Even distribution, the plain space and ornament proportionately arranged; Indian ornament gives the most mechanical instance of this, while good Roman and Cinque Cento pilaster panels give the most artistic examples of this arrangement. It is sometimes improperly used to designate the balancing of masses in a design. Figs. 101, 102, 143, &c.
Expression, the method of representing ornament by various means, as in outline by the pencil, pen, or point; in painting, by the brush; and in relief or sunk work by modelling. In another sense expression is giving the proper treatment and character to ornament.
Fanciful, a term sometimes applied to grotesque creations, for example, to the hybrid animals, and the figures ending in foliage, met with in Pompeian and other decorations. Figs. 122, 131, 134, and 135.
Fitness, absolute propriety; beautiful ornament adapted to its purpose and not interfering with the use of the object ornamented. See page [48].
Flexibility, a quality derived from the appearance of plants of free growth; the freedom and elasticity found in natural forms when converted into ornament give a look of flexibility, in opposition to rigid and angular lines which produce a look of inflexibility. See [Fig. 54].
Fluted, channelled in hollows, semi-circular, segmental, or elliptical in section; like those on some of the shafts of Greek and Roman columns. See also Figs. [75] and [76].
Geometric, or “geometrical arrangement,” the setting out of all good ornament; also the bounding lines for ornament constructed on a basis of geometry, as in diapers, &c.; the triangle, square, lozenge, diamond, the circle, the hexagon, octagon, and other polygons, are the chief geometrical forms for patterns in ornament. Saracenic decorations are pre-eminently geometric in construction. See Figs. [101], [102], [106], [107], [110], and [172].
Grotesque, from the word grot or grotto. When the fantastic arabesques of ancient Roman decoration were discovered under the baths and in grottoes, they were originally called grotesque, and were imitated in the Vatican. (See Figs. [122] and [128].) The word is mainly used now to describe the coarse and humorous carvings of heads, satyrs, &c., originally used to decorate the built grottoes of the late Renaissance, which gradually overspread all buildings. The word is also used to denote the quaint class of Gothic sculptured creations ([Fig. 131]), such as winged dragons, grinning monsters, &c., that serve to decorate the ends of dripstone mouldings; gargoyles, bosses, and finials, &c.
Growth is a concise expression for those forms which denote the special vigour shown by plants at certain epochs of their growth, the twist of the stem of creeping plants to get light to the flowers, the bursting of the bud from a capsule, or the clasp of a tendril. Examples are to be met with in the volutes of Greek Corinthian capitals, in the base of the tripod on the choragic monument of Lysikrates, in Renaissance sculpture, and in early Gothic.
Guilloche, snare-work; an ornament composed of parallel curved lines flowing and crossing each other; these forms may best be illustrated by the bending of ropes round circular pins so as to cross one another. See Figs. [37], [38], [39], and [40].