Ornament of geometric shapes. Ornament styles. Ornament elements

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Ornament as one of the types of syncretic art has its roots in ancient times of human history. Then the decorative forms carried magical, protective, identifying, decorative functions. To this day, ornamental motifs surround people everywhere. Their use can be observed in the decoration of national costumes, interior design solutions and many other areas of human activity.

In national costumes, decoration techniques that recreate an ornament of geometric shapes are an indispensable attribute of finishing sleeves, hems, necklines of shirts and dresses.

In the formation of the interior ensemble, most designers also use similar forms of art, with the aim of emphasizing some national trait.

Classification of ornaments

Each ethnic group has its own styles of ornaments, due to mentality and geographical features. The masters themselves also often combine various elements and thus create new types of decoration. Therefore, it makes sense to consider a classification based on technical performance.

Types of ornament are represented by graphic,painting and sculpture. In form, it is geometric or vegetal, sometimes it takes fantastic forms.

The main classification features of ornamental art are its origin, purpose and content.

Types of ornament differ in construction and are called rosette, border and rapport.

• Rosette is a closed composition built using a plane or axis of symmetry. Its varieties are as follows. Mirror, axial (rotational version) and mirror-axial symmetry (mirror-rotary), on the basis of which the pattern in the circle is built.
• A border is a closed composition, an ornament, the scheme of which has a rhythmic repetition of elements in two opposite directions. It forms a stripe.
• Rapport, or static mesh ornament, is an unlimited composition in which lines (or planes of symmetry) intersect each other, forming a grid.

Sumero-Babylonian ornamental form

The developed Sumerian-Babylonian culture in the face of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Akkadians from the 4th millennium AD conveys to modern man the unique forms of Mesopotamian art. It, due to religious and mental features, is characterized by uniformity and rationalism. Sacrifices, baiting of animals and other aspects of the daily life of the Babylonians are vividly reflected in the arts and crafts.

Clearly separating the background and the image itself, the Mesopotamian ornament of geometric shapes has an extremelysimple rhythm. The combination of triangles, simple circles, squares was the dominant decorative motif, contrasting with the large central images. The absence of curved lines, the predominance of pyramidal forms make the ornament, the photo of which is given below, harmonious and balanced.

Ornament of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt left a certain imprint in the art of Mesopotamia. Religious dogmas put the afterlife of the Egyptian above the earthly. Therefore, the ornament of geometric figures that adorns the walls of tombs, sarcophagi and household items that were placed in the grave has a magical function. He seems to be trying to fill the main space of the image.

The most favorite ancient Egyptian designs that fit into the composition of the linear ornament were lotus buds and flowers. The Egyptians also used different colors structured according to human psychology. Lots of light tones, dark strokes and black contrast elements.

Aegean culture ornament

The Aegean civilization included the peoples who inhabited the territory of Asia Minor, the Balkans, as well as the surrounding islands of the Cyclades and Crete. Due to the fact that the Aegean culture is a synthesis of the Minoan and Mycenaean, the absence of religious and artistic canonical pressure contributed to the expansion of the area of ornaments to the entire inner surface of the walls of buildings. Without outlined corners, friezes, belts, having formed a rhythmic composition of endlessly unfolding andconverging lines. Ribbon spiral motifs flowing around a rosette, waves and flexible spiral curls, heart-shaped ribbon figures, plant leaves and animal figures inscribed in them - all these ornamental elements represented an endless composition in the Cretan-Mycenaean interior. The ancient masters also had at their disposal numerous colored natural pigments, with which they gave the pattern a lively dynamic look.

Zigzag and checkerboard motifs are very rare in ornamental compositions. Scientists consider them as ancient prototypes of the image of water.

Ornament of Ancient Greece

The ornamental art of Ancient Greece developed and prevailed in two directions. Namely vase painting and architecture. Through them one can trace all stages of the development of Greek fine arts. Decor from the simplest wave-like motifs and concentric circles evolve into an ornament of geometric shapes: the pictures on the left demonstrate a new stage in the artistic comprehension of symbols.

There is a division of the composition of the ornament into belts: the upper "heavenly", the central and the sea as a reflection of the life of people at sea. Here a linear meander appears - a geometric zigzag, covering the body of the vessel with solid belts and perceived as a symbol of water.

New for ancient Greek art was the appearance of the palmette - a leaf-like opening form, embedded in linear ornamental rows, crowning the capitals of columns framed with curls of currencies that were placed on commemorativeplates.

Thus, there was a merger of the internal interior forms of buildings, connected by common elements in the field of decorating architectural forms and wall painting.

Ornament of Ancient Rome

In ancient Rome there were two periods of development of art. The first, pre-republican, is associated with the predominant influence of the Etruscan culture. The second, actually Roman, is marked by the victory of Greek art, which modified Roman stylistic and artistic decoration techniques.

The Etruscans were the bearers of the richest culture of forms. They used naturalistic images of plants, animals, griffins and palmettes to decorate clothes, buildings, tombstones. In the Roman costume, Etruscan forms of decorating fabric with crosses inscribed in circles with dots were imprinted.

The Romans expanded the decorative color scheme, began to use the game of element sizes to achieve the illusion of an internal increase in the building. The Roman ornament, the photo of which is presented on the left, has naturalistic plant forms, located vertically, symmetrical, rhythmic, perfectly combined with the main artistic composition of the painting and complementing it. It uses objects of ordinary life: altars, torches, theatrical masks, musical instruments, plant fruits.

Architectural Roman style is triumphant and overloaded with details. The use of the Corinthian capital and its decoration with a huge number of currencies, palmettes and scrolls became the hallmark of the Roman building. The color scheme of this ornament is bright and rich, full of unusual combinations.

Arabic ornament

Before the adoption of Islam, the Arabs did not have their own culture. But, having conquered Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Persia, they created their own unique artistic layer, closely connected with religion, in the shortest possible time. The Qur'an's ban on the depiction of living beings brought the artistic imagination of the ancient masters to a new level. He generated a luxurious oriental pattern, known to a person far from Islam for its infinity and ornateness. Arab artists use both an ornament of geometric shapes and stylized images of plants, intertwining with each other and creating a luxurious, breathtakingly complex cover. It is located on the external and internal architectural and interior parts of temples, covers carpets and clothes of people, is printed as illustrations in books and applied to household items.

Principles of constructing an ornamental composition

Ornamental composition can be both independent and complementary.

In the first case, each element is subject to its theoretical meaning and is located relative to the classical compositional structure or according to the canons of the ancient masters. For example, details can be placed with or without the golden ratio; with the implementation of a realistic transfer of volumes and shapes, or with the use of techniques to increase the main elements and reduce secondary ones, and so on.

Ifthe ornament is used only as a component that complements the picture; its appearance and meaning are by no means reduced to simplicity. However, in this case, the dimensions of the image itself are greatly reduced, and the compositional structure is characterized by some cyclical repetition, designed not to distract the viewer's attention from the center, but to supplement its meaning with its symbolism.

The use of ornamental motifs in decorating objects

The use of national ornamental motifs in decorating things and household items has always been widespread. Modern life is characterized by the use of such patterns in the process of creating an individual style of dwelling. The ornament can decorate the objects of the garden and park ensemble. Decorating clothes with national elements sets people in a friendly mood, stimulates the interest of others in the person of its owner and simply brings an individual zest to the image of a person.

Baby ornament

Children's ornaments related to folk art do not have any significant differences from other patterns. The exception here is ritual clothes designed to celebrate any age dates and life stages of a person.