DTLA Broadway Project
An Introduction to Theatre Ornamentation
During the early 1900s, many new theatres were built. Many building owners wanted extravagant and exotic theatres that would attract people’s curiosities. These theatres were being created for people to experience another world that would normally be impossible to find. During the process of choosing these different styles, the architect and the theatre owners seem to select ornamentation designs from catalogs. These catalogs provide a vast array of decorative styles from different cultures and time periods. The architect and the theater owners are able to pick and choose different designs they want to compile together by looking through those catalogs. Although we are not fully able to understand the choices that the architects and the theatre owners make when selecting and designing ornamentation, perhaps we can attempt to understand a little more about where the designs come from and the reasoning behind their choices. To further understand where the designs may stem from, I will compare and contrast the same themes and styles from different catalogs to see if they are all consistent in design and information.
Chinese
Chinese
Reading Analysis
In all three catalogs, the authors all seem to have a relatively negative view of Chinese art, ornamentation, and design. All three authors find the Chinese style to be stagnant. They all mentioned that there are no forms of progression in the style. However, they all seem to criticize the Chinese style as ‘unimaginative’, ‘unnatural’, and ‘ monotonous’. All authors talk about their ability to observe and recreate nature in their designs as a fruitless attempt to idealize nature. It seems like they believe that the Chinese are always trying to create the ideal, but this results in unnatural and unimaginative designs. On a more positive note, they seem to say that the Chinese designs use color very well and are able to create vibrant pieces and create balance within the different tones and colors. In Historic Styles of Ornament, the author also mentions that they typically use outlines that help clearly define the design from background colors and such. Overall, the three authors of the catalogs are relatively displeased with what they believe the Chinese art style is.
Image Comparisons
Between The Grammar of Ornament and Historic Styles of Ornament, there were several images that I could compare to see whether the styles were similar or not. Unfortunately the Historic Ornament Catalog did not have images and only descriptions of the style.
Similarities
There seems to be a very small amount of similarities between the catalogs’ images. However, there are some pattern similarities between the images. The square patterning swirl seems to exist between both of the books and consistently shows up in different plates. In both catalog images, there is heavy use of patterning and repetition in the designs. As for color, there seems to be a consistent use of blue.
Differences
In contrast to the similarities analysis, there are many differences between the images of Chinese art. Their treatment of color looks extremely different. In The Grammar of Ornament, the colors are bold and very opaque. They seem to have used very vibrant colors such as hot pink, and bright green, and orange in many designs. On the other hand, in the Historic Styles of Ornament, the colors look much more mellow and muted. They do not put any strain to the eyes and are comfortable to look out. This book also seems to use a lot less color and use colors than have a similar tone. The colors look as if they could be partially translucent. The designs in this book also seem to be a lot more delicate and finely detailed. The patterning in this book is quite delicate and seems to have a sense of flow by using flora as the patterns. Whereas in the other book, the designs are simpler with thick lining that clearly defines the different lines and sections within the work. The patterning in this book seems to be a little more rigid and solid. They seem much more geometric and defining.
Conclusion
Although the catalogs seemed to describe the style of Chinese ornamentation similarly, they seemed to have very different styles between the two sets of images. They both seemed to translate what they wrote onto the images but they were done in very different styles that could not be considered similar. There are slight similarities between the two within the patterning and the color choices, however, the differences significantly outweigh the similarities.
Egyptian
Reading Analysis
All three catalogs all have pretty similar overall descriptions of what Egyptian art should look like. However, when looking at the small details, there are many more differences. All three books touched upon how the Egyptians use symbols in the majority of their design, ornamentation, art, and architecture. The books also seem to specifically mention several symbols that they use in their art. The symbols that are mentioned throughout the three books are the lotus flower and the beetle. Within the three books, they also include symbols such as papyrus, birds, palm-branches, plants, vultures, reeds, rams, and more. They also seem to mention how they use daily life representations in their artwork. The Egyptians used natural forms of flowers and foliage throughout their work, and in the Historic Styles of Ornament mentions that how it might be their inspiration is directly from nature and not other foreign influences. They also mention that Egyptian art is made up with flat tints of color on flat surfaces. The three books also mention that the Egyptians use a fair amount of geometry within their work whether it is being a shape on decorations or the arrangement of the works. Overall, all three authors seem to enjoy what Egyptian art has to offer. The research on this section is much more detailed and praised. The Grammar of Ornament goes as far as to say that Egyptian art is practically perfection. They also briefly mention color in the Historic Ornament and The Grammar of Ornament catalog. Both Mentioned that vibrant yellow and blue is used a lot. The Grammar of Ornament mentions that they also use black and white as outlines of the shapes, symbols, figures they draw. Additionally, Historic Styles of Ornament book mentions that they used a lot of vibrant colors.
