to

of

of Sloronto

The Estate of the late Professor C.T. Currelly

HANDBOUND AT THE

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS

ANALYSIS OF ORNAMENT

ROMAN.

73

Ancient Panel.

Florence.

[Frontispiece.

ANALYSIS OF ORNAMENT
THE

CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLES
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF ORNAMENTAL ART

BY

RALPH

N.

WORNUM

KEEPER AND SECRETARY, NATIONAL GALLERY

SIXTH EDITION

MICi
.A.,

DAT!

DEU 2

1989

LONDON

CHAPMAN AND HALL,

1879
[The right of Translation

193,

PICCADILLY

is reset ved.]

NK
1175

LONDOIT:

PRINTED BY VJETUK AND

CITY BOAD.

CO.,

UHTTUD,

PEEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION.

THE

following Sketch

is

prepared chiefly as an introduc-

tory guide to aid in the adoption of some ready system in the study of Ornament.

Though

illustrated ornamental

works exist in great profusion, they are generally on special monuments and localities, or extending only over very
limited periods of time: and being, further, mostly of a

purely illustrative character, without analytical description of the parts, they fail to impress on the mind of the Student
those elements which are the essential characteristics of

the works, and distinguish their style.

teristics, therefore,

These charac-

which are the very essence of the Art,

are to he apprehended only

by

dint of great labour in the

comparison of many costly publications, which, until lately, have been generally inaccessible even to the metropolitan
Student,

But with
is

access to such works,

some systematic
enable the

general guide

absolutely indispensable to

Student to acquire a sound apprehension of his subject, with moderate labour, and within a moderate time.

The knowledge
numerous

of ornamental style

is,

doubtless,

most

readily imparted in

a course of lectures,

in which,

by

illustrations

on a large

scale,

including occa-

sionally the objects themselves, the peculiar features of

each style can be at once pointed out, and fixed on the mind, through the facilities of immediate comparison. But
this

compendious abstract of the course of Lectures on

vi

PREFACE.

Ornamental Art, delivered by me originally at Somerset House and subsequently at Marlborough House, under the
;

direction of the

Art,
in

Board of Trade Department of Science and in the absence of a more complete report, may serve
as a substitute for the personal instructions
its

some measure

of a lecture,

by pointing out

sources,

and enabling the

Student to derive directly from the standard authorities in the Library of the Department such information for himself.

The Student

will find the most important

works

illus-

trating the subject enumerated in the text, to which he

must

refer for its complete illustration; but

he will find

the most essential and characteristic elements of the styles,

perhaps adequately illustrated by the few engraved cuts contained in the work, which have been chiefly executed

from

Department, by the female students of the Wood-engraving Class at Marl-

casts in the collections of the

borough House.

The accompanying Sketch, however,

a report of the Lectures referred to
abstract of their substance,
:

is

not published as

and

is

simply a concise intended only as an

it is

introductory aid for the Student, to enable

profitable use of the

him

to

make

works in the Library, in furtherance of an earnest study of Ornamental Art.* E. N. W.

JULY, 1855.

with a Catalogue of the principal $-0., Works, classified for the use of the Visitors. By Ralph N. Wornum, Librarian. London, 1855. The diagrams prepared by me for these lectures now form part of the property of this Library. The Lectures were originally delivered in the Government Schools of Design, both at Somerset House and in the provincial schools in England, Scotland, and Ireland, in the years 1848, 1849, and 1850.

* See the Account of the Library,

INTRODUCTION.
ORNAMENT.
CHAPTEE
THE
history of art shows
I.

two great

classes of ornamental
is,

styles

the symbolic and the aesthetic; that

those which

appeal to our understandings, and those which appeal to

symbolic in which the ordinary elements have been chosen for the sake of their significations, as symbols of something not necessarily
our feelings.
implied, and irrespective of their effect as works of art, or

We may term those styles

arrangements of forms and colours. Those that are composed of elements devised solely from principles of sym-

metry of form and harmony of colour, and exclusively for their effect on our perception of the beautiful, without any further extraneous or ulterior aim, may be termed aesthetic.
Style in ornament is analogous to
this is its literal signification.

hand in writing, and

individual has

As every

some peculiarity in his mode of writing, so every age or nation has been distinguished in its ornamental expression

by a

certain individuality of taste, either original or borIt is the

rowed.

comprehension of these individual B

tastes,

ORNAMENT.
which must con-

characterizing various times and people,

stitute

the most thorough education of the ornamental These expressions are interesting also to the designer.
general student, as they exhibit an essential quality of the social character of these different people, both in relation
to the arts

and

to general culture

and

religion.

In a review of these ornamental styles we shall find that the elements of form are constant in all cases they are but
;

variously treated.

This, in fact,

must be
;

so, if

a style be

founded upon any principles at

all

and those

styles

which

have carried with them the feelings of ages could not be otherwise than based upon some fixed natural laws.

The elements
absolute,
fanciful.

of styles are

of

two kinds
;

pure and

and conventional and arbitrary

or natural

and

The

investigation of the principles of ornamental art

is
:

an inquiry into the nature and character of these elements how the effects of certain variations of form and colour

happen

to be so universally appreciated that the varieties

of their arrangements have occupied all people from the

remotest times.
Universal efforts show a universal want
effect
;

and beauty of

state

and decoration are no more a luxury in a civilised of society than warmth and clothing are a luxury to
:

any
is

state

the mind, as the body, makes everything necescapable of permanently enjoying.

it gratifies

sary that

it is

Ornament

one of the mind's necessities, which

its

by means

of the eye; and, in

strictest

aesthetic sense, it has a

gratifies the

perfect analogy with music,

which similarly

mind, but by the means of a different organ the ear. So ornament has been discovered to be again an essential

ORNAMENT.

element in commercial prosperity. This was not so at first, because, in a less cultivated state, we are quite satisfied with the gratification of our merely physical wants. But
in an advanced state, the

more extensive wants

of the

mind

demand
ment
is

more pressingly to be satisfied. Hence, ornanow as material an interest in a commercial comstill

munity

as even cotton itself, or, indeed,

any raw material

of manufacture whatever.

Such being the

its

case,

it

is

highly important that

its principles,

we

should endeavour to comprehend

in order to

most

effectual application.

"We should,

therefore, in the

study ornament, for its own sake, theoretically and scientifically, and not in that limited narrow sense
first place,

which would

restrict it in

one place as applied to cotton, in

another as to iron, and in a third as to clay, and so on. There is most certainly but one road to efficiency for
the designer
modeller.
for the weaver, for the printer, or for the

Their
art,

common

object is a familiar mastery of

ornamental

in order that they

may

apply

it

to the

utmost advantage to their respective pursuits. In early stages of manufactures, it is mechanical fitness that is the
object of competition.
to

As

society advances,

it is

necessary

combine elegance with fitness ; and those who cannot see this must be content to send their wares to the ruder
markets of the world, and resign the great marts of commerce to men of superior taste and sounder judgment, who
deserve a higher reward.

This

is

no new

idea.

Let us

take a lesson from the experience of past ages.

The

vari-

coloured glass of Egypt, the figured cups of Sidon, the shawls of Miletus, the terra-cottas of Samos, the bronzes
of Corinth, did not

command

the markets of the ancient

ORNAMENT.
for their materials

world either
qualities;

or for their mechanical

not because

they were well blown, cleverly

chased, finely woven, ingeniously turned, or perfectly cast,

these qualities they

had only

in

common with

the similar

wares of other nations,

but in the gratification of one of the most refined necessities of the mind in an advanced
social state,

they were pre-eminent

taste.

they were objects of

an elegant, cultivated
substantial

It is

by

this

aesthetic cha-

racter alone, that manufacturers will ever establish that

renown which

will insure a lasting

market in

the civilised world.

When, however, manufactures have

attained a

high

mechanical perfection, or have completely met the necessities of the body, the energy that brought them to that perfection must either stagnate or be continued in a higher
province
that of taste
;

for there is a stage of cultivation

it

when
is

the mind must revolt at a mere crude utility. So a natural propensity to decorate or embellish whatever

is

useful or agreeable to us.

But

just as there are mechanical

laws which regulate

are laws of the
efforts

all

our efforts in pure uses, so there

aesthetical

mind which must regulate those

expressed in the attempt at decoration or orna-

mental design.

The production and

processes,

application of ornament are distinct

design.

though they cannot be separated in applied A proper distinction between a picture or a model
is

and an ornament
designer;
objects,

quite essential in the

mind of the

for

the mere power of imitation of natural

and even their exact imitation, is perfectly comThe patible with the total ignorance of ornamental art. art of the designer is in the selection and arrangegreat

ORNAMENT.
ment of
his materials, not in their execution.

There

is

distinct study of ornament

wholly independent of the merely

preliminary exercises of drawing, colouring, or modelling.

designer might even produce a perfect arrangement of

forms and colours, and yet show the grossest stupidity in

its application.

There are two provinces of ornament the flat and the relieved. In the flat, we have a contrast of light and dark ;
in the relieved, a contrast of light

and shade

in both, a

variety of effect for the pure gratification of the sense of

vision.

Much
is

is

common

to

both

but in the

first case,

play of line

the main feature, in the second, a play of

masses, and colour

may be an

auxiliary to either
flat,

but

it

acts with far greater

power in the
is

as

it

is

entirely

dependent upon

light.

Ornament, therefore,
of study
is

a system of contrasts

the object

the order of contrasts.

The

individual orders
as

may vary

to infinity,

though the

classes are limited,

right-line or curved-line series, series of simple curves or

clustered curves, series of mere lines, or natural objects,

as flowers arranged in the orders of these different series.

For example, the common scroll is a series of spirals to the right and left alternately; the Roman scroll is the

Acanthus plant or brank-ursine, treated in curved series.

this order of

CHAPTEK

II.

DECORATION or ornamentation, then, we may assume to be divided into two great classes the flat and the round, or

what may be otherwise described as painting and modelling. That of painting, or the flat, is the far more extensive
class.

It comprises, in the first place, all pictorial decora-

tion,

general costume,
mosaic,

drapery,

all

printed

or

woven
and,

fabrics,

inlaying,

Soule-work,

enamelling,

accordingly,

many

classes of furniture.

The

relieved, or

modelling, is limited to building purposes, hardware, certain

kinds of furniture, implements, and to jewellery.

But

everything that

is

relieved
it

one sense, inasmuch as

is

comprised also in the flat, in can be imitated in the flat this

is
:

however not a legitimate use of the mere counterfeit of the round.

flat,

as

it is

really a

We
round.

may

call these

two

classes, then,

the flat and the

They have two qualities in common shape and The shape in both is given by the outline the contrast.
;

contrast, in the one

by

light

and shade
There
is

in the other,

by

colour,

or light

and dark.

no other means of
;

contrast in the flat but that of colour, or light and dark

for

when an ornament
it

in the flat is merely an imitation

:

of the round,

belongs strictly to the round

the con-

ORNAMENT.
trast in the

round
all

is

effected

by

light
flat,

and shade.
are

All
light

tracery

indeed,

figures,

in the

mere
of

and
or

dark:
of

whether

the

contrast

be that

colours

black

and

white,
its

whether

of a

shadow with

ground or of
the very
is

one form with

another,

elemental principle of vision

trast,

con-

and

it

must, of course, be the

Round.

basis of all ornamental art.

correct, Then, have but two great principles to study shape and contrast; or, in
all cases,
if this

view be

we

aesthetically,

variety of those effects

an agreeable which delight

the
is

mind by means of the eye. This more important than would appear
;

at first

for it shows, that

whatever
associate

other

principle

we may

with the ornamental principle, must be kept secondary to effect, if we

are desirous of

Flat.

making a good

design.

Introduce what

symbols we will, or apply our designs how we will, they must be made subject to the ruling principles of ornament itself, or, however good the symbolism, our design
is

a mere crudity in art.

This also illustrates the difference between a picture

and an ornament.

The ornamental

principle of
far
is

symmetry

may be introduced into a picture, but it is essential to it and when this principle
;

from being
introduced,

which

it

often

is,

the picture really becomes an ornamental the character of nearly

all

design.

This

is

pictures in

ORNAMENT.
art,

the earlier epochs of

and they were generally parts

of ornamental schemes.

whatever the subject, which is composed merely on principles of symmetry and contrast, becomes an ornament, and any ornamental design in which these two

Any

picture,

principles

have been made subservient to imitation or

natural arrangement has departed from the province of

ornament into that of the picture or the model, whichever

it

may

be.

And

in nearly all designs of this kind, applied

to useful

purposes,

you

frustrate

the very principle of

nature,

upon which you found your theory, when you represent a natural form in a natural manner, and yet
apply
it

to uses

with which

it

has, in nature,

no

affinity

whatever.

Therefore,
little

Nature in

however you may matters, you certainly commit an outrage

conform with

upon her
There

in great matters.
is

a class of ornament which has

much

increased

of late years in England, and,

may

call it

the naturalist

by way of distinction, we The theory appears to school.

be, that as nature is beautiful, ornamental details derived

immediately from beautiful natural objects must insure a beautiful design. This, however, can only be true where
the original uses
of the
details

chosen have not been

feature of
this

obviously violated;
school
is,

and

one

peculiar

that

it

often substitutes the ornament itself for

the thing to be ornamented, as illustrated in the accom-

panying examples

in

which the natural objects are

:

so

mismanaged

as to be principals

flame proceeding from a

liquid,

flower, a basket

on an animal's head to hold a

!

a bell made of leaves

the

elements chosen being so

opposed to the proposed uses of the objects ornamented,

ORNAMENT.
as
to

make

the

designs

simply aesthetic monstrosities,

ornamental abominations.

Ornament

is

essentially the accessory to,

and not the

A Gas Jet.

A Bell.

A Cup.
substitute
it

of,

the useful

it

is

a decoration or adornment

can have no independent existence practically. cannot look upon any mere ornament without instantly
c

We

io

ORNAMENT.
it

associating
to

with something that

it is

fit,

or is destined,
statuette is

adorn

as a necklace or a bracelet.

Even a
it

not an ornament, unless you associate

or other object or support that jit

with some shelf

fit

may

be

to adorn.

If

we

look upon

it

as a

mere statue or

portrait, it is purely a

work

of fine art, not

principal,

an ornament; because it is then instead of being accessory, an absolute condition

Hence, every implement or
as,

of all ornament.
practical utility,

article

of
is

for instance,

a candlestick, that

composed or built up of natural imitations exclusively or as principals, however poetical the idea may be supposed
to be, is practically

bad

as a design.

There
a utensil

is

a very great difference between ornamenting natural

objects,

with

and

substituting

these

natural objects for the utensil

itself.

In the
is

latter case,
;

however true the

details,

the design

utterly false

in

the former, you are in both respects true, and

also highly suggestive

may be

and

instructive.

Of

course, there

are

many
;

natural objects which at once suggest certain

uses

and we can never be wrong if we elaborate these into such implements or vessels as their own very forms
or

natures

may have

spontaneously

presented

to

the

mind.

Every

article
it

of use has a certain size and character

it

defined for

by the very use

is

destined

for,

and

this

may never be disregarded by the designer ; it is, in fact, the indispensable skeleton of his design, and has nothing to
do with ornament.

But

it is

upon

this skeleton that the

designer must bring all his ornamental knowledge to bear ; and he is a poor designer if he can do nothing more than
imitate a few sticks and leaves, or other natural objects

ORNAMENT.
wherewith to decorate
well as beauty, and
it
;

u
it

he must give

character as

make

it

suggestive of something more

than a display of sprigs and flowers gathered from the fields, or this would be mannerism indeed.
Natural
floral

ornament
;

very beautiful kind

one kind of ornament, and a but even an infinite variety of floral

is

detail, especially in the round, will have aesthetically but

very

little

variety

of effect

upon the mind.

For

this

purpose

we must

bring Art to the aid of Nature, or work

upon the

principles illustrated

by natural

objects, rather

than imitate their individual appearances. We should add an illustrative elaboration of the abstract

mere representation of those natural objects in which they may be most effectively and this is the professed object of all tracery displayed
principles of beauty, to the
:

or mere geometrical design.

The

beautiful Italian style,

this combina-

known

as the Trecento, is a fine

example of
forms,
in

tion of natural

and

artificial

its its

mixture of
tracery and

conventional

flowers

and foliage with

various geometrical designs.

seems to be a law of nature, that every individual thing shall be composed of two similar parts in its outward
It

appearance

and as the internal arrangement

is

often dif-

ferent, as in the

animal creation, this similarity of exter-

would appear an evidence of the design of beauty. "We find this similarity of parts more or less decided
nals

according to the individuality of the simplest crystal form to that of man.

object

from the

And we
where
of
its

find this remarkable

similarity relaxed

only

relaxation does not interfere with the beauty

as

the

object,

in

tree,

for

instance:

the two

ORNAMENT.
of a
tree

halves

are

not

exactly

symmetrical in their
so.

branches,
as

yet

they are generally

in

There

is

quite

much symmetry
It is so also

every tree as the eye can apthe calyx and petals of

this

preciate.

with flowers
;

all

flowers are symmetrical

decided, inversely as the
plurality of

and

symmetry

is

the more
:

number
to

of flowers on one stem

members seems

do away with the special

;

symmetry

of the individual

member

and where there are

several flowers from one root or on one stem, the deviation

from individual symmetry

symmetry

of

always in favour of the the collective group or groups. "Where

is
it is

nature groups,
the individual
likewise in art
;

the group that

this is a

is

the ornament, not

and

law which must be observed

as in all clusters, colonnades, or festoons,

the individuals of such designs

may be

arranged at ran-

dom, provided the

cluster, colonnade, or festoon,

be

itself

of symmetrical proportions.

In endeavouring, therefore, to be symmetrical in our designs, so far from being artificial or formal, we are
strictly following

one of the grand principles of Nature.

This distinction between the symmetry of the parts and the symmetry of the group or cluster is very important. Take man himself: he is a compound form, a group of
trunk,
limbs,

and

extremities.

Whatever part of the

group is balanced by a similar member on the other side, is without that symmetry which we are speaking of. The arm is not symmetrical, because it is balanced by a similar

member on

the other side

not this plurality to disturb

a perfect contrast of the

but take the head, which has its symmetry, and we find
parts. I

two

believe this to

ORNAMENT.
be true of
of
all

natural groups

and

believe this

law

be so important, that there is no form or combination of forms whatever that, when symmetrically contrasted or repeated, cannot be made subservient to

symmetry

to

beauty.

CHAPTEE
THE whole grammar
repetition,

III.

of

and

series.

ornament consists in contrast, perfect contrast of form may

be denned as the two sides of a solid or section of the

solid,

generated by the revolution of an outline around

;

given axis

as,

for

instance,

sphere

is

the

solid
its

generated by the revolution of a semicircle around

diameter.
are nearly identical.
prises repetition,

Series com-

and defines

its

order.

Mouldings are

simple repetitions, right-lined or curved, as the case

be.

may
is

Perhaps the best illustration of the value of series

are in circular series

the kaleidoscope.
that instrument

All the beautiful figures represented by

repetitions
;

and

often the rudest materials will generate extremely beautiful effects.

And
with the

the

elliptical,

or any other regular series, sym-

metrically arranged, will be found nearly equally valuable

circular.

In no popular style of ornament have natural

ever yet prevailed.

details

The

details of all great styles are

largely derived from nature, but for the most part con-

ventionally treated

and theory and experience seem

to

show that

this is the true system.

ORNAMENT.

15

A plant
Where
is

is

said to be conventionally treated,

its

when
its

the

natural order of

growth or development

is

disregarded.

the

exact imitation of the details, and

own

order of development, are both observed, the treatment

natural ; and an object so treated, independent of any

application, is only a picture or model, not

an ornament

to be

an ornament,

it

must be applied

as

an accessory
is

decoration to something else.

In Egyptian, Greek, and Eoman ornament,

that

it

ex:

tremely rare to find any natural treatment of the details

is,

any mere

imitation.
reptiles,

The only examples The

I can

recall

are

the birds,

and animals occasionally

case
is

introduced in arabesques and scroll-work.

the same with Byzantine and Saracenic
great
styles
art,

and with the

of Italy,

especially
all

the Trecento and the

Cinquecento, in which

the most perfect schemes are

purely conventional, or upon a strict geometrical basis, whatever the treatment of the detail may be.

Lorenzo Ghiberti has introduced exact natural imitations in his celebrated gates of the Baptistery of

San

Giovanni at Florence

but they are

strictly accessory to
;

a general plan, and symmetrically arranged

negligently nor naturally disposed.

being neither
are

They

bound in

bunches or groups of various shapes and sizes, disposed in harmony with the main compartments of the gates, of

which they are ornaments. And this utmost extent to which decorations of
judiciously applied.

is,

perhaps,

the

this class

can be

But

in Ghiberti's case, as elsewhere,

it is

the group

is

the ornament, and not the parts of which

composed.
It is requisite that

we

should have a clear understand-

i6

ORNAMENT.

ing of the difference between a natural and a conventional natural treator ornamental treatment of an object.

ment

implies natural imitation and arrangement;

but an

ornamental treatment does not necessarily exclude imitation in the parts ; as, for instance, a scroll may be

but as no plant would composed of strictly natural parts grow in an exact spiral direction, the scroll form con;

stitutes the

ornamental or conventional arrangement.

As

in the following arrangement of a leaf, from an old French

example.

We
well as
flower,

may
for

have, however, conventionalities of details as

of

conventionalities
instance,

arrangement.

leaf or a

may be

represented as

it

appears,
:

with
this

all

the local accidents of light and shade and colour

strictly natural

would be a

representation.

And

it

may be know it
it

that is, as represented as a mere diagram, to be, without reference to its appearance ;
treated
as

we
or

may be
:

a mere shadow of

itself,

as

silhouette

the two latter would be conventional treatit is

ments

and

such representations that

we
as

find almost

exclusively in Egyptian

and Greek

art

the Lotus
foliage

of the Egyptian tombs and temples, or the various of the terra-cotta vases of Greece.

ORNAMENT.
There can be no question that the motive of ornament
is

not the presentation of natural images to the mind,

but the rendering the object ornamented as agreeable as

possible
to
it,

and therefore the

details

of

decoration

should have no independent character of their own, but

be kept purely subservient to beauty of effect. This can hardly be done, or rather cannot be thoroughly done, but by the adoption of conventional ornament whether
flowers,
foliage,

or

other natural forms:

because as a

conventional or mere geometrical form

can

really

have no individual associations,

and yet

at the

same

time

may

present an exeffect,

tremely beautiful

the

whole of that effect is simply

auxiliary
to

the

general

beauty of the object decorated

is
:

the ornamentation

purely accessory.

The

designer must ever remem-

ber that the effect of the

whole should never be

terfered with

in-

by any
is

partial

attraction of the details.

Every design
tions
it

vase, the shape of the vase

composed of plan and details as in a is the plan whatever decora;

may have

are the details of the design, or their

:

enrichments, as medallion pictures or pieces of sculpture

so with a candlestick, casket,

and

others.

In

all

cases

where elaborate works of Fine Art are

D

i8

ORNAMENT.
as

introduced as enrichments of an ornamental scheme

sculpture in the pediment of a
in the panel of a wall
it is

Greek temple, or a picture

only in the general form
;

and arrangement that they share in the ornamental effect they are no longer ornaments when examined in detail, but
independent works of Fine Art.

The ordinary
various kinds
:

details or accessory decorations

may be

of

they

may
it

cover the entire surface of the

;

plan, or only portions of

the covering of only portions

of a plan involves, of course, far higher ornamental principles than the

uniform covering the entire surface.

De-

which are spread uniformly over a surface are commonly called diapers an expression supposed to be
corations

derived from Ypres, the

cloths so decorated

name

of the Flemish

town where

were

first

or largely manufactured.

They
This

are composed of a repetition or series of the same

ornament, in a vertical, horizontal, or a diagonal order.

is

the most popular class of design for cotton-prints,

and the unit of repetition

generally
cases; but

is

small
it

in

these
either

may be

extremely simple, as a spot or star, in one colour, or as complicated

and

as

rich

as the

diapers of the Alhambra, from

which

the

mass

of

paper

diapers are derived.

Diapers are suited for

or round

flat

work

of every class in manufactures or in inural

decoration.

Units of repetition, or repeats of irregular

shapes, arranged diagonally, have the finest effects.

ORNAMENT.
diaper, however,

ig

simple figures,

may be an alternation of two or more just as it may be a constant repetition of

figure
;

one compound

for

as

it

is

in this

case

the

group that

is

repeated, the group of figures becomes the

pattern or unit of repetition.

