The Planning of Ornament

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TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

THE

PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.BY

LEWIS F. DAY,AUTHOR OF 'SOME PRINCIPLES OF EVERY-DAY ART,' 'THEANATOMY OF PATTERN,' 'THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT,' ETC.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED,WITH ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

LONDON:B. T. BATSFORD, 52, HIGH HOLBORN

1890.


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PREFACE.THE second of a series of Text Books standsscarcely in need of preface. The aim andscope, as well as the origin, of this serieswere duly set forth in 'The Anatomy ofPattern.' What was there said applies forthe most part to the present volume.A new edition gives me the opportunity ofrevising both the text and illustrations, andof adding some new plates.

It is encouraging to find that the demandfor the Text Books is not exhausted withthe first issue, and that they appear to befulfilling the purpose I had in view in under-taking them.

LEWIS F. DAY.

13, Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.September 2isl, 1890.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS.PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY iII. THE USE OF THE BORDER 3

III. WITHIN THE BORDER .. .. 16IV. SOME ALTERNATIVES IN DESIGN 27V. ON THE FILLING OF THE CIRCLE AND OTHER

SHAPES 37VI. ORDER AND ACCIDENT .. ., 45


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DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.1. PANEL AFTER THE MANNER OF DU CERCEAU Order

in apparent disorder.2. BORDER IN THE MANNER OF FLOTNER Example of

comparatively important frame.

3. ROMAN PAVEMENT In which is shown the developmentof a geometric diaper into a more important scheme ofornament.

4. GREEK BORDER Instance of simple and very formaltreatment.

5. DIAPERS Schemed to fit panels.6. PAINTED DOOR Showing the influence of the propor-

tions of the panels upon the design of the decoration.7. BOOK COVER OF xvn CENTURY Illustrating the use of

border within border,8. PANEL Invaded by ornament springing from the border.9. INTERLACED HENRI II. BOOK COVER In which aborder line is suggested.

10. PANEL In which the border is inseparable from thefilling.

11. PANEL In which the filling breaks over the border, inthe Japanese manner.


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x List of Plates.12. PANEL In which the border is invaded by the field.13. INLAY, AFTER BOULE In which the border, so to speak,

loses itself.

14. FREE DESIGN Which by the orderly arrangement of theparts constitutes itself a border.

15. BROKEN BORDERS Showing various ways of breakingthem.

16. INLAID PANEL Showing a break in the border, andthe suspension of the principal ornamental feature.

17. CARTOUCHE, AFTER JOST AMMAN A very free treat-ment of the frame.1 8. PANEL With medallion, &c.19. PATTERN In which the detail is grouped so as to give

medallion shapes not otherwise marked.20. DIAPER Not schemed with reference to the panel it fills.21. PANEL IN NIELLO With geometric diapers disposed in

eccentric Japanese fashion.22. BANDS Their application to a cylindrical shape.23. DOOR PANELS Treated from the ends.24. BOOK COVER Treated from the corners.25. DOORS One-sided scheme accounted for by the position

of lock plates.26. PART OF CABINET In which the construction has sug-

gested the scheme of ornament.27. LACQUER BOX In which the artist takes the whole

object for his field.


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List of Plates. xi28. CABINET DOOR Jacobean panelling.29. CARVED DADO With square panel shapes within the

panels.

30. DESIGN In which the borders are interrupted.31. DOOR In which the disproportion of the panels is recti-

fied by borders supplementary to the mouldings.32. PANEL Where the borders round a. central medallion

interrupt the borders of the panel itself.

33. SUBDIVISIONS Each with its own ornamental filling.34. PANEL Eccentrically cut in two.35. BROKEN SURFACE Japanese diaper without repeat.36. STENCILLED ROOF DECORATION Designed in cross

bands to correct the parallel lines of the joists.37. VASES Illustrating lines on which they may be decorated.38. DIAGRAMS Explanatory of the subdivision of the circle.39. CIRCLES Illustrating lines on which they may be deco-

rated.

40. BOOK COVER One ornamental feature designed todisappear behind another.

41. PANELS Jointly symmetrical.


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THEPLANNING OF ORNAMENT.

I.

INTRODUCTORY." The Anatomy of Pattern" concerned itself

with the lines on which repeated patternis built. It is proposed in this second text-book of the series to discuss the order inwhich ornament not necessarily recurringmay be distributed. And it will not be diffi-cult to show that, illimitable as those linesmay at first sight appear to be, they too allowthemselves to be classed pretty definitely ;and, moreover, that the classes are not by anymeans so numerous as might be supposed.The first step in design, or rather thepreliminary to all design, is to determine thelines on which it shall be distributed to planit, that is to say.The more clearly the designer realises to

himself the lines on which it is open to him toB


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2 " The Planning of Ornament.proceed, the better ; and if it can be shown(as it can) that these are, comparativelyspeaking, few and simple, so much the easierwill it be for him to make up his mindpromptly and determinedly which of them hewill in any given case adopt.The shape of the actual space to be filled

will oftentimes determine for him, more orless, the distribution of his design. That isto say, it may very likely render certainschemes altogether unavailable, and perhapseven limit his choice to a single plan ; but athis very freest a man is limited, in the natureof things, to certain methods of procedurepresently to be defined.

Plainly it would be out of the question todiscuss at length the relation of every possibleplan to every possible shape. I purpose,therefore, to take the simple parallelogram(which may stand for panel, page, floor,ceiling, carpet, curtain, wall, window, door,fagade, no matter what), and to show thepossibilities with regard to the distribution ofornament over its surface. It will thenremain only to explain how the same prin-ciples apply, whatever the shape to befilled,


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The Use of the Border.

II.

