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DECORATION. XXVI. THE WALL VEIL A^D SHAFT. 295
that all the best colorists, without a single exception, depend
upon it for the most piquant of their pictorial effects, some
vigorous mass of alternate stripes or bars of color being made
central in all their richest arrangements. The whole system of
Tintoret's great picture of the Miracle of St. Mark is poised
on the bars of blue, which cross the white turban of the executioner.
§ H. There are, therefore, no ornaments more deeply suggestive in their simplicity than these alternate bars of horizontal colors; nor do I know any buildings more noble than those
of the Pisan Romanesque, in which they are habitually employed ; and certainly none so graceful, so attractive, so endur-
ingly delightful in their nobleness. Yet, of this pure and
graceful ornamentation, Professor Willis says, " a practice more
destructive of architectural grandeur can hardly be conceived:"
and modern architects have substituted for it the ingenious ornament of which the reader has had one specimen above, Fig.
III., p. 61, and with which half the large buildings in London
are disfigured, or else traversed by mere straight lines, as, for
instance, the back of the Bank. The lines on the Bank may,
perhaps, be considered typical of accounts ; but in general the
walls, if left destitute of them, would have been as much
fairer than the walls charged with them, as a sheet of white
paper is than the leaf of a ledger. But that the reader may
have free liberty of judgment in this matter, I place two examples of the old and the Renaissance ornament side by side
on the opposite page. That on the right is Romanesque, from
St. Pietro of Pistoja; that on the left, modern English, from
the Arthur Club-house, St. James's Street.
§ in. But why, it will be asked, should the lines which mark
the division of the stones be wrong when they are chiselled,
and right when they are marked by color ? First, because
the color separation is a natural one. You build with different
kinds of stone, of which, probably, one is more costly than
another; which latter, as you cannot construct your building
of it entirely, you arrange in conspicuous bars. But the chiselling of the stones is a wilful throwing away of time and labor
| 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 | 00000340 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | DECORATION. XXVI. THE WALL VEIL A^D SHAFT. 295 that all the best colorists, without a single exception, depend upon it for the most piquant of their pictorial effects, some vigorous mass of alternate stripes or bars of color being made central in all their richest arrangements. The whole system of Tintoret's great picture of the Miracle of St. Mark is poised on the bars of blue, which cross the white turban of the executioner. § H. There are, therefore, no ornaments more deeply suggestive in their simplicity than these alternate bars of horizontal colors; nor do I know any buildings more noble than those of the Pisan Romanesque, in which they are habitually employed ; and certainly none so graceful, so attractive, so endur- ingly delightful in their nobleness. Yet, of this pure and graceful ornamentation, Professor Willis says, " a practice more destructive of architectural grandeur can hardly be conceived:" and modern architects have substituted for it the ingenious ornament of which the reader has had one specimen above, Fig. III., p. 61, and with which half the large buildings in London are disfigured, or else traversed by mere straight lines, as, for instance, the back of the Bank. The lines on the Bank may, perhaps, be considered typical of accounts ; but in general the walls, if left destitute of them, would have been as much fairer than the walls charged with them, as a sheet of white paper is than the leaf of a ledger. But that the reader may have free liberty of judgment in this matter, I place two examples of the old and the Renaissance ornament side by side on the opposite page. That on the right is Romanesque, from St. Pietro of Pistoja; that on the left, modern English, from the Arthur Club-house, St. James's Street. § in. But why, it will be asked, should the lines which mark the division of the stones be wrong when they are chiselled, and right when they are marked by color ? First, because the color separation is a natural one. You build with different kinds of stone, of which, probably, one is more costly than another; which latter, as you cannot construct your building of it entirely, you arrange in conspicuous bars. But the chiselling of the stones is a wilful throwing away of time and labor |
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