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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mornings in Florence, by John Ruskin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mornings in Florence
+
+Author: John Ruskin
+
+
+Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7227]
+This file was first posted on March 28, 2003
+Last Updated: May 21, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORNINGS IN FLORENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Michelle Shephard, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MORNINGS IN FLORENCE
+
+
+By John Ruskin, M.A.
+
+
+
+
+MORNINGS IN FLORENCE.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRST MORNING.
+
+SANTA CROCE.
+
+
+If there is one artist, more than another, whose work it is desirable
+that you should examine in Florence, supposing that you care for old art
+at all, it is Giotto. You can, indeed, also see work of his at Assisi;
+but it is not likely you will stop there, to any purpose. At Padua there
+is much; but only of one period. At Florence, which is his birthplace,
+you can see pictures by him of every date, and every kind. But you had
+surely better see, first, what is of his best time and of the best kind.
+He painted very small pictures and very large--painted from the age of
+twelve to sixty--painted some subjects carelessly which he had little
+interest in--some carefully with all his heart. You would surely like,
+and it would certainly be wise, to see him first in his strong and
+earnest work,--to see a painting by him, if possible, of large size, and
+wrought with his full strength, and of a subject pleasing to him. And if
+it were, also, a subject interesting to yourself,--better still.
+
+Now, if indeed you are interested in old art, you cannot but know the
+power of the thirteenth century. You know that the character of it was
+concentrated in, and to the full expressed by, its best king, St. Louis.
+You know St. Louis was a Franciscan, and that the Franciscans, for whom
+Giotto was continually painting under Dante's advice, were prouder of
+him than of any other of their royal brethren or sisters. If Giotto ever
+would imagine anybody with care and delight, it would be St. Louis, if
+it chanced that anywhere he had St. Louis to paint.
+
+Also, you know that he was appointed to build the Campanile of the
+Duomo, because he was then the best master of sculpture, painting, and
+architecture in Florence, and supposed to be without superior in the
+world. [Footnote: "Cum in universe orbe non reperiri dicatur quenquam
+qui sufficientior sit in his et aliis multis artibus magistro Giotto
+Bondonis de Florentia, pictore, et accipiendus sit in patriâ, velut
+magnus magister."--(Decree of his appointment, quoted by Lord Lindsay,
+vol. ii., p. 247.)]
+
+And that this commission was given him late in life, (of course he could
+not have designed the Campanile when he was a boy;) so therefore, if you
+find any of his figures painted under pure campanile architecture, and
+the architecture by his hand, you know, without other evidence, that the
+painting must be of his strongest time.
+
+So if one wanted to find anything of his to begin with, especially, and
+could choose what it should be, one would say, "A fresco, life size,
+with campanile architecture behind it, painted in an important place;
+and if one might choose one's subject, perhaps the most interesting
+saint of all saints--for him to do for us--would be St. Louis."
+
+Wait then for an entirely bright morning; rise with the sun, and go
+to Santa Croce, with a good opera-glass in your pocket, with which you
+shall for once, at any rate, see an opus; and, if you have time, several
+opera. Walk straight to the chapel on the right of the choir ("k" in
+your Murray's guide). When you first get into it, you will see nothing
+but a modern window of glaring glass, with a red-hot cardinal in
+one pane--which piece of modern manufacture takes away at least
+seven-eighths of the light (little enough before) by which you might
+have seen what is worth sight. Wait patiently till you get used to the
+gloom. Then, guarding your eyes from the accursed modern window as best
+you may, take your opera-glass and look to the right, at the uppermost
+of the two figures beside it. It is St. Louis, under campanile
+architecture, painted by--Giotto? or the last Florentine painter who
+wanted a job--over Giotto? That is the first question you have to
+determine; as you will have henceforward, in every case in which you
+look at a fresco.
+
+Sometimes there will be no question at all. These two grey frescos at
+the bottom of the walls on the right and left, for instance, have
+been entirely got up for your better satisfaction, in the last year or
+two--over Giotto's half-effaced lines. But that St. Louis? Re-painted or
+not, it is a lovely thing,--there can be no question about that; and
+we must look at it, after some preliminary knowledge gained, not
+inattentively.
+
+Your Murray's Guide tells you that this chapel of the Bardi della
+Libertà, in which you stand, is covered with frescos by Giotto; that
+they were whitewashed, and only laid bare in 1853; that they were
+painted between 1296 and 1304; that they represent scenes in the life
+of St. Francis; and that on each side of the window are paintings of St.
+Louis of Toulouse, St. Louis king of France, St. Elizabeth, of
+Hungary, and St. Claire,--"all much restored and repainted." Under such
+recommendation, the frescos are not likely to be much sought after; and
+accordingly, as I was at work in the chapel this morning, Sunday, 6th
+September, 1874, two nice-looking Englishmen, under guard of their valet
+de place, passed the chapel without so much as looking in.
+
+You will perhaps stay a little longer in it with me, good reader, and
+find out gradually where you are. Namely, in the most interesting and
+perfect little Gothic chapel in all Italy--so far as I know or can hear.
+There is no other of the great time which has all its frescos in their
+place. The Arena, though far larger, is of earlier date--not pure
+Gothic, nor showing Giotto's full force. The lower chapel at Assisi is
+not Gothic at all, and is still only of Giotto's middle time. You have
+here, developed Gothic, with Giotto in his consummate strength, and
+nothing lost, in form, of the complete design.
+
+By restoration--judicious restoration, as Mr. Murray usually calls
+it--there is no saying how much you have lost, Putting the question of
+restoration out of your mind, however, for a while, think where you are,
+and what you have got to look at.
+
+You are in the chapel next the high altar of the great Franciscan church
+of Florence. A few hundred yards west of you, within ten minutes' walk,
+is the Baptistery of Florence. And five minutes' walk west of that is
+the great Dominican church of Florence, Santa Maria Novella.
+
+Get this little bit of geography, and architectural fact, well into your
+mind. There is the little octagon Baptistery in the middle; here, ten
+minutes' walk east of it, the Franciscan church of the Holy Cross;
+there, five minutes walk west of it, the Dominican church of St. Mary.
+
+Now, that little octagon Baptistery stood where it now stands (and was
+finished, though the roof has been altered since) in the eighth century.
+It is the central building of Etrurian Christianity,--of European
+Christianity.
+
+From the day it was finished, Christianity went on doing her best, in
+Etruria and elsewhere, for four hundred years,--and her best seemed to
+have come to very little,--when there rose up two men who vowed to God
+it should come to more. And they made it come to more, forthwith; of
+which the immediate sign in Florence was that she resolved to have a
+fine new cross-shaped cathedral instead of her quaint old little octagon
+one; and a tower beside it that should beat Babel:--which two buildings
+you have also within sight.
+
+But your business is not at present with them; but with these two
+earlier churches of Holy Cross and St. Mary. The two men who were the
+effectual builders of these were the two great religious Powers and
+Reformers of the thirteenth century;--St. Francis, who taught Christian
+men how they should behave, and St. Dominic, who taught Christian men
+what they should think. In brief, one the Apostle of Works; the other of
+Faith. Each sent his little company of disciples to teach and to preach
+in Florence: St. Francis in 1212; St. Dominic in 1220.
+
+The little companies were settled--one, ten minutes' walk east of the
+old Baptistery; the other five minutes' walk west of it. And after they
+had stayed quietly in such lodgings as were given them, preaching and
+teaching through most of the century; and had got Florence, as it were,
+heated through, she burst out into Christian poetry and architecture,
+of which you have heard much talk:--burst into bloom of Arnolfo, Giotto,
+Dante, Orcagna, and the like persons, whose works you profess to have
+come to Florence that you may see and understand.
+
+Florence then, thus heated through, first helped her teachers to build
+finer churches. The Dominicans, or White Friars the Teachers of Faith,
+began their church of St. Mary's in 1279. The Franciscans, or Black
+Friars, the teachers of Works, laid the first stone of this church of
+the Holy Cross in 1294. And the whole city laid the foundations of its
+new cathedral in 1298. The Dominicans designed their own building; but
+for the Franciscans and the town worked the first great master of
+Gothic art, Arnolfo; with Giotto at his side, and Dante looking on, and
+whispering sometimes a word to both.
+
+And here you stand beside the high altar of the Franciscans' church,
+under a vault of Arnolfo's building, with at least some of Giotto's
+colour on it still fresh; and in front of you, over the little altar, is
+the only reportedly authentic portrait of St. Francis, taken from life
+by Giotto's master. Yet I can hardly blame my two English friends for
+never looking in. Except in the early morning light, not one touch of
+all this art can be seen. And in any light, unless you understand the
+relations of Giotto to St. Francis, and of St. Francis to humanity, it
+will be of little interest.
+
+Observe, then, the special character of Giotto among the great painters
+of Italy is his being a practical person. Whatever other men dreamed
+of, he did. He could work in mosaic; he could work in marble; he could
+paint; and he could build; and all thoroughly: a man of supreme faculty,
+supreme common sense. Accordingly, he ranges himself at once among the
+disciples of the Apostle of Works, and spends most of his time in the
+same apostleship.
+
+Now the gospel of Works, according to St. Francis, lay in three
+things. You must work without money, and be poor. You must work without
+pleasure, and be chaste. You must work according to orders, and be
+obedient.
+
+Those are St. Francis's three articles of Italian opera. By which grew
+the many pretty things you have come to see here.
+
+And now if you will take your opera-glass and look up to the roof above
+Arnolfo's building, you will see it is a pretty Gothic cross vault, in
+four quarters, each with a circular medallion, painted by Giotto. That
+over the altar has the picture of St. Francis himself. The three others,
+of his Commanding Angels. In front of him, over the entrance arch,
+Poverty. On his right hand, Obedience. On his left, Chastity.
+
+Poverty, in a red patched dress, with grey wings, and a square nimbus of
+glory above her head, is flying from a black hound, whose head is seen
+at the corner of the medallion.
+
+Chastity, veiled, is imprisoned in a tower, while angels watch her.
+
+Obedience bears a yoke on her shoulders, and lays her hand on a book.
+
+Now, this same quatrefoil, of St. Francis and his three Commanding
+Angels, was also painted, but much more elaborately, by Giotto, on
+the cross vault of the lower church of Assisi, and it is a question of
+interest which of the two roofs was painted first.
+
+Your Murray's Guide tells you the frescos in this chapel were painted
+between 1296 and 1304. But as they represent, among other personages,
+St. Louis of Toulouse, who was not canonized till 1317, that statement
+is not altogether tenable. Also, as the first stone of the church was
+only laid in 1294, when Giotto was a youth of eighteen, it is little
+likely that either it would have been ready to be painted, or he ready
+with his scheme of practical divinity, two years later.
+
+Farther, Arnolfo, the builder of the main body of the church, died in
+1310. And as St. Louis of Toulouse was not a saint till seven years
+afterwards, and the frescos therefore beside the window not painted
+in Arnolfo's day, it becomes another question whether Arnolfo left the
+chapels or the church at all, in their present form.
+
+On which point--now that I have shown you where Giotto's St. Louis is--I
+will ask you to think awhile, until you are interested; and then I
+will try to satisfy your curiosity. There fore, please leave the little
+chapel for the moment, and walk down the nave, till you come to two
+sepulchral slabs near the west end, and then look about you and see what
+sort of a church Santa Croce is.
+
+Without looking about you at all, you may find, in your Murray, the
+useful information that it is a church which "consists of a very wide
+nave and lateral aisles, separated by seven fine pointed arches." And as
+you will be--under ordinary conditions of tourist hurry--glad to learn
+so much, _without_ looking, it is little likely to occur to you that
+this nave and two rich aisles required also, for your complete present
+comfort, walls at both ends, and a roof on the top. It is just
+possible, indeed, you may have been struck, on entering, by the curious
+disposition of painted glass at the east end;--more remotely possible
+that, in returning down the nave, you may this moment have noticed the
+extremely small circular window at the west end; but the chances are
+a thousand to one that, after being pulled from tomb to tomb round
+the aisles and chapels, you should take so extraordinary an additional
+amount of pains as to look up at the roof,--unless you do it now,
+quietly. It will have had its effect upon you, even if you don't,
+without your knowledge. You will return home with a general impression
+that Santa Croce is, somehow, the ugliest Gothic church you ever were
+in. Well, that is really so; and now, will you take the pains to see
+why?
+
+There are two features, on which, more than on any others, the grace and
+delight of a fine Gothic building depends; one is the springing of its
+vaultings, the other the proportion and fantasy of its traceries.
+_This_ church of Santa Croce has no vaultings at all, but the roof of
+a farm-house barn. And its windows are all of the same pattern,--the
+exceedingly prosaic one of two pointed arches, with a round hole above,
+between them.
+
+And to make the simplicity of the roof more conspicuous, the aisles are
+successive sheds, built at every arch. In the aisles of the Campo Santo
+of Pisco, the unbroken flat roof leaves the eye free to look to the
+traceries; but here, a succession of up-and-down sloping beam and lath
+gives the impression of a line of stabling rather than a church aisle.
+And lastly, while, in fine Gothic buildings, the entire perspective
+concludes itself gloriously in the high and distant apse, here the nave
+is cut across sharply by a line of ten chapels, the apse being only a
+tall recess in the midst of them, so that, strictly speaking, the church
+is not of the form of a cross, but of a letter T.
+
+Can this clumsy and ungraceful arrangement be indeed the design of the
+renowned Arnolfo?
+
+Yes, this is purest Arnolfo-Gothic; not beautiful by any means; but
+deserving, nevertheless, our thoughtfullest examination. We will trace
+its complete character another day; just now we are only concerned with
+this pre-Christian form of the letter T, insisted upon in the lines of
+chapels.
+
+Respecting which you are to observe, that the first Christian churches
+in the catacombs took the form of a blunt cross naturally; a square
+chamber having a vaulted recess on each side; then the Byzantine
+churches were structurally built in the form of an equal cross; while
+the heraldic and other ornamental equal-armed crosses are partly signs
+of glory and victory, partly of light, and divine spiritual presence.
+[Footnote: See, on this subject generally, Mr. R. St. J. Tyrwhitt's
+"Art-Teaching of the Primitive Church." S. P. B. K., 1874.]
+
+But the Franciscans and Dominicans saw in the cross no sign of triumph,
+but of trial.[Footnote: I have never obtained time for any right study
+of early Christian church-discipline,--nor am I sure to how many other
+causes, the choice of the form of the basilica may be occasionally
+attributed, or by what other communities it may be made. Symbolism,
+for instance, has most power with the Franciscans, and convenience for
+preaching with the Dominicans; but in all cases, and in all places,
+the transition from the close tribune to the brightly-lighted apse,
+indicates the change in Christian feeling between regarding a church as
+a place for public judgment or teaching, or a place for private prayer
+and congregational praise. The following passage from the Dean of
+Westminster's perfect history of his Abbey ought to be read also in the
+Florentine church:--"The nearest approach to Westminster Abbey in this
+aspect is the church of Santa Croce at Florence. There, as here, the
+present destination of the building was no part of the original design,
+but was the result of various converging causes. As the church of one
+of the two great preaching orders, it had a nave large beyond all
+proportion to its choir. That order being the Franciscan, bound by vows
+of poverty, the simplicity of the worship preserved the whole
+space clear from any adventitious ornaments. The popularity of the
+Franciscans, especially in a convent hallowed by a visit from St.
+Francis himself, drew to it not only the chief civic festivals, but also
+the numerous families who gave alms to the friars, and whose connection
+with their church was, for this reason, in turn encouraged by them.
+In those graves, piled with standards und achievements of the noble
+families of Florence, were successively interred--not because of their
+eminence, but as members or friends of those families--some of the most
+illustrious personages of the fifteenth century. Thus it came to pass,
+as if by accident, that in the vault of the Buonarotti was laid Michael
+Angelo; in the vault of the Viviani the preceptor of one of their
+house, Galileo. From those two burials the church gradually be same the
+recognized shrine of Italian genius."] The wounds of their Master were
+to be their inheritance. So their first aim was to make what image to
+the cross their church might present, distinctly that of the actual
+instrument of death.
+
+And they did this most effectually by using the form of the letter T,
+that of the Furca or Gibbet,--not the sign of peace.
+
+Also, their churches were meant for use; not show, nor
+self-glorification, nor town-glorification. They wanted places for
+preaching, prayer, sacrifice, burial; and had no intention of showing
+how high they could build towers, or how widely they could arch vaults.
+Strong walls, and the roof of a barn,--these your Franciscan asks of
+his Arnolfo. These Arnolfo gives,--thoroughly and wisely built; the
+successions of gable roof being a new device for strength, much praised
+in its day.
+
+This stern humor did not last long. Arnolfo himself had other notions;
+much more Cimabue and Giotto; most of all, Nature and Heaven. Something
+else had to be taught about Christ than that He was wounded to death.
+Nevertheless, look how grand this stern form would be, restored to its
+simplicity. It is not the old church which is in itself unimpressive.
+It is the old church defaced by Vasari, by Michael Angelo, and by modern
+Florence. See those huge tombs on your right hand and left, at the sides
+of the aisles, with their alternate gable and round tops, and their
+paltriest of all possible sculpture, trying to be grand by bigness, and
+pathetic by expense. Tear them all down in your imagination; fancy the
+vast hall with its massive pillars,--not painted calomel-pill colour, as
+now, but of their native stone, with a rough, true wood for roof,--and
+a people praying beneath them, strong in abiding, and pure in life, as
+their rocks and olive forests That was Arnolfo's Santa Croce. Nor did
+his work remain long without grace.
+
+That very line of chapels in which we found our St. Louis shows signs
+of change in temper. _They_ have no pent-house roofs, but true Gothic
+vaults: we found our four-square type of Franciscan Law on one of them.
+
+It is probable, then, that these chapels may be later than the
+rest--even in their stonework. In their decoration, they are so,
+assuredly; belonging already to the time when the story of St. Francis
+was becoming a passionate tradition, told and painted everywhere with
+delight.
+
+And that high recess, taking the place of apse, in the centre,--see how
+noble it is in the coloured shade surrounding and joining the glow of
+its windows, though their form be so simple. You are not to be amused
+here by patterns in balanced stone, as a French or English architect
+would amuse you, says Arnolfo. "You are to read and think, under these
+severe walls of mine; immortal hands will write upon them." We will go
+back, therefore, into this line of manuscript chapels presently; but
+first, look at the two sepulchral slabs by which you are standing. That
+farther of the two from the west end is one of the most beautiful pieces
+of fourteenth century sculpture in this world; and it contains simple
+elements of excellence, by your understanding of which you may test your
+power of understanding the more difficult ones you will have to deal
+with presently.
+
+It represents an old man, in the high deeply-folded cap worn by scholars
+and gentlemen in Florence from 1300--1500, lying dead, with a book
+in his breast, over which his hands are folded. At his feet is this
+inscription: "Temporibus hic suis phylosophye atq. medicine culmen fuit
+Galileus de Galileis olim Bonajutis qui etiam summo in magistratu miro
+quodam modo rempublicam dilexit, cujus sancte memorie bene acte vite pie
+benedictus filius hunc tumulum patri sibi suisq. posteris edidit."
+
+Mr. Murray tells you that the effigies "in low relief" (alas, yes,
+low enough now--worn mostly into flat stones, with a trace only of the
+deeper lines left, but originally in very bold relief,) with which the
+floor of Santa Croce is inlaid, of which this by which you stand is
+characteristic, are "interesting from the costume," but that, "except
+in the case of John Ketterick, Bishop of St. David's, few of the other
+names have any interest beyond the walls of Florence." As, however, you
+are at present within the walls of Florence, you may perhaps condescend
+to take some interest in this ancestor or relation of the Galileo whom
+Florence indeed left to be externally interesting, and would not allow
+to enter in her walls.
+
+[Footnote:                "Seven years a prisoner at the city gate,
+                 Let in but his grave-clothes."
+                                     _Rogers' "Italy_."]
+
+I am not sure if I rightly place or construe the phrase in the above
+inscription, "cujus sancte memorie bene acte;" but, in main purport, the
+legend runs thus: "This Galileo of the Galilei was, in his times, the
+head of philosophy and medicine; who also in the highest magistracy
+loved the republic marvellously; whose son, blessed in inheritance of
+his holy memory and well-passed and pious life, appointed this tomb for
+his father, for himself, and for his posterity."
+
+There is no date; but the slab immediately behind it, nearer the western
+door, is of the same style, but of later and inferior work, and bears
+date--I forget now of what early year in the fifteenth century.
+
+But Florence was still in her pride; and you may observe, in this
+epitaph, on what it was based. That her philosophy was studied _together
+with useful arts,_ and as a part of them; that the masters in these
+became naturally the masters in public affairs; that in such magistracy,
+they loved the State, and neither cringed to it nor robbed it; that the
+sons honoured their fathers, and received their fathers' honour as the
+most blessed inheritance. Remember the phrase "vite pie bene dictus
+filius," to be compared with the "nos nequiores" of the declining days
+of all states,--chiefly now in Florence, France and England.
+
+Thus much for the local interest of name. Next for the universal
+interest of the art of this tomb.
+
+It is the crowning virtue of all great art that, however little is left
+of it by the injuries of time, that little will be lovely. As long as
+you can see anything, you can see--almost all;--so much the hand of the
+master will suggest of his soul.
+
+And here you are well quit, for once, of restoration. No one cares
+for this sculpture; and if Florence would only thus put all her
+old sculpture and painting under her feet, and simply use them for
+gravestones and oilcloth, she would be more merciful to them than she is
+now. Here, at least, what little is left is true.
+
+And, if you look long, you will find it is not so little. That worn face
+is still a perfect portrait of the old man, though like one struck out
+at a venture, with a few rough touches of a master's chisel. And that
+falling drapery of his cap is, in its few lines, faultless, and subtle
+beyond description.
