Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

and in Gothic times":
In tho;:e tii-ioc, as :ri antique Greece, ornar.r.:nt
of every kinci subserved the function for .liich
it '.-v.s intended, and, beinr- at once logical raid
obei'i^nt, triurpV.ed in freedom where it was
apparently most restricted.
(i.'ir E.Burne-Jones, A.a.A., as a Decorative
Artict", XX (10"9) 214-9; p.215).
15
In a lecture delivered the same year, William Morris had
distinguished Gothic from Greek principles of unity:
For the iron rule of the classical period,
the acknowledged slavery of every one but
tJie great man hi.d gone, and freedom had t.-lcon
its place; but harmonious freedom. Subordination
of effect, not uniforroity of Go tail j true and
necesrary subordination, rot pedantic.-,,
The element of the Pre-Raphaelite theory which called for
stylised comosition had survived - its effects can be seen
most clearly in portraiture - but the accurate copying of
nature to provide decorative elements was being questioned.
There was, understandably, some confusion between the conservative
theory of detail subordinated to form, and the Impressionist
theory of natural phenomena subordinated to (or d