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246 XXI. TREATMENT OF ORNAMENT. DECORATION.
lowed upon the vast aerial shore, is at last met by the Eternal
" Here shall thy waves be stayed," the glory of its aspect fades
into blanched fearfulness ; its purple walls are rent into grisly
rocks, its silver fretwork saddened into wasting snow, the
storm-brands of ages are on its breast, the ashes of its own
ruin lie solemnly on its white raiment.
Nor in such instances as these alone, though strangely
enough, the discrepancy between apparent and actual beauty is
greater in proportion to the unapproachableness of the object,
is the law observed. For every distance from the eye there is
a peculiar kind of beauty, or a different system of lines of
form ; the sight of that beauty is reserved for that distance,
and for that alone. If you approach nearer, that kind of
beauty is lost, and another succeeds, to be disorganised and
reduced to strange and incomprehensible means and appliances
in its turn. If you desire to perceive the great harmonies of
the form of a rocky mountain, you must not ascend upon its
sides. All is there disorder and accident, or seems so ; sudden
starts of its shattered beds hither and thither; ugly struggles
of unexpected strength from under the ground ; fallen fragments, toppling one over another into more helpless fall. Retire from it, and, as your eye commands it more and more, as
you see the ruined mountain world with a wider glance, behold! dim sympathies begin to busy themselves in the disjointed mass; line binds itself into stealthy fellowship with
line; group by group, the helpless fragments gather themselves
into ordered companies ; new captains of hosts and masses of
battalions become visible, one by one, and far away answers
of foot to foot, and of bone to bone, until the powerless chaos
is seen risen up with girded loins, and not one piece of all the
unregarded heap could now be spared from the mystic whole.
§ xvm. Now it is indeed true that where nature loses one
kind of beauty, as you approach it, she substitutes another;
this is worthy of her infinite power : and, as we shall see, art
can sometimes follow her even in doing this ; but all I insist
upon at present is, that the several effects of nature are each
worked with means referred to a particular distance, and piv-
| 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 | 00000283 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 246 XXI. TREATMENT OF ORNAMENT. DECORATION. lowed upon the vast aerial shore, is at last met by the Eternal " Here shall thy waves be stayed," the glory of its aspect fades into blanched fearfulness ; its purple walls are rent into grisly rocks, its silver fretwork saddened into wasting snow, the storm-brands of ages are on its breast, the ashes of its own ruin lie solemnly on its white raiment. Nor in such instances as these alone, though strangely enough, the discrepancy between apparent and actual beauty is greater in proportion to the unapproachableness of the object, is the law observed. For every distance from the eye there is a peculiar kind of beauty, or a different system of lines of form ; the sight of that beauty is reserved for that distance, and for that alone. If you approach nearer, that kind of beauty is lost, and another succeeds, to be disorganised and reduced to strange and incomprehensible means and appliances in its turn. If you desire to perceive the great harmonies of the form of a rocky mountain, you must not ascend upon its sides. All is there disorder and accident, or seems so ; sudden starts of its shattered beds hither and thither; ugly struggles of unexpected strength from under the ground ; fallen fragments, toppling one over another into more helpless fall. Retire from it, and, as your eye commands it more and more, as you see the ruined mountain world with a wider glance, behold! dim sympathies begin to busy themselves in the disjointed mass; line binds itself into stealthy fellowship with line; group by group, the helpless fragments gather themselves into ordered companies ; new captains of hosts and masses of battalions become visible, one by one, and far away answers of foot to foot, and of bone to bone, until the powerless chaos is seen risen up with girded loins, and not one piece of all the unregarded heap could now be spared from the mystic whole. § xvm. Now it is indeed true that where nature loses one kind of beauty, as you approach it, she substitutes another; this is worthy of her infinite power : and, as we shall see, art can sometimes follow her even in doing this ; but all I insist upon at present is, that the several effects of nature are each worked with means referred to a particular distance, and piv- |
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