+
+And now, here is a simple but most useful test of your capacity for
+understanding Florentine sculpture or painting. If you can see that the
+lines of that cap are both right, and lovely; that the choice of the
+folds is exquisite in its ornamental relations of line; and that the
+softness and ease of them is complete,--though only sketched with a
+few dark touches,--then you can understand Giotto's drawing, and
+Botticelli's;--Donatello's carving and Luca's. But if you see nothing
+in _this_ sculpture, you will see nothing in theirs, _of_ theirs. Where
+they choose to imitate flesh, or silk, or to play any vulgar modern
+trick with marble--(and they often do)--whatever, in a word, is French,
+or American, or Cockney, in their work, you can see; but what is
+Florentine, and for ever great--unless you can see also the beauty of
+this old man in his citizen's cap,--you will see never.
+
+There is more in this sculpture, however, than its simple portraiture
+and noble drapery. The old man lies on a piece of embroidered carpet;
+and, protected by the higher relief, many of the finer lines of this
+are almost uninjured; in particular, its exquisitely-wrought fringe and
+tassels are nearly perfect. And if you will kneel down and look long
+at the tassels of the cushion under the head, and the way they fill the
+angles of the stone, you will,--or may--know, from this example alone,
+what noble decorative sculpture is, and was, and must be, from the days
+of earliest Greece to those of latest Italy.
+
+"Exquisitely sculptured fringe!" and you have just been abusing
+sculptors who play tricks with marble! Yes, and you cannot find a better
+example, in all the museums of Europe, of the work of a man who does
+_not_ play tricks with it--than this tomb. Try to understand the
+difference: it is a point of quite cardinal importance to all your
+future study of sculpture.
+
+I _told_ you, observe, that the old Galileo was lying on a piece of
+embroidered carpet. I don't think, if I had not told you, that you would
+have found it out for yourself. It is not so like a carpet as all that
+comes to.
+
+But had it been a modern trick-sculpture, the moment you came to the
+tomb you would have said, "Dear me! how wonderfully that carpet is
+done,--it doesn't look like stone in the least--one longs to take it up
+and beat it, to get the dust off."
+
+Now whenever you feel inclined to speak so of a sculptured drapery,
+be assured, without more ado, the sculpture is base, and bad. You will
+merely waste your time and corrupt your taste by looking at it. Nothing
+is so easy as to imitate drapery in marble. You may cast a piece
+any day; and carve it with such subtlety that the marble shall be
+an absolute image of the folds. But that is not sculpture. That is
+mechanical manufacture.
+
+No great sculptor, from the beginning of art to the end of it, has ever
+carved, or ever will, a deceptive drapery. He has neither time nor will
+to do it. His mason's lad may do that if he likes. A man who can carve
+a limb or a face never finishes inferior parts, but either with a hasty
+and scornful chisel, or with such grave and strict selection of their
+lines as you know at once to be imaginative, not imitative.
+
+But if, as in this case, he wants to oppose the simplicity of his
+central subject with a rich background,--a labyrinth of ornamental lines
+to relieve the severity of expressive ones,--he will carve you a carpet,
+or a tree, or a rose thicket, with their fringes and leaves and thorns,
+elaborated as richly as natural ones; but always for the sake of the
+ornamental form, never of the imitation; yet, seizing the natural
+character in the lines he gives, with twenty times the precision and
+clearness of sight that the mere imitator has. Examine the tassels of
+the cushion, and the way they blend with the fringe, thoroughly; you
+cannot possibly see finer ornamental sculpture. Then, look at the same
+tassels in the same place of the slab next the west end of the church,
+and you will see a scholar's rude imitation of a master's hand, though
+in a fine school. (Notice, however, the folds of the drapery at the feet
+of this figure: they are cut so as to show the hem of the robe within as
+well as without, and are fine.) Then, as you go back to Giotto's chapel,
+keep to the left, and just beyond the north door in the aisle is the
+much celebrated tomb of C. Marsuppini, by Desiderio of Settignano. It
+is very fine of its kind; but there the drapery is chiefly done to cheat
+you, and chased delicately to show how finely the sculptor could chisel
+it. It is wholly vulgar and mean in cast of fold. Under your feet, as
+you look at it, you will tread another tomb of the fine time, which,
+looking last at, you will recognize the difference between the false and
+true art, as far as there is capacity in you at present to do so. And if
+you really and honestly like the low-lying stones, and see more beauty
+in them, you have also the power of enjoying Giotto, into whose chapel
+we will return to-morrow;--not to-day, for the light must have left it
+by this time; and now that you have been looking at these sculptures on
+the floor you had better traverse nave and aisle across and across; and
+get some idea of that sacred field of stone. In the north transept you
+will find a beautiful knight, the finest in chiselling of all these
+tombs, except one by the same hand in the south aisle just where it
+enters the south transept.
+
+Examine the lines of the Gothic niches traced above them; and what
+is left of arabesque on their armour. They are far more beautiful and
+tender in chivalric conception than Donatello's St. George, which is
+merely a piece of vigorous naturalism founded on these older tombs. If
+you will drive in the evening to the Chartreuse in Val d'Ema, you may
+see there an uninjured example of this slab-tomb by Donatello himself;
+very beautiful; but not so perfect as the earlier ones on which it is
+founded. And you may see some fading light and shade of monastic life,
+among which if you stay till the fireflies come out in the twilight, and
+thus get to sleep when you come home, you will be better prepared for
+to-morrow morning's walk--if you will take another with me--than if you
+go to a party, to talk sentiment about Italy, and hear the last news
+from London and New York.
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND MORNING.
+
+THE GOLDEN GATE.
+
+
+To-day, as early as you please, and at all events before doing anything
+else, let us go to Giotto's own parish-church, Santa Maria Novella. If,
+walking from the Strozzi Palace, you look on your right for the "Way of
+the Beautiful Ladies," it will take you quickly there.
+
+Do not let anything in the way of acquaintance, sacristan, or chance
+sight, stop you in doing what I tell you. Walk straight up to the
+church, into the apse of it;--(you may let your eyes rest, as you walk,
+on the glow of its glass, only mind the step, half way;)--and lift the
+curtain; and go in behind the grand marble altar, giving anybody who
+follows you anything they want, to hold their tongues, or go away.
+
+You know, most probably, already, that the frescos on each side of you
+are Ghirlandajo's. You have been told they are very fine, and if you
+know anything of painting, you know the portraits in them are so.
+Nevertheless, somehow, you don't really enjoy these frescos, nor come
+often here, do you?
+
+The reason of which is, that if you are a nice person, they are not nice
+enough for you; and if a vulgar person, not vulgar enough. But if you
+are a nice person, I want you to look carefully, to-day, at the two
+lowest, next the windows, for a few minutes, that you may better feel
+the art you are really to study, by its contrast with these.
+
+On your left hand is represented the birth of the Virgin, On your right,
+her meeting with Elizabeth.
+
+You can't easily see better pieces--nowhere more pompous pieces--of
+flat goldsmiths' work. Ghirlandajo was to the end of his life a mere
+goldsmith, with a gift of portraiture. And here he has done his best,
+and has put a long wall in wonderful perspective, and the whole city of
+Florence behind Elizabeth's house in the hill country; and a splendid
+bas-relief, in the style of Luca della Robbia, in St. Anne's bedroom;
+and he has carved all the pilasters, and embroidered all the dresses,
+and flourished and trumpeted into every corner; and it is all done,
+within just a point, as well as it can be done; and quite as well as
+Ghirlandajo could do it. But the point in which it _just_ misses
+being as well as it can be done, is the vital point. And it is all
+simply--good for nothing.
+
+Extricate yourself from the goldsmith's rubbish of it, and look full
+at the Salutation. You will say, perhaps, at first, "What grand and
+graceful figures!" Are you sure they are graceful? Look again and you
+will see their draperies hang from them exactly as they would from two
+clothes-pegs. Now, fine drapery, really well drawn, as it hangs from a
+clothes-peg, is always rather impressive, especially if it be disposed
+in large breadths and deep folds; but that is the only grace of their
+figures.
+
+Secondly. Look at the Madonna, carefully. You will find she is not the
+least meek--only stupid,--as all the other women in the picture are.
+
+"St. Elizabeth, you think, is nice"? Yes; "and she says, 'Whence is
+this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' really with
+a great deal of serious feeling?" Yes, with a great deal. Well, you have
+looked enough at those two. Now--just for another minute--look at the
+birth of the Virgin. "A most graceful group, (your Murray's Guide tells
+you,) in the attendant servants." Extremely so. Also, the one holding
+the child is rather pretty. Also, the servant pouring out the water does
+it from a great height, without splashing, most cleverly. Also, the lady
+coming to ask for St. Anne, and see the baby, walks majestically and
+is very finely dressed. And as for that bas-relief in the style of Luca
+della Robbia, you might really almost think it _was_ Luca! The very best
+plated goods, Master Ghirlandajo, no doubt--always on hand at your shop.
+
+Well, now you must ask for the Sacristan, who is civil and nice enough,
+and get him to let you into the green cloister, and then go into the
+less cloister opening out of it on the right, as you go down the steps;
+and you must ask for the tomb of the Marcheza Stiozzi Ridolfi; and in
+the recess behind the Marcheza's tomb--very close to the ground, and
+in excellent light, if the day is fine--you will see two small frescos,
+only about four feet wide each, in odd-shaped bits of wall--quarters of
+circles; representing--that on the left, the Meeting of Joachim and Anna
+at the Golden Gate; and that on the right, the Birth of the Virgin.
+
+No flourish of trumpets here, at any rate, you think! No gold on the
+gate; and, for the birth of the Virgin--is this all! Goodness!--nothing
+to be seen, whatever, of bas-reliefs, nor fine dresses, nor graceful
+pourings out of water, nor processions of visitors?
+
+No. There's but one thing you can see, here, which you didn't in
+Ghirlandajo's fresco, unless you were very clever and looked hard for
+it--the Baby! And you are never likely to see a more true piece of
+Giotto's work in this world.
+
+A round-faced, small-eyed little thing, tied up in a bundle!
+
+Yes, Giotto was of opinion she must have appeared really not much
+else than that. But look at the servant who has just finished dressing
+her;--awe-struck, full of love and wonder, putting her hand softly on
+the child's head, who has never cried. The nurse, who has just taken
+her, is--the nurse, and no more: tidy in the extreme, and greatly proud
+and pleased: but would be as much so with any other child.
+
+Ghirlandajo's St. Anne (I ought to have told you to notice that,--you
+can afterwards) is sitting strongly up in bed, watching, if not
+directing, all that is going on. Giotto's lying down on the pillow,
+leans her face on her hand; partly exhausted, partly in deep thought.
+She knows that all will be well done for the child, either by the
+servants, or God; she need not look after anything.
+
+At the foot of the bed is the midwife, and a servant who has brought
+drink for St. Anne. The servant stops, seeing her so quiet; asking the
+midwife, Shall I give it her now? The midwife, her hands lifted under
+her robe, in the attitude of thanksgiving, (with Giotto distinguishable
+always, though one doesn't know how, from that of prayer,) answers, with
+her look, "Let be--she does not want anything."
+
+At the door a single acquaintance is coming in, to see the child. Of
+ornament, there is only the entirely simple outline of the vase which
+the servant carries; of colour, two or three masses of sober red, and
+pure white, with brown and gray.
+
+That is all. And if you can be pleased with this, you can see Florence.
+But if not, by all means amuse yourself there, if you find it amusing,
+as long as you like; you can never see it.
+
+But if indeed you are pleased, ever so little, with this fresco, think
+what that pleasure means. I brought you, on purpose, round, through the
+richest overture, and farrago of tweedledum and tweedledee, I could find
+in Florence; and here is a tune of four notes, on a shepherd's pipe,
+played by the picture of nobody; and yet you like it! You know what
+music is, then. Here is another little tune, by the same player, and
+sweeter. I let you hear the simplest first.
+
+The fresco on the left hand, with the bright blue sky, and the rosy
+figures! Why, anybody might like that!
+
+Yes; but, alas, all the blue sky is repainted. It _was_ blue always,
+however, and bright too; and I dare say, when the fresco was first done,
+anybody _did_ like it.
+
+You know the story of Joachim and Anna, I hope? Not that I do, myself,
+quite in the ins and outs; and if you don't I'm not going to keep you
+waiting while I tell it. All you need know, and you scarcely, before
+this fresco, need know so much, is, that here are an old husband and old
+wife, meeting again by surprise, after losing each other, and being each
+in great fear;--meeting at the place where they were told by God each to
+go, without knowing what was to happen there.
+
+"So they rushed into one another's arms, and kissed each other."
+
+No, says Giotto,--not that.
+
+"They advanced to meet, in a manner conformable to the strictest laws of
+composition; and with their draperies cast into folds which no one until
+Raphael could have arranged better."
+
+No, says Giotto,--not that.
+
+St. Anne has moved quickest; her dress just falls into folds sloping
+backwards enough to tell you so much. She has caught St. Joachim by his
+mantle, and draws him to her, softly, by that. St. Joachim lays his hand
+under her arm, seeing she is like to faint, and holds her up. They do
+not kiss each other--only look into each other's eyes. And God's angel
+lays his hand on their heads.
+
+Behind them, there are two rough figures, busied with their own
+affairs,--two of Joachim's shepherds; one, bare headed, the other
+wearing the wide Florentine cap with the falling point behind, which is
+exactly like the tube of a larkspur or violet; both carrying game, and
+talking to each other about--Greasy Joan and her pot, or the like. Not
+at all the sort of persons whom you would have thought in harmony with
+the scene;--by the laws of the drama, according to Racine or Voltaire.
+
+No, but according to Shakespeare, or Giotto, these are just the kind of
+persons likely to be there: as much as the angel is likely to be there
+also, though you will be told nowadays that Giotto was absurd for
+putting _him_ into the sky, of which an apothecary can always produce
+the similar blue, in a bottle. And now that you have had Shakespeare,
+and sundry other men of head and heart, following the track of this
+shepherd lad, _you_ can forgive him his grotesques in the corner. But
+that he should have forgiven them to himself, after the training he had,
+this is the wonder! _We_ have seen simple pictures enough in our
+day; and therefore we think that of course shepherd boys will sketch
+shepherds: what wonder is there in that?
+
+I can show you how in _this_ shepherd boy it was very wonderful indeed,
+if you will walk for five minutes back into the church with me, and up
+into the chapel at the end of the south transept,--at least if the day
+is bright, and you get the Sacristan to undraw the window-curtain in the
+transept itself. For then the light of it will be enough to show you the
+entirely authentic and most renowned work of Giotto's master; and you
+will see through what schooling the lad had gone.
+
+A good and brave master he was, if ever boy had one; and, as you will
+find when you know really who the great men are, the master is half
+their life; and well they know it--always naming themselves from their
+master, rather than their families. See then what kind of work Giotto
+had been first put to. There is, literally, not a square inch of all
+that panel--some ten feet high by six or seven wide--which is not
+wrought in gold and colour with the fineness of a Greek manuscript.
+There is not such an elaborate piece of ornamentation in the first
+page of any Gothic king's missal, as you will find in that Madonna's
+throne;--the Madonna herself is meant to be grave and noble only; and to
+be attended only by angels.
+
+And here is this saucy imp of a lad declares his people must do without
+gold, and without thrones; nay, that the Golden Gate itself shall have
+no gilding that St. Joachim and St. Anne shall have only one angel
+between them: and their servants shall have their joke, and nobody say
+them nay!
+
+It is most wonderful; and would have been impossible, had Cimabue been
+a common man, though ever so great in his own way. Nor could I in any of
+my former thinking understand how it was, till I saw Cimabue's own work
+at Assisi; in which he shows himself, at heart, as independent of
+his gold as Giotto,--even more intense, capable of higher things than
+Giotto, though of none, perhaps, so keen or sweet. But to this day,
+among all the Mater Dolorosas of Christianity, Cimabue's at Assisi is
+the noblest; nor did any painter after him add one link to the chain of
+thought with which he summed the creation of the earth, and preached its
+redemption.
+
+He evidently never checked the boy, from the first day he found him.
+Showed him all he knew: talked with him of many things he felt himself
+unable to paint: made him a workman and a gentleman,--above all, a
+Christian,--yet left him--a shepherd. And Heaven had made him such a
+painter, that, at his height, the words of his epitaph are in nowise
+overwrought: "Ille ego sum, per quem pictura extincta revixit."
+
+A word or two, now, about the repainting by which _this_ pictura
+extincta has been revived to meet existing taste. The sky is entirely
+daubed over with fresh blue; yet it leaves with unusual care the
+original outline of the descending angel, and of the white clouds about
+his body. This idea of the angel laying his hands on the two heads--(as
+a bishop at Confirmation does, in a hurry; and I've seen one sweep four
+together, like Arnold de Winkelied),--partly in blessing, partly as a
+symbol of their being brought together to the same place by God,--was
+afterwards repeated again and again: there is one beautiful little echo
+of it among the old pictures in the schools of Oxford. This is the first
+occurrence of it that I know in pure Italian painting; but the idea is
+Etruscan-Greek, and is used by the Etruscan sculptors of the door of the
+Baptistery of Pisa, of the _evil_ angel, who "lays the heads together"
+of two very different persons from these--Herodias and her daughter.
+
+Joachim, and the shepherd with the larkspur cap, are both quite safe;
+the other shepherd a little reinforced; the black bunches of grass,
+hanging about are retouches. They were once bunches of plants drawn
+with perfect delicacy and care; you may see one left, faint, with
+heart-shaped leaves, on the highest ridge of rock above the shepherds.
+The whole landscape is, however, quite undecipherably changed and
+spoiled.
+
+You will be apt to think at first, that if anything has been restored,
+surely the ugly shepherd's uglier feet have. No, not at all. Restored
+feet are always drawn with entirely orthodox and academical toes, like
+the Apollo Belvidere's. You would have admired them very much. These are
+Giotto's own doing, every bit; and a precious business he has had of
+it, trying again and again--in vain. Even hands were difficult enough to
+him, at this time; but feet, and bare legs! Well, he'll have a try, he
+thinks, and gets really a fair line at last, when you are close to it;
+but, laying the light on the ground afterwards, he dare not touch this
+precious and dear-bought outline. Stops all round it, a quarter of an
+inch off, [Footnote: Perhaps it is only the restorer's white on the
+ground that stops; but I think a restorer would never have been so
+wise, but have gone right up to the outline, and spoiled all.] with such
+effect as you see. But if you want to know what sort of legs and feet he
+_can_ draw, look at our _lambs_, in the corner of the fresco under the
+arch on your left!
+
+And there is one on your right, though more repainted--the little Virgin
+presenting herself at the Temple,--about which I could also say much.
+The stooping figure, kissing the hem of her robe without her knowing,
+is, as far as I remember, first in this fresco; the origin, itself, of
+the main design in all the others you know so well; (and with its steps,
+by the way, in better perspective already than most of them).
+
+"_This_ the original one!" you will be inclined to exclaim, if you have
+any general knowledge of the subsequent art. "_This_ Giotto! why it's a
+cheap rechauffé of Titian!" No, my friend. The boy who tried so hard
+to draw those steps in perspective had been carried down others, to
+his grave, two hundred years before Titian ran alone at Cadore. But, as
+surely as Venice looks on the sea, Titian looked upon this, and caught
+the reflected light of it forever.
+
+What kind of boy is this, think you, who can make Titian his
+copyist,--Dante his friend? What new power is here which is to change
+the heart of Italy?--can you see it, feel it, writing before you these
+words on the faded wall?
+
+"You shall see things--as they Are."
+
+"And the least with the greatest, because God made them."
+
+"And the greatest with the least, because God made _you_, and gave you
+eyes and a heart."
+
+I. You shall see things--as they are. So easy a matter that, you think?
+So much more difficult and sublime to paint grand processions and golden
+thrones, than St. Anne faint on her pillow, and her servant at pause?
+
+Easy or not, it is all the sight that is required of you in this
+world,--to see things, and men, and yourself,--as they are.
+
+II. And the least with the greatest, because God made them,--shepherd,
+and flock, and grass of the field, no less than the Golden Gate.
+
+III. But also the golden gate of Heaven itself, open, and the angels of
+God coming down from it.
+
+These three things Giotto taught, and men believed, in his day. Of
+which Faith you shall next see brighter work; only before we leave the
+cloister, I want to sum for you one or two of the instant and evident
+technical changes produced in the school of Florence by this teaching.
+
+One of quite the first results of Giotto's simply looking at things as
+they were, was his finding out that a red thing was red, and a brown
+thing brown, and a white thing white--all over.
+
+The Greeks had painted anything anyhow,--gods black, horses red, lips
+and cheeks white; and when the Etruscan vase expanded into a Cimabue
+picture, or a Tafi mosaic, still,--except that the Madonna was to have
+a blue dress, and everything else as much gold on it as could be
+managed,--there was very little advance in notions of colour. Suddenly,
+Giotto threw aside all the glitter, and all the conventionalism; and
+declared that he saw the sky blue, the tablecloth white, and angels,
+when he dreamed of them, rosy. And he simply founded the schools of
+colour in Italy--Venetian and all, as I will show you to-morrow morning,
+if it is fine. And what is more, nobody discovered much about colour
+after him.
+
+But a deeper result of his resolve to look at things as they were, was
+his getting so heartily interested in them that he couldn't miss their
+decisive _moment_. There is a decisive instant in all matters; and
+if you look languidly, you are sure to miss it. Nature seems always,
+somehow, trying to make you miss it. "I will see that through," you must
+say, "with out turning my head"; or you won't see the trick of it at
+all. And the most significant thing in all his work, you will find
+hereafter, is his choice of moments. I will give you at once two
+instances in a picture which, for other reasons, you should quickly
+compare with these frescos. Return by the Via delle Belle Donne; keep
+the Casa Strozzi on your right; and go straight on, through the market.
+The Florentines think themselves so civilized, forsooth, for building
+a nuovo Lung-Arno, and three manufactory chimneys opposite it: and yet
+sell butchers' meat, dripping red, peaches, and anchovies, side by side:
+it is a sight to be seen. Much more, Luca della Robbia's Madonna in the
+circle above the chapel door. Never pass near the market without looking
+at it; and glance from the vegetables underneath to Luca's leaves and
+lilies, that you may see how honestly he was trying to make his clay
+like the garden-stuff. But to-day, you may pass quickly on to the
+Uffizii, which will be just open; and when you enter the great gallery,
+turn to the right, and there, the first picture you come at will be No.
