the artist should have in his 
 mind from the beginning some kind of idea of 
 geometric construction. The longer he can 
 manage to keep that geometric notion in his 
 mind, without putting it on paper, the more 
 freely he can go to work. That same faculty 
 of holding a design, so to speak, in solution 
 in the mind, is most invaluable to the designer. 
 A notion is so much more manageable in its 
 fluid state. Once an idea is allowed to 
 crystallise into definite form, it is no easy 
 matter to modify it. 
 
 Should the space to be decorated be very 
 considerable in extent, it is often necessary 
 to cut it up into sections, otherwise than by 
 
(Plate 28. 
 
Within the Border. 25 
 
 merely marking off a border. A wall, for 
 example, is divided horizontally into cornice, 
 frieze, wall space, dado, and so on, or verti- 
 cally into arcading. Some such sub-divisional 
 process may be adopted in the case of a 
 smaller panel, with a view to modifying its 
 proportions. 
 
 If the subdividing lines take both direc- 
 tions, the result is a scheme of panelling, 
 such as was commonly adopted in the 
 domestic wainscoting of some centuries ago. 
 
 Further, by the introduction of cross-lines 
 at various angles, or of curved lines, we arrive, 
 by a different road, at panelling of more com- 
 plicate character (see once more Plate 28), 
 and at something like the interlaced patterns 
 to which reference has already been made. 
 
 It is clear that these various ways and means 
 may be associated ; and under the complex 
 conditions of the times, they usually are more 
 or less " highly mixed." 
 
 Thus one may, as I have said, begin with a 
 border, and then treat the space within it in 
 any of the ways already described ; one may 
 divide a wall horizontally into two, with a 
 diaper or frieze at the top, and panelling 
 below ; or into three, with frieze, wall, and 
 
26 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 dado, either one of which may again be broken 
 up. Thus the dado on Plate 29, itself one 
 division of a scheme, is again subdivided into 
 panels and each of these panels is further 
 broken up by a square of carving enclosed 
 within an irregular margin of plain wood. 
 
 Again one may plant upon the field any 
 independent feature, frame, shield, tablet, 
 or such like, and then fill in the background 
 without regard to it, as though a portion of 
 the design were lost behind it. As many as 
 three, or more, plans may be associated. For 
 example, one may, as on Plate 30, stretch 
 across a title-page a tablet, then introduce a 
 border disappearing behind it, and the spaces 
 enclosed between the border and the top and 
 bottom of the tablet one may treat again 
 either as one interrupted panel or as two 
 independent parts. The fact, however, that 
 they are both, as it were, on one plane in the 
 design, seems to require that they should 
 both be treated in much the same way. 
 
 The possibilities opened out by this associ- 
 ation of various plans, are obvious. ,' 
 
91 ate 2 3. 
 
ART O 
 
 ''**" ag j i.Tin'v v a* v y u tf v v ' g '-V"' j'-'/vrvggggincgaBnr 
 
 iiiiimiiiiiiuimiiimiiifliiiiin 
 
 
 PHOTO-TIHT" ty J 
 
Some Alternatives in Design. 27 
 
 IV. 
 
 SOME ALTERNATIVES IN DESIGN. 
 
 The use of the border is not, of course, con- 
 fined to the outer edge of the main space to 
 be filled. Every sub-section of the design may 
 be provided with its own border, as you see 
 in the case of panelling, where each separate 
 panel has its own border of mouldings. 
 Plate 3 shows two panels only of the design 
 emphasised by independent borders within 
 the outer frame. On Plates 6 and 31, the 
 mouldings round the door panels are supple- 
 mented by additional painted borders. 
 
 A central feature, such as the medallion on 
 Plate 32, may have its border or borders, 
 interlacing with, intercepting, or intercepted 
 by, the borders which mark the space or 
 panel itself. 
 
 A surface once subdivided, as already 
 described, two separate courses are open to 
 the artist. The one is to accept each com- 
 partment as a separate panel, designing his 
 
28 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 ornament into it ; in the manner shown on 
 Plate 33. The other, which is no less reason- 
 able, is to make his ornament continuous 
 throughout ; allowing it, that is to say, to 
 cross the dividing lines or to interlace with 
 them ; more in the manner of Plate 9. The 
 necessary thing is always to take the dividing 
 lines duly into account even when crossing 
 them. 
 