Geometric diapers are infinite, and by a judicious variation of colours may be made extremely beautiful. The majority
of ancient mosaics are diapers of this character, and they
are a good illustration of the carrying out of the principle

of fitness in design

for

these geometric mosaics are

nearly

all floors,

and they

emphatically express flatness

an essential quality
a
a

for a floor.

The

diaper, then,

is

uniform decoration of
surface
:

another general
analogous to
it

decoration

is

succession

of

stripes,

of any character, or of colonnades. of repetitions

tion
:

The colonnade

consists
direc-

of continuous curves in the

same

it

is

the favourite form of decoration for carpets,

curtains,

papers,
factures
:

lace,
it is

and some other

textile

manu-

generally a decorated or foliated serpentine, and rarely a scroll always a measured curved succes-

sion in vertical series.

All such superficial decoration

fact, as

is

very simple
it,

it is,

in

the paper-stainers expressively term

mere filling,

as it involves

no scheming.
;

You have but

the rest
is

repeat or unit of repetition

expansion.

your mere mechanical

to design

20

ORNAMENT.
To uniformly cover a
surface
:

is,

however, but

the
is

beginning of a designer's labours

his great business

to

produce pleasing variety of surface, not only in the flat but in the round ; not only upon regular but upon irregular surfaces.

The

surface of a wall

is

of one kind

the surface of a
If

sphere, a cylinder, or a cone, is of another.

we

suppose

a cylinder to represent the skeleton of a candlestick, it will not be sufficient to merely uniformly decorate the surface
of this cylinder, and call
it

an ornamental candlestick.
give the cylinder a shape
destined use
;

We

must, in the

first

place,

which

shall correspond

with
it

its

we must
upon one
it

so

balance the two ends that

will stand firmly

of

them, and then, by varying the surface or form, give pleasing individuality of character consistent with
destination
;

its

and

this is the process

shows his

skill.

wherein the designer The principles applicable to one article

may be
and
it is

quite the reverse of those applicable to another,

the designer's duty to suffer no mere ornamental

predilections to interfere with the mechanical or practical

excellence of his design.

These are constant conditions

far

more important than those depending upon accidents of machinery. They are conditions of use, and it is these
conditions
designs.

by which a designer must primarily

it

test

his

Taking

for granted that the eye requires variety of

surface to gratify that faculty of the

to excite those emotions
this variety to

mind

called taste, or

which we term

(esthetic,

how

is

be effected?

By

dividing surfaces into

compartments, and by making some portions more prominent than others, and thus produce that contrast which we

ORNAMENT.
assumed
effects.

21

at starting to

be the element of

all

ornamental

These compartments are known as panels, borders, cornice, frieze, basement or dado capital, shaft, base,
;

pedestal

neck, body, foot,

and

so

on

all

names

desig-

nating the ornamental divisions of the general schemes of

though these things may not be ornamented, the mere division of an object into such parts is done for the
objects
;

sake of variety of
sities

effect,

in obedience to one of the neces-

of the mind.

These various

compartments
:

are

separated or

made

prominent by mouldings mouldings may be either mere suits of concave and convex members, as in many Gothic examples, or the concave series may be filled in with ornamental
details.

These

may be plain or enriched mouldings

distinct,

and, as boundaries of compartments, it is necessary that

they should be particularly

and we accordingly

find that they are, in nearly all cases, the part of a design

which has been most elaborated:

them

borders,

the principle

is

them edges or call the same throughout

call

whether the moulding of a room or piece of cabinet-work, the hem of a vest, the border of a shawl or handkerchief,
the edge of a salver,
of contrast in
itself,

we have everywhere the one and with its own ground.

principle

As no border
is

is

introduced into a design for

its

own

sake, but only as a contribution to the general effect, that

sure to be the best which

is

designed with a view to a

:

for principle rather than

any speciality of detail of its own thus we find that a mere repeat, which shall contain an
elemental principle,
of elaborate
is

superior to a prominent succession

imitations, because special attrac-

and varied

22

ORNAMENT.
is

tion to secondary details

not a merit, but a capital defect

is

in a design.

The border

or moulding

the ornament, and

not the details of which

it is

composed.

The truth
all

of this principle

ages

we have
it

not

now

proved by the practice of to create Ornamental Art, but

is

to learn it;

As

long ago. a proof of this I would instance the most popular deco-

was established in

all essentials

rations of the present day:

we

find that they are identical

with the favourites of nearly all ages, from Pericles to Pope Julius II., from Julius II. to the late King of Bavaria,

Ludwig

I.

CHAPTER

IV.

use the forms, and, indeed, the very details, adopted by the Greeks upwards of two thousand years ago.
still

WE

Why is

this ?

Certainly not from their speciality of detail,

it

but rather because

would

be,

perhaps, impossible to

select others of a less decided individuality,

which would
series

so well illustrate the great principles of ornament,

and contrast ; contrast of masses, and contrast or harmony of lines. The details, however, will admit of every variation

which

will not disturb the order or arrangement

:

on

which the ornament depends you may change the details to infinity, the ornament will remain the same as long as
the arrangement
is is

not

disturbed.

And

this alternation

imperative

if

we wish

to develop a rich

and varied

School of Ornamental Art.

The ornaments
echinus,
varieties,

I refer to are,

the zigzag, the

the

fret,

the

the

astragal,
scrolls.

the

anthemions,

guilloche

and the

In the zigzag we have the simplest varieties of lines we can well conceive in the frets we have a more complicated
;

order of right-line series

in the varieties of the guilloche

we have
lacings.

a similar simple series of curved lines or inter-

ORNAMENT.
In the echinus, or what is commonly called the egg and tongue, we have another character, a bold alternation of
light

and shade

and we have a similar result on a smaller

:

scale in the astragal

both belong essentially to the solid

or round.

fjMlJIljlf Jivf
Echinus and Astragal.
Erechtheium.

In the

scrolls

we have

a regular running series of alter-

nation of spirals, or any materials treated in that order of

curve

use

among the Eomans has

established an extra-

ordinary prestige for the acanthus, but any other materials

would answer the purpose.

In the anthemions we have a compound element, a succession or alternation of an harmonic group of curves, in a

Anthemion.

Apollo Epicurius.

conventional adaptation of floral forms, as the

name

anthe-

mion

itself implies.

and larger

cluster alternated,

In Greek examples we have a smaller sometimes reversed, some-

ORNAMENT.

25

times enclosed in a curve, and generally connected by a band, by mere contact, or by some simple
scroll.

Every example

of

an ornament must have an

it

indi-

viduality of detail necessarily, but

to adopt this detail as

is

a great mistake

an essential part of the ornament ; for example, no two Greek anthemions are alike, but there are some few which contain a member a good deal
resembling the honeysuckle: the ornament
beautiful, but
is

simple and

modern

imitators overlooking its principle

have comprehended only the detail, assumed it to be an imitation, and have called it the honeysuckle ornament. Instead, therefore, of grasping the source of a thousand
ornaments equally beautiful, they have acquired but one,

and half the

classical

buildings of

modern times are

the whole
art

covered with honeysuckles, bringing

of

Greece into disgrace for

there
is

its

monotony and

formality, while

scarcely a

weed

in

England that might not with

have been substituted for the honeysuckle, with perhaps equal effect, if only treated on the principle
equal
skill

of a succession or alternation of
curves.

an harmonic group of

This
fall

only one of the dilemmas that the designer must into by allowing mere specific details to usurp the
is

place of the principles of ornament:

his

mind becomes

occupied by a few individual forms, the very idea of principles

is

incomprehensible to him;

and he necessarily

remains a mere hack or imitator.

Where

the

mind views something more than the

surface,

or where the eyes are auxiliary only to the mind, every

natural object

may be

suggestive of some

new

essential

form or combination of forms.

E

The

lotus, the lily,

and

26

ORNAMENT.

the tulip, must be something more than flowers to the

designer,

or his

use of them
as

is

limited indeed
to various

each
useful

suggests
purposes.

distinct forms

applicable

All established styles of ornament are founded upon the

same principles: their

differences,

which I

shall in the

following sketch endeavour to point out, are differences

only of the materials, the details of the several favourite essential forms, which each more or less partially deve-

one reason, some for another. liarity of Egyptian and Byzantine ornament
loped,

some

for

The pecuis

owing

to

their prevailing symbolism,

and certain

details
is

becoming
of exactly

standards: the peculiarity of the Saracenic

the opposite character,

it

scrupulously rejected everything

approaching an individuality of detail; and accordingly the principles of ornament are perhaps more clearly developed in this style than in any other, because the details
are so entirely subordinate.

We do not therefore admire the

echinus and the astragal,

because they are derived from the horse-chestnut or the

huckle-bone, but because they are admirable details for that prominent contrast of light and shade which is so

extremely valuable for

edges or mouldings.
series

It

is

the

same with the whole

one of them
object,
is

of popular
it

ornaments

not

beautiful because
it

represents any natural

but because

has been chosen to illustrate certain

symmetries or contrasts, by the very nature of vision

delightful to the mind, just as

harmonies and melodies

through another of its senses. I believe the analogy between music and ornament to be perfect: one
delight
it

is to

the eye what the other

is to

the ear

and the day

ORNAMENT.
is

27

not far distant

when

this will

be practically demon-

strated.

The

principles of harmony, time or rhythm,

and melody,

are well defined in music,

and indisputable

many men

of

many generations have devoted their entire lives to the development of these principles, and they are known. In
ornament they are not known, and perhaps not recognised even as unknown quantities, because as yet no man has
ever devoted himself to their elimination; though many ancient and middle-age designers have evidently had a true
perception of them.

The

first

principle of ornament seems to be repetition.

this is a

The simplest character of series, of some one detail,

is

measured succession, in
:

as a moulding, for instance

this

stage of ornament corresponds with melody in music,

which

a measured succession of diatonic sounds, the system in both arising from the same source rhythm in music

ornament proportion or symmetry proportion, or quantity, in both cases. The second stage in music is harmony, or a combination
called also time,

in

of simultaneous sounds or melodies

it is

also identical in
is

ornamental art;
combination of

every correct ornamental scheme

series,

or measured succession of forms,

in

and upon
contrast.

identical

principles

music and ornament,

called in the first counterpart, in the other symmetrical

Such a

close analogy

must convince us that ornament

artistic elabora-

consists in something

more than a mere

tion of either natural or conventional details,

and that

all

mechanical ingenuity must be kept strictly subservient

to
theoretical

principles

of

arrangement.

The highest

28

ORNAMENT.
skill,

mere imitative

employed on the

most

beautiful

natural materials, out of the strict province of so-called

engender but mere fanciful vagaries, utterly powerless on the eye as ornament, when compared with even the crudest materials of the coarsest execution, if
fine art, will

only arranged in any order or combination of harmonic

progression.

Greek Terra Cotta.

THE

CHAEACTEEISTICS OF STYLES.

CHAPTEE

V.

THE STYLES.
IN a review of
this kind,

when we speak

of the styles,

we can
itself

comprise only the broad distinctions of ornament the kinds or genera, not the mere specific varieties.

There
style,

are, of course,

many

varieties of nearly every great

but so long as the chief characteristics remain unis

changed, the style

therefore,

the same.

From

this point of view,

the

styles

become

comparatively

few.

We

shall find that nine will comprise the

whole number of

the great characteristic developments which have had any

namely, three ancient the Egyptian, the Greek, and the Roman ; three medieval the Byzantine, the Saracenic, and the Gothic ; and

influence on

European

civilisation,

three

modern

the Eenaissance, the Cinquecento, and the

Louis Quatorze.
Several of these styles have their recognised varieties.

Of the Greek
that
is,

there are the Doric and the Alexandrian

florid.

the severe and the

Of the Byzantine,

there
;

are the Eomanesque, Lombard, and

Norman

varieties, &c.

and of the Eenaissance,

also, there are several varieties.

We

speak of the Eenaissance both as an epoch and as a

style.

As an

epoch,

it

comprises

many

styles or varieties,

32

CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLES.

the Trecento, the Cinquecento, the Eenaissance (as a style, with its sub-varieties), the Elizabethan, the Louis the two last, XIV., the Louis XV., and the Eococo however, are mere debased varieties of the Louis XIV.,
:

and they are decidedly the decay, not the revival, of art. These various styles extend over a period of upwards of
three thousand five hundred years, of which two thousand

may be

considered the ancient period, from the early

historic times to the third century of our era.

About one

thousand years, from the third to the thirteenth century, may be considered the medieval period ; and the last five
centuries,

from the thirteenth to the nineteenth, may be

considered the period of the Eenaissance, or the modern

period.

Style

is

only another

name

for character.

Every

style,
it,

as such, depends, of course,

upon what

is

peculiar to

never on what

it

peculiarities are

common with other styles. what we term characteristics the

has in
is

These
features

by which

it is

distinguished.

merely a modification, or peculiar It is then elaboration, of the features of another style. only a variety or a derived style and such varieties are
;

Sometimes a style

common,
will

especially in later times, the natural result of the

accumulation of materials.
discover without aid,

These varieties the student

and,
indeed,

may

invent at

pleasure,

when he

is

once master of the essential charac-

teristics of

the great historic styles.

As

a matter of course, the earliest styles are the most

simple, and, perhaps, necessarily also the most original, as

each successive style has been gradually developed out of its predecessor, as, the Eoman from the. Greek, the

CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLES.
Eomanesque from the Eoman, and
less affinity of character.

33

so on,

with more or

It does not follow, however, that an ornamental

work

is

in a certain style because

style, for

it

belongs to the period of that

its

a style

is

denned not by
all

time or period, but

by the
period
;

prevailing peculiarities or characteristics of that

and

it is

not at

the case that every

It

work

of a

period possesses these peculiarities.

must be borne in

mind, therefore, that while a genuine example of a style will always imply a certain time, a specimen of a certain

time will only as a general rule illustrate the corresponding style. This is because no style is predetermined, but
is,

in

its details,

in all cases, incidental, notwithstanding a

prevailing sentiment.

We will

now then

historic styles,

proceed to examine the nine great which appear to sufficiently illustrate the

history of ornament.

The Egyptian, Greek, and Eoman

the

the ancient

the Byzantine, Saracenic, the Gothic

middle age
Quatorze

and the Eenaissance, Cinquecento, and Louis the modern.

;

THE ANCIENT STYLES.

EIGHT LECTURES.*

CHAPTEK

VI.

EGYPTIAN OENAMENT.
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
The works mentioned under
this

head are not

cited as the authorities

for the opinions given, as many of them were published some years after the preparation of the lectures, and the views do not always agree they are referred to only as the most comprehensive or useful
:

illustrated

works on the subject, and as thus best adapted

to aid the

student in his labours.

EGYPT.

Description de 1'Egypte, ou Eecueil des Observations et des Eecherches qui ont ete faites en Egypte pendant 1'Expedition de I'Annee Franchise. Publie par les ordres de sa Majeste 1'Empereur Napoleon le Grand. (The great work of the French Expedition, treating of the Antiquities, Arts, Natural History, and Modern State of Egypt.) 23 vols. folio, atlas folio, and elephant. Paris,
1809,
et seq.

ANCIENT AET,
Syllabus.

1848-49.

LECTURE

I.

ON THE DECORATIVE ART

OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

Early Establishment of Egyptian Art about 1800 B.C. Its stationary and purely ornamental character. Extensive remains still preserved on the banks of the Nile, from Meroe to Alexandria, a distance of nearly 1200 miles. Ipsambul, the Telamons. Essaboua, the Sphinx Andro Crio and Hieraco-Sphinx. Philce. Edfou, the Egyptian Temple the Propyla, Obelisks, Mosaics, &c. Thebes, sumptuous Decoration of the The Tombs. their Columns and Capitals. Egyptian Temples Denderah. Sakkara, the Arch. The Pyramids. Heliopolis. Egyptian style.

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
PORTER, SIR E. KER.

35

Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, &c., during the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820. 2 vols. 4to. London, 1821.
Antiquites de la Nubie, ou

GAU, P. C.

Monumens

inedits des

Bords

Nil, situes entre la premiere et la seconde Cataracte, dessines et mesures en 1819. Ouvrage faisant suite au grand ouvrage de la

du

BAM EAZ.

Commission d'Egypte. Large folio. Paris, 1822. Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus. With 48 plates. 4to. London, 1834. BOSELLENI, J. The Monuments of Egypt and Nubia, arranged according to their subjects, by the Tuscan Expedition to Egypt, under the
direction of Bosellini.

I Monumenti

dell'

Egitto e della

Nubia

disegnati della spedizione

:

Toscana in Egitto distribuiti in ordine di materie, interpretati ed illustrati dal Dottore Ippolito Bosellini. (This great work is in three parts, folio, with separate text in octavo. Tavole M. B. contains the Historical Monuments of the Kings, Monumenti Storici, in 169 plates: Tavole M. C. contains the Civil Monuments, Monumenti Civili, in 135 plates Tavole M. D. C. the Monuments of Eeligious Worship, Monumenti del Culto, in 86 plates.)
scientifico-litteraria
:

3 vols. atlas folio, plates; 9 vols. 8vo. text.

Pisa, 1832-44.

LECTURE

II.

EGYPT

ORNAMENTAL DETAILS.

Decorations of the Tombs. Painted Ceilings. Colours. Sunk-reliefs. Ornamental Types the Zigzag, Labyrinth, Wave-scroll, Lotus, Winged-globe, Asp, and Cartouche. The Funerals. Manufactures Furniture, Pottery, &c., Variegated Glass, Armour, Linen and Cotton
Fabrics, Prints, Embroidered Stuffs. Ships, &c.

Study of Ornament.

LECTURE

III.

ASIA.

Egyptian and Asiatic Art characterised

Egyptian influence in Asia Judsea, Assyria, India. Nimroud Marbles. Persepolis Cambyses, Darius, Xerxes. The Ionian Greeks. General Similarity of Standard Ornamental Types in Ancient Monuments, whether Egyptian, Asiatic, or European.

LECTURE IV.

GREECE

HEROIC AGE OF GREEK ART.

Intercourse between Greece and Egypt. Greek Traditions. Legend of Origin of Greek Art Dibutades of Corinth. Development of Painting

Skiagram, Polychrom, Monogram, and Monochrom

cesses.

The Pro-

The Heroic Age

B.C. inclusive.

Greek Art, from about the 12th to the 8th century, Pelasgic Eemains Mycenae. Tomb of Agamemnon. The Greek Colonies in Asia Minor and Magna Grsecia. Development of Art as evinced in the Homeric Poems Ornamental Armour, Toreutic Work, Embroidery, Woollen Fabrics of Miletus, Corinth, and Carthage. Shawl or Pallium of Alcisthenes of Sybaris. The Terra Cotta Vases.
of

36

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.

LONG, G. The British. Museum. Egyptian Antiquities. 2 vols. 12mo. London, 1846. WILKINSON, SIR J. G. The Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians, including their Private Life, Government, Laws, Arts, Manufactures, Eeligion, Agriculture, and Early History, derived from a Comparison of the Paintings, Sculptures, and Monuments 3rd edition, still existing, with the Accounts of Ancient Authors.

London, 1847. Egypte, Nubie, Palestine, et Syrie. Dessins photographiques, recueillis pendant les annees 1849-50-51, et accompagnes d'un texte explicatif. 125 photographs, small folio. Paris, 1852-53. Histoire de 1'Art Monumental dans 1'Antiquite, et au BATISSIER, L.
5 vols. 8vo.

Du

CAMP, M.

Moyen Age,
8vo.

suivie d'une Traite de la Peinture sur Verre.

Imp.

Paris, 1845.

LAYARD, DR. A. H. The Monuments of Nineveh, from drawings made on the spot; illustrated in 100 plates. Folio. London, 1849.

LECTURE V.

GREECE

THE DORIC PERIOD ORNAMENTAL ELEMENTS. THE GREEK ORDERS.

The

Doric, or first Historic Age, from the 8th century to the 5th inclusive; from Cypselus of Corinth, and Rhcecus of Samos, to Pericles or Phidias.

Samos, JEgina, Psestum, Athens. The Doric, the Parthenon, 438 B.C., the Temple of Apollo Ornamental details, painted and cut the Zigzag, Fret Epicurius. or Labyrinth, "Wave-scroll, Echinus, Astragal, Anthemion, or Palmette, the Polychromy. The Ionic the Voluted Order, prevalence of the Curve the Volute and Guilloche or Speira Chersiphron of Cnossus in Crete, 550 B.C.
the Echinus Order
;

The Doric Temples

Temple of Diana at Ephesus. The Corinthian the Acanthus Order.

400
B.C.

Callimachus of Corinth, about

Greek and Egyptian Temple compared the Pediment or Eagle, the Frieze or Zophoros Image-bearer, Caryatides, Canephorse. LECTURE VI. GREECE PERIOD OF ALEXANDER. ASIATIC INFLUENCE
:

THE DECLINE.
Complete Establishment of Greek Art at the time of Alexander the The Three Styles at Athens the Parthenon, 438 Great, 336 B.C. B.C. the Erechtheium, 409 B.C. the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, 335 B.C. The Mural Decorations the Lesche at Delphi, the Poecile at Athens
;
;

Polygnotus, Zeuxis, Apelles. Statue Painting. Chryselephantine Sculpture the Olympian Jupiter, 433 B.C. Phidias. Elements of Greek Art conventional, and purely aesthetic the Myths

Sphinx, Chimsera, Griffin, Satyr, &c. Orientalization of Greek taste Alexander, his Influence, his Funeral, 321 B.C. The Potteries of Samos, Athens, and Etruria.

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
LAYARD, DR. A. H.

37

A second

series of the

Monuments

of Nineveh,

and Bronzes including bas-reliefs from the Palace of Sennacherib, from the ruins of Nimroud, from drawings made on the spot during
a Second Expedition to Assyria.
1853.

71 plates, oblong folio.

London,

FERGUSSON, J. Illustrations of the Eock-cut Temples of India. Fol. London, 1834. The Palaces of Nineveh and Perse polis Restored an Essay on Ancient Assyrian and Persian Architecture. 8vo. London, 1851. Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindo:

stan.

Polio.

London, 1852.
;

Handbook of Architecture being a concise and popular account of the different styles of architecture prevailing in With 850 woodcuts. Folio. London, all ages, and in all countries.
The
Illustrated

1857.

JONES, 0.
ford.

The Grammar
Folio.

of Ornament.

Drawn on

stone

by

F. Bed-

London, 1856-8.

(On the

styles generally.)

ornament of which we know anything of material importance is the Egyptian, dating from about
earliest style of

THE

LECTURE VII.

ROME: FLORID DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK ART UNDER

THE ROMANS. The Roman Triumphs. Collections. Marcellus, 214 B.C. The Greek Painted Earthenware and the Murrhine of the East. General Concentration of Ancient Art Treasures in Rome. Gradual Development of Roman Taste. Greek and Roman Orders and Details compared. The Composite or Roman an aggregate of the Echinus, Voluted, and Acanthus Orders of the Greeks. The Acanthus and Scroll, chief characteristics of this period. Distinctions between Gr eek and Roma Q Acanthus. The Arch. Magnificence of the Romans. The Forum of Trajan. Apollodorus of Damascus.

The

Spoliations of Greece.

LECTURE VIII. ROMAN DECORATION FINAL DECLINE. The Three Tastes Egyptian, Greek, and Roman. Discrimination of Style Accessory and Principal. Rapid Decline of Roman Art under the Emperors the Triumphal Arches. General florid and debased character of the Ornamental Details of the Public Buildings of Rome. The Roman House of the time of Augustus general Scheme of Decoration. The Golden House of Nero. The Colossus of Zenodorus. Extravagances of the time of Nero condemned by Pliny as
:

Censures of Vitruvius on the Taste of his time. Pompeii, destruction, 79 A.D., re-discovery in 1748 A.D. ; its decorations, mosaics, &c. Roman Bronzes, Armour, Devices on their Siiields,
insanities.
its

Family

Portraits, Funerals.

38

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
B.C.,

1800
and

when
details

it

was already completely

established;

this is literally a hieroglyphic style in its sentiments

its

and in
bolism.

As

both are derived from a priestly syma rule, the elements of Egyptian ornament
;

they are not often, if ever, The arbitrarily chosen for the sake of beauty of effect.
;

have a particular meaning

though abounding in materials, very simple and limited in its arrangements, in comparison with
style is accordingly,

Ruins at Thebes.

later styles, in

which mere symbolism was superseded by

;

the pure aesthetic principles of art

that

is,

effect,

not

meaning, being the object of the artist.

