i6o 
KERAMC STUDIO 
THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT 
A. G. Marshall 
SECOND PAPER — CONTINUED. 
THERE are certain fundamental laws which must be observed 
in all conventional designing in the interest of grace 
and harmony as well as of truth to natural characteristics. A 
conventional vine must not grow in violation of nature's laws. 
Such arrangements as shown in Figs. 8 and 9 are wholly bad. 
All curving outgrowth should follow tangential lines instead of 
departing from the parent stem at cutting angles. Good 
forms would be as in Figs. 10 and 11. Fig. 12, although rigid 
and primitive, is still consistent and harmonious and well 
adapted to decorate materials or places where curves would be 
difficult to make. 
In the application of ornament there is never any ques- 
tion as to the good taste of geometric designs, provided they 
suit the space to be decorated. The eye and mind, however, 
would tire of such designs in time. Primitive designs are felt 
to be thin and cold and all geometric designs, however rich 
with color are entirely lacking in the poetic suggestiveness 
that comes with even a distant hint of nature. With all the 
wealth of invention and revelry of color that the Moorish 
designers lavished upon the Alhambra, the aesthetic sense at 
last wearies of the labyrinthine mazes of line and curve and 
longs for a breath of organic life. This after all is the essential 
charm of the highest class of design, that it suggests (but does 
not imitate) life. 
With conventionalized natural forms the question of the 
adaptability of a design to a special purpose becomes more 
complicated, and the factor of sentiment enters the problem 
in proportion to the closeness of the approach to nature in the 
motives of the proposed ornament. It would clearly be in 
bad taste to paint skulls, however conventional, around a 
drinking cup, or to embroider them upon a bride's robe 
(Fig.' 13). Yet the same 
outline with a different 
arrangement of the detail, 
conveying another sug- 
gestion, might be quite 
pleasing (Fig. 14). So the 
question of appropriate- 
ness of the natural form 
suggested must be first 
considered. Fortunately No. 1+. 
the whole field of floral and foliate ornament is not incon- 
sistent in some grade of conventionalization with most 
decorative purposes. Animal and human motives require 
much more careful adaptation, and no amount of suppression 
of nature can make hints of dogs and birds and horses and 
monkeys quite the things to wipe feet or noses upon, or to 
wear for clothing. And it is at least questionable whether 
the sum of human happiness is enhanced by the discovery of 
even conventional beasts and insects in dishes from which we 
are expected to eat and drink. When the life suggested is 
sufficiently high in grade, approaching or reaching our own 
plane, we have to behave in a measure as we would towards 
the reality. The bird and insect may be adapted for example 
to wall or ceiling decoration, the beast to chair and table sup- 
ports and the human form to situation not inconsistent with 
respect for its grace and dignity, while grotesque figures have 
their legitimate use, which, however, should never be in con- 
junction with finely formed objects or in apartments of state 
and ceremony. So again where one never need question the 
appropriateness of a geometrical design, if otherwise suitable, 
merely because it is abstract form, the idea of sentiment must 
be reckoned with in the application of all designs based upon 
or suggesting natural forms. And whatever the style, it 
should be evident that the destined use of the object, the 
place where, and the persons by whom, it is to be used, 
all have a bearing upon the appropriateness of a deco- 
ration. 
What would be ample as the ornament of a kitchen water- 
pail would hardly suffice to decorate the dining room ice 
pitcher ; the sumptuous enrichment required for an opera house 
ceiling would rest rather heavily over a nursery ; and the homely 
beautiful mug with quaint conventional figures so fitting for a 
child's use is hardly the thing to set before the Governor at a 
state banquet. The amount of labor bestowed, as well as the 
style of design should always be in proportion to the value of 
the article and dignity and importance of its use. And even 
if the labor involved in applying a design much broken into 
detail be not great still the appearance of much elaboration 
should be avoided with articles of trivial value or menial use. 
And in all cases it is better to err, if at all, on the side of sim- 
plicity of design. It may be held as a general rule that the 
value of the decoration of a fine or important object should at 
least equal the cost of the article before decorating, and with 
more commonplace objects should not exceed it. 
In adapting painting designs to curved surfaces it is 
important to see that distortion does not result. This is 
especially to be guarded against when the motives are human 
or animal forms. The old Greek vase painters did not always 
realize this, as may be seen in some examples of their work, 
where it is almost impossible to get the figures at any angle 
free from deformity. This trouble is most likely to be met 
with in adapting designs to the necks and shoulders of vases 
and all places where the curvature is abrupt. At such points 
either purely inventive (geometric) or thoroughly conventional 
floral motives should be employed as a rule, it being obvious 
that the higher animal and human forms cannot be so treated 
without becoming grotesque. Serpents, lizards, dragons and 
such animals as naturally adapt themselves to sinuous postures 
may be excepted. 