 Again, the two plans may be combined, 
 certain prominent parts being reserved for 
 individual treatment, and the subsidiary spaces 
 only being linked together by the forms 
 of the ornament, as though in Plate 33 the 
 pattern had been allowed to meander through 
 the lesser panels, the central diamond only 
 being reserved for the grotesque head. 
 
 Which of these plans may be the better to 
 adopt is a question of some nicety, not always 
 easily to be decided. What rational ques- 
 tion is ? In proportion to the importance of 
 the framing lines, it becomes dangerous to 
 overstep them. Who ventures nothing runs 
 no risk of failure ; but neither will he achieve 
 any great success in art. And then there 
 is the charm of danger. Soldiers, sports- 
 men, and mountaineers are not the only class 
 
31. 
 
'Plate 32 
 
<P1ate 33, 
 
 
 
 
 -s. 
 
 ' f 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 V? 
 
 <r 
 
 6 
 
 V/ 
 
 'PHOTO -Tl HT", tyj.ro.t Ak.rm. 
 
Some Alternatives in Design. 29 
 
 of persons privileged to run a risk. It is 
 a luxury we may all indulge in on occasion 
 were it not so, art would be no congenial 
 pursuit for any one who is really alive. Only 
 a man should look before he leaps into 
 danger, weigh the odds before he wagers ; 
 " Erst wagen, dann wagen," is the pithy way 
 Count Moltke's motto puts it. 
 
 When the artist starts from the 'beginning, 
 and the scheme of design rests entirely in his 
 own hands, it is not so difficult to determine 
 just what is fit. The scheme develops itself. 
 But in the more frequent case, in which the 
 art of the ornamentist is only supplementary, 
 and he has to work, as he usually has, upon 
 lines already laid down for him, it is only 
 where those lines are worth preserving that 
 he is necessarily bound to preserve them 
 assuming, that is, that he can obliterate them. 
 This is heterodox, but none the less true. If 
 the lines existing are bad, and he can by his 
 design withdraw attention from them to lines 
 more reposeful to the eye, he is doing good 
 work. Only he should do nothing but what 
 he can make seem right. There must be no 
 appearance of awkwardness, no suspicion of 
 effort about it. It is a case in which success 
 
30 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 alone justifies the attack upon the situation. 
 To fail is to lay yourself open to the charge 
 of the unpardonable sin, the sin of disobedience 
 to the conditions of design. 
 
 An actually hap-hazard or eccentric scheme 
 of composition, such as a Japanese will some- 
 times affect, is hardly in contradiction to what 
 I have laid down. When a Japanese artist 
 cuts a panel quaintly into two, after the 
 manner of Plate 34, and treats each part of 
 it as seems good to his queer mind, he is only 
 doing what the Pompeian decorator did when 
 he cut off a portion of his wall space, and 
 painted it as a dado ; though he does it more 
 energetically, not to say spasmodically, and 
 with less appreciation of proportion. 
 
 So, again, when the said Japanese strews 
 buds and blossoms about a box top, and 
 breaks up the ground between with conven- 
 tional, though very accidental, lines of crackle, 
 as on Plate 35, or when he crams all manner 
 of geometric diapers into a panel, as on 
 Plate 21, he is merely doing in a more eccen- 
 tric manner what the European artist does, 
 with greater regard for symmetry, when he 
 disposes his sprigs or what not on a geometric 
 basis. If only he arrive at balance, which he 
 
: P1ate 34 
 
Some Alternatives in Design. 31 
 
 almost invariably does (so little is his instinct 
 in this respect likely to err), there is no occasion 
 to cry out against him. We, on our part, are 
 perhaps too much disposed to design as 
 though there were no possible distinction 
 between symmetry and balance, between 
 bulk and value as though the little leaden 
 weight did not balance the heaped-up pound 
 of fruit or feathers in the scale. 
 
