Decorative art encompasses a wide range of artistic disciplines focused on ornamenting functional objects that may not have intrinsic aesthetic qualities. It includes crafts like basket-weaving, ceramics, tapestry, and others. Decorative art objects often have a utilitarian purpose, unlike fine art which is meant solely for viewing. Major museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum showcase decorative art styles including basketry, enamelwork, floral decorations, lacquer work, pottery, mosaic, and tapestry.

1. Decorative Art
LESSON 4

2. Decorative Art: Definition & Meaning
is a traditional term for a rather unwieldy range of
artistic disciplines concerned with the design and
ornamentation of items, usually functional, that do not
necessarily have any intrinsic aesthetic qualities. Broadly-
speaking, many decorative arts (e.g. basket-weaving,
cabinet-making, ceramics, tapestry and others) are also
classified as "crafts." Also, decorative art is part of the larger
category of applied art.

3. What Does Decorative Art Include?
Decorative art also embraces just
about any category of "precious or
crafted object."

4. Difference Between Decorative Arts and Fine Arts?
Fine art that is painting, drawing, sculpture and
photography, typically has no other function than to be
looked at. In contrast, decorative art is often (but not
always) utilitarian. Another difference is that fine art tends
to be significantly more drawing-based, while decorative arts
tend to be more technique-based. But there are exceptions
to both these general rules.

5. Museum Collections of Decorative Art
One of the world's greatest collections of this type of
artwork in America can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York. In Europe, the Louvre and the Victoria
and Albert Museum are the greatest showcases of
decorative art.

6. Styles of Decorative Art
Basketry, art and craft of making interwoven objects, usually
containers, from flexible vegetable fibers, such as twigs,
grasses, osiers, bamboo, and rushes, or from plastic or other
synthetic materials. The containers made by this method are
called baskets.

7. Enamelwork
technique of decoration whereby metal objects or
surfaces are given a vitreous glaze that is fused onto the
surface by intense heat to create a brilliantly colored
decorative effect. It is an art form noted for its brilliant,
glossy surface, which is hard and long-lasting.

8. Floral Decorations
Flower, the characteristic reproductive structure of
angiosperms. As popularly used, the term “flower” especially
applies when part or all of the reproductive structure is
distinctive in color and form.

9. Lacquer work
certain metallic and wood objects to which colored
and frequently opaque varnishes called lacquer are applied.
The word lacquer is derived from lac, a sticky resinous
substance that is the basis of some lacquers. But the lacquer
of China, Japan, and Korea, which is made from the sap of
the tree Rhus vernicifera,

10. Pottery
one of the oldest and most widespread of the decorative
arts, consisting of objects made of clay and hardened with heat. The
objects made are commonly useful ones, such as vessels for holding
liquids or plates or bowls from which food can be served.

11. Mosaic
in art, decoration of a surface with designs made up
of closely set, usually variously colored, small pieces of
material such as stone, mineral, glass, tile, or shell.

12. Tapestry
woven decorative fabric, the design of which is built
up in the course of weaving. Broadly, the name has been
used for almost any heavy material, handwoven, machine
woven, or even embroidered, used to cover furniture, walls,
or floors or for the decoration of clothing.