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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



I propose in this article, by contrasting good and bad examples, 

 to put before readers a few of the simplest elements of decoration. 

 You can hardly fail to note the differences, and when once the eye 

 has acquired the habit of discriminating there is no reason why 

 there should not follow a growth in perception which will result 

 in delightful and augmenting artistic enjoyment. No attempt is 

 to be made to develop a system, nor, of course, to cover the whole 

 ground of the subject. The object is simply to start perceptions 

 in the right direction. 



Almost all the ideas and the illustrations of this article are 

 taken from a little work by Henri Mayeux, called La Composition 

 Decorative. Henri Mayeux is Professor of Decorative Art in the 

 Ecole des Beaux- Arts in Paris. His work is one of the series of 

 the Bibliotheque de V Enseignemeni des Beaux-Arts, a series which 



should be among the 

 very first works to be 

 found in the library of 

 every student of art. 



The very first of Ma- 

 yeux's illustrations (Fig. 

 1) introduces the style 

 of the teaching of the 

 volume and of this arti- 

 cle. Let me translate 

 his accompanying de- 

 scription: "Here are two 

 recipients of the same 

 height, made of the same 

 material, and with about 

 equal care. Each has two handles and is decorated by the same 

 number of fillets. The one marked A is the work of an ordinary 

 potter, without artistic instinct or education. The other, B, is a 

 Greek vase of fine and delicate taste. No one can fail to appre- 

 ciate the superiority of J5 to ^4. The purity of its profile, the grace- 

 ful manner in which the handles are attached, the calculated divi- 

 sion of the fillets, establish at once a considerable difference of 

 artistic value between the two objects." If Mayeux were address- 

 ing beginners he might add that one reason why all jugs and vases 

 are round is that the shape is the easiest to make. The potter's 

 wheel must have been one of the very earliest inventions of semi- 

 civilized races. Besides, as a drop of water is globular, it seems 

 appropriate that liquids should be contained in round receptacles. 

 A square jug would not only seem inappropriate, but it would be 

 ugly and perhaps difficult to handle. Notice in B hoAV much better 



Fig. 1. 



