Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 56.djvu/707

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THE SCIENCE OF ART FORM.
691

modern articles, of which the final use and destination are shown on the lower line. In the sketch to the left the fine effect is produced by a few curves, of which the connections are boldly and finely contrasted. In the second sketch an equally pleasing effect is produced by curves, of which the principal ones are continuously connected, while in the third sketch there is a pleasing exhibition of both kinds of connections. The lower line gives you your first

Contours báards et indécis.

Fig. 8.

notion of the use of ornament in marking and embellishing the lines of form. The next view (Fig. 4) exposes forms in which the above laws are violated, and by whose ugliness you can not fail to be impressed. On the top line are objects of which the curves are so weak and undecided that it would be difficult to state whether the connections are continuous or contrasted. In the second line is shown how ugly is the effect when straight lines are substituted for curved lines, and in the third line is shown how ugly effects may be produced

Fig. 9.

even by curved lines when not used in obedience to some accepted and apprehended principle.

There is another presentation of form which is in reality but a modification of profile, but which, because it looks as if it had been separately applied, and also because it is separately treated in books, must be considered by itself. The term "molding" has been given to variations in surfaces which have both useful and