 Design apparently quite unrestrained, such 
 as the men of the Renaissance habitually 
 indulged in, proves very often, upon exami- 
 nation, to be constructed upon one or other 
 of the systems I have described. Sometimes, 
 indeed, the system of construction is very 
 frankly indicated, though not precisely de- 
 fined the confession, that is to say, is full 
 enough to ensure absolution for any offence 
 there may be against strict order. 
 
 On Plate I there is blotted in a panel of 
 ornament somewhat on the lines of Androuet 
 du Cerceau, in which the central feature is an 
 echo of the medallion treatment, whilst certain 
 vertical and horizontal lines recall, however 
 vaguely, the notion of a border. Such remi- 
 niscences of severely constructional divisions 
 give additional charm, as it seems to me, to 
 
3 2 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 design otherwise fanciful, and even fantastic 
 in character. It is as though a man said in 
 his design, almost in so many words : I claim 
 my freedom, but I have some lingering 
 respect for law and order. 
 
 Except on the very minutest scale, the 
 scope of subdivision possible with regard 
 to a space, is not affected by the amount 
 of ornament introduced, nor by its character. 
 No matter whether it be human or animal 
 figure that you employ, conventional or 
 natural foliage, scroll or growth, interlace- 
 ment, arabesque, or geometric pattern, the 
 possibilities in the way of distribution are the 
 same. 
 
 Naturally, however, certain lines of sub- 
 division will be found to accord with certain 
 kinds of treatment ; and so we find that, as a 
 matter of history, the Mohammedans adopted 
 certain lines of composition, the Greeks other 
 lines, and the Japanese quite others again, and 
 so on. 
 
 Furthermore, the lines one would instinc- 
 tively choose for different purposes would 
 themselves be different. One would scarcely 
 proceed to decorate a panel by merely cross- 
 ing it with bands of ornament (see Plate 22), 
 
KftM., PHVTff-UVMO.ft.PVNNIVAl ** WOUOHH. 
 
Some Alternatives in Design. 33 
 
 except perhaps in the case of some long strip 
 of a panel which it was absolutely necessary 
 to shorten. There is a case in point given on 
 Plate 36, where the disproportionate, though 
 constructionally very proper, length of the 
 panels of a roof is mitigated by the band-wise 
 arrangement of the stencilled ornament. 
 
 A similar system was found by the Greeks 
 to be the most satisfactory way of dealing 
 both with vases and draperies. Their pet 
 idea of decorating a full skirt seems to have 
 been by means of so many parallel patterns. 
 You have only to refer to the terra-cottas at 
 the British Museum to see both of these uses 
 illustrated, often in a single vase. 
 
 What one would do, then, is not the same 
 thing as what might be done. The possible 
 ways of distribution are never all of them 
 alike expedient. There must, for example, 
 necessarily be some correspondence between 
 detail and its distribution. 
 
 For all that, there is no cut and dried rule 
 as to the association of this kind of detail 
 with that kind of distribution, or vice versa. 
 It does not even follow that the description 
 of detail usually found in connection with a 
 certain order of composition is the only detail 
 
 D 
 
34 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 appropriate to it. The happy connection of 
 the one with the other is evidence only of 
 their conformity, not at all of the incongru- 
 ity of other combinations. It is just possible 
 to fry without bread-crumbs. Is it not chiefly 
 laziness (where it is not a suspicion of our 
 own incompetence) which tempts us to adopt 
 bodily what has already been found to suc- 
 ceed ? There are so many people in the 
 world to whom it comes easier to take what 
 there is than to give something of their own. 
 
 A design is in harmony, not when it is 
 strictly according to Greek or Gothic prece- 
 dent, but when the parts all fit. 
 
 Suppose, for instance, the lines in a compo- 
 sition lead up to some prominent feature, 
 that feature must be of sufficient interest to 
 justify the attention it attracts. There are 
 positions so prominent they almost demand 
 figure design properly to occupy them. 
 
 Such central features as those in Plates I, 
 17, and 32 are bound in consistency to be 
 of more importance than their surroundings. 
 I don't mean to say that an heraldic shield 
 like that on Plate 17 is essentially of pro- 
 foundest interest ; but in the eyes of its 
 owner at least it is worthy of all prominence. 
 
ii :: n :: 11 :: 11 
 
 Oblate 3 6. 
 
 n::n::ns:H 
 
 ii ;; ii ;; it ;: 11 
 
 rrrmi? 
 
