Outlines of historic ornament

200 Pages·1884·42.056 MB·English

by  Redgrave, Gilbert R.

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OUTLINES
CO OF
ORNAMENT
HISTORIC
EDITED BY
GILBERT REDGRAVE
R,
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OUTLINES
OF
HISTORIC ORNAMENT.

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OUTLINES
OF
ORNAMENT
HISTORIC
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
EDITED BY
GILBERT R. REDGRAVE
77.ZUSTRATIONS
LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL
LIMITED
SERVICES
LONDON
I t
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,
BREAD STREET HILL, B.C.
PREFACE.
PROBABLY few subjects are of greater importance to the
art student at the present day than the study of the history
and development of the various periods of ornament. The
intimate connection which is found to exist between the different
styles of architecture and the ornamental treatment appropriate
to each the manner in which characteristic methods of decora-
;
tion are applied to various materials, and the laws or principles
which govern their treatment and regulate their employment,
as they become more widely known and universally recognised,
must be considered as essential branches of an artistic edu-
cation. The author of this little treatise has described the
origin of ornament among savage races, and has traced its
rise and progress from the times of the Stone and of the
Bronze Age, until it reached its prime among the artists of
Greece and Rome. He has wisely discriminated between what
is true and what is false in ornament, and he has presented
us with the salient features of the chief styles of antiquity and
the characteristics of the arts of decoration among Eastern
nations. Passing on to more recent times, he has shown how,
under the sway of the Arabs, and the spread ofthe Mohammedan
PREFACE.
vi
religion, Saracenic art became dominant, not only in the East,
but largely, also, in the south of Europe. The decay of Classic
learning and the decadence of Rome gave place to a new
era of architecture, perhaps the most original and striking the
world has known, the beautiful, and purely Christian, Gothic
style. He has traced the varieties of Gothic architecture in each
of the chief countries of Europe, and as his work and illustra-
tions were designed for German readers, his examples are
mainly selected from buildings which would be familiar to
them, and his admiration has been reserved, rather too exclusively
perhaps, for the art workmanship of his own country to satisfy
the student of Gothic work in England. Lastly, he describes
the rise and progress of the arts of the Renaissance, due to
the rediscovery of Classic architecture, and he has shown the
influence of this marvellous movement which has lasted almost
to our own time. He points out the directions in which it
has failed, and describes the Baroque and Rococo styles which
chiefly emphasised its decline on the Continent. Had he been
treating of the arts of decoration from an English point of
view, he would probably have added a brief chapter on the
Gothic revival, which owes its development almost entirely to
the architects of this country, and has exerted so marked an
influence on the arts of the present century; but he concludes
with the decay of the arts of the Renaissance, guided doubtless
by the consideration that, from a careful survey of all that
has been accomplished in the past, we may best learn the
possibilities and aims of decoration in the future.
The form of question and answer selected by the author is