Strapwork
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In the history of art and design, strapwork is the use of stylised representations in ornament of ribbon-like forms. These may loosely imitate leather straps, parchment or metal cut into elaborate sha
Typical early English strapwork of 1589, detail from the monument to Sir Gawen Carew in Exeter Cathedral
French stucco, scrollwork and strapwork by Rosso Fiorentino in the Palace of Fontainebleau, 1530s
Ornament print, 1550s, Hans Vredeman de Vries
Sophisticated three-dimensional strapwork in stucco at the Palace of Fontainebleau
Arabesque
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The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with
Stone relief with arabesques of tendrils, palmettes and half-palmettes in the Umayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria
Part of a 15th-century ceramic panel from Samarkand (Uzbekistan) with white calligraphy on a blue arabesque background
Mosaics on the Treasury Dome of the Great Mosque of Damascus, 789, still in essentially Byzantine style
Palace facade from Mshatta in Jordan, c.740, now in the Pergamon Museum (Berlin)