More Art Zones
|
Ornaments on the Obverse Side Giclee Print , Nicholas of... 24 in. x 18 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted Ornament stems from man's desire to decorate the things around him. The wealth of forms from which ornament derives embraces many realms. It can be abstract and geometrical, like the square form of the meander, which is found in many civilisations. Its rounded variant, the spiral, appears in many forms in the Late Bronze Age and throughout Celtic art.
Diapering, zig-zag ornament, billet, chevron and nail-head are all abstract ornaments. The cloud band of Oriental art, the knotwork of Early Medieval art, the strapwork of the Renaissance and the more delicate interlacings of Early Baroque art already mark the transition to naturalistic forms. Indeed, it is to the world of the plant that ornament is indebted more than to any other realm.
From the palmette or the acanthus leaf (Corinthian capital) of Antiquity to the native plant forms of early Gothic art (Gothic foliated or leaf-bud capital), from rosettes of all kinds to arabesques, the plant offers unlimited scope. The stylization of animal forms into ornament is more difficult. It is fully achieved only in the animal style of Germanic art, although the sea shell was a popular ornament in Antiquity and from the 18th century onwards (see Rocaille), and the very names of Early Baroque forms of ornament -- Ohrmuschelstil and Knorpelstil, i. e. auricle style and cartilege style -- point to its close relation to animal and human forms.
The Art Nouveau movement achieved an entirely new synthesis of plant and animal forms in its ornament. The basis of ornament is pattern, i. e. the continuous or rhythmical repetition of the same motif. Without it, a frieze would become a picture, as would a wall-paper. It would be a mistake to attribute decorative qualities only to ornament, although the word (Latin ornare -- to decorate) encourages such a conclusion.
Not only does ornament often have a symbolic significance (spirals as symbols of the sun, etc.), but it also serves to emphasise the structural features of a vessel, a building, etc., which might have remained unnoticed without it. Ornament is often the most unsophisticated form of art and springs from quite undiluted sources of creation. That explains partly why ornament often changes its forms so much more quickly than the object it decorates. It is surprising how rapidly each epoch found its own style of ornament and how fast it spread even before the appearance of the engraved pattern-books of the 17th and 18th centuries. Ornament is an excellent guide in dating works of art.
|
 |
RSS Feed XML Sitemap HTML Sitemap Contact Us Privacy Policy