1880.] on Ornament. 443 



to the more elaborate Arabic fret (Fig. 9), the basis of which is three 

 hexagous drawn one within another, with an arrangement of squares 

 one within another, connecting tlie faces of the hexagons. But the 

 linos of the hexagons are so broken np that the inner line on one face 

 runs into the second line on the next face, and the outer line on the 

 next, and finally runs out of the hexagon and becomes part of the 

 square design, thus producing an appearance of complication out of 

 what is really a very simple decorative idea. This is the characteristic 

 of all this class of Moorish decoration, which has perhaps been a little 

 over-2)raised ; it all consists in breaking up an essentially simple 

 combination of lines in such a way as to present a puzzle to the eye ; 

 but when the trick of it is once mastered it rather loses its effect. 

 Another type of ornament of which the interest is similar is the 

 Celtic school of interlacing band ornament, of which Fig. 10 is a 

 specimen ; some of these are carried to an almost bewildering degree 

 of elaboration. The Greek fret pattern has pervaded a great part of 

 the world in one form or another : something like it is seen in the 

 Egyptian specimen, Fig. 8 ; and in the British Museum is an old piece 

 of Peruvian cloth in which the principle of the Greek fret is very well 

 and rather elaborately carried out in a slightly ditferent form. 



These forms of ornament have obviously no relation whatever to 

 nature in her outward aspect. Among the large class of ornamental 

 forms which consist in the repetition of an object at equal distances, 

 or the alternate repetition of two forms, we find a great many 

 specimens which are equally artificial, and also a good many which, 

 without imitating nature, seem to be taken from hints furnished by 

 nature. We may perhaps trace in imagination the process by which 

 such forms may possibly have been eliminated from a semi-natural 

 origin. We might imagine, for example, that in a primitive stage of 

 civilization the hut or wigwam might have been ornamented by some 

 such natural objects as fir-cones, easily procurable, strung round the 

 outside (A, Fig. 1). This would become a recognized and indis- 

 pensable feature of a respectable wigwam, and would have so much 

 impressed itself on the popular taste, that in a period of higher 

 culture a conventional imitation of it (B) would be carved or painted 

 round the dwelling, still preserving the general form of the natural 

 object. The conventionalism of precise repetition and equal spacing 

 might to some extent arise merely out of the fact that this mechanical 

 repetition was easier of execution than the imitation of the variety of 

 nature,* though the inherent love of rhythmical repetition would no 

 doubt contribute to it. It would be an easy step to observe that greater 



* There is probably a great deal of ancient art-work which wc now call 

 " conveiitifjnalizcd," and which wo imitate, the so-called conventionalism of 

 which arose from the imperfect attempt at realism. Tiie figure drawin;^ of 

 mediaeval stained glass is an example. It was probably the attempt on the part 

 of the original artists to he as life-like as they possibly could, but in the modern 

 mediseval revival its stiffness and imperfection have been regarded as positive 

 beauties to be reproduced. 



