Diaper is any of a wide range of decorative patterns used in a variety of works of art, such as stained glass, heraldic shields, architecture, silverwork etc. Its chief use is in the enlivening of plain surfaces.

Etymology

The etymology of the term is unclear. It is sometimes said to derive from an old term for the fabric damask

Damask

Damask is a reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin weave and the ground in weft-faced or sateen weave...

. Collins gives it as from the Greek di-aspros, meaning pure white, which seems counter-intuitive and implausible. The French language however supplies the most likely source, Larousse giving the verb diaprer from the ancient French diaspre, a bed of flowers, branches etc., ultimately from the ancient Greek iaspis, meaning jasper

Jasper

Jasper, a form of chalcedony, is an opaque, impure variety of silica, usually red, yellow, brown or green in color; and rarely blue. This mineral breaks with a smooth surface, and is used for ornamentation or as a gemstone. It can be highly polished and is used for vases, seals, and at one time for...

 or precious stone. It can thus be seen as a term for "bejewelling", in which sense it is used in modern French: Le diaprure des prés au printemps, the diapering of the spring fields (with flowers).

In art

In architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 and other decorative art

Decorative art

The decorative arts is traditionally a term for the design and manufacture of functional objects. It includes interior design, but not usually architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the "fine arts", namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale...

s, diaper is applied as a decorative treatment of a surface with a repeat pattern of squares (chequers), rectangles, or lozenge

Lozenge

A lozenge , often referred to as a diamond, is a form of rhombus. The definition of lozenge is not strictly fixed, and it is sometimes used simply as a synonym for rhombus. Most often, though, lozenge refers to a thin rhombus—a rhombus with acute angles of 45°...

s. Diaper was particularly used in mediaeval stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 to increase the vividness of a coloured pane, for example the field in a shield of arms. A stone wall may be decorated with such a pattern sculpted in relief

Relief

Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...

; in brickwork

Brickwork

Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar to build up brick structures such as walls. Brickwork is also used to finish corners, door, and window openings, etc...

 the effect may be achieved by using bricks of different colours, or by allowing certain bricks to protrude from the wall's surface to create a regular diamond-shaped pattern. In English flushwork

Flushwork

-Description:In architecture, flushwork is the decorative combination on the same flat plane of flint and ashlar stone. It is characteristic of the external walls of medieval buildings, most of the survivors being churches, in parts of Southern England, but especially East Anglia...

 limestone and dark knapped flint

Flint

Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...

 are used. Windows

Architectural glass

Architectural glass is glass that is used as a building material. It is most typically used as transparent glazing material in the building envelope, including windows in the external walls. Glass is also used for internal partitions and as an architectural feature...

 may be set in a diamond shaped lattice.

Heraldry

In heraldry

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

, diapering is a technique in which those who emblazon, draw, paint, or otherwise depict achievements of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 decorate large areas of flat colour by drawing crosshatches

Hatching

Hatching is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing closely spaced parallel lines...

 or arabesque

Arabesque

The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements...

s. There is no standard, and each artist is allowed individual idiosyncrasies.

Excluded from blazon

With very rare exceptions, diapering is not a part of the blazon

Blazon

In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image...

, but is mere decoration, or ornamental accessory. Thus a shield

Shield

A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace or battle axe to the side of the shield-bearer....

 with diapering is considered the same as a shield of the same design but without diapering. For this reason diapering must not be so obtrusive or so heavily drawn that it could be mistaken for a substantive charge

Charge (heraldry)

In heraldry, a charge is any emblem or device occupying the field of an escutcheon . This may be a geometric design or a symbolic representation of a person, animal, plant, object or other device...

 or for a variation of the field

Variation of the field

In heraldry, variations of the field are any of a number of ways that a field may be covered with a pattern, rather than a flat tincture or a simple division of the field.- Patterning with ordinaries and subordinaries :...

. This is especially the case with diaper of simple cross-hatching which might be mistaken for a field of lozengy.

Exceptions

There are at least three Scots coats whose blazon includes diaper:

• Fulton of Lochliboside, Az. diapered or semy of fleurs de lys of the last, on a fess arg. two boar's heads erased of the field (Public Register vol 1, p 551, 1789);
• Fulton of Park of Inchinnan, a difference
  Difference
  Difference may refer to:* Difference , a 2005 power metal album* Difference , a concept in computer science* Difference , any systematic way of distinguishing similar coats of arms belonging to members of the same family* Difference , a statement about the relative size or order of two objects**...
  
  of the above, Az. diapered or semy of fleurs de lys of the last, on a fess arg. a boar's head erased of the field (Public Register vol 1. pp 550-1:
• Royal Burgh of Cullen, a 20th century armorial: Per fess sable and argent, in chief on a sedilla or cushioned gules diapered or the Blessed Virgin enthroned proper habited gules mantled azure crowned or and holding in her dexter hand a sceptre surmounted of a fleur de lis or and in her sinister arm the Holy Child enhaloed also proper in base a talbot passant of the first (Public Register, vol 41, p 37, 1956)