An essential reference, Form and Decoration explores the vast repertoire of styles and motifs handed down from the past, which remain a source of inspiration for the designers of today.

Peter Thornton, an internationally renowned expert in the decorative arts, presents a groundbreaking survey of four centuries of Western design history from the High Renaissance in Italy, during which the classical styles of Greece and Rome were reborn, to the origins of the Modern movement in 1870, leaving off when Nikolaus Pevsner's seminal text Pioneers of Modern Design begins.

Highlighting the accomplishments of key design innovators from Pollaiuolo and Raphael to Percier, Pugin, and Owen Jones, Thornton sets their remarkable achievements against the background in which they worked.

Illuminating his text with an extraordinary range of illustrations, Thornton traces the development of ancient motifs, the introduction of new ones, and the revival of all of them at various times, charting their evolution through the courts, cities, and societies of Europe and on to the New World. He pinpoints the transfer of ideas from one designer to another, considers the influence of pattern books, and discusses the role of academies and schools of design.