See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/274287610

The function of ornaments: A cultural psychological exploration

Article in Culture & Psychology · March 2014

DOI: 10.1177/1354067X13515937

CITATIONS READS

5 3,536

1 author:

Vlad Petre Glăveanu

Webster University Geneva
189 PUBLICATIONS 2,137 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

societal creativity, political imagination and the refugee crisis View project

Creativity and Domains View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Vlad Petre Glăveanu on 25 January 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Article
Culture & Psychology
2014, Vol. 20(1) 82–101
The function of ! The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
ornaments: A cultural sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1354067X13515937

psychological exploration cap.sagepub.com

Vlad Glăveanu
Aalborg University, Denmark

Abstract
Ornaments are ubiquitous markers of everyday life and yet frequently ignored, belittled
and even contested. Moreover, current definitions locate them in the realm of the
aesthetic and gratuitous. This article aims to bring ornaments to the attention of cul-
tural psychologists by outlining a typology of their manifold functions that integrates
aesthetic and utilitarian, individual and social roles. Ornaments help us to identify and
locate, tell or communicate, remind and organise our action, they guide our attention,
express and individualise, can generate an experience, beautify as well as re-present.
These functions are illustrated with examples from a study of Easter egg decoration
practices in northern Romania. In the end, the ‘meta-function’ of emergence is dis-
cussed and consideration is given to the spatial and temporal contexts of ornaments.
Future opportunities for theorising ornamentation as an embodied practice charac-
terised by repetition and rhythm are suggested.

Keywords
Ornaments, decoration, craft, Easter eggs, emergence

Ornaments present us with a paradox. They are practically ubiquitous and central to
human culture and yet often ignored, belittled and even contested. For Jones (1868),
there are scarcely any people in the world from whom ‘the desire for ornament is not
a strong instinct’ (p. 13) and one can think here, for instance, about the Islamic or
Oriental traditions in art. Brett (2005) states in no uncertain terms that decoration
‘acts like a maker of humanity’ (p. 6). On the other hand, and maybe because
ornaments can be found on such a large scale, they become trivial, mundane and
sometimes overwhelming through what Valsiner (2008) calls ‘hyper-decoration’.

Corresponding author:
Vlad Glăveanu, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Kroghstraede 3, 9220
Aalborg, Denmark.
Email: vlad@hum.aau.dk

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 83

An easy association with aesthetics for the sake of aesthetics at best, and with kitsch
at worst, relegates ornaments to the periphery of social science investigations. The
roots of the current ‘contempt for decoration’ are traced by Brett (2005, p. 8) back to
old philosophical debates and specifically to Plato’s dualism between essence and
appearance. Ornaments fall, in this dichotomy, on the side of the ephemeral and
epiphenomenal. Moreover, they are a fundamental feature of everyday life and, as
an expression of its aesthetics, typically considered inferior to art (see Dewey, 1934).
But what exactly is an ornament? Their precise meaning and a definition that
would allow us to distinguish clearly between what is and what is not an ornament
still elude us. This is because objects, gestures, images, melodies can acquire, under
certain conditions, an ornamental value (Criticos, 2004). Furthermore, the meaning
of ornaments is entangled with that of decoration, design, patterns and motifs, to
name just a few. In a simple formulation, ‘ornament is the art we add to art’
(Trilling, 2003, p. 21). What Trilling suggests is that ornaments have an aesthetic
but not a functional value: they are added aspects the object (or action) could do
without, aspects that are not necessary for its identity and function (i.e. the object
or action would remain ‘intact’ structurally and functionally in their absence, and
could also be recognised). For Trilling, this feature distinguishes between ornament
and design. The act of decoration, which refers to the adornment or embellishment
of an object (Hamlin, 1916), can include, among others, the depiction of orna-
ments. In their turn, ornaments often presuppose the existence of motifs, often
arranged in patterns. The key to understanding these decorative patterns rests in
their association with the notion of (visual) pleasure (Brett, 2005, p. 4). For Trilling
therefore, ‘ornament is decoration in which the visual pleasure of form significantly
outweighs the communicative value of content’ (Trilling, 2003, p. 23).
The present article aims, at a broader level, to challenge such a definition of
ornaments and to uncover their manifold value beyond aesthetics and visual
delight. It starts from a broad definition of ornaments as patterned ‘markings’ in
the world resulting out of acts of decoration or embellishment that, when ‘added’
to objects or processes, contribute to both their aesthetic quality and individual and
social value. A cultural psychological exploration of the functions of ornaments in
everyday life contexts necessarily raises two inter-related questions: (a) Why should
we be concerned with the study of ornaments? and (b) Why should we be con-
cerned with their study in psychology? My answer to these questions, based on a
case study of Easter egg decoration in a rural community from northern Romania,
points to the cultural nature and multiple roles ornaments have, spanning aesthetic
and utilitarian roles, reuniting individual and social functions. Decoration, I argue
here, is by no means trivial (Kuhn & Stiner, 2007) and daily life itself would be
inconceivable in the absence of patterns and ornaments.