+6, Giotto's "Agony in the garden."
+
+I used to think it so dull that I could not believe it was Giotto's.
+That is partly from its dead colour, which is the boy's way of telling
+you it is night:--more from the subject being one quite beyond his age,
+and which he felt no pleasure in trying at. You may see he was still
+a boy, for he not only cannot draw feet yet, in the least, and
+scrupulously hides them therefore; but is very hard put to it for the
+hands, being obliged to draw them mostly in the same position,--all the
+four fingers together. But in the careful bunches of grass and weeds you
+will see what the fresco foregrounds were before they got spoiled; and
+there are some things he can understand already, even about that Agony,
+thinking of it in his own fixed way. Some things,--not altogether to be
+explained by the old symbol of the angel with the cup. He will try if
+he cannot explain them better in those two little pictures below; which
+nobody ever looks at; the great Roman sarcophagus being put in front of
+them, and the light glancing on the new varnish so that you must twist
+about like a lizard to see anything. Nevertheless, you may make out what
+Giotto meant.
+
+"The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" In what
+was its bitterness?--thought the boy. "Crucifixion?--Well, it hurts,
+doubtless; but the thieves had to bear it too, and many poor human
+wretches have to bear worse on our battlefields. But"--and he thinks,
+and thinks, and then he paints his two little pictures for the predella.
+
+They represent, of course, the sequence of the time in Gethsemane; but
+see what choice the youth made of his moments, having two panels
+to fill. Plenty of choice for him--in pain. The Flagellation--the
+Mocking--the Bearing of the Cross;--all habitually given by the
+Margheritones, and their school, as extremes of pain.
+
+"No," thinks Giotto. "There was worse than all that. Many a good man has
+been mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, slain. But who was ever
+so betrayed? Who ever saw such a sword thrust in his mother's heart?"
+
+He paints, first, the laying hands on Him in the garden, but with only
+two principal figures,--Judas and Peter, of course; Judas and Peter were
+always principal in the old Byzantine composition,--Judas giving the
+kiss--Peter cutting off the servant's ear. But the two are here, not
+merely principal, but almost alone in sight, all the other figures
+thrown back; and Peter is not at all concerned about the servant, or
+his struggle with him. He has got him down,--but looks back suddenly at
+Judas giving the kiss. What!--_you_ are the traitor, then--you!
+
+"Yes," says Giotto; "and you, also, in an hour more."
+
+The other picture is more deeply felt, still. It is of Christ brought
+to the foot of the cross. There is no wringing of hands or lamenting
+crowd--no haggard signs of fainting or pain in His body. Scourging or
+fainting, feeble knee and torn wound,--he thinks scorn of all that,
+this shepherd-boy. One executioner is hammering the wedges of the cross
+harder down. The other--not ungently--is taking Christ's red robe off
+His shoulders. And St. John, a few yards off, is keeping his mother from
+coming nearer. She looks _down_, not at Christ; but tries to come.
+
+And now you may go on for your day's seeings through the rest of the
+gallery, if you will--Fornarina, and the wonderful cobbler, and all the
+rest of it. I don't want you any more till to-morrow morning.
+
+But if, meantime, you will sit down,--say, before Sandro Botticelli's
+"Fortitude," which I shall want you to look at, one of these days; (No.
+1299, innermost room from the Tribune,) and there read this following
+piece of one of my Oxford lectures on the relation of Cimabue to Giotto,
+you will be better prepared for our work to-morrow morning in Santa
+Croce; and may find something to consider of, in the room you are in.
+Where, by the way, observe that No. 1288 is a most true early Lionardo,
+of extreme interest: and the savants who doubt it are--never mind what;
+but sit down at present at the feet of Fortitude, and read.
+
+Those of my readers who have been unfortunate enough to interest
+themselves in that most profitless of studies--the philosophy of
+art--have been at various times teased or amused by disputes respecting
+the relative dignity of the contemplative and dramatic schools.
+
+Contemplative, of course, being the term attached to the system of
+painting things only for the sake of their own niceness--a lady because
+she is pretty, or a lion because he is strong: and the dramatic school
+being that which cannot be satisfied unless it sees something going on:
+which can't paint a pretty lady unless she is being made love to, or
+being murdered; and can't paint a stag or a lion unless they are being
+hunted, or shot, or the one eating the other.
+
+You have always heard me--or, if not, will expect by the very tone of
+this sentence to hear me, now, on the whole recommend you to prefer
+the Contemplative school. But the comparison is always an imperfect and
+unjust one, unless quite other terms are introduced.
+
+The real greatness or smallness of schools is not in their preference
+of inactivity to action, nor of action to inactivity. It is in their
+preference of worthy things to unworthy, in rest; and of kind action to
+unkind, in business.
+
+A Dutchman can be just as solemnly and entirely contemplative of a
+lemon pip and a cheese paring, as an Italian of the Virgin in Glory.
+An English squire has pictures, purely contemplative, of his favorite
+horse--and a Parisian lady, pictures, purely contemplative, of the back
+and front of the last dress proposed to her in La Mode Artistique. All
+these works belong to the same school of silent admiration;--the vital
+question concerning them is, "What do you admire?"
+
+Now therefore, when you hear me so often saying that the Northern
+races--Norman and Lombard,--are active, or dramatic, in their art; and
+that the Southern races--Greek and Arabian,--are contemplative, you
+ought instantly to ask farther, Active in what? Contemplative of what?
+And the answer is, The active art--Lombardic,--rejoices in hunting and
+fighting; the contemplative art--Byzantine,--contemplates the mysteries
+of the Christian faith.
+
+And at first, on such answer, one would be apt at once to conclude--All
+grossness must be in the Lombard; all good in the Byzantine. But again
+we should be wrong,--and extremely wrong. For the hunting and fighting
+did practically produce strong, and often virtuous, men; while the
+perpetual and inactive contemplation of what it was impossible to
+understand, did not on the whole render the contemplative persons,
+stronger, wiser, or even more amiable. So that, in the twelfth century,
+while the Northern art was only in need of direction, the Southern was
+in need of life. The North was indeed spending its valour and virtue
+on ignoble objects; but the South disgracing the noblest objects by its
+want of valour and virtue.
+
+Central stood Etruscan Florence--her root in the earth, bound with
+iron and brass--wet with the dew of heaven. Agriculture in occupation,
+religious in thought, she accepted, like good ground, the good; refused,
+like the Rock of Fesole, the evil; directed the industry of the Northman
+into the arts of peace; kindled the dreams of the Byzantine with the
+fire of charity. Child of her peace, and exponent of her passion, her
+Cimabue became the interpreter to mankind of the meaning of the Birth of
+Christ.
+
+We hear constantly, and think naturally, of him as of a man whose
+peculiar genius in painting suddenly reformed its principles; who
+suddenly painted, out of his own gifted imagination, beautiful instead
+of rude pictures; and taught his scholar Giotto to carry on the impulse;
+which we suppose thenceforward to have enlarged the resources and
+bettered the achievements of painting continually, up to our own
+time,--when the triumphs of art having been completed, and its uses
+ended, something higher is offered to the ambition of mankind; and Watt
+and Faraday initiate the Age of Manufacture and Science, as Cimabue and
+Giotto instituted that of Art and Imagination.
+
+In this conception of the History of Mental and Physical culture, we
+much overrate the influence, though we cannot overrate the power, of the
+men by whom the change seems to have been effected. We cannot overrate
+their power,--for the greatest men of any age, those who become its
+leaders when there is a great march to be begun, are indeed separated
+from the average intellects of their day by a distance which is
+immeasurable in any ordinary terms of wonder.
+
+But we far overrate their influence; because the apparently sudden
+result of their labour or invention is only the manifested fruit of the
+toil and thought of many who preceded them, and of whose names we have
+never heard. The skill of Cimabue cannot be extolled too highly; but no
+Madonna by his hand could ever have rejoiced the soul of Italy, unless
+for a thousand years before, many a nameless Greek and nameless Goth had
+adorned the traditions, and lived in the love, of the Virgin.
+
+In like manner, it is impossible to overrate the sagacity, patience, or
+precision, of the masters in modern mechanical and scientific discovery.
+But their sudden triumph, and the unbalancing of all the world by their
+words, may not in any wise be attributed to their own power, or even
+to that of the facts they have ascertained. They owe their habits and
+methods of industry to the paternal example, no less than the inherited
+energy, of men who long ago prosecuted the truths of nature, through the
+rage of war, and the adversity of superstition; and the universal and
+overwhelming consequences of the facts which their followers have
+now proclaimed, indicate only the crisis of a rapture produced by the
+offering of new objects of curiosity to nations who had nothing to look
+at; and of the amusement of novel motion and action to nations who had
+nothing to do.
+
+Nothing to look at! That is indeed--you will find, if you consider of
+it--our sorrowful case. The vast extent of the advertising frescos
+of London, daily refreshed into brighter and larger frescos by its
+billstickers, cannot somehow sufficiently entertain the popular eyes.
+The great Mrs. Allen, with her flowing hair, and equally flowing
+promises, palls upon repetition, and that Madonna of the nineteenth
+century smiles in vain above many a borgo unrejoiced; even the
+excitement of the shop-window, with its unattainable splendours, or too
+easily attainable impostures, cannot maintain itself in the wearying
+mind of the populace, and I find my charitable friends inviting
+the children, whom the streets educate only into vicious misery, to
+entertainments of scientific vision, in microscope or magic lantern;
+thus giving them something to look at, such as it is;--fleas mostly; and
+the stomachs of various vermin; and people with their heads cut off and
+set on again;--still _something_, to look at.
+
+The fame of Cimabue rests, and justly, on a similar charity. He gave the
+populace of his day something to look at; and satisfied their curiosity
+with science of something they had long desired to know. We have
+continually imagined in our carelessness, that his triumph consisted
+only in a new pictorial skill; recent critical writers, unable to
+comprehend how any street populace could take pleasure in painting, have
+ended by denying his triumph altogether, and insisted that he gave
+no joy to Florence; and that the "Joyful quarter" was accidentally so
+named--or at least from no other festivity than that of the procession
+attending Charles of Anjou. I proved to you, in a former lecture,
+that the old tradition was true, and the delight of the people
+unquestionable. But that delight was not merely in the revelation of an
+art they had not known how to practise; it was delight in the revelation
+of a Madonna whom they had not known how to love.
+
+Again; what was revelation to _them_--we suppose farther and as
+unwisely, to have been only art in _him_; that in better laying of
+colours,--in better tracing of perspectives--in recovery of principles,
+of classic composition--he had manufactured, as our Gothic Firms now
+manufacture to order, a Madonna--in whom he believed no more than they.
+
+Not so. First of the Florentines, first of European men--he attained
+in thought, and saw with spiritual eyes, exercised to discern good
+from evil,--the face of her who was blessed among women; and with his
+following hand, made visible the Magnificat of his heart.
+
+He magnified the Maid; and Florence rejoiced in her Queen. But it was
+left for Giotto to make the queenship better beloved, in its sweet
+humiliation.
+
+You had the Etruscan stock in Florence--Christian, or at least
+semi-Christian; the statue of Mars still in its streets, but with its
+central temple built for Baptism in the name of Christ. It was a race
+living by agriculture; gentle, thoughtful, and exquisitely fine in
+handiwork. The straw bonnet of Tuscany--the Leghorn--is pure Etruscan
+art, young ladies:--only plaited gold of God's harvest, instead of the
+plaited gold of His earth.
+
+You had then the Norman and Lombard races coming down on this: kings,
+and hunters--splendid in war--insatiable of action. You had the Greek
+and Arabian races flowing from the east, bringing with them the law of
+the City, and the dream of the Desert.
+
+Cimabue--Etruscan born, gave, we saw, the life of the Norman to the
+tradition of the Greek: eager action to holy contemplation. And what
+more is left for his favourite shepherd boy Giotto to do, than this,
+except to paint with ever-increasing skill? We fancy he only surpassed
+Cimabue--eclipsed by greater brightness.
+
+Not so. The sudden and new applause of Italy would never have been won
+by mere increase of the already-kindled light. Giotto had wholly another
+work to do. The meeting of the Norman race with the Byzantine is
+not merely that of action with repose--not merely that of war with
+religion,--it is the meeting of _domestic_ life with _monastic_, and of
+practical household sense with unpractical Desert insanity.
+
+I have no other word to use than this last. I use it reverently, meaning
+a very noble thing; I do not know how far I ought to say--even a divine
+thing. Decide that for yourselves. Compare the Northern farmer with St.
+Francis; the palm hardened by stubbing Thornaby waste, with the palm
+softened by the imagination of the wounds of Christ. To my own thoughts,
+both are divine; decide that for yourselves; but assuredly, and without
+possibility of other decision, one is, humanly speaking, healthy; the
+other _un_healthy; one sane, the other--insane.
+
+To reconcile Drama with Dream, Cimabue's task was comparatively an easy
+one. But to reconcile Sense with--I still use even this following word
+reverently--Nonsense, is not so easy; and he who did it first,--no
+wonder he has a name in the world.
+
+I must lean, however, still more distinctly on the word "domestic." For
+it is not Rationalism and commercial competition--Mr. Stuart Mill's"
+other career for woman than that of wife and mother "--which are
+reconcilable, by Giotto, or by anybody else, with divine vision. But
+household wisdom, labour of love, toil upon earth according to the law
+of Heaven--these are reconcilable, in one code of glory, with revelation
+in cave or island, with the endurance of desolate and loveless days,
+with the repose of folded hands that wait Heaven's time.
+
+Domestic and monastic. He was the first of Italians--the first of
+Christians--who _equally_ knew the virtue of both lives; and who was
+able to show it in the sight of men of all ranks,--from the prince to
+the shepherd; and of all powers,--from the wisest philosopher to the
+simplest child.
+
+For, note the way in which the new gift of painting, bequeathed to
+him by his great master, strengthened his hands. Before Cimabue, no
+beautiful rendering of human form was possible; and the rude or formal
+types of the Lombard and Byzantine, though they would serve in the
+tumult of the chase, or as the recognized symbols of creed, could not
+represent personal and domestic character. Faces with goggling eyes and
+rigid lips might be endured with ready help of imagination, for gods,
+angels, saints, or hunters--or for anybody else in scenes of recognized
+legend, but would not serve for pleasant portraiture of one's own
+self--or of the incidents of gentle, actual life. And even Cimabue did
+not venture to leave the sphere of conventionally reverenced dignity. He
+still painted--though beautifully--only the Madonna, and the St. Joseph,
+and the Christ. These he made living,--Florence asked no more: and
+"Credette Cimabue nella pintura tener lo campo."
+
+But Giotto came from the field, and saw with his simple eyes a
+lowlier worth. And he painted--the Madonna, and St. Joseph, and
+the Christ,--yes, by all means if you choose to call them so, but
+essentially,--Mamma, Papa, and the Baby. And all Italy threw up its
+cap,--"Ora ha Giotto il grido."
+
+For he defines, explains, and exalts, every sweet incident of human
+nature; and makes dear to daily life every mystic imagination of natures
+greater than our own. He reconciles, while he intensifies, every virtue
+of domestic and monastic thought. He makes the simplest household duties
+sacred, and the highest religious passions serviceable and just.
+
+
+
+
+THE THIRD MORNING.
+
+BEFORE THE SOLDAN.
+
+
+I promised some note of Sandro's Fortitude, before whom I asked you to
+sit and read the end of my last letter; and I've lost my own notes about
+her, and forget, now, whether she has a sword, or a mace;--it does not
+matter. What is chiefly notable in her is--that you would not, if you
+had to guess who she was, take her for Fortitude at all. Everybody
+else's Fortitudes announce themselves clearly and proudly. They have
+tower-like shields, and lion-like helmets--and stand firm astride on
+their legs,--and are confidently ready for all comers. Yes;--that is
+your common Fortitude. Very grand, though common. But not the highest,
+by any means.
+
+Ready for all comers, and a match for them,--thinks the universal
+Fortitude;--no thanks to her for standing so steady, then!
+
+But Botticelli's Fortitude is no match, it may be, for any that are
+coming. Worn, somewhat; and not a little weary, instead of standing
+ready for all comers, she is sitting,--apparently in reverie, her
+fingers playing restlessly and idly--nay, I think--even nervously, about
+the hilt of her sword.
+
+For her battle is not to begin to-day; nor did it begin yesterday. Many
+a morn and eve have passed since it began--and now--is this to be the
+ending day of it? And if this--by what manner of end?
+
+That is what Sandro's Fortitude is thinking. And the playing fingers
+about the sword-hilt would fain let it fall, if it might be: and yet,
+how swiftly and gladly will they close on it, when the far-off trumpet
+blows, which she will hear through all her reverie!
+
+There is yet another picture of Sandro's here, which you must look
+at before going back to Giotto: the small Judith in the room next the
+Tribune, as you return from this outer one. It is just under Lionardo's
+Medusa. She is returning to the camp of her Israel, followed by her maid
+carrying the head of Holofernes. And she walks in one of Botticelli's
+light dancing actions, her drapery all on flutter, and her hand, like
+Fortitude's, light on the sword-hilt, but daintily--not nervously, the
+little finger laid over the cross of it.
+
+And at the first glance--you will think the figure merely a piece of
+fifteenth-century affectation. 'Judith, indeed!--say rather the daughter
+of Herodias, at her mincingest.'
+
+Well, yes--Botticelli _is_ affected, in the way that all men in that
+century necessarily were. Much euphuism, much studied grace of manner,
+much formal assertion of scholarship, mingling with his force of
+imagination. And he likes twisting the fingers of hands about, just as
+Correggio does. But he never does it like Correggio, without cause.
+
+Look at Judith again,--at her face, not her drapery,--and remember that
+when a man is base at the heart, he blights his virtues into weaknesses;
+but when he is true at the heart, he sanctifies his weaknesses into
+virtues. It is a weakness of Botticelli's, this love of dancing motion
+and waved drapery; but why has he given it full flight here?
+
+Do you happen to know anything about Judith yourself, except that she
+cut off Holofernes' head; and has been made the high light of about a
+million of vile pictures ever since, in which the painters thought they
+could surely attract the public to the double show of an execution,
+and a pretty woman,--especially with the added pleasure of hinting at
+previously ignoble sin?
+
+When you go home to-day, take the pains to write out for yourself, in
+the connection I here place them, the verses underneath numbered from
+the book of Judith; you will probably think of their meaning more
+carefully as you write.
+
+Begin thus:
+
+"Now at that time, Judith heard thereof, which was the daughter of
+Merari, ... the son of Simeon, the son of Israel." And then write out,
+consecutively, these pieces--
+
+Chapt. viii., verses 2 to 8. (Always inclusive,) and read the whole
+chapter.
+
+Chapt. ix., verses 1 and 5 to 7, beginning this piece with the previous
+sentence, "Oh God, oh my God, hear me also, a widow."
+
+Chapt. ix., verses 11 to 14. Chapter x., verses 1 to 5. Chapter xiii.,
+verses 6 to 10. Chapter xv., verses 11 to 13. Chapter xvi., verses 1
+to 6. Chapter xvi., verses 11 to 15. Chapter xvi., verses 18 and 19.
+Chapter xvi., verses 23 to 25.
+
+Now, as in many other cases of noble history, apocryphal and other, I do
+not in the least care how far the literal facts are true. The conception
+of facts, and the idea of Jewish womanhood, are there, grand and real as
+a marble statue,--possession for all ages. And you will feel, after you
+have read this piece of history, or epic poetry, with honourable care,
+that there is somewhat more to be thought of and pictured in Judith,
+than painters have mostly found it in them to show you; that she is not
+merely the Jewish Delilah to the Assyrian Samson; but the mightiest,
+purest, brightest type of high passion in severe womanhood offered to
+our human memory. Sandro's picture is but slight; but it is true to her,
+and the only one I know that is; and after writing out these verses, you
+will see why he gives her that swift, peaceful motion, while you read
+in her face, only sweet solemnity of dreaming thought. "My people
+delivered, and by my hand; and God has been gracious to His handmaid!"
+The triumph of Miriam over a fallen host, the fire of exulting mortal
+life in an immortal hour, the purity and severity of a guardian
+angel--all are here; and as her servant follows, carrying indeed the
+head, but invisible--(a mere thing to be carried--no more to be so much
+as thought of)--she looks only at her mistress, with intense, servile,
+watchful love. Faithful, not in these days of fear only, but hitherto in
+all her life, and afterwards forever.
+
+After you have seen it enough, look also for a little while at
+Angelico's Marriage and Death of the Virgin, in the same room; you may
+afterwards associate the three pictures always together in your mind.
+And, looking at nothing else to-day in the Uffizi, let us go back to
+Giotto's chapel.
+
+We must begin with this work on our left hand, the Death of St. Francis;
+for it is the key to all the rest. Let us hear first what Mr. Crowe
+directs us to think of it. "In the composition of this scene, Giotto
+produced a masterpiece, which served as a model but too often feebly
+imitated by his successors. Good arrangement, variety of character and
+expression in the heads, unity and harmony in the whole, make this an
+exceptional work of its kind. As a composition, worthy of the fourteenth
+century, Ghirlandajo and Benedetto da Majano both imitated, without
+being able to improve it. No painter ever produced its equal except
+Raphael; nor could a better be created except in so far as regards
+improvement in the mere rendering of form."
+
+To these inspiring observations by the rapturous Crowe, more cautious
+Cavalcasella [Footnote: I venture to attribute the wiser note to Signor
+Cavalcasella because I have every reason to put real confidence in his
+judgment. But it was impossible for any man, engaged as he is, to go
+over all the ground covered by so extensive a piece of critical work
+as these three volumes contain, with effective attention.] appends a
+refrigerating note, saying, "The St. Francis in the glory is new, but
+the angels are in part preserved. The rest has all been more or less
+retouched; and no judgment can be given as to the colour of this--or any
+other (!)--of these works."
+
+You are, therefore--instructed reader--called upon to admire a piece of
+art which no painter ever produced the equal of except Raphael; but it
+is unhappily deficient, according to Crowe, in the "mere rendering of
+form"; and, according to Signor Cavalcasella, "no opinion can be given
+as to its colour."