Yet we cannot

but admire

the ingenuity with which the Egyptian decorator, by a mere symmetrical arrangement, has con-

verted

even

the

incomprehensible

hieroglyphics

into

pleasing and tasteful ornaments.

simple symmetrical

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
arrangement, however,
is

39

the limit of his artistic scheming,

and generally in the shape of a simple progression, whether in a horizontal line or repeated on the principle of the

row upon row, horizontally or diagonally. The painted ceilings of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes
diaper, that
is,

afford

many good
class of

examples.

In one
of its

ornament Egypt

is

eminent, independent
:

skilful

application of art to manufactures

it

is

complete adaptation of its own natural productions in the development of a style peculiar to

eminent in

its

itself,

in its conventional treatment of local natural types,

instance,

as, for

the lotus or water-lily of the Nile, the

varieties of ornament.

element of so
details

many

The Egyptian
of
nature,

are

not mere

crude

imitations

but

natural objects,

selected
into

by symbolism, and fashioned

decorations.

by symmetry

ornamental
class

So

that

we have

here one great

of

ornament,

and the

earliest systematic efforts in design in the world's history.

Many
time.

of the details of the Egyptians are

still

popular

ornaments, handed

down by

successive ages to our

own
the

When we
Egyptian

consider the heirarchical vassalage

of

artist,

and that he was by

choice, in his profession

caste,

and not by as every man, by the law of

birth,

was forced

to pursue the occupation of his father,

in spite of his tastes or capabilities

we must admit
respects, the art

that

he displays peculiar

ability.

In many
at

was

as thoroughly understood

thousand years ago as

it is

Memphis or Thebes three at London or Paris this day.

basin,

The shapes of the Egyptian ewer and

and other

vessels for domestic purposes, are identical with those of

40

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
;

and many Egyptian ornaments are still popular ornaments, and have been so through all times as the fret or labyrinth, wavethe most favourite patterns of the present time
;

scroll,

spiral,

zigzag, water-lily,

star,

and palm.

They

had many others derived from the vegetable productions of

In the
first

place,
;

Egyptian ornament admits of no

are treated conventionally.

pictures of objects

all

Even
fairly

in

the wall-paintings
it

themselves,
;

no

object

is

painted as

actually appears

the best examples are

but

intelligible representations

mere elevations or

dia-

grams.

mere symand always of a very simple but precious stones and metals, and the richest order materials generally, seem to have been very abundantly
are almost exclusively a

The arrangements

metrical series or progression,

;

used.

The

frieze or
;

broad-band

is

the commonest form of

these decorations

and the

details are generally

some of

the more important symbols, as the lotus, or water-lily of the Xile, the type of its inundations, from which Egypt
derives
its fruitfulness,
itself.

and the zigzag, the type of water

or the Nile
is still

This ancient signification of the zigzag preserved in the present zodiac sign of the WaterAquarius.

carrier, or

The

fret or labyrinth,
is

another right-

line series

and important symbol,

of less frequent occur-

rence.

however, one particular ornament which is more common than all others in Egyptian decoration.
is,

There

This
beetle,
sizes

is

what

is

sometimes

called
;

the

Scaraba3us

or

or,

rather, the

and almost in

of all it occurs Winged-globe all materials, and is a species of

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
talisman
or
is

41

invocation of

The globe

luck (Agathodaemon). supposed to represent the sun, the wings

good

providence, and the two asps, one on each side of the

globe, dominion or

monarchy;

the creative, protective,

order, the
X-CKT/KK,

and distributive powers, implying

world, of the Greeks.

or

almost invariably find this ornament placed over doors, windows, and in passages, and sometimes of an

We

extending thirty feet or more. It frequent in costume, and on the mummy-cases.

size,

enormous

is

also

There

are several other winged figures found in Egyptian friezes,

natural and conventional, as the vulture with the tau and
ostrich feather, the

hawk, the winged

asp,

and the human

winged figure, corresponding apparently in the works of the Jews.

to those described

The
In

sphinx, a remarkable object in Egyptian art, does

not come under the category of the winged creatures.

this it is

distinguished from the Greek creation of

is

always winged, and always female. The Egyptian sphinx, on the other hand, is always It is supposed to represent the combination of male.
that name,

which

physical and intellectual power, or the kings, as incarnations of such attributes.

They

are also associated with

the special forms and attributes of the great Egyptian

and Ammon, Xeph or Jupiter, and Phreh or Helios: that is, we have the Man-sphinx, the Kaindeities,

Osiris

sphinx, and the Hawk-sphinx, or the lion's body with the

head of the man, the ram, or the hawk, according to the These sphinxes were thus named by deity worshipped.
the Greeks respectively the Andre-sphinx, the Crio-sphinx,

and the Hieraco-sphinx.

The
G

principal position of the

42

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.

sphinx was on either side of the dromos, or path, leading

to the temple.

The swelling asp alone (the Cobra de

capello) is also a

very characteristic ornament. We find entire friezes and borders composed of a mere succession of these asps,

and

it

is

very

common

to find

them arranged

also

in

symmetrical opposition, one on each side of the cartouche or shield, enclosing the hieroglyphic name of a king,

having the same signification of dominion, with a special

reference to the king or dynasty expressed

by the

hiero-

glyphic in the cartouche.

The most

essential

symbolic

characteristics

of

an

Egyptian design, then, are these the winged globe, the lotus and the papyrus, the zigzag, the asp, and the
cartouche containing
haps, the most

hieroglyphics.

The
find

lotus

is,

per-

common.

These

we

mixed up with

many

arbitrary or geometrical forms,

star,

as the fret, spiral

or wave-scroll,

&c.,

productions

of

Egypt,

and with any of the natural conventionally treated, and in

every
its

simple symmetrical progression;

detail,

probably,

having a symbolic meaning beyond

service in the design.

mere ornamental

The

fret,

perhaps,

may

be

enumerated,

among

the

more important symbols, as the type of the labyrinth of Lake Mceris, with its twelve palaces and three thousand
chambers, indicating, in their turn, the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the three thousand years of transmigrations which the wandering soul is condemned to undergo. The
wave-scroll, also,

may

represent water in motion, or the

its

waves.
tion
is

Its

name was derived from

form.

Our

designa-

but a translation of the Greek

Cyma

or the

Eoman

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
Cymatium.
decoration.

43

Minor symbols,
For

as

among

the hieroglyphics,

are found in endless variety in costume

these,

and in ordinary the student may refer to the works

of Eosellini and of Wilkinson.

Gaudy
are

diapers and general gaiety of colour are liketaste,

wise characteristic of Egyptian

generally limited to red,

but the colours

blue,

yellow, and green,

though the Egyptians were acquainted with nearly all other colours. I have mentioned a simple progression
or repetition
as
characteristic of

the

Egyptian style;

and

it

is

certainly very

rarely that

we

find

anything

more, yet, in the cluster of the Lotus, in the form of its

leaf,

we have

a very beautiful

compound example, a

symmetrical arrangement of the flower in a circular, or rather oval series, constituting the unit of the ordinary
horizontal series.*

And

this

ornament

is

important, as

anticipating the anthemion or most popular floral orna-

ment

of the Greeks, so

common

in architecture

and in
antici-

the terra-cotta vases.

The Egyptians, however,

Temple at Denderah.

* It is found painted on a palanquin in a picture in the Tombs of the Kings, and is not unlike a series of the hats of the God Nilus, with its seven drooping lilies.

44

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.

pated the Greeks in something more than some ordinary Their temples display a great diversity of pillars, details.

from the mere fluted columns of Beni Hassan to the

gorgeous varieties of Thebes, PhilaB, and Denderah. But although the Egyptians, except in the case of
the Isis capital, as well shown at Denderah, systematically
varied their pillars in the same colonnades, two alike with
their decorations

complete never being placed together, except as a pair of opposites, their varieties may be
the truncated lotus-bud,

reduced to three essential forms

the lotus-bell, and the Isis head.

Every
;

capital

is

variety of one of these essential forms

but the lotus or

the most com-

papyrus-bell of the middle period

is

much

mon.

The abacus

is,

on

all occasions,

the width only of

Ruins at Phite.

the
is

and invariably narrower than the capital, which a valuable feature, and very essential to the effect of
pillar,

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
stability.

45

The Egyptian

pillars

vary in their altitudes

about four to nearly seven diameters, the longer proportions being the most common.
from,

The

general

massiveness

of

Egyptian
it

architecture,

though, when

transported to other climates, appropriate

to

may

appear

heavy,

is

particularly

the

climate

and

landscape of Egypt

itself.

The various

altitudes

and horizontal masses of the

great divisions of an Egyptian temple, as still seen at PhilaB and elsewhere breaking with their bold shadows

the dazzling undulating mass of light characterising the

general landscape, are calculated in the highest degree

to give delight

and repose to the eye in their general

features, while the

gay polychromic decorations of

their

surfaces constitute a rich centre of attraction, modifying

the excessive brilliancy of the surrounding scene.

The Egyptian
influence

style of decoration

was not without

its

upon

all

people connected with Egypt; on the

Jews, on the Greeks, and more especially on the Persians

after the plunder of

Thebes by Cambyses, who, Diodorus

Siculus
artists

informs us, carried away a colony of Egyptian

back into Persia

and we

still

see the remains of

whole basin of the Euphrates and on the borders of the Persian Gulf, from Nineveh to Persetheir influence in the

Nineveh sculptures recently deposited in the British Museum are identical in style with those of
polis.

The

so-called

Persepolis, the

work

of this Egyptian colony, according to

Diodorus, introduced by Cambyses in the latter part of the

sixth century before our era

but the works were chiefly carried out under the direction of his successors, Darius
;

and Xerxes.

Independent of this tradition, there

is

con-

46

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.
evidence of Egyptian influence in the works

siderable

themselves.

The winged

figure of Cyrus at

Mourgab

or

Pasargadse has a decided Egyptian character, and the head-dress appears to be that of the Egyptian god Malooli,
a son of Isis and Horus.
character of the sculpture
that the Egyptians

The change

in the

general

may be

explained by the fact

worked in Persia under the influence of

the Persian priesthood instead of their own.

bull,
is

The

subject

which

figures largely in the Persepolitan sculptures,

explained as signifying the overthrow of the Assyrian

power by the Persian.

The

Persepolitan, like the Assyrian

sculptures, are inscribed with the arrow-headed characters.

The name

of Sennacherib,
is

who was murdered by

name yet discovered

his

own

son in 711,
;

the oldest

in the

inscriptions

and

as

his achievements in Judeea, in 713,

are recorded, the oldest sculptures are since his time, or, at

the earliest, in the seventh century before our era.

less

Un-

they must, however, belong to the seventh century before our era; but the ruins are
later works,

much

found in three distinct places

Khorsabad, Kouyunjik, and Nimroud, apparently much too remote from each The soother ever to have constituted a single city.
called

north-west palace, that of Nimroud,

II.

is

supposed

to

have been built by Ninus

;

and Sardanapalus (Esarearlier Sardanapalus.

haddon) III.

Kouyunjik, by an
city

The

entire

father of

was destroyed by Nabopolassar, the Nebuchadnezzar, in 606, and the same king
destroyed by Cyrus in 538
B.C.

destroyed Jerusalem in 588; he rebuilt Babylon, which was, in

its turn,

Darius Hystaspes, who succeeded Cambyses in 521 B.C., had been with that king in Egypt, as one of his body-

ASSYRIAN.

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.

49

guard, and he was apparently the real builder of Persepolis

and of the palace of Susa.

distinguished
of

He

is,

perhaps, the
for

most

the Asiatic

sovereigns

his

architectural

undertakings.

He

carried

on

extensive

works

Temple and made himself a summer palace

in Egypt, rebuilt the

of Jerusalem in 514,
at Ecbatana.

May

he not have extended his love of repairs as far also as The arrow-headed inscriptions are also at Nineveh ?
Persepolis
(it is

mode

of writing persevered in to

much

and some of the singular figures at Nineveh are found also on Darius' s own tomb at Nakshi Eustam.
later times),

The

difference of dialect on

the inscriptions would be

explained

by

their

being written by different people,

without any necessity for the supposition of a difference

of time.

The

subject of a series of sculptures

must

set

a limit to their antiquity, but cannot otherwise fix their

However, as the assumed works of Nineveh perished with the city nearly a century before the
time.

execution of the works of Persepolis, these last cannot

have been copied from those of Nineveh, in the time of Darius a remote heap, probably, of unknown or forgotten ruins.
It is hazardous to venture

of works
inscribed

which, to

all

an opinion upon the period appearance, have their history

these
inscriptions,

on

them,

because
a

when

very authentic contradiction but according to our tests of to the opinion ventured;
interpreted,

may prove
of
style,

characteristics

the

sculptures

lately

brought

from the neighbourhood of Ancient

are certainly of the
if

Nineveh

(or Calah)

same school

as those of Persepolis,

not of the same time.

5o

EGYPTIAN ORNAMENT.

In Egypt, we found grandeur of proportion, simplicity of parts, and splendour or costliness of material gold,
silver,

and ivory, precious

stones,

and

colour

as

the
that
is

great art characteristics.

And we
of

find throughout,

the

prevailing

characteristic

Asiatic

art,

also,

sumptuousness.

It is equally displayed in the

works of

the Tabernacle, in the Temple of Solomon, in the buildings

of Semiramis

and of Nebuchadnezzar

at Babylon,

and in the palaces of the Persian kings. Jewish ornament, like the Egyptian, appears to have been purely representative. The only elements mentioned
in Scripture are the almond, the pomegranate, the palmtree,

the lily or lotus, oxen, lions,

and the cherubim.

The only example we

is
still

possess of Jewish ornamental

work
Arch

the bas-relief of the candlestick of seven branches,

partly preserved
at

among the

sculptures of the

of Titus
east,

Extending our view still farther we find the most characteristic feature of Hindoo
the fantastic; and though possessing
it

Eome.

art

seems to be

the same jewelled richness as the Egyptian,

simplicity

wants

its

most striking peculiarities are its fantastic animal devices, and a profusion of minute But I believe most Indian work to be modern foliage.
Its

and grandeur.

compared with Egyptian.* It is not till we come

to

Greece that

we

find

the

habitual introduction of forms for their

their aesthetic value or effect,
this is a

own

sake, or for
;

purely as ornaments

and

very great step in art.

* On the Exiles and Proportions of Hindoo Architecture, see Earn Eaz.

CHAPTER

VII.

GEEEK OENAMENT.
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
IONIAN ANTIQUITIES, published, with, permission of the Society of Dillettanti, by E. Chandler, M.A., N. Eevett, architect, andW. Pars,
painter.
Folio.

PAOLI, P. A.
1784.

London, 1769. Euins of Psestum.

di Pesto detta ancora Posidonia.

Eovine della Citta

Folio.

Eome,

HAMILTON, SIR W. Collection of Engravings from Ancient Yases, mostly of Pure Greek workmanship, discovered in Sepulchres in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but chiefly in the neighbourhood of
Naples, during the course of the years 1789-90, now in the possession of Sir W. Hamilton wi h remarks on each Vase by the Collector.
;

3 vols. large 4to.

delineated.

Naples, 1791-95.

STUART AND EEVETT.

4 vols.

The
folio.

Antiquities of Athens London, 1762-1816.

measured and

Supplement to the above by Cockerell, Kinnard, Donaldand Eailton. Folio. London, 1830. BRITISH MUSEUM. A Description of the Collection of Ancient Marbles in the British. Museum, with engravings, chiefly from drawings by H. Corbould. 10 vols. 4to. London, 1812, et seq. DE QUINCY, Q. Le Jupiter Olympien, ou 1' Art de la Sculpture Antique consideree sous un nouveau point de vue, &c. (The mode of constructing the Chryselephantine works considered.) Folio. Paris, 1815.
son, Jenkins,

Monuments

et

Ouviuges d'Art Antiques,

Grecs et Latins,
et

resti'ues d'apres

les Descriptions des Ecrivains

accompagnes de

Dissertations Archeologiques. (Attempted restorations in coloured of Chryselephantine and other celebrated works of Ancient plates
Art.)

2 vols. 4to.

Paris, 1829.

MILLENGEN, J. Ancient Unedited Monuments. Pais, ted Greek Vases, from collections in various countries, principally in Great Britain,
illustrated

and explained.

4to.
II

London, 1822.

52

GREEK ORNAMENT.

VULLIAMY, L. Examples of Ornamental Sculpture in Architecture. Drawn from the Original of Bronze, Marble, and Terra Cotta, in 2nd Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy, in the years 1818-19-20-21.
edition, 4to. London, n. d. BOUILLON AND ST. VICTOR. The Ancient Marbles in the Louvre.
et grave par P. Bouillon, Peintre, avec des Notices explicatives par J. B. de St. Victor. 3 vols. folio. Paris, 1821-27. NORMAND, C. Nouveau Parallele des Ordres d' Architecture des Grecs,

Musee des Antiques, dessine

MICALI, G.
of Italy.

des Remains, et des Auteurs modernes. Folio. Paris, 1828. Monuments illustrating the History of the Ancient People

Monumenti per

servire alia Storia degli Antichi Popoli Italiani

raccolti esposti, e pubblicati da Giuseppe Micali. 1832-44. Text, 4 vols. 8vo. Florence, 1832.

Small

folio.

PENROSE.

An Investigation of the Principles of Athenian Architecture, or the results of a recent survey, conducted chiefly with reference to

the optical refinements exhibited in the construction of the ancient buildings at Athens. Illustrated by numerous engravings. (Published by the Society of Dillettanti.) Folio. London, 1851.

HITTORFF,

Restitution

On Greek Polychromy, or the Painting of Architecture. du Temple d'Empedocle a Selinonte, ou 1' Architecture Polychrome chez les Grecs. Text, 4to. plates, atlas folio.
J. J.
;

Paris, 1851. WEITBRECHT, C.

Drawing-School for 2nd edition. plates. BOTTICHER, KARL VON.

Beautiful in

Ornamenten Zeichnungs-Schule. (Ornamental 100 Artists, Manufacturers, and Workmen.) folio. 1852. Oblong Stuttgart, The Art of the Greeks in its relation to the Architecture, and in the Industrial Arts.
Text, 2 vols. 4to.
;

Die Tektonik der Hellenen.

2 vols. folio.

atlas of plates,

Potsdam, 1852-53.

HOLZ, F. "W.

Details of the principal Greek Mouldings. Details Greichischer Haiipt-Gesimse zusammengestellt fur die mannigfachsten Anwendungen, in 40 blattern. 4to. Berlin, 1854.

DONALDSON, T. L.
the

Architectura Numismatica, or Architectural Medals

Illustrated

of Classic Antiquity.
text.

monuments and the

and explained by comparison with description of ancient authors, and copious

Imp. 8vo. London, 1859.

THE next
Greek.

great historic
First

style

we have

to review is the

we must

speak of the Doric,

or

early

Greek, which comprises the Etruscan

evidently derived

GREEK ORNAMENT.
from
it
;

S3

and we find no

less a

change in the general

first

character than in the details in this

European
Asia.

style,

when compared with the art of Egypt or of becomes now for the first time purely aesthetic.
It
is,

Art

in

fact,

to

the substitution of

the

aesthetic

principle in

the

place of the

symbolic, rather

than to

Anteflx of the Parthenon.

variety of element, that

we have
its

new development

of

taste in the art of the Greeks.

It is this, also,

which

constitutes

its

originality

technical

processes were

perhaps, in the early stages, identical with the Egyptian.

With
were

the great commerce and intimate intercourse which

established

between Greece

and Egypt

in

the

54

GREEK ORNAMENT.
and
perhaps
earlier,
it is

seventh century,

impossible

but that the Greeks were sufficiently acquainted with all the arts of the Egyptians, and that very much was
learned
great

by them from the Egyptians, although,

in the

the traditionary records or later versions of records generally claim the art as indigenous 'and original.
cities,

The

traditions,

however, of

less

important
carry

localities,

as

occasionally

repeated

by

Pausanias,

the

whole
arts

evidence to the other side of the question.

of the
earlier,

The

Greeks appear to have

or

been established much

islands,

more extensively, in the

than in Greece
the
itself.

and espe-

cially at Samos,

The Doric age

comprises

first historic

altogether a period
first

of

age of Greek art about four centuries

from the

historic

records;

from Khoacus of Samos

and Cypselus of Corinth,

their

until Phidias

and Pericles and

The previous period from the traditions of the Trojan war, belongs rather to what may bo termed the heroic age. The style of this period
immediate successors.
extended from the Western shores of Asia to the extreme
limits of Sicily, as

shown

in the

many

interesting Doric

ruins

still

preserved.

of the period of
terra-cotta vases
teristic
;

The most important manufacture which remains exist, was that of the
and on these we
the
find all the charac-

ornaments of

distinctively

Greek

style

of

decoration.

We

find

on these vases exactly the same

ornaments, but necessarily modified in their treatment, as those which distinguished the architectural monuments
of the time.

the black and

There are two classes of the painted Greek pottery, the yellow that is, those which have
;

(HiKKK

From Treuaury or Tomb

at MyoaneB, Argoli.

Britiih

Museum.

BB

Ercohtheium, Athcnn.

BritiHh MUNCUIII.

GREEK.

Anthemion.

Apollo Epicurius.

m M
*

Echinus and Astragal.

Erechtheium.

Example

of Guilloche.

GREEK ORNAMENT.
black figures

59

being

left

and ornaments, the ground of the vase the colour of the clay and those which have
;

the ground painted black, and the figures

of the clay.
varieties,

left

the colour

Of
&c.
;

the black or former class there are two

the one painted only with animals, the other

with

figures,

about 600

B.C.

belong to the date of the second may be generally reckoned

earliest

The

as a century later.
varieties or

Of the yellow
the

vases there are three

sub-classes

severe,

the beautiful,

and

the rich, so called from the various characters of their

decorations
dates
;

400,

and these belong respectively to the general 300, and 200, B.C., when the manufacture
There are two other kinds of

seems to have ceased.

vases which, in an ornamental view,

to

may be
;

considered

commence and

to terminate the series

those that are

not painted, but are merely decorated with zigzags and

frets

in

manner resembling wicker-work;

and those

which are painted with the complete encaustic picture The last are very rare, and belong to in all colours.
the latest date, about 200
B.C.
;

the

first

are even older

than the most ancient black vases, and may be considered as belonging to the seventh century before our era.

The

first

ornaments which attract our notice on these

with which we have already become familiar in Egyptian art the zigzag, the waveBut perhaps the scroll, and the labyrinth, or Greek fret.
vases, of all periods, are those

most

characteristic

ornaments of

the

period

are

the

and tongue), and the anthemion, commonly known in its most simple form as the honeysuckle or palmette, both of which it somewhat
echinus,
or

horse-chestnut (egg

resembles, as represented in

the Doric antefixes.

But

6o

GREEK ORNAMENT.
or

the anthemion,

flower-ornament,

is

more
it

than the

mere honeysuckle
with the
every There
lily or

(or palm-branch,
it

whatever

may

be),

even when so applied:

is

this flower-form alternated

analogous form.
except
a

This

is

the case with

example,
is,

very few, upon the vases. however, no actual imitation whatever in Greek
art.

ornamental
blematic

Occasionally, also, in

this

period emto
;

ornaments were

used which
rites, all

referred

the

mysteries, sacrifices,

funeral

instances are not frequent.

At

and the games but events, such ornaments

style.
still

do not belong to prominent characteristics of

The

architectural features of the

Greek are

more

distinctive than the ornamental in comparison

with the

Egyptian.

The

flat,

ponderous, sloping buildings of the

Egyptians are both beautiful and useful in the landscape and climate of Egypt; and just as the rainless heat of

Egypt developed the massive

flat roofs,

so the rainy seasons

of Greece rendered the sloping roof necessary, the gable

of which the Greeks eventually developed into their beautiful

pediment.

The pediment seems

to

have necessitated
;

another

member

in the entablature, the frieze

a feature

a3sthetically

more than mechanically necessary

the entablature.

to diminish

the apparent weight of the pediment, to balance the parts,

and

to strengthen, in effect,

The only

Greek example of a temple without a pediment the Pandroseium at Athens has no frieze in its entablature.

The
tural

distinctive
orders,

ornament of the three Greek architecis

as they are termed,

the

capital.

The

Doric capital consists of a round

flat

cushion, called the

echinus, and a large square abacus, the lower diameter of

the echinus being that of the pillar,

its

upper that of the

GREEK ORNAMENT.
abacus.

61

The cushion

is

called the echinus, from its being

invariably decorated (painted)

this

with that ornament.

As
is

ornament

is

so

constant, the Doric order

may be

descriptively termed the echinus order ;

and the echinus

accordingly the principal ornament of the period.

