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nRNA/AENTAL.
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tine Cornell University Library.
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TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.
By lewis F. day.
III.
THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.
By lewis F. day.
Price Three-and-Sixpence each, bound in Cloth.
I.
THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN.
With Thirty-five full page . Illustrations.
II.
THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.
With Thirty-eight full page Illustrations.
III.
THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.
With Forty-two full page Illustrations.
Tlaiel
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.
THE
APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.
LEWIS F. DAY,
AUTHOR OF 'EVERY-DAY ART,' 'THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN,' ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
LONDON:
B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN.
©
PREFACE.
The former text-books of this series con-
cerned themselves with the rudimentary lines
on which ornament may be designed and
distributed.
It is only in theory, however, that orna-
ment can be independently discussed. Prac-
tically it exists only relatively to its applica-
tion. Apart from its place and purpose and
the process of its doing, there is no such
thing as ornament.
The necessity of adapting design to its
position and use is as obvious as it is abso-
lute. The need of conforming to the more
technical conditions imposed by material, and
the means of working it, is not so generally
understood. It takes, perhaps, a craftsman
thoroughly to appreciate its urgency.
These few chapters go to demonstrate how
essential to ornament is its strict subordina-
vi Preface.
tion to practical conditions ; how in all times
and in all crafts good workmen have cheer-
fully accepted them ; and how the very forms
of historic detail handed down to us grew
out of obedience to them. In the genesis
of ornament will be found the strongest argu-
ment for the study of technique.
The consideration of natural form and its
adaptation to ornamental design is resei-ved
for a separate volume.
Lewis F. Day.
13, Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.
October ^ih, i8S8.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. — The Rationale of the Conventional .. i
II. — What is Implied by Repetition 7
III. — Where to Stop in Ornament .. .. 17
IV. — Style and Handicraft 37
v. — The Teaching of the Tool .. 51
VI. — Some Superstitions 65
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.
1. STENCIL — The ties breaking up the broad masses of
colour.
2. ORNAMENTAL FIGURE COMPOSITION— Identical figures
reversed.
3. ANIMALS AND ARABESQUE — Varied creatures sym-
metrically disposed.
4. A TREE OF JESSE — Figures ornamentally valuable
among the foliage.
5. NURSERY WALL PAPER — Fun in design.
6. ANIMALS AND ARABESQUE^ Various creatures enliven-
ing the ornament.
7. PATTERN* WITH GROTESQUES — The Creatures them-
selves reduced to ornament.
8. VARIOUS VESSELS — Characteristic of the way of their
making.
9. WOOD CARVING — Shovifing the marks of the chisel.
10. AFRICAN BASKET WORK — A typical example of plaiting.
1 1. CARVED LEATHER — Preserving the quality of the
material.
12. PERSIAN FAIENCE — Direct potter's work.
13. LETTERING — Showing its relation to the pen, &c.
b
List of Plates.
14. EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE — Basalt.
15. GREEK SCULPTURE — Marble.
16. RENAISSANCE SCULPTURE — Marble.
17. RENAISSANCE SCULPTURE — Sandstone.
18. WOOL DAMASK — ^Broad surfaces calculated to exhibit
the quality of the material.
19. LYONS Sli-K — Trivial design, disguised by the sheen
and colour of the material.
20. BYZANTINE SILK — ^Coloured according to the weft.
21. ARABIAN PATTERNS — Incised in soft plaster.
22. IRONWORK — Characteristic similarity of motif in work
of quite different periods.
23. IRONWORK — Characteristically different types of wrought
iron.
24. NEEDLEWORK — Characteristic quality of line.
25'. EMBOSSED PANEL — Design suggested by the process.
26. FILAGREE — Characteristic design common to work of
different periods.
27. GREEK LACE — Analogous to filagree on straight lines.
28. JAVANESE ORNAMENT — Inspired by the Way of working.
29. FRETWORK — In wood and metal.
30. SAWN WORK — Ingenious patterns produced by very
simple means.
31. STENCIL PATTERN — And the Way of producing it.
List of Plates. xi
32. bookbinder's tooling — And the tools used.
33. MOSAIC PAVEMENT — "Workmanlike thrift.
34. RIGID DESIGN — In need of the softening influence of
accidental colour.
35. NIELLO — Severity of pattern calculated to be mitigated
by the brilliancy of the metal.
36. MARBLE INLAY — Practically a fret pattern.
37. ARAB LATTICES — Characteristic wood-turning.
38. ENAMEL — Showing the difference of outline in cloisonni
and champlevl.
39. STAINED GLASS — The glazing lines for the most part the
outlines.
40. APPLIQUE EMBROIDERY — The joints masked by a
corded outline.
41. OUTLINE— Defining the forms.
42. OUTLINE — Softening the forms.
THE
APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.
I.
The Rationale of the Conventional.
Concerning all questions of art, the diffi-
culty of coming to any clear understanding
is greatly increased by the totally different
meanings attached to the terms, more or less
technical, one cannot avoid using.
To begin with definitions does not greatly
help us. We no sooner commence to define
than we find ourselves stumbling against
other words equally in need of explana-
tion.
What a flood of light would be let in upon
the question of decorative design, could we
but agree amongst ourselves as to what is
meant by the term " conventional " !
An English ornamentist understands by
conventional treatment, such a rendering of
natural forms as may be consistent with the
B
2 The Application of Ornament.
decorative character of the work in hand. It
implies to him that self-restraint, that intelir-
gent selection, that recognition of material
and its characteristics, that strict regard for
the purpose and position of design, without
which ornament does not so much as deserve
the name of ornament.
To a Frenchman, on the other hand, it
stands for all that is helpless and hopeless
in art. '' C'est de la convention, ga," is the
expression of his supremest contempt.
Of course it is not merely a matter of
country. Not all Britons are agreed as to
what they mean by the word conventional,
nor all Frenchmen ; but there is in the
national interpretation of the term an expla-
nation of the respect, as of the contempt, in
which conventionality is held.
The continental use of the word is perhaps
the more exact. The conventional is literally
that which has come to be accepted ; and, as
a matter of experience, we find that, even in a
■world of progress, little or nothing is ever
universally accepted until it is already toler-
ably stale. The accepted thing becomes,
therefore, identified with all that is most
deadly dull and tedious in modern art.
The Rationale of the Conventional. 3
There seems to be no hope or promise in it ;
it stands for stagnation.
Yet there is another side to the question.
We find in the best work of nearly all periods,
and of nearly all nations, certain principles
which appear to have been generally obeyed ;
so universally obeyed, indeed, as to warrant
us in calling them the principles of decorative
art.
In endeavouring to explain those principles,
concerning which we have come to some sort
of general understanding or agreement, the
advocates of due restraint in ornament adopted
in an evil hour the term conventional, to ex-
press that kind of treatment which, whatever
it might be, was adapted to the purposes of
decoration. But it proved less easy to grasp
the elusive spirit of design than to take pos-
session of the forms in which it was embodied.
And the cut-and-dried character of the ex-
amples of design adduced by way of illustra-
tion, led to the supposition that the conven-
tional was neither' more nor less than the
trite ; the literal meaning of the word lending
itself to the confusion.
One may take it that the artistic verdict on
convention will be mainly according to the
B 2
4 The Application of Ornament.
artist's interpretation of the word. If by
conventional ornament we mean perpetual
variations on the old, old tunes, long since
played out ; if we mean adherence to well-
worn types ; if we mean affectation, imita-
tion, mimicry, a bigoted belief in the letter
of the law as it was in the days that are
happily past ; no one of any originality or in-
vention of his own — no artist, that is to say —
can consistently belong to the party of con-
vention.
If, however, what we understand by the
term is the spirit in which the past masters of
ornament accepted nature, finding in her a
never-failing source of inspiration, reverencing
her most deeply — aye, and following her most
truly — in that they were not content to copy,
without further thought, the forms nearest at
hand, because they did not imagine for a
moment that what she had made fit for her
ends must, without modification, perforce be
fittest for their very different purposes ; — then
it seems hard to understand how ornament
can properly be anything but conventional.
A fitter term might be found for it, no
doubt ; I prefer myself the more expressive
word "apt"; but in discussing the thing we
The Rationale of the Conventional. 5
cannot conveniently ignore the word by which
it is currently known, and we find the word
" conventional " in possession.
One can scarcely conceive of ornament
which is not, in a manner, more or less modi-
fied by considerations altogether apart from
the natural forms on which it may have been
founded. Even the human form, which is
our highest type, and with which liberty may
less safely be taken than with any other of
nature's works — even the human form is not
ready-made to the hand of the sculptor. The
works of the great masters, to which we accord
the title of " monumental," are so in virtue of
a something which was not in the model of
the sculptor, but in his art.
Call this subtle quality what you will — con-
ventional, traditional, monumental, ideal, indi-
vidual — something there is in all applied art
(in all art for that matter, but our concern is
just now more especially with decorative and
ornamental art), something which is, let us
not say contrary to nature, for it belongs in-
herently to human nature, but non-natural, in
the seijse that it is not directly borrowed from
natural forms.
Conventionality in ornament is another
6 The Application of Ornament.
term for reticence or self-restraint. The artist
who exercises no restraint upon himself will
hardly command the full sympathy or admira-
tion of Englishmen. Apart from the natural,
or national, desire for some reserve in art, as
in everything else, restraint is forced upon the
ornamentist by all the conditions of his work,
by its purpose, place, and means of execution,
no less than by that necessity for repetition
which, in these days more than ever, is a con-
dition of its very existence.
What is Implied by Repetition.
II.
What is Implied by Repetition.