 II 88 II " II 88 II 
 
 rrrtrm 
 
Some Alternatives in Design. 35 
 
 In like manner also, if it is proposed to 
 introduce the figure, or anything of that 
 importance, it is only natural to provide for it 
 in your scheme, whether in the shape of 
 medallion, frame, niche, or what not. The 
 gem of your design should have a setting 
 worthy of it. 
 
 Any feature, such as a tablet, medallion, 
 label, cartouche, shield, and so on, introduced 
 into a composition, should bear relation not 
 only to its surroundings, but to what it is to 
 enclose. This is a serious consideration very 
 often neglected. It is no uncommon thing to 
 see a shield introduced only to bear an inscrip- 
 tion, a circular medallion to frame a picture 
 which demands a rectangular outline, and all 
 manner of queerly proportioned shapes, which 
 by their very position call for decoration, whilst, 
 at the same time, it is almost impossible to 
 fill them satisfactorily. 
 
 Upon the same principle of fitness, a pre- 
 determination to adopt natural forms of 
 foliage would, artistically speaking, necessitate 
 the choice of a not too rigid skeleton for 
 it. Detail designed on a large scale would 
 call for equal breadth and simplicity in the 
 setting out. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 So with regard to the allotment of orna- 
 ment once the lines determined, the artist 
 must scheme his ornament accordingly. 
 Whether he elect to ornament every portion 
 of the surface, as the Orientals and the artists 
 of the Early Renaissance often do, or certain 
 selected parts only, like the Greeks, whether 
 he chose to decorate many parts or few, and 
 which parts, and how that is his affair. His 
 taste must be his guide in that ; and unless 
 he have some taste he had better not 
 attempt to design. This may sound like 
 discouragement ; but it is only kindness to 
 the beginner easily capable of discouragement 
 to make him aware at once of the difficulties 
 in his way. The lukewarm may as well be 
 warned off. Ornament is not one of those 
 easy things a man may take up for a liveli- 
 hood, pending fame as a painter. Success 
 in ornament implies devotion to it. 
 
On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 3 7 
 
 V. 
 
 ON THE FILLING OF THE CIRCLE AND 
 OTHER SHAPES. 
 
 The various lines on which ornament may 
 be distributed over a simple panel or parallel- 
 ogram having been so far discussed, it remains 
 now to show how the same principles apply 
 to the covering of all manner of shapes. 
 
 Evidently it makes little difference at all, 
 and in principle none whatever, whether it is 
 four sides of a figure we have to deal with, or 
 three, or five, or how many. In either case 
 you proceed in the same way ; you work from 
 the centre or from the sides, as best may suit ; 
 you divide your space into regular or irregular 
 compartments, on the systems already ex- 
 plained ; you overlay one feature with another, 
 or interweave this with that ; you interrupt a 
 border, or encroach upon a field, according to 
 the circumstances of the case; and so on, 
 much as though it were a square shape you 
 were dealing with. 
 
38 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 In the case of anything like an awkward 
 shape, you have even an opportunity of 
 correcting it, by introducing into it some pro- 
 minent figure of more regular outline, which, 
 if you insist upon it, will occupy attention, 
 whilst the irregular surrounding space will go 
 only for margin or border just as in the 
 case of the regular panel you had the option 
 of discounting its severity by means of any 
 irregular feature it seemed good to you to 
 insert. 
 
 The management of the circular shape, and 
 of the irregular forms of vases, seems to 
 present a more serious difficulty; but it is 
 more apparent than real. 
 
 The simple treatment of a vase is (i) ac- 
 cording to its elevation, as may be seen in 
 Vase I, Plate 37, or in any striped Venetian 
 glass, or (2) according to its plan, as exem- 
 plified in Vases 2, 3, 4, or in the rude 
 earthenware of every period. The glass- 
 blower falls, in fact, as naturally into the 
 one scheme of lines as the thrower or turner 
 into the other. (" The Application of Orna- 
 ment," Plate 8). 
 
 A third way is to cross the shape diago- 
 nally, which gives the appearance of twisting 
 
r ?1ate 37. 
 
