Arabesque

Arabesque (Fr.), a peculiar kind of fantastic decoration, either sculptured or painted, which the Spanish Moors are supposed to have introduced into modern Europe. But the species of enrichment to which this term is now applied was extensively employed both by the Greeks and Romans, the latter in particular being masters of the style. The Egyptians, from whom the Moors probably derived their original notions of this and other forms of art, also employed it in their monumental decorations. The arabesque of the Moors entirely excluded the figures of animals, the representation of which was forbidden by the Mohammedan religion, and confined itself to the foliage, &c. of plants and trees, curiously and elaborately intertwined. This limitation was again departed from when the decorations were discovered on the walls of the baths of Titus, in the time of Leo X. More recently those in the houses at Herculaneum and Pompeii came to form the models of imitation, and the modern arabesque consists usually of combinations of plants, birds, and animals of all kinds, including the human figure, and embracing not only every natural variety, but stepping without hesitation beyond the bounds of nature. The arabesques with which Raphael adorned the galleries of the Vatican are at once the most famous and the most beautiful which the modern world has produced. See CELTIC ORNAMENT, MURAL DECORATION.