+
+Warned thus of the extensive places where the ice is dangerous, and
+forbidden to look here either for form or colour, you are to admire "the
+variety of character and expression in the heads." I do not myself know
+how these are to be given without form or colour; but there appears to
+me, in my innocence, to be only one head in the whole picture, drawn up
+and down in different positions.
+
+The "unity and harmony" of the whole--which make this an exceptional
+work of its kind--mean, I suppose, its general look of having been
+painted out of a scavenger's cart; and so we are reduced to the last
+article of our creed according to Crowe,--
+
+"In the composition of this scene Giotto produced a masterpiece."
+
+Well, possibly. The question is, What you mean by 'composition.' Which,
+putting modern criticism now out of our way, I will ask the reader to
+think, in front of this wreck of Giotto, with some care.
+
+Was it, in the first place, to Giotto, think you, the "composition of
+a scene," or the conception of a fact? You probably, if a fashionable
+person, have seen the apotheosis of Margaret in Faust? You know what
+care is taken, nightly, in the composition of that scene,--how the
+draperies are arranged for it; the lights turned off, and on; the
+fiddlestrings taxed for their utmost tenderness; the bassoons exhorted
+to a grievous solemnity.
+
+You don't believe, however, that any real soul of a Margaret ever
+appeared to any mortal in that manner?
+
+_Here_ is an apotheosis also. Composed!--yes; figures high on the right
+and left, low in the middle, etc., etc., etc.
+
+But the important questions seem to me, Was there ever a St.
+Francis?--_did_ he ever receive stigmata?--_did_his soul go up to
+heaven--did any monk see it rising--and did Giotto mean to tell us so?
+If you will be good enough to settle these few small points in your mind
+first, the "composition" will take a wholly different aspect to you,
+according to your answer.
+
+Nor does it seem doubtful to me what your answer, after investigation
+made, must be.
+
+There assuredly was a St. Francis, whose life and works you had better
+study than either to-day's Galignani, or whatever, this year, may supply
+the place of the Tichborne case, in public interest.
+
+His reception of the stigmata is, perhaps, a marvellous instance of
+the power of imagination over physical conditions; perhaps an equally
+marvellous instance of the swift change of metaphor into tradition; but
+assuredly, and beyond dispute, one of the most influential, significant,
+and instructive traditions possessed by the Church of Christ. And, that,
+if ever soul rose to heaven from the dead body, his soul did so rise, is
+equally sure.
+
+And, finally, Giotto believed that all he was called on to represent,
+concerning St. Francis, really had taken place, just as surely as you,
+if you are a Christian, believe that Christ died and rose again; and he
+represents it with all fidelity and passion: but, as I just now said, he
+is a man of supreme common sense;--has as much humour and clearness
+of sight as Chaucer, and as much dislike of falsehood in clergy, or in
+professedly pious people: and in his gravest moments he will still see
+and say truly that what is fat, is fat--and what is lean, lean--and what
+is hollow, empty.
+
+His great point, however, in this fresco, is the assertion of the
+reality of the stigmata against all question. There is not only one St.
+Thomas to be convinced; there are five;--one to each wound. Of these,
+four are intent only on satisfying their curiosity, and are peering or
+probing; one only kisses the hand he has lifted. The rest of the picture
+never was much more than a grey drawing of a noble burial service; of
+all concerned in which, one monk, only, is worthy to see the soul taken
+up to heaven; and he is evidently just the monk whom nobody in the
+convent thought anything of. (His face is all repainted; but one can
+gather this much, or little, out of it, yet.)
+
+Of the composition, or "unity and harmony of the whole," as a burial
+service, we may better judge after we have looked at the brighter
+picture of St. Francis's Birth--birth spiritual, that is to say, to his
+native heaven; the uppermost, namely, of the three subjects on this side
+of the chapel. It is entirely characteristic of Giotto; much of it by
+his hand--all of it beautiful. All important matters to be known of
+Giotto you may know from this fresco.
+
+'But we can't see it, even with our opera-glasses, but all foreshortened
+and spoiled. What is the use of lecturing us on this?'
+
+That is precisely the first point which is essentially Giottesque in
+it; its being so out of the way! It is this which makes it a perfect
+specimen of the master. I will tell you next something about a work of
+his which you can see perfectly, just behind you on the opposite side of
+the wall; but that you have half to break your neck to look at this one,
+is the very first thing I want you to feel.
+
+It is a characteristic--(as far as I know, quite a universal one)--of
+the greatest masters, that they never expect you to look at them; seem
+always rather surprised if you want to; and not overpleased. Tell them
+you are going to hang their picture at the upper end of the table at the
+next great City dinner, and that Mr. So and So will make a speech about
+it; you produce no impression upon them whatever, or an unfavourable
+one. The chances are ten to one they send you the most rubbishy thing
+they can find in their lumber-room. But send for one of them in a hurry,
+and tell him the rats have gnawed a nasty hole behind the parlor
+door, and you want it plastered and painted over;--and he does you a
+masterpiece which the world will peep behind your door to look at for
+ever.
+
+I have no time to tell you why this is so; nor do I know why,
+altogether; but so it is.
+
+Giotto, then, is sent for, to paint this high chapel: I am not sure if
+he chose his own subjects from the life of St. Francis: I think so,--but
+of course can't reason on the guess securely. At all events, he would
+have much of his own way in the matter.
+
+Now you must observe that painting a Gothic chapel rightly is just the
+same thing as painting a Greek vase rightly. The chapel is merely the
+vase turned upside-down, and outside-in. The principles of decoration
+are exactly the same. Your decoration is to be proportioned to the size
+of your vase; to be together delightful when you look at the cup, or
+chapel, as a whole; to be various and entertaining when you turn the cup
+round; (you turn _yourself_ round in the chapel;) and to bend its heads
+and necks of figures about, as it best can, over the hollows, and ins
+and outs, so that anyhow, whether too long or too short-possible or
+impossible--they may be living, and full of grace. You will also please
+take it on my word today--in another morning walk you shall have proof
+of it--that Giotto was a pure Etruscan-Greek of the thirteenth century:
+converted indeed to worship St. Francis instead of Heracles; but as far
+as vase-painting goes, precisely the Etruscan he was before. This is
+nothing else than a large, beautiful, coloured Etruscan vase you have
+got, inverted over your heads like a diving-bell.' [Footnote: I observe
+that recent criticism is engaged in proving all Etruscan vases to be of
+late manufacture, in imitation of archaic Greek. And I therefore
+must briefly anticipate a statement which I shall have to enforce in
+following letters. Etruscan art remains in its own Italian valleys,
+of the Arno and upper Tiber, in one unbroken series of work, from
+the seventh century before Christ, to this hour, when the country
+whitewasher still scratches his plaster in Etruscan patterns. All
+Florentine work of the finest kind--Luca della Robbia's, Ghiberti's,
+Donatello's, Filippo Lippi's, Botticelli's, Fra Angelico's--is
+absolutely pure Etruscan, merely changing its subjects, and representing
+the Virgin instead of Athena, and Christ instead of Jupiter. Every line
+of the Florentine chisel in the fifteenth century is based on national
+principles of art which existed in the seventh century before Christ;
+and Angelico, in his convent of St. Dominic, at the foot of the hill of
+Fésole, is as true an Etruscan as the builder who laid the rude stones
+of the wall along its crest--of which modern civilization has used the
+only arch that remained for cheap building stone. Luckily, I sketched it
+in 1845. but alas, too carelessly,--never conceiving of the brutalities
+of modern Italy as possible.]
+
+Accordingly, after the quatrefoil ornamentation of the top of the bell,
+you get two spaces at the sides under arches, very difficult to
+cramp one's picture into, if it is to be a picture only; but entirely
+provocative of our old Etruscan instinct of ornament. And, spurred by
+the difficulty, and pleased by the national character of it, we put
+our best work into these arches, utterly neglectful of the public
+below,--who will see the white and red and blue spaces, at any rate,
+which is all they will want to see, thinks Giotto, if he ever looks down
+from his scaffold.
+
+Take the highest compartment, then, on the left, looking towards the
+window. It was wholly impossible to get the arch filled with figures,
+unless they stood on each other's heads; so Giotto ekes it out with a
+piece of fine architecture. Raphael, in the Sposalizio, does the same,
+for pleasure.
+
+Then he puts two dainty little white figures, bending, on each flank,
+to stop up his corners. But he puts the taller inside on the right,
+and outside on the left. And he puts his Greek chorus of observant and
+moralizing persons on each side of his main action.
+
+Then he puts one Choragus--or leader of chorus, supporting the main
+action--on each side. Then he puts the main action in the middle--which
+is a quarrel about that white bone of contention in the centre. Choragus
+on the right, who sees that the bishop is going to have the best of it,
+backs him serenely. Choragus on the left, who sees that his impetuous
+friend is going to get the worst of it, is pulling him back, and trying
+to keep him quiet. The subject of the picture, which, after you are
+quite sure it is good as a decoration, but not till then, you may be
+allowed to understand, is the following. One of St. Francis's three
+great virtues being Obedience, he begins his spiritual life by
+quarreling with his father. He, I suppose in modern terms I should say,
+commercially invests some of his father's goods in charity. His father
+objects to that investment; on which St. Francis runs away, taking what
+he can find about the house along with him. His father follows to claim
+his property, but finds it is all gone, already; and that St. Francis
+has made friends with the Bishop of Assisi. His father flies into an
+indecent passion, and declares he will disinherit him; on which
+St. Francis then and there takes all his clothes off, throws them
+frantically in his father's face, and says he has nothing more to
+do with clothes or father. The good Bishop, in tears of admiration,
+embraces St. Francis, and covers him with his own mantle.
+
+I have read the picture to you as, if Mr. Spurgeon knew anything about
+art, Mr. Spurgeon would read it,--that is to say, from the plain, common
+sense, Protestant side. If you are content with that view of it, you
+may leave the chapel, and, as far as any study of history is concerned,
+Florence also; for you can never know anything either about Giotto, or
+her.
+
+Yet do not be afraid of my re-reading it to you from the mystic,
+nonsensical, and Papistical side. I am going to read it to you--if after
+many and many a year of thought, I am able--as Giotto meant it; Giotto
+being, as far as we know, then the man of strongest brain and hand in
+Florence; the best friend of the best religious poet of the world; and
+widely differing, as his friend did also, in his views of the world,
+from either Mr. Spurgeon, or Pius IX.
+
+The first duty of a child is to obey its father and mother; as the first
+duty of a citizen to obey the laws of his state. And this duty is so
+strict that I believe the only limits to it are those fixed by Isaac and
+Iphigenia. On the other hand, the father and mother have also a fixed
+duty to the child--not to provoke it to wrath. I have never heard this
+text explained to fathers and mothers from the pulpit, which is curious.
+For it appears to me that God will expect the parents to understand
+their duty to their children, better even than children can be expected
+to know their duty to their parents.
+
+But farther. A _child's_ duty is to obey its parents. It is never said
+anywhere in the Bible, and never was yet said in any good or wise book,
+that a man's, or woman's, is. _When,_ precisely, a child becomes a man
+or a woman, it can no more be said, than when it should first stand on
+its legs. But a time assuredly comes when it should. In great states,
+children are always trying to remain children, and the parents wanting
+to make men and women of them. In vile states, the children are always
+wanting to be men and women, and the parents to keep them children.
+It may be--and happy the house in which it is so--that the father's at
+least equal intellect, and older experience, may remain to the end of
+his life a law to his children, not of force, but of perfect guidance,
+with perfect love. Rarely it is so; not often possible. It is as natural
+for the old to be prejudiced as for the young to be presumptuous; and,
+in the change of centuries, each generation has something to judge of
+for itself.
+
+But this scene, on which Giotto has dwelt with so great force,
+represents, not the child's assertion of his independence, but his
+adoption of another Father.
+
+You must not confuse the desire of this boy of Assisi to obey God
+rather than man, with the desire of your young cockney Hopeful to have a
+latch-key, and a separate allowance.
+
+No point of duty has been more miserably warped and perverted by false
+priests, in all churches, than this duty of the young to choose whom
+they will serve. But the duty itself does not the less exist; and if
+there be any truth in Christianity at all, there will come, for all true
+disciples, a time when they have to take that saying to heart, "He that
+loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me."
+
+'_Loveth_'--observe. There is no talk of disobeying fathers or mothers
+whom you do not love, or of running away from a home where you would
+rather not stay. But to leave the home which is your peace, and to be at
+enmity with those who are most dear to you,--this, if there be meaning
+in Christ's words, one day or other will be demanded of His true
+followers.
+
+And there is meaning in Christ's words. Whatever misuse may have been
+made of them,--whatever false prophets--and Heaven knows there have
+been many--have called the young children to them, not to bless, but to
+curse, the assured fact remains, that if you will obey God, there will
+come a moment when the voice of man will be raised, with all its holiest
+natural authority, against you. The friend and the wise adviser--the
+brother and the sister--the father and the master--the entire voice of
+your prudent and keen-sighted acquaintance--the entire weight of the
+scornful stupidity of the vulgar world--for _once_, they will be against
+you, all at one. You have to obey God rather than man. The human race,
+with all its wisdom and love, all its indignation and folly, on one
+side,--God alone on the other. You have to choose.
+
+That is the meaning of St. Francis's renouncing his inheritance; and
+it is the beginning of Giotto's gospel of Works. Unless this hardest
+of deeds be done first,--this inheritance of mammon and the world cast
+away,--all other deeds are useless. You cannot serve, cannot obey, God
+and mammon. No charities, no obediences, no self-denials, are of any
+use, while you are still at heart in conformity with the world. You
+go to church, because the world goes. You keep Sunday, because your
+neighbours keep it. But you dress ridiculously, because your neighbours
+ask it; and you dare not do a rough piece of work, because your
+neighbours despise it. You must renounce your neighbour, in his riches
+and pride, and remember him in his distress. That is St. Francis's
+'disobedience.'
+
+And now you can understand the relation of subjects throughout the
+chapel, and Giotto's choice of them.
+
+The roof has the symbols of the three virtues of labour--Poverty,
+Chastity, Obedience.
+
+A. Highest on the left side, looking to the window. The life of St.
+Francis begins in his renunciation of the world.
+
+B. Highest on the right side. His new life is approved and ordained by
+the authority of the church.
+
+C. Central on the left side. He preaches to his own disciples.
+
+D. Central on the right side. He preaches to the heathen.
+
+E. Lowest on the left side. His burial.
+
+F. Lowest on the right side. His power after death.
+
+Besides these six subjects, there are, on the sides of the window,
+the four great Franciscan saints, St. Louis of France, St. Louis of
+Toulouse, St. Clare, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
+
+So that you have in the whole series this much given you to think of:
+first, the law of St. Francis's conscience; then, his own adoption of
+it; then, the ratification of it by the Christian Church; then, his
+preaching it in life; then, his preaching it in death; and then, the
+fruits of it in his disciples.
+
+I have only been able myself to examine, or in any right sense to see,
+of this code of subjects, the first, second, fourth, and the St. Louis
+and Elizabeth. I will ask _you_ only to look at two more of them,
+namely, St. Francis before the Soldan, midmost on your right, and St.
+Louis.
+
+The Soldan, with an ordinary opera-glass, you may see clearly enough;
+and I think it will be first well to notice some technical points in it.
+
+If the little virgin on the stairs of the temple reminded you of one
+composition of Titian's, this Soldan should, I think, remind you of all
+that is greatest in Titian; so forcibly, indeed, that for my own part,
+if I had been told that a careful early fresco by Titian had been
+recovered in Santa Croce, I could have believed both report and my own
+eyes, more quickly than I have been able to admit that this is indeed
+by Giotto. It is so great that--had its principles been understood-there
+was in reality nothing more to be taught of art in Italy; nothing to be
+invented afterwards, except Dutch effects of light.
+
+That there is no 'effect of light' here arrived at, I beg you at once
+to observe as a most important lesson. The subject is St. Francis
+challenging the Soldan's Magi,--fire-worshippers--to pass with him
+through the fire, which is blazing red at his feet. It is so hot that
+the two Magi on the other side of the throne shield their faces. But
+it is represented simply as a red mass of writhing forms of flame; and
+casts no firelight whatever. There is no ruby colour on anybody's
+nose: there are no black shadows under anybody's chin; there are no
+Rembrandtesque gradations of gloom, or glitterings of sword-hilt and
+armour.
+
+Is this ignorance, think you, in Giotto, and pure artlessness? He was
+now a man in middle life, having passed all his days in painting, and
+professedly, and almost contentiously, painting things as he saw them.
+Do you suppose he never saw fire cast firelight?--and he the friend of
+Dante! who of all poets is the most subtle in his sense of every kind of
+effect of light--though he has been thought by the public to know that
+of fire only. Again and again, his ghosts wonder that there is no shadow
+cast by Dante's body; and is the poet's friend, _because_ a painter,
+likely, therefore, not to have known that mortal substance casts shadow,
+and terrestrial flame, light? Nay, the passage in the 'Purgatorio' where
+the shadows from the morning sunshine make the flames redder, reaches
+the accuracy of Newtonian science; and does Giotto, think you, all the
+while, see nothing of the sort?
+
+The fact was, he saw light so intensely that he never for an instant
+thought of painting it. He knew that to paint the sun was as impossible
+as to stop it; and he was no trickster, trying to find out ways of
+seeming to do what he did not. I can paint a rose,--yes; and I will. I
+can't paint a red-hot coal; and I won't try to, nor seem to. This was
+just as natural and certain a process of thinking with _him_, as the
+honesty of it, and true science, were impossible to the false painters
+of the sixteenth century.
+
+Nevertheless, what his art can honestly do to make you feel as much as
+he wants you to feel, about this fire, he will do; and that studiously.
+That the fire be _luminous_ or not, is no matter just now. But that
+the fire is _hot_, he would have you to know. Now, will you notice what
+colours he has used in the whole picture. First, the blue background,
+necessary to unite it with the other three subjects, is reduced to the
+smallest possible space. St. Francis must be in grey, for that is his
+dress; also the attendant of one of the Magi is in grey; but so warm,
+that, if you saw it by itself, you would call it brown. The shadow
+behind the throne, which Giotto knows he _can_ paint, and therefore
+does, is grey also. The rest of the picture [Footnote: The floor has
+been repainted; but though its grey is now heavy and cold, it cannot
+kill the splendour of the rest.] in at least six-sevenths of its
+area--is either crimson, gold, orange, purple, or white, all as warm as
+Giotto could paint them; and set off by minute spaces only of intense
+black,--the Soldan's fillet at the shoulders, his eyes, beard, and the
+points necessary in the golden pattern behind. And the whole picture is
+one glow.
+
+A single glance round at the other subjects will convince you of the
+special character in this; but you will recognize also that the four
+upper subjects, in which St. Francis's life and zeal are shown, are all
+in comparatively warm colours, while the two lower ones--of the death,
+and the visions after it--have been kept as definitely sad and cold.
+
+Necessarily, you might think, being full of monks' dresses. Not so. Was
+there any need for Giotto to have put the priest at the foot of the dead
+body, with the black banner stooped over it in the shape of a grave?
+Might he not, had he chosen, in either fresco, have made the celestial
+visions brighter? Might not St. Francis have appeared in the centre of a
+celestial glory to the dreaming Pope, or his soul been seen of the poor
+monk, rising through more radiant clouds? Look, however, how radiant, in
+the small space allowed out of the blue, they are in reality. You cannot
+anywhere see a lovelier piece of Giottesque colour, though here, you
+have to mourn over the smallness of the piece, and its isolation. For
+the face of St. Francis himself is repainted, and all the blue sky; but
+the clouds and four sustaining angels are hardly retouched at all, and
+their iridescent and exquisitely graceful wings are left with really
+very tender and delicate care by the restorer of the sky. And no one but
+Giotto or Turner could have painted them.
+
+For in all his use of opalescent and warm colour, Giotto is exactly like
+Turner, as, in his swift expressional power, he is like Gainsborough.
+All the other Italian religious painters work out their expression with
+toil; he only can give it with a touch. All the other great Italian
+colourists see only the beauty of colour, but Giotto also its
+brightness. And none of the others, except Tintoret, understood to the
+full its symbolic power; but with those--Giotto and Tintoret--there is
+always, not only a colour harmony, but a colour secret. It is not merely
+to make the picture glow, but to remind you that St. Francis preaches
+to a fire-worshipping king, that Giotto covers the wall with purple
+and scarlet;--and above, in the dispute at Assisi, the angry father
+is dressed in red, varying like passion; and the robe with which his
+protector embraces St. Francis, blue, symbolizing the peace of Heaven,
+Of course certain conventional colours were traditionally employed by
+all painters; but only Giotto and Tintoret invent a symbolism of their
+own for every picture. Thus in Tintoret's picture of the fall of the
+manna, the figure of God the Father is entirely robed in white, contrary
+to all received custom: in that of Moses striking the rock, it is
+surrounded by a rainbow. Of Giotto's symbolism in colour at Assisi, I
+have given account elsewhere. [Footnote: 'Fors Clavigera' for September,
+1874.]
+
+You are not to think, therefore, the difference between the colour of
+the upper and lower frescos unintentional. The life of St. Francis
+was always full of joy and triumph. His death, in great suffering,
+weariness, and extreme humility. The tradition of him reverses that of
+Elijah; living, he is seen in the chariot of fire; dying, he submits to
+more than the common sorrow of death.
+
+There is, however, much more than a difference in colour between the
+upper and lower frescos. There is a difference in manner which I
+cannot account for; and above all, a very singular difference in
+skill,--indicating, it seems to me, that the two lower were done long
+before the others, and afterwards united and harmonized with them. It
+is of no interest to the general reader to pursue this question; but
+one point he can notice quickly, that the lower frescos depend much on
+a mere black or brown outline of the features, while the faces above
+are evenly and completely painted in the most accomplished Venetian
+manner:--and another, respecting the management of the draperies,
+contains much interest for us.
+
+Giotto never succeeded, to the very end of his days, in representing a
+figure lying down, and at ease. It is one of the most curious points
+in all his character. Just the thing which he could study from nature
+without the smallest hindrance, is the thing he never can paint;
+while subtleties of form and gesture, which depend absolutely on their
+momentariness, and actions in which no model can stay for an instant, he
+seizes with infallible accuracy.
