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As an illustration of the way in which the palmette motif was seen by 19th century architects and decorators, who in Europe, America and elsewhere in colonial cities created their own unending variations on the motif as a kind of hallmark of taste and authenticity in neo-classical urban architecture, the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica contained the following item on the palmette: "Palmette also called anthemion (from the Greek ανθεμιον, a flower) is an art style based on the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It was largely employed in the Greek/Roman era to decorate: This article explores the origins and evolution of the motif in the ancient world, describes the consistently important role it has played and some of the numerous forms in which it has reappeared in successive societies and religious traditions, and examines the nature and significance of the common themes that emerge.
Description As an ornamental motif found in architecture, sculpture, textile design and a wide range of other media, the palmette and anthemion take many and varied forms. Typically, the upper part of the motif consists of five or more leaves or petals fanning rhythmically upwards from a single triangular or lozenge-shaped source at the base. In some instances hang down on either side above the base and below the lowest leaves. The lower part consists of a symmetrical pair of elegant 'S' scrolls or volutes curling out sideways and downwards from the base of the leaves. The upper part recalls the thrusting growth of leaves and flowers, while the volutes of the lower part seem to suggest both contributing fertile energies and resulting fruits. It is often present on the necking of the capital of ionic order columns; however in column capitals of the Corinthian order it takes the shape of a 'fleuron' or flower resting against the abacus (top-most slab) of the capital and springing out from a pair of volutes which, in some versions, give rise to the elaborate volutes and acanthus ornament of the capital. In the repeated border design commonly referred to as anthemion the palm fronds more closely resemble petals of the honeysuckle flower, as if designed to attract fertilizing insects. Some compare the shape to an open 'hamsa'hand - explaining the commonality and derivation of the 'palm' of the hand. In some forms of the motif the volutes or scrolls resemble a pair of eyes, like those on the harmika of the Tibetan or Nepalese stupa and the eyes and sun-disk at the crown of Egyptian stelae. In some variants the features of a more fully-developed face become discernable in the palmette itself, while in certain architectural uses, usually at the head of pilasters or herms, the fan of palm-fronds and the volutes sometimes appear as breasts. Common to all these forms is the pair of volutes at the base of the fan - constituting the defining characteristics of the palmette. Evolution
Variants and related motifs
Issues of interpretation Ornamental motifs are often treated as though they were pleasing elements of decoration but devoid of meaning, or their meaning is considered to be lost and indecipherable. It is assumed that particular motifs were chosen by craftsmen because they or their patrons were fond of them. This is reinforced by the absence of commentary on meaning or rationale for choice of motifs from the myriad potters, draftsmen, sculptors and metalworkers who have worked with the motif. However the palmette is a good example of a motif which, even if its meaning is not articulated by the craftsmen themselves, lends itself to meaningful interpretation in view of the consistency of the functional context and positioning in which it recurs throughout its long history and its continuing use by artists. The possibility also exists that the meaning of ornamental motifs became, or had always been, esoteric knowledge for a select group and was not openly passed on. One reason for this would be the importance to any form of artistic medium of individual observers arriving at a personal revelation of meaning through direct contemplation and experience. The idea of the perpetuation of traditions of esoteric knowledge by close-knit groups seems to be reinforced by the striking use of the palmette and related motifs at key moments in Hollywood films (Titanic, , Chronicles of Narnia) without the audience receiving any explanation or otherwise being made explicitly aware of the reasons or significance. Deducing meaning from context and placement Both in ancient and in modern usage, in East and West, the grouping of motifs we have discussed has a sacred, auspicious and often magical or miracle-working connotation, further incorporating a sublimation of sexual union and fertility. Associated both with flowers and with palm trees, the palmette brings together the fertility symbolism of both. Both the calyx of the flower and the crown of the palm tree are the centre of reproductive activity and the source of new growth, and both are graphically associated with human sexuality. The method of artificial fertilization of pistillate (female) flowers of the palm tree using the staminate (male) flowers seems to have been known to the ancient world, as depicted in Assyrian reliefs apparently showing the sprinkling of pollen on a stylized palm-tree with palmette-flowers. The most common placement of the palmette or anthemion in the ancient world was its architectural use in a repeating pattern as a border, frame or frieze. In this 'ornamental' role it supports and points to the 'main' image (deity, hero, martyr, saint...) housed in the 'naos' or 'cella' of the temple or mounted on the wall panel that it frames. Like the images themselves which are visible manifestations of invisible forces or principles, the palmette in this sense 'merely' points to where the truth can be found - not through the image itself but by the process of personal revelatory experience that the image helps to initiate. Border motifs, moldings and patterns thus convey humility and self sacrifice: asking the viewer to look beyond them to more important truths and realities. However it should be remembered that in capturing