164 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
March, 1911 
Characteristic treat¬ 
ment of a pilaster. 
Used in a church, but 
the ornament has no 
symbolic significance 
den casting aside of this precedent was 
one of the most wonderful and inter¬ 
esting events of history. 
The Renaissance of art in Italy was 
only a part of a larger movement. The 
revival of interest in, and knowledge 
of, Classic literature was quite as im¬ 
portant ; and the whole movement 
marked a capacity for appreciating, and 
more especially 
enjoying, the old¬ 
er art. For the 
whole Renais¬ 
sance movement 
was essentially 
joyous; and any 
understanding o f 
it must take into 
account the fact 
that the work was 
done for pleasure 
and not as the re¬ 
sult of cold the¬ 
ory as to what 
was the correct 
thing to do. This 
cutting loose from 
the purely con¬ 
ventional. By¬ 
zantine art 
naturally ac¬ 
companied an 
awakening or 
freshening of 
p e r c e p tion. 
People began 
not only to 
think apart 
from tradition, 
but the artists 
began to see 
and paint na¬ 
ture instead of 
symbols, and 
the whole per¬ 
iod marked a 
true Renais¬ 
sance of mind 
and spirit 
which resem¬ 
bles the golden 
age in Greece 
more nearly, 
perhaps, than 
any other per- 
Characteristic panel decoration in a 
ceiling; the ornament almost in¬ 
variably fills the space 
The use of pilaster and frieze was common 
in the treatment of doorways 
An inlaid wood screen that shows the extent to which the Italian 
designers carried their decoration when the material permitted 
iod. In considering the detail of the Renais¬ 
sance it is of course necessary to select some 
elements to be considered in a paper of this 
length; consequently I shall take up only 
some of the more common forms and such 
as may be applied to modern conditions. 
It is increasingly easy to get good repro¬ 
ductions of such things as mantels, vases, 
seats, etc., in cast cement or the various forms 
of imitation stone. These may be obtained 
at a comparatively small expense and are 
within the reach of the owner of the most 
modest home. In fact, there are excellent 
reproductions of mantels which may be had 
for less than any wood mantels except the 
most brutally commercial kinds. 
In decorated moldings we find the egg- 
and-dart, lamb’s-tongue and dentils in 
common use which were described in con¬ 
nection with Colonial work in the Janu¬ 
ary number. 
In addition there is the bead, or bead- 
and-reel, which was occasionally used in 
Colonial work. This bead-and-reel con¬ 
sists of an elongated form like a small 
reel separated by beads or buttons, and is 
commonly found in cornices, below the 
crowning molding and in lines in the archi¬ 
trave. The upper molding of a cornice 
was often decorated with leaf forms, and 
these were often very interesting. As in 
the detail illustrated here there were some¬ 
times buds or flowers introduced with the 
leaves. 
One of the most characteristic motives 
of the Renaissance was the decoration of 
the pilasters. This was accomplished by 
the use of leaf and plant forms interrupted 
by vases or sometimes heads. It was al¬ 
ways arranged symmetrically on a vertical 
axis and there is a definite and well de¬ 
fined rhythm in the repeats. That is to say, 
the important accents were placed with a 
definite intention and so as to prevent 
A characteristic treatment of a marble 
frieze 
