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I. PRIDE OF SCIENCE. II. ROMAN RENAISSANCE. 49
man, and all that in man's person and actions, and in the great
natural world, is infinite and wonderful; having in it that
spirit and power which man may witness, but not weigh; conceive, but not comprehend ; love, but not limit; and imagine,
but not define;—this, the beginning and the end of the aim of
all noble art, we have, in the ancient art, by perception; and
we have not, in the newer art, by knowledge. Giotto gives it
us, Orcagna gives it us. Angelico, Memmi, Pisano, it matters
not who,—all simple and unlearned men, in their measure and
manner,—give it us; and the learned men that followed them
give it us not, and we, in our supreme learning, own ourselves
at this day farther from it than ever.
§ xxiv. "Nay," but it is still answered, "this is because
we have not yet brought our knowledge into right use, but
have been seeking to accumulate it, rather than to apply it
wisely to the ends of art. Let us now do this, and we may
achieve all that was done by that elder ignorant art, and infi-
discovered that the interior presents hideous shapes, but not forms. Men
during the philosophic era of Greece saw all this, each reading the antique
to the best of his abilities. The man of genius rediscovered the canon of
the ancient masters, and wrought on its principles. The greater number,
as now, unequal to this step, merely imitated and copied those who preceded them."—Great Artists and Q-reat Anatomists. By R. Knox, M.D.
London, Van Voorst, 1852.
Respecting the value of literary knowledge in general as regards art, the
reader will also do well to meditate on the following sentences from.
Hallam's "Literature of Europe;" remembering at the same time what I
have above said, that " the root of all great art in Europe is struck in the
thirteenth century," and that the great time is from 1250 to 1350:
"In Germany the tenth century, Leibnitz declares, was a golden age of
learning compared with the thirteenth."
"The writers of the thirteenth century display an incredible ignorance,
not only of pure idiom, but of common grammatical rules."
The fourteenth century was "not superior to the thirteenth in learning.
. . . "We may justly praise Richard of Bury for his zeal in collecting
books. But his erudition appears crude, his style indifferent, and his
thoughts superficial."
I doubt the superficialness of the thoughts: at all events, this is not a
character of the time, though it may be of the writer; for this would affect
art more even than literature.
| Title | The stones of Venice - 3 |
| Creator | Ruskin, John |
| Publisher | J. Wiley |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000063 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | I. PRIDE OF SCIENCE. II. ROMAN RENAISSANCE. 49 man, and all that in man's person and actions, and in the great natural world, is infinite and wonderful; having in it that spirit and power which man may witness, but not weigh; conceive, but not comprehend ; love, but not limit; and imagine, but not define;—this, the beginning and the end of the aim of all noble art, we have, in the ancient art, by perception; and we have not, in the newer art, by knowledge. Giotto gives it us, Orcagna gives it us. Angelico, Memmi, Pisano, it matters not who,—all simple and unlearned men, in their measure and manner,—give it us; and the learned men that followed them give it us not, and we, in our supreme learning, own ourselves at this day farther from it than ever. § xxiv. "Nay," but it is still answered, "this is because we have not yet brought our knowledge into right use, but have been seeking to accumulate it, rather than to apply it wisely to the ends of art. Let us now do this, and we may achieve all that was done by that elder ignorant art, and infi- discovered that the interior presents hideous shapes, but not forms. Men during the philosophic era of Greece saw all this, each reading the antique to the best of his abilities. The man of genius rediscovered the canon of the ancient masters, and wrought on its principles. The greater number, as now, unequal to this step, merely imitated and copied those who preceded them."—Great Artists and Q-reat Anatomists. By R. Knox, M.D. London, Van Voorst, 1852. Respecting the value of literary knowledge in general as regards art, the reader will also do well to meditate on the following sentences from. Hallam's "Literature of Europe;" remembering at the same time what I have above said, that " the root of all great art in Europe is struck in the thirteenth century," and that the great time is from 1250 to 1350: "In Germany the tenth century, Leibnitz declares, was a golden age of learning compared with the thirteenth." "The writers of the thirteenth century display an incredible ignorance, not only of pure idiom, but of common grammatical rules." The fourteenth century was "not superior to the thirteenth in learning. . . . "We may justly praise Richard of Bury for his zeal in collecting books. But his erudition appears crude, his style indifferent, and his thoughts superficial." I doubt the superficialness of the thoughts: at all events, this is not a character of the time, though it may be of the writer; for this would affect art more even than literature. |
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