Ornaments and/in psychology

Most scholarly work on the topic of ornaments comes from outside of psychology,
predominantly from the arts (including design and architecture) and history of art,

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

84 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

other social sciences (such as anthropology), and even evolutionary biology and
ethology. This broad range signals, first of all, the multiple readings of a practice
(ornamentation) occurring widely in the animal world and characterising human
societies from their early beginnings. The psychological perspective is poorly rep-
resented in this landscape and, even a landmark in the study of ornaments such as
‘The sense of order: A study in the psychology of decorative art’, was written by
E. H. Gombrich (1984), an art historian.
Leaving aside, for the purposes of this article, the extensive literature from the
arts and humanities, we can turn to anthropological investigations as forms of
inquiry that stand close to a cultural psychological approach. Mall (2007), for
instance, considered the Indian kolam, a type of folk art popular among women
in South Asia. This cultural practice involves the depiction of complex geometric,
symmetrical designs (made up of lines and dots), rendered in rice flour at the
entrance and on the floor of houses and temples. A point of interest for Mall in
relation to this custom was ‘the interplay between structure and innovation in
pattern construction’ (Mall, 2007, p. 74) and, particularly, the ways in which the
materiality and self-generative capacity of kolam manages to (seemingly) displace
the agency of its creator who depends on the ability of the form to ‘come’ together
and, in a sense, create itself. The unpredictability of craft contributes to this impres-
sion of a constant, and equal, dialogue between artisan and ornament. Cooper and
Allen (1999) take another example of folk art to highlight the origins and conse-
quences of decoration: quilt-makers in Texas and New Mexico at the turn of the
20th century. The cutting and sewing of pieces of fabric, often following a geomet-
ric pattern, reveals not only a particular kind of aesthetics but also, and primarily,
it depicts personal and collective history. Ornamentation, in this case, has a com-
municative and mnemonic value that precedes all other functions and challenges
the strict emphasis on beauty in artistic studies of decoration. Finally, this value is
also transparent when we consider body ornaments. For Kuhn and Stiner (2007,
p. 42), ‘the objects we display on our bodies and clothing today, reflect many
aspects of identity, from marital status, religious affiliation and ethnic background,
to levels of wealth (achieved or aspired to) or our political sympathies’.
Perception, creativity, identity and memory – only a few of the psychological
processes fostered and enhanced by the use of ornaments. And yet there is little that
psychologists, including cultural psychologists, contributed with to our under-
standing of decoration. Related literature includes Gibson’s (1980) discussion of
the perception of markings on a surface, extended by Sonesson (2007). This
account focuses on the ‘referential meaning’ of pictures that makes them acquire
a sign function. Such a perspective is equally applicable to ornaments since they
too, in a broad sense, ‘stand for’ something else, outside of the surface they are
depicted on. Patterns on surfaces can guide our attention to the material support
and its affordances (e.g. entering or exiting a space, etc.) but also point to the
meaning of the picture (or ornament) and refer back to an object in the world
(often stylised in ornamental work) or index different people or activities (as we will
see next, decorated eggs signal, among other things, the coming of Easter in many

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 85

countries). Markings, taking the form of drawings, writings, diagrams, ornaments,

etc. are at once intentional, expressive and communicative artefacts (Ittelson,
1996). A study of their processing sets them apart from other types of visual input.
Their affective, social role is also captured by Jaan Valsiner’s (2008) insightful
exploration of ornamented worlds. Valsiner claims that our lives are ornamented
lives as we live in cultural contexts saturated by diverse visual and auditory pat-
terns. Ornaments are omnipresent; however, they are also rarely noticed or con-
sidered anything more than ‘mere decoration’. And yet, for Valsiner, these
‘patterns with order’ (p. 69) embody the cultural guidance of human conduct.
They trigger meaning-making processes, including generalisation efforts, they cata-
lyse the internalisation of meaning systems, and keep the person inside a perceptual
and affective field, guiding (often in very discrete ways) its actions, thoughts and
emotions. Just as Kuhn and Stiner (2007) argue that ornaments have a lot to tell us
about the evolution of human cognition, Valsiner (2008) carefully considers their
fundamental role in onto- and micro-genesis. In an effort to contribute to this
discussion, I will consider here the functions of ornaments as revealed by a case
study of motifs in Easter egg decoration.

