Rosette (design)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Orna115-Rosetten.png/200px-Orna115-Rosetten.png)
A rosette is a round, stylized flower design.
Origin
[edit]The rosette derives from the natural shape of the botanical rosette, formed by leaves radiating out from the stem of a plant and visible even after the flowers have withered.
History
[edit]The rosette design is used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity, appearing in Mesopotamia, and in funeral steles' decoration in Ancient Greece. The rosette was another important symbol of Ishtar which had originally belonged to Inanna along with the Star of Ishtar.[1]
It was adopted later in Romaneseque and Renaissance architecture, and also common in the art of Central Asia, spreading as far as India where it is used as a decorative motif in Greco-Buddhist art.
Ancient origins
[edit]One of the earliest appearances of the rosette in ancient art is in early fourth millennium BC Egypt.[2] Another early Mediterranean occurrence of the rosette design derives from Minoan Crete; Among other places, the design appears on the Phaistos Disc, recovered from the eponymous archaeological site in southern Crete.[3]
- Greco-Buddhist rosettes at the bottom of a statue of the Buddha from Gandhara, 1st-2nd century AD, schistose rock, Tokyo National Museum
Modern use
[edit]The formalised flower motif is often carved in stone or wood to create decorative ornaments for architecture and furniture, and in metalworking, jewelry design and the applied arts to form a decorative border or at the intersection of two materials.
Rosette decorations have been used for formal military awards. They also appear in modern, civilian clothes,[4] and are often worn prominently in political[5] or sporting[6] events. Rosettes sometimes decorate musical instruments, such as around the perimeter of sound holes of guitars.
Gallery
[edit]- Priest-King, a Harappan artwork, 2400–1900 BC, low fired steatite, National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi
- Minoan rosettes on a fresco from Akrotiri, 17th century BC, fresco, Museum of Prehistoric Thera, Thera, Santorini, Greece
- Ancient Egyptian rosettes on a ceiling painting from the palace of Amenhotep III, c.1390–1353 BC, dried mud, mud plaster and paint Gesso, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
- Ancient Egyptian rosettes on the wooden chest of Tutankhamun, 1336-1327 BC, wood inlayed with ivory, Egyptian Museum, Cairo[8]
- Mycenaean volutes, part of a mural from a palace in Tiryns, Greece, 13th century BC, fresco, Archaeological Museum of Nafplion, Nafplio, Greece
- Babylonian glazed brick fragments with rosette decoration, 539-330 BC, burned and glazed clay, Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin
- Ancient Greek rosettes around a door of the Erechtheion, Athens, Greece, unknown architect, 421-405 BC[10]
- Ancient Greek rosettes on a larnax of Philip II, 330-320 BC, gold and enamel, Museum of the Royal Tombs of Aigai, Vergina, Greece[11]
- Roman rosettes in the ceiling of the Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome, unknown architect, 203
- Roman rosettes on a frieze, unknown date, probably marble, Villa medicea di Cerreto Guidi, Cerreto Guidi, Italy
- Romanesque rosettes on a pair of capitals from the Vézelay Abbey, Vézelay, France, unknown architect, 1120-1150
- Tudor rose added under Henry VIII to the foot of the Gothic Royal Gold Cup, late 14th century, British Museum
- Baroque rosettes on a carpet with fame and fortitude, by the Savonnerie manufactory, 1668–1685, knotted and cut wool pile, woven with about 90 knots per square inch, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Rosettes, 17th or 18th centuries, print, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City
- Rosettes, 17th or 18th centuries, print, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Rosettes, 17th or 18th centuries, print, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Neoclassical rosettes in the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, Paris, by Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, 1806-1808
- Neoclassical rosettes on the arms of an armchair, by Jacob Desmalter, 1808, gilded wood, Louvre
- Neoclassical rosettes on a stool, by François-Honoré-Georges Jacob-Desmalter, c.1810, gilded wood, unknown location
- Neoclassical rosettes on a vase, by the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, 1814, hard-paste porcelain with platinum background and gilt bronze mounts, Louvre[12]
- Simplified Neoclassical rosettes of a door of the Romanian Atheneum, Bucharest, Romania, by Albert Galleron, 1888
- Rosettes on the Beaux-Arts fence of Strada Ionel Perlea no. 21, Bucharest, unknown architect, c.1900
- Art Nouveau rosettes on a gate of the Longoria Palace, Madrid, Spain, by José Grases Riera, 1902-1904
- Neoclassical rosette on a handle of the lateral wing that faces Strada Edgar Quinet and Strada Academiei of the University Building, Bucharest, Romania, probably designed by Nicolae Ghica-Budești, 1914-1934[13]
- Rosettes on Beaux-Arts balconies of Strada Episcopiei no. 2-4, Bucharest, unknown architect, c.1920
- Art Deco rosettes on Strada Grigore Cobălcescu no. 56, Bucharest, unknown architect, c.1930
See also
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^ Black, Jeremy; Green, Anthony (1992), Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary, The British Museum Press, ISBN 0-7141-1705-6, p. 156
- ^ Haddon, Alfred Cort. Evolution in Art: As Illustrated by the Life-histories of Designs, 1914, Scribner's, 364 pages
- ^ "Phaistos Fieldnotes" by C.Michael Hogan, The Modern Antiquarian, 2007
- ^ "Blame the Rosettes" by Eric Wilson, The New York Times, 3 August 2006
- ^ See rosette in politics
- ^ Woodward, Kath. Social Sciences: The Big Issues, Routledge; 2nd edition: September 2009; ISBN 978-0415466608
- ^ Smith, David Michael (2017). Pocket Museum - Ancient Greece. Thames & Hudson. p. 64. ISBN 978-0-500-51958-5.
- ^ Robertson, Hutton (2022). The History of Art - From Prehistory to Presentday - A Global View. Thames & Hudson. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-500-02236-8.
- ^ 10,000 YEARS OF ART. Phaidon. 2009. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-7148-4969-0.
- ^ Watkin, David (2022). A History of Western Architecture. Laurence King. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-52942-030-2.
- ^ Robertson, Hutton (2022). The History of Art - From Prehistory to Presentday - A Global View. Thames & Hudson. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-500-02236-8.
- ^ "PAIRE DE VASES « FUSEAU »". amisdulouvre.fr. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
- ^ Mariana Celac, Octavian Carabela and Marius Marcu-Lapadat (2017). Bucharest Architecture - an annotated guide. Ordinul Arhitecților din România. p. 37. ISBN 978-973-0-23884-6.