Ornament and European Modernism

These in-depth, historical and critical essays study the meaning of ornament, the role it played in the formation of modernism, and its theoretical importance between the mid-nineteenth century and the late twentieth century in England and Germany.

These in-depth, historical, and critical essays study the meaning of ornament, the role it played in the formation of modernism, and its theoretical importance between the mid-nineteenth century and the late twentieth century in England and Germany. Ranging from Owen Jones to Ernst Gombrich through Gottfried Semper, Alois Riegl, August Schmarsow, Wilhelm Worringer, Adolf Loos, Henry van de Velde, and Hermann Muthesius, the contributors show how artistic theories are deeply related to the art practice of their own times, and how ornament is imbued with historical and social meaning.

Autorentext

Loretta Vandi ***(Ph.D., Université de Lausanne, 1998) is Professor of Art History at the Scuola del Libro in Urbino. She has held four Samuel H. Kress fellowships. Her publications include La trasformazione del motivo dell'acanto dall'antichità al XV secolo (2002), Il Manoscritto Oliveriano 1 (2004), and Four Essays* (2007).

Inhalt

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Contributors's Biographies

Introduction

Chapter One

Owen Jones's Theory of Ornament

Isabelle J. Frank

Chapter Two

Function, Fiction, Flux and Silence:

Ornamental Theory, Science, and the Modern Search for Aesthetic Volition

Debra K. Schafter

Chapter Three

August Schmarsow's Theory of Ornament

Christiane Hertel

Chapter Four

The Veil of Truth?

Van de Velde, Muthesius, and the Battle over Ornament in Modern Architecture

Ole W. Fischer

Chapter Five

Ornament, Image, and Tension in Ernst Gombrich's Theory of PerceptionLoretta Vandi & Pavlos Jerenis

Bibliography