260 



ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. 



Paet II. 



having handles which are suited to them (woodcut 36), and 

 in proportion to their size, do not give the impression of 

 being indebted to a smaller cup for little useless accessories 

 (35,^.3).] 



Capricious forms, when devoid of elegance, are all ob- 

 jectionable; and the Greek Ehyton, or drinking-cup, in the 

 shape of a man's, or an animal's, head (woodcut 37), may 



(36.) (37.) 



be looked upon as a curiosity, but is no more worthy of being 

 imitated than the Greek askos, derived from the wine-skin 

 (woodcut 38), from one of which in bronze, found at Pompeii, 

 we have borrowed the form of a modern claret-jug, some- 

 times with the additional fault that the handle represents 



(38.) 



an animal. (Woodcut 39.) A vase should be designed as a 

 vase, not copied from a natural object; and though some of 

 the lotus-cups of the Egyptians may be tolerated as pretty 

 conceits, they deserve no place among works of refined taste. 

 48. [In the introduction of figures upon vases a not un- 

 common fault is to place them in such a manner that part is 

 concealed by the upper or lower curve of the surface ; which 



