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178 THIRD PERIOD.
peculiar grace of the leaves at the extremities, and the fibrous
structure of the stems, will all be too minute to be rendered
consistently with his artistical feeling of breadth, or with the
amount of labor which he considers it dexterous and legitimate
to bestow upon the work : but, above all, the rounded and mo-
j notonous form of the head of the tree will be at variance with
his ideas of " composition;" he will assuredly disguise or break
it, and the main points of the olive-tree will all at last remain
untold.
§ xvi. Now observe, the old Byzantine mosaicist begins
his work at enormous disadvantage. It is to be some one
hundred and fifty feet above the eye, in a dark cupola; executed not with free touches of the pencil, but with square pieces
of glass; not by his own hand, but by various workmen under
his superintendence; finally, not with a principal purpose of
drawing olive-trees, but mainly as a decoration of the cupola.
There is to be an olive-tree beside each apostle, and their stems
are to be the chief lines which divide the dome. He therefore
at once gives up the irregular twisting of the boughs hither
and thither, but he will not give up their fibres. Other trees
have irregular and fantastic branches, but the knitted cordage
of fibres is the olive's own. Again, were he to draw the leaves
of their natural size, they would be so small that their forms
would be invisible in the darkness; and were he to draw them
so large as that their shape might be seen, they would look like
laurel instead of olive. So he arranges them in small clusters
of five each, nearly of the shape which the Byzantines give to
the petals of the lily, but elongated so as to give the idea of leafage upon a spray; and these clusters,—his object always, be it
remembered, being decoration not less than representation,—
he arranges symmetrically on each side of his branches, laying
the whole on a dark ground most truly suggestive of the heavy
rounded mass of the tree, which, in its turn, is relieved against
the gold of the cupola. Lastly, comes the question respecting
the fruit. The whole power and honor of the olive is in its
fruit; and, unless that be represented, nothing is represented.-
But if the berries were colored black or green, they would be-
| 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 | 00000194 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 178 THIRD PERIOD. peculiar grace of the leaves at the extremities, and the fibrous structure of the stems, will all be too minute to be rendered consistently with his artistical feeling of breadth, or with the amount of labor which he considers it dexterous and legitimate to bestow upon the work : but, above all, the rounded and mo- j notonous form of the head of the tree will be at variance with his ideas of " composition;" he will assuredly disguise or break it, and the main points of the olive-tree will all at last remain untold. § xvi. Now observe, the old Byzantine mosaicist begins his work at enormous disadvantage. It is to be some one hundred and fifty feet above the eye, in a dark cupola; executed not with free touches of the pencil, but with square pieces of glass; not by his own hand, but by various workmen under his superintendence; finally, not with a principal purpose of drawing olive-trees, but mainly as a decoration of the cupola. There is to be an olive-tree beside each apostle, and their stems are to be the chief lines which divide the dome. He therefore at once gives up the irregular twisting of the boughs hither and thither, but he will not give up their fibres. Other trees have irregular and fantastic branches, but the knitted cordage of fibres is the olive's own. Again, were he to draw the leaves of their natural size, they would be so small that their forms would be invisible in the darkness; and were he to draw them so large as that their shape might be seen, they would look like laurel instead of olive. So he arranges them in small clusters of five each, nearly of the shape which the Byzantines give to the petals of the lily, but elongated so as to give the idea of leafage upon a spray; and these clusters,—his object always, be it remembered, being decoration not less than representation,— he arranges symmetrically on each side of his branches, laying the whole on a dark ground most truly suggestive of the heavy rounded mass of the tree, which, in its turn, is relieved against the gold of the cupola. Lastly, comes the question respecting the fruit. The whole power and honor of the olive is in its fruit; and, unless that be represented, nothing is represented.- But if the berries were colored black or green, they would be- |
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