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190 XVII. FILLING OF APERTURE. CONSTRUCTION.
breathed away its strength into the air; but there is not more
difference between the commonest doggrel that ever broke
prose into unintelligibility, and the burning mystery of Coleridge, or spirituality of Elizabeth Barrett, than there is between the dissolute dulness of English Flamboyant, and the
flaming undulations of the wreathed lines of delicate stone, that
confuse themselves with the clouds of every morning sky that
brightens above the valley of the Seine.
§ xv. The second group of traceries, the intersectional or
German group, may be considered as including the entire
range of the absurd forms which were invented in order to display dexterity in stone-cutting and ingenuity in construction.
They express the peculiar character of the German mind,
which cuts the frame of every truth joint from joint, in order
to prove the edge of its instruments; and, in all cases, prefers
a new or a strange thought to a good one, and a subtle
thought to a useful one. The point and value of the
German tracery consists principally in turning the features
of good traceries upside down, and cutting them in two
where they are properly continuous. To destroy at once foundation and membership, and suspend everything in the air,
keeping out of sight, as far as possible, the evidences of a beginning and the probabilities of an ,end, are the main objects of
German architecture, as of modern German divinity.
§ xvi. This school has, however, at least the merit of ingenuity. Not so the English Perpendicular, though a very
curious school also in its way. In the course of the reasoning
which led us to the determination of the perfect Gothic tracery,
we were induced successively to reject certain methods of arrangement as weak, dangerous, or disagreeable. ■ Collect all
these together, and practise them at once, and you have the
English Perpendicular.
As thus. You find, in the first place (§ v.), that your tracery bars are to be subordinated, less to greater; so you take
a group of, suppose, eight, which you make all exactly equal,
giving you nine equal spaces in the window, as at A, Fig.
XLVI. You found, in the second place (§ vn.), that there was
| 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 | 00000221 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 190 XVII. FILLING OF APERTURE. CONSTRUCTION. breathed away its strength into the air; but there is not more difference between the commonest doggrel that ever broke prose into unintelligibility, and the burning mystery of Coleridge, or spirituality of Elizabeth Barrett, than there is between the dissolute dulness of English Flamboyant, and the flaming undulations of the wreathed lines of delicate stone, that confuse themselves with the clouds of every morning sky that brightens above the valley of the Seine. § xv. The second group of traceries, the intersectional or German group, may be considered as including the entire range of the absurd forms which were invented in order to display dexterity in stone-cutting and ingenuity in construction. They express the peculiar character of the German mind, which cuts the frame of every truth joint from joint, in order to prove the edge of its instruments; and, in all cases, prefers a new or a strange thought to a good one, and a subtle thought to a useful one. The point and value of the German tracery consists principally in turning the features of good traceries upside down, and cutting them in two where they are properly continuous. To destroy at once foundation and membership, and suspend everything in the air, keeping out of sight, as far as possible, the evidences of a beginning and the probabilities of an ,end, are the main objects of German architecture, as of modern German divinity. § xvi. This school has, however, at least the merit of ingenuity. Not so the English Perpendicular, though a very curious school also in its way. In the course of the reasoning which led us to the determination of the perfect Gothic tracery, we were induced successively to reject certain methods of arrangement as weak, dangerous, or disagreeable. ■ Collect all these together, and practise them at once, and you have the English Perpendicular. As thus. You find, in the first place (§ v.), that your tracery bars are to be subordinated, less to greater; so you take a group of, suppose, eight, which you make all exactly equal, giving you nine equal spaces in the window, as at A, Fig. XLVI. You found, in the second place (§ vn.), that there was |
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