ACANTHUS IN ART. There are several varieties of the acanthus plant. The two which find expression in art are the acanthus spinosus and acanthus mollis, the former having leaves of sharply pointed indentation, the latter having wider, blunter points. Of all the art motifs taken from plant life the acanthus has for many centuries been the most prolifically ized. Its graceful foliation adapts itself, when slightly conventionalized, to all the decorative arts. In stone (architecture, etc.) it is found in the decorative capital of the columns in the Corinthian Order and in friezes; in metal we find it highly favored by the gold and silver smith, the ironworker, the brass trade artisan; in woodwork the acanthus ornamentation is found universally in furniture and mural deco ration& The ancient Greeks greatly favored this floral motif and the Romans quickly adopted the device in their art. In the East, also, the use of its decorative value was soon appreci ated — in Byzantine it predominates. As in the above plastic arts, so in the graphic, where it is still in very great favor. Most art motifs
taken from the flora as well as fauna domain owe some of their appreciation to the fact that they carry with them some reference to symbol ism, but the acanthus has no symbolic value whatever.
The actual acanthus leaf is a perpendicular growth, but in the arts it is subjected to curves and convolutions not conforming to nature. The acanthus motif of the Greeks is the spinosus variety, while that adopted by the Romans was the mollis. Throughout the evolution of the decorative arts the acanthus continues favored by the period styles. We find it taken up, of course, an the Renaissance when it revived the classic forms; the Romanesque utilized it, as did the Gothic. Its delicate scroll decoration appears in the French art of Louis XIV, XV and XVI, though with specialized conventional formations which, to some extent, render these periods separately recognizable.