Description: In the last few years, the study of ornament has been the object of a reevaluation in art history, architecture and in the contemporary arts. In 2009, the Swiss Institute in Rome has organized a study day on this topic, focusing on the theories developed in the nineteenth century, when ornament was gradually liberated from the traditional rhetoric of decorum. This volume, with an introduction by Christian Michel (Lausanne), brings together papers by Valerie Kobi (Neuchatel), Odile Nouvel-Kammerer (Paris), Ariane Varela Braga (Neuchatel), Harry Francis Mallgrave (Chicago), Carla Subrizi (Rome), Andrea Pinotti (Milan), Katrin Albrecht (Zurich), Christian Spies (Basel) and Massimo Carboni (Rome).
