The^Subdivisions of the Rhombus, &c.

TheCircle, &c.

Gothic Tracer/. 27
Plate 17. The Rhojibus, and the Trapezium.
1 4. Subdivision of the Rhombus.
5 8.

Parallel Trapezium.
9
10.

Symmetrical Trapezium.
The Circle, its Subdivision, and Intersections.
(Plate 18.)
The Circle is often used in ornamentation as a fundamental form.
No good result is produced (as a rule) by dividing it merely by
radii or other straight lines; and it is therefore usually divided by
means of curved lines or of a combination of arcs and straight lines.
By describing circles to cut each other: motives may be obtained, as
shown by figures 3 and
7,
the latter of which is the basis of a
Roman mosaic pavement found in Pompeii (Figure
17).
That circles which cut each-other form of themselves an effec-
tive patternis shown by the engine-turned ornament, which is pro-
duced by machinery and applied to the decoration of Watch-cases,
and to the plates from which Bank notes, Share certificates, &c. are
printed.
Ornamentation by means of arcs plays a conspicuous part in
Gothic tracery, which will be treated-of in the following chapter.
Plate 18. The Circle.
1
12. Different divisions and intersections.
13

16. Tracery in the Gothic style.

17. Centre of a mosaic pavament, Pompeii, (Kunsthandwerk).
Gothic Tracery. (Plate 19.)
In the forms of Tracery, the Gothic style evolved and brought
to perfection a characteristic decoration by means of arcs of circles.
And although the results have something stiff and mechanical, when
compared with the ornaments taken direct from nature in other styles,
it cannot be denied that they possess a great originality, and richness
of form.
Tracery was chiefly applied to stone, and wood; in architecture,
and furniture; for galleries, windows, and panels, &c.
Well-known forms are the circles (figs.
1316 of Plate 18
showing
2, 3,
4 and 6 foliations), the trefoil (Plate 19, figs. 3 and
4),