+
+Not only has the sleeping Pope, in the right hand lower fresco, his
+head laid uncomfortably on his pillow, but all the clothes on him are in
+awkward angles, even Giotto's instinct for lines of drapery failing him
+altogether when he has to lay it on a reposing figure. But look at the
+folds of the Soldan's robe over his knees. None could be more beautiful
+or right; and it is to me wholly inconceivable that the two paintings
+should be within even twenty years of each other in date--the skill in
+the upper one is so supremely greater. We shall find, however, more than
+mere truth in its casts of drapery, if we examine them.
+
+They are so simply right, in the figure of the Soldan, that we do not
+think of them;--we see him only, not his dress But we see dress first,
+in the figures of the discomfited Magi. Very fully draped personages
+these, indeed,--with trains, it appears, four yards long, and bearers of
+them.
+
+The one nearest the Soldan has done his devoir as bravely as he could;
+would fain go up to the fire, but cannot; is forced to shield his face,
+though he has not turned back. Giotto gives him full sweeping breadth
+of fold; what dignity he can;--a man faithful to his profession, at all
+events.
+
+The next one has no such courage. Collapsed altogether, he has nothing
+more to say for himself or his creed. Giotto hangs the cloak upon him,
+in Ghirlandajo's fashion, as from a peg, but with ludicrous narrowness
+of fold. Literally, he is a 'shut-up' Magus--closed like a fan. He turns
+his head away, hopelessly. And the last Magus shows nothing but his
+back, disappearing through the door.
+
+Opposed to them, in a modern work, you would have had a St. Francis
+standing as high as he could in his sandals, contemptuous, denunciatory;
+magnificently showing the Magi the door. No such thing, says Giotto. A
+somewhat mean man; disappointing enough in presence-even in feature;
+I do not understand his gesture, pointing to his forehead--perhaps
+meaning, 'my life, or my head, upon the truth of this.' The attendant
+monk behind him is terror-struck; but will follow his master. The
+dark Moorish servants of the Magi show no emotion--will arrange their
+masters' trains as usual, and decorously sustain their retreat.
+
+Lastly, for the Soldan himself. In a modern work, you would assuredly
+have had him staring at St. Francis with his eyebrows up, or frowning
+thunderously at his Magi, with them bent as far down as they would go.
+Neither of these aspects does he bear, according to Giotto. A perfect
+gentleman and king, he looks on his Magi with quiet eyes of decision; he
+is much the noblest person in the room--though an infidel, the true hero
+of the scene, far more than St. Francis. It is evidently the Soldan
+whom Giotto wants you to think of mainly, in this picture of Christian
+missionary work.
+
+He does not altogether take the view of the Heathen which you would get
+in an Exeter Hall meeting. Does not expatiate on their ignorance, their
+blackness, or their nakedness. Does not at all think of the Florentine
+Islington and Pentonville, as inhabited by persons in every respect
+superior to the kings of the East; nor does he imagine every other
+religion but his own to be log-worship. Probably the people who really
+worship logs--whether in Persia or Pentonville--will be left to worship
+logs to their hearts' content, thinks Giotto. But to those who worship
+_God_, and who have obeyed the laws of heaven written in their hearts,
+and numbered the stars of it visible to them,--to these, a nearer star
+may rise; and a higher God be revealed.
+
+You are to note, therefore, that Giotto's Soldan is the type of all
+noblest religion and law, in countries where the name of Christ has not
+been preached. There was no doubt what king or people should be chosen:
+the country of the three Magi had already been indicated by the miracle
+of Bethlehem; and the religion and morality of Zoroaster were the
+purest, and in spirit the oldest, in the heathen world. Therefore, when
+Dante, in the nineteenth and twentieth books of the Paradise, gives his
+final interpretation of the law of human and divine justice in relation
+to the gospel of Christ--the lower and enslaved body of the heathen
+being represented by St. Philip's convert, ("Christians like these
+the Ethiop shall condemn")--the noblest state of heathenism is at once
+chosen, as by Giotto: "What may the _Persians_ say unto _your_ kings?"
+Compare also Milton,--
+
+                      "At the Soldan's chair,
+                Defied the best of Paynim chivalry."
+
+And now, the time is come for you to look at Giotto's St. Louis, who is
+the type of a Christian king.
+
+You would, I suppose, never have seen it at all, unless I had dragged
+you here on purpose. It was enough in the dark originally--is trebly
+darkened by the modern painted glass--and dismissed to its oblivion
+contentedly by Mr. Murray's "Four saints, all much restored and
+repainted," and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcasella's serene "The St. Louis
+is quite new."
+
+Now, I am the last person to call any restoration whatever, judicious.
+Of all destructive manias, that of restoration is the frightfullest and
+foolishest. Nevertheless, what good, in its miserable way, it can bring,
+the poor art scholar must now apply his common sense to take; there is
+no use, because a great work has been restored, in now passing it by
+altogether, not even looking for what instruction we still may find in
+its design, which will be more intelligible, if the restorer has had any
+conscience at all, to the ordinary spectator, than it would have been
+in the faded work. When, indeed, Mr. Murray's Guide tells you that a
+_building_ has been 'magnificently restored,' you may pass the building
+by in resigned despair; for _that_ means that every bit of the old
+sculpture has been destroyed, and modern vulgar copies put up in its
+place. But a restored picture or fresco will often be, to _you_, more
+useful than a pure one; and in all probability--if an important piece
+of art--it will have been spared in many places, cautiously completed
+in others, and still assert itself in a mysterious way--as Leonardo's
+Cenacolo does--through every phase of reproduction. [Footnote: For a
+test of your feeling in the matter, having looked well at these two
+lower frescos in this chapel, walk round into the next, and examine the
+lower one on your left hand as you enter that. You will find in your
+Murray that the frescos in this chapel "were also till lately, (1862)
+covered with whitewash"; but I happen to have a long critique of this
+particular picture written in the year 1845, and I see no change in it
+since then. Mr. Murray's critic also tells you to observe in it that
+"the daughter of Herodias playing on a violin is not unlike Perugino's
+treatment of similar subjects." By which Mr. Murray's critic means that
+the male musician playing on a violin, whom, without looking either at
+his dress, or at the rest of the fresco, he took for the daughter
+of Herodias, has a broad face. Allowing you the full benefit of this
+criticism--there is still a point or two more to be observed. This is
+the only fresco near the ground in which Giotto's work is untouched, at
+least, by the modern restorer. So felicitously safe it is, that you may
+learn from it at once and for ever, what good fresco painting
+is--how quiet--how delicately clear--how little coarsely or vulgarly
+attractive--how capable of the most tender light and shade, and of the
+most exquisite and enduring colour.
+
+In this latter respect, this fresco stands almost alone among the works
+of Giotto; the striped curtain behind the table being wrought with a
+variety and fantasy of playing colour which Paul Veronese could not
+better at his best.
+
+You will find, without difficulty, in spite of the faint tints, the
+daughter of Herodias in the middle of the picture---slowly _moving_,
+not dancing, to the violin music--she herself playing on a lyre. In the
+farther corner of the picture, she gives St. John's head to her mother;
+the face of Herodias is almost entirely faded, which may be a farther
+guarantee to you of the safety of the rest. The subject of the
+Apocalypse, highest on the right, is one of the most interesting mythic
+pictures in Florence; nor do I know any other so completely rendering
+the meaning of the scene between the woman in the wilderness, and the
+Dragon enemy. But it cannot be seen from the floor level: and I have no
+power of showing its beauty in words.]
+
+But I can assure you, in the first place, that St. Louis is by no means
+altogether new. I have been up at it, and found most lovely and true
+colour left in many parts: the crown, which you will find, after our
+mornings at the Spanish chapel, is of importance, nearly untouched;
+the lines of the features and hair, though all more or less reproduced,
+still of definite and notable character; and the junction throughout of
+added colour so careful, that the harmony of the whole, if not delicate
+with its old tenderness, is at least, in its coarser way, solemn
+and unbroken. Such as the figure remains, it still possesses extreme
+beauty--profoundest interest. And, as you can see it from below with
+your glass, it leaves little to be desired, and may be dwelt upon with
+more profit than nine out of ten of the renowned pictures of the Tribune
+or the Pitti. You will enter into the spirit of it better if I first
+translate for you a little piece from the Fioretti di San Francesco.
+
+_"How St. Louis, King of France, went personally in the guise of a
+pilgrim, to Perugia, to visit the holy Brother Giles._--St. Louis, King
+of France, went on pilgrimage to visit the sanctuaries of the world; and
+hearing the most great fame of the holiness of Brother Giles, who had
+been among the first companions of St. Francis, put it in his heart, and
+determined assuredly that he would visit him personally; wherefore he
+came to Perugia, where was then staying the said brother. And coming to
+the gate of the place of the Brothers, with few companions, and being
+unknown, he asked with great earnestness for Brother Giles, telling
+nothing to the porter who he was that asked. The porter, therefore, goes
+to Brother Giles, and says that there is a pilgrim asking for him at
+the gate. And by God it was inspired in him and revealed that it was the
+King of France; whereupon quickly with great fervour he left his cell
+and ran to the gate, and without any question asked, or ever having seen
+each other before, kneeling down together with greatest devotion, they
+embraced and kissed each other with as much familiarity as if for a long
+time they had held great friendship; but all the while neither the
+one nor the other spoke, but stayed, so embraced, with such signs of
+charitable love, in silence. And so having remained for a great while,
+they parted from one another, and St. Louis went on his way, and Brother
+Giles returned to his cell. And the King being gone, one of the brethren
+asked of his companion who he was, who answered that he was the King
+of France. Of which the other brothers being told, were in the greatest
+melancholy because Brother Giles had never said a word to him; and
+murmuring at it, they said, 'Oh, Brother Giles, wherefore hadst thou so
+country manners that to so holy a king, who had come from France to see
+thee and hear from thee some good word, thou hast spoken nothing?'
+
+"Answered Brother Giles: 'Dearest brothers, wonder not ye at this, that
+neither I to him, nor he to me, could speak a word; for so soon as we
+had embraced, the light of the divine wisdom revealed and manifested,
+to me, his heart, and to him, mine; and so by divine operation we looked
+each in the other's heart on what we would have said to one another, and
+knew it better far than if we had spoken with the mouth, and with more
+consolation, because of the defect of the human tongue, which cannot
+clearly express the secrets of God, and would have been for discomfort
+rather than comfort. And know, therefore, that the King parted from me
+marvellously content, and comforted in his mind.'"
+
+Of all which story, not a word, of course, is credible by any rational
+person.
+
+Certainly not: the spirit, nevertheless, which created the story, is
+an entirely indisputable fact in the history of Italy and of mankind.
+Whether St. Louis and Brother Giles ever knelt together in the street
+of Perugia matters not a whit. That a king and a poor monk could be
+conceived to have thoughts of each other which no words could speak; and
+that indeed the King's tenderness and humility made such a tale credible
+to the people,--this is what you have to meditate on here.
+
+Nor is there any better spot in the world,--whencesoever your pilgrim
+feet may have journeyed to it, wherein to make up so much mind as
+you have in you for the making, concerning the nature of Kinghood and
+Princedom generally; and of the forgeries and mockeries of both which
+are too often manifested in their room. For it happens that this
+Christian and this Persian King are better painted here by Giotto than
+elsewhere by any one, so as to give you the best attainable conception
+of the Christian and Heathen powers which have both received, in the
+book which Christians profess to reverence, the same epithet as the King
+of the Jews Himself; anointed, or Christos:--and as the most perfect
+Christian Kinghood was exhibited in the life, partly real, partly
+traditional, of St. Louis, so the most perfect Heathen Kinghood was
+exemplified in the life, partly real, partly traditional, of Cyrus of
+Persia, and in the laws for human government and education which had
+chief force in his dynasty. And before the images of these two Kings
+I think therefore it will be well that you should read the charge to
+Cyrus, written by Isaiah. The second clause of it, if not all, will here
+become memorable to you--literally illustrating, as it does, the very
+manner of the defeat of the Zoroastrian Magi, on which Giotto founds
+his Triumph of Faith. I write the leading sentences continuously; what I
+omit is only their amplification, which you can easily refer to at home.
+(Isaiah xliv. 24, to xlv. 13.)
+
+"Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the
+womb. I the Lord that maketh all; that stretcheth forth the heavens,
+alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth, alone; _that turneth wise men
+backward, and maketh their knowledge, foolish; that confirmeth the word
+of his Servant, and fulfilleth the counsel of his messengers_: that
+saith of Cyrus, He is my Shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,
+even saying to Jerusalem, 'thou shalt be built,' and to the temple, 'thy
+foundations shall be laid."
+
+"Thus saith the Lord to his Christ;--to Cyrus, whose right hand I have
+holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of
+Kings.
+
+"I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will
+break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron;
+and I will give _thee_ the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of
+secret places, that thou mayest know that I the Lord, which call thee by
+thy name, am the God of Israel.
+
+"For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called
+thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
+
+"I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God beside me. I
+girded thee, though thou hast not known me. That they may know, from the
+_rising of the sun_, and from the west, that there is none beside me;
+I am the Lord and there is none else. _I form the light_, and create
+darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.
+
+"I have raised him up in Righteousness, and will direct all his ways; he
+shall build my city, and let go my captives, not for price nor reward,
+saith the Lord of Nations."
+
+To this last verse, add the ordinance of Cyrus in fulfilling it,
+that you may understand what is meant by a King's being "raised up in
+Righteousness," and notice, with respect to the picture under which you
+stand, the Persian King's thought of the Jewish temple.
+
+"In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, [Footnote: 1st Esdras vi. 24.]
+King Cyrus commanded that the house of the Lord at Jerusalem should
+be built again, _where they do service with perpetual fire_; (the
+italicized sentence is Darius's, quoting Cyrus's decree--the decree
+itself worded thus), Thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia: [Footnote: Ezra
+i. 3, and 2nd Esdras ii. 3.] The Lord God of heaven hath given me all
+the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him an house
+at Jerusalem.
+
+"Who is there among you of all his people?--his God be with him, and let
+him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and let the men of his place
+help him with silver and with gold, and with goods and with beasts."
+
+Between which "bringing the prisoners out of captivity" and modern
+liberty, free trade, and anti-slavery eloquence, there is no small
+interval.
+
+To these two ideals of Kinghood, then, the boy has reached, since the
+day he was drawing the lamb on the stone, as Cimabue passed by. You will
+not find two other such, that I know of, in the west of Europe; and yet
+there has been many a try at the painting of crowned heads,--and King
+George III and Queen Charlotte, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, are very fine,
+no doubt. Also your black-muzzled kings of Velasquez, and Vandyke's
+long-haired and white-handed ones; and Rubens' riders--in those handsome
+boots. Pass such shadows of them as you can summon, rapidly before your
+memory--then look at this St. Louis.
+
+His face--gentle, resolute, glacial-pure, thin-cheeked; so sharp at
+the chin that the entire head is almost of the form of a knight's
+shield--the hair short on the forehead, falling on each side in the old
+Greek-Etruscan curves of simplest line, to the neck; I don't know if you
+can see without being nearer, the difference in the arrangement of it
+on the two sides-the mass of it on the right shoulder bending inwards,
+while that on the left falls straight. It is one of the pretty changes
+which a modern workman would never dream of--and which assures me the
+restorer has followed the old lines rightly.
+
+He wears a crown formed by an hexagonal pyramid, beaded with pearls
+on the edges: and walled round, above the brow, with a vertical
+fortress-parapet, as it were, rising into sharp pointed spines at the
+angles: it is chasing of gold with pearl--beautiful in the remaining
+work of it; the Soldan wears a crown of the same general form; the
+hexagonal outline signifying all order, strength, and royal economy. We
+shall see farther symbolism of this kind, soon, by Simon Memmi, in the
+Spanish chapel.
+
+I cannot tell you anything definite of the two other frescos--for I can
+only examine one or two pictures in a day; and never begin with one till
+I have done with another; and I had to leave Florence without looking
+at these--even so far as to be quite sure of their subjects. The central
+one on the left is either the twelfth subject of Assisi--St. Francis
+in Ecstacy; [Footnote: "Represented" (next to St. Francis before the
+Soldan, at Assisi) "as seen one night by the brethren, praying, elevated
+from the ground, his hands extended like the cross, and surrounded by a
+shining cloud."--_Lord Lindsay_.] or the eighteenth, the Apparition of
+St. Francis at Arles; [Footnote: "St. Anthony of Padua was preaching at
+a general chapter of the order, held at Arles, in 1224, when St.
+Francis appeared in the midst, his arms extended, and in an attitude of
+benediction."--_Lord Lindsay_.] while the lowest on the right may admit
+choice between two subjects in each half of it: my own reading of them
+would be--that they are the twenty-first and twenty-fifth subjects of
+Assisi, the Dying Friar [Footnote: "A brother of the order, lying on his
+deathbed, saw the spirit of St. Francis rising to heaven, and springing
+forward, cried, 'Tarry, Father, I come with thee!' and fell back
+dead."--_Lord Lindsay_.] and Vision of Pope Gregory IX.; [Footnote:
+"He hesitated, before canonizing St. Francis; doubting the celestial
+infliction of the stigmata. St. Francis appeared to him in a vision, and
+with a severe countenance reproving his unbelief, opened his robe, and,
+exposing the wound in his side, filled a vial with the blood that
+flowed from it, and gave it to the Pope, who awoke and found it in his
+hand."--_Lord Lindsay_.] but Crowe and Cavalcasella may be right in
+their different interpretation; [Footnote: "As St. Francis was carried
+on his bed of sickness to St. Maria degli Angeli, he stopped at an
+hospital on the roadside, and ordering his attendants to turn his head
+in the direction of Assisi, he rose in his litter and said, 'Blessed
+be thou amongst cities! may the blessing of God cling to thee, oh holy
+place, for by thee shall many souls be saved;' and, having said this, he
+lay down and was carried on to St. Maria degli Angeli. On the evening of
+the 4th of October his death was revealed at the very hour to the bishop
+of Assisi on Mount Sarzana."--_Crowe and Cavalcasella._] in any case,
+the meaning of the entire system of work remains unchanged, as I have
+given it above.
+
+
+
+
+THE FOURTH MORNING.
+
+THE VAULTED BOOK.
+
+
+As early as may be this morning, let us look for a minute or two into
+the cathedral:--I was going to say, entering by one of the side doors
+of the aisles;--but we can't do anything else, which perhaps might
+not strike you unless you were thinking specially of it. There are no
+transept doors; and one never wanders round to the desolate front. From
+either of the side doors, a few paces will bring you to the middle of
+the nave, and to the point opposite the middle of the third arch
+from the west end; where you will find yourself--if well in the
+mid-wave--standing on a circular slab of green porphyry, which marks
+the former place of the grave of the bishop Zenobius. The larger
+inscription, on the wide circle of the floor outside of you, records
+the translation of his body; the smaller one round the stone at your
+feet--"quiescimus, domum hanc quum adimus ultimam"--is a painful truth,
+I suppose, to travellers like us, who never rest anywhere now, if we can
+help it.
+
+Resting here, at any rate, for a few minutes, look up to the whitewashed
+vaulting of the compartment of the roof next the west end.
+
+You will see nothing whatever in it worth looking at. Nevertheless, look
+a little longer.
+
+But the longer you look, the less you will understand why I tell you to
+look. It is nothing but a whitewashed ceiling: vaulted indeed,--but so
+is many a tailor's garret window, for that matter. Indeed, now that you
+have looked steadily for a minute or so, and are used to the form of
+the arch, it seems to become so small that you can almost fancy it the
+ceiling of a good-sized lumber-room in an attic.
+
+Having attained to this modest conception of it, carry your eyes back
+to the similar vault of the second compartment, nearer you. Very little
+further contemplation will reduce that also to the similitude of a
+moderately-sized attic. And then, resolving to bear, if possible--for it
+is worth while,--the cramp in your neck for another quarter of a minute,
+look right up to the third vault, over your head; which, if not, in the
+said quarter of a minute, reducible in imagination to a tailor's garret,
+will at least sink, like the two others, into the semblance of a common
+arched ceiling, of no serious magnitude or majesty.
+
+Then, glance quickly down from it to the floor, and round at the space,
+(included between the four pillars), which that vault covers. It is
+sixty feet square,[Footnote: Approximately. Thinking I could find the
+dimensions of the duomo anywhere, I only paced it myself,--and cannot,
+at this moment, lay my hand on English measurements of it.]--four
+hundred square yards of pavement,--and I believe you will have to look
+up again more than once or twice, before you can convince yourself that
+the mean-looking roof is swept indeed over all that twelfth part of an
+acre. And still less, if I mistake not, will you, without slow proof,
+believe, when you turn yourself round towards the east end, that
+the narrow niche (it really looks scarcely more than a niche) which
+occupies, beyond the dome, the position of our northern choirs, is
+indeed the unnarrowed elongation of the nave, whose breadth extends
+round you like a frozen lake. From which experiments and comparisons,
+your conclusion, I think, will be, and I am sure it ought to be, that
+the most studious ingenuity could not produce a design for the interior
+of a building which should more completely hide its extent, and throw
+away every common advantage of its magnitude, than this of the Duomo of
+Florence.
+
+Having arrived at this, I assure you, quite securely tenable conclusion,
+we will quit the cathedral by the western door, for once, and as quickly
+as we can walk, return to the Green cloister of Sta. Maria Novella; and
+place ourselves on the south side of it, so as to see as much as we
+can of the entrance, on the opposite side, to the so-called 'Spanish
+Chapel.'
+
+There is, indeed, within the opposite cloister, an arch of entrance,
+plain enough. But no chapel, whatever, externally manifesting itself as
+worth entering. No walls, or gable, or dome, raised above the rest
+of the outbuildings--only two windows with traceries opening into the
+cloister; and one story of inconspicuous building above. You can't
+conceive there should be any effect of _magnitude_ produced in the
+interior, however it has been vaulted or decorated. It may be pretty,
+but it cannot possibly look large.
