236 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Paet II. 



and it was not always the age, but the builders, in many 

 instances, that caused the faulty character of the details. 

 At all events, to copy bad figures in buildings or in furniture, 

 because the limited progress of art prevented their being 

 correctly represented at any particular period, is a fault. 

 The human figure should always be of the highest order of 

 sculpture. A grotesque being, or the union of a man's head 

 with an animal's body, or a human figure connected with 

 foliage, is a distinct condition ; it ceases to be a man ; and it 

 is then subject to the ordinary treatment of ornamental pat- 

 terns. Whether good taste should sanction a human figure 

 terminating in the leaves and stems of plants, or the heads 

 and tails of animals sprouting with the convolved foliage of 

 what has been miscalled arabesque ornament, is a separate 

 question ; but a certain license may be allowed to fancy 

 ornament. 



39. The choice of subjects too from modern sources may 

 be equally objectionable ; and when these are selected from 

 nature, care should be taken that things unworthy of being 

 copied, and objects ill-suited to art, be avoided ; lest admira- 

 tion for commonplace realities of the day should encourage 

 the same false taste which once allowed porcelain figures 

 of clowns, shepherdesses, love-making minstrels, and other 

 vulgar conceits, to usurp the place of subjects fit for sculp- 

 ture. These may come under the denomination of works 

 of caprice; but are as distinct from works of art as is 

 another class, which may be called works of ingenuity, such 

 as the ships, carriages, and intricate carvings in ivory and 

 various materials, by which the Chinese excite our wonder. 

 They may deserve praise in their own sphere, but should not 

 affect a place beyond it. The imitation of a modern object, 

 and the revival, or still more the imaginary reproduction, of 

 an ancient one, without inquiring whether it is beautiful or 

 consistent, are senseless whims; and some of the grotesque 



