  THE “symbolic” and “mnemonic” classes of ornament are large, and are interesting alike to the historian, the antiquary, and the student of art. It is not easy to draw the line between them, as the latter skirts the ground of the former so closely. Mnemonic ornament is that class which includes written characters, signs, hieroglyphics, and natural forms as aids to memory. The scenes, facts, or ideas so recalled may or may not be in relation to the thing decorated; e.g. we see texts from the KorÂn in Kufic and other characters, used to decorate the walls and gateways of mosques, and dresses, vases, candlesticks, and other articles of domestic use. Japanese ornament abounds in mnemonic characters with or without other forms. All writing came from the picture-writing of barbarous tribes; the symbols of these pictures were used on the one hand for letters, and on the other for ideas. In the decorative art of most nations, inscriptions can be found on their buildings, utensils, and articles of luxury; and as in the case of some illuminated manuscripts, it is not only difficult to know where the lettering ends, and the ornament begins, but whether the main end was not ornament rather than instruction. The art of illumination or decorative writing really begins when there is a desire to have the written matter presented in a beautiful form, and to those who could not read the illumination alone was of importance. In the hands of artists letters have often been arranged as a highly ornamental cipher. Monogram and cipher are almost synonymous terms; the former differs only from the latter in this respect, that a monogram may have different forms of the letters in different positions, and still have the same meaning, while a cipher cannot have more than one particular form or else it defeats its purpose, if used as a signet or as a trade-mark. The decorations found on the tombs, sarcophagi, and stone tablets, &c., of ancient Egypt are mnemonical in character, and this was the primary reason of their existence: they were sculptured on the granite slabs, to record the names and virtues of the deceased kings and persons of note, but at the same time they were made pleasing to the eye; the perfect balance and even distribution of these inscriptions render them highly decorative, and they become mnemonic ornament. (See Fig. 162.) This diagram is the hieroglyphic inscription taken from the famous “Tablet of Four Hundred Years.” It is the third line of the twelve on this monument, and is thus translated: “King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-ma, Sotep-en-ra, Son of Ra, Ramases Mer-amen, Chieftain enriching the lands with memorials of his name.” The inscription at Fig. 163 occurs frequently in Japanese pottery; it represents the word “Jiu,” meaning longevity or everlasting life. The Japanese symbols of longevity are the following: the god of longevity, a very old man with a large head and merry countenance, holding a scroll in his hands, and accompanied by a crane, as an attribute, and sometimes by a stork or a sacred tortoise. The crane itself is a symbol of long life; the bamboo, the fir, and the plum together make a second; and the gourd is another. Religion has had, from the earliest period of man’s history, Art for its earthly handmaid, and nine-tenths of symbolic ornament pertains to religious ordinances and ceremonies. Nearly all the beginnings of art expressed religious thought by means of symbols; the picture writing of barbarians, the hieroglyphic or priestly compositions of the Egyptians on papyrus and granite, the Runic and Ogham inscriptions of the Northmen and ancient Celts, were alike endowed with an occult meaning, but they were symbols to the initiated only. A good example of symbolic ornament may be seen at Fig. 164. The winged globe so common in Egyptian art has been found sculptured on the lintels of temple doorways almost thirty feet in length. The globe is said to symbolize the sun, the outspread wings the overshadowing presence of Providence, and the asps dominion or the monarchy. The Scarab, or winged beetle (Fig. 161), is an emblem of the Creator or Maker. The disc or ball that it holds between its claws is said to represent the Sun, from which all life is derived. Another and more natural meaning attached to the disc is that it represents the ball containing the egg which the beetle usually rolls to a place of safety, where it is buried, and in course of time new life will spring from it. This emblem occurs as a central ornament in some Egyptian ceilings. Nearly all Egyptian ornament was symbolic. The canons or laws laid down by the Egyptian priests and chief scribes for the guidance of artists were for centuries unvarying; every ornament, including representations of the human figure, was drawn and sculptured by rule, and no one was allowed to alter the type under severe penalties. The blue Nymphea or lotus flower is pre-eminently characteristic of Egyptian ornament (see Fig. 165); it was sacred as the type of coming
Fig. 161.—Egyptian Scarabeus. plenty, as it appeared just before the springing of the crops, and immediately after the subsidence of the Nile; it was therefore to the Egyptians the harbinger of their daily bread, so there need be little wonder that it was worshipped by them as the emblem of earthly goodness. There is a species of lotus that bears fruit, and it is said that the form of the Jewish seven-branched candlestick was derived from it. The lotus was used in the decoration of everything Egyptian, the fresh flowers were used in garnishing the offerings to their gods, and was also presented as a peace offering to strangers and visitors. Next
in importance to the lotus came the palm as a symbolical plant; this was used by the Assyrians in their bas-reliefs. It was, when surrounded by the sacred hom, called the “tree of life” (Fig. 166). The date-palm is here surrounded by the sacred hom, which grew on the slopes of the Hindoo Kush, and was the plant from which inebriating drink was first
[Image unavailable.] Fig. 166.—Sacred tree of life or hom (British Museum), from an Assyrian bas-relief. made by the Aryans. The date-palm was certainly the tree of life to Eastern nations, affording them food, alcoholic drink,[8] and shelter. Many animals, birds, and hybrid creations, such as the Egyptian sphinx and the winged bull of Assyria, had symbolical meanings. The fir-cone, so common in Assyrian ornament, was an emblem of fire, as the lotus was an emblem of water, and this cone placed on a staff, and adorned with ribbons, was carried by the Bacchanals and MÆnads when celebrating the festivals of Dionysus, the Greek Bacchus. This is known as the “thyrsus,” or staff of Bacchus. (See Fig. 167.) The pine-tree was sacred to Dionysus, from its supplying turpentine
to make torches; wine also was made from its cones, both important elements in these festivals. The head of the thyrsus was often made of ivy leaves instead of the pine-cone, and Bacchus is said to have concealed spears under this head of leaves, and thus overcome those who were inimical to him (Diodorus Sic. lib. iii. cap. iv.; Ovid’s Metamor. iii. 667). The vine and the ivy were also sacred to Bacchus, and are symbolical of him in Greek and Roman decoration. Early Christian and mediÆval art are also teeming with symbolic ornaments. These ornaments are often called indifferently “emblems,” “attributes,” “symbols,” &c. Allegory is a kind of parable, and the word is often applied to allegorical painting or sculpture, which is a representation of one thing under the image of another, and is mostly expressed by human or animal forms.[9] In a recent picture called “Hope,” by Mr. Watts, we have a fine allegorical illustration, in a figure seated on a sphere, or the world, bending her ear to catch the strains of a lyre which she plays, which has only one string left; there is a weird feeling of loneliness about the composition, just relieved from utter desolation by the music that is left in the one string.
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