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DECORATION. XXI. TREATMENT OF ORNAMENT. 255
whole enclosed between two fillets. Each animal, leaping or
eating, scratching or biting, is kept nevertheless strictly within
its coil, and between the fillets. Not the shake of an ear, not
the tip of a tail, overpasses this appointed line, through a series
of some five-and-twenty or thirty animals; until, on a sudden,
and by mutual consent, two little beasts (not looking, for the
rest, more rampant than the others), one on each side, lay their
small paws across the enclosing fillet at exactly the same point
of its course, and thus break the continuity of its line. Two
ears of corn, or leaves, do the same thing in the mouldings
round the northern door of the Baptistery at Florence.
§ xxxii. Observe, however, and this is of the utmost possible
importance, that the value of this type does not consist in the
mere shutting of the ornament into a certain space, but in the
acknowledgment by the ornament of the fitness of the limitation—of its own perfect willingness to submit to it; nay, of a
predisposition in itself to fall into the ordained form, without
any direct expression of the command to do so ; an anticipation of the authority, and an instant and willing submission to
it, in every fibre and spray : not merely willing, but happy
submission, as being pleased rather than vexed to have so
beautiful a law suggested to it, and one which to follow is so
justly in accordance with its own nature. You must not cut
out a branch of hawthorn as it grows, and rule a triangle round
it, and suppose that it is then submitted to law. Not a bit of
it. It is only put in a cage, and will look as if it must get out,
for its life, or wither in the confinement. But the spirit of
triangle must be put into the hawthorn. It must suck in
isoscelesism with its sap. Thorn and blossom, leaf and spray,
must grow with an awful sense of triangular necessity upon
them, for the guidance of which they are to be thankful, and
to grow all the stronger and more gloriously. And though
there may be a transgression here and there, and an adaptation to some other need, or a reaching forth to some other end
greater even than the triangle, yet this liberty is to be always
accepted under a solemn sense of special permission; and
when the full form is reached and the entire submission
| 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 | 00000292 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | DECORATION. XXI. TREATMENT OF ORNAMENT. 255 whole enclosed between two fillets. Each animal, leaping or eating, scratching or biting, is kept nevertheless strictly within its coil, and between the fillets. Not the shake of an ear, not the tip of a tail, overpasses this appointed line, through a series of some five-and-twenty or thirty animals; until, on a sudden, and by mutual consent, two little beasts (not looking, for the rest, more rampant than the others), one on each side, lay their small paws across the enclosing fillet at exactly the same point of its course, and thus break the continuity of its line. Two ears of corn, or leaves, do the same thing in the mouldings round the northern door of the Baptistery at Florence. § xxxii. Observe, however, and this is of the utmost possible importance, that the value of this type does not consist in the mere shutting of the ornament into a certain space, but in the acknowledgment by the ornament of the fitness of the limitation—of its own perfect willingness to submit to it; nay, of a predisposition in itself to fall into the ordained form, without any direct expression of the command to do so ; an anticipation of the authority, and an instant and willing submission to it, in every fibre and spray : not merely willing, but happy submission, as being pleased rather than vexed to have so beautiful a law suggested to it, and one which to follow is so justly in accordance with its own nature. You must not cut out a branch of hawthorn as it grows, and rule a triangle round it, and suppose that it is then submitted to law. Not a bit of it. It is only put in a cage, and will look as if it must get out, for its life, or wither in the confinement. But the spirit of triangle must be put into the hawthorn. It must suck in isoscelesism with its sap. Thorn and blossom, leaf and spray, must grow with an awful sense of triangular necessity upon them, for the guidance of which they are to be thankful, and to grow all the stronger and more gloriously. And though there may be a transgression here and there, and an adaptation to some other need, or a reaching forth to some other end greater even than the triangle, yet this liberty is to be always accepted under a solemn sense of special permission; and when the full form is reached and the entire submission |
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