+
+Entering it, nevertheless, you will be surprised at the effect of
+height, and disposed to fancy that the circular window cannot surely be
+the same you saw outside, looking so low, I had to go out again, myself,
+to make sure that it was.
+
+And gradually, as you let the eye follow the sweep of the vaulting
+arches, from the small central keystone-boss, with the Lamp carved on
+it, to the broad capitals of the hexagonal pillars at the angles,--there
+will form itself in your mind, I think, some impression not only of
+vastness in the building, but of great daring in the builder; and at
+last, after closely following out the lines of a fresco or two, and
+looking up and up again to the coloured vaults, it will become to you
+literally one of the grandest places you ever entered, roofed without a
+central pillar. You will begin to wonder that human daring ever achieved
+anything so magnificent.
+
+But just go out again into the cloister, and recover knowledge of the
+facts. It is nothing like so large as the blank arch which at home we
+filled with brickbats or leased for a gin-shop under the last railway we
+made to carry coals to Newcastle. And if you pace the floor it covers,
+you will find it is three feet less one way, and thirty feet less the
+other, than that single square of the Cathedral which was roofed like a
+tailor's loft,--accurately, for I did measure here, myself, the floor of
+the Spanish chapel is fifty-seven feet by thirty-two.
+
+I hope, after this experience, that you will need no farther conviction
+of the first law of noble building, that grandeur depends on proportion
+and design--not, except in a quite secondary degree, on magnitude. Mere
+size has, indeed, under all disadvantage, some definite value; and so
+has mere splendour. Disappointed as you may be, or at least ought to be,
+at first, by St. Peter's, in the end you will feel its size,--and its
+brightness. These are all you _can_ feel in it--it is nothing more than
+the pump-room at Leamington built bigger;--but the bigness tells at
+last: and Corinthian pillars whose capitals alone are ten feet high,
+and their acanthus leaves, three feet six long, give you a serious
+conviction of the infallibility of the Pope, and the fallibility of
+the wretched Corinthians, who invented the style indeed, but built with
+capitals no bigger than hand-baskets.
+
+Vastness _has_ thus its value. But the glory of architecture is to
+be--whatever you wish it to be,--lovely, or grand, or comfortable,--on
+such terms as it can easily obtain. Grand, by proportion--lovely, by
+imagination--comfortable, by ingenuity--secure, by honesty: with such
+materials and in such space as you have got to give it.
+
+Grand--by proportion, I said; but ought to have said by _dis_proportion.
+Beauty is given by the relation of parts--size, by their comparison.
+The first secret in getting the impression of size in this chapel is
+the _dis_proportion between pillar and arch. You take the pillar for
+granted,--it is thick, strong, and fairly high above your head. You look
+to the vault springing from it--and it soars away, nobody knows where.
+
+Another great, but more subtle secret is in the _in_equality and
+immeasurability of the curved lines; and the hiding of the form by the
+colour.
+
+To begin, the room, I said, is fifty-seven feet wide, and only
+thirty-two deep. It is thus nearly one-third larger in the direction
+across the line of entrance, which gives to every arch, pointed and
+round, throughout the roof, a different spring from its neighbours.
+
+The vaulting ribs have the simplest of all profiles--that of a chamfered
+beam. I call it simpler than even that of a square beam; for in barking
+a log you cheaply get your chamfer, and nobody cares whether the level
+is alike on each side: but you must take a larger tree, and use much
+more work to get a square. And it is the same with stone.
+
+And this profile is--fix the conditions of it, therefore, in your
+mind,--venerable in the history of mankind as the origin of all Gothic
+tracery-mouldings; venerable in the history of the Christian Church as
+that of the roof ribs, both of the lower church of Assisi, bearing the
+scroll of the precepts of St. Francis, and here at Florence, bearing the
+scroll of the faith of St. Dominic. If you cut it out in paper, and cut
+the corners off farther and farther, at every cut, you will produce a
+sharper profile of rib, connected in architectural use with differently
+treated styles. But the entirely venerable form is the massive one in
+which the angle of the beam is merely, as it were, secured and completed
+in stability by removing its too sharp edge.
+
+Well, the vaulting ribs, as in Giotto's vault, then, have here, under
+their painting, this rude profile: but do not suppose the vaults are
+simply the shells cast over them. Look how the ornamental borders
+fall on the capitals! The plaster receives all sorts of indescribably
+accommodating shapes--the painter contracting and stopping his design
+upon it as it happens to be convenient. You can't measure anything; you
+can't exhaust; you can't grasp,--except one simple ruling idea, which a
+child can grasp, if it is interested and intelligent: namely, that the
+room has four sides with four tales told upon them; and the roof four
+quarters, with another four tales told on those. And each history in
+the sides has its correspondent history in the roof. Generally, in good
+Italian decoration, the roof represents constant, or essential facts;
+the walls, consecutive histories arising out of them, or leading up
+to them. Thus here, the roof represents in front of you, in its main
+quarter, the Resurrection--the cardinal fact of Christianity; opposite
+(above, behind you), the Ascension; on your left hand, the descent of
+the Holy Spirit; on your right, Christ's perpetual presence with His
+Church, symbolized by His appearance on the Sea of Galilee to the
+disciples in the storm.
+
+The correspondent walls represent: under the first quarter, (the
+Resurrection), the story of the Crucifixion; under the second quarter,
+(the Ascension), the preaching after that departure, that Christ will
+return--symbolized here in the Dominican church by the consecration of
+St. Dominic; under the third quarter, (the descent of the Holy Spirit),
+the disciplining power of human virtue and wisdom; under the fourth
+quarter, (St. Peter's Ship), the authority and government of the State
+and Church.
+
+The order of these subjects, chosen by the Dominican monks themselves,
+was sufficiently comprehensive to leave boundless room for the invention
+of the painter. The execution of it was first intrusted to Taddeo Gaddi,
+the best architectural master of Giotto's school, who painted the
+four quarters of the roof entirely, but with no great brilliancy of
+invention, and was beginning to go down one of the sides, when, luckily,
+a man of stronger brain, his friend, came from Siena. Taddeo thankfully
+yielded the room to him; he joined his own work to that of his less able
+friend in an exquisitely pretty and complimentary way; throwing his
+own greater strength into it, not competitively, but gradually and
+helpfully. When, however, he had once got himself well joined, and
+softly, to the more simple work, he put his own force on with a will and
+produced the most noble piece of pictorial philosophy [Footnote: There
+is no philosophy _taught_ either by the school of Athens or Michael
+Angelo's 'Last Judgment,' and the 'Disputa' is merely a graceful
+assemblage of authorities, the effects of such authority not being
+shown.] and divinity existing in Italy.
+
+This pretty, and, according to all evidence by me attainable, entirely
+true, tradition has been all but lost, among the ruins of fair old
+Florence, by the industry of modern mason-critics--who, without
+exception, labouring under the primal (and necessarily unconscious)
+disadvantage of not knowing good work from bad, and never, therefore,
+knowing a man by his hand or his thoughts, would be in any case
+sorrowfully at the mercy of mistakes in a document; but are tenfold more
+deceived by their own vanity, and delight in overthrowing a received
+idea, if they can.
+
+Farther: as every fresco of this early date has been retouched again and
+again, and often painted half over,--and as, if there has been the least
+care or respect for the old work in the restorer, he will now and then
+follow the old lines and match the old colours carefully in some places,
+while he puts in clearly recognizable work of his own in others,--two
+critics, of whom one knows the first man's work well, and the other the
+last's, will contradict each other to almost any extent on the securest
+grounds. And there is then no safe refuge for an uninitiated person but
+in the old tradition, which, if not literally true, is founded assuredly
+on some root of fact which you are likely to get at, if ever, through
+it only. So that my general directions to all young people going to
+Florence or Rome would be very short: "Know your first volume of Vasari,
+and your two first books of Livy; look about you, and don't talk, nor
+listen to talking."
+
+On those terms, you may know, entering this chapel, that in Michael
+Angelo's time, all Florence attributed these frescos to Taddeo Gaddi and
+Simon Memmi.
+
+I have studied neither of these artists myself with any speciality
+of care, and cannot tell you positively, anything about them or their
+works. But I know good work from bad, as a cobbler knows leather, and I
+can tell you positively the quality of these frescos, and their relation
+to contemporary panel pictures; whether authentically ascribed to Gaddi,
+Memmi, or any one else, it is for the Florentine Academy to decide.
+
+The roof, and the north side, down to the feet of the horizontal line
+of sitting figures, were originally third-rate work of the school of
+Giotto; the rest of the chapel was originally, and most of it is still,
+magnificent work of the school of Siena. The roof and north side have
+been heavily repainted in, many places; the rest is faded and injured,
+but not destroyed in its most essential qualities. And now, farther, you
+must bear with just a little bit of tormenting history of painters.
+
+There were two Gaddis, father and son,--Taddeo and Angelo. And there
+were two Memmis, brothers,--Simon and Philip.
+
+I daresay you will find, in the modern books, that Simon's real name was
+Peter, and Philip's real name was Bartholomew; and Angelo's real name
+was Taddeo, and Taddeo's real name was Angelo; and Memmi's real name
+was Gaddi, and Gaddi's real name was Memmi. You may find out all that at
+your leisure, afterwards, if you like. What it is important for you to
+know here, in the Spanish Chapel, is only this much that follows:--There
+were certainly two persons once called Gaddi, both rather stupid in
+religious matters and high art; but one of them, I don't know or care
+which, a true decorative painter of the most exquisite skill, a perfect
+architect, an amiable person, and a great lover of pretty domestic life.
+Vasari says this was the father, Taddeo. He built the Ponte Vecchio; and
+the old stones of it--which if you ever look at anything on the
+Ponte Vecchio but the shops, you may still see (above those wooden
+pent-houses) with the Florentine shield--were so laid by him that they
+are unshaken to this day.
+
+He painted an exquisite series of frescos at Assisi from the Life of
+Christ; in which,--just to show you what the man's nature is,--when the
+Madonna has given Christ into Simeon's arms, she can't help holding
+out her own arms to him, and saying, (visibly,) "Won't you come back to
+mamma?" The child laughs his answer--"I love _you_, mamma; but I'm quite
+happy just now."
+
+Well; he, or he and his son together, painted these four quarters of
+the roof of the Spanish Chapel. They were very probably much retouched
+afterwards by Antonio Veneziano, or whomsoever Messrs. Crowe and
+Cavalcasella please; but that architecture in the descent of the Holy
+Ghost is by the man who painted the north transept of Assisi, and there
+need be no more talk about the matter,--for you never catch a restorer
+doing his old architecture right again. And farther, the ornamentation
+of the vaulting ribs _is_ by the man who painted the Entombment, No. 31
+in the Galerie des Grands Tableaux, in the catalogue of the Academy for
+1874. Whether that picture is Taddeo Gaddi's or not, as stated in the
+catalogue, I do not know; but I know the vaulting ribs of the Spanish
+Chapel are painted by the same hand.
+
+Again: of the two brothers Memmi, one or other, I don't know or care
+which, had an ugly way of turning the eyes of his figures up and their
+mouths down; of which you may see an entirely disgusting example in the
+four saints attributed to Filippo Memmi on the cross wall of the north
+(called always in Murray's guide the south, because he didn't notice the
+way the church was built) transept of Assisi. You may, however, also
+see the way the mouth goes down in the much repainted, but still
+characteristic No. 9 in the Uffizii. [Footnote: This picture bears the
+inscription (I quote from the French catalogue, not having verified it
+myself), "Simon Martini, et Lippus Memmi de Senis me pinxerunt." I have
+no doubt whatever, myself, that the two brothers worked together on
+these frescoes of the Spanish Chapel: but that most of the Limbo is
+Philip's, and the Paradise, scarcely with his interference, Simon's.]
+
+Now I catch the wring and verjuice of this brother again and again,
+among the minor heads of the lower frescoes in this Spanish Chapel.
+The head of the Queen beneath Noah, in the Limbo,--(see below) is
+unmistakable.
+
+Farther: one of the two brothers, I don't care which, had a way of
+painting leaves; of which you may see a notable example in the rod in
+the hand of Gabriel in that same picture of the Annunciation in the
+Uffizii. No Florentine painter, or any other, ever painted leaves as
+well as that, till you get down to Sandro Botticelli, who did them much
+better. But the man who painted that rod in the hand of Gabriel, painted
+the rod in the right hand of Logic in the Spanish Chapel,--and nobody
+else in Florence, or the world, _could_.
+
+Farther (and this is the last of the antiquarian business); you see that
+the frescoes on the roof are, on the whole, dark with much blue and
+red in them, the white spaces coming out strongly. This is the
+characteristic colouring of the partially defunct school of Giotto,
+becoming merely decorative, and passing into a colourist school which
+connected itself afterwards with the Venetians. There is an exquisite
+example of all its specialities in the little Annunciation in the
+Uffizii, No. 14, attributed to Angelo Gaddi, in which you see the
+Madonna is stupid, and the angel stupid, but the colour of the whole, as
+a piece of painted glass, lovely; and the execution exquisite,--at once
+a painter's and jeweller's; with subtle sense of chiaroscuro underneath;
+(note the delicate shadow of the Madonna's arm across her breast).
+
+The head of this school was (according to Vasari) Taddeo Gaddi; and
+henceforward, without further discussion, I shall speak of him as the
+painter of the roof of the Spanish Chapel,--not without suspicion,
+however, that his son Angelo may hereafter turn out to have been the
+better decorator, and the painter of the frescoes from the life of
+Christ in the north transept of Assisi,--with such assistance as his son
+or scholars might give--and such change or destruction as time, Antonio
+Veneziano, or the last operations of the Tuscan railroad company, may
+have effected on them.
+
+On the other hand, you see that the frescos on the walls are of paler
+colours, the blacks coming out of these clearly, rather than the whites;
+but the pale colours, especially, for instance, the whole of the Duomo
+of Florence in that on your right, very tender and lovely. Also, you may
+feel a tendency to express much with outline, and draw, more than paint,
+in the most interesting parts; while in the duller ones, nasty green and
+yellow tones come out, which prevent the effect of the whole from being
+very pleasant. These characteristics belong, on the whole, to the school
+of Siena; and they indicate here the work _assuredly_ of a man of vast
+power and most refined education, whom I shall call without further
+discussion, during the rest of this and the following morning's study,
+Simon Memmi.
+
+And of the grace and subtlety with which he joined his work to that of
+the Gaddis, you may judge at once by comparing the Christ standing on
+the fallen gate of the Limbo, with the Christ in the Resurrection above.
+Memmi has retained the dress and imitated the general effect of the
+figure in the roof so faithfully that you suspect no difference of
+mastership--nay, he has even raised the foot in the same awkward way:
+but you will find Memmi's foot delicately drawn-Taddeo's, hard and
+rude: and all the folds of Memmi's drapery cast with unbroken grace and
+complete gradations of shade, while Taddeo's are rigid and meagre; also
+in the heads, generally Taddeo's type of face is square in feature, with
+massive and inelegant clusters or volutes of hair and beard; but Memmi's
+delicate and long in feature, with much divided and flowing hair, often
+arranged with exquisite precision, as in the finest Greek coins. Examine
+successively in this respect only the heads of Adam, Abel, Methuselah,
+and Abraham, in the Limbo, and you will not confuse the two designers
+any more. I have not had time to make out more than the principal
+figures in the Limbo, of which indeed the entire dramatic power is
+centred in the Adam and Eve. The latter dressed as a nun, in her fixed
+gaze on Christ, with her hands clasped, is of extreme beauty: and
+however feeble the work of any early painter may be, in its decent and
+grave inoffensiveness it guides the imagination unerringly to a certain
+point. How far you are yourself capable of filling up what is left
+untold and conceiving, as a reality, Eve's first look on this her child,
+depends on no painter's skill, but on your own understanding. Just above
+Eve is Abel, bearing the lamb: and behind him, Noah, between his wife
+and Shem: behind them, Abraham, between Isaac and Ishmael; (turning from
+Ishmael to Isaac), behind these, Moses, between Aaron and David. I have
+not identified the others, though I find the white-bearded figure behind
+Eve called Methuselah in my notes: I know not on what authority. Looking
+up from these groups, however, to the roof painting, you will at once
+feel the imperfect grouping and ruder features of all the figures;
+and the greater depth of colour. We will dismiss these comparatively
+inferior paintings at once.
+
+The roof and walls must be read together, each segment of the roof
+forming an introduction to, or portion of, the subject on the wall
+below. But the roof must first be looked at alone, as the work of Taddeo
+Gaddi, for the artistic qualities and failures of it.
+
+I. In front, as you enter, is the compartment with the subject of the
+Resurrection. It is the traditional Byzantine composition: the guards
+sleeping, and the two angels in white saying to the women, "He is not
+here," while Christ is seen rising with the flag of the Cross.
+
+But it would be difficult to find another example of the subject, so
+coldly treated--so entirely without passion or action. The faces are
+expressionless; the gestures powerless. Evidently the painter is not
+making the slightest effort to conceive what really happened, but merely
+repeating and spoiling what he could remember of old design, or himself
+supply of commonplace for immediate need. The "Noli me tangere," on
+the right, is spoiled from Giotto, and others before him; a peacock,
+woefully plumeless and colourless, a fountain, an ill drawn toy-horse,
+and two toy-children gathering flowers, are emaciate remains of Greek
+symbols. He has taken pains with the vegetation, but in vain. Yet Taddeo
+Gaddi was a true painter, a very beautiful designer, and a very amiable
+person. How comes he to do that Resurrection so badly?
+
+In the first place, he was probably tired of a subject which was a great
+strain to his feeble imagination; and gave it up as impossible: doing
+simply the required figures in the required positions. In the second, he
+was probably at the time despondent and feeble because of his master's
+death. See Lord Lindsay, II. 273, where also it is pointed out that in
+the effect of the light proceeding from the figure of Christ, Taddeo
+Gaddi indeed was the first of the Giottisti who showed true sense
+of light and shade. But until Lionardo's time the innovation did not
+materially affect Florentine art.
+
+II. The Ascension (opposite the Resurrection, and not worth looking at,
+except for the sake of making more sure our conclusions from the first
+fresco). The Madonna is fixed in Byzantine stiffness, without Byzantine
+dignity.
+
+III. The Descent of the Holy Ghost, on the left hand. The Madonna
+and disciples are gathered in an upper chamber: underneath are the
+Parthians, Medes, Elamites, etc., who hear them speak in their own
+tongues.
+
+Three dogs are in the foreground--their mythic purpose the same as that
+of the two verses which affirm the fellowship of the dog in the journey
+and return of Tobias: namely, to mark the share of the lower animals in
+the gentleness given by the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ.
+
+IV. The Church sailing on the Sea of the World. St. Peter coming to
+Christ on the water.
+
+I was too little interested in the vague symbolism of this fresco to
+examine it with care--the rather that the subject beneath, the literal
+contest of the Church with the world, needed more time for study in
+itself alone than I had for all Florence.
+
+On this, and the opposite side of the chapel, are represented, by Simon
+Memmi's hand, the teaching power of the Spirit of God, and the saving
+power of the Christ of God, in the world, according to the understanding
+of Florence in his time.
+
+We will take the side of Intellect first, beneath the pouring forth of
+the Holy Spirit.
+
+In the point of the arch beneath, are the three Evangelical Virtues.
+Without these, says Florence, you can have no science. Without Love,
+Faith, and Hope--no intelligence.
+
+Under these are the four Cardinal Virtues, the entire group being thus
+arranged:--
+
+                         A
+                      B     C
+                   D   E   F   G
+
+A, Charity; flames issuing from her head and hands. B, Faith; holds
+cross and shield, quenching fiery darts. This symbol, so frequent in
+modern adaptation from St. Paul's address to personal faith, is rare in
+older art. C, Hope, with a branch of lilies. D, Temperance; bridles a
+black fish, on which she stands. E, Prudence, with a book. F, Justice,
+with crown and baton. G, Fortitude, with tower and sword.
+
+Under these are the great prophets and apostles; on the left,[Footnote:
+I can't find my note of the first one on the left; answering to Solomon,
+opposite.] David, St. Paul, St. Mark, St. John; on the right, St.
+Matthew, St. Luke, Moses, Isaiah, Solomon. In the midst of the
+Evangelists, St. Thomas Aquinas, seated on a Gothic throne.
+
+Now observe, this throne, with all the canopies below it, and the
+complete representation of the Duomo of Florence opposite, are of
+finished Gothic of Orecagna's school--later than Giotto's Gothic. But
+the building in which the apostles are gathered at the Pentecost is of
+the early Romanesque mosaic school, with a wheel window from the duomo
+of Assisi, and square windows from the Baptistery of Florence. And
+this is always the type of architecture used by Taddeo Gaddi: while
+the finished Gothic could not possibly have been drawn by him, but is
+absolute evidence of the later hand.
+
+Under the line of prophets, as powers summoned by their voices, are
+the mythic figures of the seven theological or spiritual, and the seven
+_ge_ological or natural sciences: and under the feet of each of them,
+the figure of its Captain-teacher to the world.
+
+I had better perhaps give you the names of this entire series of figures
+from left to right at once. You will see presently why they are numbered
+in a reverse order.
+
+                               Beneath whom
+8. Civil Law. The Emperor Justinian. 9. Canon Law. Pope Clement V. 10.
+Practical Theology. Peter Lombard. 11. Contemplative Theology. Dionysius
+the Areopagite. 12. Dogmatic Theology. Boethius. 13. Mystic Theology.
+St. John Damascene. 14. Polemic Theology. St. Augustine. 7. Arithmetic.
+Pythagoras. 6. Geometry. Euclid. 5. Astronomy. Zoroaster. 4. Music.
+Tubalcain. 3. Logic. Aristotle. 2. Rhetoric. Cicero. 1. Grammar.
+Priscian.
+
+Here, then, you have pictorially represented, the system of manly
+education, supposed in old Florence to be that necessarily instituted
+in great earthly kingdoms or republics, animated by the Spirit shed down
+upon the world at Pentecost. How long do you think it will take you,
+or ought to take, to see such a picture? We were to get to work this
+morning, as early as might be: you have probably allowed half an hour
+for Santa Maria Novella; half an hour for San Lorenzo; an hour for the
+museum of sculpture at the Bargello; an hour for shopping; and then it
+will be lunch time, and you mustn't be late, because you are to leave by
+the afternoon train, and must positively be in Rome to-morrow morning.
