Nineveh and Persia No. 2, plate XIII from The Grammar of Ornament, 3rd edn.

The Grammar of Ornament, first published in 1856, demonstrates Owen Jones's interest in codifying universal principles applicable to visual art and design, especially ones centered on architectural proportion, ornament, and color (for the complete first edition see Watson Library: NK1510 .J7 1856 Folio). Jonesorganized a global range of ornamental iconographies and colored patterns into a single framework, developing a series of Propositions, or rules, that he believed could be applied equally to the art of any period or culture, because they were rooted in laws that governed natural forms.

Jones’s folio publication influenced nineteenth-century understanding of how important polychromy was to ancient art. It countered an influential strand of aesthetic thought that favored pure white marble in Classical sculpture, an attitude that led to the removal of much surviving pigment and encouraged scholars, writers and teachers to downplay the significance of color in ancient sculpture. More recently, this trend has been reversed, as contemporary cultural interests are supported by improved scientific techniques that allow microscopic traces of ancient pigment to be identified.

Following the excavation of Assyrian palaces in the mid-nineteenth century, ancient Mesopotamian imagery began to be used in European decorative arts, including jewelry and ceramics. Articles in periodicals and popular books described the excavations at, andmany removal of, sculptures from sites in northern Iraq to England and France. Related public spectacles, such as the reconstructed ‘Nineveh Court’ in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, London (one of several historic sculpture courts which Owen Jones helped design), fostered a fascination with Assyria and Assyrian art among the Victorian public. The designs in this print rely on details found in Assyrian stone reliefs, glazed bricks found at Nimrod (ancient Kalhu), Khorsabad (ancient Dur-Sharrukin), and Nineveh, as well as Achaemenid Persian sculptures at Persepolis. In some cases, Jones has added his own colors, other designs are based on surviving originals. For example, the distinctive alternating black and white chevron patterns seen in no. 22 (bottom register, second from left), can be seen on the glazed bricks today.