 "PHOTO -TiMT'Ity James Akerm 
 
On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 39 
 
 to be seen in the bowl of vase, 3 a device 
 common enough in old silversmiths' work. 
 
 Two or more of these systems may be asso- 
 ciated ; and they often are ; as in so many a 
 German tankard of the fifteenth or sixteenth 
 century, where the bulbous bowl is beaten out 
 into the semblance of a melon, and the neck 
 and foot take the lines of the lathe. In 
 Vases 5 and 6 it is very noticeable how the 
 ornament is constructed on two series of 
 cross lines, the one series according to their 
 plan, the other according to their elevation. 
 
 Now the decoration of a vase lengthwise, 
 according to its elevation, corresponds to the 
 striping of a panel with vertical lines ; the 
 decoration bandwise, according to plan, cor- 
 responds to the striping of a panel with hori- 
 zontal lines ; and the twisted treatment 
 corresponds to a series of diagonal lines 
 crossing a panel 
 
 The way in which medallions, panels, and 
 other shapes may be incorporated with the 
 design of a vase is not different from that 
 already set forth. There is, however, this 
 difficulty, that any marked independent shape 
 is likely to interfere with the form of the vase, 
 or the form of the vase to distort it, which is 
 
4o The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 the way with the landscape and picture medal- 
 lions so persistently misapplied to Sevres and 
 Dresden china. Not that it is impossible 
 to introduce such features with good effect; 
 only it needs to be done with judgment,, 
 which of all things is most rare. And, as it 
 happens, the difficulty has been more often 
 attacked with valour than with that discretion 
 which is reputed to be its better part. 
 
 What is said with reference to the vase 
 shape applies equally to balusters> columns, 
 and cylindrical shapes generally. 
 
 When we come to the circular shape, as 
 of coins, plates, medallions and so on, its 
 decoration involves new forms rather than 
 new principles. 
 
 The circle is most naturally divided either 
 into rays or into rings. In the one case the 
 radiating lines may be said to answer to the 
 division of a rectangular space by vertical lines; 
 in the other the rings would answer to the 
 horizontal lines dividing a panel. A reference 
 to Plate 38 will make this more clear. 
 
 Imagine a series of upright lines (A) to re- 
 present the folding of a sheet of paper. You 
 have only to gather the folds together at one 
 end, after the manner of a fan (B), and you 
 
2 ^Vjf^vi* 
 
 F KILL. FMOTO-LITMO-8,FUrNIVL S T HOLIOnN.E 
 
(TtJSlVEBSlTl 
 
On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 41 
 
 have the system of radiation. Repeat the 
 fan shapes side by side, and you arrive at a 
 circle divided into rays (C). 
 
 Again, in the case of a series of horizontal 
 bands (D), you have only to suppose them 
 elastic enough to be bent, and you have a 
 series of concentric arcs (E), so many slices, 
 so to speak, out of a circle decorated ring- 
 wise (F). The identical target-like result may 
 be arrived at by the continuation of a series 
 of borders round the circle, one within the 
 other. That is only another way of reaching 
 the same point in design. As in the case of 
 pattern planning ("Anatomy of Pattern," 
 pages 19 and 22), one comes by various lines 
 of thought to the same conclusion. 
 
 The crossing of the two schemes (G) is 
 much the same thing as a square lattice of 
 cross lines in a rectangular panel. The sub- 
 division of the circular space by lines of more 
 flowing character (H) would correspond to the 
 division of the panel by diagonal lines. And 
 if those lines were crossed (J), it would be 
 analogous to the division of the square by 
 cross lines into diamonds. 
 
 The spiral line, as applied to the decoration 
 of the circle (K), is equivalent to the fret or key 
 
42 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 pattern as applied to the square (L). These 
 analogies, I think, are plain enough. They 
 were suggested to me by Mr. Henri Mayeux's 
 "La Composition decorative" (A. Quantin, 
 Paris), to which the student may refer for 
 more ample illustration of the subject. 
 
