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                              THE EXHIBITION AS A LESSON IN TASTE.
                                                               distinctive
characteristics of each are so many elements of novelty
                                                               of arrangements
which every nation may appropriate according to
                                                               its own views
and practice.
                                                                 Our present
subject of consideration is how far British manu-
             <:fA?                     ( t                     facturers
may derive advantage from this congress of national
                                                               peculiarities
of design.
                                                                 Ornament
is essentially of the province of the eye; it is beau-
               -'Px4E   BX~   4B['i'1ou                        tiful appearances
that we require, not recondite ideas, in works ot
                                                               MXOrnamentalArt:
these maybe associated with ornament, but they
                                                               must be kept
perfectly subject to the mere principles of beauty
                                                               of arrangement
of the material forms. Dramatic, allegoric, and
                                                               ornamental
art are totally distinct in their development; they may
                                                               be combined,
but one can never be the substitute of another. If
                                                               dramatic or
allegorical compositions are introduced as portions of
                                                               an ornamental
scheme, they must be treated upon the symmetrical
                                                               or ornamental
principle. Whatever other principle we may asso-
                                                               ciate with
the ornamental, must be kept secondary to iject, if we
                                                               are desirous
of making a good design  introduce what symbols we
                                                               will, they
must be made subject to the ruling principles of ornament
       iA                                                     m > \ \
^ ffi-                               itself, or, however good the symbolism,
our design is a mere crudity
                      W g = } . t i!* 4 iiV - ~~~~in Art...-X
                                                                  Some general
examination of ornament in its characteristic
                                                                developments
of various times and nations, or what are technically
                                                                called styles,
must necessarily precede our examination of thel
                                                                modern expressions
of ornamental art as now displayed in the
                                                                Great Industrial
Exhibition.
                                                                  We shall
find that the elements of form are constant in all cases;
                                                                they are
but variously treated: this, in fact, must be so, if a Style i
                                                                be founded
upon any principles at all; and all those styles which
                                                                have carried
with them the feelings of ages, could not be otherwise
  AN ESSAY ON ORNAMENTAL ART AS DISPLAYED IN THE INDUSTRIAL    than based
upon some fixed natural laws.   How   certain  A-
    EXHIBITION IN HYDE PARK, IN WHICH THE DIFFERENT STYLES     tions of form
and colour happen, to be so universal a desire, that
       ARE COMPARED WITH A VIEW TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF          the varieties
of their arrangements have occupied all people from
                 TASTE IN HOME MANUFACTURES.*
                                                                the remotest
times, is a question of both material and psychological
          BY  RALPH     NICHOLSON      WORNUM.                  interest.
                                                                  Universal
efforts show a universal want, and beauty of effect and
 " It is known that the Taste is improved exactly as we improve our
judgment; by  decoration are no more a luxury in a civilised state of society
than
    extedingour nowldgeby a steady attention to our object, and by frequent
exercise.
Tey who havenottaken these metehodtsif ftnhei~r taste decides quickly, it
is alway   warmth or clothing are a luxury to any state: the mind, as the
uncertainly; and their quickness is owing to their presumption and rashness,
and not body, makes everything necessary that it is capable of peirmanently
                                                                enjoyig.
 Ornament is one of the mind's necessities, which it
                     "Conam.r tennes Grandia".gratifies by means
of the eye.                                         So it has been diseovered
to be
                     __________________________                again an essential
element in commercial prosperity. This was not
                                                                so at first,
because in a less cultivated state we are quite satisfied
                       I.-Introduction.                        with the gratification
of our merely physical wants; but in an
                                                                advanced
state, the more extensive wants of the mind demand still
                             HERE is perhaps no province of more pressingly
to be satisfied. Hence ornament is now as material
                             industry, in which the advantages an interest
in a commercial community as the raw materials of
        £Hg3 ) D en  a m     ~industry, in which the advantages manufacture
themselves.
                               of an intercommunication of idea   auacuetemevs
                               )  of are more dirct, than ic n thatdeof In
early stages of manufactures, it is mechanical fitness that is
                               are more directueand this   us   the object
of competition: as society advances, it is necessary to
                               b  more especially the case when  combine
elegance with fitness; and those who cannot see this must
                               |xthvbe moeansof productionof the  casend
their wares to the ruder markets of the world, and resign the
                               various parties aea pretutyonearle great marts
of commerce to those of superior taste who deserve a
         to   >,   -            ~~~various parties are pretty        
 nearlyX
               mechanically equal.  The differences of results  higher reward.
               arise purely from differences of degrees of artistic  This
is no new idea: let us take a lesson from the experience of
                                                                past ages,-the
various coloured glass of Egypt, the figured cups
               skill, depending on the greater or less cultivation      
                                    the
                                                                of Sidon,
the shawls of Miletus, the terra-cottas of Samos,th
               of those faculties of the mind which conduce to  bronzes of
Corinth-id not command the markets of the ancient
               that species of judgment'termed Taste.                   
           materials or fl qualities
                 It is evident that Taste must be the paramount wrd    ihrfrtermtraso
           o  hi    ehnclqaiis
                                                                not because
they were well blown-cleverly chased-finely woven
               agent in all competitions involving ornamental |        ously
turned-or perfectly cast-these qualities they had
                            desicn whre th  meas or  ethos of rodution ingremi:teeqaiiste
               ardesigql where the means or methods of production  only in
common with the similar wares of other nations; but in
               are equally advanced; but where this is not the { the gratification
of one of the most urgent necessities of the mind
               case, the chances are still very greatly in the favour in
an advanced social state, they were pre-eminent-they were
of Taste over mere mechanical facility, provided low price be not the Iobjects
of a cultivated refined taste. And it is by this charter i
primary object.                                                 alone that
manufactures will ever establish that renown which will
  Thus, the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park is of all things the  ensure a
lasting market in the civilised world. The great object
best calculated to advance our National Taste, by bgig in close of attainment
is Taste, which is not a mere impulse of the fancy,
contig ity the various productions of nearly all the nations of the  but
dependent upon the operations of reason as completely as
earth in any way distinguished for ornamental manufactures. The  any other
conclusion respecting good or bad, or right or wrong, to
                                                               I which we
attain by the mind's experience. To demonstrate this
  To this Essay has been awarded the prize of one hundred guineas  riffneed
by  truth is the chief aim of the following Essayh in we
  Proprietors of the ART-JOUlRNAL, for "' An Essay on the best mode
of edrn h  rt  stecifamo  h  olwn    sai    hc   h   aiu
Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, to be held in London
in 1851, species of ornamental art exhibited will be examined with respect
practically useful to the British manufacturer."-ED. A. J.