Growth.—This is at once the rarest and most delightful of the hints taken from nature by great ornamentalists. In climbing plants, whose stalks are polygonal, and that twist to reach an object, or for the flowers to get the sun, the edges of the stalk are seen to form a spiral. Sometimes this vigour of growth is seen in the turn of a leaf or the clasp of a tendril round a twig. The capitals and the tripod stand of the choragic monument of Lysikrates are good examples. (Figs. [53] and [54].)
Superposition.—This is most frequently seen in Saracenic ornament, but it is also found in Renaissance ornament. The simplest form is in the case of meanders of different curvature when one is put over the other, the upper one being more vigorous in form and colour. The next case is where larger ornaments of a more striking colour are put over a smaller and less obtrusive pattern, as in the Persian windows of the Suleimanyeh at Constantinople; but the commonest case is that of inscriptions over floral ornament, examples of which are without number in Saracenic work. This, like nearly all other inventions in ornament, is taken from nature. We see twining or creeping plants overgrowing trees or bushes, and parasitical plants overgrowing others, from which they get their sustenance, and have therefore roots, stems, and flowers, but no leaves. Saracenic diapers frequently have many planes superposed, and as each pattern is differently coloured and gilt, any change of position in the beholder brings out a new pattern. This may be seen in the Alhambra Court at the Crystal Palace. Fig. [101].)
Fitness, in its most obvious sense, is arranging the ornament so that it may not interfere with the proper use of the thing ornamented. The enrichment of a sword-hilt must not hurt the hand, nor render the proper wielding of the sword difficult or impossible; and the same canon applies to the handles of flagons, jugs, or drinking vessels, &c.; in a secondary sense it is a due consideration of the qualities of the material to be ornamented, and of the appropriateness of the ornament to the purpose for which the article is intended; and thirdly, it supposes a well-ordered design, whose completeness would be marred by anything being added or removed.
The want of what is called “alternation” in design is analogous to a surface that is so elaborately decorated with a uniform repeating pattern that it is wearisome to look at.
The value of plain spaces in design is enormous. Charles Lamb, in one of his delightful letters to Coleridge, says in finishing—“I will leave you, in mercy, one small white spot empty below, to repose your eyes upon, fatigued as they must be with the wilderness of words they have by this time painfully travelled through.” To the designer this analogy will be obvious and useful.
Plain spaces as alternations in design, are the oases in the desert, and may be compared to a refreshing silence after a continuous chatter or deafening noise.
It is easier to do too much than to know exactly where to stop. Excess of ornament defeats its own end, there is no foil to set it off, and it must be guarded against. The Saracens, by the relative weight of their ornament, have to some extent obviated this objection. To know the value of plainness is to enhance the ornament used. To have this vividly brought home to you, the best Greek architecture should be compared with late Roman. In the Greek you see a very small quantity of exquisite ornament surrounded by plainness, which makes it doubly precious; in late Roman, every surface is covered without a spot to rest the eye on, so that the whole becomes dull, confused, and monotonous.
CHAPTER IV
BEFORE speaking of the decoration of mouldings, a few words must be said on the mouldings themselves. The Greeks were the first people who carried the art of moulding or profiling to any perfection, and they are still supreme; they mainly used straight-lined sections for strength, but added a few curved sections to prevent monotony. The air of Greece is pellucid and the sunshine brilliant, so for their curved sections those that approximated to conic sections were preferred as having more subtle shade, segments of circles being rarely used. ([See Figs. 61-64.]) The greatest efforts were made to have these mouldings as exquisite as possible, so as to get variety of shade and shadow, and mouldings of the same species were rarely or never alike. The Romans, who had much coarser artistic sensibilities than the Greeks, and were slaves to easy rules, used segments of circles for their mouldings instead of the Greek curves. ([See Figs. 55-66.]) They also had an atmosphere less clear, and their sunshine was not so brilliant. The Mediævals, who lived in misty climates with little sunshine, were as logical in their methods, but were not possessed of the artistic sensibilities of the Greeks, so, although their mouldings answer the