Scrollwork

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Baroque scrolls from a church in Catania.

Scrollwork is an element of ornamentation and graphic design, using a circular spiral. The name comes from by the supposed resemblance to the edge-on view of a rolled parchment scroll. Scrollwork is most commonly associated with Baroque Architecture, though it saw uses in almost every decorative application, including furniture, metalwork, porcelain and engraving. Applications of scrollwork can be seen in the volutes at the head of an Ionic column and the carved scroll at the end of the pegbox on members of the violin family. It was further extended in Mannerism into strapwork, which often terminated in scrolls.

Especially in American English, "scrollwork" is often used in popular language for two-dimensional decorative flourishes and arabesques of all kinds, especially those using circular or spiralling shapes. However this is not really correct.

History

The use of scrollwork in design has been present in human culture since at least the Bronze Age. For example, scroll ornamentation has been found in the Palace of Knossos at Minoan Crete dating to approximately 1800 BC.^[1]

Applications

Scrollwork is a technique used in cake decorating. "Albeit a bit baroque, scrollwork lends a charmingly antique quality to the sides of a cake."^[2]

See also

• Cartouche

References

1. ^ C. Michael Hogan, Knossos fieldnotes, Modern Antiquarian (2007)
2. ^ Rose Levy Beranbaum, 1988, The Cake Bible, p.403-404. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc

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