Arabesque, a kind of ornamentation, either sculptured or painted, which was at first a characteristic of Moorish architecture, but has in modern times been largely used in decorations of every style. It consists of fantastic combinations of flowers, fruits, branches - of almost any graceful and beautiful objects which may be intertwined with one another in a variety of forms, or in constant repetitions of a single pattern. The Alhambra, as the best preserved specimen of Moorish architecture, is particularly rich in arabesques, and those here illustrated are taken from its walls. Raphael employed arabesques in the ornamentation of the Vatican, and of late years Kaulbach has often used them in fresco painting; while in the ordinary decoration of rooms and buildings they have become one of the most common methods of embellishment.