British Museum Pattern Books reproduce in line drawings the rich variety of patterns and designs which decorate art and artefacts in the British Museum and elsewhere. Designers, craftsmen, artists and needleworkers, teachers and students will find them an invaluable reference source. Roman Designs. It has been said that the Romans themselves were not very artistic, but that, being powerful, they were able to command the best artists of their time. Initially, Roman design was influenced by the art of classical Greece, but, as the Empire expanded, motifs and styles from the eastern Mediterranean and northern Europe were added to the repertoire, which still forms the basis of almost all Western decorative and applied art today. The full range of Roman decoration is here illustrated in more than 300 examples taken from sculpture, mosaics, pottery and metalwork, glass, jewellery and lamps.