 All manner of independent shapes may be 
 introduced into the decoration of the circle, 
 as into that of the panel. One may plant a 
 shield in the centre, and surround it with a 
 border, as in the central disc on Plate 39 : 
 one may associate any arbitrary form with 
 ringed or radiating lines. But should any such 
 shape form an important feature in the de- 
 sign, the situation is not so free from danger. 
 The limit is soon reached, that is to say, 
 within which lines or forms at once indepen- 
 dent and emphatic may judiciously be intro- 
 duced into a circular design. Anything which 
 counteracts the shape of the space you have 
 to fill needs to be accounted for. The two 
 rosettes at the top of Plate 39 are designed 
 on the safe lines of radiation ; in the two at 
 the bottom of the plate the design is based 
 in the one case on a vertical dividing line, in 
 the other on a horizontal. 
 
 The difficulty in dealing with forms con- 
 
ITH0.8.FUKNIVAI S T HOLIORM,! 
 
On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 43 
 
 tradictory one to another is, that you are apt 
 to leave interspaces of irregular shape, which 
 are not easily manageable ; as for instance, in 
 the inevitable spandril which occurs so fre- 
 quently in architecture. If a spandril happen 
 to be very large you can insert into it a more 
 symmetrical shape, which will hold its own ; 
 and if it be insignificantly small, you may 
 ignore it. You may (where it is of import- 
 ance enough to be accepted as an individual 
 panel) treat it as such, with figures, scrolls, 
 and so on. You may simply cover it with 
 an unimportant pattern in the nature of a 
 diaper, or leave it blank. These are the 
 extremes : the happy mean in spandril deco- 
 ration is not easy to find. 
 
 The spandril may be taken as typical of 
 all the many awkward shapes which come of 
 the intersection of curved lines by straight. 
 Ornamental design would be a very much 
 easier thing if we had only to consider the 
 lines of the ornament, without any regard to 
 the interspaces. 
 
 From the circle to the rosette, or cusped 
 circle, is so short a step, that the treatment 
 of such shapes goes almost without further 
 saying. The cusps seem almost to call for. 
 
44 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 acknowledgment by lines radiating towards 
 them. Indeed, if you simply carry a series 
 of borders, one within the other, round the 
 cusps, the points where they meet will give 
 of themselves radiating lines; just as in the 
 case of the vandyke or zigzag (" Anatomy 
 of Pattern," p. 9) it was shown that the 
 recurring points gave vertical cross lines. 
 
 The pentagon, hexagon, and other equal- 
 sided polygonal figures may be considered as 
 broken circles. 
 
 The triangle offers no new difficulty : it is 
 merely a case of three sides to deal with 
 instead of four. 
 
 A branched form may be resolved into 
 its elements. The Greek cross, for example, 
 may be regarded as an assemblage of five 
 squares ; the Latin cross as a group of as 
 many as you please, according to the length 
 of its arms, or as four parallelograms arranged 
 round a square. 
 
 An altogether exceptional space will be 
 pretty sure to indicate of itself the exceptional 
 lines on which it can best be decorated ; and 
 a capricious one may well be left to the caprice 
 of the artist. 
 
Order and Accident. 45 
 
 VI. 
 
 ORDER AND ACCIDENT. 
 
 Entirely apart from the question of the 
 skeleton of a design, is the consideration 
 as to whether it shall be looked at primarily 
 from the point of view of line or of mass. 
 
 In any satisfactorily completed scheme, lines 
 and masses must alike have been taken into 
 account; but the artist must begin with one 
 or the other ; and the result will probably be 
 influenced by the one or other consideration 
 which was uppermost in his mind. Which of 
 the two it may happen to be, is more often a 
 matter of temperament than of choice with 
 him. 
 
 The primary consideration, whether of line 
 or mass, will always lead the designer, though 
 perhaps unconsciously, to adopt a plan accord- 
 ingly. That is to say, the preference for mass 
 will lead him to attack his panel resolutely, 
 planting shapes upon it, which it will be his 
 business afterwards to connect by means of 
 
46 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 the subsidiary lines needful to the completion 
 of the scheme. On the other hand, a greater 
 partiality for line will induce him to have 
 recourse to a more orderly procedure ; will, 
 perhaps, even suggest a geometric ground- 
 work, which, however far he may depart from 
 the first lines, will materially help him in 
 securing the object he has most at heart. 
 
