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III. GROTESQUE RENAISSANCE. 145
the grotesque of Albert Durer, where, every now and then,
the playfulness or apathy of the painter passes into perfect
sublime. Take the Adam and Eve, for instance. When he
gave Adam a bough to hold, with a parrot on it, and a tablet
hung to it, with "Albertus Durer Noricus faciebat, 1504,"
thereupon, his mind was not in Paradise. He was half in play,
half apathetic with respect to his subject, thinking how to do
his work well, as a wise master-graver, and how to receive his
just reward of fame. But he rose into the true sublime in the
head of Adam, and in the profound truthfulness of every creature that fills the forest. So again in that magnificent coat of
arms, with the lady and the satyr, as he cast the fluttering
drapery hither and thither around the helmet, and wove the
delicate crown upon the woman's forehead, he was in a kind of
play; but there is none in the dreadful skull upon the shield.
And in the " Knight and Death," and in the dragons of the
illustrations to the Apocalypse, there is neither play nor
apathy; but their grotesque is of the ghastly kind which best
illustrates the nature of death and sin. And this leads us to
the consideration of the second state of mind out of which the
noble grotesque is. developed; that is to say, the temper of
mockery.
§ lii. (b). Mockery, or Satire. In the former part of this
chapter, when I spoke of the kinds of art which were produced
in the recreation of the lower orders, I only spoke of forms of
ornament, not of the expression of satire or humor. But it
seems probable, that nothing is so refreshing to the vulgar
mind as some exercise of this faculty, more especially on the
failings of their superiors; and that, wherever the lower orders
are allowed to express themselves freely, we shall find humor,
more or less caustic, becoming a principal feature in their work.
The classical and Renaissance manufacturers of modern times
having silenced the independent language of the operative, his
humor and satire pass away in the word-wit which has of late
become the especial study of the group of authors headed by
Charles Dickens ; all this power was formerly thrown into noble art, and became permanently expressed in the sculptures of
| 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 | 00000161 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | III. GROTESQUE RENAISSANCE. 145 the grotesque of Albert Durer, where, every now and then, the playfulness or apathy of the painter passes into perfect sublime. Take the Adam and Eve, for instance. When he gave Adam a bough to hold, with a parrot on it, and a tablet hung to it, with "Albertus Durer Noricus faciebat, 1504," thereupon, his mind was not in Paradise. He was half in play, half apathetic with respect to his subject, thinking how to do his work well, as a wise master-graver, and how to receive his just reward of fame. But he rose into the true sublime in the head of Adam, and in the profound truthfulness of every creature that fills the forest. So again in that magnificent coat of arms, with the lady and the satyr, as he cast the fluttering drapery hither and thither around the helmet, and wove the delicate crown upon the woman's forehead, he was in a kind of play; but there is none in the dreadful skull upon the shield. And in the " Knight and Death," and in the dragons of the illustrations to the Apocalypse, there is neither play nor apathy; but their grotesque is of the ghastly kind which best illustrates the nature of death and sin. And this leads us to the consideration of the second state of mind out of which the noble grotesque is. developed; that is to say, the temper of mockery. § lii. (b). Mockery, or Satire. In the former part of this chapter, when I spoke of the kinds of art which were produced in the recreation of the lower orders, I only spoke of forms of ornament, not of the expression of satire or humor. But it seems probable, that nothing is so refreshing to the vulgar mind as some exercise of this faculty, more especially on the failings of their superiors; and that, wherever the lower orders are allowed to express themselves freely, we shall find humor, more or less caustic, becoming a principal feature in their work. The classical and Renaissance manufacturers of modern times having silenced the independent language of the operative, his humor and satire pass away in the word-wit which has of late become the especial study of the group of authors headed by Charles Dickens ; all this power was formerly thrown into noble art, and became permanently expressed in the sculptures of |
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