# Art Nouveau — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Art Nouveau**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 7 of 8 research dimensions.
> 18 sources attached. 3 claims graded by our research brief, no source attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

**Defining:** Whiplash curves, stylised botanicals, custom curvilinear lettering, muted jewel tones

**Recognise it by:** A tall vertical format holding a single near-life-size figure against a flat, depthless ground, enclosed by a hand-drawn border that is part of the drawing rather than a rule around it, with the lettering drawn by the same hand and curved to follow the image — commonly arched over the figure's head — and a continuous sinuous line running through hair, plant form, border and letter alike. The diagnostic condition is that figure, lettering and frame are one drawing: remove the type from a Victorian poster and the poster survives; remove it here and the composition has a hole. Botanical illustration depicts plants; this stylises them into structural line.

**Family:** Maximal & Ornamental
**Era:** 19th-century, early-modernist
**Native medium:** print_poster

## What it is arguing

Ornament and structure should be the same thing. A line that describes a plant can also carry the lettering, frame the figure and hold the composition together, so decoration is never applied to a design that would work without it.

**It refuses:** Refuses ornament that could be removed without the composition collapsing, and refuses depicting nature literally rather than stylising it into line.

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Victorian
- Botanical
- Solarpunk

## Established rules

Grouped by what kind of claim each is. A requirement of the language and our own interpretation are not interchangeable.

**How to read each rule.** Every rule states two separate things, and neither stands in for the other:

- **Kind of claim** (the heading): Seen in the work · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · From our catalogue entry · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Our reading · Documented · Source attached.
- **Evidence** (how it is established): Graded by our research brief · No source attached (`DOCUMENTED`) · From our catalogue entry (`SUPPORTED`) · Our reading (`CURATORIAL`) · Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`) · No grade recorded (no grade in the record). Where a claim has its own canonical label, the Evidence line gives that label instead of the grade.
- **Product area**: which of the twelve areas the rule belongs to (Layout, Typography, Color, Imagery, Surface, Interface, Motion, Motif, Technique, Form, Hierarchy, Density), mapped from its raw area label in bold. "Context" means the rule is about the Aesthetic (its name, origin, lineage) rather than a part of the design. "Not mapped" means the raw area has no single area yet.
- The code in brackets is the `grade` field at `implementationConstraints.tokenRules.value.rules[].provenance.grade` in https://aesthetary.com/data/art-nouveau.json. "From our catalogue entry" means: Stated in Aesthetary’s existing catalogue entry. An outside source is named only where one is linked to the claim.

### Seen in the work

- **layout** — Composition: vertical, centred figure, integral border.
  - Kind of claim: Seen in the work · Evidence: Seen in the work · Product area: Layout

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached

_A research brief graded this documented, but no source is attached yet. A grade is not a source._

- **imagery** — Imagery: stylised botanical, figure-centred.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Imagery
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: whiplash line; colour lithography.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: not mapped

### From our catalogue entry

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **typography** — Typography: hand-drawn, curved to image.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Typography
- **color** — Colour: muted jewel tones; exact palette ours.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Color

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached

_A research brief graded this documented, but no source is attached yet. A grade is not a source._

- **line** — One continuous sinuous line runs through figure, plant form, border and lettering alike. Ornament that could be removed without leaving a hole is not this language.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Imagery

### Our reading

- **hierarchy** — Rank is carried by enclosure and line continuity, not by scale or weight. The most important element is the one the border and the whiplash lead to.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy
- **motion** — If ornament and structure are the same thing, then motion should reveal the line's continuity — a border that draws itself along its own path, at the pace of a hand. Not fade-and-rise.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Motion