+Well, of your half-hour for Santa Maria Novella,--after Ghirlandajo's
+choir, Orcagna's transept, and Cimabue's Madonna, and the painted
+windows, have been seen properly, there will remain, suppose, at the
+utmost, a quarter of an hour for the Spanish Chapel. That will give you
+two minutes and a half for each side, two for the ceiling, and three for
+studying Murray's explanations or mine. Two minutes and a half you have
+got, then--(and I observed, during my five weeks' work in the chapel,
+that English visitors seldom gave so much)--to read this scheme given
+you by Simon Memmi of human spiritual education. In order to understand
+the purport of it, in any the smallest degree, you must summon to your
+memory, in the course of these two minutes and a half, what you happen
+to be acquainted with of the doctrines and characters of Pythagoras,
+Zoroaster, Aristotle, Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Augustine, and
+the emperor Justinian, and having further observed the expressions and
+actions attributed by the painter to these personages, judge how far he
+has succeeded in reaching a true and worthy ideal of them, and how large
+or how subordinate a part in his general scheme of human learning he
+supposes their peculiar doctrines properly to occupy. For myself,
+being, to my much sorrow, now an old person; and, to my much pride,
+an old-fashioned one, I have not found my powers either of reading
+or memory in the least increased by any of Mr. Stephenson's or Mr.
+Wheatstone's inventions; and though indeed I came here from Lucca in
+three hours instead of a day, which it used to take, I do not think
+myself able, on that account, to see any picture in Florence in less
+time than it took formerly, or even obliged to hurry myself in any
+investigations connected with it.
+
+Accordingly, I have myself taken five weeks to see the quarter of this
+picture of Simon Memmi's: and can give you a fairly good account of that
+quarter, and some partial account of a fragment or two of those on the
+other walls: but, alas! only of their pictorial qualities in either
+case; for I don't myself know anything whatever, worth trusting to,
+about Pythagoras, or Dionysius the Areopagite; and have not had, and
+never shall have, probably, any time to learn much of them; while in
+the very feeblest light only,--in what the French would express by
+their excellent word 'lueur,'--I am able to understand something of
+the characters of Zoroaster, Aristotle, and Justinian. But this only
+increases in me the reverence with which I ought to stand before the
+work of a painter, who was not only a master of his own craft, but so
+profound a scholar and theologian as to be able to conceive this scheme
+of picture, and write the divine law by which Florence was to live.
+Which Law, written in the northern page of this Vaulted Book, we will
+begin quiet interpretation of, if you care to return hither, to-morrow
+morning.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIFTH MORNING.
+
+THE STRAIT GATE.
+
+
+As you return this morning to St. Mary's, you may as well observe--the
+matter before us being concerning gates,--that the western façade of
+the church is of two periods. Your Murray refers it all to the latest of
+these;--I forget when, and do not care;--in which the largest flanking
+columns, and the entire effective mass of the walls, with their riband
+mosaics and high pediment, were built in front of, and above, what the
+barbarian renaissance designer chose to leave of the pure old Dominican
+church. You may see his ungainly jointings at the pedestals of the great
+columns, running through the pretty, parti-coloured base, which, with
+the 'Strait' Gothic doors, and the entire lines of the fronting and
+flanking tombs (where not restored by the Devil-begotten brood of modern
+Florence), is of pure, and exquisitely severe and refined, fourteenth
+century Gothic, with superbly carved bearings on its shields. The small
+detached line of tombs on the left, untouched in its sweet colour and
+living weed ornament, I would fain have painted, stone by stone: but one
+can never draw in front of a church in these republican days; for all
+the blackguard children of the neighbourhood come to howl, and
+throw stones, on the steps, and the ball or stone play against these
+sculptured tombs, as a dead wall adapted for that purpose only, is
+incessant in the fine days when I could have worked.
+
+If you enter by the door most to the left, or north, and turn
+immediately to the right, on the interior of the wall of the façade is
+an Annunciation, visible enough because well preserved, though in the
+dark, and extremely pretty in its way,--of the decorated and ornamental
+school following Giotto:--I can't guess by whom, nor does it much
+matter; but it is well To look at it by way of contrast with the
+delicate, intense, slightly decorated design of Memmi,--in which, when
+you return into the Spanish chapel, you will feel the dependence for
+its effect on broad masses of white and pale amber, where the decorative
+school would have had mosaic of red, blue, and gold.
+
+Our first business this morning must be to read and understand the
+writing on the book held open by St. Thomas Aquinas, for that informs us
+of the meaning of the whole picture.
+
+It is this text from the Book of Wisdom VII. 6.
+
+            "Optavi, et datus est mihi sensus.
+             Invocavi, et venit in me Spiritus Sapientiae,
+             Et preposui illam regnis et sedibus."
+
+            "I willed, and Sense was given me.
+             I prayed, and the Spirit of Wisdom came upon me.
+             And I set her before, (preferred her to,) kingdoms
+             and thrones."
+
+The common translation in our English Apocrypha loses the entire meaning
+of this passage, which--not only as the statement of the experience of
+Florence in her own education, but as universally descriptive of the
+process of all noble education whatever--we had better take pains to
+understand.
+
+First, says Florence "I willed, (in sense of resolutely desiring,) and
+Sense was given me." You must begin your education with the distinct
+resolution to know what is true, and choice of the strait and rough road
+to such knowledge. This choice is offered to every youth and maid at
+some moment of their life;--choice between the easy downward road, so
+broad that we can dance down it in companies, and the steep narrow way,
+which we must enter alone. Then, and for many a day afterwards, they
+need that form of persistent Option, and Will: but day by day, the
+'Sense' of the rightness of what they have done, deepens on them, not in
+consequence of the effort, but by gift granted in reward of it. And the
+Sense of difference between right and wrong, and between beautiful and
+unbeautiful things, is confirmed in the heroic, and fulfilled in the
+industrious, soul.
+
+That is the process of education in the earthly sciences, and the
+morality connected with them. Reward given to faithful Volition.
+
+Next, when Moral and Physical senses are perfect, comes the desire
+for education in the higher world, where the senses are no more our
+Teachers; but the Maker of the senses. And that teaching, we cannot get
+by labour, but only by petition.
+
+"Invocavi, et venit in me Spiritus Sapientiae"--"I prayed, and the
+Spirit of Wisdom," (not, you observe, _was given_, [Footnote: I in
+careless error, wrote "was given" in 'Fors Clavigera.] but,) "_came_
+upon me." The _personal_ power of Wisdom: the "[Greek: sophia]" or Santa
+Sophia, to whom the first great Christian temple was dedicated. This
+higher wisdom, governing by her presence, all earthly conduct, and by
+her teaching, all earthly art, Florence tells you, she obtained only by
+prayer.
+
+And these two Earthly and Divine sciences are expressed beneath in the
+symbols of their divided powers;--Seven terrestrial, Seven celestial,
+whose names have been already indicated to you:--in which figures I
+must point out one or two technical matters, before touching their
+interpretation. They are all by Simon Memmi originally; but repainted,
+many of them all over, some hundred years later,--(certainly after the
+discovery of America, as you will see)--by an artist of considerable
+power, and some feeling for the general action of the figures; but of no
+refinement or carelessness. He dashes massive paint in huge spaces over
+the subtle old work, puts in his own chiaro-oscuro where all had been
+shadeless, and his own violent colour where all had been pale, and
+repaints the faces so as to make them, to his notion, prettier and more
+human: some of this upper work has, however, come away since, and the
+original outline, at least, is traceable; while in the face of the
+Logic, the Music, and one or two others, the original work is very
+pure. Being most interested myself in the earthly sciences, I had a
+scaffolding put up, made on a level with them, and examined them inch
+by inch, and the following report will be found accurate until next
+repainting.
+
+For interpretation of them, you must always take the central figure of
+the Science, with the little medallion above it, and the figure below,
+all together. Which I proceed to do, reading first from left to right
+for the earthly sciences, and then from right to left the heavenly ones,
+to the centre, where their two highest powers sit, side by side.
+
+We begin, then, with the first in the list given above, (Vaulted Book,
+page 75):--Grammar, in the corner farthest from the window.
+
+1. GRAMMAR: more properly Grammaticë, "Grammatic Act" the Art of
+_Letters_ or "Literature," or using the word which to some English ears
+will carry most weight with it,--"Scripture," and its use. The Art
+of faithfully reading what has been written for our learning; and of
+clearly writing what we would make immortal of our thoughts. Power
+which consists first in recognizing letters; secondly, in forming them;
+thirdly, in the understanding and choice of words which errorless shall
+express our thought. Severe exercises all, reaching--very few living
+persons know, how far: beginning properly in childhood, then only to be
+truly acquired. It is wholly impossible--this I say from too sorrowful
+experience--to conquer by any effort or time, habits of the hand (much
+more of head and soul) with which the vase of flesh has been formed and
+filled in youth,--the law of God being that parents shall compel the
+child in the day of its obedience into habits of hand, and eye,
+and soul, which, when it is old, shall not, by any strength, or any
+weakness, be departed from.
+
+"Enter ye in," therefore, says Grammaticë, "at the Strait Gate." She
+points through it with her rod, holding a fruit(?) for reward, in her
+left hand. The gate is very strait indeed--her own waist no less so,
+her hair fastened close. She had once a white veil binding it, which is
+lost. Not a gushing form of literature, this,--or in any wise disposed
+to subscribe to Mudie's, my English friends--or even patronize Tauchnitz
+editions of--what is the last new novel you see ticketed up today in
+Mr. Goodban's window? She looks kindly down, nevertheless, to the three
+children whom she is teaching--two boys and a girl: (Qy. Does this mean
+that one girl out of every two should not be able to read or write? I am
+quite willing to accept that inference, for my own part,--should perhaps
+even say, two girls out of three). This girl is of the highest classes,
+crowned, her golden hair falling behind her the Florentine girdle round
+her hips--(not waist, the object being to leave the lungs full play; but
+to keep the dress always well down in dancing or running). The boys are
+of good birth also, the nearest one with luxuriant curly hair--only
+the profile of the farther one seen. All reverent and eager. Above, the
+medallion is of a figure looking at a fountain. Underneath, Lord Lindsay
+says, Priscian, and is, I doubt not, right.
+
+_Technical Points_.--The figure is said by Crowe to be entirely
+repainted. The dress is so throughout--both the hands also, and the
+fruit, and rod. But the eyes, mouth, hair above the forehead, and
+outline of the rest, with the faded veil, and happily, the traces left
+of the children, are genuine; the strait gate perfectly so, in the
+colour underneath, though reinforced; and the action of the entire
+figure is well preserved: but there is a curious question about both
+the rod and fruit. Seen close, the former perfectly assumes the shape
+of folds of dress gathered up over the raised right arm, and I am not
+absolutely sure that the restorer has not mistaken the folds--at the
+same time changing a pen or style into a rod. The fruit also I have
+doubts of, as fruit is not so rare at Florence that it should be made a
+reward. It is entirely and roughly repainted, and is oval in shape. In
+Giotto's Charity, luckily not restored, at Assisi, the guide-books have
+always mistaken the heart she holds for an apple:--and my own belief is
+that originally, the Grammaticë of Simon Memmi made with her right hand
+the sign which said, "Enter ye in at the Strait Gate," and with her
+left, the sign which said, "My son, give me thine Heart."
+
+II. RHETORIC. Next to learning how to read and write, you are to learn
+to speak; and, young ladies and gentlemen, observe,--to speak as little
+as possible, it is farther implied, till you _have_ learned.
+
+In the streets of Florence at this day you may hear much of what some
+people call "rhetoric"--very passionate speaking indeed, and quite "from
+the heart"--such hearts as the people have got. That is to say, you
+never hear a word uttered but in a rage, either just ready to burst,
+or for the most part, explosive instantly: everybody--man, woman, or
+child--roaring out their incontinent, foolish, infinitely contemptible
+opinions and wills, on every smallest occasion, with flashing
+eyes, hoarsely shrieking and wasted voices,--insane hope to drag by
+vociferation whatever they would have, out of man and God.
+
+Now consider Simon Memmi's Rhetoric. The Science of Speaking, primarily;
+of making oneself _heard_ therefore: which is not to be done by
+shouting. She alone, of all the sciences, carries a scroll: and being a
+speaker gives you something to read. It is not thrust forward at you at
+all, but held quietly down with her beautiful depressed right hand; her
+left hand set coolly and strongly on her side.
+
+And you will find that, thus, she alone of all the sciences _needs no
+use of her hands_. All the others have some important business for them.
+She none. She can do all with her lips, holding scroll, or bridle, or
+what you will, with her right hand, her left on her side.
+
+Again, look at the talkers in the streets of Florence, and see how,
+being essentially _un_able to talk, they try to make lips of their
+fingers! How they poke, wave, flourish, point, jerk, shake finger and
+fist at their antagonists--dumb essentially, all the while, if they knew
+it; unpersuasive and ineffectual, as the shaking of tree branches in the
+wind.
+
+You will at first think her figure ungainly and stiff. It is so, partly,
+the dress being more coarsely repainted than in any other of the series.
+But she is meant to be both stout and strong. What she has to say is
+indeed to persuade you, if possible; but assuredly to overpower you. And
+_she_ has not the Florentine girdle, for she does not want to move. She
+has her girdle broad at the waist--of all the sciences, you would at
+first have thought, the one that most needed breath! No, says Simon
+Memmi. You want breath to run, or dance, or fight with. But to
+speak!--If you know _how_, you can do your work with few words; very
+little of this pure Florentine air will be enough, if you shape it
+rightly.
+
+Note, also, that calm setting of her hand against her side. You think
+Rhetoric should be glowing, fervid, impetuous? No, says Simon Memmi.
+Above all things,--_cool_.
+
+And now let us read what is written on her scroll:--Mulceo, dum loquor,
+varios induta colores.
+
+Her chief function, to melt; make soft, thaw the hearts of men with kind
+fire; to overpower with peace; and bring rest, with rainbow colours. The
+chief mission of all words that they should be of comfort.
+
+You think the function of words is to excite? Why, a red rag will do
+that, or a blast through a brass pipe. But to give calm and gentle heat;
+to be as the south wind, and the iridescent rain, to all bitterness
+of frost; and bring at once strength, and healing. This is the work of
+human lips, taught of God.
+
+One farther and final lesson is given in the medallion above. Aristotle,
+and too many modern rhetoricians of his school, thought there could
+be good speaking in a false cause. But above Simon Memmi's Rhetoric is
+_Truth_, with her mirror.
+
+There is a curious feeling, almost innate in men, that though they are
+bound to speak truth, in speaking to a single person, they may lie as
+much as they please, provided they lie to two or more people at once.
+There is the same feeling about killing: most people would shrink from
+shooting one innocent man; but will fire a mitrailleuse contentedly into
+an innocent regiment.
+
+When you look down from the figure of the Science, to that of Cicero,
+beneath, you will at first think it entirely overthrows my conclusion
+that Rhetoric has no need of her hands. For Cicero, it appears, has
+three instead of two.
+
+The uppermost, at his chin, is the only genuine one. That raised, with
+the finger up, is entirely false. That on the book, is repainted so as
+to defy conjecture of its original action.
+
+But observe how the gesture of the true one confirms instead of
+overthrowing what I have said above. Cicero is not speaking at all,
+but profoundly thinking _before_ he speaks. It is the most abstractedly
+thoughtful face to be found among all the philosophers; and very
+beautiful. The whole is under Solomon, in the line of Prophets.
+
+_Technical Points_.--These two figures have suffered from restoration
+more than any others, but the right hand of Rhetoric is still entirely
+genuine, and the left, except the ends of the fingers. The ear, and hair
+just above it, are quite safe, the head well set on its original line,
+but the crown of leaves rudely retouched, and then faded. All the lower
+part of the figure of Cicero has been not only repainted but changed;
+the face is genuine--I believe retouched, but so cautiously and
+skilfully, that it is probably now more beautiful than at first.
+
+III. LOGIC. The science of reasoning, or more accurately Reason herself,
+or pure intelligence.
+
+Science to be gained after that of Expression, says Simon Memmi; so,
+young people, it appears, that though you must not speak before you have
+been taught how to speak, you may yet properly speak before you have
+been taught how to think.
+
+For indeed, it is only by frank speaking that you _can_ learn how to
+think. And it is no matter how wrong the first thoughts you have may
+be, provided you express them clearly;--and are willing to have them put
+right.
+
+Fortunately, nearly all of this beautiful figure is practically safe,
+the outlines pure everywhere, and the face perfect: the _prettiest_,
+as far as I know, which exists in Italian art of this early date. It is
+subtle to the extreme in gradations of colour: the eyebrows drawn, not
+with a sweep of the brush, but with separate cross touches in the line
+of their growth--exquisitely pure in arch; the nose straight and fine;
+the lips--playful slightly, proud, unerringly cut; the hair flowing in
+sequent waves, ordered as if in musical time; head perfectly upright on
+the shoulders; the height of the brow completed by a crimson frontlet
+set with pearls, surmounted by a _fleur-de-lys_.
+
+Her shoulders were exquisitely drawn, her white jacket fitting close
+to soft, yet scarcely rising breasts; her arms singularly strong, at
+perfect rest; her hands, exquisitely delicate. In her right, she holds a
+branching and leaf-bearing rod, (the syllogism); in her left, a scorpion
+with double sting, (the dilemma)--more generally, the powers of rational
+construction and dissolution.
+
+Beneath her, Aristotle,--intense keenness of search in his half-closed
+eyes.
+
+Medallion above, (less expressive than usual) a man writing, with his
+head stooped.
+
+The whole under Isaiah, in the line of Prophets.
+
+_Technical Points_.--The only parts of this figure which have suffered
+seriously in repainting are the leaves of the rod, and the scorpion. I
+have no idea, as I said above, what the background once was; it is now a
+mere mess of scrabbled grey, carried over the vestiges, still with care
+much redeemable, of the richly ornamental extremity of the rod, which
+was a cluster of green leaves on a black ground. But the scorpion is
+indecipherably injured, most of it confused repainting, mixed with the
+white of the dress, the double sting emphatic enough still, but not on
+the first lines.
+
+The Aristotle is very genuine throughout, except his hat, and I think
+that must be pretty nearly on the old lines, through I cannot trace
+them. They are good lines, new or old.
+
+IV. MUSIC. After you have learned to reason, young people, of course you
+will be very grave, if not dull, you think. No, says Simon Memmi. By no
+means anything of the kind. After learning to reason, you will learn to
+sing; for you will want to. There is so much reason for singing in the
+sweet world, when one thinks rightly of it. None for grumbling, provided
+always you _have_ entered in at the strait gate. You will sing all along
+the road then, in a little while, in a manner pleasant for other people
+to hear.
+
+This figure has been one of the loveliest in the series, an extreme
+refinement and tender severity being aimed at throughout. She is
+crowned, not with laurel, but with small leaves,--I am not sure what
+they are, being too much injured: the face thin, abstracted, wistful;
+the lips not far open in their low singing; the hair rippling softly on
+the shoulders. She plays on a small organ, richly ornamented with Gothic
+tracery, the down slope of it set with crockets like those of Santa
+Maria del Fiore. Simon Memmi means that _all_ music must be "sacred."
+Not that you are never to sing anything but hymns, but that whatever
+is rightly called music, or work of the Muses, is divine in help and
+healing.
+
+The actions of both hands are singularly sweet. The right is one of the
+loveliest things I ever saw done in painting. She is keeping down one
+note only, with her third finger, seen under the raised fourth: the
+thumb, just passing under; all the curves of the fingers exquisite, and
+the pale light and shade of the rosy flesh relieved against the ivory
+white and brown of the notes. Only the thumb and end of the forefinger
+are seen of the left hand, but they indicate enough its light pressure
+on the bellows. Fortunately, all these portions of the fresco are
+absolutely intact.
+
+Underneath, Tubal-Cain. Not Jubal, as you would expect. Jubal is
+the inventor of musical instruments. Tubal-Cain, thought the old
+Florentines, invented harmony. They, the best smiths in the world, knew
+the differences in tones of hammer strokes on anvil. Curiously enough,
+the only piece of true part-singing, done beautifully and joyfully,
+which I have heard this year in Italy, (being south of Alps exactly six
+months, and ranging from Genoa to Palermo) was out of a busy smithy
+at Perugia. Of bestial howling, and entirely frantic vomiting up of
+hopelessly damned souls through their still carnal throats, I have heard
+more than, please God, I will ever endure the hearing of again in one of
+His summers.
+
+You think Tubal-Cain very ugly? Yes. Much like a shaggy baboon:
+not accidentally, but with most scientific understanding of baboon
+character. Men must have looked like that, before they had invented
+harmony, or felt that one note differed from another, says, and knows
+Simon Memmi. Darwinism, like all widely popular and widely mischievous
+fallacies, has many a curious gleam and grain of truth in its tissue.
+
+Under Moses.
+
+Medallion, a youth drinking. Otherwise, you might have thought only
+church music meant, and not feast music also.
+
+_Technical Points_.--The Tubal-Cain, one of the most entirely pure and
+precious remnants of the old painting, nothing lost: nothing but the
+redder ends of his beard retouched. Green dress of Music, in the body
+and over limbs entirely repainted: it was once beautifully embroidered;
+sleeves, partly genuine, hands perfect, face and hair nearly so. Leaf
+crown faded and broken away, but not retouched.
+
+V. ASTRONOMY. Properly Astro-logy, as (Theology) the knowledge of so
+much of the stars as we can know wisely; not the attempt to define their
+laws for them. Not that it is unbecoming of us to find out, if we can,
+that they move in ellipses, and so on; but it is no business of ours.
+What effects their rising and setting have on man, and beast, and leaf;
+what their times and changes are, seen and felt in this world, it is
+our business to know, passing our nights, if wakefully, by that divine
+candlelight, and no other.
