Fig. 55
CHAPTER XIII
Decoration
“The world is still deceiv’d with ornament.”
—Merchant of Venice.
Decoration has been touched upon briefly in one or two of the preceding chapters. To attempt a description of the various kinds of decoration which it is possible to place on a pot, another book would be needed. Their name is legion. They range from the simple and entirely satisfactory work of primitive and peasant peoples to the wonderful enamel decorations of the Chinese. With such an enormous field and varied choice it is difficult to particularize and foolish to dogmatize. The hints below are intended
but to stimulate interest in the at present unexplored fields that lie beyond the beaten track.
Any representative collection of ceramics will prove a veritable treasure house of suggestion to the student. All will be there. The difficulty is to choose, and choose aright. The bold brushwork of Cyprus foils the marvellous familles vert and rose of the Chinese, the faultless Wedgwood sets off the virile Toft. One sees how the Italians, with almost crude colours,—blue, green, red, yellow,—developed their wonderfully robust school of figure painters; then their fanciful arabesques are prolific of ideas. The Greek style—red and black and white—is a rich field waiting for the reaper. The peerless Persian pots, the plaques from Spain, the steins and stoves from Germany, the fresh Delft wares; these and many others crowd round for recognition and disconcert the choice.
But having come so far, let us not choose the horrific style that models most faithfully a cabbage, tops it with a lifelike snail as handle, and cunningly converts the whole into a vegetable dish!... (in S. K. M.). Nothing should be more distressing to the artist than to see great skill and craft thus misapplied. Yet how often does the search after false originality lead only to meretricious cleverness or vulgarity, which creeps in unseen during the too close struggle with the craft.