“To be interesting, ornamentation should represent objects which remind us of poetic ideas”
for an object to be beautiful, “it is necessary that its form contain nothing superfluous, but only the material conditions which make it useful: we must take into account both the material and the use which will be made of it.”
“the most important requirement for an object that is to be considered beautiful is that it fulfill the purpose for which it is destined”
the character of a work of art “the definition of its esthetic-moral condition.” Adding that “it is also the criterion for ornamentation which should reveal the form that is dictated solely by the complete satisfaction of some need.”
He felt that public objects should be se
He related the esthetics of the object to the mechanical properties of the material employed.
The more perfect the form, the less ornamentation that is necessary. He applies this principle to historical styles, saying that “the forms used by the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Middle Ages did not require so much decoration as those derived from the Renaissance or the Byzantine.” In styles which are not original and have been derived from others, decoration is of great importance.
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