simple
RULE
“Do not waste your ornament.”
WASTING ORNAMENT
There are three ways of wasting ornament:
By making it of a kind unsuited to…
the material in which it is to be executed;
what will be required of it, and
the position it is to occupy.
“The man who specifies a machine-made piece of ‘stock’ is unconcerned as to whether it be plastered up in a place where it is useless or not. But the artist, who has spent himself on a bit of detail, is as unhappy at the thought of its desecration as is the mother whose child is carried away captive by barbarians.”
A Discussion of Composition, Especially as Applied to Architecture John Vredenburgh Van Pelt