THE USE OF THE BORDER.Given a panel to be filled, how is this to

be done ?There are two very obvious ways of going

to work, either of which, to the sophisticatedmodern at all events, seems equally natural.You may start as well from the centre as fromthe edge of it. That is to say, you may boldlyattack the centre and let your design spreadoutwards to the margin ; or you may beginwith a border and creep cautiously inwards.When once the border is defined, the spacewithin remains to be treated. Theoretically,indeed, you have only reduced the area overwhich your composition is to be distributed.But practically that is not quite so ; moreespecially if the border be of any importanceFor a border may be of such interest thatnothing further is needed, and the centre ofthe panel is best undisturbed by ornament.Especially may this be so if the material in

B 2


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4 The Planning of Ornament.use be in itself of some intrinsic interest. Itis distinctly not desirable to mar the surfaceof beautiful wood or richly varied marblewith added ornament. And, for example,with the cabinet maker it resolves itself prettygenerally (unless he should once in a whilemean to indulge in ultra lavish enrichment),into a question of whether he shall enrich hispanels or the mouldings bordering them.The proportion of a border is of moreimportance to a scheme of design than mightbe supposed. It makes all the differencewhether it is simple or elaborate in character.A very deep rich border has such an entirelydifferent effect from a moderately simple one,that it looks something like a different treat-ment altogether. Compare Plates 2, 3, and4, and see what a different part the borderplays in each. The ornament on Plate 2might appropriately enrich a page of text :that on Plate 4 requires obviously some moresubstantial filling. The strength of the bordergoes for something as well as its depth.

Borders may easily be so schemed (andshould be so schemed) as to give panels ofproportions calculated to allow of the decora-tion proposed for them. If, for instance, a


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(Plate 2

KILL HT-UTHO.,rUW4IVAl ST WOUOKM I


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91 ate


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The Use of the Border. 5panel is to be filled with a diaper, arrange-ment should be made for the " repeat " of thepattern within it. It is quite clear that theArab diaper spread over the panels in Plate 5was devised expressly with that object. Againin Plate 6 the necessity of accommodatingone's ornament to shapes so unequal as thepanels of the door, has obviously to a con-siderable extent controlled the design. Butfor those small upper panels, it would neverhave occurred to one to break up the longerpanels just so.

Panels or other spaces which are to containfigures or figure subjects should be of a pro-portion and size not too difficult to occupy inthat way.In the case of an isolated panel, this isperhaps of less importance the artist oughtto be equal to the occasion but in the caseof a series of panels to be treated in accord,the problem is made infinitely more difficultwhen they are of all manner of shapes andsizes.

It is no easy matter to scheme even the sim-plest ornament into panels of such awkwardand widely different shapes and sizes as thedecorator has only too frequently to deal with.


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6 The Planning of Ornament.There is a salon in the palace at Fontaine-

bleau in which the proportions of the panel-ling prove to be due almost entirely to thepainter, who has brought the larger panelsinto scale with the smaller by means of aseries of borders within the actual mouldings.It is much less trouble, of course, for thejoiner, when he has an awkward space topanel, to determine the width of the stiles,and let the panels come as they may. Buta very little consideration on his part wouldsave the decorator, who comes after him, aninfinity of pains. And though it may be thebusiness of the decorator to get over difficul-ties of the sort, his work is not so easy thatthere is any occasion to put difficulties in hisway.The stiles which frame a panel may be con-sidered as its border ; the mouldings again,are so many borders within borders.A border which is made up of many linesreally constitutes a series of borders onewithin the other. The use of border withinborder as a deliberate scheme of ornament iscommon enough, as was the case in certaintooled bookbindings of the seventeenth cen-tury, one of which is represented on Plate /.


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H^late 7

. RCU, rMOTO-UTHO.e.rUHNIVAL ST HOt.lOHM,C.O.


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Plate 8

FURNIVAt f * HOLBORN.L '


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The Use of the Border. 7You may even add border to border (as wassometimes done) until the whole field isoccupied. It is not altogether uncommon inRenaissance cabinet-work to find the panel en-croached upon by border after border of mould-ings until it dwindles practically to nothing.The obvious and simple thing to do with aborder is to keep it of one uniform and equalwidth. But such equality of width is by nomeans essential. You may see -in mediaevalilluminations the effect, more or less satisfac-tory, of emphasising two sides of the page.Nor need the border necessarily be continuedall round the space at all. Curtains haveoften a border on two sides only, and some-times only on one, marking what one maycall the lips of the hangings. You may lookupon the architrave of a door as a border onthree sides of it only. And in the same waya mantelpiece partly frames the fire-grate, thefender completing the scheme. A certainreasonableness is the most complete justifica-tion of such partial bordering.

Every frame is a border. No matter howirregular the shape of it may be, a frame's aframe " for a' that." It may take the archi-tectural form of cornice, pilasters, and dado,


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8 The Planning of Ornament.or it may be arched ; and in either casethe architectural members are but unequalborders. All this applies, it need scarcely besaid, not only to an architectural pictureframe, but to architecture itself, and towhatever may be framed.Something like a new departure occurswhen the border, so to speak, invades thefield or centre of the panel, as it very oftendoes in French Renaissance work, sometimesto such an extent that little or no furtherdecoration of the field is necessary. There isan indication of such trespass in Plate 8,where the " swag " and corner ornaments,which belong to the border, cut deliberatelyacross the face of the panel. In some of theinterlacing strap work of the Henri II. period(the French equivalent to our Elizabethanornament), you cannot always clearly tellwhere the border begins and ends, or evenwhether a border was intended at all. Itlooks sometimes as if the designer hadstarted with the notion of a border, but hadallowed it so to encroach upon the field, orthe field upon it, that in the end it is not atall clearly recognisable as such. An exampleof the kind occurs in Plate 9. You may


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Plate )

C F KtLL , PHOTO-U7HO, fc.FURNIVAL ST I


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-TIT" by J.n,r, Alc.rm.n


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91 at e 11

"PMOTO-TIMT" ty Ji


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The Use of the Border. 9see the idea of a border here ; but youcannot be quite so certain that the designerintended it.

Nearly allied to this is another variety ofborder, also devised so as to be quite in-separable from the filling ; in which, in fact,frame and filling are so ingeniously mixed upthat but for the emphasis of colour, the effectwould be confused. There is an instance ofthis in Plate 10, where the scroll, whilst tosome extent acknowledging the boundaryline, invades, and indeed entirely occupies,the border. In such a case there is at allevents no fear of the exceeding precisenesswhich is one of the dangers to beware of inborder design.