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Surface** — The key Paris posters are colour lithographs on paper.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1` · Covers Mucha's Gismonda (1895); Chéret's Loïe Fuller poster (1893)..
- **Surface** — Metallic inks were sometimes added to the colour lithography.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-2` · Covers Mucha, La Dame aux Camélias, 1896; not shown to be general..
- **Surface** — Mucha's Bernhardt posters were read as subtly pastel yet opulent in colouring.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-3` · Covers Colour descriptors, recorded here because they describe the printed surface; they bear on color-5 but do not settle it..
- **Surface** — On one desk attributed (possibly) to Guimard, the woodwork is carved to suggest naturally shaped timbers and the brass mounts are hand-worked rather than cast.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-4` · Covers One desk, attribution 'possibly Guimard', 1892-7..
- **Motion** — Movement is depicted in still form: the whiplash line is described as writhing, coiling energy, giving a sense of dynamism.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-1`
- **Motion** — Mucha's defining posters were noted for the stillness of their figure; the motion is in the line, not the figure.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-2` · Covers Mucha, 1895 on..
- **Motion** — Paris had a moving counterpart: Loïe Fuller's Serpentine Dance at the Folies-Bergère, spirals and volutes of veils, called the figure of Art Nouveau and advertised in Chéret's 1893 poster.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-3` · Covers Stage performance, a separate medium from the posters..
- **Form** — Structure and decoration are integrated: construction is left visible and made part of the ornament.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1` · Covers Desk attributed to Guimard, Paris, 1892-7..
- **Form** — Structural members (pillars, beams, banisters, grilles) are moulded into curving organic forms, often in exposed iron.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-2` · Covers Horta (Brussels) and Guimard (Paris); balcony front ca. 1900..
- **Form** — On one Guimard-attributed desk, every element of the woodwork is carved to suggest naturally shaped timbers.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-3` · Covers One desk..
- **Density** — Mucha's formula was a single, full-standing figure in an elongated format, whose stillness brought dignity and sobriety to street posters that had until then been garish.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:density-1` · Covers Mucha's Bernhardt posters, 1895-99..
- **Density** — In the style's total interiors, ornament reached every element, from structure to door handles.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:density-2` · Covers Horta and van de Velde: Brussels/Germany, outside the Paris scope..
- **Density** — In three Mucha posters (Job, Lorenzaccio, Monaco-Monte Carlo) the ground behind the figure is worked rather than empty: Job monograms on a patterned ground, a background reminiscent of Florentine velvet, and an elaborate floral surround.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-density-1` · Covers Mucha posters of 1896-97 (Job, Lorenzaccio, Monaco-Monte Carlo); the V&A record places Job's printing in Paris. Not Grasset or other Paris poster artists..
- **Density** — Decorative borders (mosaic-inspired) frame the figure, so ornament also occupies the edges of the sheet.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-density-2` · Covers Mucha, Job (1896) and Cassan Fils (1896)..
- **Density** — Hair is treated as pattern that spreads across the design and repeats the curves of the lettering, so figure, ornament and type interlock rather than sit apart.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-density-3` · Covers V&A gallery label on the Job poster..
- **Density** — The brand name recurs across the sheet, including inside the background pattern, so lettering is part of the fill.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-density-4` · Covers Job poster only..

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Layout** — Specified
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Motion** — Specified
- **Motif** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Specified
- **Interface** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in Art Nouveau, after the Paris lithograph poster: tall panels, one line running through border, image and lettering, flat lithographic colour, and rank carried by what the line encloses.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/art-nouveau.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| paper | `#F2EAD8` | — | The sheet. | Web translation |
| ink | `#2A2620` | 12.6:1 | Text. | Web translation |
| line | `#2F5D50` | 6.3:1 | The whiplash, borders, headings; also the ground the sheet sits on. | Web translation |
| plum | `#8A4650` | 5.7:1 | The line's second colour; hover and error. | Web translation |
| ochre | `#D6AE56` | — | The halo. Never text. | Web translation |
| sage | `#C9D2B1` | — | Flat tint panels. | Web translation |
| gold | `#B08D4A` | — | The outer ring of the sheet. Never text. | Web translation |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:color-5` → Muted jewel tones; the exact palette is ours.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:surface-8.technique`, `claim:kcc:surface-1` → Colour is laid as colour lithography on paper, in flat areas.
- **Web translation** — Keep the colouring pastel yet opulent: flat tints, one deep line colour, a gold ring. _Why:_ Mucha's Bernhardt posters were read as subtly pastel yet opulent; metallic inks were sometimes added. (`claim:kcc:surface-3`, `claim:kcc:surface-2`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources name no period palette. _Instead:_ Sources read for colour name none; treat every hex here as the room's choice, not the register's.

