Ornament and Symbol in French Romantic Architecture

For Simon-Claude Constant-Dufeux (1801-1871), a radical French architect and chair of perspective at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the study and composition of ornament were essential pursuits. Architectural emblems and ornaments were symbols that conveyed concise and immediate meaning; they were also a crucial element in realizing the Romantic ideal of the synthesis of the arts.Through the l...