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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031228426
TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

By lewis F. day.

II.

THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.

TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

By lewis F. day.

Now Ready.

I.

THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN.

Illustrated with 35 Plates.

II.

THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.

Illustrated with 38 Plates.

III.

IN PREPARATION.
This third volume of the Series will

treat of Ornamental Design in its Relation

to Materials, Tools, and the Process of its

Execution.
 SCofo

TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

THE

PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.

BY

LEWIS F. DAY,

AUTHOR OF EVERY-DAY
'
ART,' 'THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN,'. ETC.

ILLUSTRATED.

B. T. BATSF0I?.D,i5?, H^GH HOLBORN.

1887.

®
 PREFACE.
The second of a series of Text Books
stands scarcely in need of preface. The
aim and scope, as well as the origin, of this
series was duly set forth in 'The Anatomy
of Pattern.' What was there said applies for
the most part to the present volume.
It was not possible in this case to make
the plates speak quite so plainly for them-
selves as in the former handbook ; but I have
made a point of referring to them specifically
at every turn, at the risk even of tiresome
iteration. They are arranged strictly in the
order in which mention is made of them, and
placed as near as possible to the allusion to
them in the text.

The fact that on the publication of The '

Anatomy of Pattern,' I was invited by the

Department of Science and Art to deliver a

short course of lectures on the subject at

vi Preface.

South Kensington, leads me to hope that

these Text Books are likely to fulfil the educa-
tional purpose I had in view in undertaking
them.

Lewis F. Day.

13, Mecklenburg Square, London, W.C.

November \oth, 1887.
 —

TABLE OF CONTENTS,
PAGE
I. Introductory i

II. The Use of the Border 3

III.— Within the Border 16

rlV.— Some Alternatives in Design 27

V. On the Filling of the Circle and other

Shapes ..
37

VI. Order and Accident 45

 DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF PLATES.
1. PANEL AFTER THE MANNER OF DU CERCEAU — Order
in apparent disorder.

2. BORDER IN THE MANNER OF FLOTNER — Example of

comparatively important frame.

3. ROMAN PAVEMENT— In which is shown the development

of a geometric diaper into a more, important scheme of
ornament.

4. GREEK BORDER —Instance of simple and very formal

treatment.

5. DIAPER — Schemed to fit a panel.

6. STAIRCASE PANELLING —
Illustrating the difficulty of
adapting ornament to panels of such different dimen-
sions.

7. PAINTED DOOR — Showing the influence of the propor-

tions of the panels upon the design of the decoration.

8. BOOKCOVER OF xvira CENTURY— Illustrating the use of

border within border.

9. PANEL—Invaded by ornament springing from the border.

10. INTERLACED HENRI BOOKCOVER — In which a
II.

border line is suggested.

11. PANEL —In which the border is inseparable from the

filling.
X List of Plates.

12. PANEL—In which the filling breaks over the border, in

the Japanese manner.

13. PANEL —In which the border invaded by the

is field.

14. INLAY, AFTER BOULE —In which the border, so to speak,

loses itself.

15. FREE DESIGN —Which by the orderly arrangement ot the

parts constitutes itself a border.

16. BROKEN BORDERS —Showing various ways of breaking

them.

17. INLAID PANEL — Showing a break in the border, and

the suspension of the principal ornamental feature.

18. CARTOUCHE, AFTER JOST AMMAN —A very free treat-

ment of the frame.

19. PANEL —With medallion, &c.

20. PATTERN —
In which the detail is grouped so as to give
medallion shapes not otherwise marked.

21. DIAPER—Not schemed with reference to the panel it fills.

22. PANEL IN NIELLO —With geometric diapers disposed in

'
eccentric Japanese fashion.

23. JAPANESE VASE DECORATION— An instance of stripes.

24. DOORS — One-sided scheme accounted for by the position

of lock plates.

25. PART OF CABINET —In which the construction has sug-

gested the scheme of ornament.

26. LACQUER BOX —In which the artist takes the whole
object for his field.
 List of Plates. xi

27. DOOR DECORATION — In which the larger panelis broken

up, to bring it more into scale with the smaller panels.

28. CARVED DADO—With square panel shapes within the

panels.

29. DESIGN— In which the borders are interrupted.

30. DOOR — In which the disproportion of the panels is recti-

fied by borders supplementary to the mouldings.

31. PANEL —Where the borders round a central medallion

interrupt the borders of the panel itself.

32. SUBDIVI SIGNS —Each with its own ornamental filling.

33. PANEL — Eccentrically cut in two.

34. BROKEN SURFACE —Japanese diaper without repeat.
35. STENCILLED ROOF DECORATION — Designed in cross
bands to correct the parallel lines of the joists.

36. DIAGRAMS —Explanatory of the subdivision of the circle.

37. OLD GLASS — Showing interlacing or overlaying of

shapes.

38." PANELS —Jointly symmetrical.

 THE

PLANNING OF ORNAMENT;
I.

INTRODUCTORY.
'
The Anatomy of Pattern ' concerned itself

with the lines on which repeated pattern

is built. It is proposed in this second text-
book of the series to discuss the order in
which ornament not necessarily recurring
may be distributed. And it will not be diffi-

cult! to show that, illimitable as those lines

may at first sight appear to be, they too allow

themselves to be classed pretty definitely ;

and, moreover, that the classes are not by any

means so numerous as might be supposed.
The first step in design, or rather the
preliminary, to all design, is to determine the
lines on which it shall be distributed —to plan
it, that is to say.
The more clearly the designer realises to

himself the lines on which it is open to him to

B
2 The Planning of Ornament.

proceed, the better ; and if it can be shown

(as it can) that these are, comparatively
speaking, few and simple, so much the easier
will* it be for him mind
to make up his

promptly and determinedly which of them he

will in any given case adopt.

The shape of the actual space to be filled

will oftentimes determine for him, more or

less, the distribution of his design. That is

to say, it may very likely render certain
schemes altogether unavailable, and perhaps
even limit his choice to a single plan ; but
at his very freest he is limited, in the nature

of things, to certain methods of procedure

presently to be defined.
Plainly it would be out of the question to
discuss at length the relation of every possible
plan to every possible shape. I purpose,
therefore, to take the simple parallelogram
(which may stand for panel, page, floor,

ceiling, wall, window, door,

carpet, curtain,
fagade, no matter what), and to show the
possibilities with regard to the distribution of
ornament over It will then
its surface.
remain only to explain how the same princi-
ples apply, no matter what the shape to be
filled.
 The Use of the Border.

II.

The Use of the Border.

Given a panel to be filled, how is this to
be done ?

