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Theory Of Decoration

English Renaissance and American Colonial Periods

English Renaissance

England has always been especially proficient in the production of the domestic forms of art. She is responsible for originating the estate of the country gentleman as we know it today in the United States, and the extraordinary charm that is invariably associated with English rural buildings whether farm or palace, is unequalled in any other part of Europe. A trip through the inland by-ways of such counties as Kent, Devonshire and Buckinghamshire makes an impression that is never to be forgotten.

With a few notable exceptions the English on the whole, however, have not been as great originators of art forms as their Southern neighbors. English decorative arts have trailed those of the Continent in the Gothic period as well as during the Renaissance. English classic forms have seldom shown the perfection of scale and proportion of the revived classicism of either France or Italy. In one respect this has been to the advantage of the English architecture and decoration which we find at their best when unbalanced picturesque compositions are attempted rather than the symmetrical arrangements, so characteristic of the Louis styles in France. Formality reached its height in England under Wren and the Adams, in whose work we find a certain coldness and unfriendliness as compared to the graceful and intimate formalism produced in the contemporary work in France.