Like the Egyptian, the Greek

broad,
flat surfaces.
;

is

distinguished for
flat,

its

Even

its

curves are

of a para-

bolic character
tice of

a development, perhaps, due to the prac-

polychromic decoration.

Everything was coloured

and high

relief, as producing shadows, is antagonistic to

the display of colour.

In a general classification we may combine the Doric and Alexandrian as one style, the Greek, unless we wish
to distinguish

between early and

it

late

Greek

and as they

really are distinct,

teristics
first.

is

proper to separate their charac-

here

but of course the second comprises the

Of the

early period, then, to recapitulate, the charac-

teristic features are

the echinus, the wave-scroll (sometimes called the Vitruvian scroll), the fret or labyrinth,
the zigzag, the anthemion, and occasionally the astragal
;

and the terra-cotta vases have given such a prestige to black and tawny yellow that their combination has become
a characteristic colouring
not, however, to the exclusion

of red, blue, yellow, green, or white.

Purple and saffron

may

likewise be said to be characteristic of this period, as

the favourite colours for male and female costume.

On

the whole, foliage performs a very secondary part

in the ornamentation of this age.

floriage

We

have conventional

and we have comparatively a great variety of geometrical forms and combinations in the

more prominent

62

GREEK ORNAMENT.

diapers and their borders, found roughly indicated in the

dresses on the vases.

which may be called the Alexandrian, although Alexander does not strictly mark for it may be said to begin with the Erechtheium at it

The second Greek

period,

Athens, 409

B.C.

enriched

all

these forms, and

made some
;

more
it

familiar, as the astragal or

huckle-bone series

and
;

added

to

them the
;

spiral

the guilloche, or speira (plat)

the acanthus

and, in a very simple

development, the

ordinary

scroll,

consisting of a succession of spirals reversed

alternately.

It further established the practice of carving

the ornaments, instead of merely painting them, as was the The Ionic capital prevailing custom in the Doric period.

has

now

supplanted the Doric

are added to

and the horns, or volutes, the echinus, the characteristic ornament of the
;

Doric

capital.

From

the Temple of Diana at Daphne.

The

first

of these

two
at

by the Parthenon
is also

was magnificently displayed Athens, 438 B.C. The second was

styles

best exhibited in the Ionic temples of Asia

Minor

but

it

very completely represented in the Erechtheium;

order, the acanthus, called historically the

and in a third

GREEK ORNAMENT.
Corinthian order, in the choragic
at Athens,

63

monument

of Lysicrates

335

B.C.

Both are well

illustrated

by the

Elgin Museum, where are specimens from these and other Greek monuments.
in the British

Eoom

The

Ionic, or voluted echinus capital, is attributed to

;

Chersiphron of Cnossus, in Crete

comparatively
itself,
it

and though occurring

order

late

in Greece, as even the Doric in Asia

was established

Minor

as early as the

middle of the sixth century before our era, as the great Ionic pillars of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus one of the seven wonders of the world were executed at the
expense of Croesus, King of Lydia, who died 546 B.C. The acanthus capital is called " Corinthian," from
reputed discovery by Callimachus of Corinth, about 400 B.C.

its

who

lived

After the establishment of the Ionic order, in which the

volute
is

so prominent,

we

find the curved line, as the

element of the guilloches, more common, in some degree

supplanting the
fret,

or right-lined plat; the curved-line

ornament being palpably more in harmony with the volute. This is another example of that propriety of taste in Greek
art

which

is

also illustrated in the

common

juxtaposition

of the astragal with the echinus.

acanthus are kept subdued in with the echinus, anthemion, and others
in

The ordinary scroll and Greek work in comparison

;

and, in the sense

characteristic

which we use the term, they are much more of Roman than of Greek art.
It is the

same with the three great

classic orders

all

three Greek
little

by

origin

but the acanthus order was very

it

used by the Greeks, while with the Romans

was

the favourite.

As regards

style,
i

therefore,

it

is

more

64

GREEK ORNAMENT.
Eoman than
is

characteristic of the

the Greek.

The only

Greek

scroll

worthy of the name

the very simple one of

of Lysicrates.
scroll
is

the roof of the choragic

monument

The most simple form of the

is

of very rare
;

occurrence, even on the painted terra- cotta vases

but

it

not

uncommon on

the ordinary red ware of the Komans,

and in these examples it has preserved its Greek character. There is always a great simplicity both in the details and
in the arrangement of the materials of
it

Greek ornament

is

generally the various elements arranged in simple

horizontal series, one

row above the

other.

Ancient Bronze Lamp, found in the Thames.

CHAPTEE

VIII.

ROMAN ORNAMENT.
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
PIRANESI,
Gr.

AND F.

Greek and Roman Antiquities, Paintings, &c.

29

vols. fol.

Paris, 1835-7.

WOOD AND

DAWKINS.
Folio.

The Ruins

of Palmyra, otherwise

Tedmor

in

the Desert.
Folio.

London, 1753. The Ruins of Balbec, otherwise Heliopolis, in Coelosyria. London, 1757.

d' Architecture, dessines a Rome 1800. d'apres antique. Paris, TATHAM, C. H. Etchings, representing the best Examples of Ancient Ornamental Architecture, drawn from the originals in Rome, and

MOKEAU,

C.
1'

Fragmens

et

Ornemens

Folio.

other parts of Italy, during the years 1794, 1795, and 1796. edition, small folio. London, 1810.

3rd

ROME.

The most remarkable Buildings of Ancient Rome. Raccolta delle piu insigniFabbrichedi Roma Antica e sue adjacenze. Misurate Nuovamente e dichiarate dall' Architetto Giuseppe
Valadier, illustrate con osservazioni antiquarie da Filippo Aurelio Folio. Roma, 1810-22. Visconti, ed incise da Vincenzo Feoli.

WILKINS, W. The Civil Architecture of Yitruvius, comprising those Books of the Author which relate to the Public and Private Edifices of the Ancients. Illustrated by numerous engravings. With an Introduction, containing an Historical View of the Rise and Progress
MAZOIS,

among the Greeks. Folio. London, 1812. Les Ruines de Pompei, dessinees et mesurees par F. Mazois, pendant les annees 1809, 1810, 1811. Ouvrage continue par M. Gau, precede d'une notice sur F. Mazois par M. le Chevalier Artaud, et de 1' explication de la grande Mosaique deeouverte a Pompei en 1831, par M. Quatremere de Quincy. Le texte de la quatrieme partie a ete redige par M.
F. Barre. 4 vols.
folio.

of Architecture

Paris, 1812-38.

66

ROMAN ORNAMENT.
The
Architectural Antiquities of

TAYLOR AND CEESY.

folio.

Rome.

2 vols.

GELL

London, 1821. AND (TANDY. Pompeiana

ments of Pompeii.

4 vols. imperial 8vo.

the Topography, Edifices, and OrnaLondon, 1824-32.

:

CANINA, L. Ancient Architecture, explained by its Monuments Greek, Roman, &c. L'Architettura antica descritta e demonstrata coi Monumenti. Text, 9 vols. 8vo. Plates, 4 vols. folio. Roma,
1834-46.

ALBERTOLLI, FEED. Friezes from the Rome, and various other cities.

Forum

of Trajan, with others in

Fregi trovati negli scavi del Foro Trajano, con altri esistenti in Roma ed in diverse altre citta disegnati e misurati sul luogo da Ferdinando Albertolli. Folio. Milan, 1838. ZAHN, W. The most beautiful Ornaments and most remarkable
;

Paintings of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabise, &c., from original drawings made on the spot.

Die schb'nsten Ornamente und merkwiirdigsten Gemalde aus Pompeii, Herkulanum, und Stabise, nebst einigen Grundrissen und Ansichten, nach den an Ort und Stelle gemachten Originalzeichnungen, von Wilhelm Zahn. Folio. Berlin, 1829-54, et seq. =Ornaments of all Classic Art Epochs, represented from the
originals in their proper colours.

Ornamente
in

aller Klassischen

ihren eigenthiimlichen farben dargestellt. Berlin, 1849.

Kunst Epochen nach den originalen Oblong folio.

WIESELER, F. Theatres, &c., of the Greeks and Romans. Theatergebaude und Denkmaler des Biihnenwesens bei den Griechen und Romern. 4to. Gb'ttingen, 1851.

WE

come now
In

to the

third

and

last

ancient style, the

enlarge-

Eoman. ment

this,

however,

we have simply an

or enrichment of the florid Greek.

It did not

add

a single important element to the Greek, but elaborated

the established elements with
effect,

and with

all

every possible variety of the exuberance and richness of which

they are capable,

developing
It was,

some

into

comparatively

colossal proportions.
its

therefore, original only in

treatment

of the

Greek
art
;

materials.
it is

Eoman

art

is

accordingly

still

Greek

and

more than probable

ROMAN.

ROMAN.

Echinus and Astragal.

Pantheon, Rome.

Jupiter Tonans, Rome.

70

Jupiter Stator,

Rome.

ROMAN.

Olive Acanthus.

Mars Ultor, Rome.

Nest of

Scroll.

Ancient Panel, Florence.

ROMAN ORNAMENT.
that nearly all the great artists employed

73

by the Eomans

were Greeks, not only in the provinces, as at Petra, Palmyra, Baalbec, or at Athens (Temple of Jupiter), Pola,

and Spalatro, but

ficent

at

Borne

itself,

where the most magni-

Forum, that of Trajan, was the work of a Greek. However, though not original, Bornan ornament has

its

peculiar characteristics, as well as every other style.

chief of these is
its

The

uniform magnificence. The most simple Greek ornament becomes, under Boman treatment, if not a

magnificent, at least an elaborate decoration.

In

fact,

the

most

Greek example, as the choragic monument of Lysicrates for instance, becomes a very simple design in comparison with only an ordinary Boman specimen.
florid

The
ment

architectural

orders,
also,

their pure
;

Greek form

though preserved in nearly have not escaped this enrichdistinct

and the composite, the only

Boman

order,

comprises, as its

name

literally implies, all the three

Greek

orders at once
orders.

the echinus, the voluted, and the acanthus

It is perhaps incorrect

to say that

there

is

no new

element in

Boman

ornament.

I believe the shell,

which

in after times

became

so very prominent, is first

found in

the modillion of the arch of Titus at Borne.

is

The

arch, too,

Boman

feature

where the Greeks were in the habit

of using the horizontal entablature, the

Bomans very

often

have employed the arch. The Boman acanthus likewise has a character of its own. The Greeks used the Acanthus
spinosus, or narrow
mollis,

prickly acanthus
acanthus,

the

Bomans

the

Acanthus

or soft

the brank-ursine of
for capitals,
is

our islands.

But the Boman acanthus,

of

commonly composed

conventional

clusters

of

olive-

74

ROMAN ORNAMENT.
;

leaves

a modification arising out

of

the necessity for

strong effect in the massive lofty temples of the

Eomans

but this peculiar conventional leaf does not occur otherwise than on the capitals.

There
tinction
styles,

is,

further, this dis-

between

the

two

that the most rarely

used

elements

among

the

Greeks are the most characteristic of the

Eoman
the
;

decorascroll

tions

namely,

and the acanthus

indeed,

every form which will admit

Rosette of Scroll.

Forum

of Trajan.

Of

ft

fg

habitually enriched

with an acanthus clothing or

foliations.

The acanthus,

in

every form except in the capitals, is so peculiarly Eoman, that its appearance in an ornamental work is good pre-

sumptive evidence of its belonging to the Eoman period, or at earliest about a century subsequent to Alexander.

two leaves used, however, will The effectually prevent misconception on this point. same may be said of the scroll, in anything like an elaborate development it is peculiarly Eoman, and it is
difference

The

of

the

seldom without the acanthus

foliations.

Eoman

buildings

are uniformly more massive than Greek,

in
their
details
:

as well as bolder
fuller,

their

curves

are

much

the

Eomans using the

used the
elliptical.

circular,

where the Greeks generally

of the echinus,

Some Eoman examples

from this fulness of curve, are especially bold and magnificent in effect. They are occasionally also remarkable for
their deep under-cutting.

KOMAN.

ROMAN.

ROMAN.

ROMAN ORNAMENT.
The
free introduction of

81

monsters and animals

is like-

wise a characteristic of Greek and

the sphynx, the triton, the
griffin,

Roman

ornament,
:

as

and others

they occur,

however,
splendid

much more abundantly in the Eoman. The most Eoman ornamental specimens are those which
They

have been dug up among the ruins of the Forum of Trajan,

of the early part of the second century of our era.

are the

work

of a Greek,

Apollodorus of Damascus,

who

carried

out

many

great

works

for

the

Emperor

Trajan.

Chimera.

CHAPTER

IX.

THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT ART.

"WE have hitherto looked

period
:

at only the bright side of this

we must

not overlook those features which more

it

especially constitute

a period of decline.
;

In the

first

place, quantity generally supplanted quality

and in the

second, this quantity

taste or propriety.
;

was applied in most cases without This is illustrated by most of the great

works of the period and by none better than the triumphal arches, which are exclusively ornamental works.

A few remarks will

its

suffice to

abundance of materials,

show how the Roman, with was still a period of decline.

of these materials.

It

was the

use that

was made

Style

and system may be looked upon as synonymous terms in Besides the ornaments themselves, we ornamental art.

must have some system of applying them. And if the prominent and characteristic members of certain established
styles are promiscuously

thrown together, the principal

and the

features of one style applied as secondary to subordinate

features of another, the value of all is diminished,

general effect has but

vagueness to characterise it. The same ornamental types may be used in the developits

ment
so

of

new

styles,

distinction of style

depending not

much on

the types themselves, as on the

mode

of using

them.

THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT

But
in the development of

ART.

83

any particular

historic style

of ornament,

we are

strictly limited to the

elements belong-

ing to that style; and in combining styles, the various members belonging to the same style should preserve their
relative degree of importance.

The general decorations

observances

of the

Eoman

period,

and espe-

cially those of Pompeii, exhibit

;

and thus

all

an utter disregard of these distinctions of style, and conselost.

quent peculiarities of character, are

The

tastes of the three ancient styles,

Egyptian, Greek,

and Eoman, are very distinct. The Egyptian is symbolic, the Greek is severe rich, and severe, at the same time
;

and beautiful
least in its

and the Eoman, rich and

beautiful,

at

good examples.
from this period, richness and abundance of

Greek

taste steadily progressed until about the time of

:

Alexander

ornament gradually supplanted the chaster principles of The conquest of Asia introduced a taste for ornadesign.
mental display, which, ending in pure ostentation, resulted in the utter annihilation of taste, and of art itself, under
the

example of the Eoman Emperors. The Greeks themselves, however, were always lovers of splenluxurious

Their painted and chryselephantine (gold and ivory) sculpture could hardly be surpassed in magnificence their
dour.
:

personal costume, as Sybaris evinces, was of the richest

and the splendour of their temples was only characteristic of their mural decoration generally.
character
;

This splendour was carried out by the Eomans on a

still

greater scale, until a boundless luxury established an

indiscriminate extravagance of ornamental detail.

Marcus

Ludius, in the time of Augustus, became veiy celebrated

84

THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT

which were

ART.
illustrated

for his landscape decorations,

with

figures actively

scenes
time,

employed in occupations suited to the which kind of painting became universal after his
first

century of our era was established that extraordinary style which we have still preserved at Pompeii, but which the Eoman writers themselves were

and in the

as far

from approving as the best

still

critics of

modern
"

times.

Yitruvius, at a

earlier time,

deplores the folly and

day.
art,

absurdity of the

stucco-work of his
"

ancients," he complains,
to effect
for skill.
for

accomplished by

What the we attempt

substituted

by gaudy

colouring.

Expense

is

now

Who,

in former times, used vermilion, except

physic?

We

now

cover our walls with

it."

Pliny

also complains of ostentation

having completely supplanted

good
cares

taste in the decorations of his time:

"A

man now

nothing for art, provided he has his walls well covered with purple, or dragon's blood from India." Vitruvius enumerates the various kinds of wall-painting in

use

among the
;

ancients.

They

first

imitated coloured

marbles

these they afterwards divided into panels, and

;

enriched with ornamental frames and cornices

tectural decorations

then archi-

duced

tragic,

were added; and finally were introcomic, and satyric scenes, and landscapes.

All eventually degenerated into the existing Pompeiian

extravagances.

Yet, notwithstanding the general extravagance of this

age,

there were

doubtless

in

Eome many examples

of

beautiful decoration of a very high character.

peii,

Even PomThe painted

an unimportant provincial town, exhibits occasional

traces of a magnificent system of decoration.

figures

which we

find in the centres

of walls or panels,

THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT

ART.

85

strongly relieved by their dark or coloured grounds, are

sometimes extremely beautiful in their conception, though and some examples of scrolls and of inferior execution arabesques (the most characteristic form of these decora;

tions) likewise

upon dark grounds,

are, in

a few instances,

Ruins at Baalbec.

of a gorgeous character of
curves.

colour,

and chaste in their

And

the mosaic and tesselated pavements dis-

covered in Pompeii, however inappropriate in their application to floors, are examples of an exuberance of ornament
to

which few,

if

any,

modern palaces can

offer a parallel

as, for instance, the great mosaic,

measuring about twenty

86

THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT ART.

by
ten, representing the battle

feet

between Darius and

Alexander

at Issus, discovered in the so-called It

is

House

del

Fauno, in 1831.
ancient art,

one of the most important

relics of

and shows that though the laws of perspective

are generally grossly disregarded in the architectural decorations, it

for in

was not from the ignorance of their existence this work, however careless the mechanical execube,

tion

may

perspective

is

appreciated,
is

and the

fore-

shortening of the figure and the horse

expressed.

even skilfully

It is a work, in composition, general attitude

of the figures

and

horses,

and

for treatment of costume, in

;

every

way worthy
itself

of a great master

and the picture or

to

composition

evidently belongs

period

long

anterior to the execution of the mosaic, in

which we most

probably have an example of the higher school of painting of the Greeks, and possibly a coarse copy of the great

Alexander over Darius, mentioned by Pliny, by which Philoxenus of Eretria had renbattle-piece of the victory of

dered his name celebrated.

MEDIEVAL STYLES.
FOUR LECTURES.*

CHAPTER

X.

BYZANTINE OENAMENT.
ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
COTMAN AND TURNER. Architectural Antiquities of Normandy, by J. S. Cotman accompanied by historical and descriptive notices by Dawson Turner. 2 vols. folio. London, 1822. MUNTER, F. Early Christian Symbolism. Sinnbilder und Kunst;

vorstellungen der alten Christen. 4to. Altona, 1825. The Basilicas of Christian Rome, in illustration of BTJNSEN, C. C. J. the Idea and History of Church Architecture.

Die Basiliken des Christlichen Roms nach ihrem zusammenhange mit Idee und Geschichte der Kirchenbaukunst. 4to. Munich, 1848. (To serve as Text to the Illustrated Work of Gutensohn and

Knapp.
HEIDELOFF, C.

Folio. Munich, 1822-27.) Collection of Architectural

Ornaments of the Middle

4 vols.
1849.
4to.

Ages

in the Byzantine

and Gothic

Styles.

Nuremberg.

MEDIEVAL AET,
Syllabus.

LECTURE

I.

ON EARLY CHRISTIAN AND BYZANTINE ART.

The

so-called Dark Ages, from the Fourth to the Thirteenth Century. General Decay of Ancient Art. The Destructions. Constantinople or Byzantium. Establishment of Christianity. Symbolism. Prohibition of Images Vesica Early Symbols the Monogram the Fish (ix^s) Piscis. The Lily. The Catacombs. Images of Christ. The Nimbus or Glory. Trefoil Quatrefoil, &c. Ancient Basilicas. Tribune. Apsis. Mosaics. Modes of Benediction Distinction between Greek and Latin form. Monasteries of Mount Athos. The Image Contro-

versy between the Pope and the Emperor of the East. The IconoSanction of Images by the Council of Nice, A.D. 787. clasts. Ornamental Types Cross Dome Circle. St. Sophia of Constantinople, A.D. 562. San Vitale, Ravenna St. Mark's, Venice. Symbolism pervading all Designs Examples The Byzantine Leaf Runic Tracery Embroidery. Illumination of MSS. Religious Cycles.
;

88

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.

KNIGHT, H. GALLY. The Normans in Sicily, being a Sequel to "An 8vo. Architectural Tour in Normandy." London, 1838. The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy, from the Time of Constantine to the fifteenth Century with an Introduction and Text.
;

2 vols.

folio.

London, 1842-44. Saracenic and Norman Eemains, to

Folio.

illustrate

"The Normans

in Sicily."

London,

n. d.

MESSINA.

Hoof of the Cathedral of Messina. Charpente de la Cathedrale de Messine, dessinee par M. Morey, Chromo-lithogravee et lithographiee par H. Eoux, aine.

graphic plates. Folio. Paris, 1841. QUAST, A. F. VON. Old Christian Buildings of Eavenna. Die Alt-christlichen Bauwerke von Eavenna, vom f iinften bis zum neunten Jahrhundert, Historisch geordnet und durch Abbildungen erlaiitert von Al. F. Yon Quast. Small Folio. Berlin, 1842. DIDRON, M. Iconographie Chretienne. Hist. deDieu. 4to. Paris, 1843.

Handbook of Christian Iconography. Manuel d' Iconographie Chretienne, Grecque et Latine, avec une Traduit du MS. Byzantin, "Le Introduction et des Notes.
Guide de la Peinture," par
Paris, 1845.
le

Dr. Paul Durand.

le

Eoyal 8vo.

OSTEN, F.

Les Monuments de la Lombardie depuis e Darmstadt and Paris, 1847, Folio. jusqu'au XIV
.

YIIe

Siecle

et seq.

LECTUEE

II.

ON EOMANESQTJE AND SAEACENIC ART.

"Wide-spread Influence of Byzantine Ornament. Oriental Manufactures. Saracenic Costume. Luxury of the Caliphs of Bagdad. Tributes. Egypt Direct Byzantine Influence The Mosques of Cairo of Amrou, and El Azar (the Brilliant), A.D. A.D. 641 of Touloun, A.D. 876 981. The Pointed Arch. Saracenic Ornaments nearly identical with Byzantine. Polychromic Decorations. Palermo La Ziza, the Zigzag, 1050 Byzantine Mosaics and Sicily Glass Tesselations.

The Eomanesque.
Damascus.

Spain
(the

Palace of Abdu-r-rhaman III., near Cordova.

The Alhambra

decorations tracery diapers inscriptions. General Character of Saracenic Ornament. Tapestries.

Castle),
its

Eed

LECTURE

III.

ON THE SICULO-NORMAN AND THE EARLY POINTED

STYLE.

Palermo the Cappella Palatina, the Martorana. Greek, Saracenic, and Latin Elements. Eevival of Symbolism Cefalu, 1132. Monreale. Messina, Byzantine Mosaics, and Glass Tesselations. The Pointed Arch introduced into Sicily by the Saracens in the ninth century into England by the Normans in the twelfth. The Saxon or early Norman Eomanesque the Eound Norman or Zigzag style the Pointed Norman, or Transition (Plantagenet). Variety of Norman Ornaments the Zigzag, the Billet, the Tooth, &c.

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.

89

WYATT, M. D. Specimens of the Geometrical Mosaic of the Middle Ages with a brief Historical Notice of the Art, founded on Papers
;

read before the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and
Ireland.

Small

folio.

London, 1848.

CHALMERS op AULDBAR.

The

ancient sculptured

Monuments

of the

County of Angus, including those at Meigle in Perthshire, and one at Fordoun in the Mearns. With an additional plate and explanatory text. (Privately printed and presented to the Bannatyne Club.)

Large folio. Edinburgh, 1848. PERRET, L. The Catacombs of Rome.

Catacombes de

Rome

Archi-

tecture, Peintures Murales, Inscriptions, Figures, et

Pierres sepulcrales, \ Verres graves sur fond d'or, Anneaux, Instruments, &c., des Cimetieres des premiers Chretiens.
5 vols. folio.

Symboles des Lampes, Vases,

Paris, 1852, et seq.

(Published by the French Government, under the direction of a Commission of the Institute of France.)
CATJMONT, DE.

Book. Archaeological Abecedaire, ou Rudiment d'Archeologie. Ouvrage approuve par 1'Institut des Provinces de France. (Ornamental styles, civil

ABC

INKERSLEY, T.

2 vols. 8vo. Pads, 1851-53. architecture, &c.) into the Chronological Succession of the Inquiry with Styles of Romanesque and Pointed Architecture in France Notices of some of the principal Buildings on which it is founded.

and military

An

8vo.