There are two very obvious ways of going

to work,~ either of which, to the sophisticated
modern at all events, seems equally natural.
You may start as well from the centre as from
the edge of That is to say, you may boldly
it.

attack the centre and let your design spread

outwards to the margin or you may begin
;

with a border and creep cautiously inwards.

When once the border is defined, the space
within remains to be treated. Theoretically,
indeed, you have only reduced the area over
which your composition is to be distributed.
But practically that is not quite so ; more
especially if the border be of any importance.
For a border may be of such interest that
nothing further is needed, and the centre of
the panel is best undisturbed by ornament.
Especially may this be so if the material in
B 2
 :

4 The Planning of Ornament.

use be in itself of some intrinsic interest. It

is distinctly not desirable to mar the surface

of beautiful wood or richly varied marble
with. added ornament. And, for example,
with the cabinet maker it resolves itself pretty
generally (unless he should once in a while
mean to indulge in ultra lavish enrichment),
into a question of whether he shall enrich his
panels or the mouldings bordering them.
The proportion of a border is of more
importance to a scheme of design than might
be supposed. It makes all the difference
whether it is simple or elaborate in character.
A very deep rich border has such an entirely
different effect from a moderately simple one,
that it looks something like a different treat-
ment altogether. Compare Plates 2, 3, and
4, and ,see what a different part the border

plays in each. The ornament ^on Plate 2

might appropriately enrich a page of text
that, on Plate 4 requires obviously some more
substantial filling. The strength of the border
goes for something as well as its depth.
Borders may easily be so schemed (and
should be so schemed) as to give panels of
proportions calculated to allow of the decora-
tion proposed for them. If, for instance, a
 n^late 2,

O.CFUMilVAL ST H0i.tOHM^.f
oblate 3
 9lat(

J AieTiiian,Ehoto-litli Londi
 The Use of the Border. 5

panel is to be filled with a diaper, arrange-

ment should be made, as in Plate 5, for the
" repeat " of the pattern within it. If it is to
contain a figure or a figure subject, it should
bie of a proportion and size not too difficult to
occupy with a figure or figure subject.
In the case of an isolated panel, this is

perhaps of less importance —the artist ought

to be equal to the occasion — but in the case
of a series of panels to be treated in accord,
the problem is made more difficult
infinitely

when they are of all manner of shapes and

sizes.

It is no easy matter to scheme even the

simplest ornament into panels of such widely
different shapes and sizes as occur in the
section of a staircase on Plate 6. Awkward
framing enough, it may be said ; but it is

with such framing that the decorator has only

too frequently to deal. Again in Plate 7 the

necessity of accommodating one's ornament

to shapes so unequal as the panels of the
door, has obviously to a considerable extent
controlled the design. But for those small
upper panels, it would never have occurred
to one to break up the longer panels in that
way.
6 The Planning of Ornament.

There is a salon in the palace at Fontaine-

bleau in which the proportions of the panel-
ling prove to be due almost entirely to the
painter, who has brought the larger panels
into scale with the smaller by means of a
series of borders within the actual mouldings.

It much less trouble of course for the

is

joiner, when he has an awkward space to

panel, to determine the width of the stiles,

and let the panels come as they may. But

a very little consideration on his part would
save the decorator, who comes after him, an
infinity of pains. And though it may be the
•business of the decorator to get over difficul-
ties of the sort, his work is not so easy that
there is any occasion to put difficulties in his
way.
The stiles which frame a panel may be con-
sidered as its border ; the mouldings again,
are so many borders within borders.
A border which is made up of many lines

really constitutes a series of borders one

within the other. The use of border within
border as a deliberate scheme of ornament is

common enough, as was the case in certain

tooled bookbindings of the seventeenth cen-
tury, one of which is represented on Plate 8.
 oblate 3.

.
5''' HOLI0nN,C
9late 6,
g.r.iini,PN*Ts-Lmio.a.n)RMimL » itouaN«,B.a
 The Use of the Border, 7

You may even add border to border until the

whole field is occupied. It is not altogether
uncommon in Renaissance cabinet-work to find
the panel encroached upon by border after
border of mouldings until it dwindles practi-
cally to nothing.
The obvious and simple thing to do with a
border is to keep it of one uniform and equal
width. But such equality of width is by no
means essential You may see in mediaeval
illuminations the effect, more or less satisfac-

tory, of emphasising two sides of the page.

Nor need the border necessarily be continued
all round the space at all. Curtains have
often a border on two sides only, and some-
times only on one, marking what one may
call the lips of the hangings. You may look
upon the architrave of a door as a border on
three sides of it only. And in the same way
a mantelpiece partly frames the fire-grate, the
fender completing the scheme. A certain
reasonableness is the most complete justifica-
tion of such partial bordering.
Every frame is a border. No matter how
irregular the shape of it may be, a frame's a

frame " for a' that." It may take the archi-

tectural form of cornice, pilasters, and dado.
8 The Planning of Ornament.

or it ' may be arched ; and in either casg

the architectural members are but unequal

borders. All this applies, it need scarcely be
said, not only to an architectural picture
frame, but to architecture itself, and to
whatever may be framed.
Something like a new departure occurs
when the border, so to speak, invades the
field or centre of the panel, as it very often
does in French Renaissance work, sometimes
to such an extent that little or no further
decoration of the field is necessary. There is

an indication of such trespass Plate 9,

in

where the "swag" and corner ornam^ents,

which belong to the border, cut boldly across
the face of the panel. In sqme of the inter-,
lacing strap work of the Henri II, period
(the French equivalent to our Elizabethan
ornament), you cannot always clearly tell

where the border begins and ends, or even

whether a border was intended at all. It

looks sometimes as if the designer had

started with the notion of a border, but had
allowed it so to encroach upon the field, or
the field upon it, that in the end it is not at
all clearly recognisable as such. An example
of the kind occurs in Plate 10, You may
 ?late 9.

^^^ IffliHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimniiii

-' holiohh,
e r mu,»Hafi>-iTrMO.«.ru">*iv«.
 opiate 10.

fi.F KCLI., PHOTO-UTHO.a.FUHNiVAL ST HOLgOHN,

 ^late 11.

'PmOTO-Timt" iiyJirnrE Akirm.c

 The Use of the Border. g

see the idea of a border here ; but you

cannot be quite so certain that the designer
intended it.

Nearly allied to this is another variety of

border, also devised so as to be quite in-
separable from the filling ; in which, in fact,

frame and filling are so ingeniously mixed up,

that but for the emphasis of colour, the effect
would be confused. There is an instance of
this in Plate ii, where the scroll, whilst to

some extent acknowledging the boundary

invades, and indeed entirely occupies,
line,

the border. In such a case there is at all

events no fear of the exceeding preciseness
which is one of the dangers to beware of in

border design.
It is interesting to notice the difference
between the last-mentioned method and the
practice of the Japanese, who will, in the most
unhesitating manner, allow the panel pattern,
whatever it may be, to break over the margin
or border, just as the impulse prompts. It is

a proceeding which may or may not result in

confusion, according to the relative strength of
the border and the pattern that cuts across it.

