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220 SECOND PERIOD.
is intended to imitate a leaf, but to be invested with the same
characters of beauty which the designer had discovered in the
leaf. Observe, there is a wide difference between these two
intentions. The idea that large Gothic structure, in arches
and roofs, was intended to imitate vegetation is, as above
noticed, untenable for an instant in the front of facts. But
the Gothic builder perceived that, in the leaves which he
copied for his minor decorations, there was a peculiar beauty,
arising from certain characters of curvature in outline, and
certain methods of subdivision and of radiation in structure.
On a small scale, in his sculptures and his missal-painting, he
copied the leaf or thorn itself; on a large scale he adopted
from it its abstract sources of beauty, and gave the same kinds
of curvatures and the same species of subdivision to the outline of his arches, so far as was consistent with their strength,
never, in any single instance, suggesting the resemblance to
leafage by irregularity of outline, but keeping the structure
perfectly simple, and, as we have seen, so consistent with the
best principles of masonry, that in the finest Gothic designs of
arches, which are always single cusped (the cinquefoiled arch
being licentious, though in early work often very lovely), it is
literally impossible, without consulting the context of the
building, to say whether the cusps have been added for the
sake of beauty or of strength; nor, though in mediaeval architecture they were, I believe, assuredly first employed in mere
love of their picturesque form, am I absolutely certain that
their earliest invention was not a structural effort. For the
earliest cusps with which I am acquainted are those used in
the vaults of the great galleries of the Serapeum, discovered
in 1850 by M. Maniette at Memphis, and described by Colonel
Hamilton in a paper read in February last before the Royal
Society of Literature.* The roofs of its galleries were admirably shown in Colonel Hamilton's drawings made to scale
upon the spot, and their profile is a cusped round arch, per-
* See 'Athenaeum,' March 5th, 1853.
| 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 | 00000248 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 220 SECOND PERIOD. is intended to imitate a leaf, but to be invested with the same characters of beauty which the designer had discovered in the leaf. Observe, there is a wide difference between these two intentions. The idea that large Gothic structure, in arches and roofs, was intended to imitate vegetation is, as above noticed, untenable for an instant in the front of facts. But the Gothic builder perceived that, in the leaves which he copied for his minor decorations, there was a peculiar beauty, arising from certain characters of curvature in outline, and certain methods of subdivision and of radiation in structure. On a small scale, in his sculptures and his missal-painting, he copied the leaf or thorn itself; on a large scale he adopted from it its abstract sources of beauty, and gave the same kinds of curvatures and the same species of subdivision to the outline of his arches, so far as was consistent with their strength, never, in any single instance, suggesting the resemblance to leafage by irregularity of outline, but keeping the structure perfectly simple, and, as we have seen, so consistent with the best principles of masonry, that in the finest Gothic designs of arches, which are always single cusped (the cinquefoiled arch being licentious, though in early work often very lovely), it is literally impossible, without consulting the context of the building, to say whether the cusps have been added for the sake of beauty or of strength; nor, though in mediaeval architecture they were, I believe, assuredly first employed in mere love of their picturesque form, am I absolutely certain that their earliest invention was not a structural effort. For the earliest cusps with which I am acquainted are those used in the vaults of the great galleries of the Serapeum, discovered in 1850 by M. Maniette at Memphis, and described by Colonel Hamilton in a paper read in February last before the Royal Society of Literature.* The roofs of its galleries were admirably shown in Colonel Hamilton's drawings made to scale upon the spot, and their profile is a cusped round arch, per- * See 'Athenaeum,' March 5th, 1853. |
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