London, 1850.

Stained Glass Methods of Glass Painting Mosaic Mosaic-stain and the Pure and Mixed Enamel Mosaic Enamel. Mosaic method described by Theophilus, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Design, hatched and smeared on Pot Metal, in Enamel Brown the Grozing Iron. Ornaments, chiefly from the Manuscripts of a ByzanTan-coloured Flesh Simple and Medaltine or Norman character
lion

Windows

Foliage and Quarry Patterns, plain and reticulated.

LECTURE IY.

ON GOTHIC ORNAMENT

DECORATED POINTED.

The Vertically of Gothic as contrasted with the horizontal Romanesque. The Five Arches of English Architecture the Round, the Pointed,
the Ogee, the Four-centred, and the Flat. Seven Styles of English Ecclesiastical Architecture, from Edward the Conlessor (1066) to Edward VI., about five centuries the Saxon Pointed (early Norman Romanesque) Round Norman (Zigzag) Norman (Transition) Early English Gothic (introduction of the MulDecorated Perpendicular (Lancastrian) and lion and Tracery) Tudor. Average duration of each style about seventy years.
Characteristics.

Geometrical character of Gothic Art. Snow Crystals.

Tracery Crocket
tures.

and Chamfer Cusping. The Trefoil Leaf the the Finial the Gargoyle. The Tudor Flower. ManufacSoffit

go

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT,
The Stones of Venice. 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1851. Examples of the Architecture of Venice, selected and drawn measurement from the edifices. Folio. London, 1851.
J.

RUSKIN,
to

L' Architecture Byzantine en France. (St.-Front de Perigueux, et les Eglises a coupoles de 1'Aquitaine.) 4to. Paris, 1852. RUNGE, L. Contributions towards the Knowledge of the Brick Archi-

VEENEILH, F. DE.

tecture of Italy.

Beitrage zur Kentniss der Backstein Architectur Italiens. folio. Berlin, 1852-53.

2 vols.

BLAVIGNAC, J. D. Histoire de 1' Architecture sacree du quatrieme au dixieme Siecle, dans les anciens eveches de Geneve, Lausanne, et
Sion.
8vo. text; atlas, ob. folio.

QUAST, F. VON.

The Romanesque Cathedrals Mayence, Speier, and Worms, critically and

Middle Rhine, at historically examinf d. Die Romanischen Dome des Mittelrheins zu Mainz, Speier, Worms. Kritisch untersucht und historisch festgestellt, durch F. Von

Paris, 1853. of the

8vo. plates. Quast. Berlin, 1853. G. ET L. La Basilica di San Marco, in Venezia, esposta ne' suoi KEEUTZ, Mosaici, e nelle sue Sculture, con illustrazione. Folio. Venice, 1843.

The Secondary Mosaics

of the Basilica of St.

Mark, Venice.

Mosaici Secondarii non compresi negli speccati geometrici, ma che completano con essi tutto 1'Interno della Basilica di San

Marco. 4to. Venice, 1854. SALZENBERG, W. Old Christian Architectural Monuments of ConstanSt. Sophia. tinople, from the Fifth to the Twelfth Century. Alt-Christliche Baudenkmale von Constantinopel vom V. bis XII.
jahrhundert.

Auf befehl genommen und historisch

Silentiarius

seiner majestat
erlautert

des Kb'nigs

auf-

anhange des

Salzenberg. Im Paulus beschreibung der Heiligen

von

W.

Sophia und des Ambon. kungen versehen von Dr.

Metrisch iibersetzt und mit anmerC.

W.

Kortum.

Herausgegeben von
6'ffentliche

dem

Konigl.

Ministerium fur Handel Gewerbe und

Berlin, 1854.

arbeiten.

Folio.

(Published by the Prussian Government, Ministry for Commerce, Trade, and Public Works.) NESFIEIJ), W. E. Specimens of Medieval Architecture, from sketches

made

in

France and

Italy.

4to.

London, 1860.

Stained Glass Mosaic-stain fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Pot Ornaments Simple Metal, Stained and Coated Glass Abrasion. and Medallion Windows Canopied Figures White Flesh Yellow Hair. Quarry, Diaper, Flower, Damask, and White or Grisailles
patterns, in Enamel Brown. Enamel and Mosaic Enamel, or Pure and Mixed Enamel, from the sixteenth century Ordinary Enamel Colours on White and Coloured

Glass (Pot Metal). Canopied Figures, Historic and Heraldic Designs Floral, Geometric, Renaissance, and Cinquecento Ornament.

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
BOCK, F.

gi

Les Tresors sacres de Cologne.

8vo. Paris, 1860.

Objets d'Art du

Moyen
Europe and

Age.

TYMMS AND WYATT.

from the

The Art

of Uluminating, as practised in

earliest times.

Illustrated

by

borders, initial letters,

alphabets, selected and chromolithographed by W. R. Tymms. With an Essay and Instructions by M. Digby Wyatt. Imp. 8vo. London,
1860.

WE

turn to the Middle- Age styles, which, in contradistinction to the ancient, the heathen, may be
art.

may now

termed Christian

The

peculiar views of the early Christians in matters of

art had, before the establishment of Christianity

State,

by the

no material influence upon society, though the Pagan idolatries found many bold and vigorous opponents long before the time of Constantine. During the first and
second centuries, Christian works of art were limited to
symbols, and were then never applied as decorations, but
as exhortations to faith

and

piety.

And

all

Christian

decoration rests upon this foundation,

the same spirit of

symbolism prevailing throughout, until the return to the heathen principle of beauty (to the aesthetic) in the period
of the Eenaissance.

The
lily
;

early symbols were the

;

monogram
the fish
;

of Christ

the

the cross

the serpent

the aureole, or

Vesica piscis, representing the acrostic symbol, the fish,

from the common Greek word

for fish, t'x0w, containing

:

the initials of the following sentence

'I^o-ou? X/atoro?

0eou
;

Yto? Steers,

Jesus Christ, of

God

the Son, the Saviour

and the
is

circle, or nimbus, the glory of the head, as the Vesica

These are very important elements in Christian decoration, especially the nimbus, which is
of the entire body.

the element of the trefoil and quatrefoil, so

common

in

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
Byzantine and Gothic art, the first having reference to the Trinity, the second to the four Evangelists, as the
testimony of Christ, and to the cross
of
;

at the extremities

which we often

find four circles, besides the circle in

the centre, which signifies the Lord.

Thus, figures or combinations of three, four, and five

circles are

common
and

in

meall

dieval

art,

have

sacred significations.
crosses are

Many
cir-

composed nearly
or

exclusively of the five

cles

as

principals,

are

prominently decorated with cross of them. this

character

is

not

uncom-

mon,

either with the circle

or nimbus in the centre,

and

four other circles or nimbi

at the extremities, or

comcir-

posed simply of five

cles

arranged in the form

the
cross,

of

the

centre

circle,

or

nimbus,

having

reference to the Lord, and

the other four to the Evangelists.

Old Leather Case.

Occasionally

the the

symbolic

images
the

of

Evangelists,

angel,

the lion, the ox, and the eagle, these circles.

are represented within

These symbolic images of the Evangelists are frequently

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.

93

applied as the principal decoration of a facade, and are

constantly
either side

met with under the arches of doorways, on of the vesica, which is found circumscribing the

image of Christ, with his right hand raised in the attitude

of benediction.

The hand,
characteristic

in the

attitude

of benediction,

is

another

element in early

Christian and medieval

works of

art.

There

is

a distinction between the Greek

and the Latin form, the Greek symbolising Jesus Christ, expressing his Greek monogram, IC.XC., (JesouC XristoC), by placing the thumb on the third finger, and slightly
curving the second and fourth
:

the Latin displaying the

thumb and the

first

and second fingers only extended, and

thus symbolising the Trinity. The Eoman prelate blesses in the name of the Trinity; the Greek in the name of
Jesus Christ.

Without some knowledge of these

essential points, the

Byzantine decorations are quite unintelligible; for their early designers would appear to have avoided rather than
sought beauty in
is

all

these peculiar forms

the principle

exactly the same as that by which

art

The Lily, was regulated. too (the fleur-de-lis), the emblem of the Virgin and of purity, is as common in
Egyptian
Christian

decoration as the lotus

It is the

is

in

symbol which was eventually elaborated into the most characteristic foliage of Byzantine and Eomanesque
that of Egypt.
still

art,

well illustrated

in work of the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries,

and especially in the old iron- work of that

time.

94

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
Conspicuous in their foliage,
also, is

a peculiarly formal

and sharp version, if I may so call it, of the Greek acanthus-leaf, somewhat resembling the ordinary thistle,
or holly-leaf.

Why
ancients,

the

beautiful

and accomplished
such

styles

of

the

comparatively crude elements of ornament, needs no other explanation

then, were discarded for

than the simple statement that they were Pagan.

Paganism, however, consisted solely in forms, not

in

colours,

and

therefore,

in respect of colour, there

never was any restriction

The Byzantine art. forms of the ancients, too,

in
as

Paganism

itself

gra-

dually

disappeared,

were

slowly admitted among the elements of Christian decoration; and the scroll, un-

der certain symbolic modifications,

the foliations terlilies

minating in
of
Architrave, St. Denis.

or leaves

three,

four,

and

five

blades, the

number

of the

blades being significant,

became eventually a very prominent feature in Byzantine- decoration; and under the
same modifications the anthemion, and every other ancient ornament, was gradually adopted, after a systematic exclusion of about four or five centuries.
characteristic of all the

But the most

ornamental

ordinary Byzantine

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
details,
is

95

that conventional foliage and scroll

work

just

described.

The very exclusive

prejudices of the early Byzantines

once overcome, a most comprehensive style of decoration

was rapidly developed, notwithstanding they never attained that purity of detail which characterises the works
of the Greeks.
Still,

so great

was

their ingenuity, that

they made, from their crudest symbols even, very beautiful

and

attractive designs.

An

important feature always to be observed in the

works of the Byzantines is, that all their imitations of natural forms were invariably conventional so far they
:

have preserved the ancient custom throughout. It is the same even with animals and with the human figure every saint had his prescribed colours, proportions, and
:

symbols.

This Byzantine system of decoration was fully matured, and is still shown in perfection in the rich mosaics of
St.

Sophia at Constantinople, completed by the Emperor

Justinian 562 A.D.*

The beauty and

effect of

Byzantine designs

is,

however,

as often owing to their materials as to the fashion of the

ornaments themselves; and this

all early

middle-age art;

as it

the case with nearly was with the Egyptians,

is

and must perhaps always be in every

bolism
for

style

which depends

for its individuality of character chiefly

:

upon

its

sym-

symbols are not- chosen for their beauty, but

for their meaning.

* Some beautiful specimens have been lately published in the work on Constantinople, undertaken under the auspices of the Prussian Government.
of Salzenberg,

96

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.

We

shall find that the

most beautiful Byzantine designs

is

are those

in

which the symbolism

:

unobtrusive,
that
is

or

even wholly disguised

rarely, if ever,

not

absent,

for

very

the case.

design which contained no

trace of symbolism could hardly be a genuine Byzantine speaking, but especially in eccle-

example.
siastical

Generally

decoration,

whether

metal- work,

stone-work,

wood-carving, glass-staining, or mosaic, the

symbols, in

some form or

other,

are

paramount, being mixed only

with geometrical forms.

zantine capitals
tradict this;

Many Byit

may

appear to con-

but on examination

will

be found that the apparently floral forms are combinations only

of the

conventional types

derived

from the symbols ; as vesicas, circles, The very lilies, and many others.
sometimes composed of serpents; and serpents are not an uncommon ornament for a capital.
tracery
is

The serpent

figures

largely in Byzantine

art,

as the

instrument of the Fall, and one type of the Eedemption. The cross planted on the serpent is found sculptured on

Mount Athos

surrounded by the so-called Eunic knot, is only a Scandinavian version of the original Byzantine image, the crushed snake curling round the
;

and the

cross,

stem of the avenging

at the foot of
it,

cross.

The

cross,

with two
is

scrolls
its

typifying the snake,

another of

modifications,

and a very common Byzantine ornament.

crosses,

The ordinary northern

interlaced ornaments

so conspicuous for

their
to

and grotesque monsters, appear

idea.

be purely modifications of this

Some good examples

BYZANTINE.

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
may
be
seen
in

99

Chalmers'

Sculptured Monuments

of

Angus.

The leading forms

of Byzantine architecture are like-

wise due to the same influence

the dome, pervade everywhere.
reference to

the cross, the

circle,
its

and

The dome has

own

the vault of heaven, whose living glories were generally represented on the spherical roof of the
apse at the end of the Greek Basilicas.
tion
is

known

This representain the Greek Church as the holy liturgy,

or the glorification of Christ,

and

it

often illustrates the

dome

itself in

the centre of the cross.

This

is

the reason

that the cross and the

dome

are so characteristic of early

Christian or Byzantine architecture, and indeed of

Eoman-

esque architecture generally.

Some

of

the

principal

Byzantine

or

Eomanesque
the five
cross,

churches are developments of the symbol of

circles or glories
:

they are placed in the form of a

and are surmounted by domes corresponding in

situation to the circles represented in the
St.

size

and

pavement below.

Mark's at Venice

is

conspicuous example of this

symbolic architecture. This species of architecture, with the dome and round

termed Eomanesque, as derived immediately from that which prevailed throughout the Eoman Empire at
arch, is

that time
of
its

when from heathen

it

became Christian

some

classical

types are the Pantheon, the Colosseum,

at Spalatro.

and the palace of Diocletian

Though not

Eoman
debased

absolutely,

it

is

derived from the

Eoman

it

is

Romanesque : it is a general term which distinguishes the round-arch species from the Saracenic and Gothic, which are pointed-arch species. The pre-

Eoman

ioo

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
dome and
arch, however,

serration of the

was probably

due rather

to the symbolic value of those figures

among

the Byzantine Greeks than to the mere historic example of the Eomans.
the Eomanesque are Both the Byzantine, the Lombard, and the Norman.* Lombard and the Norman may, in a technical point of
chief
varieties

The

of

the

view,

be considered mere modifications or varieties of

;

the Byzantine

few examples of the Eomanesque out of Italy were not derived, directly or indirectly, from Constantinople, or Byzantium, as it was previously called.
certainly

extended to this country as far north as York and Hexham it is still the standard type in Eussia ; and

The

style

it is

the exclusive model of the whole system of architec-

ture of the

Mohammedans, from Benares

to Cadiz,

from

Indeed the Byzantine was so widely spread, and so thoroughly identified with all middle-age
Cairo to Damascus.
art,

that its

influence

did not

entirely cease

until the
:

establishment of the Eenaissance in the fifteenth century both the Saracenic and the Gothic proceeded from the

Byzantine.

The Greek
extreme

missionaries carried
;

its

influence into the

north

and while the

artists

of

Syria were
exclusiveness

accommodating
of

their style to

Mohammedan

in the south, in the colder regions of

Europe the mysteries

fables of

Mount Athos were

The Scandinavian

freely

mixed up with the

Scandinavian mythology.
soldiers, also, of the

imperial body-

guard, made the talismans

* See these

of Christian

mythology almost
"Buildings of

styles beautifully illustrated in Osten's

Lombardy."

BYZANTINE.

Capitol.

Moissac, France.

101

Capital.

Germany.

BYZANTINE ROMANESQUE.

^=.v-:F>r^--

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
as familiar
forefathers.

105

in their native

homes

as

the gods of their

as

The same mixture became

common

even-

tually on the portals of

There

is this

difference

Lombardy. between the Byzantine and the

varieties, that

Lombard and Norman

the

mere matter of habit in the two

latter,

symbolism is and generally,

forms,
is

perhaps, though rudely preserved in

many

dis-

regarded in their spirit;

details,

that

is,

in

mere

ornamental

such as the zigzag, dog's-tooth, nail-head, star, but the symbolic figures chain, and a host of others
:

and other religious decorations mean exactly what they

express.

As the peculiarly Norman style, such as it is best known in this country, was originally developed in Sicily,
it

contains, of course,

many

Saracenic features, of which

;

the pointed arch and the zigzag are the most prominent
for the
style,

Norman, though
eventually

originally a simple

Eomanesque
century
is

adopted in

the twelfth

the

pointed arch of the Mohammedans.*

This style

well

developed in the Cathedral of Cefalu in

Sicily, built

by

King Eoger in 1132. The terms Byzantine and Eomanesque have been used
above as almost synonymous.
their architectural features
;

They

are

so

as regards

the Byzantine being only a

variety of the Eomanesque.

In the
all

later centuries they

may be
more

considered the same in

respects

but in the
:

earlier centuries there is

strictly

an ornamental distinction
Latin,

the

Eomanesque, or

being

a
or

simple

debasement of
being
*
this
art

Eoman

art

the

Byzantine,

Greek,

combined with the

symbolic

elements

" Saracenic and Gaily Knight,

Norman Kemains

in Sicily."

io6

BYZANTINE ORNAMENT.
new
Christian religion, comprising a

introduced by the

peculiar symbolic version also of the old

foliage.

Eoman

acanthus

The wider

signification of the Romanesque,

how-

ever, is

the earlier Christian round arch developments,

in contradistinction to the Gothic, or later pointed arch

varieties of the North.

If any style can be distinguished

of
Christian Architecture,
it is is

with the exclusive

title

the Byzantine, of which St. Sophia, at Constantinople,

magnificent type.

Byzantine Frieze, from a Church at Bonn.

CHAPTER

XI.

SAEACENIC OKNAMENT.

ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
MURPHY,
J. C. The Arabian Antiquities of Spain representing in 100 engravings the Principal Eemains of the Architecture, Sculpture, Paintings, and Mosaics of the Spanish Arabs, from Drawings made
;

on the

spot.

Large

folio.

London, 1816.

COSTE, P. Architecture Arabe, ou Monumens dessines de 1817 a 1826. Folio. Paris, 1837

du Kaire, mesures
39.

et

KNIGHT, H. GALLY. The Normans in Sicily; being a sequel to "An Architectural Tour in Normandy." 8vo. London, 1838. Saracenic and Norman Eemains, to illustrate " The Normans
in Sicily."

Folio.

London,
1'

n. d.

DE PRANGEY,

G.

Essai sur

Architecture des Arabes et des Mores en

Espagne, en Sicile, et en Barbarie. Eoyal 8vo. Paris, 1841. JONES AND GOURY. Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of the Alhambra. From Drawings taken on the spot in 1834 by the late M. Jules Goury, and in 1834 and 1837 by Owen Jones. With a complete Translation of the Arabic Inscriptions, and an Historical Notice of the Kings of Granada from the Conquest of that city by the Arabs to the Expulsion of the Moors, by M. Pasqual de Gayangos. Folio.

London, 1842.

HESSEMER.

Saracenic and Old Italian Building Decorations. Arabische und Alt-Italienische Bau-verzierungen. 120 chromo2nd edition, folio. Berlin, 1853. lithographs.

Choix d'Ornements Arabes de 1' Alhambra, offrant dans BISSON, M. leur ensemble une synthese de 1'ornementation Mauresque en Espagne

au XIII6

Siecle.

Eeproduits en photographe.

4to.

Paris, 1853.

loS

SARACENIC ORNAMENT.

Cairo.

WE

will

now

consider the second medieval

:

style

the

Saracenic.

Its principles are soon stated

artists

the Arabs had

their

not art or
deserts,

of their

own; they came from

with no more taste or knowledge of such matters

than a mere love of finery could give them; they could not but be struck by the gorgeous display of such cities
as

Damascus, which
ambitions
arose

fell

into their hands in

634

A.D.

new

with their

new power, and

the

Byzantine artists were pressed into the service of the Arabian caliphs and generals, and ordered to raise rich

mosques and palaces. Damascus, Cairo, and Cordova, show the admirable ingenuity with which they accommodated themselves to their
ditions of the

new circumstances. The connew Mohammedan law were stringent in

:

endless designs in mosaic, marquetry, or in stucco, there

was

to be no image of a living thing, vegetable or animal. Such conditions led to a very individual style of decora-

tion:

vegetable forms were

now excluded

for the first

SARACENIC ORNAMENT.
time.

109

However,

by

the

seventh

century,

when

the

works of the Saracens commenced, the Byzantine Greeks were already sufficiently skilful to make light of such
exclusions,

and the

exertion

of ingenuity

which they

impelled gave rise to a more beautiful simply ornamental style than perhaps any that had preceded it, for there was

no division of the

artistic

mind now between meaning

and although the religious cycles and other symbolic figures which had hitherto engrossed so much of the artist's attention were excluded, the mere coneffect
;

and

ventional

ornamental

symbolism,
periods,

the

ordinary

forms

borrowed from the

metry,
left

classic

an abundant

field

and geometrical symbehind, which was further

enriched

by the

peculiarly Saracenic custom of elaborating

inscriptions into their designs.

Mere curves and angles

burden of a

or interlacings were
design,

now

to bear the chief

but distinguished by a variety of colour; the

however,
floral

curves,

very naturally
shapes,
into

fell

into the

standard

forms and
soon

and the

lines

and angles were

species

developed

very characteristic

of

tracery or interlaced strap-work, very agreeably diversified

by the ornamental introduction

of the inscriptions.

And

although flowers were not palpably admitted, the great mass of the minor details of Saracenic designs are com-

posed of flower forms disguised; the very inscriptions are sometimes thus grouped as flowers this is especially the case in the later works of the Alhambra ; still no
:

actual flower ever occurs, as the exclusion of all natural

images

is

the fundamental of the style in

its

purity.

The omission

of the crescent in Saracenic or

is

medan work

generally

worth

notice.

It

Mohamnow crowns.

no

SARACENIC ORNAMENT.
it is

the great mosques of Constantinople, but

not to be

found in any early work, and

it

appears to

be

itself

simply the trophy of the conquest of the Greek capital of Constantinople, the ancient Byzantium, of which it was
the symbol, the town on one occasion having, according

been preserved from a night ambuscade by the timely appearance of the new moon it occurs on
to

an old

tradition,

old Byzantine coins.

Constantinople was not captured by

the Turks until 1453.

One
Cairo, a

of the greatest works produced under these cir-

cumstances was the magnificent mosque of Touloun at

monument

of the ninth century (876 A.D.),

and

the recorded work of a Greek.

stucco,

The ornaments

are in

most characteristic example of the combination of Byzantine and Saracenic elements.

and altogether

offer the

With

the Saracenic tracery and inscriptions, and other

forms,

peculiar

we have combined

several

of the most

popular ancient ornaments in their Byzantine garb, but somewhat more than ordinarily modified, as the fret,

anthemion, the guilloche, the horns of plenty, and the

fleur-de-lis.

The more
Saracenic

characteristic

detail,

that

is,

the

original
foliage

elements,

the disguised

conventional

spoken

of, is

very beautifully elaborated in some of the

accessory works of this mosque.

to after ages;

They became standards

diaper-tiles of

for the details of the

the

Alhambra, executed some five hundred years afterwards,

are in

many
all

respects nearly identical with these details of

the mosque of Touloun at Cairo.

In

these early Arabian buildings of Cairo

first,

we have
in the

the pointed arch, which appears

I believe,

SAKACENIC.

Ill

Alhambra Diaper.

SARACENIC ORNAMENT.
great

113

mosque of Amrou, a work of the seventh century (641 A.D.) but the ogee, the crescent, and the scalloped arches, are more characteristic, perhaps, of Saracenic
;

architecture

generally,

as

the pointed
style;

arch

has

been

made

but the simple round Komanesque arch also occurs in the Moorish works of This style became gradually richer as it advanced Spain.
familiar

by a

later

westwards from Egypt to Sicily, and especially in Spain, where the Alhambra, a work of the fourteenth century,
still

remains to bear witness to

its

unparalleled richness of

detail.

There
palace

is

not

much pure
Ziza,

Saracenic
is,

work

in Sicily

the

of
:

La

at

Palermo,

perhaps,

the

only

example

there are, however,

of

some magnificent
century at
in

Siculo-

Norman remains
Monreale,
Cefalu,

the

twelfth

Palermo,

and

Messina,
;

which

Greek

or

Saracenic artists were

in these places are
class

engaged

and the glass mosaics

specimens of their

among the

finest

existing

they exhibit some exquisite examples of

tracery or interlacing.

