KERAMIC STUDIO 
15 
flower is vSeparated into its parts and sotne of these parts enter 
into new combinations as in Plate VIII. In this border and 
surface pattern the motive taken from the cornfiower, Plate VI, 
has been reduced to a mere symbol which shows almost no 
elements of growth. It is like an abstract shape and lends 
itself easily to some of the laws of arrangement such as rhythm 
or repetition. 
rhythmic quality of natural forms has influenced design. vSee 
Plate X. 
The long swinging Imes of stem and leaf are material 
whose possibilities of adaptation appeal strcnigly to the artist's 
mind. He finds in them certain structural features that he 
can easily relate to an object. Unfortunately, nuich of the 
so-called Art Nouveau ornament is decadent because it 
violates the laws of comi^osition, in being too ornate and un- 
dignified. 
The Moors were prohibited bj' their religious beliefs from 
portraj^ing anj^ living thing. In spite of these limitations they 
have given to the world one of the most beautiful styles in 
ornament. Like all designers they have depended on the 
language of line, mass, and color, but unlike the designers of 
other nations and beliefs, they have not dared to go to nature 
for material. In spite of this, the musical line qviality of their 
intricate patterns finds its prototj^pe in the growth of a plant. 
Their minds, keenly alive to beauty, could not help but be in- 
fluenced by the beauty offered by nature. Without actually 
co]:)3'ing nature, they were influenced by her in CA-ery line. 
This can be seen in Plate IX. 
The art movement of the present time, known as L' Art 
Nouveau, is another instance in which the consistent and 
Tlctte - yTTrr 
It appears, then, that to make a convention of some 
motive, we are influenced bj^ nature but need not necessarity 
show the exact source. A plant must be changed so as to 
adapt it to its new function. Dresser says: "Mere imitation 
is not ornamentation and is no more art in the higher sense 
of the term, than writing is itself literature, for in the pro- 
duction of ornament there must at least be adaptation. 
Our so-called natural wall papers well illustrate the first or 
most elementary step taken towards the production of orna- 
"Plate TX 
ment, for adaptation has l^een considered so far as is absolutelv 
necessary, in order that the design may repeat in the mechanical 
manner necessary to its production. If mere imitation is 
ornamentation, then the ornamentist must at once give place 
to the photographer, who b\' his art repeats natural objects 
