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DECORATION. XX. THE MATERIAL OF ORNAMENT. 225
I do not say rocks or mountains % Simply, because the nobility
of these depends, first, on their scale, and, secondly, on accident. Their scale cannot be represented, nor their accident
systematised. No sculptor can in the least imitate the peculiar
character of accidental fracture: he can obey or exhibit the
laws of nature, but he cannot copy the felicity of her fancies,
nor follow the steps of her fury. The very glory of a mountain is in the revolutions which raised it into power, and the
forces which are striking it into ruin. But we want no cold
and careful imitation of catastrophe; no calculated mockery of
convulsion; no delicate recommendation of ruin. We are to
follow the labor of Nature, but not her disturbance; to imitate
what she has deliberately ordained,* not what she has violently
suffered, or strangely permitted. The only uses, therefore, of
rock form which are wise in the architect, are its actual introduction (by leaving untouched such blocks as are meant for
rough service), and that noble use of the general examples of
mountain structure of which I have often heretofore spoken.
Imitations of rock form have, for the most part, been confined
to periods of degraded feeling and to architectural toys or
pieces of dramatic effect,—the Calvaries and holy sepulchres of
Romanism, or the grottoes and fountains of English gardens.
They were, however, not unfrequent in mediaeval bas-reliefs;
very curiously and elaborately treated by Ghiberti on the doors
of Florence, and in religious sculpture necessarily introduced
wherever the life of the anchorite was to be expressed. They
were rarely introduced as of ornamental character, but for
particular service and expression; we shall see an interesting
example in the Ducal Palace at Venice.
§ xxiii. But against crystalline form, which is the completely systematised natural structure of the earth, none of
these objections hold good, and, accordingly, it is an endless
element of decoration, where higher conditions of structure
cannot be represented. The four-sided pyramid, perhaps the
* Thus above, I adduced for the architect's imitation the appointed stories
and beds of the Matterhorn, not its irregular forms of crag or fissure.
| 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 | 00000260 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | DECORATION. XX. THE MATERIAL OF ORNAMENT. 225 I do not say rocks or mountains % Simply, because the nobility of these depends, first, on their scale, and, secondly, on accident. Their scale cannot be represented, nor their accident systematised. No sculptor can in the least imitate the peculiar character of accidental fracture: he can obey or exhibit the laws of nature, but he cannot copy the felicity of her fancies, nor follow the steps of her fury. The very glory of a mountain is in the revolutions which raised it into power, and the forces which are striking it into ruin. But we want no cold and careful imitation of catastrophe; no calculated mockery of convulsion; no delicate recommendation of ruin. We are to follow the labor of Nature, but not her disturbance; to imitate what she has deliberately ordained,* not what she has violently suffered, or strangely permitted. The only uses, therefore, of rock form which are wise in the architect, are its actual introduction (by leaving untouched such blocks as are meant for rough service), and that noble use of the general examples of mountain structure of which I have often heretofore spoken. Imitations of rock form have, for the most part, been confined to periods of degraded feeling and to architectural toys or pieces of dramatic effect,—the Calvaries and holy sepulchres of Romanism, or the grottoes and fountains of English gardens. They were, however, not unfrequent in mediaeval bas-reliefs; very curiously and elaborately treated by Ghiberti on the doors of Florence, and in religious sculpture necessarily introduced wherever the life of the anchorite was to be expressed. They were rarely introduced as of ornamental character, but for particular service and expression; we shall see an interesting example in the Ducal Palace at Venice. § xxiii. But against crystalline form, which is the completely systematised natural structure of the earth, none of these objections hold good, and, accordingly, it is an endless element of decoration, where higher conditions of structure cannot be represented. The four-sided pyramid, perhaps the * Thus above, I adduced for the architect's imitation the appointed stories and beds of the Matterhorn, not its irregular forms of crag or fissure. |
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