THE term Convention is applied to decoration in which there is distinct evidence of artistic restraint, which may be purely Æsthetic or due to technical conditions.

Outline Drawing

The rendering of any form in outline is probably the simplest form of convention, which is generally accepted through tradition as representation. Though the objects so depicted really depend on light, shade, and local colour for their appearance.

Such outline drawings may be in other respects realistic, but a further degree of convention is the desirable elimination of perspective where it is unsuitable to the effect desired. For instance, in silhouette, profile renderings only are intelligible, and in delicate bas-relief modelling any foreshortening should be avoided if confusing to the effect.

In direct personal work, such as drawing or painting, when craft conditions other than that of the medium employed are not involved, convention is purely a matter of discretion and consideration of the nature and object of the work; but it is essential in design when the material and method of production have to be considered. In painting the artist may employ the full resources of his palette and be as realistic in his effect as is in his power, but if the purpose be mural decoration restraint is at once imposed.

Undesirable Realism

Under certain conditions realism would be out of place, and any attempt at illusion would fail to convince. The one time fashion of painting ceilings with sprawling deities of either sex, which cannot be seen without a painful crick in the neck, or worse still to suggest sky with floating amorini, occasionally framed by marble balustrading in wonderful perspective is deplorable.

Such decoration, if it can be so termed, is not only stagey but is foredoomed to failure in effect, as the ordinary interior lighting is not adequate. Furthermore, it displays a lack of appreciation of fitness, and that the purpose of a ceiling is to convey a sense of shelter.

Realism, though desirable in portraiture, either of individuals, places or events, is not necessarily of the greatest interest except to those concerned. In mural decoration realism should give place to convention, and the whole considered as a design with regard to balance of form and colour, and recognition of the surface to which the decoration is applied.

The first attempts at decoration were the direct results of material and the manner of working, in which there was no attempt at representation. This was succeeded when the early artists attained more skill by a phase of realism, later still with acquired culture there was a deliberate return to convention.

The dignified conception of the Egyptian rendering of the Lion, though thoroughly conventional, reveals technical skill and anatomical knowledge of a high order; also appreciation for desirable treatment, and may be contrasted favourably with those by Sir Edwin Landseer round the pedestal of the Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square, in which realism is not subordinated to the decorative and symbolic conditions.

Craft Restrictions

When any craft process is involved the design is only a means to the end, and convention is then imposed by the technical conditions of the craft in question. The designer has to keep these conditions in view, the desirable object being to make the greatest economic use of the process compatible with a good result. It would be a waste of both time and energy to depict effects that could not be realised.

In woven or printed fabrics it is impossible to produce natural effects; even if that were possible the inevitable repetition of the unit would be not merely unnatural but a gross absurdity. The great bulk of the public do not understand convention, hence the popularity of textiles and wall-papers in which the designs consist of flowers treated (however inconsistently) in natural aspect as far as possible; in particular the Rose which, like the poor, is ever with us.

Traditional ornament at its best has generally been conventional, the various details of foliage being Æsthetic creations, with at times, perhaps, some suggestion derived from natural types. The scroll in the form of volutes as employed in the Ionic capital may have been suggested by the fossil known as the Ammonite

shell, so called because it resembles the ram’s horn of Jupiter Ammon. Its traditional employment in conjunction with the undulate stem, is certainly far from any natural suggestion in the way of growth, while the variety known as the evolute scroll is distinctly artificial.

Materialistic Influence

It is probable that it had its origin in the facility with which wire could be bent, and in early jewellery such scroll forms are conspicuous.

A reasonable conjecture is that the similar forms in early repoussÉ work, such as that of the gold ornaments found at Enkomi, Cyprus and the painted decoration of the Greek vases, were inspired by the treatment which was the outcome of the use of metal in the form of thin wire. Similar details occur in Peruvian and New Guinea work, which is certainly coincidental as it is difficult to imagine these people having any communication with the Old World.

Scandinavian and Keltic art was to a certain extent influenced by Eastern tradition through the medium of the Phoenician merchant adventurers; but no such conjecture is feasible in the Maori incised work and tattooing in which similar details occur.

The scrolling line alone may be used, generally in decoration of small scale, as in the Greek vases. In this form it frequently occurs in pottery, either incised or painted, and in filagree jewellery. Wrought iron partakes largely of the scrolling character, but this, as in filagree, is the direct result of the material employed.

