Fig. 81.—Saracenic Algerian detail; from Goodyear, after Ravoisié.
By this time it is often flamboyant. (Fig. [81].) The isolated elements of the design may have been the origin of the fleur de lis, of which the Prince of Wales’ Feathers appear to be a variant.[86]
Throughout the art of the civilised world of to-day we find repeated, again and again, the misnamed honeysuckle pattern, or the anthemion, as it is preferable to call it. Most of our modern examples can be traced to Ancient Greece, but even there it had a hoary antiquity and probably a multiple ancestry. It is not improbable that future research will demonstrate that the history of this pattern is far more complex than that which I have endeavoured to sketch out. Its amazing longevity may be due to the fact that it arose from various radicles, and when the branches met their differences were not too great to counterbalance their resemblances, and so a fusion or mingling of elements could easily and naturally result.
Fig. 82.—Ionic capital of the eastern portico of the Erechtheium.
Fig. 83.—Early form of Ionic capital from Neandreia; after Clarke.