Plate XXXI, Ornaments in panels.

Category

Library Item

Item no

30822

Title

Details and ornaments from the Alhambra, plate XXXI, Ornaments in panels.

Description

The ornaments in panels of the Hall of Ambassadors at The Alhambra are shown in four designs with different geometric patterns in blue, gold and red.

Artist / maker

Jones, Owen

Date

1845

Size

45.0 x 31.0 cm

Type

Lithograph

Location

Art and Design Library

Jones was very interested in Moorish ability of creating different patterns by using just geometric forms. It is significant how the inscriptions are perfectly integrated in the upper images. The 'right way' - according to Owen Jones - of using the primary colours is as they are applied here: 'we should place blue, which retires, on the concave surfaces; yellow (or gold), which advances, on the convex; and red, the intermediate colour, on the undersides', (proposition no. 21).

(Jones set out thirty-seven propositions or general principals in the Grammar of Ornament which aimed to improve the general artistic standards through mass education. Find out more about Owen Jones and his design aesthetic and ideals from the Victoria and Albert Museum.)

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Related subjects

Rooms and spaces > Furnishings > Designs

Rooms and spaces > Furnishings > Patterns

Rooms and spaces > Objects > Decorations

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