Abstract
The extensive book review deals with the monograph "Silent Revolutions in Ornament: Studies in Applied Arts and Crafts from 1880–1930" by Lada Hubatová-Vacková and focuses on its composition, strategies of "a joyful archeology" along with an immense theoretical impact which consists in original interconnection of natural sciences, Gestalt psychology and history of art but also in convincing plaidoyer for ornament, showing the "free" (allegedly non-decorative) art and applied arts – often banished to the regions of "low" art by modern artists and critics – as an indivisible and mutually shaped whole. The book review also analyzes the author’s heuristic meticulousness, it integrates her theoretical claims into the context of contemporary visual studies.