the idea of humility such motifs often themselves directly convey the essential message of the main image: the humility and sacrifice without which the higher truths represented by the image itself cannot be attained, such as the need for transcendence of the mortal self. In this context the palmette or anthemion remained the principal ornament in the frames of fine paintings, whose essence is often the capture of moments of revelation, inspiration, annunciation, nativity or spiritual rebirth; in the proscenium arch of theatres, as the setting for the moving images of the drama, and over mirrors, which also reveal hidden truths and seem to offer passage to other worlds and their heightened levels of experience and awareness. Recalling its use as an apotropaic amulet in Ancient Egypt, it is found in a protective, guardian role at boundary passages such as bridges and gates, over other openings such as doors, windows and balconies, and as the standard ornament for door handles and keyhole masks. There is a similar association between the palmette and the Athenian phallic boundary markers, named herms, from which the messenger-god Hermes is said to have evolved, and with the Caduceus, the wand of Hermes, the tip of which echoes the Egyptian winged disk, while the interlaced serpents recall the uraeus, and with the of South and South East Asia. The ideas of frames, borders, boundary markers (and messengers) are linked. They all act as pointers - but at the same time as guardians and filters - to a womb-like inner sanctum where, under cover of a metaphorical form penetrable only to the feeling eye, fertility and new life are generated, and to which only selected, suitably humble and self-effacing aspirants may be admitted. In other uses the palmette is not always positioned self-effacingly as if for ornament only, but is also typically given prominence at the apex or acroterion of roofs and pediments and over ritual spaces such as niches, altar pieces and fireplaces, where it appears to designate the place as sacred, or to confer a blessing. In this role the palmette is a central feature of monumental tombs and war memorials that are 'sacred to the memory of ...' - denoting remembrance in perpetuity of those who are now seen to have given their lives for others, and echoing its original function of assisting the passage of the soul to immortality. In such instances there is often a richly carved acroterion at the apex, flanked by two 'acroteria angularia' projecting at the lower corners of the triangle of the pediment, also carved in the form of a palmette or honeysuckle-petaled anthemion. This triad was originally found on ancient Greek altars and subsequently on Greek and Roman sarcophagi. Such prominent treatments suggest that, beyond its support role in frames and borders, the palmette itself has at certain points in its history been the direct object of veneration. It is all-pervasive at the dinner table - a shared ritual transformation of the material to the spiritual - being the basis of the traditional designs of dining chair backs, silverware, dinner plates, serving bowls, ceiling roses, lampshades and other items which still find echoes in many contemporary versions. In clear allusion to their association with love, union and fertility, palmettes feature on bedspreads, and on both wooden and iron bedsteads. In its talisman-like association with fortune and wish-fulfilment it still plays an important part in the fantasia of fairground attractions, especially merry-go-rounds and until recently was found prominently on one-armed bandit gambling machines, juke boxes, home radio sets and . Common themes The placement of the palmette-related motifs in ancient Egypt was on the lower registers of temple walls representing emergence of the first fertile mound from the chaos of the primal swamp, on , on funereal monuments, on and on door lintels. It is associated both with death and with life. It seems to have been thought of as offering communication between the two worlds. As such it is one representation of the life force surging forth from the 'akhet' or magical point where the polar dualities of heaven and earth, soul and body, life and death, male and female, east and west, north and south, separated at the beginning of the world, may be reunited. Renewed fertility flows from the 'akh' - the sublime winged being set amongst the stars that dying kings aspired to become - who re-unifies the fragmented world and attains wisdom in an enlightened, conscious act of self-dissolution and new creation, as the ultimate human achievement. The oldest appearance of the related group of motifs is at the crown of Egyptian funerary depicting sacrificial offerings intended to earn both renewed fertility through the Nile inundation and passage to eternal life for the dying king. Its use in religious architecture from ancient Greece to the baroque remained faithful to these original associations. Common themes can be identified among the various periods and diverse cultures in which the motif has continued to have importance. They include: the creative power over natural forces that is summoned by the simple but magical act of consciously offering or giving, as distinct from the habitual taking; the regeneration of new life through transformation in death; the renewal that can be brought about by a reunifying vision of the fragmented nature of everyday experience; the development of structured responses to chaos and suffering through the discernment of underlying order and harmony in the natural world; the attainment of through dedication, sacrifice and ; and the vigilance, imagination and ingenuity needed to interpret and adapt to changing surroundings through the creation of ever new forms and variants. In the continuing fascination with the palmette through the millennia we may sense that painful experience and acquired wisdom of successive generations has been satisfyingly distilled and organized into the seductive discipline of a beautiful image - forming a kind of organic replication template that is capable of guiding and inspiring new forms of adaptive growth and development. See also | ||||||||||||
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