The very purpose and position of ornament,
the method of its execution, and even its
construction, insist upon some treatment of
natural forms which, for want of a better
word, we call " conventional."
First, in reference to the construction of
ornament. Its mere repetition, which in a
former text-book (' The Anatomy of Pattern ')
was shown to be inevitable, would of itself
render such treatment necessary ; and even
without the inducement of economy, which
calls for the use of a machine, we should still
resort to repetition, if only because the human
brain cannot go on inventing without inter-
mission, but needs the comparative rest of
repeating itself, even in hand work.
In the artist's repetition of himself (unless
the fatal pressure of the times have made
him also a machine), there will always be a
certain degree of variety, which there could
8 The Application of Ornament.
not be in mere mechanical reproduction. But
he cannot afford to dispense with repetition ;
nor need he wish to dispense with it. It is
in itself an element in decorative design ; it
is a preventive against loose and rambling
ornament ; it exhibits order, and gives
scale.
The only question is, where and to what
extent we should avail ourselves of it.
In proportion to the naturalism of a design,
and the point of realism to which it is carried,
it becomes unsuited to multiplication. To
put it the other way about, the oftener it is
proposed to repeat a form, the more impera-
tive it is that it should be removed from the
imitation of nature, and the further it should
be removed. It needs, in short, adaptation to
the purpose of repetition.
Such adaptation is strictly in proportion to
what one may call its reticence. A highly
elaborate and attractive feature — anything,
certainly, that is in the least self-assertive —
will not bear so much as reduplication ; where-
as an insignificant device may be multiplied
ad infinitum. In anything of the nature of a
background (and so many manufactures are
intended to serve only as backgrounds) repe-
Tlate ^
What is Implied by Repetition. 9
tition is of the utmost service, and repetition
implies modification.
It follows from what has already been said
as to the danger of tampering with the human
figure, and the prominence it naturally as-
sumes, that there is great difficulty in repeat-
ing it without offence. The interest of a
pattern is enhanced, no doubt, by the re-
currence at stated intervals of appropriate
figures. But it is desirable that there shall be
always some difference in them ; for with
every repetition of the same figure its charm
is discounted. There is something exaspera-
ting in the reversing of identical figures in
a pattern (Plate 2), when it is so simple a
thing by the careful disposition of various
creatures to retain the symmetry of effect
desired (Plate 3).
Presumably the reason for introducing
figures into ornamental design, is for the sake
of some added interest there may be in them.
But you cannot get up any absorbing interest
in a series of figures all identically of one
pattern. They suggest only the mechanism
employed in producing them. The multipli-
cation of the figure, far from multiplying its
interest, diminishes it in proportion to the
lo The Application of Ornament.
number of times it is repeated. And though
it be a very good thing that is repeated,
the case is not greatly mended — it is so easy
to have too much of a good thing.
The only safety is in toning down the re-
peated form until its recurrence ceases to be
very obvious. This may be effected in various
ways. In certain embossed leather, and such
like designs, it is brought about partly by the
low relief of the stamping, partly by the soft-
ness of the colouring, and partly by a more or
less cunning complication of the figures with
the rest of the design, so that they do not
thrust themselves into notice. That variety
in the creatures, were it possible, would be
desirable no one can doubt.
The consideration which occurs in the case
of figure design which it is so necessary to re-
duce to comparative insignificance is, whether
it was then worth doing. Perhaps not. Except
that ornament has a way of being a trifle too
ornamental, or, more strictly speaking, too
monotonously ornamental ; and the introduc-
tion of any bold mass, such as the figure very
readily gives, is one obvious way out of the
besetting danger.
Apart from the symbolic intention of the
Plate 3.
f K*Ll, PHOIO-llTHO.O.FOnmVAt S' HOLiOBH,
^late 4.
'Ph«to-Tiiit' bj J.Ak*Tiiiaii,G,(}ni*ii 2^uu«,W.C.
What is Implied by Repetition. 1 1
figures on Plate 4 (it is part of a genealogical
tree of Jesse), the ornamental use of them in
the design is conspicuous. We may take it
that symbolism does not flourish where the
symbols are ugly or unamenable to orna-
mental effect.
It is not suggested that we should be
straightlaced to the extent of denying our-
selves the amusement that may be got out of
designs such as Mr. Crane has made popular
in his nursery wall-papers, in which he has
contrived to give us grace of line and charm
of colour, as well as the humour of the nursery
rhyme (Plate 5). Once in a while the human
figure may be degraded to do the merest
pattern work. The artist must be allowed,
now and again, to put off his dignity and in-
dulge in an artistic gambol. Even a bad joke
may, on occasion, be more to the purpose
than an everlasting seriousness.
Still it is as well to bear in mind the firimd
facie objection to the repetition, not only
of the human form, but of the forms even of
birds, beasts, and all living, and especially
moving, creatures.
The occurrence of the stag, boar, hare,
fox, hounds, and birds in the border of which
1 2 The Application of OrnamenL
portions are given on Plate 6, clearly gives
point to the ornament ; and they are rendered
with a certain conventionality which makes
them one with it. To reconcile us to the
repetition of these creatures would be a feat
indeed. The grotesques introduced into the
cretonne design on Plate 7 may perhaps be
excused on the plea of their remoteness from
nature in the first place, and further on ac-
count of the minuteness of the scale on which
they are drawn : they are scarcely apparent at
first sight. But their real justification is that
they are a joke. Alas, it is not often that the
conditions of manufacture allow us that relief.
The advisability of introducing animal
forms into mechanically repeated manufac-
ture depends entirely upon the possibility of
keeping them in appropriate subjection — in
their place, in fact — which, in turn, depends
upon the art of the artist. There is a lesson
for us in the artful way in which the designers
of the Renaissance contrived to keep down the
creatures, graceful or fantastic, with which they
peopled their scrolls, subduing them to the
decorative key. Where the forms which first
take the eye are the bold lines of the leafage,
among which the live things are more or less
-Plate 5
fHOTO-UTHo.e.ruRMiv*!. s'
What is Implied by Repetition. 13
hidden, so that it is only by degrees that one
becomes fully conscious of them all, scarcely
the purist can find cause of complaint. Some
sort of mysteiy in design is always delight-
ful. The perfection of art is reached when,
however attractive at first sight, it continues
to grow upon you, and the more you contem-
plate it, the more you see in it.
Natural forms, to be admissible in ornament,
must be decoratively treated. Natural though
they be, they must be at the same time orna-
mental. A lion, as Landseer modelled it, is not
fit for any decorative purpose. An Egyptian
or Assyrian lion, on the other hand, Dona-
tello's lion at Florence, or Stevens's outside
the British Museum, are admirably decorative.
The objection to naturalism, or perhaps it
would be more exact to say literalism, in forms
repeated, applies not only to animal but even
to floral forms. It exists in a less degree,
inasmuch as they are of less prominent
interest ; but for all that it exists. The
charm of the simplest flower is lost when
we see, side by side, so many copies of it
— not varieties, as they would be in nature,
but stereotyped repetitions of the same thing.
The designer is exposed, by his very artistic
1 4 The Application of Ornament.
ability, to the temptation of aiming at natural
effects, a temptation all the stronger because,
few persons having knowledge enough to
appreciate design, whilst all are more or less
familiar with natural forms, there is nothing in
the shape of public opinion to keep him in
check.
Every artist likes, of course, to make a good
drawing, aqd to carry it as far as he can.
But that is not at all the vital point in de-
corative design : the all-important thing is
the effect of the work in execution and in its
place. Any one who thinks twice about it
must realise that in very self-defence he is
bound to consider the repetition of his design,
and all else that concerns its use. If he is
really a designer, he will know how to make
, capital out of the very poverty of the condi-
tions to which he submits. Submit he must
— better do it, then, with a good grace.
Some adaptation of natural forms, some
simplification in fact, is demanded, not only to
fit them for repetition, but, further, by the
position and purpose of the, work; sometimes
in order that the detail may not assert itself
too much, sometimes in order to give it the
emphasis that is needed.
Plate 6
Comliinatioi? of Scroll «(-Hut)tincl scene- incited on Stoi^e
What is Implied by Repetition. 1 5
For example, it is quite a common thing
to see an infinity of elaborate and laborious
work misspent upon details of domestic furni-
ture, which not only pass unnoticed, but which
ought never to attract notice. It often seems
as if the \yorkman had set himself to show
how far it was possible to go in the direction
of minuteness of detail. It is quite possible
to show that, and at the same time illustrate
the futility of going anything like so far.
In proposing to carry execution to a point
beyond what has hitherto been attempted, it
is as well to ask oneself, whether there may
not be good reason why the attempt has never
been made. Our forerunners were not all of
them fools, we may be sure. As a tour de
force, once and again, most things may be ad-
missible; but a wise workman rarely indulges
of his own accord in that kind of " brag "
(there is no better word for it) which exhibi-
tions, international and other, have done so
much to encourage.
A master is loth to waste labour, and he
knows how to make his work hold its own
without shouting at you. He deliberately
does less than an Lnexperienced person would
have thought necessary, with a view to making
1 6 The Application of Ornament.
his design tell in its place. In wall decoration,
for example, to be seen from some distance,
a merely natural representation of natural
forms would often go for very little. By the
omission of multitudinous detail, he manages
to emphasise what he is anxious to preserve.
Or (since decorative treatment by no means
consists in omission only) he exaggerates,
perhaps, features in his design which, in the
position assigned to it, would otherwise be
lost. According to his purpose, he makes no
scruple about modifying natural forms and
colours : he enforces his effect, indeed, by every
conventional — that is to say, every workman-
like — expedient at his command.
Hale. 7
HOTO-LITHO.e.FURNIVAL S'' H0U»OHI
Where to Stop in Ornament. 1 7
III.
