1880.] on Ornament. 447 



vertically only, it is difficult to imdcrstrtiud how flowers can hang 

 horizDiitally in festoons every way, unless wo suppose either that 

 the centre ornament of the ceiling exercises a centrifugal force, or 

 that tlie cornice of the room has powers of attraction. Such are the 

 ahsurdities which follow the neglect of natural laws in the designing 

 of ornament. 



When we come to consider natural ornament, we are met by tho 

 further question, in addition to those which have been previously 

 glanced at, what should bo the relation of ornament founded on 

 natural forms to nature herself ; what degree of closeness of imitation 

 of nature is possible or desirable in such ornament. If we look at 

 tlie practice of former times, we find the Greeks usually treated 

 natural forms in a highly conventionalized manner ; if we compare 

 the acanthus leaf of nature with that of the Corinthian capital 

 (which is Greek in origin, though all the existing specimens of its 

 complete form are probably Roman), we find the treatment of the leaf 

 in marble so symmetrical and so sculpturesque that it almost becomes 

 an invention of art rather than an imitation of nature. And in the use 

 of natural leaves in other forms of ornament, as in the scroll (Fig. 16), 

 the Greeks seem to have aimed not so much at imitating nature as at 

 bringing natural forms into harmony with a very refined system of 

 curves, such as are never found in natural growths: they thus to 

 some extent combined the beauty of nature and that of geometric and 

 mathematical proportion. Their curves are also constructed so as 

 to proceed from one another in a strictly logical and harmonious 

 manner, with which no vagary or variety of the natural foliage is 

 ever allowed to interfere. This was far too refined a procedure for 

 the Romans. The character of their scroll foliage work is indicated 

 in such a fragment as Fig. 17 : they adopted the Greek acanthus-leaf 

 with great elaboration of surface and detail, and arranged great 

 branches of it in irregular and broken curves, which somewhat 

 resemble the form a real branch might take if we bent it into a scroll. 

 At the same time the foliage is completely artificial, so that we have 

 a confusion of principle, an artificial bough of foliage which is treated 

 in a naturalistic manner, and which seems to demand in its nature a 

 much severer treatment. The result is something which, in compari- 

 son with the purity of line and severity of style of the Greek foliage 

 ornament, is heavy and cabbage-like in ajipearance. When we come 

 to Gothic foliage ornament, we find a great deal, in early Gothic, that 

 has strong affinity with Greek ornament : something approaching to, 

 though not equalling, the Greek purity of line in scroll patterns, and 

 something entirely equal to Greek work in the method of convention- 

 alizing natural foliage and adapting it to ornamental design ; the very 

 difference between the two, the comparative roundness and massive- 

 ness of character in the Gothic ornamental foliage, being partly an 

 illustration of its excellent adaptation to circumstances and material 

 since it is executed in coarse stone and in a dull climate, while the 

 more refined Greek ornament was executed in marble and in a bright 



