Generally, functional refers to something able to fulfill its purpose or function.
Noah Webster defined beauty in this way: 1. An assemblage of graces or properties pleasing to the eye, the ear, the intellect, the aesthetic faculty, or the moral sense.
Beauty of function or function of beauty? Neither or both? *I* define functional beauty as it relates to the decorative arts, to describe a useful object which is also beautiful. The beauty can be in the object's form itself or in decorative elements added to the form.
When function and beauty are combined, they enrich our senses and our souls by exposing us to beautiful designs and fine art as we go about our lives doing every day tasks. Humans have been doing this since they could scrape designs on cave walls. We continued with pigments and carvings on tools, weapons, pottery, clothing, books and on through to buildings, vehicles, and even landscape. My plan for this blog is to explore functional beauty from the past and today.
The image above is the "Mammoth Spear Thrower". It is a spear thrower made from a reindeer antler which was carved to depict a mammoth. It was found in a cave in France and is believed to be about 12,500 years old. The photographer is Sara Branch of Wales.