The decoration of Easter eggs

Craft is an ideal domain for the exploration of ornaments. Craftsmanship, accord-
ing to Sennett (2008, p. 9), represents ‘an enduring, basic human impulse, the desire
to do a job well for its own sake’. As such, it relies heavily on skill and practice
without enacting them in a mechanical manner. For Pye (1968), the dichotomy
between mechanical repetition and mastery of a craft is reflected in the difference
between ‘mass-production’ and ‘hand-made’ objects. If the workmanship of cer-
tainty leads to predetermined outcomes, the workmanship of risk depends ‘wholly
and largely on [the workman’s] care, judgement, and dexterity’ (Pye, 1968, p. 52).
Easter egg decoration embodies the latter. It engages ornamentation in ways that
reunite tradition and creativity (Glăveanu, 2013a). Its motifs reflect all the hall-
marks of ornaments as described by Trilling (2003, p. 23), ‘symmetry, repetition,
flattening, the drastic simplification or complication of outlines, and the fragmen-
tation, transformation, and recombination of organic forms’. According to this
author, ornaments are never far from conventions, they actually are conventions
which does not make them static or rigid realities; however, ‘because ornament
changes slowly, it can be hard to see how it is changing at any given point, or to
identify a single artist’s contribution’ (Trilling, 2003, p. 29).
Easter egg decoration in Romania is an old folk, religious and artistic tradition
(Irimie, 1969; Tzigara-Samurcaş, 1909) that, after centuries of slow changes, has
known some radical transformations in the past two decades following the emer-
gence of a growing national and international market for the selling of craft
objects. Praised in the country for their ‘preciseness of ‘‘writing’’, wealth and nobil-
ity of the motifs, harmonic conjugation of colours, explosive imagination, [and]
spontaneity’ (Zahacinschi & Zahacinschi, 1992, p. 32), egg decorators work

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

86 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

throughout the year (particularly in the winter and spring, before Easter), espe-
cially in the northern parts of Romania. Decoration is performed primarily by
women and children who start learning the craft from an early age.
Egg decoration is a simultaneously symbolic and material practice. Its symbolism
is closely related to that of the egg, an object that plays an important part in
creation myths around the world (Newall, 1967). Incorporated by Christianity,
the red egg is a reminder of the sacrifice of Christ and broader ideas of rebirth
and renewal (evocative of older, pagan beliefs). Enacting cosmogonic, cosmologic,
mystical and festive roles (Marian, 1992), the egg is an ideal medium for decoration
and affords the application of various types of ornaments and ornamentation tech-
niques. This is how, in Romania, Easter eggs can be either mono- or polychrome,
decorated with wax, with leaves or with beads, and display a multitude of colours,
outside of red, each one bearing a particular meaning (e.g. black symbolises the
absolute, stability and eternity; yellow symbolises light, youth and happiness; green
is associated with nature, plenty and hope; blue reminds of the sky, health and
vitality, etc.). As a material practice, egg decoration is traditionally performed by
drawing motifs in wax and repeatedly immersing the egg in colour so that, at the
end, when the wax is cleaned off near a heat source, the egg reveals its intended
ornaments (Glăveanu, 2013a; Newall, 1967).
The motifs used to ornament eggs articulate the symbolic and material aspects
of decoration. As a physical act, decoration is compared in Romania with writing
and the word for decorating eggs – ıˆncondeiere – relates to the one used for writing
instruments – condei. The material traces of this kind of ‘writing’, the motif and its
associated colours, are part of a symbolic language known today by very few
decorators. Gorovei (2001) listed in his monograph of the decorated egg, first
published in 1937, no less than 291 motifs commonly used in different regions of
the country. They are classified as: (1) geometric (e.g. line, triangle, rhombus, etc.);
(2) vegetal/phytomorphic (different leaves and flowers); (3) animal/zoomorphic
(parts of animals such as the ram’s horn, rabbit’s ear, stork’s beak, etc.); (4) rep-
resentations of objects/skeuomorphic (e.g. the shepherd’s stick, the teeth of the
plough, the wheel of the chariot, etc.); and (5) religious (e.g. different types of
traditional crosses) (see Zahacinschi & Zahacinschi, 1992, p. 35). In essence:

The classical type of Romanian folk art, in what Easter egg decoration is concerned, is
the representation in white, on red background, in a very simple manner, of the
characteristic and distinctive parts of certain objects. The drawing is made of lines
and dots and the represented object is repeated on the same egg sometimes for as
many as eight times (Gorovei, 2001, p. 78).

The patterned nature of Easter egg ornaments is favoured by the stylised ways in
which motifs are depicted and their overall geometrism, elements specific for the
entire Romanian folk creation (Zahacinschi & Zahacinschi, 1992). Grounded in a
detailed exploration of this craft (Glăveanu, 2010, 2013a), the present inquiry into
why ornaments are made on the egg and what their functions are (outside of the

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 87

obvious role of reminding Christians of the Resurrection), led to the basic typology
presented as follows. Important to note, this classification emerges out of a par-
ticular case study and should therefore be considered provisional and in need of
further observations from other contexts of decoration.

