Following a thematic approach, author Michael Snodin examines shapes, symbols, and patterns that derive from the natural world as well as key architectural styles. Also explored is ornament as it mirrors the preoccupations of each age: architectural in the Renaissance, exotic in the great age of discovery, and stylized in the Modern Age. As this book makes clear, behind the desire to decorate lies the need to give meaning to the things we make and live with: to make them distinctive and give them value.