The Saracenic was the period of gorgeous

their

diapers, for

habit

of

decorating the

entire

surfaces

of

their

apartments was peculiarly favourable to the development of this class of design the Alhambra displays almost
:

endless

specimens, and

all

are

in relief

and

enriched

Some give with gold and colour, chiefly blue and red. the idea of being more endurable imitations of the rich
woollens of
great
store

Cashmere,
of.

which the Arabs always made The Genoa damasks, Arras tapestries,
all

and modern paper-hangings, are

Saracenic wall diapers.

imitations

of these

The very word "Damask" means

u4

SARACENIC ORNAMENT.
Damascus, however, was famous
its

Damascus work.
such fabrics before

for

It was conquest by the Arabs. called Damesk, and was a place of repute even in the

time of Abraham.

Damascus

is

still

famous
it

for its textile fabrics in a

pure

Saracenic taste, and

produces a great variety of patterns

in silk and in cotton, the designs of

stripes

which are

chiefly

and

The

inscriptions, good wishes or pious sentences.* Siculo-Norman, from which our round zigzag
(Ziza),

and the pointed Noris

man, are derived,

as

much
it is

a variety of the Saracenic

as of the Byzantine
:

indeed a free combination

of the

two

styles; for the

reserved mixture of the two

hitherto

practised

had

its

Christian character restored

to
it

by

the .Normans,

through the introduction of sacred figures, and a proBerkeley Castle, Gloucestershire.

minence which they gave

to all the

most palpable Christian symbols, more especially

:

* This style has of late years found its way into our railway carriages worsted borders, in which the initials of the company are worked as an ornamental pattern, right and left, and upside down, as in the Eastern examples, are now common. The mock inscriptions on the borders of rich robes, in early Italian pictures, are also derived from oriental models. The richest stuffs were from the East, and were decorated with Arabic inscriptions the old painters accordingly, when from a spirit of veneration they dressed their saints in rich robes, were very particular in the elaboration of their border decorations, which necesThere are several sarily implied a robe of a costly oriental fabric. examples of such borders in the National Gallery.
;

SARACENIC ORNAMENT.

115

the Cross, which never occurs in genuine Saracenic work.

This renders the Siculo-Norman a very complete style, and

it is

displayed in great magnificence in the cathedral of

Messina.

The Alhambra does not exhibit

in its details which

that Byzantine character

we

find in Sicily or in the

Mosques of

Cairo

all

the peculiar Arabian features are preserved,

but the

and anthemion, which are often in very rich development on the monuments of Cairo, can with
scroll

difficulty
scroll in

be traced in the Alhambra.

"We discover the

is

some of the

interlacings,

and there

a fan-shape

which

recalls the anthemion.

artists of the

The

Alhambra were probably exclusively

of this palace
is

Saracenic.

The beauty

in its general

richness of effect, in its endless combinations of columns,

arches,

and gorgeous surfaces its gold and silver flowers, and its intricate tracery, which all combine to give the
;

impression of extraordinary splendour as a whole, though

no particular part commands any special admiration.

House

at

Damascus.

CHAPTER

XII.

GOTHIC OENAMENT.

ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
DE LABORDE, LE COMTE ALEXANDRE.
Les Monumens de
la France,

classes chronologiquement, et consideres sous le 2 vols. folio. historiques et de 1'Etude des Arts.

Rapport des Faits

CARTER,

J.

The Ancient Architecture

III.

36. Paris, 1816 of England, including the Orders

during the British, Eoman, Saxon, and

the reigns of
gravings.

Norman Eras

and under

by 109 enwith Notes and copious London, 1837. of the Ancient Sculpture and Painting now remainSpecimens ing in England, from the earliest period to the reign of Henry VIII. Exhibited in 120 plates, drawn and etched by J. Carter. With Critical and Historical Illustrations by Francis Douce, Richard Gough, John Fenn, J. S. Hawkins, William Bray, and the Rev. J. Milner. A

Henry new and improved Indexes, by John Britton. Folio.

and Edward

III.

Illustrated

edition,

new and improved edition, arranged in topographical order, and illustrated with copious notes by Dawson Turner, Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick,

John
J.

Britton,

and

others.

Folio.

London, 1838.

5 vols. 4to. of England. London, 1836. PUGIN, A. W. Specimens of Gothic Architecture, selected from various Ancient Edifices in England, consisting of plans, elevations, sections, and parts at large, &c. The literary part by J. E. Willson. 3 vols. 3rd edition, corrected and revised. 4to. London, 1821 50. POPP, J., AND BTTLEATT, TH. The Three Ages of Gothic Architecture. Les Trois Ages de 1' Architecture Gothique, son origine, sa theorie, demontres et representes par des Exemples choisis a Ratisbonne,

BRITTON,

The Cathedral

Antiquities

&c.

Folio.

Paris, 1841.

BOISEREE, S.

Pour

Histoire et Description de la Cathedrale de Cologne. servir de texte aux Vues, Plans, Coupes, et Details de 1'Edifice.
Plates,
folio;
text,

Nouvelle edition refaite et augmentee. Munich, 184243.

4to.

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
KALLENBACH, G. G. VON.
Architecture.

117

Tabular History of German Medieval

Atlas zur Geschichte der Deutscli-Mittelalterliclien Baukunst, in 86 tafeln. Folio. Munich, 1847.

BRANDON, R. AND

J.

A.

An

Analysis of Gothic Architecture, illustrated

by a series of upwards of seven hundred examples of Doorways, Windows, &c., and accompanied with Remarks on the several details
of an Ecclesiastical Edifice. 2 vols. 4to.

London, 1847.

BLACKBURNE, E. L. Sketches, Graphic and Descriptive, for a History of the Decorative Painting applied to English Architecture during the Middle Ages. 4to. London, 1847.
COLLING, J. K. Gothic Ornaments, being a series of examples of enriched Details and Accessories of the Architecture of Great Britain. Drawn from existing authorities. 2 vols. 4to. London,
1850.

LACROIX AND SERE. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance," Manners and Customs, Sciences, and Art, &c., with fac-simile illustrations.

Le Moyen Age
Mceurs
et

et la Renaissance, Histoire et Description des Usages, du Commerce et de 1'Industrie, des Sciences, des Arts, des Litteratures et des Beaux Arts en Europe. DirecDirection artistique de M. tion litteraire de M. Paul Lacroix. Ferdinand Sere. Dessins fac-similes par M. A. Rivaud. 5 vols.
4to.

Paris,

184851.

GAILHABATJD, J. On Architecture from the fifth to the sixteenth century, and the Arts depending on it Sculpture, Wall-Painting, Glass-Painting, Mosaic, Ironwork, &c. L' Architecture du e au XVI e Siecle, et les Arts qui en dependent, la Sculpture, la Peinture murale, la Peinture sur Verre, la Mosa'ique, la Ferronnerie, &c., publics d'apres les travaux

inedits des principaux Architectes Fran9ais et Etrangers.

4to.

Paris, 1851,

et seq.

BECKER AND HEFNER. Works of Art and Utensils of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Kunstwerke und Gerathschaften des Mittelalters und der Renaissance. By C. Becker and J. von Hefner. 2 vols, 4to. Frankfurt,
1852.

STROOBANT, F. Monumens d' Architecture et de Sculpture en Belgique. Texte par Felix Stappaerts. 4to. Bruxelles, 1852. KING, T. H. Jewellery and Metal Work of the Middle Ages. Orf evrerie et Ouvrages en Metal du Moyen Age. (Designed from
old examples.)
Folio.

Bruges, 1852,

et seq.

WARING, J. B. Architectural, Sculptural, and Picturesque Studies in Burgos and its Neighbourhood. Folio. London, 1852. WICKES, C. Illustrations of the Spires and Towers of the Medieval Preceded by some Observations on the Churches of England.

n8

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.

2 vols. folio. its Spire Growth. London, 1853 55. DOLLMAN AND JoBBms. An Analysis of Ancient Domestic Architecture 4to. in Great Britain. London, 1860.

Architecture of the Middle Ages, and

THE
Of

third and last great middle-age style

was the Gothic.

this I can

remark only as regards

its

general principles,

to fully explain all its subdivisions of style

would occupy

much
It

space.

grew out of the Byzantine, and

flourished chiefly

on the Ehine, in the north of France, and in England.

Salisbury Cathedral, A.D. 1221, the
first

great

work

of

the kind in this country,

in
style
it

is

a work of the French, but

was

a genuine

Norman
its

beginning.
century,

The
and

Gothic was developed

in the

thirteenth

was perfected in the fourteenth;

monument, perhaps,
it

most characteristic

is

Cologne Cathedral, which

;

was

consecrated in the year 1322

rapidly declined, and
least, in
it

in the fifteenth

century

became quite
;

extinct, in this

country at

the sixteenth

a catastrophe doubtless

involved by the Reformation.

extending over a space of about five hundred years only, from the death of Edward the Confessor, 1066, to the death of

England has had seven

ecclesiastical styles,

Queen Mary, 1558, when all ecclesiastical architecture ceased and the Tudor was superseded by the Renaissance
;

in the reign of Elizabeth.

The seven
1.

styles are,

2.
3.
first

The Saxon, or simple round arch, Romanesque. The round Norman (zigzag style). The pointed Norman,
Plantagenet style).
or transition

(Henry

II.,

or

GOTHIC.

119

The Lynn Cup.

c.

1400.

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
4.

121

The

early English Gothic

style).

(Henry

III.,

or

second

Plantagenet
5.

The decorated Gothic

(the Edwards, the third Plan-

tagenet style).
6.

The perpendicular Gothic (Henry YIL, The debased Perpendicular,

or
flat

or

Lan-

castrian).
7.

(Henry VIII.,

or Tudor).

Thus during the period

of the seven

Edwards there were

1556), or about the

seven styles, the duration of each of which was, on an

average, about seventy years (1066

period of the personal influence of an individual

by

his

own

direct

efforts,

and that of his school or followers

of architecture

combined.
cession

The

history

shows a suc-

of changes in

most countries, but in England

development of the
ecclesiastical

these changes have been singularly rapid and regular.

In

this period of the

styles it is

remarkable

how

little

the notion of a style

and how regardless the builders, or masons, of one age were of the sentiment or aim of those of a Few subjects show such perfect want of previous age.
existed,

accord as the building of our cathedrals.

where a great ecclesiastical and renewed after intervals, those who have carried on
the enterprise have done so invariably utterly regardless of the character of the work already executed; the

In every case work has been suspended,

practice of the day exclusively defined the character of

the work,
craftsman,

as his

if

the practical education of the handi-

accidental

source of the whole

varieties
;

paramount scheme and system of ornamental

skill,

were

the

each mason working out only such forms as

izz

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.

had occupied his time in the years of his apprenticeThere are not many matters on which the English ship.
people have been more deluded of late years than on the
subject of the nationality and the Christianity of Gothic
architecture.

Gothic

is

of comparatively very late

in
this

de-

velopment,

and endured at most

it

country for
in its

about three centuries;

origin,
its

is

by no means English

and so

far
it

from having any determinate unity in

as already shown, a continued
Its religious elements are
style,

character,

displays,

succession of changes.
tine.

Byzan-

As

regards Christianity of
is literally

the most Christian

architecture

that of the

Mohammedan

mosques,

which owe

their forms to the early Christian symbolism,

as developed

by the Byzantine Greeks.

fifth,
:

Three only of the above styles, the fourth, sixth, are what can be strictly termed Gothic
first

and

the two

are round

arch,
;

and belong
the third
is

to

the Byzantine or

Eomanesque

varieties

the simple transition

from the round to the pointed styles ; and the seventh is the transition back again from those styles in which the
arch
ties,

prominent a feature, to the Eenaissance variein which the arch becomes again round, and loses its
is so

importance as a principal elementary feature of

style.

The general
tectural
style,

characteristics of the Gothic, as

an archior

are

these

It

is

essentially pointed

vertical in its tendency,

and in

its detail is

geometrical

in

its

window-tracery, in its openings, in its clusters of

shafts
is

and

bases,

and in

its

suits

of mouldings
its

but

it

only geometrical in its construction, or in not in its spirit or motive.

form,

All the symbolic elements of the Byzantine are con-

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
tinned in the Gothic
for the round.
all
;

123

but the pointed arch

is

is

substituted

There

a close traditional connection in

though the virulence of the image controversy, and other differences, between the Greek and Latin Churches, doubtless had some influence
the

ordinary

details,

in the development of a
that where

change of style;

for

we

find

the

been, until

Greek Church has prevailed there has very recently, no essential change whatever
It is unquestionable,

in ecclesiastical architecture.
ever, that climate

how-

something to do also with the peculiar development of the Gothic it has flourished only in cold regions subject to much rain and snow, and
;

has had

a Gothic church frequently looks very like a fortification

against the
buttresses,

weather,

with

its

high-pitched roof,

solid

and narrow doors and windows.

As

I have

already explained, the pointed arch, one of the characteristics of

the

Gothic,

is

not peculiar to

it;

it

had
the

already existed five hundred years in Egypt, and

is

common form
The Gothic

of the Siculo-Norman arch.

is chiefly

distinguished from the Byzantine

and the Latin Eomanesque varieties, by the universal absence of the dome, and the substitution of the pointed
for the

round arch.
is

The union

of the

belfry with

the

church

not peculiar to the Gothic, though in the great

distinct,

Eomanesque examples they are and Pisa they are also distinct
;

as

at

Venice

at Florence,

and many

other Italian towns;

nor are the towers in the place of

the domes peculiar to the Gothic, they are

common

in

Germany, and in this country, as at Ely, Peterborough, and elsewhere. The spire is the pointed roof of the tower, and both
the
in Sicily, in

Norman Eomanesque

124

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
owed
:

doubtless originally

their development as

much

to

and only halfcleared countries, such as England was in the Middle Ages, a tower or spire was a landmark performing other
use as to ornament
in thinly-populated

useful

services

besides that

of

simply indicating

the

locality of the church, or securing the

proper elevation

of its bells.

The

transition

added the

spire

to

the
a

old tower of
feature

the Romanesque and Norman, and

of the Gothic
;

it is

common

while the square abacus and the heavy

cushion capitals of these styles, with their simple incised

ornaments, are converted, in the transition, to the round

abacus and the bell-shaped capital, decorated with raised

foliage,

and eventually elaborated into

infinite variety in

the Gothic styles.

Ornamentally the Gothic is the geometrical and pointed element elaborated to its utmost, its only peculiarities are its combinations of details; at first the conventional

and the

geometrical

prevailing,

and

afterwards

these
its

combined with the elaboration of natural objects in

decoration.

The Byzantines never did

conventional
;

this,

their orna-

ments were purely

Gothic specimens

while

in

the finest

we

find not only the traditional con-

ventional ornaments,
elaborate imitations

but in

the decorated period also

of the plants and flowers of the

growing

in the

a great neighbourhood feature but still the most striking feature of all Gothic work is the wonderful elaboration of its geometric tracery
is
;

work.

This

vesicas, trefoils, quatrefoils, cinquefoils,

and an
is

infinity

of geometric varieties besides.

The

tracery

so para-

mount a

characteristic that the three

English varieties,

GOTHIC.

GOTHIC.

Crocket, Lincoln.

Tooth Ornament, Stone Church, Kent.

128

Crockets, Lincoln.

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.

129

the Early English, the Decorated, and the Perpendicular,

are distinguished almost exclusively
is

by

this feature

it

the

same with

the French

flamboyant

the

flame

style,

from the waving

lines of its tracery.

The

tracery,

indeed,

establishes the fact of a style

being Gothic or

not, for the

tions

Byzantine contains only the symbolic foliaso the pointed style called "Transition" is not
it

Gothic, because

has no tracery.
is

The
in

first

Gothic in this country

first

the Early English,

which we have the

development of geometrical

I'roiu the

Temple Chinch.

window-tracery
several lights
;

mullions instead of piers

windows of
com-

flying buttresses, crocketed pinnacles,

plicated mouldings, the columns clustered, and the capitals

generally round

an extensive application of

foliage,

with

the trefoil

leaf,

commonly

called the Early-English leaf, as

It is

the most characteristic ornament.

sometimes as formal

as a clover leaf, at other times very irregularly formed,

but always with a fulness or roundness of the parts, as contrasted with the somewhat similar, but flat or even
o

3o

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
Norman
foliage,

hollow Byzantine or
variation.

of

which

it

is

The
istic

so-called tooth, or dog's-tooth, the

most characterstyle,

ornamental detail of the previous pointed

occurs

the

Transition,

comparatively

rarely

in

the Early

English, and in the early specimens only, and consider-

ably varied in detail.

original
to
fill

This ornament was probably in

its

form a simple vesica cross, but being contracted hollows was developed into its ordinary character,
in early Plantagenet, or Transition work.

so

common
Upon

the Early English succeeded the Decorated, chiefly

characterised

by a more magnificent development

it

of the

leading elements of the Early English, more especially the

tracery; but

has

its

own

features

the ogee arch, and

the pinnacled canopied recesses of the buttresses, and other

parts,

producing a prominence of diagonal

ball-flower,

lines.

The
vine-

so-called

and the

common

serpentine

scroll, are the most characteristic details of this period.

There
in

is also

more nature, or

imitation, in the details than

any other of the Gothic varieties. In the third variety, the Perpendicular, the new features are the horizontal line, the panellings, and the substitution
of perpendicular for flowing tracery. of the ornamental details
is

And

the execution

very conventional. The most prominent bar of the tracery is the mullion itself, so that
the prevalent panelling of the style is also prominent in the window tracery, composed of mullion upon mullion, or

mullion and supermullion, being separated by a horizontal bar, termed a transom. This divides the lights into vertical

panes or panels, and the same panelling (of which fantracery is also an example) is spread over every surface of

GOTHIC.

131

Pedestal,

Henry VH.'s Chapel,

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.

'33

the buildings of this period, developing that style which I

have termed Lancastrian, commonly known as the Perpendicular

:

it

is

the great style of the fifteenth century in

this country.

The

natural freedom of the details occasionally displayed

in the Decorated, is

now

lost in a

formal conventionality in

which displays an execution of these parts much more analogous to German work, and the original Byzantine elements from which Gothic forms
the Perpendicular
;

generally were indirectly derived.

The

crockets also of

perpendicular

work

are,

like

the foliage,

very formal,

exhibiting a square cruciform arrangement in the details

of the leaves, and a uniform character,
sea- weed

more analogous

to

than ordinary leaves, in the foliage generally. The Tudor is scarcely a Gothic the art in it returns
;

to

what

it

was

in the

Romanbecomes

esque,

and

again

horizontal.

Its great features

are the

flat arch,

the square

dripstone,
spandril,

and the rectangular

a necessary deve-

lopment of the square dripstone

over the

arch.

The

running ornament known as the Tudor-flower, and conspicuous, because

,

almost alone,
..

in buildings 01 this
ter, is

.,

,.

All Saints, Fearing, Essex.

characIts

a remnant of the old Byzantine.

is

name
it

of Tudoris

flower

appropriate only in the sense that

almost
:

the only medieval ornament preserved in that style

original type of this ornament
is

the

the old Byzantine alter-

J34

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
common
as the decoration

nation of the lily and the cross,

of a crown, and for edges or borders of

many

other kinds.

There are

five orders of arches

which distinguish these

namely the round, the pointed, the ogee, the four-centred, and the flat the
several ecclesiastical styles generally,
:

pointed itself comprising three varieties

the lancet, the

pointed, and the drop arch; in the first the pitch being

greater than the span, in the second equal to

last less.

it,

and

in the

In ornamental
is

art generally, then, as in architecture, it

geometrical tracery which will stamp a design with a

:

Gothic character
will
still

decorate
it

be Gothic;

with natural flowers only, it would be necessarily made much

it

more

characteristic

by the introduction
trefoil

of

some of the

historic

ornaments of the period,

crocket-leaf,

as the Tudor-flower,

English leaf, vine-scroll, or any other of the more familiar ornaments

fleur-de-lis,

or Early

of the style.

As, however, the Gothic

is

a style which

has flourished exclusively in cold countries, its ornaments of a natural class to be characteristic should be from such
plants as are native to Gothic latitudes;
tropical plants

would be

inconsistent.

Throughout we

should prefer the

wild plants of the north to the more exuberant flowers of

the
south.

All exotics, in

fact,

that are not symbols,

should be unconditionally excluded.

The

characteristic

Norman ornaments
dered.

are not admissible in the Gothic, with

is

the exception of the tooth, and that

peculiarly ren-

Classical ornaments, likewise, are of course excluded;

even the

only in the Gothic as a serpentine. Gothic ornaments independent of the tracery are nearly
scroll occurs

GOTHIC ORNAMENT.
exclusively fruit, flowers, or leaves
;

35

and

as a geueral rule,

the execution

is

extremely rude.

Such

is

a rough outline of the course of ornamental art

among

the most prominent people of medieval history, for

a period of more than a thousand years.

that all varieties, however

We

have seen
are
;

individual in

character,

intimately connected with those which preceded

them

an

advantage once gained was not allowed to be lost ; and the remarkable transition from the Byzantine to the Saracenic, so totally different in spirit and in detail, yet both developed by the same
artists,

shows that

it

is

not from a

persevering manual routine that variety and beauty are to

be derived, but from the active intelligence of the controlling mind.

Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire.

THE

MODERN OR RENAISSANCE
FOUR LECTURES.*

STYLES,

CHAPTER

XIII.

ILLUSTRATED LITERATURE.
JUVARRA, CAV. D. F. Collection of Shields, from the Originals in Borne. Raccolta di Targhe f atte da' Professori primari in Roma, disegnate, ed intagliate dal Cav. D. Filippo Juvarra. (Eenaissance Sculpture.)
4to.

BAI/TABD.

dessines, et graves, avec des Descriptions historiques par le Citoyen Amaury Duval Louvre, 2 vols. large folio. St. Cloud, Fontainebleau, Chateau d'Ecouen, &c. Paris, 1803-5.

Paris et ses

Rome, 1722. Monumens, mesures,

WILLEMIN, N. X.

Monuments Francais

inedits

pour servir a 1'Histoire

.

des Arts, depuis le

VIe

Siecle jusqu'au

commencement du XVII 6

Choix de Costumes civils et militaires, d'Armes, Armures, Instruments de Musique, Meubles de toute espece, et de Decorations
interieures et exterieures des Maisons.

Dessines, graves, et colories Classes chronologiquement et accompagnes d'apres les originaux. d'un texte historique et descriptif, par Andre Pettier. 6 vols. small
folio.

Paris, 1806-39.

ON THE ORNAMENT OF THE RENAISSANCE,

Syllabus.

1849-50.

LECTURE I. INTRODUCTION THE TRECENTO. The Renaissance (Rinascimento), or Revival. Definition Varieties. The Trecento (1300) dates from about the Venetian Conquest of Constantinople, 1204 A.D. Interfacings and delicate Scroll-work of Conventional Poliage. Byzantine, in its original elements a mixture of Venetian and Siculo-Norman Ornament. The great Artists, the great Decorators Maestro Lapo, Arnolfo di Lapo, Giunta Pisano, Niccola Pisano, Griotto, Orcagna, Brunelleschi, Alberti. Revival of the Round Arch and the Classical Orders.
;

THE MODERN OR RENAISSANCE STYLES.

137

SOMMERARD, A. Du. Les Arts au Moyen Age. (Collection of the Hotel deClugny.) Text, 5 vols. 8vo. plates, 6 vols. folio. Paris, 1836-46. LACROIX AND SERE. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Manners and Customs, Sciences and Arts, &c. with fac-simile illustrations.
;

Le Moyen Age

Renaissance, Histoire et Description des Moeurs et Usages du Commerce et de 1'Industrie, des Sciences, des Arts, des Litteratures, et des Beaux Arts en Europe. Direcet la

tion litteraire de

M. Paul Lacroix.

Ferdinand Sere.
4to.

Dessins fac-similes par M. A. Rivaud.

Direction artistique de M. 5 vols.

Paris, 1848-51.

BECKER AND HEFNER. Works of Art and Utensils of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Kunstwerke und Gerathschaften des Mittelalters und der Renaissance.

By C. Becker and

J.

von Hefner.

Many coloured plates,

2 vols. 4to.

Frankfort, 1852.

RUSSIAN EMPIRE. Ecclesiastical, Imperial, and other Antiquities of the Russian Empire. Published by Supreme Command. (Russian text.) Produced under the direction of an Imperial Commission. By S. Stroganov, M. Zagoskin, J. Snegirev, and A. Th. Veltman. Division
1.

Ecclesiastical Antiquities
;

Arms and Armour

;

4.

2. Imperial Insignia, Dresses, &c. 3. Costume, Pictures, and Portraits 5. Furni; ;

;

ture, Jewellery, &c. ; 6. Architecture and Decoration. 4to. St. Petersburg, 1852. plates, 6 vols. folio.

