The language of ornament / James Trilling.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 216-217) and index.

Preface -- Introduction : What is ornament? -- Appreciating ornament -- Sketches in art history : the three ages of ornament -- Ornament as a conventional system -- Ornament in the age of modernism.

Ornament, the art of decorative patterning, has given rise to some of the most spectacular creations of human imagination and skill. Although the modernist emphasis on unadorned form pushed ornament to the margins of Western taste in the twentieth century, an ornamental revival is now under way." "James Trilling presents a variety of ornament from the Paleolithic age to the present day, enabling the reader to appreciate both its inherent beauty and its historical importance, whether in the monumental architecture of Mycenean Greece or the inlaid vessels of Zhou dynasty China, in the bronze mirrors of early Celtic Britain or the carved and woven ornament of Native Americans. He balances the characteristics of individual styles against their evolution and their role in contacts between cultures, focusing on patterns which have migrated across large stretches of time and space." "The Language of Ornament is a companion and guide to the global panorama of ornament in terms that will be of equal value to craftworkers, collectors and students of art history.