Wakges: britain

Showing posts with label britain. Show all posts

Monday, April 5, 2010

Owen Jones and Roman Ornament

Illustration: Roman Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

The chapter dedicated to Roman Ornament in Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament published in 1856, is purposely short both in text and illustrative plates. Compared to the corresponding chapter on Greek Ornament, which has eight plates to the Roman three, it would appear that Jones was trying to underline a point. He was in fact being purposeful in drawing out the inadequacies, as he saw them, between the cultures of Greece and Rome.

Jones, along with many other critics in mid-Victorian Britain, saw Rome as an all but pale imitation of Greece, in all aspects whether that be cultural, political or decorative. Jones takes no time at all in referring to Roman ornamentation as crude and full of woeful attempts at self-glorification and gratification.

Illustration: Fragment in white marble from the Mattei Palace, Rome from Examples of Ornamental Sculpture in Architecture by Lewis Vulliamy.

This is an interesting stand to take in Britain at the time. Britain was a nation that in many respects was beginning to see itself and its empire as the natural successor to that of Rome. Many imperialists saw a definite link between Britain the former colony and province of Rome, and Rome itself. Many believed that the baton of imperialism was being handed enthusiastically to the British by the old classical empire. However, it must be remembered that the French, German and Russian empires equally saw themselves as the rightful inheritors of Rome, with the United States taking a slightly different position in being handed the baton of continuity from Republican Rome. It could be said that there were so many batons being metaphorically handed out that it must have been confusing to know who was deemed the legitimate heir, if any, of the classical empire.

Illustration: Roman Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Jones was in no doubt as to the intellectual and cultural gulf between Greece and Rome. He must have been well aware of the jingoistic speeches of imperialists and their general kidnapping of past cultures in order to give their present course legitimacy. It would be interesting to wonder whether Jones references to the Roman bankruptcy of ideas and crude and blatant attempts at self-glorification, was purely scholarly on Jones part, or were perhaps, at least on some level, critical of some of the excessive analogies drawn by some of the more excitable imperialists and their supporters.

As far as Roman decoration itself is concerned, Jones spends most of the chapter dealing with the famous acanthus leaf and its widescale use in Roman ornament and decoration. He felt that Romans used the popular leaf as a means of disguising their crude attempts at 'improving' on Greek definitions of decoration. Of course, as far as Jones was concerned, all attempts failed miserably. However, he has given us a large full sized illustration of an acanthus leaf from nature. It appears very much like a large cabbage leaf, which could also be taken as a largely unsubtle slur at Rome's expense.

Illustration: Corinthian and Composite Capitals from The Architectural Antiquities of Rome by G L Taylor & Crecy, 1821.

Nothing of course is that simple and the differences and similarities between the cultures of Greece and Rome are much more complex than many mid-Victorians were willing to admit. To many scholarly critics Greece was to be identified with the intellectual pursuit of perfection, while Rome was to be seen as a crude, aggressive and profit motivated culture. Analogies could easily be drawn between the mid-Victorian hallowed and insular environment of university life and that of the free-market economy that was driving Britain towards economic and political domination.

Perhaps in the end Jones drew a conscious or unconscious analogy between the Roman and British Empire, with Rome handing down the legacy of a large cabbage leaf.

Illustration: The Acanthus leaf from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Further reading links:
The Grammar of Ornament: All 100 Color Plates from the Folio Edition of the Great Victorian Sourcebook of Historic Design (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Grammar of Ornament: A Monumental Work of Art
The Grammar of Ornament. Folio Edition
The Roman House and Social Identity
Hope's Greek and Roman Designs CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)
Roman Architecture (Great Ages of World Architecture)
Roman decorative art
Pompeiana: The Topography, Edifices, and Ornaments of Pompeii (Cambridge Library Collection - Classics)
Ornament and the Grotesque: Fantastical Decoration from Antiquity to Art Nouveau
Etruscan and Republican Roman Mouldings (University Museum Monograph)
Ancient Italian Ornament CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)
The Architectural Ornament of Diocletian's Palace at Split (bar s)
Style and Function in Roman Decoration
Roman Architectural Ornament in Britain (bar)
Domus: Wall Painting in the Roman House (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum)

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Archibald Knox and the British Interpretation of Art Nouveau

Illustration: Archibald Knox. Textile design, 1900.

Archibald Knox is probably rightly best known for his domestic metalwork design pieces, and particularly for the work he produced for the retail outlet of Liberty. However, he was also involved in textile design work and some of the pattern work produced by him at the turn of the twentieth century, though it might not have had the same popularity as some of the main textile and wallpaper design work of the day, can still be seen as fine examples of not only a late Victorian decorative style, but an insight into the British interpretation of the new European Art Nouveau decorative style.

The Art Nouveau movement had managed to instil itself into many aspects of the decorative arts in large parts of Europe by 1900. However, Britain with its self imposed isolationist approach to the continent, was less than enthusiastic and at first tried to ignore the movement altogether, hoping that it was a transitory decorative effect that would have its moment and then fade, hopefully without the British decorative industry having to invest any time or money in the style.

Illustration: Archibald Knox. Textile design, 1900.

It became apparent as the 1890s gathered pace, that the decorative movement was not fading, and if anything was gathering strength as the decade progressed. The British could no longer ignore the style, which was beginning to prove popular with elements of the general public, and therefore had to deal with the importation of yet another European decorative movement. However, the British have always had a tendency of changing and even developing decorative styles to suit their own needs and tastes, which is what they did with the Art Nouveau movement. While certain elements were swallowed whole, such as the sinuous and twisting effects that were such an integral part of Art Nouveau, and the dependence on the natural world as an inspiration, changes were made and these can be seen in part at least, in the examples of textile design work by Archibald Knox shown in this article.