Image Comparisons
Similarities
In each of these examples of ornamentation on pillars, we can see that across all three books there are several similarities. All three examples have the palm shaped plant as a decorative part on the pillar. Furthermore, when comparing the last two images, we can see that they have all the same types of column tops with slight variations. However, the overall style and shape seem to be similar. Furthermore, when looking at the painting details of the columns, we can see that they all use a horizontal or vertical stripe pattern. The patterns shared between all these images across all three books are very much so the same. They all use the same type of geometric patterning to decorate the column top. When reading about Egyptian art, the authors emphasized their heavy use of flat tints and bold and vibrant colors. Although we cannot see the colored images of the first and third book, by analyzing the heavy tones and dramatic tonal changes between different colors, we can determine that they used bold, heavy, and rich colors that are separated by sharp contours.
Looking at the long rectangular designs, both in book one and two have practically identical designs. In the (two snake with wings) designs, they both have identical features. They both have the globe, the same styled snake like creature, the detailed wings, the vertical patterning in the background of the figure, and the same upper and lower edges of the design. Although there is slight variation in the color patterning and the line widths, the image seems to be the exact same. Meaning, it is very likely that the authors based their sketches off of the same or a similar object or picture. Furthermore, both these books have the images of the rectangular beetle patterns and the winged human rectangular design. In both these designs, the figures look identical as well. Both backgrounds have the hieroglyphics done in a dark ink. The coloring pattern behind the hieroglyphs are similar as well. The beetle designs have lighter colored alternating color stripes whereas between the two winged human designs the color pattern, mid-tone, light tone, dark tone, light tone, and mid-tone, are the same. Similarly to the comparison between the column tops, the colors of the first book are unidentifiable. However, as mentioned previously, the stark contrasts between the different colors and the opacity of the pigments confirms that the colors used in the The Grammar of Ornament are bold and vibrant.
As identified from the text and the images above, Egyptian art seems to use a lot of patterning in colors and well as design. From the text, we know that the lotus flower is a symbol that is often used throughout all their work. In ancient Egypt, the lotus flower symbolized the unification of the upper and lower half of Egypt. In these three images from all the books, the three lotus flower designs are very similar. In the outlined, colored, and black and white versions, all seem to have three large petals on the outside and layered smaller ones in the background in the same pattern. Through this close analysis, we are able to gather that it is very likely that the authors of these books have a clear reference of what Egyptian are looks like.
When looking at the patterns from each of the books, they are some similarities between all the patterns. However, there are not enough patterns and designs in each book to compare every type of design. So, there will only be several comparisons between the designs in each book.
These patterns come from The Grammar of Ornament and the Historic Ornament catalogs. Although they are not exactly the same, they all use small and detailed repeating square patterns to create a more delicate patterning.
In this example, the patterns are from The Historic Styles of Ornament and Historic Ornament catalogs. These two patterns look almost identical to each other aside from the coloring. However, the color pattern is still quite similar where the background is a light color and the flower-like patterns and the squares are alternating in darker tones.
Other Comparisons
Differences
There are not too many differences between the images. Although not every design is exactly the same, they have similar motifs, symbols, and designs between all three books.
I compare patterns from The Historic Styles of Ornament and Historic Ornament Catalog. Although they are not entirely the same, they have a similar design of the lotus flower. The flowers and designs all seem to have minor differences such as the width and height of the flower, the color and shape separation. Additionally, there is a repeating pattern, that alternates between the flower and the flower bud-like object, with small differences in design in the bud-like objects.
Conclusion
The authors of the three books have very similar explanations of Egyptian art. They all agreed on the vibrant and bold coloring of their ornamentation. They all seem to use the same type of motifs and symbols in the images. Many of the designs and patterning were almost identical. Even though the majority of the images were black and white, by analyzing the tones of the colors, we are able to determine that they used bold colors as well. Both the text and the images were quite similar to one another. So, it is likely that the authors of these books had a reference to base their research and designs after.There is much more information about Egypt compared to the previous analysis of Chinese art.The authors also seem to appreciate and look up to Egyptian art much more than the Chinese designs.