Approaches to Ornament - I

Hellenistic Greek Culture
Griffin
(acroteric figure from roof of the Pergamon Altar)
175-150 BC
marble
Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Roman Empire
Candelabrum Motif
AD 14-37
detached wall fresco (fragment)
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Roman Empire
Altar with Bucrani and Garlands
1st century AD
marble
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Roman Empire
Eros supporting Garlands
AD 100-125
marble frieze fragment
Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Johannis da Ravenna (scribe)
Biblia Latina
ca. 1350-60
vellum manuscript from Naples
bound in velvet with silver-gilt fittings
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Tullio Lombardo
Study for Frieze with Siren and Acanthus
ca. 1480-90
drawing
Harvard Art Museums

Sandro Botticelli
Madonna of the Pavilion
ca. 1490
tempera on panel
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan

Benedetto Bordone
Portable Fountain pulled by Nymph
1499
woodcut illustration
(from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna
published in Venice by Aldus Manutius)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

workshop of Antonello Gagini
Pilaster
ca. 1500-1525
marble relief
Detroit Institute of Arts

Anonymous Italian Artist
Oil Lamp with Boy on Ass's Head
ca. 1500-1525
bronze
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Pinturicchio (Bernardino di Betto)
Putti with Banderoles
ca. 1509
detached fresco
(ceiling panel)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

workshop of Giovanni della Robbia
Tabernacle Support, with Pelican feeding Young
ca. 1510-20
enameled terracotta
Detroit Institute of Arts

Anonymous Netherlandish Artist
Female Figure
ca. 1520
painted wood
(fragment of chandelier)
Bode Museum, Berlin

Agostino Musi (Agostino Veneziano)
Ewer with Tall Handle
1531
engraving
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Severo da Ravenna
Oil Lamp on Claw Foot
ca. 1535
bronze
Bode Museum, Berlin

Perino del Vaga (Pietro Buonaccorsi)
Ornamental Design for a Vessel
ca. 1540-50
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

A Still Noise

There once occurred a silence,

all dark and odorless, that commanded me

to halt and listen. How could I refuse?

And now after so many years ago

how can I remember what I heard?

I have waited too long: the dead

have become too many and too explicit,

and the living suspect nothing.

– Ernest Sandeen (1994)