Design and Tradition: A short account of the principles and historic development of architecture and the applied artsFenn, Amor
History
Design and Tradition: A short account of the principles and historic development of architecture and the applied arts
Fenn, Amor
Architecture; Art; Decoration and ornament; Decoration and ornament -- History
In the treatment of Flat Ornament the most important considerations are
play of line and silhouette, and forms should be displayed in
interesting profile; perspective and foreshortening being eliminated
whenever they would result in distorted or inharmonious shapes.
In Relief treatment the designer is concerned with the effect of Light
and Shade in harmonious arrangement of mass and line.
Perspective and foreshortening are permissible to some extent, but are
largely dependent upon the work, greater license being allowable in high
than in low relief.
_Treatment of Leaves_
In Flat ornament, leaves are invariably in profile, but in Relief
expression they may be folded, that is, wrapped round the stem. Greater
freedom is possible in the turn-overs.
Relief ornament should recognise ground by details being occasionally
displayed in lower relief.
Whether expressed in Flat or Relief, the composing lines should always
be emphatic, and their direction traceable through the details, floral
or otherwise.
_Surface Interest_
In addition to the foregoing, a further consideration is that of
interest of surface, which may consist of contrast in textures of rough
surface with smooth, of patterning on form, veining and striation of
leaves and flowers, and of the employment of trellis or imbricated
pattern. The latter in conjunction with other details, occur in the
decorative work of the later French Renaissance.
_Painted Decoration_
The technical means of obtaining the interest of surfaces is, of course,
incidental to the process involved. If the decoration be the result of
painting, the design is free and untrammelled by any other than purely
æsthetic conditions. Such, for instance, as the desirable recognition of
surface, and the pattern sense suggested by recurrence, if a decorative
rather than a pictorial effect is desired.
When the decorations consist of ornament, wholly or partly, they are
occasionally rendered in a conventional manner, based upon the
appearance of Relief, as in the Pompeian wall decorations and the
painted work of the Italian Renaissance. There is ample precedent for
this treatment in traditional painted decoration, but deliberate
attempts at realistic effects are not only undesirable but to be
deplored.
The interest in Painted Decoration, apart from colour, design or
subject, would be that of the individual manifestation of the designer
and painter.
_Stencilled Work_
Stencilled decoration is a compromise between painting and mechanical
printing, and is restricted by the unit. The repetition of this is
practically mechanical, though considerable license is possible in the
treatment of colour, which has to be personally applied and is therefore
amenable to controlled variation.
[Illustration: No. 256. Inhabited Details from Woven Fabrics. Interest
imparted by patterning on forms.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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