CHAPTER XXI

TREATMENT OF ORNAMENT

§ 1. WE now know where we are to look for subjects of decoration. The next question is, as the reader must remember, how to treat or express these subjects.

There are evidently two branches of treatment: the first being the expression, or rendering to the eye and mind, of the thing itself; and the second, the arrangement of the things so expressed: both of these being quite distinct from the placing of the ornament in proper parts of the building. For instance suppose we take a vine-leaf for our subject. The first question is, how to cut the vine-leaf? Shall we cut its ribs and notches on the edge, or only its general outline? and so on. Then, how to arrange the vine-leaves when we have them; whether symmetrically, or at random; or unsymmetrically, yet within certain limits? All these I call questions of treatment. Then, whether the vine-leaves so arranged are to be set on the capital of a pillar or on its shaft, I call a question of place.

§ 2. So, then, the questions of mere treatment are two-fold: how to express, and how to arrange. And expression is to the mind or to the sight. Therefore, the inquiry becomes really threefold:-

(1.) How ornament is to be expressed with reference to the mind.

(2.) How ornament is to be expressed with reference to the sight.

(3.) How ornament is to be arranged with reference to both.

§ 3. (1.) How is ornament to be treated with reference to the mind?

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]