All the designs were produced in 1900, which could probably be said to be the height of the Art Nouveau movement, and while they do follow the tenets of the French style, they do not follow it that closely. Knox has used the element of the sinuous curve not as a symbolic interpretation of the sensuous nature of the natural world, but as a genuine observation of the curve as seen in the natural world. Therefore, we see the portrayal of the movement of water and the curve of a bird's tail feather. While the French system of Art Nouveau only allowed nature to play a secondary and supportive role to that of ornamentation and decoration, the version Knox and many other British designers used, allowed the observation of the natural world to play a much larger part in the design work, drawing closer similarities to the work and style of William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement, rather than that of the French. Knox's portrayal of foliage, while paying a certain amount of homage to Art Nouveau and its new emphasis on style over representation, is still not convincing as a piece of Art Nouveau decoration in the French style.

Illustration: Archibald Knox. Textile design, 1900.

These pieces by Knox do not so much show the hesitancy or timidity of British tastes as compared to the French, but have much more to say about the British love of nature and its accurate and faithful portrayal within the realms of the decorative arts. Knox provided, with these examples of textile design work, a subtle but still rich example of decorative work that took some of the best elements of European contemporary design, diluted them and then wove them into the British tradition of placing the affection held for the natural world at the centre of decoration, rather than the periphery.

Britain's lukewarm approach towards the Art Nouveau movement should be seen within the context of a culture that had its own special relationship with nature, at least in the context of decoration, and that all subsequent movements would have to take that relationship into consideration if they were to succeed.

Further reading links:
Archibald Knox
Designs of Archibald Knox for Liberty & Co
Journal of the Archibald Knox Society
Archibald Knox and Mary Seton Watts - Modern Celtic Art Garden Pottery
Art Nouveau: Utopia: Reconciling the Irreconcilable (Taschen's 25th Anniversary Special Editions Series)
ART NOUVEAU (LCT)
Treasury of Art Nouveau Design & Ornament (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Art Nouveau Floral Patterns and Stencil Designs in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
422 Art Nouveau Designs and Motifs in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
300 Art Nouveau Designs and Motifs in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Art Nouveau: An Anthology of Design and Illustration from "The Studio" (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Art Nouveau Motifs and Vignettes (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Art Nouveau Flowers (Design Source Books)
Art Nouveau (Architecture and Design Library)
Art Nouveau Floral Designs (The Treasury of Decorative Art)
The Art Nouveau Style
Art Nouveau (DK Collector's Guides)
A Guide to Art Nouveau Style

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Edward Burne-Jones 'Quest for the Holy Grail' Tapestries

Illustration: Edward Burne Jones. The Failure of Sir Gawaine; Sir Gawaine & Sir Uwaine at the Ruined Chapel.

The five illustrations of this article are part of a sequence of ten tapestries, six major panels and four linking pieces, designed by Edward Burne-Jones and produced by Morris & Co.

Based on the King Arthur legend of the knightly quest for the Holy Grail, it was completed at the very end of the nineteenth century and can be seen as perhaps one of the last grand romantic gestures of the era.

Burne-Jones, though the major contributor to the tapestries, was not the only designer. While he produced the major figurative pieces of the tapestry sequence, William Morris designed the heraldry aspects while John Henry Dearle designed much of the decorative detail. In this way it can be seen as a joint project between Burne-Jones and Morris & Co.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by the Strange Damsel.

This was undoubtedly the largest single tapestry contract that Morris & Co ever had to deal with, and was produced for William Knox D'Arcy for the dining room of Stanmore Hall, his Middlesex home.

However, by the time that this tapestry sequence had been commissioned, before even being woven, both the ideal behind the tapestries and the makers themselves, Morris & Co, were being seen as somewhat quaint and the commission itself, as a little old fashioned, the subject being deemed by the end of the nineteenth century, as more appropriate for a child than an adult.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. The Attainment; the Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors & Sir Percival.

Morris himself had died in 1896, before the tapestries were completed, though his company continued to function after his death. But even before his death, the company which had been so completely identified with his strident personality, was struggling to compete with a number of other companies that were producing similar 'art furniture and accessories' pitched at the wealthy middle classes.

Morris's competitors were gaining ground for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being that they usually retailed pieces at a fraction of the cost of Morris & Co. Admittedly, usually because they were retailing mass-produced work that gave the appearance of hand-production. Another reason was that many of Morris's rivals were usually more aware of and linked with, the current fashions of the day. Morris, and therefore his company, thought that he was above or at least immune to the fickleness of the fashionable set but still had their loyalty, he was not and he didn't, and his company suffered as a consequence.

Illustration: Edward Burne-Jones. The Ship.

However, although this was basically considered as a Burne-Jones project and the artist had a long history connecting him to both Morris and the company, the sequence of tapestries was grudgingly favoured by the contemporary critics. Although many saw the subject matter as old fashioned, sentimental and even childish, none could fault Burne-Jones and his extraordinary draughtsmanship.

This could also be seen as the last major work produced by Burne-Jones, as he died in 1898. It seems a fitting end to a largely successful career. While we have lost the ideas behind the sentimentality of the work, as they had begun to when they were originally designed, the tapestries seem to be as startlingly beautiful to us today as they were over a hundred years ago.