The ‘eight plus one’ functions of ornaments

The study of egg decoration mentioned above pointed to the fact that ornaments
can bridge aesthetic and utilitarian, individual and social functions. These two
‘continuums’ are also referenced in the existing literature. Valsiner (2008), for
instance, discussed how, what to us look like beautiful ornaments (e.g. colourful
bird feathers), might in fact hold a specific utilitarian value (e.g. signalling the
bird’s readiness for mating). For Brett (2005, p. 2), in decoration ‘individual pleas-
ure and social function are suffused with one another in and through visual
delight’. This important observation highlights the intrinsic unity of ornamental
functions, distinguished here mainly for analytical purposes.
Figure 1 depicts eight inter-related functions of the ornament, organised around
aesthetic/utilitarian and individual/social roles: to identify or locate, to communi-
cate, to remind and organise, to guide attention, to express and individualise, to
generate an experience, to beautify and to re-present. These are not exhaustive of
what ornaments can ‘mean’ or ‘do’ and are not mutually exclusive. Their inter-
dependence testifies actually to the co-constitutive nature of categories such as
individual and social, aesthetic and utilitarian. In fact, I hypothesise that

SOCIAL

RE- TELL
PRESENT IDENTIFY COMM.
U
A LOCATE
T
E I
S L
T I
H BEAUTIFY EMERGENCE REMIND
T
E ORNATE GENERATION ORGANISE
A
T R
I I
C A
EXPRESS
N
CREATE INDIVIDUALISE GUIDE
EXPERIENCE ATTENTION

INDIVIDUAL

Figure 1. The functions of ornaments.

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

88 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

ornaments perform many if not all of these roles at once, although, under specific
circumstances, one function or set of functions can become salient. The ‘ninth’
function, fundamentally present in all acts of ornamentation, is that of emergence.
The capacity to generate, to create, to multiply, is both a central characteristic and
outcome of decoration, at least as expressed in Easter egg making.
The typology proposed above emerged out of the author’s extensive study of
Easter egg decoration as a creative craft, which included interviews and ethno-
graphic observation with artisans from the village of Ciocăneşti in 2009/2010.
This research is presented extensively elsewhere (Glăveanu, 2010, 2013a, 2013b)
and what this article represents is a reflection on a central aspect of the craft – the
use of ornaments – which is key for understanding the symbolic and material
dimensions of creative expression in this domain. The nine functions made refer-
ence to before emerged out of collecting data about the use and role of ornaments
directly from folk artists and their customers; these observations were subsequently
systematised using the individual – social and aesthetic – utilitarian axes since these
two dimensions usually structure the discussion of ornaments in the existing litera-
ture. Indeed, the present schema is by no means the first attempt to organise the
functions of ornaments. Criticos (2004), for instance, identified four main roles:
symbolic/representational, qualifying/adjectival, ordering and decorative. In other
words, ornaments ‘make manifest or enhance the meaning of an object, qualify and
individualize it within its class, organize its appearance or inscribe it in a given
system, and, last but not least, they simply and solely adorn it’ (Criticos, 2004, p.
205). All of these functions are captured by the proposal above, which advances an
open classification system (depicted, in Figure 1, in the shape of a geometric orna-
ment, calling our attention to the aesthetics of scientific representation itself). As
follows, I will discuss each of the nine functions with a few illustrations from
fieldwork.

Ornaments identify and locate

One of the cardinal social functions of ornaments is that of identifying groups
and communities and ‘locating’ individual actors within broader, often geograph-
ical, systems of meaning and practice. In this regard, body ornaments are known
to transmit social information, telling the viewer who the person is and how
others might relate to him/her (Kuhn & Stiner, 2007). Decoration has long
served as an identity marker able to increase the social cohesion of human com-
munities and differentiate them from other communities, even within the same
national culture. This is very clear in the case of Easter eggs. It was noted by
Tzigara-Samurcaş (1909) for instance that, in relation to traditional decoration, if
we start from the East and move towards the West of Europe (from northern
Romania to Poland, to Bohemia, etc.), ornaments become more geometrical,
colour combinations more intricate, more colours are generally used, etc. In
contrast, traditional Romanian eggs are described by simplicity, the use of ‘nat-
ural’ shapes and colours.

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 89

Figure 2. Decorated eggs from three regions in Romania (Museum of the Romanian
Peasant).

However, also within Romania, decorated eggs from the southern parts can be
distinguished from what is produced in the north, in regions such as Bucovina and
northern Moldova. Moreover, even within the same region, the style of decoration
can differ from village to village, from community to community. For example, in
Bucovina, whose ornaments are strongly geometric and greatly stylised
(Zahacinschi & Zahacinschi, 1992), particular rural communities distinguish them-
selves through specific motifs and colours (Ciocăneşti eggs, for instance, are known
for their black background). A quick look at the Zahacinschi collection of deco-
rated eggs, kept at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest and includ-
ing around 4500 pieces (Hutt, 2005), reveals visible differences in style and
chromatic elements between historical regions of the country (see Figure 2), as
well as pointing to several overall similarities.

