Identifier: sevenlampsofarchrusk (find matches)
Title: The seven lamps of architecture
Year: 1883 (1880s)
Authors: Ruskin, John, 1819-1900
Subjects: Architecture
Publisher: Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent, (Eng.) : G. Allen
Contributing Library: University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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hough rendering all this respect to what I suppose to be the self-restraint ofVenetian-Gothic, I had carefully guarded the reader from too high an estimate ofit, in relation to originally purer styles. The followng passage, from the prefaceto the second edition, has been much too carelessly overlooked by the generalreader :— I must here also deprecate an idea which is often taken up by hastyreaders of the Stones of Venice ; namely, that I suppose Venetian architecturethe most noble of the schools of Gothic. I have great respect for VenetianGothic, but only as one among many early schools. My reason for devoting somuch time to Venice, was not that her architecture is the best in existence, butthat it exemplifies, in the smallest compass, the most interesting facts of architec-tural history. The Gothic of Verona is far nobler than that of Venice ; and thatof Florence nobler than that of Verona. For our own immediate purposes thatof Notre Dame of Paris is noblest of all. I-l-ll,-. \III
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THE LAMP OF POWER. 97 even the Greek Doric: the Doric had cast nothing away ; thefourteenth century Venetian had cast away, one by one, for asuccession of centuries, every splendour that art and wealthcould give it. It had laid down its crown and its jewels, its goldand its colour, like a king disrobing ; it had resigned its exertion,like an athlete reposing; once capricious and fantastic, it hadbound itself by laws inviolable and serene as those of Natureherself It retained nothing but its beauty and its power; boththe highest, but both restrained. The Doric flutings were ofirregular number—the Venetian mouldinCTS were unchangeable.The Doric manner of ornament admitted no temptation ; it w-asthe fasting of an anchorite—the Venetian ornament embraced,while it governed, all vegetable and animal forms; it was thetemperance of a man, the command of Adam over creation. Ido not know so magnificent a marking of human authority as theiron grasp of the Venetian over his own exuberance of

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