Classical Ornament

Amazing! I had just thought these were samples of decorative arts but they are actually authentic images of classical ornaments from excavations, existing architecture, etc. A book filled with simple, lined images (no color) it is a great resource for an artistically-minded person looking for inspiration among architecture!

This is a book I'm sure both students and enthusiasts of architecture are likely to find very relevant and useful. The designs included are easy to reference to or even copy within the context of a study or for inspiration.

This is a interesting collection of “royalty-free illustrations”, as the brief introduction puts it.

Gorgeous art.

Amazing detail.

These sculptures are so ornate, and the illustrations are perfect - it’s easy to forget they are illustrations. Someone spent the time to draw these sculptures and engravings.

I thought it was fascinating to see the depictions of myth.

Is Plate 56 the Fisher King?

I love the Medusa (Plate 61).

The Gryphon in between Plates 70 and 71 is wonderful.

But while this is a fantastic collection of art, one major thing that was missing is that it would have been great to read a little more about them - where they were from, the timeframe each item was crafted. But I suppose since these drawings were first compiled 150 years ago, it might be difficult to determine where and when each came from. It was almost as if someone got the rights to print this book, or these illustrations, and didn’t put any thought into adding anything to it.

But it is nice to look at.

Recommended if you love beautiful illustrations, or are a student of art or graphic design.

'Classical Ornament' by C. Thierry is a reprint of a collection first published in Germany in the 1860s. There are 71 royalty free plates of line drawings of ornamentation.

There are floral designs and animal designs. The designs are from ancient Greece and Rome. The designs are reproduced as line drawings in black and white. At around $12, it's a cheap source for royalty free art.

I liked it because it gave me a chance to study these sort of designs a bit closer. I admire the detail that went into this art.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

CLASSICAL ORNAMENT is just that, drawings of classical ornamentation on ancient, classical tombs, buildings, and other items. There are no words save for the captions that cite some locations of the ornamentation. I flipped through it all in one night. The detail in the drawings, which were done in the 1860s, is to be admired and it was interesting to see how many classical, ancient things we use in our art and even in our slogans and logos today.

(I received a copy of CLASSICAL ORNAMENT through NetGalley and Dover Publications in exchange for an honest and original review.)

I love Dover Books and have loads of them. A visit to the Dover Bookshop on Earlham Street in Covent Garden was always a treat when I was at college and then working in London. It featured a design donated by Eduardo Paolozzi, a long time fan of the shop and the shop was a draw for artists and designers featuring everything from Japanese border patterns to Victorian medical illustrations. There were books on photography, architecture, graphic design, fashion and at the back a terrific children’s section including Paper Doll Cut Out Books (Why I have one of Joan Crawford is anyone’s guess – you can apparently get them for David Bowie and Adele now as well!)

The shop was a treasure trove of books, an image library specialising in largely royalty free illustrations and used by all sorts of designers from Paul Smith to Vivienne Westwood. Unfortunately with the area around Earlham Street moving from niche specialist shops to larger chains and free images being easily sourced online, after twenty seven years the shop had to close. Thankfully, Dover Books (an American company) are still available and as marvellous as ever. This book “Classical Ornament” by C.Thierry was originally compiled in the 1860s. It presents more than 70 illustrations of classical ornament, consisting of architectural elements from structures such as the Parthenon, the Acropolis, the Vatican Museum and other buildings. The book is aimed at a pretty niche market, students of architecture and the decorative arts, graphic artists, designers and historians. With only 70 or so precisely detailed renderings on 74 pages it is hardly exhaustive on the subject but is excellent and the images are of course, royalty free.

If classical ornament is your thing then Heck’s Pictorial Archive of Art and Architecture is worth looking out for, with over 2,200 illustrations it’s a veritable treasure trove and also printed by Dover Books.
Empire Style Design and Ornament, (again published by Dover Books) is a collection of designs for architectural ornaments manufactured by Joseph Beunat in 1813 and contains everything that pertains to the decoration of rooms, such as panels, overdoors, mirror friezes, wall friezes, pilasters, door posts etc, it’s another winner in my mind as is Decor Architectural (Les Editions du Carrousel).

I went looking into this book for an odd reason - I wanted to evaluate it as a source for reenactors and costumers. And it did not disappoint! While these are all architectural/sculptural motifs, many of the examples feature geometric, spiralling patterns that could be transferred to a peplos or chiton. They're also suitable for embroidering on white muslin Neoclassical gowns or printing on the edges of a red wool shawl, and some of the more architectural drawings could easily be used as a base for metallic or polychrome embroidery on a reticule.

My only quibble is that these illustrations are presented with minimal context, only occasionally with the name of the source they were copied from, and never with the approximate date of carving. This doesn't detract from its use as a collection of images and is a reflection on academic standards of the 1860s rather than Dover, but it would have been interesting to know more details about the originals.

an interesting read.