Where to Stop in Ornament.
Assuming, on the one hand, the urgency
for some modification of natural forms accord-
ing to the work in hand, and on the other, of
some continual reference to nature in design,
the question arises as to the limits of the one
and of the other. How far may one safely
go in the direction of nature? And to
what extent is it well to admit the dictation
of the tool ? In order to settle that point
quite definitely, each separate craft would
have to be discussed. An excellent pre-
scription would be, just so much of natural
food as the artistic stomach can digest ; but
then we have to take into account each man's
powers of artistic assimilation — always an
unknown quantity. The degree of ornament
which is barely enough for one man will be
far too much for another.
Any attempt to define the limits within
which decoration should reasonably be con-
C
1 8 The Application of Ornament.
fined may seem at first sight rash enough.
But with regard at all events to things of
common everyday use, there clearly is a
point at which the line of decoration must be
drawn. And, more than this, just as the
object itself, its use, its material, and the
manner of its making, indicate plainly enough
the fit method of its decoration, so also they
give the hint as to the measure thereof. It
would seem, in short, as though the point at
which a material or a process failed were the
point at which we might most conveniently
stop, rather than bring in some supplementary
process, which, under pretence of helping it
out, ends more likely in supplanting it.
This will be made clearer by ani example, —
let us say pottery, in aid of which so many of
the applied arts are called in, that we shall
necessarily have to branch out by the way
into discussion of the wider subject of applied
ornament, with which this text-book is con-
cerned.
The primitive way of making a pot is by
what is known as " throwing," that is to say,
shaping the lump of wet clay with the hands
as it revolves on the wheel before the potter.
This, it should be observed, is at the same
91 ate
'Photo-Tiht', bjJ,Alc.™.n,G,Qu..nS(iiur.,WC
Where to Stop in Ornament. 19
time the way most directly conducive to
artistic results (Plate 8).
Bigotry alone would seek to narrow the
scope of a workman to any single process of
making. One is fain to own that in the
hands of an artist the lathe too may have its
use (Plate 8). The so-called Etruscan vases
(Plate 8) were turned on the lathe, the artist
probably caring more about the painting of
his vessel than its shape.
But whilst you watch the potter at his
wheel, it appears to you that no supple-
mentary process can be necessary. Almost
from the moment he begins to hollow with
his hands the revolving lump of plastic
clay before him, it begins to take suave and
beautiful shapes, gliding the one into the
other, as the wheel goes round, with an ease
which it is delightful to see. It all seems to
go so easily that your fingers itch to try a
turn at it. Seeing the potter at his work,
you see how the typical pottery forms grew
out of his fingers ; you realise how it is that
ugly forms are so rare in primitive pottery ;
and you are inclined to think that the ugliest
pot ever made on the wheel must have passed
in the making through several stages of
C 2
20 The Application of Ornament.
beautiful form, which the potter, sitting over
his work, did not perceive perhaps, or did not
see to be beautiful.
It is taken for granted by our makers-by-
deputy, that the soft shapes of the wheel need
to be effaced by the more mechanical action
of the lathe — in other words, that a second
and supplementary process should be called
in to do the work over again. It is true
that only certain shapes can conveniently
be thrown on the wheel. But these are
obviously the most beautiful. There may be
monotony in them, but so there is in the
shapes of turnery.
Moreover, if the potter were in the habit of
depending more upon the wheel, he would
surely find in it still further facilities. If the
blunt forms produced by his finger-tips are
wanting somewhat in precision, he might
even use the modelling-tool (reticently, as
an artist would) to make indentations smaller
than with his fingers only he could. But
that is a very different thing from sub-
mitting his work to an after-process j and,
in fact, effacing with a mere revolving plane,
in the half-dry state of the clay, all that was
done to it whilst it was amenably moist to
'Photo-Timt' ty J-Atterm.n,6.ljDB«n Squ«r«.W C.
Where to Stop in Ornament. ai
the hand. If any such final shaving is to take
place there is, artistically, small reason for the
preparatory process of throwing. The thing
might just as well be cast, or otherwise mecha-
nically made from the commencement, since
there is to be nothing but what is mechanical
in the result. There is this against after-
processes generally. They are apt to undo
a great deal of what has been done. How
fatally the final process of glass-papering
wipes all character out of our modern wood-
carving ; whereas one great charm about old
work (Plate 9) is in that crispness of touch
which tells of the carver's chisel.
The excuse in the particular instance of
earthenware (there is always an excuse ready
for unworkmanlikeness) is in some supposed
advantages of lightness and so-called elegance.
The answer to this is that lightness is not the
quality most characteristic of, or especially
desirable in, pottery. If it is elegance we
want we had better employ glass (Plate 8),
the convenient and conventional treatment of
which is all in the direction of grace and airi-
ness. A bubble, whether blown in molten
glass or soap and water, is a bubble. In
earthenware we had best be content with
2 2 The Application of Ornament.
the subtle and beautiful, if heavier, forms the
wet clay gives us.
The various vessels on JPlate 8 are all charac-
teristic of the process of their making. The
Chinese vase and the ruder earthen pot have
that softness of contour which comes of
throwing on the wheel. The Greek vase
shows, by its harder and more precise outline,
that it was finished on the lathe. The coarse
but rich ornament of the German tankard
is appropriate to stamped stoneware. The
savagery of the cut crystal cup, and the fan-
tastic grace of the Venetian wine-glass, are no
less characteristic and workmanlike.
Apart from the commercial incentive to
make his craft fulfil all manner of impossible
purposes, the workman unfortunately (and
this is true of us all, whatever our walk in
art) always wants to do more than his means
will let him. It is the rarest thing in the
world to know where to stay your hand, or to
have the self-restraint to stay it. It is the
more necessaiy therefore to insist — one can-
not insist too strongly — that in ornament, at
all events in ornament applied to any useful
purpose, it is best to stop when the material
itself gives you the hint. In the " convention "
T-1a,tpJ0,
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Sjl^^T/M^m
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|l|K^j«ffi«j
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^Ov^mvSIkk^
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Where to Stop in Ornament. 23
of work in which that hint has been taken,
there is always a fitness or tightness which is
inestimable in art applied. Would any more
pretentious form of art be so entirely satisfac-
tory for the purpose of basketwork as the
ingeniously plaited pattern on Plate 10 ?
If you once go beyond the resources of your
material there is no knowing where to pull up ;
and few indeed are they who manage to halt
in time. You may go on until you reach a
sort of lower stage of " high art "; but in doing
that you inevitably lose those qualities of use-
fulness and fitness which are the only justifica-
tion of art, excepting only such as may be of
the supreme beauty to justify its claims to
independence. A great work of art is a kind
of king among created things, deserving of all
homage. But we don't want this work-a-day
world peopled with kings, least of all with
petty princes and pretenders.
To return to the instance in point, when it
comes to the after-decoration of earthenware,
the rule of convention holds equally good :
" If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere
well it were done quickly." Elaborate and
difficult processes, involving something in the
nature of a tour de force, are a snare to the
24 The Application of Ornament.
artist and a delusion to the buyer. The sales-
man has a way of excusing the high price of
a thing on the score of the difficulty there was
in making it. But was it worth while ? That
is the question. Apart from its superiority in
design, there is not much to choose between
the Portland vase and the marvellously cut
glass or crystal of modern Bohemia. They
are the very extravagance of workmanship,
and as such merit the praise due to all patient
labour, and no more. The simplicity and
appropriate breadth of treatment of the crystal
cup on Plate 8 is vastly more workmanlike
than either. Patience does not rank, outside
the copybook, as the virtue of virtues. With-
out some share of it genius falls short ; never-
theless the power of taking pains does not
constitute genius, nor will it even enable one
to design so much as a good pattern.
But this is straying rather from the point,
which is, that material and process may
be trusted to suggest the character of de-
coration and the point at which it should be
restrained. The lavish and unintelligent use
of ornament about us is enough to reduce
one to despair. In our longing for palat-
able ornament we seem sometimes to see
Where to Stop in Ornament. 25
pattern, pattern everywhere, and not a line in
place.
Suppose an earthen vessel is somehow to be
enriched with colour, the simplest and about
the most obvious means to employ is to
dip it into a coloured glaze, just as the
simplest way to dye a textile is to dip it into
the vat. The glaze will naturally follow the
law of gravitation, so that it is rather difficult
to get an even colour by that means. But
there is no artistic reason whatever why colour
should be even. On the contrary, beautiful
effects of quasi-accidental colour result from
the running of the glaze. I say quasi-acci-
dental, because the accidents in art are, or
ought to be, foreseen and reckoned upon.
Though the potter cannot be sure of any pre-
cise shade of colour, experience tells him
within a little the kind of " fluke " he may
anticipate. He fires, so to speak, with his
eyes shut, but not quite so wildly as might
seem. He takes a good look first at the
object of his aim, — or he would not be so
habitually near the mark.
In actual flaws and failures there is nearly
always a lesson which artists have promptly
turned to account — not by intentionally
26 The Application of Ornament.
producing faulty work, but by noting how
a new and beautiful, and at the same time
workmanlike, effect may be , obtained by
working with the material. A coloured
glaze, no doubt, may be too unequal; a
careless or lazy workman may stop too
soon. In the glazes of the Chinese and
Japanese the change of colour is sometimes
far too sudden. But even so, it is a hundred
times to be preferred to the insipid evenness
of tint which is the aim of so many a modern
manufacturer. It was the aim too of the
celebrated French potters, who laboriously
produced some of the most excruciating tints
— whether due to their own want of taste or
to the vulgarity of the Du Barry and other
such patrons, one hardly knows. In how
many of the arts is insipid evenness reached,
with infinite pains, and at the sacrifice of
beauties peculiar to the material !
