Description
Book SynopsisIn this paradigm shifting study, developed through close textual readings and sensitive analysis of artworks, Clare Lapraik Guest re-evaluates the central role of ornament in pre-modern art and literature. Moving from art and thought in antiquity to the Italian Renaissance, she examines the understandings of ornament arising from the Platonic, Aristotelian and Sophistic traditions, and the tensions which emerged from these varied meanings. The book views the Renaissance as a decisive point in the story of ornament, when its subsequent identification with style and historicism are established. It asserts ornament as a fundamental, not an accessory element in art and presents its restoration to theoretical dignity as essential to historical scholarship and aesthetic reflection.
Trade Review“substantial, deeply learned study […] excellent book […]. One is grateful for the indexes of names, places and subjects which will guide consultation and re-reading. And the illustrations are so apt and so beautiful, and bring together so many of the theoretical and physical elements, that they form a harmonious accompaniment that is also a constant source of astonishment.” - Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Trinity College Dublin (Emeritus), in: Óenach: JFMRSI Reviews 8.1 (2016), pp. 12-19
Table of ContentsAbbreviations List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction PART ONE ANCIENT PROLEGOMENA Chapter 1 Kosmos Chapter 2 Rhetoric and Illusion Chapter 3 Cosmic Décor PART TWO FRAGMENT AND DESIGN Chapter 4 Architecture and the City Chapter 5 Garland and Mosaic in literary Humanism Chapter 6 Topics and Style Chapter 7 Ornament and Disegno, Colour and Perspective Chapter 8 The City recovered, Triumph and Time Chapter 9 The Emblematic Continuum Chapter 10 Spolia and Ornamental Design Chapter 11 The Grottesche Part 1. Fragment to Field Chapter 12 The Grottesche Part 2. Signs, Topography and the Dream of Painting Conclusion Bibliography Index