In Plate 12 the border pattern is so subdued

that the more important floral growtli is very
lo The Planning of Ornament.

well able to take care of itself. In the case

of a panel in which the enrichment only
partially occupies the ground, it is often
advisable to introduce a subsidiary border,
losing itself behind such more prominent
enrichment.
One appreciates the freak of the Japanese
as a relief from the monotony of absolutely
formal disposition; but it is not a thing to
indulge in very freely. It is refreshing to
see that a man is not afraid of infringing
occasionally upon the margin —on sufficient

grounds ; but the licence needs always to

be justified by some excuse other than the
artist's impatience of order. We have to
be on our guard against a certain spirit of

anarchy which appears to have taken posses-

sion of so many a modern artist. There is

a class (one cannot call it properly a school)

which will repudiate, not only all the laws of
art, but the need of all law whatsoever.
Urgent need there may be of reform in our

ideas of art, perhaps even of revolution ; but

sobriety recognises in the artistic anarchist
only the enemy of art.

There is no peculiar sanctity implied in a

margin, that it should be held inviolate ; but
 91at6 12.

'PhsTO'TiHt" by JiniBA Akarman

 fPlate 13

t.f KtLi.rHDta-uTNO.t.ruimivAL >t ifOL*aiw,c.o

 91ate H,

'PHOTtt-TlMr! by JamcH Akanii*!]

 1

The Use of the Border. 1

the very idea of ornament implies order. And

the artist cannot afford to be forgetful of
order, even when he allows his border to
overgrow the field, or his filling pattern to
extend beyond the frame.
There was a fashion in vogue in the seven-

teenth and eighteenth centuries — borrowed

probably from the East— according to which
the border is invaded rather by the field or

ground than by the pattern on it ; where the

field, in fact, seems to eat into the border.
It is usually, as you may observe in Plate 13,

rather a symmetrical mouthful that it takes.

A border may be lost in a sort of confusion
with the panel it began by pretending to
enclose. No one ever managed that more
cleverly than Boulle, a panel of whose design
is given in Plate 14. There is considerable
ingenuity in the way in which the pattern is

made to appear alternately light on dark and

dark on light, without actually confining such
alternation within strict border lines. But a
border remains a border, however undefined.
Boundaries may be understood rather than
expressed. Yet that makes no difference as to
the lines upon which a design is constructed.
You may discard the very idea of formality ;
1 2 The Planning of Ornament.

you may determine that you will have none of

it that you will merely sketch upon your page
;

such and such marginal forms, natural or

ornamental. But if you dispose them in any-
thing like an orderly manner, you arrive at
something which comes as clearly under the
category of border treatment as though it had
been enclosed by hard and fast boundary
lines. The boys and ribands on Plate 15
form after all a border.

Every margin or marginal line is in its

degree a border. The white margin of this

printed page borders the type. In Indian and
other Oriental work you often see the orna-
mental details so closely packed as to define
the border-shape even without actual boun-
dary lines. And the Germans of the sixteenth
century (Jost Amman, for example) sometimes
did with very different details just the same
thing. The looser borders of the looser time
of Louis XIV., XV., XVI., do everything they
can to hide the lines of their construction ;

but you may take it as a sign of artistic

demoralisation to be afraid of a straight line.

Hogarth, who preached "the line of beauty,"

was not exactly an apostle of the beautiful.
So great is the use of the border, that even
 Tlate 15.

*PHSTa-T<HT" Ly Jimec AkiTm

'PN«r«-TiiiV; ty. jMa«« Ak.nn«i.
 .

n^late 16.

1 p "B or d er W Oi o v^^-tj t? i eld.

e.f. KEU.rKDTfi-UTHo.i.ruftHiVAi it houohh.c.q

 The Use of the Border. 13

they who least like formal lines are bound to

adopt it ; although they are perpetually re-
belling against its formality, and doing their
best to break it up, as in the case of the
encroaching and interrupted borders already
mentioned.
The very naivestvfzy of getting over the
difficulty — it is a difficulty, there is no denying
— is by, so to speak, snipping a piece or two
out of the panel, and carrying the border round
the incisions, so as to get a more or less irre-

gular central space instead of the four-square

parallelogram.
In the Certosa near Florence, there are some
windows by Giovanni da Udine (the border
of one of them is illustrated on Plate 16),
in which he has deliberately snipped pieces
(«) out of the space to be filled, and left them
as so many gaps in the design. We can
forgive this kind of thing once in a way ;

but it stands very niuch in need of justifi-

cation.
Where a gap has some meaning it is

different. In the case where there is a square

block or patera occupying the corner, as
you sometimes see in seventeenth century
wood-panelling (and on Plates 16 and 17),
14 The Planning of Ornament.

that seems to account for the break in the

border. It is as though the border went out
of itsway in order to escape the patera.
Nor is there any objection to the doubling
of the border round an imaginary line {b

on Plate i6) ; by which means the same

end of irregularity is arrived at without the
brutality of da Udine's method. The Italians

of the Cinque Cento resorted freely to the

foregoing plans — in their schemes of ceiling

decoration to wit ; and with marvellously

beautiful results. Perhaps, however, they
were rather too ready, —certainly the artists

of the later Renaissance were too ready— to

adopt any device which would enable them to
depart from the simple panel form. In not a
few instances, the further they went from it

the worse it fared with them.

A separate treatise might be written upon
the construction of the border itself. It may
be continuous or broken, and broken at all

manner of intervals, and in all manner of

ways. It may flow, or grow. It may be

symmetrical or absolutely free. The outer or
the inner edge may be accentuated, or both,

or neither. It may spread outwards from

a well-defined central feature or inwards from
n^late XJ.
 5

The Use of the Border. 1

the margin, diffusing itself, and giving a less

definite -central shape.

But it is not so much the design of the

border that we are considering at present as
the place of the border in design —on which
point enough for the present has been said.
1 6 The Planning of Ornament.

III.

Within the Border.

Though you abandon all idea of bordering,
and elect to place, as you well may, some
arbitrary shape within the parallelogram, the
space round about that shape may indeed be
considered as an irregular border to the same.
If, for example, you plant in the centre of the
space a medallion, and round that medallion
sketch a cartouche, after the manner of Jost
Amman in Plate 1 8, the cartouche and the
rest of it may be called the frame or border
of the medallion ; and, again, the ground
beyond the edge of the ornament may be
taken to be the margin or bordef to that.

But it is going rather out df the way to look

at Amman's design in that light.

