Schlosser and Montaigne in the Festschrift for Franz Wickhoff’: Julius Schlosser, ‘Glosses on a passage in Montaigne’, Originally published as: ‘Randglossen zu einer Stelle Montaignes’, Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte, Franz Wickhoff gewidmet von einem Kreise von Freunden und Schülern, Vienna: Schroll, 1903, 172-182 and reprinted in Schlosser, Präludien Vorträge und Aufsätze, Berlin: Bard, 1927, 213-226.

Earlier theories about the origins of decoration supposed that forms such as the widespread zig-zag motif in ornamental art originated as a ‘naturalistic’ imitation of lightning in the sky or the movements of snakes along the surface of the earth. Evidence exists that actual naturalistic imitation as we know it only became conscious far later and that art originally and more fundamentally expressed feelings or impressions based on such figments as what had been called ‘memory images.