THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
71 
modern. The three ancient styles are the 
Egyptian, the Greek, and the Roman. 
The medifeval styles comprise the By- 
zantine, Saracenic, and the Gothic ; aud 
the modern styles are the Renaissance, 
the Cinquecento, the Louis Quatorze, and 
the Queen Anne. Style is simply another 
name for character, and frequently is 
merely a modification or peculiar elabo- 
ration of the details of a previous style. 
To commence with the Egyptian, we find 
that many of its forms of ornament are 
still popular— as the fret, wave-scroll, 
spiral, and zigzag; but the most sym- 
bolic features of this style are the winged 
globe, the lotus and papyrus, and the 
asp. Many of the forms, and indeed the 
very details of the Greek style, are still 
popular, as they so well represent the 
great principles of ornament, series, and 
contrast — contrast of masses and contrast 
of lines. Some of the principal charac- 
teristics of this style are the well-known 
Fig. 3. 
espinos, or egg and tongue, as Fig. 3, the 
astragal, and the scrolls. 
In the egg and tongue we get a bold 
contrast of light and shade, and we have 
a similar result, though not so marked, in 
the astragal. It is now, too, that we ar- 
rive at carved, instead of painted, orna- 
ments as in the Doric period. 
The Roman style is simply an enlarge- 
ment or enrichment of the florid Greek- 
example of this even in details compare 
the egg and tongue of this period, Fig. 4, 
with Fig. 3. The scroll and acanthus are 
also ])eculiarly Roman, and continually 
occur in the ornament of this period— in 
fact, every form which will admit of it is 
habitually enriched with an acanthus 
clothing or foliations. The same may be 
said of the scroll, which, in the elaborate 
development with acanthus foliations, is 
characteristically Roman. The introduc- 
tion of grotesque forms, like tnat shown 
at Fig. 5, belongs to this period. 
Fig. 4. 
in fact, the chief characteristic 
style is its uniform magnificence. 
of this 
As an 
Fig. 5. 
We now come to the middle age styles, 
in which we find symbols play an import- 
ant part. Byzantine decorations are in 
nearly every case composed of ingeni- 
ously designed symbolic forms. 
In Byzantine art, too, it will be found 
that all imitations of natural forms, and 
even animals and the human figure, are 
conventionally treated. In the decora- 
tions of this period it may be noticed that 
the trefoil and quatrefoil become very 
frequent, the former being a symbolic 
representation of the Trinity, and the lat- 
ter of the Four Evangelists. These sym- 
bols are also common in Gothic art. The 
principles of the next style— the Sara- 
cenic — are soon stated. In the designs of 
this period we find vegetable and animal 
forms rigidly excluded, and curves, an- 
gles, and inter-lacings go to form the 
major part of the designs, inscriptions 