It is interesting to notice the differencebetween the last-mentioned method and thepractice of the Japanese, who will, in the mostunhesitating manner, allow the panel pattern,whatever it may be, to break over the marginor border, as the impulse may prompt. It isa proceeding which may or may not result inconfusion, according to the relative strength ofthe border and the pattern that cuts across it.In Plate 1 1 the border pattern is so subduedthat the more important floral growth is very


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I o The Planning of Ornament.well able to take care of itself. In the caseof a panel in which the enrichment onlypartially occupies the ground, it is oftenadvisable to introduce some sort of subsidiaryborder, losing itself behind such more pro-minent enrichment.One appreciates the freak of the Japaneseas a relief from the monotony of absolutelyformal disposition ; but it is not a thing toindulge in very freely. It is refreshing tosee that a man is not afraid of infringingoccasionally upon the margin on sufficientgrounds ; but the licence needs always tobe justified by some excuse other than theartist's impatience of order. We have tobe on our guard against a certain spirit ofanarchy which appears to have taken posses-sion of so many a modern artist. There isa class (one cannot call it properly a school)which will repudiate, not only all the laws ofart, but the need of all law whatsoever.Urgent need there may be of reform in ourideas of art, perhaps even of revolution ; butsobriety recognises in the artistic anarchistonly the enemy of art.There is no peculiar sanctity implied in a

margin, that it should be held inviolate ; but


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The Use of the Border. 1 1

the very idea of ornament implies order. Andthe artist cannot afford to be forgetful oforder, even when he allows his border toovergrow the field, or his filling pattern toextend beyond the frame.

There was a fashion in vogue in the seven-teenth and eighteenth centuries borrowedprobably from the East according to whichthe border is invaded rather by the field orground than by the pattern on it ; where thefield, in fact, seems to eat into the border.It is usually, as you may observe in Plate 12,rather a symmetrical mouthful that it takes.A border may be lost in a sort of confusionwith the panel it began by pretending toenclose. No one ever managed that morecleverly than Boulle, a panel of whose designis given in Plate 13. There is considerableingenuity in the way in which the pattern ismade to appear alternately light on dark anddark on light, without actually confining suchalternation within strict border lines, as onPlate 1 6. But a border remains a border,however undefined. Boundaries may be un-derstood rather than expressed. Yet thatmakes no difference as to the lines upon whicha design is constructed. You may discard the


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1 2 The Planning of Ornament.

very idea of formality ; you may determinethat you will have none of it; that you willmerely sketch upon your page such and suchmarginal forms, natural or ornamental ; but ifyou dispose them in anything like an orderlymanner, you arrive at something which comesas clearly under the category of border treat-ment as though it had been enclosed by hardand fast boundary lines. The winged headsand boys and ribands on Plate 14 form, afterall, a border.

Every margin or marginal line is in itsdegree a border. The white margin of thisprinted page borders the type. In Indian andother Oriental work you often see the orna-mental details so closely packed as to definethe border-shape even without actual boun-dary lines. And the Germans of the sixteenthcentury (Jost Amman, for example) sometimesdid with very different details just the samething. The looser borders of the looser timesof Louis XIV., XV., XVI., do everything theycan to hide the lines of their construction ;but you may take it as a sign of artisticdemoralisation to be afraid of a straight line.Hogarth, who preached "the line of beauty,"was not exactly an apostle of the beautiful.


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Arbitraryp 1J5 orJ cr by Gi ov^.1-) i? i .

l,PNOTO-ilTMO..FUnilVAL 8T HOUOM,t.O.


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(Plate 16

PHOTO-UTMO.e.FURNIVAL ST HOU


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The Use of the Border. 1 3So great is the use of the border, that even

they who least like formal lines are bound toadopt it ; although they are perpetually re-belling against its formality, and doing theirbest to break it up, as in the case of theencroaching and interrupted borders alreadymentioned.The very naivest way of getting over thedifficulty it is a difficulty, there is no denying

is by, so to speak, snipping a piece or twoout of the panel, and carrying the border roundthe incisions, so as to get a more or less irre-gular central space instead of the four-squareparallelogram.

In the Certosa near Florence, there are somewindows by Giovanni da Udine (the borderof one of them is illustrated on Plate 15),in which he has deliberately snipped pieces(a) out of the space to be filled, and left themas so many gaps in the design. We canforgive this kind of thing once in a way ;but it stands very much in need of justifi-cation.Where a gap has some meaning it is

different. In the case where there is a squareblock or patera occupying the corner, asyou sometimes see in seventeenth century


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1 4 The Planning of Ornament.wood-panelling (and on Plates 15 and 16),that seems to account for the break in theborder. It is as though the border went outof its way in order to escape the patera.Nor is there any objection to the doublingof the border round an imaginary line (bon Plate 15); by which means the sameend of irregularity is arrived at without thebrutality of da Udine's method. The Italiansof the Cinque Cento resorted freely to theforegoing plans in their schemes of ceilingdecoration to wit ; and with marvellouslybeautiful results. Perhaps, however, theywere rather too ready, certainly the artistsof the later Renaissance were too ready toadopt any device which would enable them todepart from the simple panel form. In not afew instances, the further they went from itthe worse it fared with them.A separate treatise might be written uponthe construction of the border itself. It maybe continuous or broken, and broken at allmanner of intervals, and in all manner ofways. It may flow, or grow. It may besymmetrical or absolutely free. The outer orthe inner edge may be accentuated, or both,or neither. It may spread outwards from


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The Use of the Border. 15a well-defined central feature or inwards fromthe margin, diffusing itself, and giving a lessdefinite central shape.

But it is not so much the design of theborder that we are considering at present asthe place of the border in design on whichpoint enough for the present has been said.


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1 6 The Planning of Ornament.

III.

WITHIN THE BORDER.Though you abandon all idea of bordering,

and elect to place, as you well may, somearbitrary shape within the parallelogram, thespace round about that shape may indeed beconsidered as an irregular border to the same.If, for example, you plant in the centre of thespace a medallion, and round that medalliondesign a cartouche, after the manner of JostAmman in Plate 17, the cartouche and itsaccessories may be called the frame or borderof the medallion ; and, again, the groundbeyond the edge of the ornament may betaken to be the margin or border to that.But it is going rather out of the way to lookat Amman's design in that light.

In the example chosen for illustration wehave shapes, fitted one to the other; but onemight just as well have two or more indepen-dent and unconnected shapes. Nothing iseasier than to take a simple field, and to spot


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'Plate 18.


