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232 XX. THE MATERIAL OF ORNAMENT. DECORATION.
had now been carried to its richest extreme : men wearied of
it and abandoned it, and like all other natural and beautiful
things, it was ostracised by the mob of Renaissance architects.
But it is interesting to observe how the human mind, in its
acceptance of this feature of ornament, proceeded from the
ground, and followed, as it were, the natural growth of the
tree. It began with the rude and solid trunk, as at Genoa;
then the branches shot out, and became loaded leaves ; autumn
came, the leaves were shed, and the eye was directed to the
extremities of the delicate branches;—the Renaissance frosts
came, and all perished.
§ xxxh. 10. Foliage, Flowers, and Fruit. It is necessary
to consider these as separated from the stems; not only, as
above noted, because their separate use marks another school
of architecture, but because they are the only organic structures which are capable of being so treated, and intended to be
so, without strong effort of imagination. To pull animals to
pieces, and use their paws for feet of furniture, or their heads
for terminations of rods and shafts, is usually the characteristic of feelingless schools; the greatest men like their animals'
whole. The head may, indeed, be so managed as to look
emergent from the stone, rather than fastened to it; and
wherever there is throughout the architecture any expression
of sternness or severity (severity in its literal sense, as in
Romans, xi. 22), such divisions of the living form may be
permitted ; still, you cannot cut an animal to pieces as you can
gather a flower or a leaf. These were intended for our gathering, and for our constant delight: wherever men exist in a
perfectly civilised and healthy state, they have vegetation
around them; wherever their state approaches that of innocence or perfectness, it approaches that of Paradise,—it is a
dressing of garden. And, therefore, where nothing else can
be used for ornament, vegetation may; vegetation in any
form, however fragmentary, however abstracted. A single
leaf laid upon the angle of a stone, or the mere form or framework of the leaf drawn upon it, or the mere shadow and ghost
of the leaf,—the hollow "foil" cut out of it,—possesses a
| 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 | 00000267 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 232 XX. THE MATERIAL OF ORNAMENT. DECORATION. had now been carried to its richest extreme : men wearied of it and abandoned it, and like all other natural and beautiful things, it was ostracised by the mob of Renaissance architects. But it is interesting to observe how the human mind, in its acceptance of this feature of ornament, proceeded from the ground, and followed, as it were, the natural growth of the tree. It began with the rude and solid trunk, as at Genoa; then the branches shot out, and became loaded leaves ; autumn came, the leaves were shed, and the eye was directed to the extremities of the delicate branches;—the Renaissance frosts came, and all perished. § xxxh. 10. Foliage, Flowers, and Fruit. It is necessary to consider these as separated from the stems; not only, as above noted, because their separate use marks another school of architecture, but because they are the only organic structures which are capable of being so treated, and intended to be so, without strong effort of imagination. To pull animals to pieces, and use their paws for feet of furniture, or their heads for terminations of rods and shafts, is usually the characteristic of feelingless schools; the greatest men like their animals' whole. The head may, indeed, be so managed as to look emergent from the stone, rather than fastened to it; and wherever there is throughout the architecture any expression of sternness or severity (severity in its literal sense, as in Romans, xi. 22), such divisions of the living form may be permitted ; still, you cannot cut an animal to pieces as you can gather a flower or a leaf. These were intended for our gathering, and for our constant delight: wherever men exist in a perfectly civilised and healthy state, they have vegetation around them; wherever their state approaches that of innocence or perfectness, it approaches that of Paradise,—it is a dressing of garden. And, therefore, where nothing else can be used for ornament, vegetation may; vegetation in any form, however fragmentary, however abstracted. A single leaf laid upon the angle of a stone, or the mere form or framework of the leaf drawn upon it, or the mere shadow and ghost of the leaf,—the hollow "foil" cut out of it,—possesses a |
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