Rinceau (plural rinceaux), from the French, derived from old French rain (branch with foliages). In architecture and the decorative arts, a decorative form consisting of a continuous wavy stemlike motif from which smaller leafy stems or groups of leaves branch out at more or less regular intervals. The rinceau experienced a return to the simpler Classic style in the 17th century, and in the subsequent century it was applied more freely, without a strict repetition of identical forms.