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(Plate 19.


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Within the Border. 1 7

about upon it any shapes you please. That isone way, not a very ornamental way, but oneway, of occupying the space.When you proceed to connect such shapesin any way, you bring in another principle ofdesign which, however, will be more con-veniently approached from the other side,when we come (as we presently shall) to thediscussion of the lines enclosing various shapesand subdivisions.Abandoning all thought of border, or sup-

posing a border already in existence, youmay, as I said, plant any independent shape,medallion, shield, cartouche, tablet, what youwill, within it. This form may be left, as itwere, floating in space, or it may be sup-ported by ornament ; which ornament mayliterally seem to hold it up ; or, if you will,the ornament may appear to be suspendedfrom it, as was most frequently the case withthe festoons and garlands of the later Re-naissance. Instances of such support andsuspension are given in Plates 16, 17, 18.Finally, the ornament may be unconnectedwith the central shape, and comparativelyindependent of it, as a powdering or sprig-diaper would be.

C


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1 8 The Planning of Ornament.The central feature need not, of course, in-clude a frame of any kind ; it may be a figure,

a spray of flowers or ornament, a vignette, aspot, a spray as free as painter's heart couldwish. Or, just as in the case of the closely-packed border whose shape was markedwithout the aid of boundary lines, so anycentral sprig of ornament or foliage may beso densely massed within a square, circle,quatrefoil, or other imaginary form, as toassume a quite regular outline. Such group-ing of the ornament is shown very plainlyin Plate 19, where the circular shape isemphatically pronounced without the aid ofany enclosing line. You see the same thingvery commonly in Indian art.A number of sprays, or other features, freeor formal, group themselves into a sort of

diaper. Such diaper should naturally havesome reference to the space it fills, or it willappear less than trivial. The interlacings onPlate 5 form panels, Plates 20 and 35 areonly bits of diaper work. Whether the com-ponent units of such a decoration be all alike,or of various design, is a question independentof the lines of their distribution. The varietyin Plate 21 is at all events amusing. Had


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Tlale

OTQ-LITHO.S.FUHNIVAL STHOL0N,t


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c?1ate 21.

Aieimati Phofo-litti Loud


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?late 22,


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Within the Border. 19there been evidence of order within this dis-order, of any plan on which the variousdiapers were put together, one would havewelcomed it as a relief from obvious geometry.The merely accidental patchwork is perhapscondonable once in a way. It is instancedhere as a freak of Japanese perversity, not asa model of design. But it has its charm : onedoes not readily grasp all that is in it :there is always something to find out ;which is just what there would not be in asimple and orderly geometric pattern of theEuropean type.A mere series of bands or stripes across thefield (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, waved, orin whatever direction), is an obviously simpleway of getting over the ground, about whichnot much further need be said. As thefilling of a panel, such a treatment as thatshown on Plate 22 is not very adequate.Rightly employed it forms, however, a veryfit and proper method of decoration : for theslight enrichment of a vase or cylinder nothingcould well be more apropos than this bandedscheme of ornament.Such filling as a scroll or anything of the

kind may be quite freely drawn, as on PlatesC 2


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2O The Planning of Ornament.II and 25, or disposed symmetrically in rela-tion to an imaginary central line or spinalcord, as in Plates 10, 13, 16, &c. ; or it mayradiate from the centre, as it naturally wouldin a ceiling, pavement, carpet, or other objectdemanding an all-round treatment. Some-thing like radiation of the design occurs inPlates 3 and 9.The scroll work, or what not, may equally

proceed from two ends of the panel, as inPlate 23, or from the sides, or from bothsides and ends, either symmetrically or atirregular intervals ; or it may spring fromthe corner or corners, as in Plate 24.The treatment from the corners is, again,

adapted to, and often adopted in, ceilingdecoration. In principle it is very rightindeed ; but in practice it is not invariably allthat decorator could desire. The "line andcorner " tune, as it may be called, has beenharped upon until one is pretty well sick ofit, even when it is played in time which isnot always the case.A corner-wise treatment is seen to advan-tage when it has been suggested by use, as inthe metal garniture of old book-bindings, andin the clamps of coffers such as German


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Within the Border. 2 1

smiths of the fifteenth and sixteenth centurieselaborated with workmanlike pride. In thetooled binding of the Henri II. period,given on Plate 9, the corner is very carefullytaken into consideration, such considerationbeing very possibly a survival from the timeswhen the corners were habitually protectedby metal-work. There is an instance of thison Plate 40. You see also in book coversof all times instances of a treatment wherethe design is manifestly " to be continued inour next," the side unseen being necessaryto its symmetrical completeness.

Further examples of the same thing occurin the mediaeval cabinet doors given inPlate 25.The need of clasps, hinges, and so forth,

no doubt gave the hint of such a manner,which, in spite of the one-sided forms it gives,is wholly satisfactory in effect We do notsufficiently realise how readily the mindmakes good what the eye does not see indesign ; assuming, that is to say, a certainworkmanlike reasonableness in it. In Plate26 (which is only one half of a cabinet) thedesign is in a very noticeable degree theoutcome of the constructional idea. The


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2 2 The Planning of Ornament.artist relied greatly upon the locks and hingesfor his effect

It is worth while to compare the above-mentioned scheme, in which the symmetry issuggested rather than expressed, with the freeand easy way in which the Japanese lacquer-worker will overrun the limits of a box top orcabinet front, and trail his ornament over allor any of its sides indiscriminately. Thefront of the box is not enough for the dragonon Plate 27. Yet you will observe that thereis a certain consideration for ornamental pro-priety in the disposition, for example, of thecreature's claws.There also, the artist, in his very different

fashion, chooses to consider the whole objecthis field, and not just the portion of it he seesbefore him. There is a certain logic in hislicence, too especially as it appears to begood manners in Japan minutely to examineyour neighbour's nicknacks ; but the morerestrained manner of the mediaeval workmanis, in proportion to its restraint, the more tobe preferred.Where the design scroll, foliage, or what-ever it may be bears no relation at all to theshape or space it occupies, like the diapers


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.


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?late26.


