On the Old Road Vol. 1 (of 2): A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and LiteratureRuskin, John
General
On the Old Road Vol. 1 (of 2): A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature
Ruskin, John
Art; Essays; Literature
Not that Titian's gentlemen are less finished than Sir Joshua's; but
their gentlemanliness[24] is not the principal thing about them; their
manhood absorbs, conquers, wears it as a despised thing. Nor--and this
is another stern ground of separation--will Titian make a gentleman of
everyone he paints. He will make him so if he is so, not otherwise; and
this not merely in general servitude to truth, but because in his
sympathy with deeper humanity, the courtier is not more interesting to
him than anyone else. "You have learned to dance and fence; you can
speak with clearness, and think with precision; your hands are small,
your senses acute, and your features well-shaped. Yes: I see all this in
you, and will do it justice. You shall stand as none but a well-bred man
could stand; and your fingers shall fall on the sword-hilt as no fingers
could but those that knew the grasp of it. But for the rest, this grisly
fisherman, with rusty cheek and rope-frayed hand, is a man as well as
you, and might possibly make several of you, if souls were divisible.
His bronze color is quite as interesting to me, Titian, as your
paleness, and his hoary spray of stormy hair takes the light as well as
your waving curls. Him also I will paint, with such picturesqueness as
he may have; yet not putting the picturesqueness first in him, as in you
I have not put the gentlemanliness first. In him I see a strong human
creature, contending with all hardship: in you also a human creature,
uncontending, and possibly not strong. Contention or strength, weakness
or picturesqueness, and all other such accidents in either, shall have
due place. But the immortality and miracle of you--this clay that burns,
this color that changes--are in truth the awful things in both: these
shall be first painted--and last."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account