Text, 6 vols.

DURELLI, G. AND F. The Charter House of Pavia. La Certosa di Pavia descritta ed illustrata con tavole incise dai 62 plates. Folio. Milan, fratelli Gaetano e Francesco Durelli.
1853.

BERAIN, JEAN.
pieces,

Mural ChimneyCollection of Ornamental Designs. and other Decorations, Cinquecento, Renaissance, and Louis
II.

LECTURE

THE RENAISSANCE

THE QUATTROCENTO.

The Quattrocento

(1400). Tradition superseded by Selection. Natural Imitations in the Details, and the symmetrical Arabesques from Ancient Sculpture, added to the elements of the previous style, with occasional Cartouches, or scrolled Shield-work. Luca della Robbia
Grates of the

Enamelled Pottery. Andrea Pisano. Iron and Bronze work The Baptistery of San Giovanni at Florence. Lorenzo

52. Niello-work. Tommaso Finiguerra. Metal-plate Ghiberti, 1403 engraving, 1452. The Renaissance as an Epoch and as a Style.

LECTURE

III.

THE CINQUECENTO.

The Cinquecento

(1500), the predominant Italian style of the Sixteenth perfect restoration Century, the ultimate goal of the Renaissance. of Classical Ornament of the Roman period, to the exclusion of all alien forms, with an especial elaboration of the Arabesques and Scrolls, and grotesque combinations of Vegetable and Animal Forms : a purely aesthetic, or sensuous development of Ornament.

138

THE MODERN OR RENAISSANCE STYLES.

137 plates, engraved by Daigremont, Scotin, and others.
c.

Quatorze.
Folio.

Paris,

16701700.

BERAIN, CHAUVEAU, AND LE MOINE. Decorations of the Apollo Gallery, Louvre, &c. Ornemens de Peinture et de Sculpture, qui sont dans la Galerie d' Apollon, au Chateau du Louvre, et dans le grand Appartement du Roy au Palais des Tuileries. Dessinez et gravez par les Sieurs Berain, Chauveau, et Le Moine. (Fine examples of the Renais-

LEPAUTRE.

sance and the Louis Quatorze.) Folio. Paris, 1710. Collection des plus belles Compositions de Lepautre. Folio.

Paris, 1854.

VERSAILLES.
rieures.

Souvenir d'une Promenade a Versailles.

Folio.

Vues

Inte-

Paris, 1843.

PALMER, C. F. The History and Illustrations of a House in the Elizabethan Style of Architecture, the property of John Danby Palmer, Esq., and situated in the borough town of Great Yarmouth, in NorThe drawings and engravings by H. Shaw, F.S.A. Small folk.
folio.

PETIT, V.

London, 1838. Chateaux de la Vallee de la Loire des

Folio.

XV XVI
e
,

e
,

et

com-

mencement du XVII e siecles. PFNOR ET RAMEE. Chateaux de

Paris, 1857,

et seq.

la Renaissance. Monographie du Chateau de Heidelberg. Folio. Paris, 1857. BERTY, A. La Renaissance Monumentale en France. Specimens de composition et d'ornementation architectoniques empruntes aux edifices construits depuis le regne de Charles VIII, jusqu'a celui de Louis XIV. 4to. Paris, 1858.

The Vatican. Bramante. Raphael. Julio Romano. Oil and Fresco. Venice. The Lombard!. Benvenuto Cellini. Alessandro Vittoria.
Majolica- ware. Bernard Palissy. Illustrated Books. Designs. General Education of the Decorator.

Copyright in

LECTURE IV.

THE ELIZABETHAN

THE Louis QUATORZE.

The Elizabethan, the English version

of the Renaissance, a partial elaboration of the Tracery or Strap-work, and the Cartouches or scrolled Shield-work of that style. Examples from Old English Mansions. Palladio. Inigo Jones. Sir Christopher Wren. Grinling

Gibbons.

The Louis Quatorze (1643

;

The Scroll and 1715), of Italian Origin. General Debasement of Classical Ornament mere play of Light and Shade ; Decorations in the Flat superseded by Stucco, and Colour by Gold. Versailles. The Louis Quinze (1715 74). Disregard of Symmetry. The Rococo, the Coquillage all flat surfaces in ornamental details antagonistic to
Shell chief characteristics.
;

the Louis Quatorze varieties. General Debasement of Ornament. Total want of Individuality of Design. Munich, a new Revival Ludwig I. Gaertner and Klenze.

THE MODERN OR RENAISSANCE STYLES.

RICHARDSON, C.

139

J. Architectural Remains of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I., from accurate Drawings and Measurements taken from existing Specimens. Folio. London, 1840. Studies from Old English Mansions, their Furniture, Gold and Silver Plate, &c. 5 vols. small folio. London, 1841 48. NASH, J. The Mansions of England in the Olden Time. 4 vols. folio.

Examples of Architectural Art in Italy and Spain, chiefly of the 13th and 16th centuries. Folio. London, 1850. WARING, J. B. Art-Treasures of the United Kingdom consisting of Examples selected from the Manchester Art-Treasures Exhibition, 1857. With descriptive Essays by Owen Jones, M. Digby Wyatt,
;

London, 183949. WAHING AND MACQTJOID.

A. W. Franks, J. C. Robinson, George Scharf, jun., and J. B. Waring. 4to. London, 1857. The Arts connected with Architecture, illustrated by examples in Central Italy, from the 13th to the 15th century. Folio. London,
1858.

WORNUM, R. N.
Styles.

the Department of Science and Art.

Catalogue of Ornamental Casts, in the possession of Third Division Renaissance

:

on Wood, engraved by the Female Students of the Wood-Engraving Class. Published by Authority.
Illustrations

With

8vo.

London, 1854.

Marble Panel, Santa Maria

de' Miracoli, Venice,

by Tullio Lombard!,

c.

1500.

THE term Renaissance

is

used in a double sense

art,

in a

general sense implying the revival of

and specially
is,

signifying a peculiar style of ornament, that

implying

both an epoch and a

style.

The

original

idea of the

40

THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL.

is
;

Rmascimento, or re-birth, which

the literal meaning of the restoration of clas-

the term, was purely architectural

sical

ornament did not immediately follow the restoration

of the classical orders, though this

was the eventual

result.

This

is

an important consideration, for unless

we

bear

constantly in

mind

that the original revival

was simply

that of the classical orders of architecture in the place of

the middle-age styles, the apparent inconsistencies

we

shall

meet with in the ornamental

be
liable to confuse us.

details of the Renaissance will

styles, therefore,

The Renaissance

are only those styles of ornament

which were associated

with the gradual revival of the ancient art of Greece and

Rome, which was not

really accomplished until the six-

teenth century, in that finished style the Cinquecento.

The course
same
;

of ancient

and modern

art has

been much the

both commenced in the symbolic, and ended in the

sensuous.

The essence of

all

middle-age art was symbolism,

to the unalloyed
:

and the transition from the symbolism

principles of beauty is the great feature of the revival

art

was wholly separated from religion in the Renaissance, but this transition was only gradually developed.
It

was in Italy that these new

styles

were almost neces-

sarily developed.

Two

distinct
:

schools

were flourishing

there in the twelfth century

the pure Byzantine at Venice,

and the Siculo-Norman in the south, containing all the Saracenic elements, not excluding even the inscriptions.

From

these and the introduction of natural forms wholly

of symbolism
arose

irrespective

new

style

composed

almost exclusively of foliage and tracery. This change was due to the gradually growing influence of the Saracenic, not as an absolute but as
style,

affording

THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL.

new
elements of beauty, especially
its

141

varied and intricate

interfacings,

which were

so

very prominent for a while

as to constitute the chief characteristic of a

first

new

style, the

step of the transition from middle -age to

its

modern

art

known from
Trecento.

mean

time, about the year 1300, as the

and activity displayed by Italy at this period was in some degree owing to the Crusades, and more especially to the Latin conquest of Constantinople in
life

The new

the year 1204, which displayed many treasures of ancient art to the Yenetians, whose taste was already sufficiently
cultivated to

appreciate

their

value;

and four ancient

bronze horses, a Christian trophy of this Venetian crusade, still adorn the facade of St. Mark's.
Venice, already rich in

Byzantine works, appears

to

have taken the lead also in the dawning revival of classical art and the Yenetians seem likewise to have contributed
;

more than any others

Cinquecento.
controlled

most finished development, the The Yenetians and the Italians generally,
to its

by no trammels

of tradition, added their

own

beginnings of natural imitations, to Christian or to Pagan elements indiscriminately ; the prestige of a thousand
years was broken
;

the classical forms prevailed, and the

Quattrocento, the first great style of the Eenaissance,

was

established.

From
all

this time,

the fifteenth century,

we

have done with

Christian forms and elements in Italy,

in the ordinary details of ornamental art.

The

first

of these
;

modern innovations

is

the transition

style, the

Trecento

which may be considered a negative

exclusion of certain
elements.

style, as its peculiarity consists in its

hitherto

common ornamental

THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL.

The great
features of this

style are its intricate tracery

or interlacings, and delicate

scroll-work of conventional

being but a slight remove from a comfoliage, the style

bination of the

Byzantine and Saracenic, the symbolism of both being equally

excluded; the foliage and
floriage,

however, are not ex-

clusively conventional,
it

and

comprises a fair render-

ing of the classical orders,

with

the

restoration

of the

round arch.

Nicola Pisano,
Giotto,

Andrea
their

Taffi,

and
were
this

contemporaries,
great

the

masters of

style,

and the Church of San

Francesco at Assisi and the

Cathedral of Florence are
fine

examples of it. In the Quattrocento, the

style,

next

we have

a far

more

positive revival.

Lo-

renzo Ghiberti may, perhaps,

be instanced as
Gate of Baptistery, Florence.

its

great ex-

ponent or representative in ornamental art. Filippo

Eiccio, called Briosco,

Calendario and Antonio

contem-

THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL,

143

porary with Ghiberti, are likewise important names of this

period
:

they were engaged on the

is

new Ducal

Palace at
its

Venice, which

most comprehensive in the character of

of the Baptistery of

ornamental

details.

The bronze gates

San Giovanni,
*

by
style

Ghiberti
in

(1425-52), exhibit one feature of this the prominence of simple natural perfection

imitations,

which

now

nearly

entirely

supersede

the
*

conventional representations of previous times.

Nature
afforded

no

longer

supplied

mere

suggestions,

but

directly exact models of imitation,

birds,

whether

fruit, flowers,

or animals, all
or

disposed simply with a view

to

the picturesque
details

ornamental.

The

selection

of

the

this

might still have some typical signification, but had no influence in the manner of their execution,
their arrangement

which was as purely imitative as

ornamental.

was

In

this

style,

also,

we have

the

first

appearance of

cartouches or scrolled shield- work, which became so very

prominent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One of the oldest examples I can refer to is the shield
containing the lion of St. Mark, on the water-gate of the

Ducal Palace

at Yenice,

perhaps the work of Briosco,

it

in the middle of the fifteenth century;

suggests the

idea of the imitation

illumination.

of a sealed parchment, or a

MS*

This kind of decoration certainly seems in some connected with heraldry

way

many

of its forms are palpably

mere armorial

shields, which became very common in architectural decoration of a later period, and the fact

.of

such forms being afterwards used as mere elements

144

THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL.

does not in any

of ornament
origin.

way

invalidate

such an

There are none of these forms on the gates of Ghiberti but it abounds with medallions containing portraits, which
;

perform a similar service in the design as the shields in

other examples.

Another feature of
is

this

Quattrocento style
Italian
is

or as

what
dis-

more

especially

the

Renaissance,
the

tinct

from
first

the

Cinquecento
of of

introduction,
after

for

the

time,

the grotesque

arabesque,
:

the

ancient
style

models
of

character,

Eome and Pompeii in fact, the decoration is now of a very complicated though not confused, for we still have the
and

Trecento interfacings very largely used as borders,

the

scroll,

previous

from the petty serpentine character of the with all the fulness of the style, appears

Roman
duced.

arabesque, but not yet very prominently intro-

Although in the Quattrocento the religious symbolism was excluded generally (not absolutely) from the ornamental
details,

the religious sentiment was

;

by no means

absent from the Quattrocento art itself

on the contrary, the Quattrocento is essentially a religious style, but the religious sentiment was transferred from a secondary to a
primary object in the design
sentation instead of the
:

we have

the actual repre-

mere symbol.

As, for instance, in

is

the second pair of Ghiberti gates

the history of Moses

the principal subject of illustration of these gates

the
;

ornaments are but the decorations to the several panels

so
it is

in all other great schemes, of

which the Certosa of

is

Pavia

offers

many examples.

There

little

decoration

THE RENAISSANCE OR REVIVAL.

but what
is

145

merely auxiliary to some religious design.

;

It

was not

so in the Cinquecento

the figures and subjects

themselves are a mere part

and often a secondary one of the ornamental scheme, and the religious element com"We speak of the Eenaissance as an paratively disappears.

Epoch and
is

as a Style, but the only true or literal revival

;

the Cinquecento

the other varieties contain too

many
his-

original and extraneous elements to be considered an

torical revival.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE RENAISSANCE AS A STYLE.

Bronze.
*
^

From Door of St. Maclou, Rouen,

c.

1542.

THE

capricious

style,

the

go-called

Renaissance of the

sixteenth century, which

jewellers,
scrolled

was in such good repute with the

more conspicuous for its cartouches (its shield- work) and tracery than for the more natural
was
far
classical

or the

more

elements of the style; the beauties

of nature

not vie,

and the standard ornaments of antiquity could in the general taste, with either the attraction of

novelty or the charm of indiscriminate variety, especially

with the example of such names as Primaticcio, Holbein, and Benvenuto Cellini, as its advocates but in as far as
;

art

and manipulation again attained the ascendency over

it

symbolism
principle.

also

was a

revival,

by

reasserting the aesthetic

RENAISSANCE.

Carved Door Panels, from the Chateau d'Anet';

c.

now

at the Kcole des

Beaux

Arts, Paris

1648.

147

THE RENAISSANCE.

149

This third modern style or variety, to which the name of Eenaissance by habit more particularly belongs, is
essentially a style of varieties, especially in jewellery and in works in relief it was very general also out of Italy,
:

and especially in France, where the time of Francis I. and it is

;

it

was introduced about

so great a favourite

still

with the French, that French and Eenaissance are nearly identical terms. This
style
is,

however,
chiefly

made up
elements

of
to

foreign

classical taste,

and the
Cinrejec;

essence

of
is

the
its

quecento

tion of these elements

but before proceeding

to the consideration of

the latter
sider

we will
is

con-

what

specially

signified

by the EeCarved Door Panel from the Chateau d'Anet, now at

naissance as a style.
It
is

the

style

of
It is also

the Ecole des

Beaux

Arts, Paris.

remarkably developed in the remains of the Chateau d'Anet, near Dreux, in France
Cellini.

Benvenuto

(about 1548), and other buildings of that time, and indeed sometimes designated the Henry II. style.

it

is

The mixture
of this style
;

of various elements

is

one of the essentials

;

these elements are, the classical ornaments

conventional and natural flowers and foliage

often of a pure Saracenic character
;

the former
animals,

man and

natural and grotesque

cartouches, or pierced and scrolled

5o

THE RENAISSANCE.
prominence
;

shields, as above, in great

tracery, indepen;

dent and developed from the scrolls of the cartouches

jewel forms.
parallel

and

The whole history

It

of art does not afford a

mixture of elements.
:

was popular

in the

Low

Countries at the same time

is

the Bourse at Antwerp (1531)

one of

its earliest

examples.
is

Our own Elizabethan

style,

a partial elaboration of the same

probably introduced into this country from the Low Countries, the only difference being that the Elizabethan,

like that of

Henry

II. of France, exhibits a

;

preponderance of strap-and-shield-work
gradual result, and what

very striking but this was a

we now term

the Elizabethan was

not thoroughly' developed until the time of James I., the pierced shields even outbalanced the strap-work.

when The

pure Elizabethan
styles of the time

is

much

nearer allied to the continental

classical

ornaments, but rude in detail,

and arabesque work, and the tracery or strap-work, holding a much more prominent place than the pierced and scrolled shields. For the want of better
occasional scroll

information these two features are sufficient to date a

building

the tracery or strap-work, without the shield;

the predomiwork, will indicate the time of Elizabeth nance of shield-work that of James I., as^at Wallaton and

Yarmouth, Elizabethan
Islington, of

Crewe Hall and Canonbury House, the time of James. In Crewe Hall, an early
;

work, and attributed to Inigo Jones, the shield-work

is

not

very prominent.

Such are four

perfect

varieties of the revival, distinct

from

its

form, the Cinquecento.

the elements of this period is If a design contain only the tracery and foliage of the

design containing all properly called Eenaissance.

ELIZABETHAN.

151

From the

old

Guard Chamber, "Westminster,

c.

1600.

ELIZABETHAN.

Ceiling, Loseley

House Surrey.

Carved Stone, Doorway, Crewe Hall, Cheshire,

THE RENAISSANCE.
period
it

'55

would be more properly

called Trecento; if

it

contain, besides these,

toons, scroll-work,
it
is

elaborate natural imitations, fes-

and occasional symmetrical arabesques,

and
display a decided prominence

of the Quattrocento, the Italian Eenaissance of the

;

fifteenth century

if it

In the " Ancient Parlour," Holland House.

of strap-work and shield-work

it

is

Elizabethan.

In

all

these styles the evidence of their Byzantine and Saracenic

origin
is

constantly preserved

in

the tracery,

in the

scroll-work and foliage, in the rendering of classical orna-

ments

and in the

earlier varieties,

in the shape of the

156

THE RENAISSANCE.

panels containing religious illustrations, which even to the

close of the Quattrocento are of

pure Byzantine shapes, as

they abound in the manuscripts. The Eenaissance is, therefore, something more approximate to a combination of previous styles than a revival of

any in particular. It is the first example of selection that we find, and it is a style that was developed solely on aesthetic principles, from a love of the forms and harmonies
themselves, as varieties of effect or arrangements of beauty,

not because they had any particular signification, or from

any superstitious attachment to them as ancestral

looms.

heir-

The

decorators of the Eenaissance were, in fact,

in ornamental art since the classic periods
;

the

first artists

they suffered no limits or restrictions but those of har-

mony

or beauty, according to their

own

perception of the

beautiful.

ELIZABETHAN.

North Entrance, "WoUaton.

CHAPTEE XV.
THE CINQUECENTO.

ILLUSTRATED LITER-ATTIRE.
The Vatican described and illustrated. Vaticano descritto ed illustrate. 8 vols. folio. Borne, 1829 38. RAPHAEL. The Arabesques of the Vatican. Oblong folio, 32 plates, n. d.
PISTOLESI, E.
II

Loggie di Rafaele nel Vaticano. Drawn by Caruporesi, and engraved by Volpato and others. 61 plates. Altas folio. Roma,

177276.
SITYS ET HATJDEBOTJRT.

Palais Massimi a

Rome. Plans,

coupes, eleva-

tions, profils, voutes, plafonds, &c. des deux Palais Massimi, dessines et publies par F. T. Suys et L. P. Haudebourt. Folio. Paris, n. d.

BETTONI, N.

Tombs and Monuments of Italy. Le Tombe ed i Monumenti illustri d'ltalia.

2 vols. 4to.

Milan,

182223.
MAGAZZARI, G.
4to.

The most

select

Ornaments of Bologna.
Ob.

Raccolta de' piu

scelti

Ornati sparsi per la citta di Bologna.

Bologna, 1827. Collection of the best Venetian Ornaments. ANTONELLI, G-. Collezione de' Migliori Ornamenti antichi, sparsi nella citta di Venezia. Ob. 4to. Venice, 1831.

DIEDO E ZANOTTO. Sepulchral Monuments of Venice. Novanta Monumenti cospicui di Venezia illustrati dal Cav. Antonio Diedo e da Francesco Zanotto. Folio. Milan, 1839. CICOGNARA, L. The most remarkable Buildings and Monuments of
Venice.

Le Fabbriche

e i Monumenti cospicui di Venezia illustrati da Leopoldo Cicognara, da Antonio Diedo, e da Giannantonio Selva. Con notabili aggiunte e note. 2nd edition, 2 vols. large folio.
;

Venice, 1840.

LETAROTJILLY, P. Edifices of Modern Rome, with Details. Edifices de Rome Moderne, ou Recueil des Palais, Maisons, Eglises,

160

THE CINQUECENTO.
Convents, et autres
Paris, 1840,
et seq.

Monuments

publics et particuliers les plus

vols. folio
;

remarquables de la Ville de Home. 3

Tosi AND BECCHIO.
of the Fifteenth

text, 2 vols. 4to.

Altars, Tabernacles, and Sepulchral Monuments and Sixteenth Centuries, existing at Borne. Folio.

Lagny, 1843. BERGAMO, STEFANO DA. Wood Carvings from the Choir of the Monastery of San Pietro at Perugia, 1535 said to be from designs by Raphael. Grli Ornati del Coro della Chiesa di S. Pietro dei Monaci Cassinesi di Perugia, intagliati in Legno da Stefano da Bergamo sopra i disegni di Raffaello Santi da Urbino, ora per la' prima volta tutti
;

raccolti incisi

a contorno e pubblicati.

Folio.

Rome,

1845.

GRUNER, L. Specimens of Ornamental Art, selected from the best Models of the Classical Epochs. Illustrated with 80 plates, with
descriptive text,

byEmilBraun. By Authority. Folio. London, 1850. Fresco Decorations and Stuccoes of Churches and Palaces in

during the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, with Descripby Lewis Gfruner, K.A. New edition, largely augmented by numerous plates, plain and coloured. Folio. London, 1854. Lo Scaffale or Presses in the Sacristy of the Church of Sta.
Italy,

tions

Maria
LOUVEE.

delle Grazie at Milan.

by Bernardino Luini.

Folio.

Illustrations of the painted decoration London, 1859.

et

Le Napoleonium.

Monographie du Louvre

des Tuileries

reunis, avec une notice historique et archeologique. Fol. Paris, 1856. CONTANT ET FiLippi. Parallele des principaux Theatres modernes de

1'Europe. Folio. Paris, 1859, et seq. CALLIAT, V. Parallele des Maisons de Paris. 1850 a 1860. Folio. Paris, 1860.

Nouvelle periode de

WE

may now

proceed to the consideration of the Cinqueart

development is the most perfect of all the modern styles. The term Cinquecento does not imply simply sixteenth-century art, but the most prominent style of the sixteenth century and it is the
cento,
;

which as an

real goal of the Eenaissance, to

which

all

the efforts of

the

fifteenth

century

tended.

The

varieties

we have

just been examining are but its wanderings by the way, for want of It was sufficiently conspicuous landmarks.

only after a great accumulation of materials that

it

was

CINQUECENTO.

I.

STAKIira, DKl. S*
c.

161

From

the Martinengo

Tomb,

Brescia,

1530.

CINQUECENTO.

164

From the Facade

of Santa Maria de' Miracoli, Brescia,

c.

1530

THE CINQUECENTO.

165

possible to appreciate thoroughly the spirit of the ancient

arabesques.

These came at

last

out of the excavations of ancient

the close of the

monuments
fifteenth

Rome and elsewhere at century the new revival was

at
spirit

developed chiefly

by the sculptors of the North, and the painters of Central

Italy.

The true

of

ancient art

was

only

now

thoroughly comprehended, and all extraneous elements were successively excluded ; but with such capacities
as

those

of

Eaphael,

Julio

Eomano,
it

the

Bramante, or Michelangelo, applied to extricate

its

Lombardi, it from

long entombment, no wonder that

started suddenly

into

new

life,

ment than

it

and grew even into a more splendid develophad ever known, perhaps, in its most gorgeous

Eoman

period.
it

However,

would be unjust towards the great quattroall

cento masters to give

style of art to

the credit of this accomplished

even such names as Eaphael, Julio Eomano,

masters were at
or no

or Bramante.

The

efforts of these

first

little

improvements upon the works of their immediate predecessors, the great quattrocentisti,

Pietro

Perugino,

such as Baccio Pintelli, Francia, Bernardino Luini, and Pin-

the two last scarcely inferior to Julio Eomano himself, the prince of decorators ; and the Lombardi,
turicchio

Agostino Busti, Andrea Sansovino, and other sculptors of the north of Italy, may claim, perhaps, equal rank in
their art.

The

principal

monuments

of the Cinquecento in paint-

ing are the Vatican Loggie, the Villa Madama at Eome, and the ducal palaces at Mantua the churches of Venice,
:

66

THE CINQUECENTO.