Scandinavian and Keltic ornament consisted mainly

of a series of scrolling forms, as also did much of the ornament of the illuminated Gothic work and mural decoration. The desire for variety and mass lead eventually to the employment of diverse elements, arising in many instances from different treatment of existing details; thus, during the Renaissance, the side view of a poppy-like flower suggested and became a profile mask, and the husk leaf was frequently elaborated into the form of a dolphin.

Early Renderings

The evolute scroll which plays so conspicuous a part in Greek art, was employed at earlier periods by the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and the widespread appreciation and use of this form of detail is plainly indicative that it was not disseminated from any one centre.

In the early employment of these curved forms there is no evidence of natural suggestion, but later, leaves and floral details were added conveying the idea of growth. In Egyptian and Assyrian art certain natural types occur, such as the Lotus, Papyrus and the Palm, but these were utterly denaturalised, all realism being eliminated.

These conventions, though incidentally decorative, were invested with symbolic meaning with which their employment was concerned rather than with the imitation of natural form.

The Anthemion

The Anthemion alone or in conjunction with the scroll or evolute line, appears in a painted form in the Greek vase decoration. Examination of these will reveal evidence of brush-work, the separate details being the result of direct flexion. In sculptured form it appears in the Antefixe, also as a cresting or finial to the stele heads, the separate radial features being channelled with sunken grooves or with ridges in relief.

It is conceivable that the attenuated effect of the mere scrolling line suggested the desirability of the occasional mass and variety that would be obtained by employing leaves.

Greek Sculptured Ornament

Greek sculptural ornament is comparatively devoid of natural suggestion, the branching scrolls with sheath leaves being Æsthetic rather than imitative. The leaves employed bear little resemblance to those of the later Roman period, and consist generally of a succession of radial grooves with undulating or prickly edges, and are obviously adapted from the anthemion detail.

In the scrolls employed on the Choragic monument at Athens the desire was evidently play of line and silhouette.

The flexible and open form, though possible in bent metal or in painted work, is unsuitable to carving in stone. Adequate support being essential, the scrolls had to be united by the leaves, which were necessarily massed in form and decorated by channellings or grooves to give further detail and interest.

A development of the leaf treatment was the division into lobes, each lobe being channelled with a group of radial grooves ending in serrations. The lobes were divided by holes, or, as they are generally termed, eyes, more or less circular in shape, and these were connected with the base of the leaf by pipes or Tines in relief, conforming with the general radial distribution.

Acanthus Leaf

Leaves of this type are known as Acanthus, and it is a tradition that the leaf in its original employment was derived from a natural source. The anthemion, too, is often mis-called the honeysuckle owing to the supposed resemblance; but it is much more probable that both were purely artistic creations developing as previously suggested from the painted anthemion details. Elaboration and relief expression were the natural outcome of material, and desire for surface interest. The honeysuckle origin is completely confuted by comparison of the Greek anthemion with the Assyrian treatment of the Palm, by which it was evidently inspired.

In Greek ornament such flowers as occur are mostly of the rosette type, quite conventional in character, though in the painted decoration such natural forms as the ivy and vine are evident; but these were always conventional in treatment and symbolic in interest.

The Greeks were not creative in art either in their architecture or ornament, and were evidently indebted to the earlier culture of Mesopotamia for many of their details. As they based the anthemion on the Assyrian treatment of the Palm, so they borrowed the Ionic capital from Persia and the Corinthian variety had its prototype in the Egyptian Papyrus capital. Even their architecture was no advance in principle on that which previously existed.

Their treatment, however, was extremely artistic, and they invested all their work with great refinement and delicacy of detail. At a later period under subjugation the Roman art development was practically in the hands of Greek designers and craftsmen, and acquired great freedom of expression marked by exquisite workmanship in the GrÆco-Roman period.

Roman Development

The details and treatment of ornament developed rapidly in the Roman period, in the variety and forms of the elements employed. The principal exponents were Greek, but the original austere character of expression underwent considerable modification.

The Scroll

In Roman art the scroll, which constituted the chief decoration of the friezes and panels, was greatly developed and rendered with more freedom and variety of treatment; assuming the form of a growing or climbing stem, bearing flowers and clothed with leaves. A treatment which is fairly consistent with such types as the Vine and other climbing growths in nature.

The undulating stem with branching scrolls is prominent, both in friezes and panels; the character of the foliage became more varied, the stiff and formal acanthus leaf being only used in the capitals of columns and in structural features.