In the example chosen for illustration we

have arbitrary shapes, one within the other;
but one might just as well have two or more
such independent shapes. Nothing is easier
than to take a simple iield, and to spot about
 ^late 18.

'pHOTO-TinVIty J«JneB Aki

 n^late 19,

r neu., rHoTO-iiTHo.B.FunmvAL sf HOi-Baim,c.o

 7

Within the Border. 1

upon it any shapes you please. That is one

way, not a very ornamental way, but one way,
of occupying the space.
When you proceed to connect such shapes
in any way, you bring in another principle of

design — ^which, however, will be more con-

veniently approached from the other side,

when we come (as we presently shall) to the

discussion of the lines enclosing various shapes
and subdivisions.
Abandoning all thought of border, or sup-
posing a border already in existence, you
may, as I said, plant any independent shape,
medallion, shield, cartouche, tablet, what you
will, within it. This form may be left, as it

were, floating in space, or it may be sup-

ported by ornament which ornament may
;

literally seem to hold it up or, if you will,

;

the ornament may appear to be suspended

from it, as was most frequently the case with
the festoons and garlands of the later Re-
naissance. Instances of such support and
suspension are given in Plates 17, 18, 19.
Finally, the ornament may be unconnected
with the central shape, and comparatively
independent of it, as a powdering or sprig-
diaper would be.
c
1 8 The Planning of Ornament.

The central feature need not, of course, be

a frame of any kind ; it may be a figure, a
spray of flowers or ornament, a vignette, a
spot, a spray —as free as painter's heart could

wish. Or, just as in the case of the closely-

packed border, whose shape was marked
without the aid of boundary lines, so any
central sprig of ornament or foliage may be
so densely massed within a square, circle,
quatrefoil, or other imaginary form, as to
assume a quite regular outline. Such group-
ing of the ornament is shown very plainly
in Plate 20, where the circular shape is

emphatically pronounced without the aid of

any enclosing line. You see the same thing
very commonly in Indian art.

A number of sprays, or other fea;tures, free

or formal, group themselves into a sort of
diaper. Such diaper should naturally have
some reference to the space it fills, or it will

appear less than trivial.. The design on

Plate 5 forms a panel. Plates 21 and 34 are
only bits of diaper work. Whether the com-
ponent units of such a decoration be all alike,
or of various design, is a question independent
of the lines of their distribution. The variety

in Plate 22 is at all events amusing. One

oblate 20.
 rG'< ^ I •
;\ !//:•

m^^

^^'n.^M^j^^^;:
r KiLL.rHOTQ-iiTHo. a.run"
 ^late 22.

J Akermaii.Ehoto-litli London.
 ;

Within the Border. 19

does not readily grasp all that is in it.

There is always something to find out

which is just what there would not be in a
simple and orderly geometric pattern of the
European type.
A mere series of bands or stripes across the
field (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, waved, or
in whatever direction), is an obviously simple
way of getting over the ground, about which
not much further need be said. As the
filling of a panel, such a treatment as that
shown on Plate 23 is not very adequate.
Rightly employed it forms, however, a vety
fit and proper method of decoration : for the

slight enrichment of a vase, from which it is

taken, nothing could well be more apropos

than this banded scheme of ornament.
Such filling as a scroll or anything of the
kind may be quite freely drawn, as on Plates
12 and 24, or disposed symmetrically in rela-
tion to an imaginary central line or spinal

cord, as in Plates 11, 14, 17, &c. ; or it may

radiate from the centre, as it naturally would
in a ceiling, pavement, carpet, or other object
demanding an all-round treatment. Radia-
tion of the design occurs in Plates 3 and 10.

The scroll work, or what not, might equally

C 2
20 The Planning of Ornament.

proceed from two ends of the panel, as in

Plate 8, or from the sides, or from both
sides and ends, either- symmetrically or at
irregular intervals ; or it might spring from
the corner or corners, as in the lower half of
Plate 9. ,

The treatment from the corners is, again,

adcipted to, and often adopted in, ceiling

decoration, In principle it is very right

indeed ; but in practice it is not invariably all

that decorator could desire. The "line and

corner " tune, as it may be called, has been
harped upon until one is chronically sick of
it, even when it is played in time —which is

not always the case,

,
A corner-wise treatment is seen to advan-
tage when it has been suggested by use, as in

the hietal garniture of old book bindings, and

in the clamps of coffers such as German
smiths of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
elaborated with such workmanlike pride. In
the tooled binding of the Henri II. period,
given on Plate .10, the corner is very carefully
taken into consideration, such consideration
being very possibly a survival from the times
when the corners were habitually protected
by metal-work. You see also in book covers
 a^la.te2^.

'
^iiillliiil'iU'JilillllMtllMllJ TliVr^

oFoia i

f)era.1clic

ipcomple+c
or
laraQSniE
:]i:|l!lW!ii^..|!';!!i:!:'i.il':i;"l!l|illU^^n ooe- sided
Q.r.KtLL. rHOTO-LITHO.B.FUnKIVAL «T HDnOHH.C.a
 Within the Border. i i

of all times instances of a treatment where

the design is manifestly " to be continued in
our next," the side unseen being necessary
to its symmetrical completeness.
Further exampl^ of the same thing occur
in the mediaeval cabinet doors given in

Plate 24.
The need of clasps, hinges, and so forth,
no doubt gave the hint of such a manner,
which, in spite of the one-sided forms it gives,

is wholly satisfactory in effect. We do not

sufficiently realise how readily the mind
makes good what the eye does not see in
design ; assuming, that is to say, a certain
workmanlike reasonableness in it. In Plate
25 (which is only one half of a cabinet) the
design is in a very remarkable degree the
outcome of the constructional idea. It was
the locks and hinges that gave the artist

his cue.

It is worth while to compare the above-

mentioned scheme, in which the symmetry is

suggested rather than expressed, with the free

and easy way in which the Japanese lacquer-
worker will overrun the limits of a box top or
cabinet front, and trail his ornament over all

or any of its sides indiscriminately. The

22 The Planning of Ornament.

front of the box is not enough for the dragon

on Plate 26. Yet you will observe that there
is a certain consideration for ornamental pro-
priety in the disposition, for example, of the
creature's claws.
There also, the artist, in his very different
fashion, chooses to consider the whole object
his, field, and not just the portion of it he sees
before him. There is a certain logic in. his
lice.nce, too ; but the more restrained manner
of the mediaeval workman is, in proportion to

its restraint, the more to be preferred.

