ROSETTE, an ornament, usually circular, oval or polygonal, formed by a series of petals or leaves radiating from the centre and symmetrically disposed. The form undoubtedly originated as an attempt to represent, systematically, the corolla of an open flower. Egyptian rosettes were thus, probably, representations of the open lotus. In Assyrian ornament, and in the Persian work based upon it, rosettes are one of the most common ornaments and are used, by continuous repetition, to form decorative bands. Although common in archaic pottery of the Greek islands, they were little used in the developed art of Greece itself. The Romans, on the other hand, used the form lavishly and gave it great rich ness by employing the complex acanthus leaf as the basic radiat ing form. It was used not only at the centre of each face of the Corinthian capital, but also to decorate the little panels between the modillions (q.v.) or scrolled brackets of the Corinthian order and as a decoration for the centre of the coffers or sunk panels of a coffered vault or ceiling. The rosette almost went out of use
in the mediaeval period save as it sometimes occurred as an individual flower in Gothic naturalistic ornament. In the Per pendicular period in England, the popularity of the heraldic Tudor rose gave a new importance to the rosette idea, and rosettes were frequently employed, repeated at regular intervals, to decorate hollow mouldings. Renaissance rosettes in design are based upon those of Rome, but were used even more lavishly, owing to the immense development of wooden coffered and panelled ceilings.
In metal-work the idea of the rosette was probably developed independently, owing to the ease with which little drops of metal could be soldered or fastened in a circle, to a basic utensil. Such rosettes, formed either of a simple circle of nearly hemispherical shape, or of one large hemisphere surrounded by several smaller ones, are favourite late Bronze and early Iron age decorations in the metal-work of the Celts, Scandinavians and northern Europe generally. (T. F. H.)