simple rule do not waste your ornament

simple

RULE

“Do not waste your ornament.”

WASTING ORNAMENT

There are three ways of wasting ornament:

By making it of a kind unsuited to…

the material in which it is to be executed;

what will be required of it, and

the position it is to occupy.

“The man who specifies a machine-made piece of ‘stock’ is unconcerned as to whether it be plastered up in a place where it is useless or not. But the artist, who has spent himself on a bit of detail, is as unhappy at the thought of its desecration as is the mother whose child is carried away captive by barbarians.”

A Discussion of Composition, Especially as Applied to Architecture               John Vredenburgh Van Pelt