Where the design — scroll, foliage, or what-
ever it may be —bears no relation at all to the

shape or space it occupies, like the diapers

on Plates 21 and 34; it ceases to be surface
design, and is merely a. means of breaking the
surface, It is only as a background that

suchhap-hazard distribution of forms hag any

meaning. But then a good deal of decorative
design, pretends to be no more than back-
ground.
A v^ry satisfactoiy and effective result is

sometimes reached where the artist starts, as

it seems, with the idea of a diaper, more or
less geometrical,, and, as he approaches the
centre of the panel, gathers together the
 n^l ate 25.

r.lllU,tHOTB<LITMO,«,FUItNIVAL tT HOUa«m,E.a.
 ?1a,+P, 26.

'naje-Ttitr',lyJ»memAktTn
 Within the Border. 23

pattern, so to speak, into points of emphasis.

You see this in the Roman pavement repre-
sented on Plate 3.

That is a case in which the design was

unmistakably set out first of all in geometric
divisions, certain of which divisions were
afterwards grouped together to give point to
the pattern. If you analyse any of the old
Jacobean ceiling designs, or the Italian

originals on which they are but variations,

you will find that many of them may be
resolved into very simple diapers, on a rather
large scale, adapted to the space they fill, and
emphasised here and there by figure subjects
or other special filling of some of the more
prominent geometric compartments.
The difference between the method of design
employed in Plate 3, and the plan adopted in

the kind of design shown on Plate 10 is, that

in these last the central shapes appear rather
to have suggested the corresponding interlace-
ments than the interlacements to have led up
to them. But even in such a case it seems
desirable that the artist should have in his
mind from the beginning some kind of idea of
geometric construction. The longer he can
manage to keep that geometric notion in his
24 The Planning of Ornament.

mind, without putting it on paper, the more

freely he can go to work. That same faculty
of holding a design, so to speak, in solution
in the mind, is most invaluable to the designer.
A notion is so much more manageable in its

fluid state. Once an idea is allowed to

crystallise into definite form, it is no easy
matter to modify it.

Should the space to be decorated be very

considerable in extent, it is often, necessary

to cut up into
it sections, otherwise than by
merely marking off a border. A wall, for

example, is divided into cornice, frieze, wall

space, dado, and so on. Some such sub-

divisional process may be adopted in the
case of a smaller panel, with a view to modi-
fying its proportions, for any reason, as in
the centre panel of the door on Plate 27.
Or the space may be divided vertically into
panels, , of equal or unequal width. A
building in several stories is an instance of
the one kind of division, a colonnade of the
other.
If the subdividing lines take both direc-
tions, the result is a scheme of panelling,
such as commonly adopted in the
was
domestic wainscoting of some centuries ago.
 q^Iate27

[i===i===nl
?la1e28.

JliiI'
 Within the Border. 25

Further, by the introduction of cross-lines

at various angles, or of curved lines, we arrive,
by a different road, at panelling of more com-
plicate character, and at something like the
interlaced patterns to which reference has
already been made, or like the setting out of
Plate 32.
ways and means
It is clear that these various

may be associated and under the complex

;

conditions of the times, they usually are more

or less " highly mixed."
Thus one may, as I have said, begin with a
border, and then treat the space within it in

any of the ways already described ; one may

divide a wall horizontally into two, with a
diaper or frieze at the top, and panelling
below ; or into three, with frieze, wall, and
dado, either one of which may again be broken
up, like the dado on Plate 28 ; where the up-
right panels into which it is divided are
broken by small contrasting inner panels of
flat carving. One may plant upon the field
any independent feature, frame, shield, tablet,

or such like, and then fill in the background

without regard to it, as though a portion of

the design were lost behind it. As many as

three, or more, plans may be assopiated. For

26 The Planning of Ornament.

example, one might, as on Plate 29, stretch

across a title-page a tablet, then introduce a
border disappearing behind and the spaces
it,

enclosed between the border and the top and

bottom of the tablet one might treat again
either as one interrupted panel or as two
independent parts. The fact, however, that
they are both, as it were, on one plane in the
design, seems to require that they should
both be treated in much same way.
the
The possibilities opened out by this associ-
tion of various plans, are obvious.
 91 ate 29.

Hi
DCCORATIVe
DCSIGN

'Prnma'Tittr' "hy J taam AktTtan.

 Some Alternatives in Design. 27

IV.

Some Alternatives in Design.

The use of the border is not, of course, con-

fined to the outer edge of the main space to
be filled. Every sub-section of the design may-
be provided with its own border, as you see
in the case of panelling, where each separate
panel has its own border of mouldings.
Plate 3 shows two panels only of the design
emphasised by independent borders within
the outer frame. On Plates 7 and 30, the
mouldings round the door panels are supple-
mented by additional painted borders.
A central feature, such as the medallion on
Plate 31, may have its border or borders,
interlacing with, intercepting, or intercepted
by, the borders which mark the space or
panel itself.

A surface, once subdivided, as already

described, two separate courses are open to

the artist. The one is to accept each com-

partment as a separate panel, designing his
28 The Planning of Ornament.

ornament into manner shown on

it ; in the

Plate 32, The other, which is no less reason-

able, is to niake his ornament continuous

throughout ; allowing it, that is to say, to

cross the dividing lines or to interlace with
them ; more in the, manner of Plate 10.

Again, the two plans may be combined,

certain prominent parts being reserved for
individual treatment, and the subsidiary spaces
only being linked togethef by the forms
of the ornament, as though in Plate 32 the
pattern had been allowed to meander through
the lesser panels, the central diamond only
being reserved for the grotesque head.
Which of these plans may be the better to
adopt is a question of some nicety, not always
easily to be decided. What rational ques-
tion is 1 In proportion to the importance of
the framing lines, it becomes dangerous to
overstep them. Who ventures nothing runs
no risk of failure ; but neither will he achieve
any great success in art. And then there
is the charm of danger. Soldiers, sports-

men, and mountaineers, are not the only class

of persons privileged to run a risk. It is

a luxury we may all indulge in on occasion

— were it not so, art would be no congenial
 oblate 30.

NKLt, FH«Ta-t.rTHO,#.rUni(ivAL ai iipLiD«H,B.a

^
i
q>1ate 51.

V»W tP(?tP<0(?G>g>C>.olf«><ftOC)C)QC)OC)^/
V VS' W^'
V.'
-
V V \^ VVV W Vi^

,£Htetftf.<^&ii^^:i<&t^AafftyAV>Ai^^^
 ,^1ate 32.

'Pmoto -Tint, iy J«me» Alc«r

 — ;

Some Alternatives in Design. 29

pursuit for any one who is really alive. Only

a man should look before he leaps into
danger. "Erst wagen, dann wagen," is the
pithy way Count Moltke's motto puts it

which might be paraphrased " Weigh before

you wager,"
When the artist starts from the beginning,
and 'the scheme of design rests entirely in his
own hands, it is not so difficult to determine
just what is fit. The scheme develops itself.

