Approaches to Ornament - III

Jan Claudius de Cock
Design Studies for a Cradle
1707
drawing, with added watercolor
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Serafino Barozzi
Design for Quadratura Ceiling Decoration
ca. 1775-1800
drawing, with added watercolor
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Anonymous Italian Artist
Vase
ca. 1780
marble
Detroit Institute of Arts

workshop of Francesco Piranesi
Design for Pilaster Capital with Arms of Pope Pius VI
ca. 1780
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Ignaz Unterberger
Arabesque Panel with Female Figure
1795-97
mezzotint and etching
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Anonymous French Artist
Candelabras with Bacchus Figures
ca. 1805
bronze (partly gilt)
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris

Pierre-Alexandre Poitevin
Fragments of Ancient Sculpture
at the Villa Borghese, Rome
1812
watercolor on paper
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

Anonymous French Artist
Sketch for Wallpaper Design
ca. 1820
watercolor and gouache on paper
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Drapery Study for St John the Evangelist
ca. 1820
drawing
(study for altarpiece)
Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne

Anonymous British Artist
Embossed Ornamental Card with Cameo Bust
ca. 1830
relief print
(issued as gift to journal subscribers)
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Giovanni Cornacchia after Correggio
Oval with Putti - Lunette with Adonis
1841
watercolor on paper
(print study)
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Michele Danesi
Antique Relief of Maenads
1842
lithograph
(imitating original painted surface)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Friederike Meinert
Green Room at Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin
1843
watercolor
Bildgalerie von Sanssouci, Potsdam

Giovanni Bianchi
Design for Stage Set with Palatial Hall
1856
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Alexis-Joseph Mazerolle
Opium
1859
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

Adolfo Cellini
Cardinal's Coat of Arms supported by Putti
1859
gouache on paper
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Street Yarn

Roses caged in windows, heighten
Your faint blooms today;

Silks and sheeny satins, brighten;

He has passed this way!

Could ye keep his fleeting presence

Gone beyond recall,

But a little of his essence,

I would have you all.

Arabesque so quaint and shady,

That mightst catch his eye

To adorn a stately lady

Ere her hour went by,

Canst assure me that his glancing

Rested on thy fold?

Did that set your purple dancing?

Wake the sleepy gold?

Ye neglected apple-venders

Mouldering in the street,

Did he curse between your tenders,

Spurning with his feet?

Then must I an alms deliver

For his graceless pride;

Could I buy his sins forever, 

I'd not be denied.

Paying patiently his ransom

Never conscience pricked;

Cheating Justice of her handsome

Heartless derelict. 

Did he view thee, ancient steeple,

With thy weird clock-face,

Frowning down on sinful people

Passing out of grace?

Nay, respond not to my question

With thy prate of time:

Things to which my soul must hasten

Lie beyond thy chime.

With no circumstance to screen us,

We must meet again:

I shall bid God judge between us,

Answering Amen.

– Julia Ward Howe (1866)