220 



ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. 



Part II. 



> V- 



(4 



a conspicuous part of them, proclaim the absence of all feeling 

 for elegance and purity of design ; and if a higher style of 

 work is attempted, by the substitution of human 

 figures for the legs, it falls as far short of nature 

 and of art as the sculptures of the South Sea 

 islanders. Such pieces of furniture excited the 

 general admiration of their time ; though a 

 clumsy superstructure, on slender deformed legs, 

 might call to mind the union of a corpulent body 

 and emaciated limbs.] Nor is the comparison to 

 works of the South Sea islanders a very exaggerated 

 one ; and some are so far removed from the beau- 

 tiful and from the true principles of design, that it 

 is now and then difficult to decide on the score of 

 ugliness between a mediaeval and a Maori-devil 

 wood carving ; and what is worse, they sometimes 

 affect to pass off as works of taste. 



30. [Again, a statue or temple, made of glass, is 

 inconsistent and objectionable ; and even a vase, 

 originally executed in stone, and designed for that 

 material, rarely bears the same character when 

 copied exactly in metal, pottery, or other sub- 

 stance; and form, treatment and design must often vary 

 according; to these conditions. False imitations are mean : a 

 cast-iron vase can only find an excuse in its durability for 

 standing where a fictile one would not be safe ; and a painted 

 counterfeit has the sad pretensions of a rouged face. Nor 

 can a pretended bronze statue of painted gypsum find a good 

 excuse in cheapness ; however we may allow it to the com- 

 mon, unpretending, white cast. Again, the glass body of a 

 vase, with a metal handle, foot, or border, besides inconsis- 

 tency, conveys a disagreeable feeling of insecurity in its use, 

 from the greater and less durability of the two materials ; 

 and you fear lest some accident should leave the handle alone 



:<yfe 