But in, the more frequent case, in which the

art of the ornamentist is only supplementary,
and he has to^ work, as he usually has, upori
lines already laid down for him, it is only
where those lines are worth preserving that
he is necessarily bound to preserve them
assuming, that is, that he can obliterate them.
This is heterodox, but none the less true. If

the lines existing are bad, and he can by his

design withdraw attention from them to lines

more is doing good
reposeful to the eye, he
work. Only he should do nothing but what
he can make seem right. There must be no
appearance of awkwardness, no suspicion of
effort about it. It is a case in which success
alone justifies the attack upon the situation.
To fail is to lay yourself open to the charge
30 The Planning of Ornament.

of the unpardonable sin, the sin of disobedience

to the conditions of design.
Ah actually hctp-hazard or eccentric scheme
of composition, such as a Japanese will somer
times affect, is hardly in contradiction to what
I have laid down. When a Japanese artist

cuts a panel quaintly into two, after the

manner of Plate 33, and treats each part of
it as seems good to his queer mind, he is only

doing what the Greek did when he cut off a

portion of his wall space, and treated it as a
frieze though he does it more energetically,
;

not to say spasmodically, and with less

appreciation of grace.
So, again, when the said Japanese strews
buds and blossoms about a box top, and
breaks up the ground between with conven-
tional, though very accidental, lines of crackle,

as on Plate 34, or when he crams all manner

of geometric diapers into a panel, as oft

Plate 22, he is only doing in a more eccentric

manner what the European artist does, with
greater regard for symmetry. When he disposes
his sprigs or what not on a geometric basis.

If only he arrive at balance, which he almost

invariably does (so little is his instinct in this

respect likely to err), there is no occasion to

 ^late 35.

'Photo -Ti«tI ky J"">'-- Alti

 Some Alternatives in Design. 31

cry out against him. We, on our part, are

perhaps too much disposed to design as
though there were no possible distinction
between symmetry and balance, between
bulk and value —as though the little leaden
weight did not balance the heaped-up pound
of fruit, or feathers in the scale.
Design apparently quite unrestrained, such
as the men of the Renaissance habitually
indulged in, proves very often, upon exami-
nation, to be constructed upon one or other
of the systems I have described. Sometimes,
indeed, the system of construction is very
frankly indicated, though not precisely de-
fined —the confession, that is to say, is full

enough to ensure absolution for any offence

there may be against strict order.

On Plate i there is blotted in a panel of

ornament somewhat on the lines of Androuet
du Cerceau, in which the central feature is

an echo of the medallion treatment, whilst

certain vertical and horizontal lines recall,

however vaguely, the notion of a border.

Such reminiscences of severely constructional
lines give additional charm, as it seems to me,
to design otherwise fanciful, and even fantastic
in character. It is as though a man said in
32 The Planning of Ornament.

his design, almost in so many words : I claim

my freedom, but I have some lingering
respect for law and order.
Except on the very minutest scale, the
scope of subdivision possible with regard
to a space, is not affected by the amount
of ornament introduced, nor by its character.
No matter whether it be, human or animal
figure that you employ, conventional or
natural foliage, scroll or growth, interlace-
ment, arabesque, or geometric pattern, the
possibilities in the way of distribution are the
same.
Naturally, however, certain lines of sub-
division will be found to accord with certain
kinds of treatment ; and so we find that, as a
matter of history, the Mohammedans adopted
certain lines of composition, the Greeks other
lines, and the Japanese quite others again, and
so on.
Furthermore, the lines one would instinc-
tively choose for different purposes would
themselves be different. One would scarcely
proceed to decorate a panel by merely cross-
ing it with bands, of ornament, as on Plate 23,
except perhaps in the case of some long strip
of a panel which it was absolutely necessary
 n^late34.

r. KELl, rHOTO-llTHD.e.rURNIVAL ST HOUIOHN.C

 Some Alternatives in Design. 33

to shorten. There is a case in point given on

Plate 35, where the disproportionate, though
constructionally very proper, length of the
panels of a roof is mitigated
the band-wise by
arrangement of the stencilled ornament.
A similar system was found by the Greeks
to be the most satisfactory way of dealing
with draperies. Their pet idea of decorating
a full skirt seems to have been by means of
so many parallel patterns. You have only
to refer to the terra-cottas at the British
Museum to see both of these uses illustrated,
often in a single vase.
What one would do, then, is not the same
thing as what might be done. The possi-
bility, as distinguished from the expediency,
of distribution, is in all cases much the same.
But there must necessarily be some correspon-
dence between detail and its distribution.
For all that, there is no cut and dried rule

as to the association of this kind of detail

with that kind of distribution, or vice versd.
It does not even follow that the descrip-
tion of detail usually found in connection
with a certain order of composition is the
only detail appropriate to it. The connection
of the one with the other is evidence only of
D
34 The Planning of Ornament.

their conformity, not at all of the incohgru-r

ity of other combinations. It is just possible
to fry without bread-crumbs. Is it not chiefly
laziness (where it is not a suspicion of our
own incompetence) which tempts us to adopt
bodily what has already been found to suc-
ceed? There are so many people in the
world to whom it comes easier to take what
there is than to give what is theirs.

A design is in harmony, not when it is

strictly according to Greek or Gothic prece-

dent, but when the parts all fit.

Suppose, for instance, the lines in a compo-

sition lead up to some prominent feature,

that feature must be of sufficient interest to

justify the attention it attracts. There are
positions so prominent they almost demand
figure design properly to occupy them.
Such central features as those in Plates i,
1 8,and 31 are bound in consistency to be
of more importance than their surroundings,
I don't mean to say that an hei-aldic shield
like that on Plate 18 is essentially of pro^;
foundest interest ; but in the eyes of its

owner at least it is worthy of all proininence.

In like manner also, if it is proposed to
introduce the figure, or anything of that
 ^late 35.
ii^mii III ii^ma ill 4.uim;i lilll U4i:uii
ii::ii::ii::ii

tIMIIHHKB II ;; II!! II an 11!! II!! II!! II II a! II!! II!! II

frmm
^-S)-^

iSm
^

ii::ii::ii::ii it!:ii::ii!:ii ii!:ii::ii!:ii ii::ii::ii::ii

 Some Alternatives in Design. 35

importance, it is only natural to provide for it

in your scheme, whether in the shape of

medallion, frame, niche, or what not. The
gem of your design should have a setting
worthy of it.
Any feature, such as a tablet, medallion,
label, cartouche, shield, and so on, introduced
into a composition, should bear relation not
only to its surroundings, but to what it is to
enclose. This is a serious consideration very
often neglected. It is no uncommon thing to
see a shield introduced to bear an inscription,
a circular medallion to frame a picture which
demands a rectangular outline, and manner
all

of queerly proportioned shapes, which by

their very positioh call for decoration, whilst,
at the same time, it is almost impossible to
fill them satisfactorily.

