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APPENDIX, 8. 375
grow out of two bodies, or out of and under feet; the creatures
are all fighting, or devouring, or struggling which shall be uppermost, and yet in an ineffectual way, as if they would fight for
ever, and come to no decision. Neither sphinxes nor centaurs
did I notice, nor a single peacock (I believe peacocks to be purely
Byzantine), but mermaids with two tails (the sculptor having
perhaps seen double at the time), strange, large fish, apes, stags
(bulls?), dogs, wolves, and horses, griffins, eagles, long-tailed
birds (cocks?), hawks, and dragons, without end, or with a dozen
of ends, as the case may be; smaller birds, with rabbits, and small
nondescripts, filling the friezes. The actual leaf, which is used
in the best Byzantine mouldings at Venice, occurs in parts of
these Pavian designs. But the Lombard animals are all alive,
and fiercely alive too, all impatience and spring: the Byzantine
birds peck idly at the fruit, and the animals hardly touch it with
their noses. The cinque cento birds in Venice hold it up daintily, like train-bearers; the birds in the earlier Gothic peck at
it hungrily and naturally; but the Lombard beasts gripe at it
like tigers, and tear it off with writhing lips and glaring eyes.
They are exactly like Jip with the bit of geranium, worrying
imaginary cats in it."
The notice of the leaf in the above extract is important,—it
is the vine-leaf; used constantly both by Byzantines and Lombards, but by the latter with especial frequency, though at this
time they were hardly able to indicate what they meant. It
forms the most remarkable generality of the St. Michele decoration ; though, had it not luckily been carved on the facade,
twining round a stake, and with grapes, I should never have
known what it was meant for, its general form being a succession of sharp lobes, with incised furrows to the point of each.
But it is thrown about in endless change ; four or five varieties
of it might be found on every cluster of capitals : and not content with this, the Lombards hint the same form even in their
griffin wings. They love the vine very heartily.
In St. Michele of Lucca we have perhaps the noblest instance
in Italy of the Lombard spirit in its later refinement. It is
some four centuries later than St. Michele of Pavia, and the
method of workmanship is altogether different. In the Pavian
church, nearly all the ornament is cut in a coarse sandstone, in
| 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 | 00000435 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | APPENDIX, 8. 375 grow out of two bodies, or out of and under feet; the creatures are all fighting, or devouring, or struggling which shall be uppermost, and yet in an ineffectual way, as if they would fight for ever, and come to no decision. Neither sphinxes nor centaurs did I notice, nor a single peacock (I believe peacocks to be purely Byzantine), but mermaids with two tails (the sculptor having perhaps seen double at the time), strange, large fish, apes, stags (bulls?), dogs, wolves, and horses, griffins, eagles, long-tailed birds (cocks?), hawks, and dragons, without end, or with a dozen of ends, as the case may be; smaller birds, with rabbits, and small nondescripts, filling the friezes. The actual leaf, which is used in the best Byzantine mouldings at Venice, occurs in parts of these Pavian designs. But the Lombard animals are all alive, and fiercely alive too, all impatience and spring: the Byzantine birds peck idly at the fruit, and the animals hardly touch it with their noses. The cinque cento birds in Venice hold it up daintily, like train-bearers; the birds in the earlier Gothic peck at it hungrily and naturally; but the Lombard beasts gripe at it like tigers, and tear it off with writhing lips and glaring eyes. They are exactly like Jip with the bit of geranium, worrying imaginary cats in it." The notice of the leaf in the above extract is important,—it is the vine-leaf; used constantly both by Byzantines and Lombards, but by the latter with especial frequency, though at this time they were hardly able to indicate what they meant. It forms the most remarkable generality of the St. Michele decoration ; though, had it not luckily been carved on the facade, twining round a stake, and with grapes, I should never have known what it was meant for, its general form being a succession of sharp lobes, with incised furrows to the point of each. But it is thrown about in endless change ; four or five varieties of it might be found on every cluster of capitals : and not content with this, the Lombards hint the same form even in their griffin wings. They love the vine very heartily. In St. Michele of Lucca we have perhaps the noblest instance in Italy of the Lombard spirit in its later refinement. It is some four centuries later than St. Michele of Pavia, and the method of workmanship is altogether different. In the Pavian church, nearly all the ornament is cut in a coarse sandstone, in |
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