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Within the Border. 23on Plates 20 and 35, it ceases to be surfacedesign, and is merely a means of breaking thesurface. It is only as a background thatsuch hap-hazard distribution of forms has anymeaning. But then a good deal of decorativedesign pretends to be no more than back-ground.A very satisfactory and effective result issometimes reached where the artist starts, asit seems, with the idea of a diaper more orless geometrical, and, as he approaches thecentre of the panel, gathers together thepattern, so to speak, into points of emphasis.You see this in the Roman pavement repre-sented on Plate 3.

That is a case in which the design wasunmistakably set out first of all in geometricdivisions, certain of which divisions wereafterwards grouped together to give point tothe pattern. If you analyse any of the oldJacobean ceiling designs, or the Italianoriginals on which they are but variations,you will find that many of them may beresolved into very simple diapers, on a ratherlarge scale, adapted to the space they fill, andemphasised here and there by figure subjectsor other special filling of some of the more


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24 The Planning of Ornament.prominent geometric compartments. Thepanelling of the Jacobean cupboard door onPlate 28 resolves itself into just such a diaper,to which the figure in the central octagongives pointThe difference between the method ofdesignemployed in Plate 3, and the plan adopted inthe kind of design shown on Plate 9 is, thatin this last the main shapes appear ratherto have suggested the corresponding interlace-ments than the interlacements to have led upto them. But even in such a case it seemsdesirable that the artist should have in hismind from the beginning some kind of idea ofgeometric construction. The longer he canmanage to keep that geometric notion in hismind, without putting it on paper, the morefreely he can go to work. That same facultyof holding a design, so to speak, in solutionin the mind, is most invaluable to the designer.A notion is so much more manageable in itsfluid state. Once an idea is allowed tocrystallise into definite form, it is no easymatter to modify it.

Should the space to be decorated be veryconsiderable in extent, it is often necessaryto cut it up into sections, otherwise than by


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(Plate 28.


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Within the Border. 25

merely marking off a border. A wall, forexample, is divided horizontally into cornice,frieze, wall space, dado, and so on, or verti-cally into arcading. Some such sub-divisionalprocess may be adopted in the case of asmaller panel, with a view to modifying itsproportions.

If the subdividing lines take both direc-tions, the result is a scheme of panelling,such as was commonly adopted in thedomestic wainscoting of some centuries ago.

Further, by the introduction of cross-linesat various angles, or of curved lines, we arrive,by a different road, at panelling of more com-plicate character (see once more Plate 28),and at something like the interlaced patternsto which reference has already been made.

It is clear that these various ways and meansmay be associated ; and under the complexconditions of the times, they usually are moreor less " highly mixed."Thus one may, as I have said, begin with aborder, and then treat the space within it in

any of the ways already described ; one maydivide a wall horizontally into two, with adiaper or frieze at the top, and panellingbelow ; or into three, with frieze, wall, and


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26 The Planning of Ornament.dado, either one of which may again be brokenup. Thus the dado on Plate 29, itself onedivision of a scheme, is again subdivided intopanels and each of these panels is furtherbroken up by a square of carving enclosedwithin an irregular margin of plain wood.Again one may plant upon the field anyindependent feature, frame, shield, tablet,or such like, and then fill in the backgroundwithout regard to it, as though a portion ofthe design were lost behind it. As many asthree, or more, plans may be associated. Forexample, one may, as on Plate 30, stretchacross a title-page a tablet, then introduce aborder disappearing behind it, and the spacesenclosed between the border and the top andbottom of the tablet one may treat againeither as one interrupted panel or as twoindependent parts. The fact, however, thatthey are both, as it were, on one plane in thedesign, seems to require that they shouldboth be treated in much the same way.The possibilities opened out by this associ-ation of various plans, are obvious. ,'


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Some Alternatives in Design. 27

IV.

SOME ALTERNATIVES IN DESIGN.The use of the border is not, of course, con-

fined to the outer edge of the main space tobe filled. Every sub-section of the design maybe provided with its own border, as you seein the case of panelling, where each separatepanel has its own border of mouldings.Plate 3 shows two panels only of the designemphasised by independent borders withinthe outer frame. On Plates 6 and 31, themouldings round the door panels are supple-mented by additional painted borders.A central feature, such as the medallion onPlate 32, may have its border or borders,interlacing with, intercepting, or interceptedby, the borders which mark the space orpanel itself.A surface once subdivided, as alreadydescribed, two separate courses are open tothe artist. The one is to accept each com-partment as a separate panel, designing his


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28 The Planning of Ornament.ornament into it

;in the manner shown onPlate 33. The other, which is no less reason-

able, is to make his ornament continuousthroughout ; allowing it, that is to say, tocross the dividing lines or to interlace withthem ; more in the manner of Plate 9. Thenecessary thing is always to take the dividinglines duly into account even when crossingthem.

Again, the two plans may be combined,certain prominent parts being reserved forindividual treatment, and the subsidiary spacesonly being linked together by the formsof the ornament, as though in Plate 33 thepattern had been allowed to meander throughthe lesser panels, the central diamond onlybeing reserved for the grotesque head.Which of these plans may be the better toadopt is a question of some nicety, not alwayseasily to be decided. What rational ques-tion is ? In proportion to the importance ofthe framing lines, it becomes dangerous tooverstep them. Who ventures nothing runsno risk of failure ; but neither will he achieveany great success in art. And then thereis the charm of danger. Soldiers, sports-men, and mountaineers are not the only class


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31.


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'Plate 32


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Some Alternatives in Design. 29of persons privileged to run a risk. It isa luxury we may all indulge in on occasion

were it not so, art would be no congenialpursuit for any one who is really alive. Onlya man should look before he leaps intodanger, weigh the odds before he wagers ;" Erst wagen, dann wagen," is the pithy wayCount Moltke's motto puts it.When the artist starts from the 'beginning,and the scheme of design rests entirely in hisown hands, it is not so difficult to determinejust what is fit. The scheme develops itself.But in the more frequent case, in which theart of the ornamentist is only supplementary,and he has to work, as he usually has, uponlines already laid down for him, it is onlywhere those lines are worth preserving thathe is necessarily bound to preserve themassuming, that is, that he can obliterate them.This is heterodox, but none the less true. Ifthe lines existing are bad, and he can by hisdesign withdraw attention from them to linesmore reposeful to the eye, he is doing goodwork. Only he should do nothing but whathe can make seem right. There must be noappearance of awkwardness, no suspicion ofeffort about it. It is a case in which success


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30 The Planning of Ornament.

alone justifies the attack upon the situation.To fail is to lay yourself open to the chargeof the unpardonable sin, the sin of disobedienceto the conditions of design.An actually hap-hazard or eccentric schemeof composition, such as a Japanese will some-times affect, is hardly in contradiction to whatI have laid down. When a Japanese artistcuts a panel quaintly into two, after themanner of Plate 34, and treats each part ofit as seems good to his queer mind, he is onlydoing what the Pompeian decorator did whenhe cut off a portion of his wall space, andpainted it as a dado ; though he does it moreenergetically, not to say spasmodically, andwith less appreciation of proportion.

