d, and
the purpose for which the decoration is intended. Thus in textile
design for dress and hangings (excepting for tapestries) the fact must
never be lost sight of that they will be subject to disturbance by
crossing folds and crumplings, which will break up the lines of the
pattern. It is therefore evident that a design fitted for a rigid
material in a fixed place, such as an architectural decoration in
wood, stone, or stucco, must be subject to a treatment different from
that which befits an embroidered curtain or panel.

Stone and wood, being materials of uniform colour, require all the
help of recessed shadows and projections to catch the light; whereas
in textiles, form is assisted by colour, and smoothness of surface is
a primary consideration. The strongly accentuated design for
wood-carving becomes poor and lifeless when deprived of its essential
conditions and _raison d'etre_, and the pattern which looks charming,
outlined and filled in with colour, could be hardly seen incised on a
flat stone surface. This seems a truism, but the neglect of these
plain axioms causes many mistakes in decorative art. Mr. Redgrave
says: "A design must be bad which applies the same treatment to
different materials." He further says: "The position of the ornament
requires special consideration. The varied quantities, bolder relief,
and coarser execution are not only allowable, but absolutely
necessary, at heights considerably above the eye. Moreover, each
fabric has its own peculiar lustre, texture, &c. Thus, in the use of
hangings, curtains, &c., the design might be suitable in silk, and
coarse or dull in woollen."[91]

Here I venture to differ from Mr. Redgrave. Perspective is as much to
be respected in decoration as in pictures, near to the eye; and the
gradation in size and colour, as the ornament travels up into height
or fades into distance, is a phase of pleasure which should not be
checked by enlargement of form or reinforcement of colouring.

It is hardly necessary to warn our artists against a sort of design
which is conventional, yet had its own meaning in the beginning. This
is to be found in Indian carvings and embroideries of a certain date,
or imitating the works of that distant period. It proceeded from a
hideous worship of monstrous Dravidian divinities. Their statues are
to be found, surrounded by coarsely designed patterns, in the temple
architecture of the first and second centuries. Its characteristics
a