PART III.
ORNAMENTAL ART.
In treating upon this subject, we are led back to the land of the Pharaohs; for the earliest Art records that have come down to us (and, perhaps, the most perfect) are from the banks of the Nile, remarkable for their severely massive character, calm and frigid. The few ornamental details are chosen rather for their symbolical than æsthetic beauty, consisting of local forms slightly conventionalized and heightened with colour. Their ornaments were types and symbols intended to address themselves to the eye, heart, and soul of the beholder, the most frequent in recurrence being the winged globe,—a sacred emblem the Egyptians used in their ornamental designs,—the human figure, their sacred animals, and the lotus, reed, asp, and papyrus. Upon the capitals of Egyptian columns are represented nearly all the flowers peculiar to the country, the petals, capsules, pistils, seeds, and most minute parts, being often exhibited. Capitals are often seen resembling a vase, and at other times a bell reversed. There is little in this style applicable to the decoration of books, unless it be upon works relating to Egypt. Then its symbols afford the binder an opportunity to employ its symbolic ornamentation.
ASSYRIAN AND ANCIENT PERSIAN.
Of this style it is only lately that we have become slightly acquainted; and, though partly coeval with the Egyptian, the Assyrians have borrowed little from them, the details being remarkable for their classic character, at times approaching the Ionic, but greatly dependent upon animal forms for its ornamentation, and upon painting and sculpture for its expression. The forms, often graceful, are less arbitrary than the Egyptian, (where symbolism is paramount,) containing those elements afterwards elaborated into beauty by the Greeks. There is an appropriate fitness in Assyrian ornament that constitutes one of its prominent characteristics. In addition to animals, the pomegranate, fir-cones, lotus-flower and reeds, rosettes, and a fan-shaped ornament supposed to be the origin of the Greek honeysuckle, distinguish the Assyrian style.
GREEK.
Under the ancient Greeks, Art attained a refined and exalted character, material beauty being developed to the utmost; elegance of proportion, chaste simplicity, and conventionalism, triumphant; symbolism disregarded. The principal elements of Greek ornament were the honeysuckle, the lotus-leaves, the wave-line and scroll, the zig-zag, and the universal fret. The beauty of Grecian ornament consists in its equality of foliage, starting-points, stalks, and groundwork. Its running figures are well adapted to and are employed for rolls, in side-finishing, and the proportions of this style of Art should be carefully studied by the finisher.
ETRUSCAN.
Simplicity and elegance of form, combined with strong contrast in colour, constitute the distinguishing marks of this style. The Etruscan vases still form models for the artist. The novel appearance of these vessels, all uniformly painted with a tracery of black on a natural groundwork of brownish red, is extremely pleasing, proving the high artistic capability of their makers. In the British Museum there is one room entirely devoted to a collection of these remains of ancient Art. This style is approached in its effects by inlaying with black upon a brownish red. A copy of Caxton's "Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye," bound in this style by Whittaker, has been highly extolled. It is in the possession of the Marquis of Bath. The general effects of this style are represented by a style now much in vogue, called antique, a reddish-brown morocco being stamped upon so as to produce a dark or black figure thereon; but the character of the ornaments are generally dissimilar.
ROMAN.
Roman art is a redundant elaboration of the Greek, in which purity gives way to richness, grotesque combinations become common, and false principles creep in. Mosaic pavements are rendered pictorial by the introduction of light and shade, the flat and round not kept distinct. In the remains of Pompeii we find the degradation of classic Art by the violation of true principles. There is nothing in this style to commend it to the artist, especially in decorating books.
BYZANTINE, LOMBARD, NORMAN.
These varieties of kindred ornament, commencing with the rise of Christianity, were founded on classic details, having a distinct expression of their own. There is much symbolism in the Byzantine, but all are appropriate to their several wants,—the parts rich, judiciously disposed, and purely conventional. In these styles, so intimately connected, we find the interlaced strap-work that suggested Gothic tracery to the great mediæval artists.
MOORISH.
The decorative art of the Arabs is more conventional than any other, it being in most cases extremely difficult to trace the origin of their forms. All animal representations are strictly excluded by the religion of Mohammed. The union of geometrical with floral forms seems to have supplied the expression, many ornaments resembling the ovary of plants, transversely cut and connected with crystalline shapes. The abstract and superficial treatment is perfect, the forms are extremely graceful, and the colouring gorgeous. The interlaced strap-work is highly elaborated. This style is sometimes called the Arabesque, and forms the chief decoration of the Alhambra, an ancient fortress and residence of the Moorish monarchs of Granada. For grace and liveliness this style is unrivalled, and it affords many useful and beautiful hints to the finisher in his hand-tooling, and is well calculated to produce fine effects in stamps designed for the embossing-press.
GOTHIC.
The Gothic is founded upon geometrical forms. The strap-work of former styles is elaborated into tracery, the main lines being circular or curved, starting from vertical lines, ending in points, enclosing spaces divided and subdivided in the same manner, further decorated with conventional ornaments derived from local nature. For bookbinding it is sometimes employed, but without much judgment. The judicious finisher will reject it on account of its inapplicability to superficial decoration.
THE RENAISSANCE.
The Renaissance or Revival arose in Italy in the fifteenth century, by the appropriation of classic details in connection with prior styles, the traditionary giving way to selection and freedom; Art gaining but few entirely new forms, rather subjecting all that had gone before to a new treatment, which in the hands of the great artists of the period produced agreeable results, showing the importance of general design, rendering even incongruous materials pleasing from that cause alone. The Cinque-cento has been considered the goal of the Renaissance and its characteristics,—strap, tracery, arabesque, and pierced scroll-work, a mixture of the conventional with natural forms, and every detail of ancient Art,—producing, under different masters, varied results. Thus, in Raphael's Loggie of the Vatican are to be found, as at Pompeii, elements piled one above the other, without any regard to construction. The same with the works of Julio Romano at Mantua,—painted imitation of bas-reliefs suspended above fountains, temples, &c., the parts often finely drawn and treated, but, taken as a whole, little removed from the absurd, quite unlike the works of the Greeks and Etruscans they sought to rival.
ELIZABETHAN.
The Elizabethan was an English version of the Renaissance, being a special elaboration of the strap and bolt-work, and has been highly useful to the stamp-cutter. Many of its forms can be advantageously employed by the finisher.
LOUIS QUATORZE.
This distinct expression of Art is of Italian origin, being the last of the Renaissance, and end of ornamental styles. It consists of scrolls and shells, an alternation of curves and hollows, the concave and convex in contrast, the broken surfaces affording a brilliant play of light and shade. The effect when gilt being extremely magnificent, colour was abandoned, construction hidden, and symmetry often disregarded, especially in its decline. As to superficial treatment, flat surfaces were studiously avoided, and the few that remained were treated pictorially, in a mellifluous, pastoral style, known as that of Watteau. Under Louis XV. the forms degenerated: symmetrical balance and flow of line were disregarded, giving way to the degraded ornamentation called the Rococo—the prevailing style of the last and earlier part of the present century—depriving Europe for more than one hundred years of true superficial decoration, without which no Art can be considered complete. An attempt at this style may be seen upon the sides of some of the gaudily-gilt albums and books of like character. No finisher need cultivate a love for it, for it is the aversion of all refined artists.