746

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT ON DESIGN.

[Class XXX.

•with them, and it is consequently thought indispensableto the manufacture that Eastern forms and Eastern treat-ments should be applied to these goods. Tlius for a longtime such works were but mere imitations, and the inven-tion of the artist was less taxed than the laborious skillof the copyist. It is due, however, to the French de-signers to say, that they have of late made earnest studyof the works from Cashmere and Persia , not with anintent to continue mere imitators, but to obtain the prin-ciples on which the Eastern artist designed; and amongthose who have studied the Indian mode of ornamenta-tion, the Messrs. Berrus (France, 55, p. 1174), must bespoken of as having greatly distinguished themselveswhere many are competitors.

There is nothing more difficult than to disabuse theworld of a rooted error, and as the multitude, who rarelyunderstand the true cause of excellence, have adoptedthe idea that the form called the Indian pine is the dis-tinguishing characteristic of Cashmere patterns, thisform is supposed to be necessary to the sale of shawls ofthis fabric, and is therefore the prominent or leadingfeature in all the European imitations and repetitions ofthese goods. But there are principles of excellence inthe designs from India and the East that are the realcauses of their beauty, apart from any leading form, and,unless these are understood and practised, the forms alonewill help but little towards the rich effects so constantlyfound in those works.

The Indian pine, moreover, is not present in allCashmere shawls; in some it is either greatly suppressedor entirely absent. Whatever may have been the causeof its introduction there, whether as a sacred or nationalsymbol, or as used only for the supposed beauty of itscurves, its constant repetition in works intended for Eu-ropean wearers is, to say the least of it, a cause of greatmonotony, and implies a want of invention on the part ofthe designer, whose skill should supply some novel appli-cation of ornament to suph fabrics to wean the publicfrom this stock idea on the subject. But in doing this,care should be taken to keep in mind those principleswhich arc the true cause of the beauty of the Indianfabrics, comprising their treatment of form, treatment ofcolour, beauty of line, and due consideration of the ma-terial. The treatment of form is one of the essential ex-cellences of the Cashmere designs. The objects used inornamental decoration are always, for woven fabrics,treated quite flatly, as is the case, indeed, in all theEastern and Indian works, whether these consist of orna-mental forms having no apparent relation to naturalobjects, of flowers, foliage, or even of birds or animals.There is hardly any distance in which this rule has beenoverlooked. Moreover, excepting in the ground, largemasses are rarely introduced, but large leading forms (asthe Indian pine, before spoken of) are filled in with aminute diaper of smaller forms, mostly floral, and thebeauty is enhanced by the graceful curves and elegantflow of these leading lines. The colours also are subjectto a general rule; they consist of simple flat tints with-out shading, each flower, or petal, where flowers areused, each leaf in foliage, being rendered by one tint. Inthe best Cashmere shawls these inner diapering formsare very minute, and thus a broken texture of colour isgiven to the surface ornamented. The tints, where inlarge masses, as in some of the embroidered ornament,have rather a tendency to secondaries; thus purple,green, and gold prevail, and the red is inclined towardsthe colour of the pigment called Indian red, or in somecases to pink, which is a diluted crimson (a red withblue in it): thus the general hue has rather the directionof coolness; this is particularly seen in the carpets also,both Indian and Persian, as has been before remarked.In the Cashmere woven shawls, if pure tints are used,which may be the case, these tints become broken by themixture of colour produced by the threads of other tintscoming to the surface in them in the process of weaving,thus neutralizing their force and producing the same ne-gative tendency; invariably flat forms without per-spective or imitative rendering, flat tints without shading,and single hues of the same colour, are the principles ofthe designer. The due consideration as well of the ma-

terial as of the use to which the fabric is to be applied isevident both from the nature of the ornament, which neverdraws peculiar attention to itself, and from the texture,since, notwithstanding the use even of metallic threadsin the ornamental design, the Indian fabrics seem neverto lose the property of flowing in beautiful folds, andadapting themselves to every motion of the wearer, anexcellence not so constantly present in the European ma-nufacturers. Now the French designers, to whom itseems clear that manufacturers are almost wholly in-debted for their designs, although they have made muchstudy of principles, seem either to have overlooked some,or to have willingly ignored them; either in deference tothe ruling idea entertained by the public, or in order toobtain novelty; but novelty should never be sought at asacrifice of truth. Let the designer throw away, if hepleases, the Indian forms—the Indian pine form, perhaps,the sooner the better, since it never had any symbolicalsignificance with us, and it has long ceased to have beautyof line, tormented as it is into every possible variation,from the normal form—and avoiding mere imitationsendeavour after a treatment in harmony with European taste and feelings.

Thus, for instance, geometrical leading forms are some-times used in the Cashmere shawls, and such treatmentmight be most successful in the hands of European artists,considering the varied and complicated combinations offlat forms open to their choice. The Byzantine tracery,guillocbes, or even the graceful forms of the Renaissance ,if perfect flatness were preserved, might be diapered withcolour in the Indian manner ; but the tide seems to haveset in quite the contrary direction,—the leading formsof the Eastern patterns are kept, the just principles aredisregarded; the Indian pine, exaggerated often to ex-treme caricature, is applied not merely to shawls but toother goods; the diaper, moreover, instead of being flat,is composed of flowers often the size of nature, iniitativelyand perspectively drawn, and sometimes most elaboratelyshaded. Thus simplicity is lost—the principle of flatnessis totally disregarded—the colour not being in flat tints,and the broken texture of surface entirely done awaywith; the result has a certain showy beauty, but it ismeretricious and unsound; it may be the novelty of aseason, but it is built on a false foundation and will neverlast.

There is a circumstance connected with floral ornamentwhich hardly seems to have had proper consideration ; itdeserves, however, some attention. Many of the flowersused by us as ornament are not in a state of nature, buthave already been subjected to another art, the art of thehorticulturist, subjected by him to a process of cultiva-tion which unnaturally stimulates the growth of the parts,and by means of which, the stamens being converted intopetals, the flower becomes doubled and rendered artificial—more beautiful, perhaps, as a flower, but less tractable asornament, and far less simple, far less fitted for that fiatdisplay which is required by some fabrics. By thesemeans' the five-petalled rose, the five-petalled pink, &c.,become a bunch of petals; and if we would see how en-tirely some flowers are thus rendered artificial, the dahliamay be instanced as an example: in its simple state ithas* a single border of petals with a central disk,—bycultivation it is a cluster of petals, so regularly disposedas hardly to be distinguished from a rosette of ribbonsmade up by the milliner. Flowers in this state are alreadyconventionalized by another art ere the designer takesthem in hand, and the result is analogous to the ease ofthe artist who copies the actions and passions of the stageinstead of seeking them in their simple reality in commonlife. Moreover, flowers in a natural state have simpleand clear characteristics which they often lose in cultiva-tion, and it is the difficulty of duly expressing them, asartificially changed by cultivation, that seems in somedegree to have led to the false manner of treating themin the ornamentation of woven or printed fabrics.

To return to the consideration of the fabrics them-selves. The new mode of varying the Indian treatmentabove described is not so prevalent among the “designs”as it is in the fabrics exhibited, only one exhibitor of de-signs for shawls showing example of this extreme depar-