THE 



CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S 



JOURNAL. 



REMARKS ON ARABESQUE DECORATIONS, AND PAR- 

 TICULARLY THOSE OF THE VATICAN. 



( With an Engraving, Plate I.) 

 Read at the Institute of British Architects, February 3, 1840. 

 [At a moment when the public attention is so greatly occupied with 

 the revival of decorations in fresco painting, we have much pleasure 

 in being enabled to lay before our readers, on the commencement of a 

 new volume, the following paper, originally produced at the Institute 

 of British Architects. We regret that we cannot devote a larger 

 number of engravings to the illustration of this essay, which must con- 

 sequently appear somewhat defective in form.] 



It is an observation which has been very frequently repeated and 

 very variously expressed, that the proper use to be made of the 

 study of the ancients in their works of art, is not to copy, but to 

 endeavour to think like them. It is admitted to be of little utility to 

 the artist, to imitate the forms of those beautiful models of decora- 

 tion, which the Greeks and Romans have bequeathed to us, unless at 

 the same time he qualifies himself to apply them judiciously, and 

 modify them successfully, by investigating the principles from which 

 they originate. Among these principles, none is more important, or 

 has exercised a greater influence in bringing ancient art to perfection, 

 than that which has been so well condensed into one line, that 



" True art is Nature to advantage dressed." 

 and if we wish to rival the ancients in the production of what is at 

 once excellent and original, we must, like them, seek the original types 

 in the works of Nature. This was the source from which they drew the 

 various objects which they have modified and combined, not only in their 

 capitals, their friezes, their vases and their furniture, but also in the 

 apparently capricious and fanciful mixtures of different species of 

 animals, and even of foliage and animals, into harmonious composi- 

 tions, which delight the eye by their graceful and elegant forms, 

 however repugnant to truth, or incompatible with reason. The mo- 

 tives are to be inquired into which influenced the choice of these 

 objects, and the process investigated, by which they fell into the 

 conventional forms in which alone many, perhaps most of them, are 

 now to be found. 



No. 64.— Vol. VI.— January, 1843. 



That such a course of study would be analogous to the practice by 

 which the ancients themselves attained so high a reach of perfection, 

 we have sufficient proof. Nothing in art can be imagined more con- 

 ventional than the orders of architecture ; and yet Vitruvius endea- 

 vours to derive them all from simple principles, and in the Doric 

 order, we can easily trace the original elements of a primitive mode 

 of construction. We shall not so readily perceive the analogy with 

 the female form, given as the origin of the Ionic. It requires a very 

 great stretch of imagination to refer the volutes to the curls of the 

 hair, or the flutes to the folds of the garment. Whatever be the 

 origin of the Corinthian order, the fable which attributes its invention 

 to Callimachus, is as graceful as the order itself; and its repetition by 

 Vitruvius sufficiently indicates it to have been a received principle, 

 that the most conventional forms (and a more conventional form than 

 the Corinthian capital it would be difficult to point out), were sup- 

 posed to have been originally suggested by the forms and accidents 

 of nature. The least we are authorized to infer from all these in- 

 stances is, that in the opinion of the only ancient author on archi- 

 tecture to whom we are able to refer, a motive was to be found in 

 every thing the ancients invented, and that in studying the arts it was 

 indispensable to seek and to understand it. 



To follow up the subject of these remarks, would open an extensive 

 field of inquiry. They are offered in the present instance merely as 

 prefatory to a few observations on the arabesque style of decoration, 

 illustrated by a short review of the arabesques in the Loggie of the 

 Vatican. It is proposed to inquire how far the artists who designed 

 and executed these arabesques have been indebted to the antique, 

 and how far they have modified the hints derived from that source, so 

 as to adopt their compositions to the purposes they are destined to 

 fulfil. There will also be occasion to notice the derivation of many 

 conventional forms, and the happy adaptation of natural objects by 

 which these arabesques are enriched in a very extraordinary degree. 



In speaking of these sort of compositions as arabesques, the term 

 is of course adopted as it is commonly understood, and it is needless 

 to explain that we disregard both its etymology and meaning in 

 applying it to the paintings and stuccoes of antiquity, which repre- 

 sent not only foliage and fruits, but also beasts of every species, and 

 imaginary creatures combined and interlaced together. These deco- 

 rations have also acquired the name of grotesques, from the grottoes 



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