Ornaments communicate meaning

In Easter egg decoration, ornaments have the important function of ‘telling’ a
story, communicating meaning to an audience, to potential viewers. This is because
traditional motifs, as well as associated colours, have conventional meanings (dis-
cussed also above). These meanings are not set once and for all and the same motif
can symbolise different things for different communities. For example, a very popu-
lar design in Romania, known as ‘the lost way’, represents wavy lines that go
around the egg (Newall, 1967). Reminiscent of the labyrinth, this ornament is
interpreted differently across the country, from concrete associations with people
who got lost in the woods, up to general meanings such as the condition of human
life. This also raises the idea that messages inscribed on Easter eggs can be ‘read’ at
multiple levels, including by the artisans themselves. For most lay audiences, the

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

90 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

Figure 3. Easter egg depicting four quadrants (Cristina Timu).

decorated egg and its patterns are connected to the celebration of Easter or simply
to the coming of spring. Folk artists and ethnographers, on the other hand, are
often capable of explaining different parts of an ornamental structure and extract-
ing its overall meaning.
For example, Figure 3 presents a goose egg decorated by Cristina Timu in
Ciocăneşti. The egg is segmented into four quadrants – a rather typical strategy
for geometric decoration – that here symbolises the four seasons and thus makes a
direct reference to the yearly cycle. Within these quadrants, several geometric
motifs common for the region are depicted: the start (with eight rays, often split
into two groups of four, a symbol of perfection and femininity), the net (white,
inside the triangles, symbolising the separation between good and evil), etc.
Interestingly, what an ornament communicates is often learned by folk artists
after years of practice, prompted by the need to attract potential customers. As
such, the messages inscribed into an Easter egg and their ‘reading’ become highly
variable, depending on both artisans and their multiple audiences.

Ornaments remind and organise

At the height of their utilitarian role, ornaments have the capacity to remind indi-
viduals and groups about events of significance and to organise their practical action

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 91

Figure 4. Easter egg decorated with the motif of the cross (Marcela Coţovan).

in the world. For the latter we can think about Valsiner’s (2008, p. 73) remark that
‘life contexts are strategically situated to guide us towards the goal objects set up for
us by goal-directed social institutions’. Ornaments on doors for example have the
role of organising movement, highlighting constraints on action as well as affor-
dances specific for access points. In a similar vein, ornaments on eggs signal what
types of actions are allowed and what actions are forbidden (e.g. knocking the eggs
against each other, a ritual specific for monochrome, non-ornamented eggs).
However, the primary function of ornaments on Easter eggs is that of reminding
viewers of the festivity though its central symbol: the cross. Several types of crosses
are depicted on decorated eggs in Romania, known under different names: the
cross of the lamb, the Easter cross, the Romanian cross, the Russian cross, etc.
Figure 4 exemplifies this motif with lines (symbolising plants, usually grains)
coming out of its centre. The cross is a common ornament depicted on eggs,
either individually (as below) or as part of the general pattern (since geometric
decoration invariably generates lines that traverse each other).

Ornaments guide attention

Another function situated close to the utilitarian pole relates to an ornament’s
capacity to guide the attention and perception of individual viewers. This is

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

92 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

Figure 5. Easter egg with a star motif (Maria Timu).

achieved both through the size and disposition of elements as well as the use of
colour. For Brett (2005, p. 9), ‘edges, borders, fringes, rims, surfaces, points of
focus, and the modulation of light and colour are all required for a pleasurable
navigation through the world of objects, places, and spaces’. In order to success-
fully organise action, ornaments need to focus the attention of users by creating
what Valsiner (2008, p. 67) calls ‘an inescapable field structure’. Within this pat-
terned structure, often in an unconscious manner, our attention is guided towards
centres of practical or symbolic relevance.
Let’s take the example of the Easter egg presented in Figure 5. It depicts the
common motif of the start, a symbol of perfection and femininity in northern
Romania. Usually in the case of decorated eggs, it is the central motif that captures
the attention of the viewer. In this particular case, however, the belt is heavily
ornamented and represents a point of focus in itself, creating a sensation of dyna-
mism through the use of straight and curved lines pointing in different directions.

Ornaments express a style and individualise

Just as, around the social pole, ornaments were said to have the function of iden-
tifying and locating creators within communities, it is equally possible for them to

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 93

Figure 6. Three eggs decorated by Maria Istrate (Ciocăneşti).

express individual styles. This capacity was virtually ignored or even suppressed
during centuries of practicing craft activities. Orhan Pamuk, in his celebrated novel
‘My name is red’, comments on miniaturists’ efforts to eliminate any sign of indi-
viduality from their art. Perfection in execution relies on respecting the standards
of a collective tradition and not allowing idiosyncrasies specific for personal expres-
sion. This might have been also the case for Easter egg decoration in past decades
in Romania, but such a constraint rarely applies today.
Driven by the requirements of the market, most artisans are trying nowadays
to differentiate their style in order to become recognised and attract customers.
However, this tendency is counterbalanced by the need to legitimise their work in
terms of traditional decoration practices. Previous research (Glăveanu, 2013a)
reflects this dilemma in the double tendency of folk artists to claim no (or
reduced) originality while acknowledging the existence of a personal style. This
style is considered easy to recognise by self as well as other decorators, who can
identify the ‘hand’ of each one of their colleagues. Take for example the three
eggs presented in Figure 6, made by Maria Istrate. They depict a chromatic
specific for the village of Ciocăneşti as well as three different motifs common
in the region. Despite the different ornaments, these eggs display a clear resem-
blance in line and technique that individualises this artisan and expresses a per-
sonal kind of sensibility.

