File:The grammar of ornament (1868) (14774221015).jpg

Identifier: gri_c00033125008700094 (find matches)
Title: The grammar of ornament
Year: 1868 (1860s)
Authors: Jones, Owen, 1809-1874 Waring, J. B. (John Burley), 1823-1875 Westwood, J. O. (John Obadiah), 1805-1893 Wyatt, M. Digby (Matthew Digby), Sir, 1820-1877 Bernard Quaritch (Firm), publisher
Subjects: Decoration and ornament Decoration and ornament Decorative arts
Publisher: London : Bernard Quaritch, 15 Piccadilly
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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gthe slightest resemblance to those of this country, can be produced, we at once deny the assertion.An examination of the magnificent work upon the Catacombs of Rome, lately published by the FrenchGovernment, in which all the inscriptions and mural drawings executed by the early Christians areelaborately represented, will fully prove that the early Christian art and ornamentation of Rome hadno share in developing that of these islands. It is true that the grand tessellated pages of the MSS.above described bear a certain general resemblance to the tessellated pavement of the Romans, and hadthey been found only in Anglo-Saxon MSS., we might have conjectured that such pavements existingin various parts of England, and. which in the seventh and eighth centuries must still have remaineduncovered, were the originals from which the illuminator of the MSS. had taken his idea; but it is inthe Irish MSS., and in the MSS. which are clearly traceable to Irish influence, that we find these pages94
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■HHRHI^HMnHHBH CELTIC OKNAMENT. most elaborately ornamented, and we need hardly say that there are no Eoman tessellated pavementsin Ireland, the Eomans never having visited that island. It may, again, be said that the interlaced ribbon patterns, so common in the MSS., &c, were derivedfrom the Eoman tessellated and mosaic work; but in the latter the interlacing was of the simplest andmost inartificial character, bearing no resemblance to such elaborate, interlaced knotwork as is to beseen, for instance, in Plate LXIII. In fact, in the Eoman remains the ribbons are simply alternatelylaid over each other, whilst in the Celtic designs they are knotted. Another class of writers insist upon the Scandinavian origin of these ornaments, which we are stillperpetually accustomed to hear called Eunic knots, and connected with Scandinavian superstitions.It is certainly true that in the Isle of Man, as well as at Lancaster and Bewcastle, we find Eunicinscriptions upon crosses, ornamented with

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