 If you start with certain arbitrary and 
 irregular forms, arbitrarily and irregularly 
 disposed, so many patches, as one may say, 
 on the panel, it is clearly not such a very easy 
 matter to connect them by any systematic lines 
 of ornament. If, on the contrary, you begin 
 with a system of orderly lines, these must 
 necessarily determine in some measure the 
 shape and distribution of any more prominent 
 features you may thereafter introduce into the 
 scheme. 
 
 For my own part (whilst I disbelieve 
 entirely in arriving at anything more than flat 
 mediocrity by the adoption of set rules of 
 proportion), I feel rather strongly that there 
 should be by rights a strict relation between 
 the parts of a design, however little it may 
 be obvious. If, for example, there is a space 
 to fill between border and central medallion 
 
"PHOTO -TIHT'; tyj 
 
Order and A ccident. 4 7 
 
 a diaper may be^ enough ; but the diaper 
 should be designed into its space. And even 
 if part of a design be permitted to disappear, 
 as it were, behind this feature or that, it should 
 be so schemed that no very material form is 
 mutilated in the process. Where an interrup- 
 tion occurs in a border the pattern should be 
 planned with a view to such interruption. 
 Even though you deliberately adopt a diaper, 
 say as background to a scroll, the character of 
 that diaper should be determined by the scroll, 
 notwithstanding that the lines of the one are 
 meant to contradict the lines of the other. 
 The cultivated artistic sense is by no means 
 satisfied with the casual employment of any 
 diaper. 
 
 Again, where one feature of the design is 
 overlaid by another, as frequently happens 
 in Early Gothic glass, the overlapping pat- 
 terns should be designed to overlap as they 
 always were. The spaces between one series 
 of medallions should suggest the outlines of 
 the subordinate medallions between, which 
 again should be shaped with a view to 
 any proposed interruption. In the book 
 cover on Plate 40 the tooled borders 
 disappear as it were behind the silver clasps 
 
48 The Planning of Ornament. 
 
 and corners ; and one sees no harm in this, 
 because the tooling is so distinctly subor- 
 dinate to the silver mounting, indeed one 
 may say designed to supplement and connect 
 it. The careless overlaying of one pattern, 
 or of one scheme, by another, is the merest 
 make-shift for design. 
 
 The apparently " accidental " treatment, 
 when it is at all successful, is not quite so 
 much a matter of accident after all. You will 
 find invariably, if you inquire into it, that 
 there has been no disregard of the laws of 
 composition, but only the omission of some 
 accustomed ceremonial. To take what might 
 seem a flagrant instance of the disregard of an 
 obvious rule of art : an artist like Boulle 
 would sometimes boldly treat the doors of a 
 cabinet as one panel, notwithstanding their 
 actual separation by a pilaster between them. 
 However wicked this may be in theory, his 
 practice proved it to be not so unsatisfactory. 
 And for this reason that the upright inter- 
 vening space was, as a matter of fact, very 
 carefully taken into account in the design. 
 
 He only goes a step further than the 
 obviously permissible treatment shown in the 
 double panel on Plate 41, where the two one- 
 
. f Kill, PHOTO-UTWO.t.rUKKIVAl S 
 
Order and A cciden t. 49 
 
 sided panels are jointly symmetrical. Boule 
 chose to make a constructive feature less em- 
 phatic than its position would have suggested 
 to most of us it should be. But he did not 
 really ignore it Very far from it. Had he 
 disregarded construction, the error would have 
 been very perceptible. If he succeeded at all 
 in satisfying the eye, it is because he did with 
 great deliberation and judgment what might 
 easily be mistaken by the inexperienced for 
 an inconsiderate thing. Giants can afford to 
 be daring. 
 
 It is when dangerous liberties are taken by 
 the novice, without forethought and without 
 discrimination, that they become offensive. 
 Where there is no offence in the lapse from 
 what we have been accustomed to think a 
 wise rule, be sure it was designed, and designed 
 with more than ordinary skill. It is only a 
 master that can reconcile us to something 
 which, until he did it, we did not think could 
 properly be done. There is nothing careless 
 or casual in the art of design not even in 
 the little art of ornament. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 
 

U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 COOMlDMlSl