_ rather than to
_re-present_, though the decorator's suggestion of natural form, taking
only enough to suit or express the particular ornamental purpose, must
be considered also as a re-presentation. How much, or how little, he
will take of actual nature must depend largely upon his resources, his
object, and the limitations of his material--the conditions of his work
in short; but his range may be as wide as from the flat silhouetted
forms of stencils or simple inlays to the highly-wrought mural painting.

Design motive, individual conception and sentiment, apart from material,
must, of course, always affect the question of the choice and degree of
representation of nature. The painter will sometimes feel that he only
wants to suggest forms, such as figures or buildings, half veiled in
light and atmosphere, colours and forms in twilight, or half lost in
luminous depths of shadow.

[Illustration (f117a): Dancing Figure with the Governing Lines of the
Movement.]

[Illustration (f117b): Lines of Floral Growth and Structure: Lily and
Rose.]

[The Outward Vision and Inner Vision]

The decorative designer will sometimes want to emphasize forms with the
utmost force and realism at his command, as in some crisp bit of carving
or emphatic pattern, to give point and relief in his scheme of
quantities.

There is no hard-and-fast rule in art, only general principles,
constantly varied in practice, from which all principles spring, and
into which, if vital, they ought to be capable of being again resolved.

But a design once started upon some principle--some particular motive of
line or form--then, in following this out, it will seem to develop
almost a life or law of growth of its own, which as a matter of logical
necessity will demand a particular treatment--a certain natural
consistency or harmony--from its main features down to the smallest
detail as a necessity of its existence.

We might further differentiate art as, on the one hand, the image of the
_outward vision_, and, on the other, as the outcome or image of the
_inner vision_.

The first kind would include all portraiture, by which I mean faithful
portrayal or transcript whether of animate or inanimate nature; while
the second would include all imaginative conceptions, decorative
designs, and pattern inventions.

The outward vision obviously relies upon what the eye perceives in
nature. Its virtue consists in the faithf