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28 THE QUARRY.
mously declared the chef d'ceuvre of Renaissance sepulchral
work, and pronounced by Cicognara (also ^quoted by Selvatico)
" II vertice a cui 1' arti Veneziane si spinsero col ministero del scalpello,"
" The very culminating point to which the Venetian arts attained by ministry of the chisel."
To this culminating point, therefore, covered with dust and
cobwebs, I attained, as I did to every tomb of importance in
Venice, by the ministry of such ancient ladders as were to be
found in the sacristan's keeping. I was struck at first by the
excessive awkwardness and want of feeling in the fall of the
hand towards the spectator, for it is thrown off the middle of
the body in order to show its fine cutting. Now the Mocenigo hand, severe and even stiff in its articulations, has its
veins finely drawn, its sculptor having justly felt that the delicacy of the veining expresses alike dignity and age and birth.
The Vendramin hand is far more laboriously cut, but its blunt
and clumsy contour at once makes us feel that all the care has
been thrown away, and well it may be, for it has been entirely
bestowed in cutting gouty wrinkles about the joints. Such as
the hand is, I looked for its fellow. At first I thought it had
been broken off, but, on clearing away the dust, I saw the
wretched effigy had only one hand, and was a mere block on
the inner side. The face, heavy and disagreeable in its features, is made monstrous by its semi-sculpture. One side of
the forehead is wrinkled elaborately, the other left smooth;
one side only of the doge's cap is chased; one cheek only is
finished, and the other blocked out and distorted besides;
finally, the ermine robe, which is elaborately imitated to its utmost lock of hair and of ground hair on the one side, is blocked
out only on the other: it having been supposed throughout the
work that the effigy was only to be seen from below, and from
one side.
§ xliii. It was indeed to be so seen by nearly every one; and
I do not blame—I should, on the contrary, have praised—the
sculptor for regulating his treatment of it by its position; if
that treatment had not involved, first, dishonesty, in giving
| Title | The stones of Venice - 1 |
| Creator | Ruskin, John |
| Publisher | J. Wiley |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000051 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 28 THE QUARRY. mously declared the chef d'ceuvre of Renaissance sepulchral work, and pronounced by Cicognara (also ^quoted by Selvatico) " II vertice a cui 1' arti Veneziane si spinsero col ministero del scalpello," " The very culminating point to which the Venetian arts attained by ministry of the chisel." To this culminating point, therefore, covered with dust and cobwebs, I attained, as I did to every tomb of importance in Venice, by the ministry of such ancient ladders as were to be found in the sacristan's keeping. I was struck at first by the excessive awkwardness and want of feeling in the fall of the hand towards the spectator, for it is thrown off the middle of the body in order to show its fine cutting. Now the Mocenigo hand, severe and even stiff in its articulations, has its veins finely drawn, its sculptor having justly felt that the delicacy of the veining expresses alike dignity and age and birth. The Vendramin hand is far more laboriously cut, but its blunt and clumsy contour at once makes us feel that all the care has been thrown away, and well it may be, for it has been entirely bestowed in cutting gouty wrinkles about the joints. Such as the hand is, I looked for its fellow. At first I thought it had been broken off, but, on clearing away the dust, I saw the wretched effigy had only one hand, and was a mere block on the inner side. The face, heavy and disagreeable in its features, is made monstrous by its semi-sculpture. One side of the forehead is wrinkled elaborately, the other left smooth; one side only of the doge's cap is chased; one cheek only is finished, and the other blocked out and distorted besides; finally, the ermine robe, which is elaborately imitated to its utmost lock of hair and of ground hair on the one side, is blocked out only on the other: it having been supposed throughout the work that the effigy was only to be seen from below, and from one side. § xliii. It was indeed to be so seen by nearly every one; and I do not blame—I should, on the contrary, have praised—the sculptor for regulating his treatment of it by its position; if that treatment had not involved, first, dishonesty, in giving |
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