ARABESQn: 



ARAUI.K I. ANIL 



400 



ARABESQUE. This term is applied to a species of ornai.. 

 mod* of enrichment on flat surfaces, employed in work* of archi- 

 tecture principally ; though more commonly aj.pli.-d to jniuted orna- 

 ment, the term is oUo applied to mosaics and to sculpture in low t.-li.-f. 

 The name i* intended to mean simply " in the Arabian manner,-" and u 

 French form of that expression. The mode of enrichment which it 

 refers to. wa. practised in the decoration of their structures by the 

 Moors, Saracen*, or Arabians of Spain, and from them particularly the 

 of ornament to which it belongs was so designated : the 

 aflords almost endless examples of this description of 

 moment A* far as the Mohammedan conquerors of Spain 

 were concerned, they appear to hare borrowed the idea from the 

 hieroglyphical enrichment* of the monuments of Egypt The dogmas 

 of their religious code, however, forbidding the representation of 

 ^imi in order to avoid the very semblance of idolatry, they em- 

 ployed plants and trees in a similar manner, and with stalks, stems, 

 tendrils, foliage, flowers, and fruit, produced on endless variety of 

 forms and combinations, with which they painted and sculptured the 

 surfaces of their buildings. Hence fanciful combinations of natural 

 objects to form the continuous ornament of a flat surface came to be 

 called Arabesque, though they differed so widely from the Arabian or 

 Mohammedan compositions as to be filled with representations of 

 .nim.l. of every variety, and with combinations of plants and animals, 

 as well as combinations of ".maJ forms almost equally discordant with 

 nature. The name, indeed, has become so general as to be applied to 

 the fanciful enrichments found on the walla in the ruins of Hercu- 

 laaimn and Pompeii, as well as to others of the same and earlier date, 

 which were formed and forgotten long before the sons of Ishmael 

 learned to draw. 



Among the ancients, this style of ornament was most practised by 

 the Etnucans, who largely introduced it in wall-paintings, vases, mirrors, 

 Ac. ; indeed, it seems to have been singularly congenial to their turn of 

 mind. (Muller, ' Etrusker,' ii. ; Inghirami, ' Monumenti Etruschi ;' 

 Agincourt, 4c.) It was from the frequent recurrence of these extrava- 

 ganza decorations in the Etruscan grottoes, that what are now more gene- 

 rally called Arabesques used to be commonly styled Grotesques. Among 

 the bizarre decorations of the Etruscans oriental forms often occur, 

 which were no doubt obtained in the course of their commercial inter- 

 course with the East Among the Romans a taste for fantastic combi- 

 nations was very prevalent in the days of Vitruvius and Pliny, both of 

 whom strongly condemn it. In all, the object seems to hove been to 

 produce a cheerful fanciful effect Sometimes the arabesques on 

 the walls of Roman houses were made to serve as frames of larger 

 pictures. 



The most celebrated arabesques of modern times are those with 

 which Raflaelle ornamented the piers and pilasters of the arcaded 

 gallery of the palace of the Vatican, which bears his name. As Hittorff 

 has pointed out, Raflaelle most probably received his first impression of 

 the value of arabesques for the decoration of palatial apartments from 

 those on the walls of the newly excavated Baths of Titus. The later 

 discoveries in Pompeii and Herculaneum were of course unknown to 

 Raflaelle and his scholars. Although the gallery of the Vatican, or 

 rather the three galleries, for it in in three lengths, are always distin- 

 guished as Raffaelle's Galleries (" le Loggie di Raffaelle"), because of 

 the arabesques and of the illustrations of the Bible history in the 

 ceilings, only one of the three sides exhibits the design* of the great 

 artist himself. As mere decoration the effect is by no means satis- 

 factory. Their variety and irregularity, and their entire want of har- 

 mony with the subjects of the scriptural painting*, have been justly 

 objected to, and they certainly detract from the simplicity and grandeur 

 of the architecture. In the Villa Madama, the arabesques of which 

 were dssignrrl by Raffaelle subsequently to those of the Vatican, and 

 executed by his scholars, Giulio Romano and Giovanni da Udine. the 

 subject* are entirely mythological, and they are treated in the manner of 

 the ancient wall-paintings. (Griiner, ' Franco Decorations of Churches 

 and Palaces in Italy, during the 15th and 16th Centuries.') 



From the time of Raflaelle arabesque painting rapidly declined. It 

 was revived in France under Louis XV., but in a very meretricious 

 stylo. During the present century it has been a good deal practised 

 among the German*, and some of the moot eminent painters, as Haul- 

 bach and others, have attempted it with more or less success. The 

 best examples are at Munich and Berlin. Kept within proper bounds, 

 it may be made a very effective means of ornamenting buildings and 

 public rooms, especially those to which it is desirable to impart a gay, 

 lightsome, and festive character. 



M Hittorff, in hi* ' Essay on the Arabesques of the Ancient*, as 

 compared with those of Raflaelle and his School ' (p. xvi.), prefixed to 

 the work of Mr. Griiner, cited above, lays down the following as the 

 principles which should guide the artit in producing works like 

 these: 



" That immoderate multiplicity fatigues the rye ; that excessive 

 copiousness causes many objects to be condemned as useless ; that 

 unity of conception, proportion of parts, and symmetry in the prin- 

 cipal decorations, are indispensable laws never to Iw neglected." 



