On the nature of Gothic architecture: and herein of the true functions of the workman in art. Being the greater part of the 6th chapter of the 2nd vol. of 'Stones of Venice'. [48 p.].1854 |
Common terms and phrases
accurate admiration archi architect beauty building Byzantine capitals cathedral character chiaroscuro colour composition confess curves cusps decoration definition degradation delight despising Egyptian endeavour evil execution express facts faults feel foliation form of error gable give Gothic archi Gothic architecture Gothic builders Gothic heart Gothic mind Gothic schools Gothic spirit grace Greek healthy human imagination imitation imitative power imperfection inferior instance intellect invention kind labour leaf leafage less liable lines lintel love of change manual labour mass mental element merely monotony morbid mouldings Naturalists nature never noble Northern observe ornament painter perfect perpetual Perugino Phidias pleasure pointed arch portraiture pure Gothic Purists reader represent reverence Romanesque roof proper roof-mask rough round arch rudeness sake sculpture sense Sensualists stone strength style symmetry tecture things thought Titian traceries true truth vault vegetation Venetian glass Venice walls Westminster Abbey whole workman
Popular passages
Page 9 - It is verily this degradation of the operative into a machine, which, more than any other evil of the times, is leading the mass of the nations everywhere into vain, incoherent, destructive struggling for a freedom of which they cannot explain the nature to themselves.
Page 25 - The passions of mankind are partly protective, partly beneficent, like the chaff and -grain of the corn; but none without their use, none without nobleness when seen in balanced unity with the rest of the spirit which they are charged to defend. The passions of which the end is the continuance of the race; the indignation which is to arm it against injustice, or strengthen it to resist wanton injury; and the fear which lies at the root of prudence, reverence, and awe, are all honorable and beautiful,...
Page 5 - Let us, for a moment, try to raise ourselves even above the level of their flight, and imagine the Mediterranean lying beneath us like an irregular lake, and all its ancient promontories sleeping in the sun...
Page 31 - It is a supposition which never could have existed for a moment in the mind of any person acquainted with early Gothic ; but, however idle as a theory, it is most valuable as a testimony to the character of the perfected style.
Page 13 - This for two reasons, both based on everlasting laws. The first, that no great man ever stops working till he has reached his point of failure ; that is to say, his mind is always far in advance of his powers of execution, and the latter will now and then give way in...
Page 6 - ... rough strength and hurried stroke, he smites an uncouth animation out of the rocks which he has torn from among the moss of the moorland, and heaves into the darkened air the pile of iron buttress and rugged wall, instinct with work of an imagination as wild and wayward as the northern sea; creations of ungainly shape and rigid limb, but full of wolfish life ; fierce as the winds that beat, and changeful as the clouds that shade them.
Page 12 - Now it is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labour can be made happy, and the two cannot be separated with impunity.
Page 18 - If they wanted a window, they opened one; a room, they added one; a buttress, they built one; utterly regardless of any established conventionalities of external appearance, knowing (as indeed it always happened) that such daring interruptions of the formal plan would rather give additional interest to its symmetry than injure it.
Page 5 - We know that gentians grow on the Alps, and olives on the Apennines ; but we do not enough conceive for ourselves that variegated mosaic of the world's surface which a bird sees in its migration, that difference between the district of the gentian and the olive which the stork and the swallow see far off, as they lean upon the sirocco wind.
Page 7 - ... surely enjoy the complacency of success. But, above all, in our dealings with the souls of other men, we are to take care how we check, by severe requirement or narrow caution, efforts which might otherwise lead to a noble issue; and, still more, how we withhold our admiration from great excellencies, because they are mingled with rough faults. Now, in the make and nature of every man...