The Garden Magazine, January, 1921 
247 
Metropolitan Museum of Art 
FOUR CHARACTERISTIC EXAMPLES OF MINOR GREEK ART 
These vases fundamentally similar in construction, assume individual significance largely through 
their varied decorative motives which include the familiar vine, laurel, wave, and anthemion 
in basketry and became more varied on clay pots where the 
medium was more pliable; wattle-work, or the weaving of 
boughs for the sides of huts, has descended to our own day as a 
beautiful decorative motive for interiors; while dentils, mutules, 
modillions, and consoles represent the jutting ends of logs in 
primitive wooden houses. The rosette was probably designed 
by Egyptian artists from the top of the Lotus fruit, although 
the Daisy or almost any other flower would suggest the pattern. 
The palmette and the beautiful anthemion, or honeysuckle, 
the most important motive in Greek decorative art, were direct 
descendants of the sacred Egyptian Lotus flower. The egg- 
and-dart, also, originated in a border of inverted, alternating 
flowers and buds of the Lotus; its various forms arising from 
treating it as a leaf-motive. The bead-and-reel was imported 
from Asia Minor and probably descended from the papyrus- 
bundle molding of ancient Egypt. 
Leaf-forms had been used before the Grecian period and had 
become conventionalized. The Doric leaf, for example, passed 
over from Egypt to Crete at an early date. The scale ornament 
soon became confused with Laurel and Olive leaves. The 
Grape had been employed to some extent in Egypt, but the 
Greeks invented the so-called vine pattern, in which the Grape, 
Ivy, and Laurel were similarly used- — the first two on vases for 
wine because they were dedicated to Bacchus, and the last 
on vases for prizes, etc. In the Laurel, or common Sweet 
Bay of the florists, the leaves were broad and alternate, while 
the purple, cherry-like fruits were solitary instead of clustered 
like those of the Olive. 
The acanthus-leaf motive was invented rather late, but 
toward the end of the Fifth Century B.C. its use became fre- 
quent and after that it ranked among the first of all decorative 
motives. The Acanthus was a common wild plant related to 
the Burdock, and its employment in art was probably associated 
with its use on graves. The leaves of Acanthus spinosus, used 
in the Corinthian capital, were especially crisp and prickly, 
while those of A. mollis corresponded more closely to the 
later conventionalized types found in Roman architecture. 
The rinceau, a pattern of great importance, was invented by the 
Greeks in the Alexandrian age by combining the S-line, spiral, 
vine motive, and acanthus-leaf. 
After the Greeks were conquered by the Romans in 146 B.C. 
countless art treasures were brought to Rome and Greek artists 
THE “EGYPTIAN 
LOTUS’’ 
Popularly so-called was 
in fact unknown to the 
ancient Egyptians but in 
the Orient held high place 
as a sacred plant. It is 
a Nelumbo 
THE “BLUE LOTUS’’ 
Serving as a basic motif 
formuch of the ancient dec- 
orative art and perhaps 
the most important flower 
thus used, the Blue Lotus, 
native of Egypt, is in 
reality a Water-lily (Nym- 
phaea) 