The version employed in more decorative positions

exhibited greater freedom in form, attitude and section. Natural types for the sake of variety were used, generally in subordinated positions, and there is occasional evidence of the influence of these in the treatment of the acanthus detail.

GrÆco-Roman

The development of art during this period cannot be attributed to native talent, the Romans being content to borrow their art as they did their religion. It was rather due to the opulence of the times, though the practical character of the race resulted in a great advance in architecture.

The later Roman, generally termed GrÆco-Roman, varied from the more robust treatment and reverted somewhat to the earlier Greek manner; tending to delicacy and refinement, but retaining the variety of character and detail.

Byzantine

The State recognition of Christianity had a great influence on art in that there was a return to symbolism. Various pagan elements associated with the earlier decoration that were unsuitable to the feeling of the time were eliminated. Eastern influence is evident, in not only the architecture but in the treatment which is known as Byzantine, of the foliage, which resembles that of the archaic Greek, the leaves being more stiffly lobed, and severely channelled with V-shaped grooves, in place of the subtle modelling of those of the Roman period.

The stem or growth line is comparatively absent, and the prevalence of the circle as a shape or in the arrangement of details is evident. Decoration displays more regard to profile than to variety of relief, which was practically uniform.

The Byzantine influence is evident in the succeeding Romanesque.

Romanesque

Early Gothic detail, the closely curled foliage of which is suggestive of lobes though without serrations, is reminiscent of debased Roman tradition, evident also in the general shape and disposition of leaves in the capitals of columns. The floral ornament of the Middle or Decorated period, though freely adapted from natural types, shows traces at times of the earlier tradition in the treatment of lobed and serrated leaves.

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance was not merely a revival of Classic architecture adapted to more modern conditions, but was in its earlier stages a frank reproduction of the Roman ornament in design and rendering. In later development in Italy and other parts of Europe it acquired local character differing materially from the original. Fresh elements were adopted and details originally significant were introduced for purely decorative reasons.

The Husk Leaf

A feature of the foliated scroll is the Husk Leaf, either Acanthus, that is—lobed and serrated, or compounded of water leaves with smooth and undulating edges somewhat similar to the hart’s tongue fern.

The Husk either grows tangentially from the stem which it sometimes envelopes in the sheath form, or has at its base a floral-like feature known as the Bract; this, however, was seldom employed in Greek ornament, a boss-like annulet being more general. The Husk is largely employed to mask or cover branching, and either, as previously stated, grows tangentially from the stem, or takes a bulbous form with a broad and rounded base when it appears to be threaded on, rather than articulated to, the stem.

The Rosette

Such flowers as were employed in the earlier ornament displayed little regard to nature, being mostly of the rosette form with petals radiating from the centre; as a rule these were composed of simple leaf-shaped petals in one, two or more tiers arranged concentrically; in this form of rosette the petals are symmetrical in shape. The number of petals is a matter of scale and taste, but an unequal number will invariably be found more interesting. Arrangements of five or seven in preference to four, six and eight. Frequently the spaces between the outer tier are occupied by narrow leaves suggestive of the sepals in natural flowers, and these serve the double purpose of giving variety and preserving the circular shape.

Further variety can be imparted by the arrangements of the petals on a revolving instead of a straight axis, either consistently in one direction or symmetrically disposed from a centre in a palmate form.

The Rosette in ornament is useful as a pause point, giving repose, but where it is desirable to continue the flow of line, other floral forms can be employed, such as the tulip or the lily, which are displayed to the best advantage in profile or perspective.

In conventional ornament the flower petals should be in contrast to the leaves employed on the scrolling stem.

The Pistil in nature is reflected in the various sprouting forms which emerge from the conventional flowers of the Renaissance, and at times develop into further stem growth. On Æsthetic grounds this may be excused in cases where flow of line is of greater importance than consistency. The Pistil takes many forms, being frequently composed of a series of diminutive husks. Flower buds of similar husk form occur, the petals being similar to those of the flowers employed.

Tendrils

Tendrils serve a useful purpose in giving unity to the design, for which there is ample suggestion in such natural growths as the Vine, Pea, etc. Too often in traditional ornament they are employed to merely occupy obviously awkward spaces. In Roman ornament flowers articulated on tendril-like stems were often used apparently to occupy the spandril-like spaces resulting from the branching scrolls.

No. 242. Ornamental Treatment of Tendril from Roman Frieze.