Acanthus

Anonymous American Maker
Study of the Cast of an Acanthus Ornament
1919
wash drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous British Makers
Art Nouveau Scrolling Acanthus
ca. 1895-1910
block-printed and embossed wallpaper
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Acanthus and Seaweed
ca. 1830
block-printed wallpaper border
Cooper-Hewitt-Smithsonian-Design-Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Acanthus Leaves alternating with Acanthus Bosses
ca. 1815
block-printed wallpaper border
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Acanthus Rinceau
ca. 1825-35
block-printed and flocked wallpaper border
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Floral Baskets with Vining Acanthus
ca. 1875-1900
block-printed and embossed wallpaper
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Italian Maker
Acanthus Scrollwork
ca. 1540-50
drawing
(formerly in the Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo in Rome)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Anonymous Italian Maker
Design for Crozier with Acanthus Motif
17th century
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Jean Le Pautre
Ornamental Frieze with Acanthus Rinceaux
ca. 1640-50
etching
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Jean Le Pautre
Ornamental Frieze with Acanthus Rinceaux
ca. 1640-50
etching
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Jean Le Pautre
Ornamental Frieze with Acanthus Rinceaux
ca. 1640-50
etching
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

William Morris
Acanthus
1887
block-printed wallpaper
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Alexis Peyrotte
Acanthus and Fretwork Ornament Design
ca. 1750-60
etching
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Alexis Peyrotte
Floral and Acanthus-Leaf Design
ca. 1750-60
etching
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Séguin et Cie (Lyon)
Textile Panel with Acanthus Motif
ca. 1805
silk satin brocaded with gold-wrapped thread
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Séguin et Cie (Lyon)
Textile Border with Acanthus Motif
ca. 1805
silk satin brocaded with gold-wrapped thread
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Ken Druse
Acanthus
ca. 2020
digital photograph
Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC

Ken Druse
Acanthus
ca. 2020
digital photograph
Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC

from The Birds

 Before the creation of Æther and Light,

Chaos and Night together were plight,

In the dungeon of Erebus foully bedight.

Nor Ocean, or Air, or substance was there,

Or solid or rare, or figure or form,

But horrible Tartarus rul'd in the storm:

    At length, in the dreary chaotical closet

Of Erebus old, was a privy deposit,

By Night the primæval in secresy laid;

A Mystical Egg, that in silence and shade

Was brooded and hatch'd; till time came about:

And Love, the delightful, in glory flew out,

In rapture and light, exulting and bright,

Sparkling and florid, with stars in his forehead,

His forehead and hair, and a flutter and flare, 

As he rose in the air, triumphantly furnish'd

To range his dominions, on glittering pinions,

All golden and azure, and blooming and burnish'd:

    He soon, in the murky Tartarean recesses,

With a hurricane's might, in his fiery caresses

Impregnated Chaos; and hastily snatch'd

To being and life, begotten and hatch'd,

The primitive Birds: but the Deities all,

The celestial Lights, the terrestrial Ball,

Were later of birth, with the dwellers on earth,

More tamely combin'd, of a temperate kind;

When chaotical mixture approach'd to a fixture.

    Our antiquity prov'd, it remains to be shown

That Love is our author, and master alone,

Like him, we can ramble, and gambol and fly

O'er ocean and earth, and aloft to the sky:

And all the world over, we're friends to the lover,

And when other means fail, we are found to prevail,

When a Peacock or Pheasant is sent as a present.

– Aristophanes (445-385 BC), translated by John Hookham Frere (1839)