Greater variety of colour than is to be
obtained by simple glaze may naturally be
arrived at by in any way roughening the sur-
face of the ware before it is dipped. And the
judicious contrast of smoother and rougher
parts is only what would naturally occur to the
artist. This roughness may consist in the
Where to Stop in Ornament. 27
merest scratching, or in raised modelling,
which last is capable of being carried to the
point even of competing with sculpture. In
that case it enters a class of work not now
under consideration. If the perfection of
figure modelling is what is wanted (and this,
again, applies to a great deal of misplaced
figure work in decorative art generally), it
would be so much more properly put to so
many other purposes, that it is a mistake to
apply it to the useful but homely pot.
The genius of Flaxman was, relatively
speaking, wasted on those finikin and crudely-
coloured medallions with which the most
familiar form of Wedgwood ware is encrusted.
A much more workmanlike process is that of
painting in clay on clay, usually in white upon
a coloured ground. M. Solon, with whose
name it is associated in England, is not a
Flaxman ; but his paintings in pate sur pate,
as it is termed, are infinitely superior as pot-
decoration to Wedgwood's moulded medal-
lions. You get here the utmost delicacy of
which the material is capable. Not that this
utmost delicacy is a thing universally to be
sought. It is a kind of luxury in which one
may be occasionally allowed to indulge, or
28 The Application of Ornament.
in which here and there one competent may
be permitted to indulge, growing as it does
naturally out of a natural process of work.
It is a sort of "fine-gentleman cousin of the
process that is easy and obvious enough for
the decoration of ware for common use — that
more rough and ready painting, namely, in
clay or " slip," as it is called, where the
touches of the brush are left to tell their own
tale. It is strange that the public should have
to learn that the tale of the tool — brush,
chisel, hammer, or whatever it may be — is
never discreditable, and always interesting.
There is a something very direct and work-
manlike in the way " slip " is used in modern
Indian pottery. The dark-coloured clay is
first patterned over in whitish slip, and then
the whole is dipped in transparent glaze.
It results from the very method of execution
that the relief is so slight as not in any way
to interfere with the form of the thing it
enriches, nor yet in any way to hinder its
usefulness. The necessarily restricted relief
of repousse metal is accounted for in a
similar manner ; whereas ornament in relief
applied to a vase usually presents the appear-
ance of so much excrescence upon it. The
9late 11.
'PMaTO-TlItT, by J.Al»rni«n.6.IJu««n Squn«.ff.C,
Where to Stop in Ornament. 29
modelling you get with a brush is not likely
ever to be in too bold relief, nor that which
you get by punching too sharp.
A very suggestive illustration of appropriate
flatness of relief resulting from a workmanlike
proceeding, is given in Plate 11, representing
an old German book-cover in carved leather.
The flatness is such that it is not unsuited for
its purpose, and the quality of the material is
retained. It looks like leather.
Sgraffitto, or the art of scratching, is another
of those direct methods plainly appropriate to
the decoration of earthenware. Just as the
Italian decorator covered his tinted plaster
with a layer of white plaster, and while it was
yet soft scratched out his design (which thus
appeared in the dark colour of the under-
ground), so the potter dips his vessel of dark-
toned clay into a paste of white, and on this
outer coating proceeds to scratch his design.
Or, of course, he may scratch on the moist
body of the vessel itself, and rub colour into
the incised lines.
These simple processes in a manner suggest
themselves by their very easiness ; and the
blunt line produced by the point on the damp
clay, has an ornamental character of its own
30 The Application of Ornament.
well worth keeping. The delicate diaper
lines, simply picked out of the painted
ground (Plate 12), have a different character
of their own.
The objection there is to obtaining relief
by the application of cast ornament applies
only in a less degree to rude and rough and
less assuming work, such as German stone-
ware or gris de Flandres (Plate 8). Stamps
or punches for impressing coarse patternwork,
need to be used with judgment. Within
certain limits one may employ in ornament,
especially of the ruder kind, devices which
would not be endurable in work of more
lofty pretensions ; still there is always a
danger of hardness resulting from mecha-
nical and perfunctory ways of working, even
though, as in stoneware, the glaze may help
to soften the forms. The important thing
is that the end of beauty be gained without
sacrifice of use, and without greater ex-
penditure of time and labour than is justified
by the purpose in view. The truly con-
venti'onal way is the workmanlike way.
One would not by any means exclude
human or animal figures from the sphere of
ornamental design; but it should be of the
?late 12.
'PHOTa-TlMT* hvJ Akirmnn e.Quian Square .W.C.
Where to Stop in Ornament. 3 1
simplest and most spontaneous kind, such as
can be done without effort and under no
special disadvantage, such as in no way pre-
tends to the accuracy, finish, or dignity of art
unapplied. The figures on the Etruscan vases
(Plate 8) were, ordinarily, painted right off
without any great care for accuracy. Some-
times they are wild enough in drawing. If it
comes easier to a man, or is more amusing to
him, to devise human or animal forms rather
than any other, by all means let him do that ;
but, in so doing, let him aim at wjiat he can
best do under the circumstances, and not ignore
them, nor yet attempt to oppose them.
How desirable it is to let the mode of work-
manship suggest the design, is shown by the
futility of searching for qualities difficult of
attainment in the material used. This is
nowhere more apparent than in the painting
of pottery. Think of all the miniatures in
china turned out from the factories of Sevres,
Dresden, and Stoke — marvels of misapplied
skill — and compare their absolute ineffective-
ness as decorations with a bit of Italian or
Persian faience (Plate 12), and see how the
glory is all "with the direct and untrammelled
"conventional" art of the potter who made
32 The Application of Ornament.
the most of the beautiful capacities for colour
and iridescent beauty which lay in his
crucible, and how vain were the efforts of the
would-be miniature or landscape painter. If
he ever succeeded in getting what he sought
(which is very doubtful), he certainly failed to
produce decoration ; that was sacrificed, as it
so often is, to a misplaced pictorial ambition.
This applies, mutatis mutandis, with equal
force to decorative treatment in general.
Whatever medium a. painter may adopt, he
is bound in reason to consider that medium,
as he is bound to consider the work before
him in adopting it — distemper, fresco, oil,
encaustic, or whatever it may be.
In ceramit painting the choice lies between
painting on the glaze and on the "biscuit," as
it is called before it is glazed. For ordinary
earthenware the more limited resources of the
•' underglaze " method offer all that the orna-
mentist need desire. One reason for our
modern failures lies in the multitude of our
facilities ; the secret of the ancient triumphs
is often in the simplicity of the workman's
resources.
The artist's choice of manner will be
regulated to some extent by what he wants
Where to Stop in Ornament. 33
to do. In any case, if he is discreet, he will
limit his ambition to the range of his appli-
ances. The china painter, that is to say, will
think out a scheme of colour which, if not
suggested by the oxides employed in ceramic
painting, is not in any way opposed to them.
This will, indeed, deprive him of some pos-
sible indulgence in naturalistic effect, but in
the main it will lead him to more perfect
achievement than would the pursuit of mere
difficulties, without regard to the nature of
vitreous colours and the action of the kiln
upon them. One appreciates more fully the
colour of the Persian or Damascus pottery
when one realises that the painter's palette
was set by the circumstances. It is only
when we respect our materials that we get so
much out of them.
The uncertainty of all colour which has to
pass through the fire renders it most unwise
to entertain a scheme which (whether founded
upon nature or not) depends upon absolute
accuracy of tint. The certain thing about
vitreous colours is their uncertainty in the
kiln.
The potter is working always more or less
in the dark, since the value of his work is not
D
34 The Application of Ornament.
perceived until it comes out of the furnace.
It may be within the bounds of possibility to
get actual flesh tones in china coloiirs; but
at what a cost of risk, and at what a sacrifice
of qualities (rich colour qualities, for example)
so easily obtainable, and decoratively so much
more valuable !
It is only reasonable that, if an artist elect
flesh-painting as his metier, he should for-
swear whatever has to pass through the fire,
and adopt a medium in which he can express
himself with ease, or at all events without for
ever breaking his heart over it. Better be
an underwriter during perpetual high gales,
or a large holder of doubtful stock in a time
of general panic, than live the life of a pot-
painter whose ambitions are all in opposition
to his craft.
So in other crafts. The glass-painters of
the best periods were content with white glass
for their flesh tone. And it was for no lack of
ability to get something more like flesh-colour
that the great decorators of the i6th century
adopted flesh tints, which certainly must be
called conventional. However limited the re-
sources of an art, a man knows them, or should
know them, when he takes it up. Besides, every
Where to Stop in Ornament. 35
medium has its inherent advantages as well
as its limits — and it is these which should be
turned to account. There is a liquid and
transparent quality in water colour, which
every water-colour painter wishes he could
only retain beyond the wet stage ' of his
picture. This is just what the china painter
can get, without the least trouble, by simply
floating on his colour with a full brush.
Surely, then, that is the kind of thing to aim
at, when it is within easy reach ; instead of
fidgetting it, or stippling it, or dabbing it with
cotton wool, to the dull evenness so dear to
the commercial mind, or otherwise laboriously
seeking effects more easily and much better
produced by other means. That loose, juicy,
pot-like look is more valuable in ceramic
painting than any degree of mere finish, and
should be valued accordingly. So also the
scheme of colour should have reference to what
can best be done with the palette available.
In pottery painting, or whatever it may be,
in all kinds of carving, in mosaic, in embroi-
dery, in jewellery, everywhere it holds good,
that the selection both of the forms and the
colour should have direct reference to the
technique employed. What is simplest under
D 2
36 The Application of Ornament.
the circumstances is not only safest but most
directly conducive to success ; and there is a
further charm in the evidence of directness
itself.
