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III. GROTESQUE RENAISSANCE. 161
is a head introduced as a boss on the foundation of the Palazzo
Corner della Regina at Yenice, utterly devoid of invention,
made merely monstrous by exaggerations of the eyeballs and
cheeks, and generally characteristic of that late Renaissance
grotesque of Yenice, with which we are at present more immediately concerned.*
§ lxxii. The developement of that grotesque took place
under different laws from those which regulate it in any other
European city. For, great as we have seen the Byzantine
mind show itself to be in other directions, it was marked as
that of a declining nation by the absence of the grotesque element; and, owing to its influence, the early Yenetian Gothic
remained inferior to all other schools in this particular character. Nothing can well be more wonderful than its instant
failure in any attempt at the representation of ludicrous or
fearful images, more especially when it is compared with the
magnificent grotesque of the neighboring city of Yerona, in
which the Lombard influence had full sway. Nor was it until
the last links of connexion with Constantinople had been dissolved* that the strength of the Yenetian mind could manifest
itself in this direction. But it had then a new enemy to
encounter. The Renaissance laws altogether checked its imagination in architecture; and it could only obtain permission
to express itself by starting forth in the work of the Yenetian
painters, filling them with monkeys and dwarfs, even amidst
the most serious subjects, and leading Yeronese and Tintoret
to the most unexpected and wild fantasies of form and color.
§ lxxiii. We may be deeply thankful for this peculiar re-
* Note especially, in connexion with what was advanced in Vol. II.
respecting our English neatness of execution, how the base workman has
cut the lines of the architecture neatly and precisely round the abominable
head: but the noble workman has used his chisel like a painter's pencil,
and sketched the glory with a few irregular lines, anything rather than
circular; and struck out the whole head in the same frank and fearless way,
leaving the sharp edges of the stone as they first broke, and flinging back
the crest of hair from the forehead with half a dozen hammer-strokes,
while the poor wretch who did the other was half a day in smoothing its
vapid and vermicular curls.
| 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 | 00000177 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | III. GROTESQUE RENAISSANCE. 161 is a head introduced as a boss on the foundation of the Palazzo Corner della Regina at Yenice, utterly devoid of invention, made merely monstrous by exaggerations of the eyeballs and cheeks, and generally characteristic of that late Renaissance grotesque of Yenice, with which we are at present more immediately concerned.* § lxxii. The developement of that grotesque took place under different laws from those which regulate it in any other European city. For, great as we have seen the Byzantine mind show itself to be in other directions, it was marked as that of a declining nation by the absence of the grotesque element; and, owing to its influence, the early Yenetian Gothic remained inferior to all other schools in this particular character. Nothing can well be more wonderful than its instant failure in any attempt at the representation of ludicrous or fearful images, more especially when it is compared with the magnificent grotesque of the neighboring city of Yerona, in which the Lombard influence had full sway. Nor was it until the last links of connexion with Constantinople had been dissolved* that the strength of the Yenetian mind could manifest itself in this direction. But it had then a new enemy to encounter. The Renaissance laws altogether checked its imagination in architecture; and it could only obtain permission to express itself by starting forth in the work of the Yenetian painters, filling them with monkeys and dwarfs, even amidst the most serious subjects, and leading Yeronese and Tintoret to the most unexpected and wild fantasies of form and color. § lxxiii. We may be deeply thankful for this peculiar re- * Note especially, in connexion with what was advanced in Vol. II. respecting our English neatness of execution, how the base workman has cut the lines of the architecture neatly and precisely round the abominable head: but the noble workman has used his chisel like a painter's pencil, and sketched the glory with a few irregular lines, anything rather than circular; and struck out the whole head in the same frank and fearless way, leaving the sharp edges of the stone as they first broke, and flinging back the crest of hair from the forehead with half a dozen hammer-strokes, while the poor wretch who did the other was half a day in smoothing its vapid and vermicular curls. |
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