"An article of culture for thousands of years, ornament is as important as it is misunderstood. Vitruvius, in the first century A.D., regarded ornament as an essential property of architecture; in the fifteenth century Alberti, the father of the architectural profession, devoted four of his ten books on architecture to ornament. In the following centuries, ornament flourished both in theory and practice until, in the nineteenth century, it became an obsession. Yet during the twentieth century, ornament was scorned (Adolf Loos famously called it "crime") and its study all but eliminated from art and architecture curricula. What happened - and must we live with the result? Is ornament dead?". "In The Nature of Ornament, Kent Bloomer investigates this mystery. He offers a synopsis of seminal moments and remarkable features of ornament, analyzes its language and intricate rules of composition, and shows that ornament is a nature-based and universal system of human communication.". "Illustrated with the author's evocative line drawings as well as photographs of examples from the ancient world and the modern cityscape, this book celebrates the marvelous accomplishments of ornament and argues for the continued value, vitality, and potential of ornament in architecture today."--BOOK JACKET.