Upon the same principle of fitness, a pre-

determination to adopt natural forms of
foliage would, artistically speaking, necessitate
the choice of a not too formal franiework for
it. Detail designed on a large scale would
call for equal breadth and simplicity in the
setting out.
So with regard to the allotment of orna-
—
ment once the lines determined, the artist
D 2
36 The Planning of Ornament.

must scheme his ornament accordingly.

Whether he elect to ornament every portion
of the surface, as the Orientals and the artists
of the Early Renaissance often do, or certain
selected parts only, like the Greeks, whether
he chose to decorate many parts or few, and
which parts, and how —
that is his affair. His
tastemust be his guide in that and unless
;

he have some taste he had better not

attempt to design. This may sound like
discouragement ; but the beginner who is

easily discouraged may as well be made aware

at once of the difficulties in his way. The
lukewarm may as well be warned off. Orna-
ment is not one of those easy things a man
may take up for a livelihood, pending fame
as a painter. Success in ornament implies
devotion to it.
 ;

On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 2)7

V.

On the Filling of the Circle and

OTHER Shapes.

Having discussed so far the various lines on

which ornament may be distributed over a
simple panel or parallelogram, I propose now
to show how the same principles apply to the
covering of all manner of shapes.
Evidently it makes little difference at all,
and in principle none whatever, whether it is
four sides of a figure we have to deal with, or
three, or five, or how many. In either case
you proceed in the same way you work from
;

the centre or from the sides, as best may suit

you divide your space into regular or irregular
compartments, on the systems already ex-
plained you overlay one feature with another,
;

or interweave this with that you interrupt a

;

border, or encroach upon a field, according to

the circumstances of the case ; and so on, just
as though it were a square shape you were
dealing with.
38 The Planning of Ornament.

In the case of anything like an awkward

^hape, you have even an opportunity of
correcting it, by introducing into it some pro-
minent regular figure, which, if you insist upon
it, will occupy attention, whilst the irregular

surrounding space will go only for margin or

border ;
just as in the case of the regular panel
you had the option of discounting its severity
through the agency of any irregular feature
it seemed good you to insert.
to
The management of the circular shape, and
of the irregular forms of vases, seems to
present a more serious difficulty; but it is

more apparent than real.

The simple treatment of a vase is (i) ac-

cording to its elevation, as may be seen in any

striped Venetian glass, or (2) according to
its plan, as exemplified in the rude earthen-
ware of every period. The glass-blower falls,

in fact, as naturally into the one scheme

of lines as the thrower or turner into the
other.
A third way is to cross the shape diago-
nally, which gives the appearance of twisting,
to be seen very often in silversmith's work.
Two or more of these systems may be asso-
ciated ; and they often are ; as in so many a'
 On the Filling of the Circle, &c.. 39
German tankard of the fifteenth or sixteenth
century, where the bulbous bowl is beaten out
into the semblance of a melon, and the neck
and foot take the lines of the lathe.
Now the decoration of a vase lengthwise,
according to its elevation, corresponds to the
striping of a panel with vertical lines ; the
decoration bandwise, according to plan, cor-
responds to the striping of a panel with hori-
zontal lines ; and the twisted treatment
corresponds to a series of diagonal lines
crossing a panel.
The way in which medallions, panels, and
other shapes may be incorporated with the
design of a vase is not different from that
already set forth. There is, however, this
difficulty, that any marked independent shape
is likely to interfere with the form of the vase,
or the form of the vase to distort it, which is

the way with the landscape and picture medal-

lions so persistently misapplied to Sevres and
Dresden china. Not that it is at all im-
possible to introduce such features with good
effect; only it needs to be done with judg-
ment, which of all things is most rare. And,
as it happens, the difficulty has been more
often attacked with valour than with that
 ;

40 The Planning of Ornament.

discretion which is reputed to be its better

part.

What is said with reference to the vase

shape* applies equally to balusters, columns,
and cylindrical shapes generally.
When we come to the circular shape, as
of coins, plates, medallions and so on, its

decoration involves new forms rather than

new principles.
The circle is most naturally divided either
into rays or into, rings. In the one case the
radiating lines may be said to answer to the
division of a rectangular space by vertical lines
in the other the rings would answer to the'
horizontal lines dividing a panel.' A reference
to Plate 36 will make this more clear.

Imagine a series of upright lines (A) to re-

present the folding of a sheet of paper. You

have only to gather the folds together at one
end, after the manner of a fan (B), and you
have the system of radiation. Repeat the
fan shapes side by side, and you soon arrive
at a circle divided into rays (C).
Again, in the case of a series of horizontal
bands (D), you have only to suppose them
elastic enough to be bent, and you have a

series of concentric arcs (E), so many slices,'

 b

ablate 36,

1,1pn^bt A 1?a.dia.i-iiT^
^ ivi&ior)5

eauiv&lent
f

ec]tiivAf^9l"fo divisiiona.
J^ttice-work ^

B f e r XCU, rHOTO-LltHD.C.milNIVAI. • KOLIOHH.C C

 On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 41

so to speak, out of a circle decorated ring-

wise (F). The identical target-like result may
be arrived at by the continuation of a series
of borders round the circle, one within the
other. That is only another way of reaching
the same point in design. As in the case of
pattern planning ('Anatomy of Pattern,' pages
19 and 22), one comes by various lines of
thought to the same conclusion.
The crossing of the two schemes (G) is

much the same thing as a square lattice of

cross lines in a rectangular panel. The sub-
division of the circular space by lines of more
flowing character (H) would correspond to the
division of the panel by diagonal lines. And
if those lines were crossed (J), it would be
analogous to the division of the square by
cross lines into diamonds.
The spiral line, as applied to the decoration

of the circle (K), is equivalent to the fret or key

pattern as applied to the square (L). These
analogies, I think, are plain enough. They
were suggested to me by Mr. Henri Mayeux's
'La Composition decorative' (A. Quantin,
Paris), to which the student may refer for

more ample illustration of the subject.

All manner of independent shapes may be

42 The Planning of Ornament.

introduced into the decoration of the circle,

as into that of the panel. One may plant a

shield in the centre, and surround it with a
borders one may associate any arbitrary form
with ringed or radiating lines. But should any
such shape form an important feature in the

design, the situation is not so free from danger.

