Rethinking Decoration: Ornaments on Early Christian Floor Mosaics

Abstract

One of the issues confronting the theory, art history and architecture is the question of ornament. Ornament criticism began with Vitruvius's treatise in the 1st century AD and culminated with Adolf Loos's article in the beginning of the 20th century, leading to the complete elimination of ornaments primarily from architectural practice, but they fortunately never ceased to exist. Ornaments were accused as blatant, shallow, vulgar and a meaningless decoration. But, research conducted in the last decades argues that they can be symbolic in meaning and function. This paper examines different views and arguments of scholars expressed in historiography and how those views can reflect on our interpretation of ornaments found on early Christian floor mosaics.