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

94 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

Ornaments generate an experience

Situated between the individual and aesthetic poles, this function refers to the
personal experience of creating or perceiving an ornament and thus considers
both the artisan and the viewer. The subjective experience of an ornament is neces-
sarily embedded in collective forms of perception and action specific for a commu-
nity of decorators. To capture this simultaneously individual and social meaning of
an experience we need to consider Dewey’s thought; for him, ‘experience is a matter
of the interaction of organism with its environment, an environment that is human
as well as physical, that includes the materials of tradition and institutions as well
as local surroundings’ (Dewey, 1934, p. 256). Dewey emphasised the connection
between self and world as well as undergoing the ‘resistance’ of the world to our
action as fundamental requirements for experience. Resistance is not encountered
in our case only by the makers of an ornament but, as Dewey reminds us, a work of
art ‘is recreated every time it is aesthetically experienced’ (p. 113).
The subjective experience of creating an ornament on an Easter egg (as well as
perceiving it, since decorators are themselves first audiences for their own cre-
ations), is described in terms of anticipation, joy and surprise (Glăveanu, 2013a).
As a typical example of the workmanship of risk (Pye, 1968), egg decoration is a
highly unpredictable activity that, at every moment, can result in failure. Artisans
acknowledge this when commenting on the process of cleaning the egg, applying
wax, immersing the egg in colour and, above all, cleaning the wax off at the end of
decoration (see Figure 7). This final moment in particular is considered to define
the experience of decoration since, besides shaping its result, it also intensifies the
emotional states specific for this craft.

Ornaments beautify
This is perhaps the most intuitive and visible function of ornaments. Indeed, a
primary role of ornamentation is to beautify objects or processes, to contribute
to their aesthetics. As noted from before, most definitions of ornaments emphasise
artistic qualities and visual delight (Brett, 2005; Trilling, 2003). Easter egg decor-
ation clearly exemplifies this function and one of the main reasons for engaging in
this practice – offered by artisans as well as lay audiences – is represented by a need
to make eggs more beautiful and pleasant to look at. This is why the colour and
procedure of decoration have been gradually diversified in the past decades and
today we can find eggs ornamented with wax in relief, painted with oil colours or
acrylic, decorated with beads or leaves, etc. Figure 8 below depicts different tech-
niques, employed by the same artisan, from traditional (front), to polychrome eggs
with wax in relief (middle) and monochrome (blue) eggs with wax in relief (back).
Interestingly, the ‘quest for beauty’ is what motivates artisans to experiment
with new forms of decoration, to the point of violating traditional norms. Most
folk artists nowadays are capable of producing traditional eggs with ‘old’ motifs
alongside modern ‘innovations’ created by the self or adopted from others.

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 95

Figure 7. Wiping the wax off (Cristina Timu).

Customers appreciate novelties especially when they have aesthetic value and their
judgement can set artisans apart and increase their prestige, building reputations
inside and outside the country (for instance, in Romania, Maria Zinici and her
family became well known for their decoration style following the 1990s).

Ornaments re-present
What ornaments achieve aesthetically is to re-present, in schematic and stylised
ways, different aspects of reality, from nature to community life. While abstract,
highly imaginative patterns can also be depicted, it is often the case that decoration,
particularly in folk art, draws inspiration from the everyday life of peasants. Easter
egg motifs represent, schematically, plants, animals, objects, places, people and
their activity. As mentioned from the introduction, a common note of decoration
in Romania consists of depicting the characteristic or distinctive parts of objects
without aiming to represent them acutely or entirely (Gorovei, 2001; Zahacinschi &
Zahacinschi, 1992). Figure 9 offers an example in this regard. The motif displayed
on this egg is called the frog and, as we can observe, it is particularly the feet of the
frog, enlarged and stylised, that occupy most of the space. This ornament is char-
acteristic for ‘old’ forms of decoration since, currently, most Easter eggs present
geometric motifs (traditional eggs are distinguished by simplicity in both line and
colour, a certain resemblance to ‘naive art’, and the fact that they are not var-
nished). In the end, ornaments on Easter eggs do not copy or present reality as is,

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

96 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

Figure 8. Decorated Easter eggs at a national fair (Maria Zinici).

but re-present it for artisans and viewers using a clear set of socially accumulated
conventions.

Concluding thoughts on ornaments, emergence,

rhythm and change
We started the discussion of ornaments with two inter-related questions: (a) Why
should we be concerned with the study of ornaments? and (b) Why should we be
concerned with their study in psychology? To answer them it was necessary to reflect
on the multiple functions of ornaments, beyond conventional descriptions regarding
the aesthetic value of decoration. It was suggested here that the functions of orna-
ments can be organised around two intersecting ‘continuums’: individual to social,
and aesthetic to utilitarian. Grounded in a study of Easter egg decoration in

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 97

Figure 9. An old motif, the frog (Maria Zinici).