In all applied art, and in every stage of it,
the work in hand points out the appropriate
treatment ; it suggests the degree as well as
the kind of conventionality to adopt ; you have
but to heed its prompting and it will tell you
what to do, and where to stop.
Style and Handicraft. 3 7
IV.
Style and Handicraft.
The purpose and position of ornament
belong to the wider subject of decoration, at
which we have not yet arrived, and come only
incidentally under our consideration. On the
method of its execution depends, as already
said, the very conception of ornamental
design. One cannot properly discuss style
without reference to material and tools.
The style peculiar to each particular kind
of work is, indeed, so strongly marked, that it
would be quite feasible to classify ornament
according to its evolution. Mr. Wornum's
analogy between "style" in ornament and
"hand" in writing, holds absolutely good.
There never was a tool or process but it wrote
its character on the work done. It was so in
a simple practical matter like lettering. The
cuneiform character of the Assyrian inscrip-
tions was developed chisel in hand. It was
the chisel shaped the hieroglyphs of Egypt.
38 The Application of Ornament.
In a certain bluntness of the early Greek
character the influence of the stylus is ap-
parent. Chinese and Japanese writing must
first have been done with the brush.
The various shapes of letters on Plate 13
are instructive. The simple form of the
Roman capitals ABC might, like the Greek,
first have been indented on a soft substance
with a point. The later form of lettering,
D E F, with its varying thickness of line and
its spurred extremities, was better calculated
for engraving on hard stone. The use of the
thick and thin lines (the down-stroke and the
up-stroke) comes of the use of the pen, and
so, plainly, does the characteristic thickening
of the backs of certain Gothic capitals such as
the G. The smaller Roman letters, h i j, and
still more plainly the italics k I m, are unmis-
takably related to the "round-hand" nop.
But it is in the medieval " black letter " that
penmanship is most plainly pronounced, as in
the letters 5 r S, in the capitals '^WiV, and
in the more fantastically flourishing SSt on
the same plate.
That our own printed type does not more
distinctly reveal the intervention of the metal
worker, is accounted for by our following the
Plate 1.3
Ci.LneiforiT?
jxpa^nese
Style and Handicraft. 39
historic, pen-born, fashion of lettering — I would
say, too closely, but that history and senti-
ment must be allowed to count for something ;
and it would be hard to set a limit on their
just influence.
In our day we are given to the cultivation of
" a good business hand," which is just a little
characterless and monotonous, as are indeed
the lives of some of us who accomplish that
modest end. Time was when the pen of the
ready writer indulged in occasional flourishes.
There is no time for such frivolity nowadays ;
and what little character there is left in our
handwriting seems likely to be sacrificed to
the convenience of the stylographic pen — even
if we do not give up penmanship altogether
in favour of the " type-writer."
Style, then, is not so much a thing of dates
and countries as of materials and tools.
Whenever the development of ornament is
discussed, it is the custom to begin with the
savage. How the aboriginal developed into
the Assyrian is not very clearly shown. But
from Assyrian art is traced Egyptian, and
from that again Greek art, and its Roman
imitation — all very plausibly. The foun-
dation of Byzantine art upon the ruins of
40 The Application of Ornament.
Classic, the growth of Gothic, the reaction of
the Renaissance, its transplanting, and its
degradation, follow in accustomed order.
It is easier to jog along this well-beaten
road, though it be a trifle tedious, than to
explain how, all the while, parallel with this.
Oriental art was pursuing a course of its own,
infringing, nevertheless, at times upon Western
art, and whenever that was the case, leaving
the imprint of its touch upon it.
This would be well worth doing ; but it
would take volumes to do it in, and would
demand, besides, historical knowledge far
greater than I can pretend to — a knowledge
perhaps scarcely compatible with the neces-
sary knowledge of art. One feels always how
hard it is for the artist to equip himself with
the necessary scientific and historic knowledge ;
as for the man of learning and research to
cultivate that susceptibility to art necessary
to any profitable discussion of the subject.
Still more to the purpose would it be to
classify ornament according as it was plaited,
notched, scratched, turned, modelled, carved,
inlaid, printed, woven, embroidered, or what
riot (see Plates lo, 30, 12, 37, 21, 9, 36, 7, 19,
40, respectively).
?1ate 14.
PmoTO-TiNt", t^ J Ak-.rman,G,l}ue.n Squaro.WC.
(Plate 13
Photo Tiht by >> AK»rin«n 6 Quara Squuv \ ■^
Style and Handicraft. 4 1
• In such a classification architecture would
divide itself into masonry, brick, concrete,
timber, plaster, and iron styles. The sub-
sidiary arts would class themselves in con-
formity with the use of clay, stone, wood,
metal, yarn, and so on.
There would be further subdivisions into
granite, marble, sandstone ; into hard and
soft wood, close grained and variegated ; into
wrought, cast, chased or beaten metal ; into
tapestry, cloth, damask, velvet, lace, brocade,
embroidery, and the like.
What are known as the historic styles might
be examined by the way ; they would go to
illustrate the development of style more
technically considered. In all probability it
would be shown that, wherever the historic
style is marked, its character is to be traced
to some mode of workmanship which, if it
did not actually inspire it, made it advisable.
The characteristic ornamental forms of a
period or people can usually be traced to the
technique and needs of that same people. In
this far, ornament rises to the dignity of
history.
A tolerably clear idea of style is conveyed
to us at once by the mention of Egyptian,
42 The Application of Ornament.
Greek, Gothic, or Renaissance sculpture. But
if we compare for a moment the carving of
Egypt, of Greece, and of Medieval 'and
Renaissance Europe, we shall see at once that
the styles are not more distinctly of a place
and of a period than they are markedly
granite, marble, and soft stone styles.
The monumental simplicity of the graven
obelisk, the refinement of the Panathenaic
frieze, the rude grandeur of the Gothic portal,
the delicate elaboration of the Italian ara-
besque, were but the natural development of
resources at hand. Working in porphyry,
basalt, or granite, severe simplicity was in-
evitable, and the Egyptian (Plate 14) was
severe with a vengeance. There was no
temptation to him_ to fritter away all breadth
in the accumulation of petty detail. On the
other hand, the even textured but less obsti-
nate marble encouraged the Greek sculptor
and his fifteenth century successor (Plates 15
and 16) to greater and ever greater subtlety
of execution; which again would have been
quite out of the question in working the more
friable sandstone native to Northern Europe
(Plate 17).
We associate the coarser treatment with
?la1e 16.
PhbTo-Tiht', }]/ J.Akumaii.G.l^ism ^ipiaro.WC
"Photo-Tiht", hyi) Aksmmn.G.l^inii iqu«r«,WC
Style and Handicraft. 43
Gothic carving in particular. It is all the
more noticeable, therefore, how the sculptor of
the Renaissance, working in a coarse stone,
arrived at results in some respects so like
Gothic work. Compare Plate 16 with Plate 1 7,
and see the difference between early Re-
naissance marble and later Renaissance sand-
stone. The later work is much the rougher,
as sandstone is rougher than marble.
Apart from all that has been said, there are
conditions of sunlight and grey skies, dry
atmosphere and moist, which also have their
say in the character of carving everywhere.
To explain at length the invariable con-
ventionality of historic ornament, would be to
write the history of the various crafts, each of
which might claim a treatise to itself All
that one can do within the limits of a manual
like this is to give instances, typical as may
be, of the influence of material, tool, or process
of execution upon design, and to show how
the forms of ornament were inevitably
modified by such influence, if not actually
due to it.
In discussing in a former text-book the
anatomy of pattern, I pointed out how its
construction was affected by, and very often
44 The Application of Ornament.
directly due to, some particular manufacture
or method of work. So it is with the details
of ornamental design.
The exquisite simplicity of certain cha-
racteristic patterns familiar in the figured
velvets of the 15th century, is cleverly calcu-
lated to disturb the least possible amount of
the sumptuous pile, so that the full value of
the rich texture is preserved.
In the old-fashioned damask patterns the
big broad leaves and scrolls are planned (like
a Turkey carpet or an Indian rug) with a view,
before all things, of getting a broken effect of
colour. The designer relied upon the quality
of the silk with its varying sheen to alleviate
the exceeding flatness of the pattern. No
treatment less broad would have done justice
to the quality of the stuff, which in those days
was worth consideration. Compare even the
comparatively debased specimen of woollen
damask on Plate 18, with the current designs
in linen damask, and it will be seen how well
advised were our grandfathers. Nineteenth
century manufacturers who desire equally to
exhibit the quality of their woof, can think of
no other way of doing it than by leaving
the ground for the most part empty. They
TlatelS
F KKLL,rH0TO-I.ITHff.e.FUHHIVAU S-f H0UI1
'Plate 19.
Photo-Tpht* tjJ.Ak«rman.6,IJuB»nSquu™,WC.
Style and Handicraft. 45
dearly love a spot pattern. Is it possibly out
of consideration for the lady purchaser that
modern table-linen is for the most part so
petite in style? The consideration of the
customer and not the thing to be done, is
responsible for much of our modern misdoing.
In certain woven fabrics of our time the
hope of disguising the shabbiness of the
substance has prompted the adoption of the
fussiest kind of pattern. One had need be-
ware of textiles worried all over with pattern ;
they are often expressly designed to hide
shoddy. The manufacturer of bond fide silk,
or wool, or other worthy material, would do
well, for his part, to identify his goods with a
kind of design which the baser fabrics cannot
imitate without convicting themselves.
