The Language of Ornament

Preface 6(12) Introduction What is Ornament? 12(10) Appreciating Ornament 22(68) The Lost Art of Seeing The Structure of Ornament The Single Image as Ornament Pattern-Books and the Illusion of Accuracy The Dialogue of Ornament and Functional Form Identifying Ornamental Styles Sketches in Art History: The Three Ages of Ornament 90(56) Paleolithic: A False Dawn? Neolithic: The Great Apprenticeship The Last Five Thousand Years: A Creative Explosion Ornament and Cultural Exchange The Paisley Pattern: A Paradigm of Cultural Exchange The Evolution of `Multinational' Patterns The Medallion Style The Vine-Scroll Square Kufic Ogival Patterns Interlace Ornament as a Conventional System 146(38) Convention in Life and Art Ornament as a Challenge to Reality Literalism, Naturalism, and Stylization The Artistic Power of Materials and Techniques Virtuosity and its Discontents Ornament in the Age of Modernism 184(32) Prelude to Revolution Ornament and Craft in the Modern World Adolf Loos and the End of Artifice Material-Based and Process-Based Ornament The Flowering of Modernist Ornament Determinate and Indeterminate Form Matisse and Ornament Ornament After Modernism Select Bibliography 216(2) List of Illustrations 218(5) Index 223