So, again, when the said Japanese strewsbuds and blossoms about a box top, andbreaks up the ground between with conven-tional, though very accidental, lines of crackle,as on Plate 35, or when he crams all mannerof geometric diapers into a panel, as onPlate 21, he is merely doing in a more eccen-tric manner what the European artist does,with greater regard for symmetry, when hedisposes his sprigs or what not on a geometricbasis. If only he arrive at balance, which he


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:P1ate 34


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Some Alternatives in Design. 31almost invariably does (so little is his instinctin this respect likely to err), there is no occasionto cry out against him. We, on our part, areperhaps too much disposed to design asthough there were no possible distinctionbetween symmetry and balance, betweenbulk and value as though the little leadenweight did not balance the heaped-up poundof fruit or feathers in the scale.

Design apparently quite unrestrained, suchas the men of the Renaissance habituallyindulged in, proves very often, upon exami-nation, to be constructed upon one or otherof the systems I have described. Sometimes,indeed, the system of construction is veryfrankly indicated, though not precisely de-fined the confession, that is to say, is fullenough to ensure absolution for any offencethere may be against strict order.On Plate I there is blotted in a panel ofornament somewhat on the lines of Androuetdu Cerceau, in which the central feature is anecho of the medallion treatment, whilst certainvertical and horizontal lines recall, howevervaguely, the notion of a border. Such remi-niscences of severely constructional divisionsgive additional charm, as it seems to me, to


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3 2 The Planning of Ornament.design otherwise fanciful, and even fantasticin character. It is as though a man said inhis design, almost in so many words : I claimmy freedom, but I have some lingeringrespect for law and order.

Except on the very minutest scale, thescope of subdivision possible with regardto a space, is not affected by the amountof ornament introduced, nor by its character.No matter whether it be human or animalfigure that you employ, conventional ornatural foliage, scroll or growth, interlace-ment, arabesque, or geometric pattern, thepossibilities in the way of distribution are thesame.

Naturally, however, certain lines of sub-division will be found to accord with certainkinds of treatment ; and so we find that, as amatter of history, the Mohammedans adoptedcertain lines of composition, the Greeks otherlines, and the Japanese quite others again, andso on.

Furthermore, the lines one would instinc-tively choose for different purposes wouldthemselves be different. One would scarcelyproceed to decorate a panel by merely cross-ing it with bands of ornament (see Plate 22),


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Some Alternatives in Design. 33except perhaps in the case of some long stripof a panel which it was absolutely necessaryto shorten. There is a case in point given onPlate 36, where the disproportionate, thoughconstructionally very proper, length of thepanels of a roof is mitigated by the band-wisearrangement of the stencilled ornament.A similar system was found by the Greeksto be the most satisfactory way of dealingboth with vases and draperies. Their petidea of decorating a full skirt seems to havebeen by means of so many parallel patterns.You have only to refer to the terra-cottas atthe British Museum to see both of these usesillustrated, often in a single vase.What one would do, then, is not the samething as what might be done. The possibleways of distribution are never all of themalike expedient. There must, for example,necessarily be some correspondence betweendetail and its distribution.

For all that, there is no cut and dried ruleas to the association of this kind of detailwith that kind of distribution, or vice versa.It does not even follow that the descriptionof detail usually found in connection with acertain order of composition is the only detail

D


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34 The Planning of Ornament.appropriate to it. The happy connection ofthe one with the other is evidence only oftheir conformity, not at all of the incongru-ity of other combinations. It is just possibleto fry without bread-crumbs. Is it not chieflylaziness

(whereit is not a suspicion of our

own incompetence) which tempts us to adoptbodily what has already been found to suc-ceed ? There are so many people in theworld to whom it comes easier to take whatthere is than to give something of their own.A design is in harmony, not when it isstrictly according to Greek or Gothic prece-dent, but when the parts all fit.

Suppose, for instance, the lines in a compo-sition lead up to some prominent feature,that feature must be of sufficient interest tojustify the attention it attracts. There arepositions so prominent they almost demandfigure design properly to occupy them.Such central features as those in Plates I,

17, and 32 are bound in consistency to beof more importance than their surroundings.I don't mean to say that an heraldic shieldlike that on Plate 17 is essentially of pro-foundest interest ; but in the eyes of itsowner at least it is worthy of all prominence.


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Some Alternatives in Design. 35In like manner also, if it is proposed to

introduce the figure, or anything of thatimportance, it is only natural to provide for itin your scheme, whether in the shape ofmedallion, frame, niche, or what not. Thegem of your design should have a settingworthy of it.Any feature, such as a tablet, medallion,

label, cartouche, shield, and so on, introducedinto a composition, should bear relation notonly to its surroundings, but to what it is toenclose. This is a serious consideration veryoften neglected. It is no uncommon thing tosee a shield introduced only to bear an inscrip-tion, a circular medallion to frame a picturewhich demands a rectangular outline, and allmanner of queerly proportioned shapes, whichby their very position call for decoration, whilst,at the same time, it is almost impossible tofill them satisfactorily.Upon the same principle of fitness, a pre-

determination to adopt natural forms offoliage would, artistically speaking, necessitatethe choice of a not too rigid skeleton forit. Detail designed on a large scale wouldcall for equal breadth and simplicity in thesetting out. D 2


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36 The Planning of Ornament.

