Figs. 134 and 135.—Tail-pieces (Renaissance), or lamp bottoms.
CHAPTER VII
THE ornamentalist is more indebted to plants and flowers, both for materials and suggestions in design, than to any other division in the domain of nature. The best conventional and æsthetic floral ornament was the outcome of the study of plants and flowers. That characteristic Greek ornament, the honeysuckle or anthemion, is said to have originated from the Egyptian lotus flower, or the Sacred Hom, and not from the honeysuckle; the conventional rendering of this flower in ornament is said to have been adapted from the Egyptian forms by the Chaldæans; and later the children of those ancient flower-worshippers, the Assyrians, developed the pattern into more ornate forms. The Greeks in their turn are supposed to have copied the anthemion from the Assyrians: at first it was archaic and stiff, but full of vitality as ornament, and well adapted for its various uses and positions; and at last perfected to such a degree of æsthetic purity in the Erechtheum, as to lose all traces of any particular plant, while embodying the best qualities of plant-growth; for in it we see vigorous life combined with grace and elegance.
Another phase of floral and leaf growth, and its proper development into pure ornament, can be studied in the many rosettes of the various styles. These are circular in plan, and would appear at first sight to be derived from flowers, but are mostly a cluster of leaves, radiating like the spokes of a wheel, either straight or curved.
Fig. 136.—Rosettes or pateræ from Roman ornament, composed of leaf and floral forms.