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Plate 26.—Example of Diaper Pattern, used in Italian, German and English Decoration of the Sixteenth Century.
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Plate 27.—Example of Diaper Ornament, used in Italian, German and English Decoration of the Sixteenth Century.
CHAPTER IX
COLOUR DECORATION IN ENGLAND
THE polychromatic decoration of buildings in England, like the architecture, was in a great measure a development of, or at least was strongly influenced in its inception by, Italian and French art; we might add, also by German and Flemish decorative art of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
It may be said that English decorative art and colouring has, and always had, a certain style and character of its own which has distinguished it from that of other countries, but we must admit that the seeds from whence it sprang were not all of native origin. The English tree of art was not indigenous to the country, but rather an exotic that grew extremely well after it became deeply rooted in the receptive and fertile soil of England. If this be true of the historical beginnings of British art, it must also be said, on the other hand, that the original features and complexion of the adopted art have been completely changed to an aspect of British nativeness.