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DECORATION. XXVII. THE CORNICE AND CAPITAL, 327
we shall often have to admire the disciplined precision of the
one, and as often to regret the irregular rudeness of the other,
we shall not fail to find balancing qualities in both. The
severity of the disciplinarian capital represses the power of the
imagination; it gradually degenerates into Formalism ; and
the indolence which cannot escape from its stern demand of
accurate workmanship, seeks refuge in copyism of established
forms, and loses itself at last in lifeless mechanism. The license
of the other, though often abused, permits full exercise to the
imagination: the mind of the sculptor, unshackled by the
niceties of chiselling, wanders over its orbed field in endless
fantasy ; and, when generous as well as powerful, repays the
liberty which has been granted to it with interest, by developing through the utmost wildness and fulness of its thoughts, an
order as much more noble than the mechanical symmetry of
the opponent school, as the domain which it regulates is
vaster.
§ xl. And now the reader shall judge whether I had not
reason to cast aside the sp-called Five orders of the Renaissance
architects, with their volutes and fillets, and to tell him that
there were only two real orders, and that there could never be
more.* For we now find that these two great and real orders
are representative of the two great influences which must for
ever divide the heart of man: the one of Lawful Discipline,
with its perfection and order, but its danger of degeneracy
into Formalism; the other of Lawful Freedom, with its vigor
and variety, but its danger of degeneracy into Licentiousness.
§ xli. I shall not attempt to give any illustrations here of
the most elaborate developments of either order; they will be better given on a larger scale : but the examples in Plate XVII. and
XVIII. represent the two methods of ornament in their earliest
appliance. The two lower capitals in Plate XVII. are a pure
type of the concave school; the two in the centre of Plate
XVIII., of the convex. At the top of Plate XVIII. are two
Lombardic capitals; that on the left from Sta. Sofia at Padua,
* Chap. I., § xix.
| 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 | 00000382 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | DECORATION. XXVII. THE CORNICE AND CAPITAL, 327 we shall often have to admire the disciplined precision of the one, and as often to regret the irregular rudeness of the other, we shall not fail to find balancing qualities in both. The severity of the disciplinarian capital represses the power of the imagination; it gradually degenerates into Formalism ; and the indolence which cannot escape from its stern demand of accurate workmanship, seeks refuge in copyism of established forms, and loses itself at last in lifeless mechanism. The license of the other, though often abused, permits full exercise to the imagination: the mind of the sculptor, unshackled by the niceties of chiselling, wanders over its orbed field in endless fantasy ; and, when generous as well as powerful, repays the liberty which has been granted to it with interest, by developing through the utmost wildness and fulness of its thoughts, an order as much more noble than the mechanical symmetry of the opponent school, as the domain which it regulates is vaster. § xl. And now the reader shall judge whether I had not reason to cast aside the sp-called Five orders of the Renaissance architects, with their volutes and fillets, and to tell him that there were only two real orders, and that there could never be more.* For we now find that these two great and real orders are representative of the two great influences which must for ever divide the heart of man: the one of Lawful Discipline, with its perfection and order, but its danger of degeneracy into Formalism; the other of Lawful Freedom, with its vigor and variety, but its danger of degeneracy into Licentiousness. § xli. I shall not attempt to give any illustrations here of the most elaborate developments of either order; they will be better given on a larger scale : but the examples in Plate XVII. and XVIII. represent the two methods of ornament in their earliest appliance. The two lower capitals in Plate XVII. are a pure type of the concave school; the two in the centre of Plate XVIII., of the convex. At the top of Plate XVIII. are two Lombardic capitals; that on the left from Sta. Sofia at Padua, * Chap. I., § xix. |
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