The passage of Isaiah (iii, 18-23) to which Ave have already referred may be rendered as follows : (18) " In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their anklets (CD-^i akasim), and their lace caps (D''D'^3'J, shebisini ; rather, perhaps, disks attached to the neck- lace), and their necklaces (^lunettes); (19) the ear-pen- dants, and the bracelets, and the light veils ; (20) the turbans, and the step -chains, and the girdles, and the scent-bottles, and the amulets; (21) the rings and nose- rings; (22) tlie state- dresses, and the cloaks, and the shawls, and the j^uises ; (23) the mirrors, and the fine linen shirts, and the turbans, and the light dresses.''
The following extracts from the Mishna (Sabb. cap. vi) illustrate the subject of this article, it being premised that the object of the inquiry was to ascertain what con- stituted a iiroper article of dress, and what might be re- garded by rabbinical refinement as a burden : "A woman must not go out (on the Sabbath) with linen or woollen laces, nor with the straps on her head ; nor with a frontlet and pendants thereto, unless sewn to her cap ; nor with a golden tower (i.e. an ornament in the sliape of a tower) ; nor witli a tight gold chain; nor with nose-rings; nor with finger-rings on which there is no seal ; nor with a needle without an eye (§ 1) ; nor with a needle that has an eye; nor witli a finger-ring tluit has a seal on it ; nor with a diadem ; nor with a smelling-bottle or balm-fiask (§ 3). A man is not to go out . . . with an amulet, un- less it be by a distinguished sage (§ 2) : knee -buckles
are clean, and a man may go out with them ; step-chains are liable to become unclean, and a man must not go out with them" (§ 4). — Smith, See each article named in its place.
Ornaments (or Decorations), Architectural, are additions made to simple constructive features, or to the form of these features, fur the purpose of embel- lishment or elegance. Thus the Doric shaft, while an- swering the constructive purposes of a simple square or round pier, is ornamented with fluting ; and its capital, with its beautifully proportioned echinus and abacus, supports as a plain slab would do the weight of the entablature. The other classic orders illustrate this in a richer manner. Thus the Corinthian column, with its fluted and elegant shaft, resting on an ornamented base, and crowned by an ornamented capital, takes the place of what might have been, had utility alone been consulted, a plain pier of rubble-work, with a rough stone to rest upon, and another on the top to receive the load.
In classic architecture, as in every good stj'le, the same principle pervades all the ornamental features, viz. that they are constructive features ornamejited in a manner suitable to their use; for instance, a column be- ing a member for support, should be of such a form as to denote this ; the constructive use of a cornice being to protect the top of the wall, and to shield the front of it from the rain and sun, it should be made of such a form as to do this, and also to look as if it did it — to express its purpose. In classic architecture, the cornice consists of several members, in which the constructive decoration is well seen ; the mutules and modillions beautifidly indicating in an ornamental manner their original use, while the leaf enrichments of the small mouldings give life and animation to the building. In medieval art the same principle prevails in a much greater degree, and over a more complex system of construction. The shafts, with their elegant and pur- pose-like bases and caps, are arranged so that each sup- ports a separate member of the vaulting. The arch mouldings are divided so as to indicate the rings of their constructive formation. The buttresses, so ele- gant in outline, express the part they serve in sup- porting the vaulting; the pinnacles, with their orna- mental finials, are the decorated dead-weights which stead}' the buttresses. The foliage and smaller orna- ments are also beautifully and suitably applied, as the growth and vigor of the supporting capitals and cor- bels, and the running foliage of the string-courses, arch- mouldings, etc., fully illustrate.
There are, no doubt, many styles of art to which these remarks can hardly be said to apply ; as, for ex- ample, the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Hindil styles, where we find many features applied in a manner meant to be ornamental, although actually contrary to their con- structive use. In these styles (and also in Greek architecture), human figures, bulls, and other animals are placed as columns to carry the weight of a super- incumbent mass. This is evidently wrong in princi- ple, except when the figure is placed in an attitude to indicate that he is supporting a weight, as the Greek Atlantes do ; but in the former cases religious notions seem to have overcome true artistic feeling. There are also many forms of ornament used in all styles the origin of which is obscure and their advantage doubt- ful ; such are the zigzag, chevron, billet, etc., so com- mon in early mediaival art, and the scrolls of Ionic and Indian art, and the complications of the interlacing work of the North in the Middle Ages. Such things may be admissible in colored decoration, such as the confused patterns of Saracenic art, and the shell-pat- terns of Indian art ; but where ornamental form is wanted, unless the requirements of the construction are carefully followed as the guide to the decoration, all principle is lost, and the ornament rinis wild. This has frequently occurred in the history of art, and in no case more markedly than in the art of the Kenaissance.