### Typography

Family: curvilinear display standing in for drawn lettering, with Sorts Mill Goudy for text. Stack: `"Federo AN", "Marcellus", Georgia, serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| display | clamp(1.9rem, 5vw, 3.25rem) | 400 | 1.02 | not specified | 0.01em | — | Headings, enclosed by the line. |
| title | clamp(3rem, 9vw, 5.5rem) | 400 | 1 | uppercase | 0.05em | — | The one title, set on a curve over its image. |
| text | 1.1875rem | 400 | 1.55 | not specified | not specified | 34em | Reading text in the book face. |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:typography-4` → Lettering is hand-drawn and curved to the image.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-1`, `claim:gestalt` → No typeset lettering in the composition: figure, lettering and frame are one drawing.
- **Web translation** — On screen, set the title on an arc over its image (SVG textPath) and keep a display face for headings. _Why:_ Drawn lettering cannot be live text; curving it to the image keeps the method, and Federo keeps the curvilinear display. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:typography-block`)
- **Web translation** — Use Sorts Mill Goudy for reading text. _Why:_ The room's own book face; reading text is where a web page must be typeset. (`token_rule:typography-4`)

### Grid and layout

Not a column grid: one tall arched sheet, a single centred subject, the border and the line holding the composition.

Tokens: sheet-max `1080px` · arch `min(420px, 39cqw)` · rail-inset `118px`

- **On the record · Seen in the work** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Vertical format, a centred figure, an integral border.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank by enclosure: the most important element is the one the border and the whiplash lead to.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-density-1`, `claim:kcc:w2-density-2` → Work the ground: a patterned field behind the figure, and a decorative border on the edges of the sheet.
- **Web translation** — Let the page be one tall sheet with an arched head, the sections joined without a seam. _Why:_ No horizontal format for the primary composition; the border is part of the drawing. (`claim:failure-5`, `token_rule:layout-3`)

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `200px 200px 6px 6px / 120px 120px 6px 6px` · line-width `3px` · ring `1px solid #B08D4A`

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:an-r1` → One continuous sinuous line runs through figure, plant form, border and lettering alike.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:surface-8.motif`, `claim:kcc:motion-1` → The whiplash line is the motif.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-3` → No modelled depth or cast shadow.
- **Web translation** — Draw borders and enclosures as SVG paths that continue into each other, not CSS boxes. _Why:_ A border that could be deleted without loss makes it Victorian. (`token_rule:an-r1`, `claim:failure-2`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Stylised botanical, figure-centred.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-4`, `claim:intent-negation` → Nature stylised into structural line, never depicted literally.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-density-3` → Treat hair as pattern that repeats the curves of the lettering.
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources describe the figure, but no licensed period lithograph is held to show. _Instead:_ Label any generated figure as generated; never present it as period work or evidence.

### Ornament fills the sheet

The ground and the edges are worked: pattern behind the figure, a border round it, lettering repeated inside the pattern.

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-density-1` → The ground behind the figure is worked rather than empty.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-density-2` → Decorative borders frame the figure, so ornament holds the edges of the sheet.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-density-4` → The name can recur inside the background pattern, so lettering is part of the fill.
- **Web translation** — Build the worked ground as an SVG pattern of the name's monogram, behind an arched panel. _Why:_ Lettering in the fill, as on Mucha's Job poster; a pattern keeps it flat and scalable. (`claim:kcc:w2-density-4`, `claim:kcc:w2-density-1`)

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A small arched cartouche in the line colour, its label in the display face, an inner hairline drawn inside its edge.

