ABSTRACT
In more modern times, the advent of Art Nouveau in the 1890s was an international visual arts movement characterized by organic, highly stylized flowing curvilinear forms, especially floral and other plantinspired motifs that soon became international in spirit. However, earlier in the nineteenth century the popularity of ornamentalism was already being fueled by new archeological discoveries of a highly decorative and colorful past which triggered a massive revival. In mid-nineteenthcentury England, fired by the exhibits in the Crystal Palace at the Great Exhibition (1851), the demand for ornamental products sky-rocketed – an industrial revolution mass production making decorated goods not just the privilege of the wealthy but accessible to the status-seeking masses. The craving for ornamentalism was fed by a plethora of encyclopedias, the most important of which was Grammar of Ornament. Published in 1856 by the architect, decorator extraordinaire and antiquarian Owen Jones, this provided an influential reference book of ornamental language and style published in sumptuous eight-color chromolithographs and deemed appropriate to serve the new industrial age.
