Greek Ornament in the Decorative Arts

Greece was the first European cultural power house, it is the cradle of democracy, philosophy and literature. The Greek refined all arts and are at the origin of Classicism, the principles of Greek and Roman art and architecture, which still today is highly influential.

In the decorative arts too the Greek reached very high technical standards of production and were the first to take pleasure in the beauty of simple abstract forms and the movement of pure lines. The famous black-and-red figured vases are just one marvellous example of the great Hellenic skills.

Greek Ornament in the Decorative Arts is a painstakingly gathered collection of ornamentation from precious 19th and early 20th century portfolios. In this era the decorative arts have had a strong revival in Europe and many impressing source books have been produced. They contain beautiful polychrome lithographies, some in gold and silver, and the first photo-mechanically reproduced images of classic ornament.

Unlike the tightly packed plates of these lavish paper editions (in which each plate is a compilation of several patterns), modern digital publications allow a much more open layout.

Bitedition wanted each ornament to attract the attention it deserves and therefore displays in the present pattern book each faithfully reproduced motif on one single page.

With more than 400 royalty-free designs and illustrations of different size the e-book Greek Ornament in the Decorative Arts offers to students and artists, professional designers and arts-craftsmen, historians and architects as well as simple amateurs of ornamentation and decoration the ultimate image bank of historic Greek ornament.