The character of the Lyons silk designs of
the 17th and i8th centuries owes very much
to the circumstance, that the lustrous material
was so fascinating that artists were led astray
from beautiful form, and simply revelled in
the delights of colour. Charming as these
silks often are, translate any one of the pat-
terns into uncompromising black and white,
and you are disillusioned at once. The
most characteristic of them lose all their
46 The Application of Ornament.
charm in monochrome. It is hard to realise
that forms like those on Plate 19 can ever
pass for beautiful ; but it is wonderful what
colour and texture will reconcile us to in the
way of design. That is no reason why the
artist should leave us to reconcile ourselves
with ugly forms, still less why we should
accept such models without attempting to
improve upon them.
The Byzantine colouring, in bands, accord-
ing to the weft (Plate 20) is almost brutal in
its outspoken acceptance of the limitations of
weaving.* It speaks volumes for the safety
with which such limitations may be accepted,
that the contradiction between the forms of
the design and the scheme of colour does not
in the least offend one in the silk. The same
kind of thing occurs sometimes in Japanese
stuffs.
Until recently, the conventional treatment
of foliated forms always and everywhere con-
fessed quite frankly the way it was done.
The so-called honeysuckle of the Greeks I
have shown elsewhere f to be directly trace-
able to the use of the brush, as was the case
* See ' Anatomy of Pattern, ' pp. 49, 50.
t See ' Everyday Art,' pp. 106-8.
Plate 20
l^y^Mifipc colourio^jvccor^lino^'foK')
Kill, rHOTO-HTMP.fl
n^late 21
"pHOTO-TtHT: U J,Ak«m.n,G.(hi.,inSc,UM«,W.C,
Style and Handicraft. 47
with other familiar forms of painted Greek
ornament.
The Corinthian capital and the acanthus
scroll, even when they most nearly approach
nature (which is never very closely), are
always modified according to the conditions
of sculpture.
In the Byzantine version of the Classic
leafage, in which the sculptors made abun-
dant use of the drill, the drill-holes form an
element in the design. The same thing
occurs in much of the later Gothic foliage,
more especially in German work.*
The Arabian borders on Plate 21 leave no
possible doubt as to their having been traced
on the plastic stucco with the modelling tool.
The workman did what was simplest for him
to do. We may be sure, too, that it was the
ease with which the plaster could be manipu-
lated, which ,led to the extraordinary elabora-
tion characterising the impressed diapers on
the walls of the Alhambra.
The somewhat savage enrichment of our
own Norman buildings forcibly recalls the
rude way it was done. It is more properly
speaking chopped than carved.
* See 'The Planning of Ornament,' Plate 24.
48 The Application of Ornament.
To refer to a specific material, you cannot
look at the ironwork of any early period
without seeing how directly the forge affected
its design. It was the obvious thing to do to
beat out the metal into a bar, and equally
obvious to beat out the bar into the familiar
spirals. And the very difficulty of forging a
perfectly even bar was the surest preventive
against mechanical results, such as we see in
the handiwork of the modern smith, whose
bars are made for him by machine.
The forms on Plate 22 belong more dis-
tinctly to the forge than to France of the
13th century or Italy of the 17th. The
metal-workers in different parts of medieval
Germany give different expression to their
work (Plate 23). If a man had anything to
say he expressed himself. A strong man
would found a school. But it is smith's work
everywhere. Even in the decadence of the
art, when it bursts out into an uncomfortably
bristling form of foliage, it breathes always
the atmosphere of the forge. If nature in-
spired it, it was the hammer and the pincers
that shaped it.
It is precisely for this reason that similar
forms in cast iron are so singularly ill-judged.
BatB 22
'Plate 23
^pes of
lroi7Worl^
Style and Handicraft. 49
There is nothing contemptible in cast iron, if
we would but abstain from the reproduction
in it of forms inappropriate to casting. We
should have no cause to regret the institution
of the foundry, if founders would but put art
into their moulds ; and the first step towards
that end would be, to dismiss from their
memories the familiar forms of the forge.
It is customary to talk about cast iron as if it
were an abomination. It is its misapplication
only that is objectionable. There is no reason
why we should not do in iron something like
what the Italians of the 15 th century did in
bronze — unless it be 19th century incom-
petence.
It is one of the wicked ways of our
civilisation to smoothe out all character from
workmanship. For idiomatic expression in
ornament we have generally to travel back
to a remote period. The angularity of the
piece of darning on Plate 24 is what might
be called old-fashioned. But how it explains
itself! No one who cares for needlework
would wish to have it otherwise.
So in embroidery (Plate 40) we look for
colour and not perfect lines ; and so again
in mosaic or stained glass (Plate 39), — just as
E
50 The Application of Ornament.
in glass-blowing (Plate 8) we properly expect
to find lightness rather than precision of form.
In the pursuit of mechanical finish and the
blind worship of nature, considerations of this
kind are commonly lost sight of The love
of smoothness comes of our abuse of ma-
chinery. The love of nature is not, as the
realists (so-called) would have us believe, an
invention of to-day. Artists have always
loved and studied nature. Only, in the
historic treatment of natural forms, modelled
in clay or plaster, carved in wood or stone,
painted on wall or window, wrought in metal,
or on a loom, or with the needle — there is
always a touch of the tool which removes the
rendering by so much, — let us not say from
nature, for the instinct which directs such
niodifications is natural enough, — but from
the imitation of nature.
?late 24.
■Phbtb-TimV; hyJ Alcnn.n.G.QuB.n 5i]u«m,¥.C.
The Teaching of the Tool. 5 1
The Teaching of the Tool.
Difficult as it may be for any but a work-
man quite to appreciate the influence of tools
and treatment upon ornamental design, and
so to trace the origin of time-honoured forms
to their first cause — it is certain that nearly
all forms of ornament may be followed back
to a beginning in technique.
Take any tool in hand and proceed to
design with it, and see what comes of the
experiment. It will be something quite
different from what you would have drawn
with a pencil on paper, and something much
less literally like any natural object : and
according to the tool employed will be the
character of your design.
The process of repousse work or embossing
will serve for an example. You lay a sheet
of brass or copper, with its face downwards,
on a bed or cushion of pitch, and proceed
with tools of various shapes and sizes to
E 2
5 2 The Application of Ornament.
punch the pattern from the back. Now, if
you have any feeling for the material at all
(and if you have not, you have mistaken your
vocation), you begin very naturally to do
what can be done in it. Accordingly you set
to work to beat out certain round bosses,
Plate 25, A, which you surround with smaller
bosses, B, arriving so at something like
flowers. These you go on to connect with
rounded stems, C, from which grows a kind of
foliage, D, large or small in detail, as need
may be, but always more or less bulbous in
shape. We have thus a pattern, which is
characteristically repoussi, beaten work, and
which has grown to a great extent out of the
conditions under which you were working.
Plate 25 pi'etends to do no more than
illustrate this method of proceeding. Your
bosses may take the form of figures, animals,
or what not ; yet, in the hands of a
sympathetic workman, they will not cease,
whatever their individual shape or interest,
to be always bosses. It is your unsympa-
thetic workman who designs without fore-
seeing how every detail is to be carried out,
and misses the characteristic qualities of his
material.
(plate 23.
'^\'m> m s? >y ■mi.X im iV' '''■■&> W'<
( i) Jsii
** ",ig|fe'P' ^|»' . ^11", 1
r^J^^H^^^^^S
^^H i^^^mi J^^hK^H
yigyy
jlik;
IBp^^^
%■ f '"^ /
*k _; life *=i 5»»
<^. ,^«r
' '^
^- *-
^BIJIIB^SfflB
it.
'Photo-Tint', by J A]i«nn»n.E.I)Q«ftii Sqi
Tkte 26
-Plate 27.
?Me28
, ^a^vs^nescl .
Onoe^poent ipspi red by wacy ofWorlMi-j^
fHOTO-LITHO.O.FUHKIVW. S'
The Teaching of the Tool. 5 3
It cannot be insisted upon too strongly
that, in designing for ornament, it is abso-
lutely essential always to have those con-
ditions in mind, as clearly as though you
were yourself working under them.
In beaten work you descend from the mass
to the minutiae ; in filagree, on the contrary,
you would work from the minutia; to the
mass. Commencing with wiry lines, you
would perhaps clothe them with more com-
pact spirals, clustering these together where
you wished to concentrate the effect. The
design of the Byzantine artist of a thousand
years ago is not, you will see (Plate 26), very
different from that of the medieval silver-
smith, nor yet from that of the Genoese and
Maltese artificer of to-day.
This is the type of all ornament in deli-
cately elaborate line, as, for instance, damas-
cening, embroidery in gold or silken outline,
and, on a larger scale, hammered ironwork.
Substituting straight lines for curved, it has
its parallel in certain kinds of lacework, such
as the so-called " Greek lace." (Plate 27.)
A very curious instance of design directly
inspired by the way of working occurs in the
Javanese work on Plate 28. Some plastic
54 The Application of Ornament.
substance, paper or gutta-percha, is rolled out
into the thickness of stout wire, curled round
into spirals, and laid on papier-miche. The
ground is then partly fretted away and the
whole gilded. There is something delight-
fully naiVe in the result.
Fret cutting affords another homely illus-
tration. The very necessities of the saw
suggest the nature of the design. You are
led to devise some form of pierced ornament
not unlike stencilling ; or, if you prefer to cut
away the ground instead of the pattern, you
are compelled to hold the design together
by ties.
Unless these ties were from the first taken
into account, they would be sure to mar the
effect. The artist, accordingly, finds himself,
as if by instinct, evolving a kind of strap-
work, which reminds one of the typical
Elizabethan ornament — which very possibly
originated in some such device as fret
carving, although the forms show also the
influence of types more proper to metal.
