No. 231. Scroll & Anthemion Ornament from Greek Vase Paintings.
Early Renderings
The evolute scroll which plays so conspicuous a part in Greek art, was employed at earlier periods by the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and the widespread appreciation and use of this form of detail is plainly indicative that it was not disseminated from any one centre.
In the early employment of these curved forms there is no evidence of natural suggestion, but later, leaves and floral details were added conveying the idea of growth. In Egyptian and Assyrian art certain natural types occur, such as the Lotus, Papyrus and the Palm, but these were utterly denaturalised, all realism being eliminated.
These conventions, though incidentally decorative, were invested with symbolic meaning with which their employment was concerned rather than with the imitation of natural form.
The Anthemion
