s
rather the heraldic ideal than that of the natural history book which is
decoratively appropriate. At the same time it is quite possible to
combine ornamental treatment with a great deal of natural truth in
structure and character.

[Illustration (f063b): Decorative Spacing of Figures Within Geometric
Boundaries.]

Much the same principles apply to the treatment of the human figure as
an element in ornament; they should be designed, whether singly or in
groups, under the control of imaginary boundaries, and care must be
taken that in line and mass they re-echo (or are re-echoed by) other
lines which connect them with the rest of the design, if they occur as
incidents in repeating wall-paper or hanging design, for instance. It
is, however, quite possible to imagine a decorative effect produced by
the use of figures alone (see p. 105[f063b]), with something very
subsidiary in the way of connecting links of linear or floral pattern,
much as figures were used by the ancient Greek vase-painters,
beautifully distributed as ornament over the concave or convex surfaces
of the vases and vessels of the potter, the forms of which, as all good
decoration should do, they helped to express as well as to adorn.

CHAPTER V

Of the Influence of Controlling Lines, Boundaries, Spaces, and
Plans in Designing--Origin of Geometric Decorative Spaces and
Panels in Architecture--Value of Recurring Line--Tradition--
Extension--Adaptability--Geometric Structural Plans--Frieze and
Field--Ceiling Decoration--Co-operative Relation.

The function of line considered from the point of view of its
controlling influence as a boundary, or inclosure, of design, upon which
I touched in the last chapter, is a very important one, and deserves
most attentive study.

The usual problem a designer in the flat has to solve is to fill
harmoniously a given space or panel defined by a line--some simple
geometric form--such as a square or a circle, a parallelogram, a
diamond, a lunette.

[Influence of Controlling Lines, etc.]

Now it is possible to regard such spaces or panels as more or less
unrelated, and simply as the boundaries of an individual composition or
picture of some kind. Yet even so considered a certain sense of
geometric control would come in in the selection of our lines and
masses, both in regard to each other and in regard to the shape of the