Romania, this matrix allowed us to distinguish and illustrate eight main roles of
ornaments: to identify or locate, to tell or communicate, to remind and organise, to
guide attention, to express and individualise, to generate an experience, to beautify
or ornate and to re-present. These are not mutually exclusive, nor are they the only
possible functions of ornamentation and future theoretical and empirical explor-
ations, beyond the context of craft, can uncover more roles and/or refine this pro-
posed classification. In emphasising the value of this study for psychology, we can
agree with Ittelson (1996) that ‘markings are psychologically important precisely
because they provide information about something other than the real-world situ-
ations in which they are encountered’ (p. 172), beyond the surfaces they are depicted
on, in our case the shells of a variety of eggs. It is the presence of colours and
ornaments on eggs that turns them into ‘Easter eggs’ and gives them aesthetic
and functional qualities the egg alone (its surface) would not have otherwise.
Significantly, to our set of functions a ninth capacity was added (see Figure 1).
This refers to the generative role of ornaments and can be considered a ‘meta-
function’ as it supports and mediates the expression of other roles and constitutes
the defining characteristic of ornamentation. The generative function is generously
illustrated by Easter egg decoration with its constant emergence of motifs and
patterns. Repetition and combination stand at the core of decoration practices
and geometric motifs traditional for northern Romania have the essential quality
of allowing an indefinite number of additions and combinations, within the
expanding ‘boundaries’ of the craft (Figure 10). This continuous emergence favours
the development of a certain ‘unity in diversity’ specific for most folk arts, where
vitality and creativity are integrated into (and facilitated by) a dynamic system of
constraints, traditional meanings and regular practice. In craft, ‘fit-for-purpose is

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

98 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

Figure 10. Variations of a general pattern on Easter eggs (Maria Ciocan).

achieved rather than preconceived’ (Sennett, 2008, p. 161) and, at all times, ‘the
workman admits to the work an element of the unaccountable and unstudied, of
improvisation’ (Pye, 1968, p. 31). Paradoxically, this intrinsic creativity of orna-
mentation often escapes not only scholarly accounts but often, also, artisans’ own
perception of their activity (Mall, 2007).
The function of emergence ‘places’ ornaments within spatial and temporal
coordinates. Spatially, ornaments, through their generativity, start occupying ‘ter-
ritories’ previously unavailable to decoration. Processes of abundant emergence
mark the spread of ornaments beyond their original context resulting in the cre-
ation of ornamental universes: multiple spaces of decoration brought together by a
unitary system of motifs and a set of guiding principles of depiction. Romanian
folk art is such a universe. Its motifs, composition and colours are found on Easter
eggs, clothes, pottery, wood-carving, glass painting, and, in more recent acts of
‘expansion’, on houses, near windows and doors (this is the case of Ciocăneşti
village, considered by ethnographers an open-air museum). Notwithstanding
local specificity, this ornamental universe has a unitary origin: ‘nature, cosmos
and the myths related to them, together with the surrounding world and everyday
life, serve as a model for creators, their imagination generating, in turn, endless
variations of the same theme’ (Zahacinschi & Zahacinschi, 1992, p. 48). The spatial
expansion of ornaments is modulated by temporal/historical constraints placed on
generativity. Ornaments are not static realities even when depicted on a material
support. They can be added, removed, repainted and their meaning varies depend-
ing on viewer (and his/her spatial coordinates) as well as macro-transformations
taking place at the level of the craft. Zahacinschi and Zahacinschi (1992) note that,
changes in egg decoration are closely related to recent transformations in the life of
the village, of rural Romanian communities. A complete study of ornamental uni-
verses is necessarily dynamic and sensitive to the historical context of decoration.
Cultural psychology has an important contribution to make to this study. Its
theoretical models and conceptual tools can be used to unpack each one of the ‘eight

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 99

plus one’ functions proposed in this article. One important future direction for
research relates to a more clear focus on ornamentation, on the act of ornamenting
rather than its outcomes alone. And there is great scope for theorising this practice
as embodied action, as rhythm. Sennett (2008, p. 176) commented for instance on
the fact that, in opposition to images of the mindless routine of artisans, ‘the skilled
craftsman has extended rhythm to the hand and eye’. This rhythm, for him, is
established between repetition and anticipation and is defined by emotional engage-
ment. Rhythm not only accompanies ornamentation, it sustains it. Valsiner (2008)
made a similar observation about musical ornaments that constitute the back-
ground of everyday activities. Perhaps a new set of functions of the ornament for
both ‘makers’ and ‘perceivers’ can be derived while following this line of investiga-
tion. In the end, understanding ornaments, and in particular understanding them
with the means of (cultural) psychology, is not gratuitous. If we live in ornamented
worlds (Valsiner, 2008) and exist as ornamenting creatures, as Homo ornans
(Criticos, 2004), then ‘saving’ ornaments from the realms of the aesthetic and super-
fluous contributes to saving our own dignity and, to some extent, our humanity.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the Museum of the Romanian peasant and participants from
Ciocăneşti for their enthusiasm and support and also express his gratitude towards Sandra
Jovchelovitch and his colleagues at the Niels Bohr Professorship Centre for Cultural
Psychology at Aalborg University in Denmark.

