be suited to the size, form and character of the space it is to fill.
There is a wide difference between pictorial and applied art, and yet both may emblellish or decorate a certain specified space or surface..There fore, while all pitorial art may be applied (and rendered decortative under certain conditions), all applied art is by no means pictorial.
Purely conventiona ornament is a representation of natural objects expressed by their most essential and prominent characteristics, and usually consits of a rather free rendering of lowers, foilage, fruit, and figures, idealizing the originals by a series of arbitrary lines and curves, succesively arranged, according to the fancy of the artist. Ornament must signify or suggest something, otherwise it is vapid.
One of the most primitive of Grecian dwsings, where scroll succeeds scroll in an undulating line of beauty, had for its motive the rolling waves of the sea.
All conventional or geometrical ornament doubtless originated from natural forms ; and different nations employed different objects, and with a well-defined intention. Thus the Egyptian style consist of heroglyphics, winged gloves or disks, scarabs, the lotus, the palm, etc.
The ancient Gothic ornament adhered to a natrual reprodiction
