1880.J on Ornament. 441 



and its base (Fig. 13) aro functional ornament, intended to emphasize 

 respectively the vcrticality of the column and the horizontality of the 

 base or bed-plate on wliich it rests, and to give a greater ap])caranco 

 of strength in each direction ; and tlie llutings have no meaning, and 

 hardly any beauty, except in connection witli this functional expres- 

 siveness. The true office and value of functional ornament of this 

 class may be illustrated by comparing this figure with the sketch of a 

 fragment of a column (Fig. 18) preserved in Home, where the column 

 has been ornamented with carved foliage irregularly disposed over 

 the surface, and not only adding nothing to the expression of strength 

 in the column, but positively injuring this expression by producing 

 an irregular and ragged outline in place of the strong clean lino of 

 the pure classic column. The man who did this jirobably thought 

 he was doing a very pictm'csque and piquant thiug, but in reality ho 

 was destroying all the sinew and muscle of the architecture, by 

 placing ornament on it in such a way as to be only a falsity and 

 an impertinence. 



In regard to surface ornament, there is not so severe a logic to be 

 observed ; what is required is, that it should not in any way con- 

 tradict or falsify the real nature of the surface to which it is applied, 

 that it should be suitable to the material in which it is executed, and 

 in most cases that it should have an obvious relation to the shape and 

 extent of the surface which it occupies, and appear as if designed on 

 purpose to fill that space. This hitter demand may indeed be ignored 

 in the case of simple rejDctition or diaper ornaments, which have little 

 or no expressiveness in themselves, and merely serve to prevent the 

 surface looking quite blank: such an ornament as Fig. 11, for 

 instance, if used on a small scale, might reasonably be treated as a 

 mere diversification of surface, and cut off by the bounding lines of 

 the space without any special reference to its own configuration. But 

 with surface ornament of a higher and more elaborate nature it is 

 necessary to its satisfactory effect that it should appear to be designed 

 for the place it occupies. In most Gi*eek ornament this is the case : 

 in the vase. Fig. 14, the repeated ornaments round the rim and the 

 upper and lower part of the bowl may be regarded as to some extent 

 functional, emphasizing the important parts of the construction of 

 the object, but the foliage ornament is purely superficial, and while 

 freely handled, it is at the same time carefully arranged so as to fill 

 the space evenly, and the central line of the ornament is made co- 

 incident with the position of the handle, the space enclosed beneath 

 the handle being specially filled by a leaf arranged to suit it. A 

 Japanese artist would have drawn the foliage without any regard to 

 the handle, and carried some of the leaves irregularly over it, as if 

 by accident ; and this sort of rule-of-thumb ornament is very much 

 admired at present, its novelty and apparent piquancy having made 

 it a fashion ; but it is certainly inferior in logical and lasting interest 

 to the Greek principle of ornamenting with direct and obvious 

 reference to the space to be filled, or to the construction of the object 