Verona, and Brescia, afford the best examples of Sculpture. The Loggie of Eaphael are the arcade of the second story
of the Court of San

Damaso

1515,

by

Julio

Eomano,
;

they were executed about Gian Francesco Penni, and

;

Giovanni da TJdine

the last painted the birds and animals,

is

the abundance of which

a very striking feature in the

Vatican arabesques. These arabesques of Eaphael,

called, grotesques,

or, as

they were originally

from being chiefly discovered in the ancient grottoes, are said to have been directly suggested by some ancient remains in the Baths of Titus. They
appear to have given a great impetus to this style of decoration, for they are the first of their kind on an
extensive scale; and, even in their character, they differ

very widely from the quattrocento arabesques, which were derived chiefly from ancient sculpture and from the MSS.,

and are very much more formal in their arrangements and detail.

However, though the arabesques themselves are of the cinquecento character, in the exuberance and beauty of the curves and foliations, the entire decorations of the
pilasters are far

from being of pure style. In establishing a style from examples, made with only a general regard to its most prominent characteristics,
there
is,

of course,

much

to

reject

before

we have

characteristic illustration of the style;

and the Christian

symbols, and other arbitrary forms, which

find in Eaphael's arabesques,

we

occasionally

must be scrupulously excluded, or the Cinquecento becomes merged into the mixed Eenaissance, which led to it, and the distinction
of style
is lost.

CIXQUECENTO.

<: 1 j\

!(-. uwnMKw'

ox.61

I
in
.the

From Carved Oak Panels

Louvre, Paris,

e.

1520.

i'rcin

a Marble Fountain in the Louvre, Paris.

Italian.

IOCS.

THE CINQUECENTO.
The Vatican
Pinturicchio,
pilasters,

169

like the designs of

Luini and

are

of

a transition

character.

The
at

Villa

Madama

at

Home, and the Ducal Palaces

effect,

display designs of equal variety of

Mantua, with a greater

unity of character in the details. They are the work of Giovanni da Udine and Julio Eomano, the same artists

who executed
later

those of the Vatican Loggie, but in these

works many of the licences in the Vatican arabesques have been in a great measure avoided. They are of a

more unmixed
ticularly fine.

classical character;

the scrolls are par-

Some

of the Vatican compositions, from their mechanical

absurdities, are ludicrous

and

offensive,

while the more

are

extravagant
fanciful
;

designs in the later works

is

the most

and, indeed, the grotesque

perhaps the most

prominent feature of the cinquecento arabesque. The designer, like the poet, has his licence with regard
to possibilities or probabilities.
bility,

A mere
is

natural improbaessential, is

where natural imitation

;

in

no degree

but mechanical disproportions and impossibilities, violations of the most palpable laws of Nothing can gravity, cannot be otherwise than offensive.
the privilege of the fancy

bring them within the range of good

taste, as

they are
is

essentially obnoxious to aesthetic sensibility,

which

the

truest test of propriety in art, the effect being analogous to

a discord in music.

We

may be

extremely grotesque or

fanciful without being ridiculous.

There need be no limit to our chimeras, for nature is not their test ; but if we combine monsters in our scrolls,
.or

place animals

at least

upon the tendrils of plants, we should proportion them in size to the strength of the

7o

THE CINQUECENTO.
upon which they are placed.
of the Yatican arabesques,

tendril

This

is

not observed
occasionally
;

in

many

and

it is

disregarded, also, in

the

later

works of Mantua

yet

these are, in other respects, the standard types of the

cinquecento arabesques, as developed in painting.

It

was

this

same

fault of painful disproportion

which
of
as

Pliny

and

Vitruvius

found with the

anomalies not

arabesques
so

Pompeii,

which

display

much

approached by even the worst specimens of modern times. Natural foliage teaches us that the greater the

burden the thicker the stem

of the stem as
its

the gradual diminishing

is
is

burden decreases, beauties of foliage. And this law

cially in

one of the essential

admirably observed

in nearly all the best examples of the Cinquecento, espe-

the sculpture;
it
is

but

there are

otherwise good
It is necessarily

specimens in which

not observed.

a condition peculiar to arabesque scroll-work; for in a

continuous
thickness,

scroll

we do
a mere

not

require this variation of

as

it

is

ornamental repetition,
;

every

portion in itself being complete

and

as

it

is

indetermi-

nate, no portion of the curve has more to do than another. This is an essential difference; in the arabesque curves

the scroll or spiral

is

always completed
elegance
or

it is

a determi-

nate figure, and

its

lightness

will

depend

upon the relative proportions of the stem. This arabesque scroll-work is the most prominent feature
of

the Cinquecento

and with

this

it

combines in
art,

its

elements every other feature

unlimited

of classical

with the
imitations

choice of natural and conventional

from the entire animal and vegetable kingdoms, both arbitrarily disposed and combined.

CINOUECENTO.

171

From the Monument to Louis XII.,

St. Denis,

near Paris,

c.

1520.

THE CINQUECENTO.
Another of
its

'73

features is its beautiful variations

of

ancient standard ornaments, as the

anthemion especially, of which there

are

some admirable Cinquecento exguilloche or plat, the fret,

scroll are likewise

amples.

The

and the acanthus

favourites,
ties.

and occur in many varieappears, in-

The Cinquecento
its

deed, to be the special province of

the curve in

infinite
all its

play of
developof

arabesque; but in

ments

it

is

in

the form

some

natural object or artificial combination.

The cartouches and

In

strap-

work wholly disappear from

best examples.
all

the

the extensive

works
Italy,

in sculpture of the north of

from about 1480 until 1550, such forms are extremely rare and
;

in defining the Cinquecento

style,

as

their

exclusion becomes an

essential condition.

Absolute works

of art, such as vases, and imple-

ments and instruments of

all

kinds,

are prominent elements of the cin-

quecento arabesque

but cartouches

and strapwork as unauthorised by

ancient practice, are necessarily exCarved "Wood.

Chateau
c.

rle

cluded from the style as a presumed

ancient revival.

Gaillon,

France,

isos.

74

THE CINQUECENTO.
is,

It

however, in sculpture, perhaps, that

we must

look for the purest examples of this style, as regards the mere elaboration of form ; and among the cinquecento

none paid more attention to ornament than the Lombardi of Venice and Agostino Busti of Milan.
sculptors

Venice abounds

with the works

of the

Lombardi,

of

prominently distinguished. His monumental bas-reliefs have, perhaps, never been surpassed

whom TulKo
for

is

their

exquisite

spirit

and

delicacy

of

execution:

and even in their

they are unsurpassed by the best examples of antiquity. Sometimes they consist of fine elaborations of the pure classic acanthus scroll ; at
details

others,

and more commonly, of the standard arabesques, with the interspersing of grotesque figures and animals,

and occasionally of simple curves, with ordinary natural foliations, combining a strict imitation with a masterly
freedom of execution.

Another chief feature of the Cinquecento able play of colour in its arabesques and
it

is

the admir;

scrolls

and

is

worthy of

note, that the three

secondary colours^

orange, green,
all

and purple, perform the chief parts in

decorations.
Its

the coloured

great leading
is

form,

the acanthus

scroll

or foliated
its

spiral,

sometimes a
as in

complete

iris,

with

beautiful variety of tints,

at

some of Julio Eomano's decorations

where we have but two
complements.
Indeed, the Cinquecento
colours,

Mantua.

And

we have

constantly

may be
art, as

considered the cul-

minating style in ornamental perfect forms and the most

presenting the most

pleasing varieties,
efforts to

nature
attract

and

art

vying with each other in their

THE CINQUECENTO.
and gratify the
beauty.
eye.
It

175

appeals

only to the

sense of

All

its

efforts are

directly

made

to attain the

most attractive

effects,

without any intent to lead the

is

mind

to

an ulterior end, as

the case with the Byzantine

and other symbolic styles. The cinquecento forms are supposed to be symbols of beauty alone; and it is a
remarkable concession to the ancients, that the moderns,
to attain this
result,
is

were compelled to recur to their

works

and

it

only

now

in the contemplation of this

consummate

style,

that the

term Renaissance becomes

or rebirth of orna;

quite intelligible.

The Renaissance,
ill

ment,
is

is

accomplished in the Cinquecento

still

the term
styles,

not altogether

appropriated to the earlier

really the

because

these were

stepping-stones

to

the
also,

Cinquecento; and, as already explained, in them,

the aesthetic was
substituted
for

the

symbolic.

The

principles, therefore,

were

identical,

though from imper-

fect apprehension, elements strange to the classical period

were generally admitted ;

it

was a revival of

principle

though not of element.

The Cinquecento very generally pervaded manufactures

for a

time in France as well as Italy, though for a

its

much

shorter period than

great

beauties and applicability

would seem

to justify.

The arms and armour, and the

pottery or majolica wares of the time afford some of the

finest

examples of the

style.

It was,

however, not long

successfully pursued:

it

appears to be too exact in

its details,

and too compre-

hensive in

range of elements, for the ordinary grasp of the decorator, whether from the kingdoms of nature
its

or the

realms

of

art,

poetry,

and history

every form

176

THE CINQUECENTO.

being excluded having neither wit nor beauty to recommend it. It required too much from the designer's
powers,
for,
it

besides a familiarity with the art of classic

antiquity,

exacted a considerable
as a mastery

acquaintance with

the figure,

as well

over the animal and

vegetable forms generally.

Accordingly, already in the sixteenth century, orna-

mental art

fell

back to what

it

was before that time;

and from the middle of the sixteenth century, as illustrated by the works of Alessandro Yittoria, Nicola dei
Conti,

Alfonso Alberghetti,

and Benvenuto

Cellini,
all

we

again find the promiscuous mixture of forms of

kinds

with a prominence of the cartouche, as in the ordinary Eenaissance, which, from its far less definite character, gave greater liberty to the
artist, in

accordance with his

own vague

notions of variety,

the attainment of which

seems now, and for a long period, to have usurped every

other purpose.

The Cinquecento
in

is essentially

an Italian

style,

though
out
to

some few instances good examples are found

Italy,

of

especially

in

France

as

the

monument

Louis XII. in the church of

several examples at Eouen,

St.

Denis, near Paris, and

and

at the

Chateau de Gaillon,
either

Normandy.

These

were,

however,

carried

out

some Italian example. by The ordinary ornament of the Eenaissance was at the same time very common in the North and West, and
Italians, or directly from

was evidently much spread by the

ornamental marginal woodcuts
the sixteenth century,

little

works with

published
for

frequently in
designers for

and expressly

manufactures

as in the case of the edition of Alciati's

THE CINQUECENTO.

177

Emblems, published at Lyons in 1551, of which there is a copy in the Library of the Department.

Chimney-piece, Louvre.

By Germain

Pilon.

CHAPTER

XVI.

THE LOUIS QUATOEZE.

FOR a century
there was
art.
little

after the

development of the Cinquecento, individuality in the practice of ornamental

Architecture itself was completely domineered by

a mere classical pedantry, rule and measure usurped the

place of expression.

Towards the
a

close of the seventeenth

century,
itself

however,

new

style

commenced

to

develop

(the Louis Quatorze),

essentially an

ornamental

style,

and
all

differing

very materially in principle

it,

from

nearly

that preceded

its

chief
;

a brilliant play of light and shade

aim being effect by colour or mere beauty

it

of form in detail having no part in

style, like

whatever.

This
;

most others of modern times, arose in Italy

at

and we may, perhaps, look upon the Chiesa del Gesu, or

Jesus

The type or model. principal decorators of this church were Giacomo della Porta, Pietro da Cortona, and Father Pozzi, author of
Church,

Rome,

as

its

the well-known Jesuits' perspective.

Of the vague

character of the intermediate style, after

the decline of the Cinqueeento, the various nautilus-shells

are good examples, something of the Renaissance, Eliza-

bethan, and Louis Quatorze combined.

The

great

medium

of the Louis Quatorze (1643-1715)

THE LOUIS QUATORZE.

was
gilt stucco-work,

179

which, for a while, seems to have

;

almost wholly superseded decorative painting

and
of

this

absence of

colour in the

principal
its

decorations

the

period seems to have led to

infinite

more striking

characteristic,

play of light and shade.

Such being the aim of the style, exact symmetry in the parts was no longer essential, and, accordingly, in
the Louis Quatorze varieties, we, for the
sionally
first

time, occa-

symmetry systematically avoided. feature was gradually more and more elaborated,
find

This
till

it

became
led
to

essential

in the

Louis Quinze, and ultimately

that debased yet popular style, the Eococo, in

which symmetry, either in the balance of the whole or in the details of the parts, seems to have been quite out
of place.
Versailles is the great repertory of the Louis Quatorze
;

but the whole was evidently intended to present a gorgeous classical scheme of decoration. Foreign elements, however, and foreign treatment, both found their place;

and

it

is

to these foreign

features that the decorations

owe

their

individuality.

They

are

the

constant
shell

and
an-

peculiar

combination of the
shell,

scroll

and

the

themion treated as a
plain

and a small

scroll,

sometimes
All

and sometimes clothed in acanthus

foliations.

the other elements of the style are classical, such as

find

we

them treated

in the Cinquecento, with

some

slightly

modified
scrolls
is,

new

varieties.

The

fiddle-shape combination of

perhaps, a legacy of the ordinary Renaissance.

differ

The Louis Quinze (1715-74) does not much

the Louis Quatorze in
certain
its

from

manner

of

elements; but yet, from a treatment, must be considered as

s

io

THE LOUIS QUATORZE.

It differs in this,

distinct in a discrimination of styles.

merely characteristic elements of the Louis all Quatorze became paramount in the Louis Quinze
that

the

its details,

instead of coming direct from the Cinquecento,

or

Eenaissance,

came

immediately
;

from

the

French

schemes of the preceding reign the diverging, therefore, from the original types became ever wider.

In comparing good examples of these two styles, we shall find that the broad acanthus foliations or featherings
of the scroll in the Louis Quatorze

have become very

leaf

much

elongated, approaching the flag or fleur-de-lis

and the palm-branch in the Louis Quinze.

Perhaps the great feature of the later style, and that to which it owes its bizarre character, as much as any
other,
is

its

rejection of

symmetry

in its
;

details,

even

in the
until

most central and prominent places

a feature which

now would have been

:

considered a capital defect

in a design

such

is

the caprice of fashion.

But

as a

general play of light and shade

style,
it

was the chief aim of the

of

was

little

injured by a want

symmetry

in

details,

always too indefinite for special attention. The play of light and shade in sudden and varied

contrasts is so essential an element of the Louis Quatorze

they do not admit flat surfaces in any of their ornamental details; all are concave or convex, even the anthemion in perfectly smooth but never flat
styles,

that

these styles becomes a hollow shell.

very strongly with the Elizabethan, in

in the cartouches, or

They thus which flat

contrast

surfaces
;

in the details abound, as in its infinite strap-work

even
the

pierced

and

scrolled

shields,

curved planes are

flat.

All such

members

in the Louis

THE LOUIS QUATORZE.

Quatorze styles would be channelled or moulded.

183

This

constant varying of the surface gives every point of view

its

high lights and

brilliant contrasts

and

for this reason

stucco superseded decorations in the

in all Louis Quatorze designs.
Still

flat,

and gold

colour,

the Louis Quatorze

flat,

is
it

not altogether unfit for

is

decorations in the

but

limited to designs on
;

a small scale, and colour

is in these cases indispensable

this is exemplified in the metal

marquetry of Boule, the forms depending on their contrast with their ground;

and by the designs of Watteau. Watteau, in fact, reduced the Louis Quatorze

to colour,

and brought
manufactures.

it

more generally within the province of

He

used the elements of the style for

pastoral or rural

the frames or boundaries of small panels,

scenes,

which he surrounded by fantastical borders, of scrolls,

and
foliage, birds, insects,

fruit, flowers,

and animals.

The
more

spirit of these

Louis Quatorze

styles, and, perhaps,

particularly the Louis Quinze, pervaded all

manu-

factures,

more

or less,

until the

Revolution,

not only

in

France but in

Claude Ballin, were, each in his way, the most popular designers of their time. Even in Italy, Bernini used the designs of Le Pautre for external and
internal decoration

many parts and Le Pautre

of Europe.

Meissonier,

he was the greatest master of the Louis Quatorze in its adaptation to ornamental sculpture,
:

independent of
remarkable, and
of

architecture;
all

his

bravura of line was

alternation

tending,

by the constant

round and hollow, or projecting and receding a lively play shapes, to the one great aim of the style of light and shade.
the

84

THE LOUIS QUATORZE.

chief distinction

The
of

between these two

:

styles is the
is

want of symmetry
its

in the Louis Quinze

it

in

many

examples a mere and almost random dispersion of the scroll and shell, mixed only with that peculiar crimping or shell-work, the coquillage.
Still

with these

ele-

ments beautiful
attention

was

were produced, when only a slight bestowed upon the arrangement of the
effects

masses; but

when

this last

was neglected, the designs

became a mere mass of

vagaries, of indescribable forms,

and the Eococo was displayed in the perfection of the bizarre in ornament, and in which the thread of the
historic styles is at last completely

run

out.

CONCLUSION.

IN

review of the ornamental devices of thirty-five centuries, we have certainly had every variety of exthis

pression that the

dwelt, of course,

human mind

is

familiar with.
styles only
;

I have

upon the leading

any other

course would

degree of clearness.
styles,

have been impossible with an ordinary By converting mere varieties into

we

should so multiply the number of ornamental

expressions that the student would probably be so

much

confused as to be unable to eliminate even the generic

varieties

of ornamental

art.

Thus, I do not pretend,

in this review of the styles, to have explained

more than

the great leading developments of ancient, middle- age,

and modern

art.

In the early period, with the Egyptians, we found symbolism, richness of material, with simplicity of arrangement,

and

an

artistic

crudity,

as

the prominent
period,

characteristics.

In

the

second,

or

Greek

we

have exclusively an aesthetic aim, with general beauty of effect, and uniform excellence of detail throughout In everywhere displaying the highest artistic skill.
;

the third, or

Eoman
skill,

period,

still

with an esthetic aim,

we have
detail

equal

with a taste for a more gorgeous

and more general magnificence.

86

CONCLUSION.
the
first first

In the Byzantine, we go back to at

style of the second period,

an almost exclusive symbolism,

is

which, however, in the course of a century or two,

elaborated into a style of a very gorgeous general
effect,

combining the gesthetic with the symbolic

to

partly owing was gradually overcome, a comprehensive and beautiful style was ulti-

richness of materials; but as prejudice

mately developed in the sixth century, but nearly always displaying, perhaps, more skill in its general effects than
in
its details.

gorgeous without any remarkable merit of detail it general effect, is made up of an infinite number of minute contrasts of
principle,
:

The Saracenic

is

the

same in

light

something like a formal flower-garden, wanting the simplicity and grandeur of natural scenery ; but it is capable of very beautiful general
colour,
effects

and shade and

on a small

scale.

In the Gothic, again, the last of the middle-age styles, symbolism more than divides the field with art, and
induces

much

of that crudity of detail which

must be the
effects

inevitable result of a divided attention.

The general
ill

are

often grand

but the details are

expressed, and

inferior.

In the Eenaissance,

the herald of the modern styles,

and, like the classical styles, purely sesthetic,

at first, the natural vagaries of

we

have,
;

an unaccustomed freedom

which, however, eventually settled into a genuine revival

of the most finished style of antiquity,

the Cinquecento.
display, gold
still,

Then came the

and
glitter
:

final

decline,

mere love of

such

is

the Louis Quatorze,

it

prodi-

giously clever in the

means

took to accomplish

its effects.

CONCLUSION.
The Louis Quatorze
style
is

187

more general
its details,

in its

aim than any

indilittle
it all

whatever

thus

provided they generated

sufficient

contrasts of light

and shade, were of no

vidual

consequence.
is

Accordingly

we

find, after

time, that all detail

absolutely neglected, and with

study

of this
details

and in the absurd Eococo, the very natural result we have designs made up of general neglect,
so without

meaning and individuality, as to defy description. They are Eococo ; we can come no nearer to them ; and with this Eococo, the first term of existence,
the last of the nine lives of ornamental art expires.

This vast store of materials, taken in the mass, without

selection

or

order,

is

a mere chaos
unless

and so
into

far

from
or

creating
styles,

variety,

will,

classified

schools

engender only a mere uniform repetition of conthe view, then, with which

fusion.

This
of art,

is

we study

the history

to discriminate

and individualise the

styles of the

various epochs ; and by thus developing distinct characters,

multiply to an equal extent our means of viewing nature,

and our powers, consequently, of representation.

result of historical knowledge, therefore,
is

The

real

not the mere

copying of what has been done before, but the acquisition of a power which not only supersedes all copying, but

which alone will insure the production of that variety of ornamental design which, the simplest theory must make
manifest,
is

the ostensible effort of every designer.

little

Had

the knowledge of styles been a

more

dis-

seminated in the present day 3

we

should not have found

the Louis XV., and the Eococo, as the prevailing English In fault of histastes of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

88

CONCLUSION.

knowledge, and its consequently enlarged views of art, the designer has been reduced to merely copying his neighbour hence the still paramount importance in
torical
:

this country of the last great historic

style of France,

the Louis XT.,

in

silver,

in wood-carving, in carpets,

and in many other branches. The great lesson we may learn from a study of the characteristics of styles is, that our designs want individamasks,

even in

lace, also,

duality

they are too general, too

much

alike

we

require

something more than mere sprigs and colonnades, or conventional scrolls. We want both systems of detail and
systems of arrangement.

A picture

is

not an ornament

but every flower, however simple, and, indeed, every leaf, is capable of being converted into an ornament by the

mere aid of repetition on a geometrical

forms

basis

and the same

;

may be beautifully varied by altering this basis and again, by new judicious combinations of colour, applied to

the same geometric scheme.

We
natural

should work on the principles of construction of

objects,

independent of their individualities of development. The value of such a system in ornamental but it is only by a knowledge of design is incalculable
:

the characteristics of styles,

ages, that

the

standard types of

all

even system will

effect that variety

and indi-

viduality of expression,

which alone will secure a perma-

nent gratification or success.

The great success

of the Greeks
strict

was not more than

commensurate with the

adherence to principles of

beauty upon which even their slightest efforts depended. The cheap manufactures of antiquity, as the ordinary

Greek

terra-cottas,

were cheap by reason of the nature of

CONCLUSION.
their material,

189

not from

any neglect of care in

is

their

manufacture.

The

ancient prosperity of the Samians

a remarkable

instance of the great national benefit to be derived from

the judicious application of art to manufactures, and is worthy the emulation of their modern British competitors.

The small

island of Samos,

by

its

potteries alone, carried

on an important trade with all the great cities of the Greek and Eoman empires, and thus was enabled to compete in
splendour and luxury with the greatest states of the Herodotus (iv. 152) speaks of the unancient world.
paralleled fortune of a

Samian merchant.

It

was the
Its

first

Greek

state that attained celebrity in the arts.

temple

of Juno, the famous

brated art-repository

Her(sum, was perhaps the most celeof antiquity, and was itself a work of
The same Greek
historian
(iii.

extraordinary grandeur.

60)

he ever saw, though it was constructed entirely of marble. The workers in metal and the painters were equal in renown to the sculptors and
speaks of
it

as the largest temple

architects of Samos.

All this magnificence was but the

skilful ship-building,

fruit of its industrial ingenuity, its

its

enterprising commerce, its matchless potteries.

The

skill of its potters

made the very

precious than gold.

its

they trod upon more This earthenware of Samos carried

soil

commerce over every sea, to every port, until its merchants became princes, and this small island-state was

conspicuous

among the

richest nations of the world.

political

It

was

this

distinction,

this
its

pre-eminence, which
:

excited the jealousy of

with

its

freedom,

its

more powerful neighbours and commerce and its prosperity declined

together.

9o

CONCLUSION.
still

The sun
it still

shines on the fruitful valleys of Samos, and

abounds in the valuable clay of which its ancient potteries were manufactured; but its population has declined into a

mere scattered and rude peasantry

;

its

potters

have departed
fashion
it is

the genial clay without the skilful hand to

of little avail.
it

Such was Samos when

arts
;

directed

its
.of

energies to the
art has ceased.

such

is it

now

that all cultivation

It

was but the judicious application of

this small

art to industry that

made

Levantine island once the illustrious rival

of great empires.

THE END.

PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND

CO., LIMITED, CITY

ROAD, LONDON.

NK 1175 ' W6
1879

Wornura, Ralph Nicholson

Analysis of ornament 6th ed.

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