ARA'BII were, according to St. Augustin (' Bswes? c. 83), a sect 

 of Christian* in Arabia, who believed the human soul to be mortal, 

 and that it is dissolved by death together with the body, but will be 

 restored to life at the resurrection. Mosheim (in ' Cotninentariin de 



i 'hrutianorum ante Constantinum Magii 718, et 



ou<|.) thinks that the materialism of Epicurus had some influence on 

 tin- origin of this sect - more likely that the prevailing 



opinion in those days of the materiality of the human soul occasioned 

 their heretical inferences. The Arabit were confuted and converted 

 by Origen in a synod held in Arabia, A.H. 246 (M.uisi ' Collectin Con- 

 i-i'lionim,' t. i. ii 789. 



AKAIIIN. [(if*.] 



ARAIU.K 1 ,.\ND, so called from the Latin word arm* ' to plough, 

 is that part of the land which is cultivated chiefly by means of the 

 plough. 



Land in general is divided into arable, grass land, wood land, common 

 pasture, and waste. The first of these is by far the most important in 

 agriculture. In this article we shall briefly explain the principles on 

 which are founded the most improved methods of cultivating arable 

 land, by which the natural produce of the soil is greatly increased, and 

 I 'reductions are obtained in perfection which ore foreign to the 

 soil and climate. 



1. We shall, first, consider the nature and properties of various soils. 



2. The best modes of preparing and improving the natural soil, so an 

 to increase its produce. 



3. The most advantageous succession of crops, so as to obtain the 

 greatest returns, with the least diminution of fertility. 



OftoiU. When the surface of the earth is penetrated, we generally 

 find that the appearance, texture, and colour vary at different depth*. 

 There is a layer of earth nearest the surface, of greater or less thick- 

 ness, which covers the more solid and uniform materi,.U which lie 

 below it. This may be particularly observed wherever there are 

 natural or artificial excavations or pits. A distinct line, nearly parallel 

 to the surface, generally marks the depth of the upper soil, and sepa- 

 rates it from the sub-soil. The soil is more or less composed of 

 minute ports of various kinds of earth, mixed with animal and vege- 

 table substances, in different states of decomposition ; and to these, in 

 a great measure, it owes its colour, which is generally darker than that 

 of the subsoil. Except where iron, peat, cool, or slate abounds in the 

 soil, a dork colour is an indication of corresponding fertility. The 

 rich soil of gardens, long cultivated and highly manured, is nearly 

 block. As the soil is the bed in which all vegetable productions are to 

 be reared, and in which they are to find their proper nourishment, iu 

 texture and composition become objects of great importance to the 

 cultivator ; and. without a competent knowledge of these, no practical 

 rules can be laid down or depended upon. 



All soils are composed of earths,* metallic oxides, saline substance*, 

 vegetable and animal matter, and water. The earths are chiefly clay, 

 or alumina, sand or silica, and linn 1 . 



Magnesia, borytes, and other earths, ore occasionally met with, but 

 in so few instances that they may be omitted in the list. 



Of the metals, the most abundant is iron in the state of peroxide. 

 The other metals are rarely found near the snr 



Saline substances form a small part of the soil, but an important one. 



Potash exists in almost every vegetable, soda in a few, and ammonia 

 is produced by the decomposition of almost all kinds of vegetable and 

 animal matters, but it is very liable to waste, owing to its % 

 nature and the extreme solubility of almost all its compounds. 



Vegetable acids arc more or less fully developed in all such decaying 

 vegetable matters as exist in the soil. And in combination with some 

 base, as lime or potash, they form port of the food which the roots of 

 plants absorb. 



The mineral acids ore found united with earths and alkalies, in the 

 state of neutral compounds. 



These saline substances have a powerful effect on vegetation, :in<l a 

 knowledge of their projiortionH in the soil and of their \ 

 qualities, is indispensable if we would attempt to modify or correct 

 their action by the addition of other substances for which they have 

 an affinity. 



Water, in a state of combination, or of mere mechanical diffusion, i- 

 essential to the growth of all plant* : without it and atmospheric air, 

 there is no life either animal or vegetable. 



Qftht Karlht. -Clay or alumina, so called because it in obtained in 

 its purest state from alum, in which it is combim-d with mlphuric 

 acid. t in the basis of all strong and heavy soils. Wli mutely 



divided, it is easily suspended in water ; when dried slowly and stirred 

 while drying, it becomes a fine powder soft to the f.-.-l. and when 

 kneaded with water, a tough ductile mass easily moulded into vessels 

 which retain liquids. This property, of being comparatively impervious 

 to water, gives the specific character to clay as an ingredient of the 

 noil. In a pure and unmixed state it is barn-n. \\ heated 



to a great degree, it parts with the water combined with it ; it i 

 said to be baked, as we see in bricks. I itl'usible in 



water, and differs little from silica or sand in itn effect* on the noil. 



Silien, or the earth of Hint, suffers no change in water. It consists 

 of crystals, or fragments, of very hard stone, forming yraret or lanil 



* We retain the old dlrlnlon, although the earth* h*vp been ascertained to be 

 oildc* of peculiar metal* ; but as they are ncrcr found In the noil In their metallic 

 talc, the results and reasoning* arc not affected by thla circumstance, 



f Sulphuric uld, commonly called nil of vitriol, la composed of sulphur anil 

 nrt/gen which is about one-fifth part of the atmosphere. 