The likeness of the strip of low-relief pattern-
work, on Plate 29, to fret cutting, is too
striking to be merely accidental. The rela-
tionship challenges recognition.
Tlate ?3
A\ctav.1 - Germs^r)
The Teaching of the Tool. 5 5
In the comparative massiveness or delicacy
of a fret pattern, one sees at once whether it
was designed for stone, or wood, or metal.
The artful fret- worker leaves no frail project-
ing ends, in stone or wood to be promptly
broken off, and in metal to catch hold of any
textile thing that may brush against them.
The strength of a metal fret naturally affords
facility for indulging in more florid forms of
ornament. The iron lock-plate represented
on Plate 29 shows this, and exemplifies be-
sides how the metal may be in part embossed,
and, of course, engraved.
Even simpler and more direct than fret-
work is the plan of notching thin planks of
wood and crossing them (as in Plate 30). It
has all the effect of elaborate fretwork. The
acme of simplicity is shown in the no less
ingenious device of placing the notched planks
side by side, so as to produce a pierced pat-
tern of singular effectiveness. Instances of
this, taken from the balconies of Swiss chalets,
are given on the same plate with the Arab
lattices referred to above.
The likeness between a fret pattern and a
stencil pattern is explained when one realises
that a stencil plate is a fret of cartridge paper,
56 The Application of Ornajnent.
through which the design is rubbed in, the
plate protecting the ground.
Stencilling is very properly used in decora-
tion as a means of laying in a first painting
only, in which case one may do with it what
one will, or what one can. One may even,
by the use of a succession of plates, produce
most elaborate designs. An ordinary Italian
house decorator will manage to stencil a wall
surface with a gorgeously rich damask pat-
tern, at a cost not exceeding that of equally
effective wall-paper.
A stencil pattern proper should, however,
be designed to be stencilled right off, without
needing to be made good at all by hand.
This principle is illustrated in Plate i, which
by its construction owns to being stencilled.
It is a bastard kind of design that is ashamed
of its origin.
Ties, it will be seen, may well be turned to
account to form a pattern on the pattern, to
give detail, such as the veining of large leaves,
or otherwise to break up the broader masses
of the design.
The geometric diaper on Plate 31 is ob-
viously produced by means of two stencils,
the outline being formed by the portion of
Hate 30
Tlate 51
' B * a
I-
r KEU, PMOTO-
-LiTHo. b.fuhnival 8' KOi-»OM*,e-o
The Teaching of the Tool. 5 7
the ground left clear. In the case of an
elaborate series of stencils each one may be
schemed to make good the ties of another ;
but, to the workman at least, there will
always be an interest in the evidence of
the way an effect has been produced. He
looks for character as well as beauty.
It must be confessed that he is the only one
who does. This merit of workmanlike-ness is
one which the public cannot, as I said, be
expected to appreciate. It is reserved for
the craftsman to recognise behind his work a
craftsman with whom it is his pride to claim
fellowship. His interest in it is not alone in
seeing how another solved a difficulty which
had occurred to himself, or took advantage of
an accident which to him had been fruitful
only of disappointment. He has a thrill of
purest satisfaction in feeling how some one,
far away and years ago perhaps, realised, as
he does, that this, and not that, was the spirit
in which such and such thing should be done,
such and such material should be treated, saw
the same hint in nature as he sees, or felt the
same limitation in his art as he feels. This is
the satisfaction, not of the sentimentalist but
of the workman. And no workman of any
5 8 The Application of Ornament.
account will be satisfied without the approba-
tion of the fellow-workman he respects.
The tooled book-binding illustrated on
Plate 32 i§ interesting rather to the craftsman
than to the artist. The ingenuity with which
a few simple and rather insignificant tools are
made to suffice towards a somewhat florid
effect, shows the practised hand.
Our wonder at the splendid scheme of
architectural colouring which prevailed in
Italy, settles down into the conviction that it
was encouraged, if not wholly suggested, by
the gorgeousness of the multi-coloured marbles
within easy reach. This it was which led also
to the development of a kind of decoration,
very characteristically mosaic, in which the
beauty of the material is displayed in large
slabs of rich veneer, whilst the waste is used
up in the form of geometric pattern work, the
design of which is literally cut according to
the chips. The contrast between the broad
surfaces and the minute mosaic is exceedingly
happy.
The large circular slabs of porphyry which
form so prominent a feature in the pavements
of Byzantine churches in Italy, notably in
many of the Roman Basilicas (Plate 33),
n^late 32.
'Pmotc-Timt" by J. Aki
-Plate 33
'trjla^icl Mo53.ic "^.^ve-i-nenl 6£xio Ma^-rco T^ome
'HOTO-llTMO.B.FUnNIVAL S"* HOuSonr
The Teaching of the Tool. 59
afford yet further evidence of the dependence
of design upon the conditions of material.
These circular plaques are in fact so many
slices of old columns, saved from the wreck-
age of more ancient buildings, and put to
this ingenious use.
The common adoption of geometric pat-
terns for inlaid pavements was countenanced
by the circumstance that the unequal and
accidental colour of the marble cubes, just
counteracted the tendency to mechanical
hardness, in which lies the danger of purely
geometric ornament.
In marquetry,' similar geometric forms were
found, for similar reasons, to be serviceable,
so that one may say that, whether in wood, or
mother-o'-pearl, or marble, a style of inlaid
pattern-work was begotten of the very facility
of shaping and laying geometric forms, by
the certainty of the harmonising influence of
colour.
It is in the inlay of natural woods and
stones and the like that we find the most
satisfactory use of absolutely geometric pat-
tern. The accidental variation of the natural
colours is exactly the thing needful. Unex-
pectedness of tint makes amends for cer-
6o The Application of Ornament.
tainty of shape, and gives an air of mystery
to what would otherwise be only so much
mechanism. The rigid forms of the diaper
on Plate 34 are plainly in need of some such
softening influence of colour. Again, in
geometric ornament like the " niello " on
Plate 35, the silvery brilliancy of the metal
glorifies, so to speak, the nakedness of the
design.
So in the ornamental glass mosaic so often
used in Italy about Giotto's time in connec-
tion with white marble, the shimmer of the
surface, more especially as it was never
absolutely even, put all contingency of harsh-
ness out of the question. Such a thing was
barely possible with all those little facets of
glass catching the light at all manner of
angles, and glittering each according to its
own bright will.
In marble inlay of strongly contrasted
colour there is no such excuse for severity of
form ; some of the old pavement patterns, that
for example in the baptistry at Florence (Plate
36), are exceedingly graceful in design. Even
there you see the influence of the material.
The desirability of maintaining the solidity of
the white slabs into which the blackish -green
Plate 34
Plate 35
-IITHO. B.FUHMIVAL S'' M0L»OIlH,e
The Teaching of the Tool. 6 1
is inlaid, has led to a kind of network of white
enclosing the darker tints, by which means
the contrast between light and dark is most
judiciously softened. These patterns would
stencil perfectly. They are, in fact, fretted
in marble.
Here it may be as well to remark that,
though a stencil is a kind of fret, a fret is not
exactly the same as a stencil. In designing a
stencil the ties are the main consideration.
In designing a fret, the connection of the
openings is an important point. One must
as much as possible avoid the hindrance of
perpetually removing and refixing the saw,
which, in fretting a stencil pattern such as that
on Plate i, would take almost as much time
as the actual cutting. Long, smooth, sweep-
ing lines are also suggested by the saw, the
backward and forward action involved in
following jagged lines, such as the serrated
edges of leaves, resulting in some waste of
labour.
Very characteristic design occurs m the
wooden lattice work which has lately been
imported from Cairo, and freely used (not
always with discretion) in the decoration and
furniture of English houses (Plate 37). Better
62 The Application of Ornament.
lattices it would be difficult to find, or a better,
means of employing otherwise not very useful
scraps of wood, or a better employment of
wood turning. This Cairene woodwork in-
dicates equally the scarcity of large timber,
the cheapness of labour, and the dependence
upon the lathe. Had the conditions been
other, we should never have had 'just such
patterns as the Arab builders evolved in
infinite variety.
The characterlessness of 19th century orna-
ment is due very largely to the absence of
any direct impress of the tool upon design.
In the process of modern manufacture, every-
thing is planed down to a marvellous but
monotonous smoothness ; the mark of the
tool, which is the evidence of workmanlike-
ness, is popularly regarded even as bad work
—want of finish, indeed. Even in this age of
enlightenment there are some who have yet
to learn that work may be smooth and smug,
and yet not beautiful, nor so much as finished.
This mistaken ideal of perfection is not, it
must be owned, altogether a modern one. In
tapestry, for example, designers have been
working for centuries past, steadily in the
pictorial direction, and against the threads ;
<?1ate36.
'PhcTO-Timt'. tyJ Ak«rm.o,6.DuB.n SqUAi
The Teaching of the Tool. 6
o
until there is now little difference between the
picture and its copy in wool, except that the
copy costs ever so much more than the
original. Already in the comparatively early
tapestries of Raffaelle, you can see at Dresden
or Beauvais what inferior and characterless
hangings his famous cartoons make, as com-
pared with the neighbouring designs of earlier,
unknown, and less accomplished draughtsmen,
who knew their trade. That Raffaelle either
knew little or cared little about tapestry, is
clear. And in his failure there is some con-
solation for the least of us. If we only love
our trade, and know it (as only those can who
love it) we may succeed where a Raffaelle
would fail, though we be anything but
Raffaelles. It is easier said than done, for a
great painter to step down to mastery in the
minor arts. All trades want learning.
