Room 6 of 6
Ornament & pattern
The ornament that dressed the buildings: Racinet's L'Ornement Polychrome, Dolmetsch's Ornamentenschatz, Albertolli's ceilings, Renaissance grotesques, Gothic tiles, Iznik panels and Ottoman stained glass.
248 prints

1874 · 48 × 66 cm

1924 · 35.5 × 49 cm

1775 · 65 × 41.5 cm

1874 · 48 × 66 cm

1873 · 28.8 × 41.5 cm

1873 · 28.8 × 41.5 cm

1873 · 28.8 × 41.5 cm

1873 · 28.8 × 41.5 cm

1873 · 28.8 × 41.5 cm

1873 · 28.8 × 41.5 cm

1873 · 28.8 × 41.5 cm

1883 · 54.5 × 69 cm

Date not stated · 68 × 44.5 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

1770 · 26 × 40.5 cm

1887 · 25 × 35 cm

1887 · 25 × 35 cm

Date not stated · 25 × 40 cm

1739 · 57.5 × 44.5 cm

1803 · 62.6 × 46.7 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

1725 · 51 × 35.5 cm

1739 · 57.5 × 44.5 cm

1803 · 62.6 × 46.7 cm

1803 · 47.7 × 62.6 cm

1924 · 35.5 × 49 cm

Date not stated · 45 × 59.5 cm

1924 · 49 × 35.5 cm

1924 · 49 × 35.5 cm

1780 · 24 × 39 cm

1803 · 62.6 × 46.7 cm

1924 · 49 × 35.5 cm

1887 · 25 × 35 cm

1803 · 62.6 × 46.7 cm

1896 · 35 × 50 cm

1896 · 35 × 50 cm

1924 · 49 × 35.5 cm

Date not stated · 25 × 40 cm

1770 · 25 × 40 cm

1873 · 28.8 × 41.5 cm

1730 · 52.5 × 37.5 cm
About ornament & pattern
Ornament was the grammar of architecture, and the 19th century catalogued it in some of the most brilliant colour printing ever made. Albert Racinet's L'Ornement Polychrome (1869 to 1887) and Heinrich Dolmetsch's Der Ornamentenschatz (1887) set ornament from Egypt to the Rococo side by side in gold and colour.
Earlier pattern books, such as Giocondo Albertolli's ceilings and ornaments of the 1780s, gave craftsmen designs to copy, and a 1924 survey of Ottoman decoration in Bursa and Istanbul records Iznik tiles, stained glass and ironwork.
Explore
By place, by maker and by subject.
Places
Makers and books
Subjects
Questions about ornament & pattern
What is a chromolithograph?
A colour print made from a series of lithographic stones, one for each colour, sometimes more than twenty, often with gold. Racinet and Dolmetsch used it to reproduce ornament with an accuracy that hand colouring could not match.
Are Racinet plates originals?
Yes. Each plate was printed in Paris for the original editions of L'Ornement Polychrome or Le Costume Historique, between 1869 and 1888. They are not modern reproductions.