- Anatomy: arched top, near-square foot; teal field; inner paper hairline 3px inside the edge; label in the display face
- Tokens: background `#2F5D50` · color `#F2EAD8` · radius `1.4em 1.4em 3px 3px` · inner `inset 0 0 0 3px #2F5D50, inset 0 0 0 4px #F2EAD8`
- State, default: Teal cartouche, inner hairline.
- State, hover: The field turns plum; the hairline stays.
- State, focus: 2px plum outline, 3px outside, following the arch.
- State, active: The inner hairline closes to the edge.
- State, disabled: Paper field, dashed teal edge.
- Accessibility: Label on teal at 6.3:1.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- Accessibility: The arch is shape only; nothing is read from it.
- **Web translation** — Give the button an arched head and a drawn inner line. _Why:_ The border is part of the drawing, not a rule around it; the arch is the room's title device. (`claim:gestalt`, `token_rule:layout-3`)
- **Web translation** — Set the label in the display face. _Why:_ Lettering belongs to the same hand as the image; on screen the display face stands in for drawn letters. (`token_rule:typography-4`)

#### Card

A tall arched stone: a vertical panel with the heading enclosed by a drawn line, the border part of the panel rather than a box around it.

- Anatomy: vertical arched panel on a flat tint; 3px line border that is the panel's edge; heading enclosed by a loop; text in the book face
- Tokens: background `#C9D2B1` · border `3px solid #2F5D50` · radius `200px 200px 6px 6px / 120px 120px 6px 6px` · ratio `taller than wide`
- State, default: Tint panel, line edge.
- State, hover: The loop round the heading closes.
- State, focus: 2px plum outline following the arch.
- Accessibility: The heading is the link.
- Accessibility: Text on the sage tint in ink, above 4.5:1.
- **Web translation** — Compose vertically, around one centred subject, with an integral border. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:layout-3`)
- **Web translation** — Rank by enclosure and line continuity, not by scale or weight. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Web translation** — Make every card a tall panel with its border drawn as part of it. _Why:_ No horizontal format for the primary composition; ornament that could be removed without a hole is not this language. (`claim:failure-5`, `token_rule:an-r1`)

#### Input

A paper field with a teal line along the foot that curls up at each end, the label in the book face above it.

- Anatomy: paper field; 2px teal foot line, curled at the ends; label above in the book face, italic
- Tokens: border `0 0 2px 0 solid #2F5D50` · background `#F2EAD8` · radius `0 0 12px 12px` · height `2.75rem`
- State, default: Teal foot line.
- State, focus: The line runs up both sides: the field is enclosed.
- State, error: Message in plum (5.7:1), beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Dashed foot line.
- Accessibility: The label is real text.
- Accessibility: Focus is a change of enclosure and an outline, not colour alone.
- **Web translation** — Enclose the field on focus. _Why:_ Rank by enclosure: the element the line leads to is the one that matters now. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources describe no form fields. _Instead:_ Keep the field plain; do not draw botanical ornament round it.

#### Navigation

Names in the display face on the paper, all the same size; the current page is enclosed by a drawn loop.

- Anatomy: names in the display face, one size; current page enclosed by a teal loop
- Tokens: color `#2F5D50` · loop `2px solid #2F5D50` · loop-radius `50% / 60%`
- State, default: Teal names on paper, the same size.
- State, hover: Underline in plum.
- State, focus: 2px plum outline.
- State, current: Enclosed by the loop. Never larger or bolder.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- Accessibility: Names at 6.3:1.
- Accessibility: Each link at least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Mark the current page by enclosing it, not by size or weight. _Why:_ Rank is carried by enclosure and line continuity, not by scale or weight. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Motion

Durations, easing and the rest of this specification are Web translation: Aesthetary's choice for the screen.

- Durations: draw 2400ms
- Easing: draw `cubic-bezier(.45, 0, .25, 1)`
- Transforms: stroke-dashoffset only
- Entrance: A border draws itself along its own path as the reader reaches it, at the pace of a hand.
- Hover: A loop closes round the hovered heading.
- Reduced motion: The line is simply there, fully drawn.
- **Web translation** — Motion reveals the line's continuity: a border that draws itself along its own path. Not fade-and-rise. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:motion-14`)
- **Web translation** — Movement is depicted in still form: the energy is in the line, and the figure is still. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:motion-1`, `claim:kcc:motion-2`)
- **Web translation** — Animate only strokes; never move a figure or a panel. _Why:_ The motion is in the line, not the figure. (`claim:kcc:motion-2`, `token_rule:motion-14`)

### Deliberately not added

- **A period palette** (color): Sources read for colour name none. The hexes are the room's.
- **A licensed period figure** (imagery): None is held. The room's figure is AI-generated and labelled as such.
- **Interface conventions** (components): The research record does not establish them. The four components are contemporary translations of documented rules.
- **A column system** (gridLayout): The record holds a poster composition, not a grid.

