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DECORATION, XXI. TREATMENT OF ORNAMENT. 237
§ m. (1.) How is ornament to be treated with rererence to
the mind %
If, to produce a good or beautiful ornament, it were only
necessary to produce a perfect piece of sculpture, and if a well
cut group of flowers or animals were indeed an ornament
wherever it might be placed, the work of the architect would
be comparatively easy. Sculpture and architecture would
become separate arts; and the architect would order so many
pieces of such subject and size as he needed, without troubling
himself with any questions but those of disposition and proportion. But this is not so. No perfect piece either of painting
or sculpture is cm architectural ornament at all, except in that
vague sense in which any beautiful thing is said to ornament
the place it is in. Thus we say that pictures ornament a room;
but we should not thank an architect who told us that his
design, to be complete, required a Titian to be put in one corner of it, and a Velasquez in the other; and it is just as
unreasonable to call perfect sculpture, niched in, or encrusted
on a building, a portion of the ornament of that building, as it
would be to hang pictures by the way of ornament on the
outside of it. It is very possible that the sculptured work
may ba harmoniously associated with the building, or the building executed with reference to it; but in this latter case the
architecture is subordinate to the sculpture, as in the Medicean
chapel, and I believe also in the Parthenon. And so far from
the perfection of the work conducing to its ornamental purpose,
we may say, with entire security, that its perfection, in some
degree, unfits it for its purpose, and that no absolutely complete sculpture can be decoratively right. We have a familiar
instance in the flower-work of St. Paul's, which is probably, in
the abstract, as perfect flower sculpture as could be produced
at the time; and which is just as rational an ornament of the
building as so many valuable Van Huysums, framed and glazed
and hung up over each window.
§ rv. The especial condition of true ornament is, that it be
beautiful in its place, and nowhere else, and that it aid the effect
of every portion of the building over which it has influence;
| 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 | 00000272 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | DECORATION, XXI. TREATMENT OF ORNAMENT. 237 § m. (1.) How is ornament to be treated with rererence to the mind % If, to produce a good or beautiful ornament, it were only necessary to produce a perfect piece of sculpture, and if a well cut group of flowers or animals were indeed an ornament wherever it might be placed, the work of the architect would be comparatively easy. Sculpture and architecture would become separate arts; and the architect would order so many pieces of such subject and size as he needed, without troubling himself with any questions but those of disposition and proportion. But this is not so. No perfect piece either of painting or sculpture is cm architectural ornament at all, except in that vague sense in which any beautiful thing is said to ornament the place it is in. Thus we say that pictures ornament a room; but we should not thank an architect who told us that his design, to be complete, required a Titian to be put in one corner of it, and a Velasquez in the other; and it is just as unreasonable to call perfect sculpture, niched in, or encrusted on a building, a portion of the ornament of that building, as it would be to hang pictures by the way of ornament on the outside of it. It is very possible that the sculptured work may ba harmoniously associated with the building, or the building executed with reference to it; but in this latter case the architecture is subordinate to the sculpture, as in the Medicean chapel, and I believe also in the Parthenon. And so far from the perfection of the work conducing to its ornamental purpose, we may say, with entire security, that its perfection, in some degree, unfits it for its purpose, and that no absolutely complete sculpture can be decoratively right. We have a familiar instance in the flower-work of St. Paul's, which is probably, in the abstract, as perfect flower sculpture as could be produced at the time; and which is just as rational an ornament of the building as so many valuable Van Huysums, framed and glazed and hung up over each window. § rv. The especial condition of true ornament is, that it be beautiful in its place, and nowhere else, and that it aid the effect of every portion of the building over which it has influence; |
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