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DECORATION. XX. THE MATERIAL OF ORNAMENT. 213
though Phidias would rather have had him naked; in all mediaeval painting, arms, like all other parts of costume, are treated
with exquisite care and delight; in the designs of Leonardo,
Raffaelle, and Perugino, the armor sometimes becomes almost
too conspicuous from the rich and endless invention bestowed
upon it; while Titian and Rubens seek in its flash what the
Milanese and Perugian sought in its form, sometimes subordinating heroism to the light of the steel, while the great
designers wearied themselves in its elaborate fancy.
But all this labor was given to the living, not the dead
armor ; to the shell with its animal in it, not the cast shell of
the beach; and even so, it was introduced more sparingly by
the good sculptors than the good painters; for the former felt,
and with justice, that the painter had the power of conquering
the over prominence of costume by the expression and color
of the countenance, and that by the darkness of the eye, and
glow of the cheek, he could always conquer the gloom and the
flash of the mail; but they could hardly, by any boldness or
energy of the marble features, conquer the forwardness and
conspicuousness of the sharp armorial forms. Their armed
figures were therefore almost always subordinate, their principal
figures draped or naked, and their choice of subject was much
influenced by this feeling of necessity. But the Renaissance
sculptors displayed the love of a Camilla for the mere crest and
plume. Paltry and false alike in every feeling of their narrowed minds, they attached themselves, not only to costume
without the person, but to the pettiest details of the costume
itself. They could not describe Achilles, but they could describe his shield; a shield like those of dedicated spoil, without
a handle, never to be waved in the face of war. And then we
have helmets and lances, banners and swords, sometimes with
men to hold them, sometimes without; but always chiselled
with a tailor-like love of the chasing or the embroidery,—show
helmets of the stage, no Vulcan work on them, no heavy hammer strokes, no Etna fire in the metal of them, nothing but
pasteboard crests and high feathers. And these, cast together
in disorderly heaps, or grinning vacantly over key-stones, form
| 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 | 00000246 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | DECORATION. XX. THE MATERIAL OF ORNAMENT. 213 though Phidias would rather have had him naked; in all mediaeval painting, arms, like all other parts of costume, are treated with exquisite care and delight; in the designs of Leonardo, Raffaelle, and Perugino, the armor sometimes becomes almost too conspicuous from the rich and endless invention bestowed upon it; while Titian and Rubens seek in its flash what the Milanese and Perugian sought in its form, sometimes subordinating heroism to the light of the steel, while the great designers wearied themselves in its elaborate fancy. But all this labor was given to the living, not the dead armor ; to the shell with its animal in it, not the cast shell of the beach; and even so, it was introduced more sparingly by the good sculptors than the good painters; for the former felt, and with justice, that the painter had the power of conquering the over prominence of costume by the expression and color of the countenance, and that by the darkness of the eye, and glow of the cheek, he could always conquer the gloom and the flash of the mail; but they could hardly, by any boldness or energy of the marble features, conquer the forwardness and conspicuousness of the sharp armorial forms. Their armed figures were therefore almost always subordinate, their principal figures draped or naked, and their choice of subject was much influenced by this feeling of necessity. But the Renaissance sculptors displayed the love of a Camilla for the mere crest and plume. Paltry and false alike in every feeling of their narrowed minds, they attached themselves, not only to costume without the person, but to the pettiest details of the costume itself. They could not describe Achilles, but they could describe his shield; a shield like those of dedicated spoil, without a handle, never to be waved in the face of war. And then we have helmets and lances, banners and swords, sometimes with men to hold them, sometimes without; but always chiselled with a tailor-like love of the chasing or the embroidery,—show helmets of the stage, no Vulcan work on them, no heavy hammer strokes, no Etna fire in the metal of them, nothing but pasteboard crests and high feathers. And these, cast together in disorderly heaps, or grinning vacantly over key-stones, form |
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