## Coverage — what has been looked at

One row per research dimension a research pass considered. "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) means exactly that; a dimension can carry an Aesthetary recommendation and still be unresearched, and those are different things.

| Research dimension | Evidence | Resolved by | Carries a rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Composition | Specified · Graded by our research brief | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Typography | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | — | yes |
| Density | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Imagery | Specified · Graded by our research brief | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Specified | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |

Unresearched: Density, Motion. Where a rule appears for one of these it is Aesthetary's implementation recommendation, not a property of the language, and its Evidence line above says so.

## Not researched yet

Every area of this record has a recorded position. That is unusual — most records do not.

## Grade your own work

19 checks: 8 mechanically testable, 10 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 1 with no recorded position. 1 further research dimension produced no rule (Density). This rubric is silent on it. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: A tall vertical format holding a single near-life-size figure against a flat, depthless ground, enclosed by a hand-drawn border that is part of the drawing rather than a rule around it, with the lettering drawn by the same hand and curved to follow the image — commonly arched over the figure's head — and a continuous sinuous line running through hair, plant form, border and letter alike. The diagnostic condition is that figure, lettering and frame are one drawing: remove the type from a Victorian poster and the poster survives; remove it here and the composition has a hole. Botanical illustration depicts plants; this stylises them into structural line.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[visual_human · Seen in the work · Evidence: Seen in the work]** Does your work hold this? Composition: vertical, centred figure, integral border.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Does your work hold this? Imagery: stylised botanical, figure-centred.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Does your work hold this? Form / motif / surface / technique: whiplash line; colour lithography.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Typography: hand-drawn, curved to image.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[mechanical · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Rank is carried by enclosure and line continuity, not by scale or weight. The most important element is the one the border and the whiplash lead to.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Colour: muted jewel tones; exact palette ours.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. If ornament and structure are the same thing, then motion should reveal the line's continuity — a border that draws itself along its own path, at the pace of a hand. Not fade-and-rise.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing. No one has researched the dimension yet, and this is only what Aesthetary would do. Departing from it costs you nothing.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. One continuous sinuous line runs through figure, plant form, border and lettering alike. Ornament that could be removed without leaving a hole is not this language.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No typeset lettering.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No detachable ornament.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No modelled depth or cast shadow.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No literal botanical illustration.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No horizontal format for the primary composition.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Victorian: integration versus accumulation. Victorian sets many faces on one page from hot-metal economics; this draws one line through everything. Inherited from distinguishing. Against Botanical: stylisation versus depiction. *"Nature stylised, not depicted"* — inherited verbatim. Botanical is an imagery treatment, not a peer language, so the difference can be checked against a treatment, against a treatment rather than a peer language. Anti-signature: a decorative border that could be deleted without loss makes it Victorian. Accurate plant rendering makes it Botanical.
  - _If it fails:_ You have built the neighbour. That may be fine — but name which Aesthetic you are in.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: separating lettering from image.
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: flattening the border into a rule..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Solarpunk? That language is: The hopeful inverse of Cyberpunk; Art-Nouveau-tinged technology
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Solarpunk than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Does this Aesthetic conflict with any usability floor? Nobody has recorded one for it.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing — and that is the problem. An unrecorded conflict is not an absent one. Hold AA on reading matter and decide the rest on other grounds.

**Not covered at all:** Density: Specified. These research dimensions produced no rule, so there is no check. Treat them as unscored, never as passed and never as failed.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `art-nouveau` · status `draft` · research `partly_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/art-nouveau.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/art-nouveau.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

_Aesthetary is an alpha. Where a page says nothing, nobody has done the work yet._