There is a limit, that is to say, to the arbitrari-
ness with which prominent lines or forms may
judiciously be introduced into a circular

design. Anything which counteracts the space

you have to fill needs to be accounted for.
The difficulty in dealing with forms con-
tradictory one to another is, that you are apt
to leave interspaces of irregular shape, which
are not easily manageable ; as for instance, in
the inevitable spandril which occurs so fre-
quently in architecture. If a spandril happen
to be very large you can insert into it a more
symmetrical shape, which will hold its own ;

and if it be insignificantly small, you may

ignore it. You may (where it is of import-
ance enough to be accepted as an individual
panel) treat it as such, with figures, scroll,

and so on. You may simply cover it with

an unimportant pattern in the nature of a
diaper, or leave it blank. These are the
 On the Filling of the Circle, &c. 43

extremes : the happy mean in spandril deco-

ration is not easy to find.
The spandril may be taken as typical of
all the many awkward shapes which come of
the intersection of curved lines by straight.
Ornamental design would be a very much
we had only to consider the
easier thing if
lines of the ornament, without any regard to
the interspaces.
From the circle to the rosette, or cusped
circle, is so short a step, that the treatment
of such shapes goes almost without further
saying. The cusps seem almost to call for
acknowledgment by lines radiating towards
them. Indeed, if you simply carry a series

of borders, one within the other, round the

cusps, the points where they meet will give

of themselves radiating lines; just as in the

case of the vandyke or zigzag (' Anatomy of
Pattern,' p. 9) it was shown that the re-

curring points gave vertical cross lines.

The pentagon, hexagon, and other equal-

sided polygonal figures may be considered as
broken circles.

The triangle offers no new difficulty. It is

merely a case of three sides to deal with

instead of four.
44 The Planning of Ornament.

A branched form may be resolved into

its elements. The Greek cross, for example,
may be; regarded as an assemblage of five

squares ; the Latin cross as a group of as

many as you please, according to the length

of its arms, or as four parallelograms arranged

round a square.
An altogether exceptional space will be
pretty sure to indicate of itself the exceptional
lines on which it can best be decorated j and
a capricious one may well be left to the caprice
of the artist.
 Order and Accident. 45

VI.

Order and Accident,

Entirely apart from the question of the
skeleton of a design, is the consideration
as to whether it shall be looked at primarily
from the point of view of line or of mass.
In any satisfactorily completed scheme, lines
and masses must alike have been taken into
account; but the must begin with one
artist

,or and the result will probably be

the other ;

influenced by the one or other consideration

which was uppermost in his mind. Which of
the two it may happen to be, is more often a
matter of temperament than of choice with
.

him.
The primary consideration, whether of line
or mass, will always lead the designer, though
perhaps unconsciously, to adopt a plan' accord-
ingly. That is to say, the preference for mass
will lead him to attack his panel resolutely,
planting shapes upon it, which it will be his
business afterwards to connect by means of
46 The Planning of Ornament.

the subsidiary lines needful to the completion

of the scheme. On the other hand, a greater
partiality for line will induce him to have
recourse to a more orderly procedure; will,

perhaps, even suggest a geometric ground-

work, which, however far he may depart from
the first lines, will materially help him in

securing the object he has most at heart.

If you start with certain arbitrary and
irregular forms, arbitirarily and irregularly
disposed, so many patches, as one may say,
on the panel, it is clearly not such, a very easy
matter to connect them by any systematic lines
of ornament. If, on the contrary, you begin
with a system of orderly lines, these must neces-
sarilydetermine in some measure the shape
and distribution of any more prominent features
you may thereafter introduce into the scheme.
For my own part (whilst I disbelieve
entirely in arriving at anything more than flat
mediocrity by the adoption of set rules of
proportion), I feel rather strongly that there
should be by rights a strict relation between
the parts of a design, however little it may
be obvious. If, for example, there is a space
to fill between border and central medallion,
a diaper may be enough ; but the diaper
 n^-'lale 37.

r KSI.L, PHOTo-LiTHO.a.ruHHivAL s^ hoi.*ohn,e.o

 Order and Accident. 47
should be designed into its space. And even
if part of a design be permitted to disappear,
as it were, behind this feature or that, it should
be so schemed that no very material form is

mutilated in the process. Where an interrup-

tion occurs in a border the pattern shouldbe
planned with a view to such interruption.
Even though you deliberately adopt a diaper,
say as background to a scroll, the character of
that diaper should be determined by the scroll,
notwithstanding that the lines of the one are
meant to contradict the lines of the other.
The cultivated artistic sense by no means
is

satisfied with the casual employment of any

diaper.
Again, where one feature of the design is

overlaid by another, as frequently happens in

Early Gothic, glass, the overlapping patterns
should be designed (as they always were) to
overlap. The spaces between one series of
medallions should suggest the outlines of the
subordinate medallions between, which should
be shaped with a view to the proposed inter-

—
ruption ^just as the interlacing shapes in the
(not very Early) window figured on Plate 37
are schemed with a view to their entanglement.
The careless overlaying of one pattern, or of
48 The Planning of Ornament.

one scheme, by another, is the merest make^

shift for design.

The apparently " accidental " treatment,

when it is at all successful, is not quite so
.

much a matter of accident after all. You will

find invariably, if you inquire into it, that

there has been no disregard of the laws of

composition,- but only the omission of some
accustomed ceremonial. To take what might
seem a flagrant instance of the disregard of an
obvious rule of art :
—an artist like BouUe
would sometimes boldly treat the doors of a

cabinet as one panel, notwithstanding their

actual separation by a pilaster between them.
However wicked this may be in theory, his
practice proved it to be not so unsatisfactory.
And for this reason —that the upright inter-
vening space was, as a matter of fcict, very
carefully taken into account in the design.
He only goes a step further than the
obviously permissible treatment shown in the
double panel on Plate 38, where the two one-
sided panels are jointly symmetrical. BouUe
chose to make a constructive feature less em-
phatic than its position would have suggested
to most of us it should be. But he did not
really ignore it. Very far from it. Had he
 n^Iale ^8,

IIBmssnall
i<&i'>.«-

^y>T)n7etricd,1

B.r Riii.rHaTo-uTm.m.FumiivAi st mLiaiiM,e

 Order and Accident. 49

disregarded the construction, the error would

have been very perceptible. If he succeeded
at all in satisfying the eye, it is because he
did with great deliberation and judgment
what might easily be mistaken by the inex-
perienced for an inconsiderate thing. Giants
can afford to be daring.
It is when dangerous liberties are taken by
the novice, without forethought and without
discrimination, that they become offensive.
When there is no offence in the lapse from
what we had thought a wise rule, be sure it
was designed, and designed with more than
ordinary skill. It is only a master that can
reconcile us to something which, until he did
it, we did not think could properly be done.
There is nothing careless or casual in the art
of design —not even in the little art of orna-

ment.
 LONDON :

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,

STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 Nffv. 1887.

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