"Pierced Ornaments from from Lisieux, Bayeux, Verona, and Padua," by John Ruskin

[Victorian Web Home —> Visual Arts —> Victorian Painters —> John Ruskin —> Ruskin's drawings —> Next]

Pierced Ornaments from from Lisieux, Bayeux, Verona, and Padua

John Ruskin

R. P. Cuff, engraver

1855

6 13/16 x 4 1/16 inches

Plate VII, The Seven Lamps of Architecture in Works, 8.128.

According to the "Index to the Plates" (8.xvi), Ruskin discusses the individual parts of this plate on the following pages, which are quoted below.

1. Shafts and Spandrel from the South-West Door of the Cathedral of Lisieux (pp. 93, 125 n., 128)

Modern photograph of Figure 1

2. Qiadrant of the Star Window of the Chapel of San Pietro Martire, adjoining Sta. Anastasia, Verona (p. 129)

3. Trefoiled Shield from the Church of the Eeremetani, Padua (pp. 88, 129)

4. "Foam Bubbles" from a Spandrel at Bayeux (p. 129)

Modern photograph of Figure 4

5. Ornament from the Transept Towers of Rouen (p. 129)

Scanned image and text by George P. Landow

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL]

“The Lamp of Truth”

In the drawing of the shafts of the door at Lisieux, under the spandrel, in Plate VII., the reader will see the mode of managing the intersection of similar mouldings, which was universal in the great periods. They melted into each other, and became one at the point of crossing, or of contact; and even the suggestion of so sharp intersection as this of Lisieux is usually avoided, (this design being, of course, only a pointed form of the earlier Norman arcade, in which the arches are interlaced, and lie each over the preceding, and under the following one, as in Anselm's tower at Canterbury,) since, in the plurality of designs, when mouldings meet each other, they coincide through some considerable portion of their curves, meeting by contact, rather than by intersection; and at the point of coincidence the section of each separate moulding becomes common to the two thus melted into each other. [p. 93]

“The Lamp of Power”

The spandrel, given at the top of Plate VII., is from the south-western entrance of the cathedral of Lisieux; one of the most quaint and interesting doors in Normandy, probably soon to be lost for ever, by the continuance of the masonic operations which have already destroyed the northern tower. Its work is altogether rude, but full of spirit; the opposite spandrels have different, though balanced, ornaments very inaccurately adjusted, each rosette or star (as the five-rayed figure, now quite defaced, in the upper portion appears to have been) cut on its own block of stone and fitted in with small nicety, especially illustrating the point I have above insisted upon the architect's utter neglect of the forms of intermediate stone, at this early period.

The arcade, of which a single arch and shaft are given on the left, forms the flank of the door; three outer shafts bearing three orders within the spandrel which I have drawn, and each of these shafts carried over an inner arcade, decorated above with quatrefoils, cut concave and filled with leaves, the whole disposition exquisitely picturesque and full of strange play of light and shade.

For some time the penetrative ornaments, if so they may be for convenience called, maintained their bold and independent character. Then they multiplied and enlarged, becoming shallower as they did so; then they began to run together, one swallowing up, or hanging on to, another, like bubbles in expiring foam fig. 4, from a spandrel at Bayeux, looks as if it had been blown from a pipe; finally, they lost their individual character altogether, and the eye was made to rest on the separating lines of tracery, as we saw before in the window; and then came the great change and the fall of the Gothic power.

Figs. 2 and 3, the one a quadrant of the star window of the little chapel 2 close to St. Anastasia at Verona, and the other a very singular example 3 from the church of the Eremitani at Padua, compared with fig. 5, one of the orna- ments of the transept towers of Rouen, show the closely correspondent conditions of the early Northern and Southern Gothic. But, as we have said, the Italian architects, not being embarrassed for decoration of wall surface, and not being obliged, like the Northmen, to multiply their penetrations, held to the system for some time longer; and while they increased the refinement of the ornament, kept the purity of the plan. That refinement of ornament was their weak point however, and opened the way for the renaissance attack. They fell, like the old Romans, by their luxury. [pp.128-30]

Bibliography

Ruskin, John. Works, "The Library Edition." eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. 39 vols. London: George Allen, 1903-1912.

Ruskin, John. The Seven Lamps of Architecture in Works, vol. 8. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Web. 6 June 2010.

Last modified 6 June 2010