So with regard to the allotment of orna-ment once the lines determined, the artistmust scheme his ornament accordingly.Whether he elect to ornament every portionof the surface, as the Orientals and the artistsof the Early Renaissance often do, or certainselected parts only, like the Greeks, whetherhe chose to decorate many parts or few, andwhich parts, and how that is his affair. Histaste must be his guide in that ; and unlesshe have some taste he had better notattempt to design. This may sound likediscouragement ; but it is only kindness tothe beginner easily capable of discouragementto make him aware at once of the difficultiesin his way. The lukewarm may as well bewarned off. Ornament is not one of thoseeasy things a man may take up for a liveli-hood, pending fame as a painter. Successin ornament implies devotion to it.


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On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 3 7

V.ON THE FILLING OF THE CIRCLE ANDOTHER SHAPES.The various lines on which ornament may

be distributed over a simple panel or parallel-ogram having been so far discussed, it remainsnow to show how the same principles applyto the covering of all manner of shapes.

Evidently it makes little difference at all,and in principle none whatever, whether it isfour sides of a figure we have to deal with, orthree, or five, or how many. In either caseyou proceed in the same way ; you work fromthe centre or from the sides, as best may suit ;you divide your space into regular or irregularcompartments, on the systems already ex-plained ; you overlay one feature with another,or interweave this with that ; you interrupt aborder, or encroach upon a field, according tothe circumstances of the case; and so on,much as though it were a square shape youwere dealing with.


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38 The Planning of Ornament.In the case of anything like an awkward

shape, you have even an opportunity ofcorrecting it, by introducing into it some pro-minent figure of more regular outline, which,if you insist upon it, will occupy attention,whilst the irregular surrounding space will goonly for margin or border just as in thecase of the regular panel you had the optionof discounting its severity by means of anyirregular feature it seemed good to you toinsert.The management of the circular shape, and

of the irregular forms of vases, seems topresent a more serious difficulty; but it ismore apparent than real.The simple treatment of a vase is (i) ac-cording to its elevation, as may be seen inVase I, Plate 37, or in any striped Venetianglass, or (2) according to its plan, as exem-plified in Vases 2, 3, 4, or in the rudeearthenware of every period. The glass-blower falls, in fact, as naturally into theone scheme of lines as the thrower or turnerinto the other. (" The Application of Orna-ment," Plate 8).A third way is to cross the shape diago-nally, which gives the appearance of twisting


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r?1ate 37.

"PHOTO -TiMT'Ity James Akerm


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On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 39to be seen in the bowl of vase, 3 a devicecommon enough in old silversmiths' work.Two or more of these systems may be asso-ciated ; and they often are ; as in so many aGerman tankard of the fifteenth or sixteenthcentury, where the bulbous bowl is beaten outinto the semblance of a melon, and the neckand foot take the lines of the lathe. InVases 5 and 6 it is very noticeable how theornament is constructed on two series ofcross lines, the one series according to theirplan, the other according to their elevation.Now the decoration of a vase lengthwise,according to its elevation, corresponds to thestriping of a panel with vertical lines ; thedecoration bandwise, according to plan, cor-responds to the striping of a panel with hori-zontal lines ; and the twisted treatmentcorresponds to a series of diagonal linescrossing a panelThe way in which medallions, panels, andother shapes may be incorporated with thedesign of a vase is not different from thatalready set forth. There is, however, thisdifficulty, that any marked independent shapeis likely to interfere with the form of the vase,or the form of the vase to distort it, which is


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4o The Planning of Ornament.the way with the landscape and picture medal-lions so persistently misapplied to Sevres andDresden china. Not that it is impossibleto introduce such features with good effect;only it needs to be done with judgment,,which of all things is most rare. And, as ithappens, the difficulty has been more oftenattacked with valour than with that discretionwhich is reputed to be its better part.What is said with reference to the vaseshape applies equally to balusters> columns,and cylindrical shapes generally.When we come to the circular shape, asof coins, plates, medallions and so on, itsdecoration involves new forms rather thannew principles.The circle is most naturally divided eitherinto rays or into rings. In the one case theradiating lines may be said to answer to thedivision of a rectangular space by vertical lines;in the other the rings would answer to thehorizontal lines dividing a panel. A referenceto Plate 38 will make this more clear.

Imagine a series of upright lines (A) to re-present the folding of a sheet of paper. Youhave only to gather the folds together at oneend, after the manner of a fan (B), and you


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On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 41have the system of radiation. Repeat thefan shapes side by side, and you arrive at acircle divided into rays (C).

Again, in the case of a series of horizontalbands (D), you have only to suppose themelastic enough to be bent, and you have aseries of concentric arcs (E), so many slices,so to speak, out of a circle decorated ring-wise (F). The identical target-like result maybe arrived at by the continuation of a seriesof borders round the circle, one within theother. That is only another way of reachingthe same point in design. As in the case ofpattern planning ("Anatomy of Pattern,"pages 19 and 22), one comes by various linesof thought to the same conclusion.The crossing of the two schemes (G) ismuch the same thing as a square lattice of

cross lines in a rectangular panel. The sub-division of the circular space by lines of moreflowing character (H) would correspond to thedivision of the panel by diagonal lines. Andif those lines were crossed (J), it would beanalogous to the division of the square bycross lines into diamonds.The spiral line, as applied to the decoration

of the circle (K), is equivalent to the fret or key


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42 The Planning of Ornament.pattern as applied to the square (L). Theseanalogies, I think, are plain enough. Theywere suggested to me by Mr. Henri Mayeux's"La Composition decorative" (A. Quantin,Paris), to which the student may refer formore ample illustration of the subject.All manner of independent shapes may beintroduced into the decoration of the circle,as into that of the panel. One may plant ashield in the centre, and surround it with aborder, as in the central disc on Plate 39 :one may associate any arbitrary form withringed or radiating lines. But should any suchshape form an important feature in the de-sign, the situation is not so free from danger.The limit is soon reached, that is to say,within which lines or forms at once indepen-dent and emphatic may judiciously be intro-duced into a circular design. Anything whichcounteracts the shape of the space you haveto fill needs to be accounted for. The tworosettes at the top of Plate 39 are designedon the safe lines of radiation ; in the two atthe bottom of the plate the design is basedin the one case on a vertical dividing line, inthe other on a horizontal.The difficulty in dealing with forms con-


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ITH0.8.FUKNIVAI S T HOLIORM,!


