Christa Giles

238
thrust, which draws the eye from the sphinx to the figure of
Antinuous, should suggest movement, but in fact, because
the eye cannot move beyond this never-ending circle, it
produces a sense of stasis. The two figures are forever
frozen despite the curvilinear nature of the design. Ricketts
also efficaciously juxtaposes filigree black line with
completely white space, thereby serving to emphasise the
laboured excess of the patterns as well as the way in which
the design can be elusively symbolic. In addition, he
manages to introduce the emotion of yearning and fear by
means of the formal structure of the illustration while
paradoxically reducing all to mere pattern and form.
Decadent art distorts, using colour, histrionic line,
white spaces, asymmetrical design, and controversial
subjects in an attempt to disturb or unsettle the onlooker.
Yet these ˝excesses˝ are firmly contained within the picture
space, suggesting an overall structure despite the obsessive
concern with detail. The superfluous and the decorative
enable the artist to superimpose an elaborate and self-
conscious order on the totality, rather as the dandy
composes his toilette from cumulative detail. Ornament
becomes its own subject, self-referential, sterile, perfect in
its autonomy. Wilde and Huysmans were attracted to these