Funding
The empirical work mentioned in this article was supported by the Economic and Social
Research Council [grant number ES/H/13199/1].

References
Brett, D. (2005). Rethinking decoration: Pleasure and ideology in the visual arts. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cooper, P., & Allen, N. B. (1999). The quilters: Women and domestic art, an oral history.
Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press.
Criticos, M. (2004). The ornamental dimension: Contributions to a theory of ornament. New
Europe College Yearbook (special ed.), pp. 185–219.
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York, NY: Penguin.
Gibson, J. (1980). A prefatory essay on the perception of surfaces versus the perception of
markings on a surface. In M. Hagen (Ed.), The perception of pictures, Vol. 1: Alberti’s
Window (pp. xi–xvii). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Glăveanu, V. P. (2010). Creativity in context: The ecology of creativity evaluations and
practices in an artistic craft. Psychological Studies, 55(4), 339–350.
Glăveanu, V. P. (2013a). Creativity and folk art: A study of creative action in traditional
craft. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 7(2), 140–154.
Glăveanu, V. P. (2013b). Creativity development in community contexts: The case of folk
art. Thinking Skills & Creativity, 9, 152–164.

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

100 Culture & Psychology 20(1)

Gombrich, E. H. (1984). The sense of order: A study in the psychology of decorative art.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Gorovei, A. (2001). Ouăle de Pas¸te. Studiu de folclor [Easter eggs. A study of folklore]
(2nd edn.). Bucureşti, Romania: Paideia.
Hamlin, A. D. F. (1916). A history of ornament: Ancient and medieval. New York, NY: The
Century Co.
Hutt, A. (2005). Oul ı̂mpodobit, un meşteşug vechi de mii de ani [The decorated egg, a
millenary craft]. Descoperă România, I(1), 25–33.
Irimie, C. (1969). Arta ı̂ncondeierii ouălor. In F. Bobu Florescu, & P. Petrescu (Eds.), Arta
populară românească [Romanian folk art] (pp. 607–612). Bucureşti, Romania: Editura
Academiei.
Ittelson, W. H. (1996). Visual perception of markings. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(2),
171–187.
Jones, O. (1868). The grammar of ornament. London, UK: Bernard Quaritch.
Kuhn, S. L., & Stiner, M. C. (2007). Paleolithic ornaments: Implications for cognition,
demography and identity. Diogenes, 54, 40–48.
Mall, A. S. (2007). Structure, innovation and agency in pattern construction: The Kolam of
Southern India. In E. Hallam, & T. Ingold (Eds.), Creativity and cultural improvisation
(pp. 55–78). Oxford, UK: Berg.
Marian, M. B. (1992). Mitologia oului [The mythology of the egg]. Bucureşti, Romania:
Editura Minerva.
Newall, V. (1967). Easter eggs. Journal of American Folklore, 80(315), 3–32.
Pye, D. (1968). The nature and art of workmanship. London, UK: The Herbert Press.
Sennett, R. (2008). The craftsman. New Have, CT: Yale University Press.
Sonesson, G. (2007). From the meaning of embodiment to the embodiment of meaning: A
study in phenomenological semiotics. In T. Ziemke, J. Zlatev, & R. M. Frank (Eds.),
Body, language, and mind, Vol. 1: Embodiment (pp. 85–128). Berlin, Germany: Water de
Gruyter.
Trilling, J. (2003). Ornament: A modern perspective. Seattle, Washington: University of
Washington Press.
Tzigara-Samurcaş, A. (1909). Arta ıˆn România: Studii critice [Art in Romania: Critical
studies]. Bucureşti, Romania: Editura Minerva.
Valsiner, J. (2008). Ornamented worlds and textures of feeling: The power of abundance.
Critical Social Studies, 1, 67–78.
Zahacinschi, M., & Zahacinschi, N. (1992). Ouăle de Pas¸ti la români [Easter eggs from
Romanians]. Bucureşti, Romania: Ed. Sport-Turism.

Author biography
Vlad Glăveanu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication and
Psychology, Aalborg University, Associate researcher at LATI, Universite Paris
Descartes, and Affiliate of the Creativity Marketing Centre, ESCP Europe
(London campus). He obtained his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the London
School of Economics. He interests are in creativity and innovation, cultural psych-
ology, social representations, social development, pragmatism, and history and
psychology. He has published theoretical and empirical studies in a variety of

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

Glăveanu 101

journals and his books include Thinking through Creativity and Culture
(Transaction, 2014), Distributed Creativity (Springer, 2014), and the co-edited
volume Rethinking Creativity: Perspectives from Cultural Psychology (Routledge,
2014). He is also Editor of Europe’s Journal of Psychology (EJOP).

Downloaded from cap.sagepub.com by guest on January 19, 2016

View publication stats