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174 SECOND PERIOD. n, CHANGEFtJLNESS.
be proud of its size, complacent in its correctness, and happy
in its convenience. We may take the same pleasure in its
symmetry and workmanship as in a well-ordered room, or a
skilful piece of manufacture. And this we suppose to be all
the pleasure that architecture was ever intended to give us.
The idea of reading a building as we would read Milton or
Dante, and getting the same kind of delight out of the stones
as out of the stanzas, never enters our minds for a moment.
And for good reason :—There is indeed rhythm in the verses,
quite as strict as the symmetries or rhythm of the architecture,
and a thousand times more beautiful, but there is something
else than rhythm. The verses were neither made to order, nor
to match, as the capitals were ; and we have therefore a kind
of pleasure in them other than a sense of propriety. But it
requires a strong effort of common sense to shake ourselves
quit of all that we have been taught for the last two centuries,
and wake to the perception of a truth just as simple and certain as it is new: that great art, whether expressing itself in
words, colors, or stones, does not say the same thing over and
over again; that the merit of architectural, as of every other
art, consists in its saying new and different things; that to
repeat itself is no more a characteristic of genius in marble
than it is of genius in print; and that we may, without offending any laws of good taste, require of an architect, as we do of
a novelist, that he should be not only correct, but entertaining.
Yet all this is true, and self-evident; only hidden from us,
as many other self-evident things are, by false teaching. Nothing is a great work of art, for the production of which either
rules or models can be given. Exactly so far as architecture
works on known rules, and from given models, it is not an art,
but a manufacture; and it is, of the two procedures, rather
less rational, (because more easy) to copy capitals or mouldings
from Phidias, and call ourselves architects, than to copy heads
and hands from Titian, and call ourselves painters.
§ xxix. Let us then understand at once, that change or
variety is as much a necessity to the human heart and brain
in buildings as in books ; that there is no merit, though thera
| 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 | 00000204 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 174 SECOND PERIOD. n, CHANGEFtJLNESS. be proud of its size, complacent in its correctness, and happy in its convenience. We may take the same pleasure in its symmetry and workmanship as in a well-ordered room, or a skilful piece of manufacture. And this we suppose to be all the pleasure that architecture was ever intended to give us. The idea of reading a building as we would read Milton or Dante, and getting the same kind of delight out of the stones as out of the stanzas, never enters our minds for a moment. And for good reason :—There is indeed rhythm in the verses, quite as strict as the symmetries or rhythm of the architecture, and a thousand times more beautiful, but there is something else than rhythm. The verses were neither made to order, nor to match, as the capitals were ; and we have therefore a kind of pleasure in them other than a sense of propriety. But it requires a strong effort of common sense to shake ourselves quit of all that we have been taught for the last two centuries, and wake to the perception of a truth just as simple and certain as it is new: that great art, whether expressing itself in words, colors, or stones, does not say the same thing over and over again; that the merit of architectural, as of every other art, consists in its saying new and different things; that to repeat itself is no more a characteristic of genius in marble than it is of genius in print; and that we may, without offending any laws of good taste, require of an architect, as we do of a novelist, that he should be not only correct, but entertaining. Yet all this is true, and self-evident; only hidden from us, as many other self-evident things are, by false teaching. Nothing is a great work of art, for the production of which either rules or models can be given. Exactly so far as architecture works on known rules, and from given models, it is not an art, but a manufacture; and it is, of the two procedures, rather less rational, (because more easy) to copy capitals or mouldings from Phidias, and call ourselves architects, than to copy heads and hands from Titian, and call ourselves painters. § xxix. Let us then understand at once, that change or variety is as much a necessity to the human heart and brain in buildings as in books ; that there is no merit, though thera |
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