A glossary of Robert Adam’s neo-Classical ornament

Extract

Thanks, dear Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz.
Thanks, dear Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern.
Hamlet, 11. 1.

As with people, so too with ornament: we need to know the names of the phenomena we observe if we are to appreciate, analyse, and discuss them without mistaking one thing for another. For those wishing to describe the details of Robert Adam’s decorative schemes, a vague confusion about the names of his motifs has long encumbered communication. Adam’s ornamental schemes were formed from rearrangements of a small core of decorative elements, which he selected from the Greek, Roman, and Renaissance sources he studied on his Grand Tour and in contemporary publications. Adam’s decorative vocabulary was efficient and pleasing; he stylized and geometricized the motifs he chose, and by varying their size, treatment, and colour, was able to make countless different compositions from them.