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V. BYZANTINE PALACES. 141
the immediate trunk or pillar often branches into luxuriant
leafage, usually of the vine, so that the whole ornament seems
almost composed from the words of Ezekiel. " A great eagle
with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had
divers colors, came into Lebanon, and took the highest branch
of the cedar: He cropped off the top of his young twigs; and
carried it into a city of traffic / he set it in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the land, . . . and it
grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose
branches turned towards him, and the roots thereof were under
him?
§ xxviii. The groups of contending and devouring animals
are always much ruder in cutting, and take somewhat the place
in Byzantine sculpture which the lower grotesques do in the
Gothic; true, though clumsy, grotesques being sometimes
mingled among them, as four bodies joined to one head in the
centre ;* but never showing any attempt at variety of invention, except only in the effective disposition of the light and
shade, and in the vigor and thoughtfulness of the touches
which indicate the plumes of the birds or foldings of the leaves.
Care, however, is always taken to secure variety enough to
keep the eye entertained, no two sides of these Byzantine ornaments being in all respects the same: for instance, in the
chainwork round the first figure in Plate XL there are two
circles enclosing squares on the left-hand side of the arch at
the top, but two smaller circles and a diamond on the other,
enclosing one square, and two small circular spots or bosses;
and in the line of chain at the bottom there is a circle on the
right, and a diamond on the left, and so down to the working
of the smallest details. I have represented this upper sculpture as dark, in order to give some idea of the general effect of
these ornaments when seen in shadow against light; an effect
much calculated upon by the designer, and obtained by the use
of a golden ground formed of glass mosaic inserted in the
hollows of the marble. Each square of glass has the leaf gold
* The absence of the true grotesque spirit in Byzantine work will be
examined in the third chapter of the third volume.
| Title | The stones of Venice - 2 |
| Creator | Ruskin, John |
| Publisher | J. Wiley |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000171 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | V. BYZANTINE PALACES. 141 the immediate trunk or pillar often branches into luxuriant leafage, usually of the vine, so that the whole ornament seems almost composed from the words of Ezekiel. " A great eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had divers colors, came into Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar: He cropped off the top of his young twigs; and carried it into a city of traffic / he set it in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the land, . . . and it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned towards him, and the roots thereof were under him? § xxviii. The groups of contending and devouring animals are always much ruder in cutting, and take somewhat the place in Byzantine sculpture which the lower grotesques do in the Gothic; true, though clumsy, grotesques being sometimes mingled among them, as four bodies joined to one head in the centre ;* but never showing any attempt at variety of invention, except only in the effective disposition of the light and shade, and in the vigor and thoughtfulness of the touches which indicate the plumes of the birds or foldings of the leaves. Care, however, is always taken to secure variety enough to keep the eye entertained, no two sides of these Byzantine ornaments being in all respects the same: for instance, in the chainwork round the first figure in Plate XL there are two circles enclosing squares on the left-hand side of the arch at the top, but two smaller circles and a diamond on the other, enclosing one square, and two small circular spots or bosses; and in the line of chain at the bottom there is a circle on the right, and a diamond on the left, and so down to the working of the smallest details. I have represented this upper sculpture as dark, in order to give some idea of the general effect of these ornaments when seen in shadow against light; an effect much calculated upon by the designer, and obtained by the use of a golden ground formed of glass mosaic inserted in the hollows of the marble. Each square of glass has the leaf gold * The absence of the true grotesque spirit in Byzantine work will be examined in the third chapter of the third volume. |
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