The crowning point of ignorance and incon-
sistency in design is reached where the con-
vention peculiar to and characteristic of some
quite different material is affected, as in the
bulbous forms of beaten metal reproduced in
15th century Gothic stonework, or the facets
of Brobdingnag jewels in Elizabethan wood-
carving.
64 The Application of Ornament.
The modern Fi-enchman seems to have no
conscience at all in this respect. He will
copy anything in any material, and be proud
of himself. He is not to be persuaded that
the characteristic lines of darning for example
(Plate 24), when reproduced in wall paper are
simply broken lines, as meaningless as they
are awkward.
Affectation of that kind seems to throw
into stronger relief the fitness of fit ornament.
Plate 37
^revCi lattices cWacWis+ic Vocd-ttirnin^
p^ipSB^
m?i
o[^
m^ o J
^H
^/fj^o^
^^B^fl
t^P^SS
m3
m4k o j^
ro^l^^
■Pk J
I^I^oJb
fojM^
gpr 9^
P^Qjl
roTlJ^
m^
WHKoW
W^mgfWc
SPk o J
^^^
^^
pK
^v
Vs^flHHR
^1
HL*^
HK^
JjUi
^3p
Sk^I
p^
^hI
r^sp
ivoj
PlE
^jbH
r^sfc
Htoj
pC
^jIMI
3^
P KILL, rHOTO-LITHO.a.FUWIVAL STHOLlOKH.C.a
Some Superstitions. 65
YI.
Some Superstitions.
Out of the practical conditions of work
have arisen elements of design so distinctly
decorative that they are sometimes taken to
be inseparable from ornament and essential
to it. Flatness of effect, symmetry of dis-
tribution, firmness of outline, and other such
useful devices, have been adopted as articles
of a rather too credulous faith. That is
a proud position to which they are by no
means entitled. They are at the best work-
ing rules, a sort of recipe, not without use, but
useful mainly to those who are not much in
need of such help.
Let us inquire into one of these supersti-
tions — outline. It is of such use in ornament,
and so often useful, that it has come to be
accepted by certain theorists as a necessity
of the case ; with them it is the passport to
" the decorative." Useful as an outline is in
decoration, it is not, however, inevitable. Nor
F
66 The Application of Ornament.
is it so easy to say just where an outline
should be used.
In very many cases, the material and its
workmanlike employment necessitate an out-
line. They may even determine its colour,
as in the case of the metal lines marking
the cells in which the paste of enamel is laid.
And it is curious to notice how, in champlev^
enamel, where the cells for the paste are dug
out of the metal ground, the outlines are of
varying thickness ; whilst in cloisonni work
the even section of the wire soldered on to
form the cells, necessitates an absolutely even
strength of line.
You have only to look at the quality of the
outline, to tell at once whether enamel is
champlevi (a sort of niello in colours instead
of black) or cloisonne The evangelistic
emblem on Plate 38 combines the two pro-
cesses. You can distinguish the solid metal
from the wire-work quite plainly.
You find that when the more laborious
process of cutting out the ground is used,
the artist adopts a larger treatment, and is
altogether more chary of his lines, omitting
them even, and blending one colour into
another. The method invites the use of broad
Tlate38.
ENAMLt
Goi30DDe
KILL, rHOTO-LITHO.a.FUHKIVAL S- HOLIOHH,!
Some Superstitions. 67
spaces of plain metal, which in their turn
tempt to engraving — although thereby there is
a danger of disturbing too much the breadth
and beauty of the polished surface, a danger
successfully avoided by the artist of the
twelfth century (Plate 38).
In soldering on the flat wire, on the other
hand, one is induced to elaborate a network
of lines, such as we see in Chinese and
Japanese enamel, too familiar to need illus-
tration.
- Thickness of outline is not unusually
regulated by material. Another case in point
is the leadwork by which a stained-glass
window is held together. Glazing being, in
richly-coloured glass, a necessity, the art of
designing it consists partly in throwing the
lead lines into the outlines (Plate 39). The
leading of a mosaic window corresponds
exactly to the cloisons of enamel, just as the
pierced plaster windows of Cairo may be
compared to enlarged transparencies in
champlevi.
In appliqui embroidery, again (Plate 40),
it is practically something of a necessity to
mask the joints by an outline of gold or
silken cord, very much to the enhancement
68 The Application of Ornament.
of the general effect. In short, there is every
reason to follow the lead given us by the
material. It does not do to play altogether
from your own hand ; the material is, so to
speak, our partner in the game of decoration.
An artist will seldom resort of his own free
will to an even and rigid outline all round
every form. Excepting at a great distance
from the eye (where its equality is not seen),
that is almost certain to result in hardness.
Mechanical precision is not seldom the manu-
facturer's ideal of finish. It is one, unfor-
tunately, which he can all too easily realise
— at a loss of what beauty of feeling and
colour, he can probably never be brought to
know.
The instinct of art is rather to lose an out-
line, more or less, in places, and not to insist
upon it unless its value is sufficient to justify
the risk its use entails. The only rule which
can be laid down as to the use of outline, is so
extremely simple as not altogether to satisfy
the pedantic mind : if the need of an outline
is apparent, then adopt it ; but if not, if the
effect is satisfactory without it, why on earth
should one insist upon its use ? For a reason
— yes ; but not otherwise.
n^late 39.
'Pmot«-Tiht, byJ.AkMm.n,6,I)u«enS<iU4ro.Wf:.
Some Superstitions. 69
The insistance upon outline for the sake of
outline, as though decoration were not decora-
tion without this official stamp of pedantry,
this trade mark of the decorating shop, is
pure nonsense.
The truth is, outline is frequently just a
matter of expediency, and no more. And
a very wise and fit expedient it is, if only in
view of that process of reproduction which
is admitted to be one of the necessities of
modern decoration, and particularly of modern
ornament.
The vaguer forms which depend so much
upon the touch and feeling of the artist do
not lend themselves to this necessity of repro-
duction. An outline does. And if, in out-
lining his drawing, the designer cannot help
in some degree hardening it, the evil is
infinitely less than if more undefined and
delicate forms had been left to the tender
mercies of another.
Moreover there are cases in which some
consolation awaits the man who has the
courage to make his design such as the
available mechanic can render. The hard
outlines of stained glass are blurred by the
spreading of the light as it shines through ;
yo The Application of Ornament.
the hard shapes drawn for the damask weaver
are redeemed by the sheen of silk or linen, —
and so on. In such cases the artist who has
been equal to the emergency will often find
again in the executed work something of the
delicacy belonging to his original.
Even in autograph work, where the artist
executes his own design, he still avails him-
self of a soft outline. Decorative art is a kind
of shorthand. Its very existence seems to
depend upon its being done with readiness,
quickness, and certainty — so that he who runs
may read.
The art which only careful scrutiny reveals
to us will, for the most part, fail to win
appreciation. Whatever its merits, if it hide
them, no wonder that men pass them by.
Even poetry of the over-subtle order is not
popular ; and decorative art (unpopular
though it be) is essentially popular art.
The effectiveness so much to be desired in
decorative art, has to be obtained without
many of the resources of which the painter
is free to avail himself It is not often that
the ornamentist can indulge in extremes of
light and shade, nor yet in very strong model-
ling. Under these circumstances, an outline
-Plate 40
Some Superstitions. 71
is invaluable in helping to detach a pattern
from its background. It is not generally-
understood how efifectually even a delicate
outline will sometimes do this (Plate 41).
In work placed at a great distance from the
eye, outline is quite the simplest means of
definition. The greater the distance off, and
the less the contrast in tone and colour
between the design and its background, the
more urgent something of the kind becomes.
For all that, there is no law making outline
compulsory, unless the artist feels the need of
it. He may, if he please, detach his pattern
from the ground by deepening the one, or
lightening the other, or by doing both. That
would, however, ordinarily be a much more
laborious business. Besides, it is only fair to
assume that there was always some reason
for the choice of tones adopted in the first
instance ; and it may be anything but
desirable to modify them. So it happens
that in many instances the expedient of an
outline is most handy. It enables one de-
liberately and safely to adopt a scheme of
colour which, but for it, would be altogether
ineffective.
So far from invariably hardening or empha-
72 The Application of Ornament.
sising form, outline may equally be used for
the diametrically opposite purpose of soften-
ing the shapes, as may be seen on Plate 42,
where a small portion of the pattern is harsh
by comparison with the part outlined. The
softening effect of outline is exemplified also
in the embroidery on Plate 40.
The use of outline must not be taken as
a justification of its abuse. To accept the
dogma of its saving merit and submit to its
tyranny, is sheer foolishness. Art may quite
well be decorative in which the outline is not
emphasised ; nor does the insistance upon it
make design decorative, however effectually
it may remove it from the pictorial.
So with regard to flatness, symmetry, and
other qualities supposed to pertain to deco-
rative treatment, — one must in every instance
use one's wits. Any effect of relief which
disturbs the sense of flatness in a surface
characteristically flat, is plainly out of place.
Just so much of symmetry as may be needful
to convey the sense of balance is to be desired
— but no more.
The fear of offending against the arbitrary
laws of authority, often altogether " irrespon-
sible," is a bogey which may scare some from
'Plate 41.
Oatltiie tolotcb defines tbf formX^^f^''^-
Plate 42.
Outline tohicb softens'fljc forms, ti^}-^o\,-
F KtUl, PHOTO-LrTHO.e.FUWIVAl S^ H0LEOHN,C 0.
Some Superstitions. 73
trespassing on dangerous ground, but which
certainly deters others from adventuring on
fields of design in which they might perhaps
discover the full use of their artistic faculty.
What is called convention is not a hin-
drance to the workman, but a help. If he
finds it an impediment, he would do well to
ask himself if that may not be his fault.
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