Fred T. Hodgson · Frederick J. Drake and Co. · leaf 22
aft, and its highest functionwas to prepare a surface to be painted on. Sometimesit was used as an external protection from the weatherbut rarely was it employed for direct ornament. Some-times small ornaments wTere carved in plaster of Paris,but it played no important part in decorative Art,… … •Aradesque from the Great Mosque, Damascus. With the commencement of the fifteenth century oldlearning and old arts began to be studied, the discoveryof the art of printing and the consequent multiplicationof the copies of the lore heretofore looked up in oldmaiyuscripts gave invention and progress…
![An illustration from [Six suites of engravings] (1549)](https://img.insideoutlibrary.com/img/200/ia-sixsuitesofengra00andr-160-87.webp)
