Enclosed and Free Ornament
Enclosed Ornament (Panels)
[Chapter IX] dealt with methods of developing continuous or repeating ornament (bands or borders). This leaves enclosed and free forms of surface enrichment to be considered in this chapter.
As an enclosed form, a panel may be enriched by geometric, natural, or artificial ornament. It is enclosed in a definite boundary of bands or lines and may be a square or other polygon, circle, ellipse, lunette, spandrel, lozenge, or triangle. As the decoration does not have the continuous repeating movement of the border and as it covers an enclosed area, it is necessarily treated in a different manner from either band or border. Its object is to decorate a plane surface. The enrichment may be made by means of carving, inlaying, or painting.
Free Ornament
Free ornament means the use of motives not severely enclosed by bands or panels. Free ornament is generally applied to centers or upper portions of surfaces to relieve a monotonous area not suited to either panel or border treatment. It may have an upward or a radial movement dependent upon the character of the member to be enriched.
Summary
We then have three forms of possible surface enrichment: repeating or continuous motives, enclosed motives, and free motives. Our next point is to consider where the last two may be used appropriately in surface enrichment.
Zone of Enrichment
The panel of a small primary mass of wood may be enriched at any one of three places: first, at the margins; second, at the center; third, over the entire surface. The exact position is a matter to be determined by the structural design and the utilitarian requirements of the problem. For example, a bread board or taboret top would require the enrichment in the margin with the center left free. A table leg might require an enrichment in the center of the upper portion of the leg, while a square panel to be inserted in a door, [Figure 233], [Page 124], might require full surface treatment.