Greek Fret

Abstract

IN NATURE, vol. xxii. pp. 513–14, there is a very interesting account of the development of ornament as illustrated by General Pitt Rivers' Anthropological Collection. I would venture to suggest that though in the majority of cases the Greek fret pattern was independently evolved in different countries from the “double loop-coil,” yet a study of the plates in Mr. Catherwood's beautiful work, “Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America” (1844), suggests to me the probability that the builders of those remarkable structures arrived at the “Greek pattern” through a degradation of the conventionalised human face. The accompanying tracings from Catherwood's work will sufficiently explain my meaning.