Arabesque
Wallpaper painted with arabesques, Papier manufacturer unknown, France ca. 1785.
Image copyright Mitternacht, sourced here.
Definition
A complex, ornate design of intertwined floral, foliate, and geometric figures.In art, grotesques are a decorative form of arabesques with interlaced garlands and strange animal figures which were fashionable in ancient Rome (as wall decoration, mosaics, etc.) and in Renaissance art as wall decoration, in marquetry (fine woodwork), in book illustration and in other decorative uses. It should not be confused with the decorative form of strapwork (the portrayal of leather straps in plaster or wood moldings). In Medieval Illuminated manuscripts terminology, drolleries, half-human thumbnails drawn in the margins, are also called "grotesques". --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotesque#In_art_history [Jan 2006]