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On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 43tradictory one to another is, that you are aptto leave interspaces of irregular shape, whichare not easily manageable ; as for instance, inthe inevitable spandril which occurs so fre-quently in architecture. If a spandril happento be very large you can insert into it a moresymmetrical shape, which will hold its own ;and if it be insignificantly small, you mayignore it. You may (where it is of import-ance enough to be accepted as an individualpanel) treat it as such, with figures, scrolls,and so on. You may simply cover it withan unimportant pattern in the nature of adiaper, or leave it blank. These are theextremes : the happy mean in spandril deco-ration is not easy to find.The spandril may be taken as typical of

all the many awkward shapes which come ofthe intersection of curved lines by straight.Ornamental design would be a very mucheasier thing if we had only to consider thelines of the ornament, without any regard tothe interspaces.From the circle to the rosette, or cuspedcircle, is so short a step, that the treatmentof such shapes goes almost without furthersaying. The cusps seem almost to call for.


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44 The Planning of Ornament.acknowledgment by lines radiating towardsthem. Indeed, if you simply carry a seriesof borders, one within the other, round thecusps, the points where they meet will giveof themselves radiating lines; just as in thecase of the vandyke or zigzag (" Anatomyof Pattern," p. 9) it was shown that therecurring points gave vertical cross lines.The pentagon, hexagon, and other equal-sided polygonal figures may be considered asbroken circles.The triangle offers no new difficulty : it is

merely a case of three sides to deal withinstead of four.A branched form may be resolved intoits elements. The Greek cross, for example,may be regarded as an assemblage of fivesquares ; the Latin cross as a group of asmany as you please, according to the lengthof its arms, or as four parallelograms arrangedround a square.An altogether exceptional space will bepretty sure to indicate of itself the exceptional

lines on which it can best be decorated ; anda capricious one may well be left to the capriceof the artist.


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Order and Accident. 45

VI.

ORDER AND ACCIDENT.Entirely apart from the question of the

skeleton of a design, is the considerationas to whether it shall be looked at primarilyfrom the point of view of line or of mass.

In any satisfactorily completed scheme, linesand masses must alike have been taken intoaccount; but the artist must begin with oneor the other ; and the result will probably beinfluenced by the one or other considerationwhich was uppermost in his mind. Which ofthe two it may happen to be, is more often amatter of temperament than of choice withhim.The primary consideration, whether of line

or mass, will always lead the designer, thoughperhaps unconsciously, to adopt a plan accord-ingly. That is to say, the preference for masswill lead him to attack his panel resolutely,planting shapes upon it, which it will be hisbusiness afterwards to connect by means of


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46 The Planning of Ornament.the subsidiary lines needful to the completionof the scheme. On the other hand, a greaterpartiality for line will induce him to haverecourse to a more orderly procedure ; will,perhaps, even suggest a geometric ground-work, which, however far he may depart fromthe first lines, will materially help him insecuring the object he has most at heart.

If you start with certain arbitrary andirregular forms, arbitrarily and irregularlydisposed, so many patches, as one may say,on the panel, it is clearly not such a very easymatter to connect them by any systematic linesof ornament. If, on the contrary, you beginwith a system of orderly lines, these mustnecessarily determine in some measure theshape and distribution of any more prominentfeatures you may thereafter introduce into thescheme.

For my own part (whilst I disbelieveentirely in arriving at anything more than flatmediocrity by the adoption of set rules ofproportion), I feel rather strongly that thereshould be by rights a strict relation betweenthe parts of a design, however little it maybe obvious. If, for example, there is a spaceto fill between border and central medallion


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"PHOTO -TIHT'; tyj


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Order andAccident. 4 7a diaper may be^ enough ; but the diapershould be designed into its space. And evenif part of a design be permitted to disappear,as it were, behind this feature or that, it shouldbe so schemed that no very material form ismutilated in the process. Where an interrup-tion occurs in a border the pattern should beplanned with a view to such interruption.Even though you deliberately adopt a diaper,say as background to a scroll, the character ofthat diaper should be determined by the scroll,notwithstanding that the lines of the one aremeant to contradict the lines of the other.The cultivated artistic sense is by no meanssatisfied with the casual employment of anydiaper.

Again, where one feature of the design isoverlaid by another, as frequently happensin Early Gothic glass, the overlapping pat-terns should be designed to overlap as theyalways were. The spaces between one seriesof medallions should suggest the outlines ofthe subordinate medallions between, whichagain should be shaped with a view toany proposed interruption. In the bookcover on Plate 40 the tooled bordersdisappear as it were behind the silver clasps


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48 The Planning of Ornament.and corners ; and one sees no harm in this,because the tooling is so distinctly subor-dinate to the silver mounting, indeed onemay say designed to supplement and connectit. The careless overlaying of one pattern,or of one scheme, by another, is the merestmake-shift for design.The apparently " accidental " treatment,when it is at all successful, is not quite somuch a matter of accident after all. You willfind invariably, if you inquire into it, thatthere has been no disregard of the laws ofcomposition, but only the omission of someaccustomed ceremonial. To take what mightseem a flagrant instance of the disregard of anobvious rule of art : an artist like Boullewould sometimes boldly treat the doors of acabinet as one panel, notwithstanding theiractual separation by a pilaster between them.However wicked this may be in theory, hispractice proved it to be not so unsatisfactory.And for this reason that the upright inter-vening space was, as a matter of fact, verycarefully taken into account in the design.He only goes a step further than theobviously permissible treatment shown in thedouble panel on Plate 41, where the two one-


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. f Kill, PHOTO-UTWO.t.rUKKIVAl S


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Order and A cciden t. 49sided panels are jointly symmetrical. Boulechose to make a constructive feature less em-phatic than its position would have suggestedto most of us it should be. But he did notreally ignore it Very far from it. Had hedisregarded construction, the error would havebeen very perceptible. If he succeeded at allin satisfying the eye, it is because he did withgreat deliberation and judgment what mighteasily be mistaken by the inexperienced foran inconsiderate thing. Giants can afford tobe daring.

It is when dangerous liberties are taken bythe novice, without forethought and withoutdiscrimination, that they become offensive.Where there is no offence in the lapse fromwhat we have been accustomed to think awise rule, be sure it was designed, and designedwith more than ordinary skill. It is only a

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