Fig. 92.—Panelling of ceilings showing at A a bad, and at B a better arrangement.
In the case of ornamental objects whose outline is a matter of taste, such as finger-plates, care must be taken that they neither have a weak outline wholly made up of curves, like A, nor one that is too angular, like B; the design C seems to obviate both these defects ([Fig. 94]).
Fig. 93.—Door panels illustrating an ill-proportioned division at A, and a well-proportioned one at B.
Fig. 94.—Finger-plates for a door, of different outlines.
Compositions wholly formed of parallel straight lines, such as entablatures, and some door and window architraves, have a severity, that borders upon the monotonous, that is sometimes called dryness. The Greeks corrected this defect in their entablatures by introducing figures in the frieze, while the Romans mostly ornamented their friezes with festoons and foliage. In the door architrave at the Erechtheum circular pateræ are used on the fascia for this reason ([Fig. 96]); modern ornamentalists have introduced curved figures to correct the dryness. Archivolts to circular openings without imposts, and not enclosed by straight lines, lack firmness and rigidity, which may be imparted by inserting frets or flutes radiating from the centre, on the fascia of the archivolt ([Fig. 95]). Similar devices may be employed to correct weakness in planes of varied outline. In the shield of the savage ([Fig. 97]), made of black and yellow cane ornamented with cut shells, the two horizontal bands, just below the junction of the semicircles with the straight lines, strengthen the composition; there is a fair amount of contrast between the oblique lines of the ornaments, and the circular, slanting, and horizontal lines; though the circular cut shell-work of the ends is excessive and monotonous. Extreme repetition is a common fault of savage art.
When a surface requires ornament and yet to be kept flat, the painted or inlaid ornament upon it should not be shaded nor have cast shadows, or when carved it should be sunk: what beauty can be got by flat colours may be seen in the tiles from Rhodes, Cairo, and Damascus. On large surfaces the best forms of applying ornaments is within lines of checkers, network (Figs. [98] and [99]), or diapers, and except in the case of very large surfaces, where striking variety may be introduced at set intervals, the ornament should be uniform in general