+
+She wears a dark purple robe; holds in her left hand the hollow globe
+with golden zodiac and meridians: lifts her right hand in noble awe.
+
+"When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the
+stars, which Thou hast ordained."
+
+Crowned with gold, her dark hair in elliptic waves, bound with
+glittering chains of pearl. Her eyes dark, lifted.
+
+Beneath her, Zoroaster,[Footnote: Atlas! according to poor Vasari,
+and sundry modern guides. I find Vasari's mistakes usually of this
+_brightly_ blundering kind. In matters needing research, after a while,
+I find _he_ is right, usually.] entirely noble and beautiful, the
+delicate Persian head made softer still by the elaborately wreathed
+silken hair, twisted into the pointed beard, and into tapering plaits,
+falling on his shoulders. The head entirely thrown back, he looks up
+with no distortion of the delicately arched brow: writing, as he gazes.
+
+For the association of the religion of the Magi with their own in the
+mind of the Florentines of this time, see "Before the Soldan."
+
+The dress must always have been white, because of its beautiful
+opposition to the purple above and that of Tubal-Cain beside it. But it
+has been too much repainted to be trusted anywhere, nothing left but
+a fold or two in the sleeves. The cast of it from the knees down is
+entirely beautiful, and I suppose on the old lines; but the restorer
+could throw a fold well when he chose. The warm light which relieves the
+purple of Zoroaster above, is laid in by him. I don't know if I should
+have liked it better, flat, as it was, against the dark purple; it
+seems to me quite beautiful now. The full red flush on the face of the
+Astronomy is the restorer's doing also. She was much paler, if not quite
+pale.
+
+Under St. Luke.
+
+Medallion, a stern man, with sickle and spade. For the flowers, and for
+us, when stars have risen and set such and such times;--remember.
+
+_Technical Points_.--Left hand globe, most of the important folds of
+the purple dress, eyes, mouth, hair in great part, and crown, genuine.
+Golden tracery on border of dress lost; extremity of falling folds from
+left sleeve altered and confused, but the confusion prettily got out of.
+Right hand and much of face and body of dress repainted.
+
+Zoroaster's head quite pure. Dress repainted, but carefully, leaving
+the hair untouched. Right hand and pen, now a common feathered quill,
+entirely repainted, but dexterously and with feeling. The hand was once
+slightly different in position, and held, most probably, a reed.
+
+VI. GEOMETRY. You have now learned, young ladies and gentlemen, to read,
+to speak, to think, to sing, and to see. You are getting old, and will
+have soon to think of being married; you must learn to build your house,
+therefore. Here is your carpenter's square for you, and you may safely
+and wisely contemplate the ground a little, and the measures and laws
+relating to that, seeing you have got to abide upon it:--and that
+you have properly looked at the stars; not before then, lest, had you
+studied the ground first, you might perchance never have raised your
+heads from it. This is properly the science of all laws of practical
+labour, issuing in beauty.
+
+She looks down, a little puzzled, greatly interested, holding her
+carpenter's square in her left hand, not wanting that but for practical
+work; following a diagram with her right.
+
+Her beauty, altogether soft and in curves, I commend to your notice,
+as the exact opposite of what a vulgar designer would have imagined
+for her. Note the wreath of hair at the back of her head, which though
+fastened by a _spiral_ fillet, escapes at last, and flies off loose in a
+sweeping curve. Contemplative Theology is the only other of the sciences
+who has such wavy hair.
+
+Beneath her, Euclid, in white turban. Very fine and original work
+throughout; but nothing of special interest in him.
+
+Under St. Matthew.
+
+Medallion, a soldier with a straight sword (best for science of
+defence), octagon shield, helmet like the beehive of Canton Vaud. As the
+secondary use of music in feasting, so the secondary use of geometry
+in war--her noble art being all in sweetest peace--is shown in the
+medallion.
+
+_Technical Points_.--It is more than fortunate that in nearly every
+figure, the original outline of the hair is safe. Geometry's has
+scarcely been retouched at all, except at the ends, once in single
+knots, now in confused double ones. The hands, girdle, most of her
+dress, and her black carpenter's square are original. Face and breast
+repainted.
+
+VII. ARITHMETIC. Having built your house, young people, and
+understanding the light of heaven, and the measures of earth, you may
+marry--and can't do better. And here is now your conclusive science,
+which you will have to apply, all your days, to all your affairs.
+
+The Science of Number. Infinite in solemnity of use in Italy at this
+time; including, of course, whatever was known of the higher abstract
+mathematics and mysteries of numbers, but reverenced especially in its
+vital necessity to the prosperity of families and kingdoms, and first
+fully so understood here in commercial Florence.
+
+Her hand lifted, with two fingers bent, two straight, solemnly
+enforcing on your attention her primal law--Two and two are--four, you
+observe,--not five, as those accursed usurers think.
+
+Under her, Pythagoras.
+
+Above, medallion of king, with sceptre and globe, counting money. Have
+you ever chanced to read carefully Carlyle's account of the foundation
+of the existing Prussian empire, in economy?
+
+You can, at all events, consider with yourself a little, what empire
+this queen of the terrestrial sciences must hold over the rest, if they
+are to be put to good use; or what depth and breadth of application
+there is in the brief parables of the counted cost of Power, and number
+of Armies.
+
+To give a very minor, but characteristic, instance. I have always felt
+that with my intense love of the Alps, I ought to have been able to make
+a drawing of Chamouni, or the vale of Cluse, which should give people
+more pleasure than a photograph; but I always wanted to do it as I saw
+it, and engrave pine for pine, and crag for crag, like Albert Dürer.
+I broke my strength down for many a year, always tiring of my work,
+or finding the leaves drop off, or the snow come on, before I had well
+begun what I meant to do. If I had only _counted_ my pines first, and
+calculated the number of hours necessary to do them in the manner of
+Dürer, I should have saved the available drawing time of some five
+years, spent in vain effort.
+
+But Turner counted his pines, and did all that could be done for them,
+and rested content with that.
+
+So in all the affairs of life, the arithmetical part of the business is
+the dominant one. How many and how much have we? How many and how much
+do we want? How constantly does noble Arithmetic of the finite lose
+itself in base Avarice of the Infinite, and in blind imagination of it!
+In counting of minutes, is our arithmetic ever solicitous enough?
+In counting our days, is she ever severe enough? How we shrink from
+putting, in their decades, the diminished store of them! And if we ever
+pray the solemn prayer that we may be taught to number them, do we even
+try to do it after praying?
+
+_Technical Points_.--The Pythagoras almost entirely genuine. The upper
+figures, from this inclusive to the outer wall, I have not been able to
+examine thoroughly, my scaffolding not extending beyond the Geometry.
+
+Here then we have the sum of sciences,--seven, according to the
+Florentine mind--necessary to the secular education of man and woman. Of
+these the modern average respectable English gentleman and gentlewoman
+know usually only a little of the last, and entirely hate the prudent
+applications of that: being unacquainted, except as they chance here
+and there to pick up a broken piece of information, with either grammar,
+rhetoric, music, [Footnote: Being able to play the piano and admire
+Mendelssohn is not knowing music.] astronomy, or geometry; and are not
+only unacquainted with logic, or the use of reason, themselves, but
+instinctively antagonistic to its use by anybody else.
+
+We are now to read the series of the Divine sciences, beginning at the
+opposite side, next the window.
+
+VIII. CIVIL LAW. Civil, or 'of citizens,' not only as distinguished from
+Ecclesiastical, but from Local law. She is the universal Justice of
+the peaceful relations of men throughout the world, therefore holds the
+globe, with its _three_ quarters, white, as being justly governed, in
+her left hand.
+
+She is also the law of eternal equity, not erring statute; therefore
+holds her sword _level_ across her breast. She is the foundation of
+all other divine science. To know anything whatever about God, you must
+begin by being Just.
+
+Dressed in red, which in these frescoes is always a sign of power,
+or zeal; but her face very calm, gentle and beautiful. Her hair bound
+close, and crowned by the royal circlet of gold, with pure thirteenth
+century strawberry leaf ornament.
+
+Under her, the Emperor Justinian, in blue, with conical mitre of white
+and gold; the face in profile, very beautiful. The imperial staff in his
+right hand, the Institutes in his left.
+
+Medallion, a figure, apparently in distress, appealing for justice.
+(Trajan's suppliant widow?)
+
+_Technical Points_.--The three divisions of the globe in her hand were
+originally inscribed ASIA, AFRICA, EUROPE. The restorer has ingeniously
+changed AF into AME--RICA. Faces, both of the science and emperor,
+little retouched, nor any of the rest altered.
+
+IX. CHRISTIAN LAW. After the justice which rules men, comes that which
+rules the Church of Christ. The distinction is not between secular law,
+and ecclesiastical authority, but between the equity of humanity, and
+the law of Christian discipline.
+
+In full, straight-falling, golden robe, with white mantle over it; a
+church in her left hand; her right raised, with the forefinger lifted;
+(indicating heavenly source of all Christian law? or warning?)
+
+Head-dress, a white veil floating into folds in the air. You will find
+nothing in these frescoes without significance; and as the escaping hair
+of Geometry indicates the infinite conditions of lines of the higher
+orders, so the floating veil here indicates that the higher relations of
+Christian justice are indefinable. So her golden mantle indicates that
+it is a glorious and excellent justice beyond that which unchristian men
+conceive; while the severely falling lines of the folds, which form a
+kind of gabled niche for the head of the Pope beneath, correspond with
+the strictness of true Church discipline firmer as well as more luminous
+statute.
+
+Beneath, Pope Clement V., in red, lifting his hand, not in the position
+of benediction, but, I suppose, of injunction,--only the forefinger
+straight, the second a little bent, the two last quite. Note the strict
+level of the book; and the vertical directness of the key.
+
+The medallion puzzles me. It looks like a figure counting money.
+
+_Technical Points_.--Fairly well preserved; but the face of the science
+retouched: the grotesquely false perspective of the Pope's tiara, one of
+the most curiously naïve examples of the entirely ignorant feeling after
+merely scientific truth of form which still characterized Italian art.
+
+Type of church interesting in its extreme simplicity; no idea of
+transept, campanile, or dome.
+
+X. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. The beginning of the knowledge of God being Human
+Justice, and its elements defined by Christian Law, the application of
+the law so defined follows, first with respect to man, then with respect
+to God.
+
+"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's--and to God the things
+that are God's."
+
+We have therefore now two sciences, one of our duty--to men, the other
+to their Maker.
+
+This is the first: duty to men. She holds a circular medallion,
+representing Christ preaching on the Mount, and points with her right
+hand to the earth.
+
+The sermon on the Mount is perfectly expressed by the craggy pinnacle
+in front of Christ, and the high dark horizon. There is curious evidence
+throughout all these frescos of Simon Memmi's having read the Gospels
+with a quite clear understanding of their innermost meaning.
+
+I have called this science Practical Theology:--the instructive
+knowledge, that is to say, of what God would have us do, personally, in
+any given human relation: and the speaking His Gospel therefore by act.
+"Let your light so shine before men."
+
+She wears a green dress, like Music her hair in the Arabian arch, with
+jewelled diadem.
+
+Under David. Medallion, Almsgiving. Beneath her, Peter Lombard,
+
+_Technical Points_.--It is curious that while the instinct of
+perspective was not strong enough to enable any painter at this time to
+foreshorten a foot, it yet suggested to them the expression of elevation
+by raising the horizon.
+
+I have not examined the retouching. The hair and diadem at least are
+genuine, the face is dignified and compassionate, and much on the old
+lines.
+
+XI. DEVOTIONAL THEOLOGY.--Giving glory to God, or, more accurately,
+whatever feelings He desires us to have towards Him, whether of
+affection or awe.
+
+This is the science or method of _devotion_ for Christians universally,
+just as the Practical Theology is their science or method of _action_.
+
+In blue and red: a narrow black rod still traceable in the left hand; I
+am not sure of its meaning. ("Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me?")
+The other hand open in admiration, like Astronomy's; but Devotion's is
+held at her breast. Her head very characteristic of Memmi, with
+upturned eyes, and Arab arch in hair. Under her, Dionysius the
+Areopagite--mending his pen! But I am doubtful of Lord Lindsay's
+identification of this figure, and the action is curiously common and
+meaningless. It may have meant that meditative theology is essentially a
+writer, not a preacher.
+
+The medallion, on the other hand, is as ingenious. A mother lifting her
+hands in delight at her child's beginning to take notice.
+
+Under St. Paul.
+
+_Technical Points_.--Both figures very genuine, the lower one almost
+entirely so. The painting of the red book is quite exemplary in fresco
+style.
+
+XII. DOGMATIC THEOLOGY.--After action and worship, thought becoming too
+wide and difficult, the need of dogma becomes felt; the assertion, that
+is, within limited range, of the things that are to be believed.
+
+Since whatever pride and folly pollute Christian scholarship naturally
+delight in dogma, the science itself cannot but be in a kind of disgrace
+among sensible men: nevertheless it would be difficult to overvalue the
+peace and security which have been given to humble persons by forms of
+creed; and it is evident that either there is no such thing as theology,
+or some of its knowledge must be thus, if not expressible, at least
+reducible within certain limits of expression, so as to be protected
+from misinterpretation.
+
+In red,--again the sign of power,--crowned with a black (once golden?)
+triple crown, emblematic of the Trinity. The left hand holding a scoop
+for winnowing corn; the other points upwards. "Prove all things--hold
+fast that which is good, or of God."
+
+Beneath her, Boethius. Under St. Mark. Medallion, female figure, laying
+hands on breast.
+
+_Technical Points_.--The Boethius entirely genuine, and the painting of
+his black book, as of the red one beside it, again worth notice, showing
+how pleasant and interesting the commonest things become, when well
+painted.
+
+I have not examined the upper figure.
+
+XIII. MYSTIC THEOLOGY. [Footnote: Blunderingly in the guide-books called
+'Faith!'] Monastic science, above dogma, and attaining to new revelation
+by reaching higher spiritual states.
+
+In white robes, her left hand gloved (I don't know why)--holding
+chalice. She wears a nun's veil fastened under her chin, her hair
+fastened close, like Grammar's, showing her necessary monastic life;
+all states of mystic spiritual life involving retreat from much that is
+allowable in the material and practical world.
+
+There is no possibility of denying this fact, infinite as the evils are
+which have arisen from misuse of it. They have been chiefly induced by
+persons who falsely pretended to lead monastic life, and led it without
+having natural faculty for it. But many more lamentable errors have
+arisen from the pride of really noble persons, who have thought it would
+be a more pleasing thing to God to be a sibyl or a witch, than a useful
+housewife. Pride is always somewhat involved even in the true effort:
+the scarlet head-dress in the form of a horn on the forehead in the
+fresco indicates this, both here, and in the Contemplative Theology.
+
+Under St. John.
+
+Medallion unintelligible, to me. A woman laying hands on the shoulders
+of two small figures.
+
+_Technical Points_.--More of the minute folds of the white dress left
+than in any other of the repainted draperies. It is curious that minute
+division has always in drapery, more or less, been understood as an
+expression of spiritual life, from the delicate folds of Athena's peplus
+down to the rippled edges of modern priests' white robes; Titian's
+breadth of fold, on the other hand, meaning for the most part bodily
+power. The relation of the two modes of composition was lost by Michael
+Angelo, who thought to express spirit by making flesh colossal.
+
+For the rest, the figure is not of any interest, Memmi's own mind being
+intellectual rather than mystic.
+
+XIV. POLEMIC THEOLOGY.[Footnote: Blunderingly called 'Charity' in the
+guide-books.]
+
+"Who goes forth, conquering and to conquer?" "For we war, not with flesh
+and blood," etc.
+
+In red, as sign of power, but not in armour, because she is herself
+invulnerable. A close red cap, with cross for crest, instead of helmet.
+Bow in left hand; long arrow in right.
+
+She partly means Aggressive Logic: compare the set of her shoulders and
+arms with Logic's.
+
+She is placed the last of the Divine sciences, not as their culminating
+power, but as the last which can be rightly learned. You must know all
+the others, before you go out to battle. Whereas the general principle
+of modern Christendom is to go out to battle without knowing _any one_
+of the others; one of the reasons for this error, the prince of errors,
+being the vulgar notion that truth may be ascertained by debate! Truth
+is never learned, in any department of industry, by arguing, but by
+working, and observing. And when you have got good hold of one
+truth, for certain, two others will grow out of it, in a beautifully
+dicotyledonous fashion, (which, as before noticed, is the meaning of
+the branch in Logic's right hand). Then, when you have got so much true
+knowledge as is worth fighting for, you are bound to fight for it. But
+not to debate about it, any more.
+
+There is, however, one further reason for Polemic Theology being put
+beside Mystic. It is only in some approach to mystic science that any
+man becomes aware of what St. Paul means by "spiritual wickedness in
+heavenly [Footnote: With cowardly intentional fallacy, translated 'high'
+in the English Bible.] places;" or, in any true sense, knows the enemies
+of God and of man.
+
+Beneath St. Augustine. Showing you the proper method of
+controversy;--perfectly firm; perfectly gentle.
+
+You are to distinguish, of course, controversy from rebuke. The
+assertion of truth is to be always gentle: the chastisement of wilful
+falsehood may be--very much the contrary indeed. Christ's sermon on the
+Mount is full of polemic theology, yet perfectly gentle:--"Ye have heard
+that it hath been said--but _I_ say unto you";--"And if ye salute your
+brethren only, what do ye more than others?" and the like. But His "Ye
+fools and blind, for whether is greater," is not merely the exposure of
+error, but rebuke of the avarice which made that error possible.
+
+Under the throne of St. Thomas; and next to Arithmetic, of the
+terrestrial sciences.
+
+Medallion, a soldier, but not interesting.
+
+Technical Points.--Very genuine and beautiful throughout. Note the use
+of St. Augustine's red bands, to connect him with the full red of the
+upper figures; and compare the niche formed by the dress of Canon Law,
+above the Pope, for different artistic methods of attaining the same
+object,--unity of composition.
+
+But lunch time is near, my friends, and you have that shopping to do,
+you know.
+
+
+
+
+THE SIXTH MORNING.
+
+THE SHEPHERD'S TOWER.
+
+
+I am obliged to interrupt my account of the Spanish chapel by the
+following notes on the sculptures of Giotto's Campanile: first because
+I find that inaccurate accounts of those sculptures are in course of
+publication; and chiefly because I cannot finish my work in the Spanish
+chapel until one of my good Oxford helpers, Mr. Caird, has completed
+some investigations he has undertaken for me upon the history connected
+with it. I had written my own analysis of the fourth side, believing
+that in every scene of it the figure of St. Dominic was repeated. Mr.
+Caird first suggested, and has shown me already good grounds for his
+belief,[Footnote: He wrote thus to me on 11th November last: "The three
+preachers are certainly different. The first is Dominic; the second,
+Peter Martyr, whom I have identified from his martyrdom on the other
+wall; and the third, Aquinas."] that the preaching monks represented
+are in each scene intended for a different person. I am informed also
+of several careless mistakes which have got into my description of the
+fresco of the Sciences; and finally, another of my young helpers, Mr.
+Charles F. Murray,--one, however, whose help is given much in the form
+of antagonism,--informs me of various critical discoveries lately made,
+both by himself, and by industrious Germans, of points respecting the
+authenticity of this and that, which will require notice from me: more
+especially he tells me of certification that the picture in the Uffizii,
+of which I accepted the ordinary attribution to Giotto, is by Lorenzo
+Monaco,--which indeed may well be, without in the least diminishing the
+use to you of what I have written of its predella, and without in the
+least, if you think rightly of the matter, diminishing your confidence
+in what I tell you of Giotto generally. There is one kind of knowledge
+of pictures which is the artist's, and another which is the antiquary's
+and the picture-dealer's; the latter especially acute, and founded on
+very secure and wide knowledge of canvas, pigment, and tricks of touch,
+without, necessarily, involving any knowledge whatever of the qualities
+of art itself. There are few practised dealers in the great cities of
+Europe whose opinion would not be more trustworthy than mine, (if you
+could _get_ it, mind you,) on points of actual authenticity. But they
+could only tell you whether the picture was by such and such a master,
+and not at all what either the master or his work were good for. Thus,
+I have, before now, taken drawings by Varley and by Cousins for early
+studies by Turner, and have been convinced by the dealers that they knew
+better than I, as far as regarded the authenticity of those drawings;
+but the dealers don't know Turner, or the worth of him, so well as I,
+for all that. So also, you may find me again and again mistaken among
+the much more confused work of the early Giottesque schools, as to the
+authenticity of this work or the other; but you will find (and I say it
+with far more sorrow than pride) that I am simply the only person who
+can at present tell you the real worth of _any_; you will find that
+whenever I tell you to look at a picture, it is worth your pains;
+and whenever I tell you the character of a painter, that it _is_ his
+character, discerned by me faithfully in spite of all confusion of work
+falsely attributed to him in which similar character may exist. Thus,
+when I mistook Cousins for Turner, I was looking at a piece of subtlety
+in the sky of which the dealer had no consciousness whatever, which was
+essentially Turneresque, but which another man might sometimes equal;
+whereas the dealer might be only looking at the quality of Whatman's
+paper, which Cousins used, and Turner did not.
+
+Not, in the meanwhile, to leave you quite guideless as to the main
+subject of the fourth fresco in the Spanish chapel,--the Pilgrim's
+Progress of Florence,--here is a brief map of it:
+
+On the right, in lowest angle, St. Dominic preaches to the group of
+Infidels; in the next group towards the left, he (or some one very like
+him) preaches to the Heretics: the Heretics proving obstinate, he sets
+his dogs at them, as at the fatallest of wolves, who being driven away,
+the rescued lambs are gathered at the feet of the Pope. I have copied
+the head of the very pious, but slightly weak-minded, little lamb in the
+centre, to compare with my rough Cumberland ones, who have had no such
+grave experiences. The whole group, with the Pope above, (the niche of
+the Duomo joining with and enriching the decorative power of his mitre,)
+is a quite delicious piece of design.
+
+The Church being thus pacified, is seen in worldly honour under the
+powers of the Spiritual and Temporal Rulers. The Pope, with Cardinal
+and Bishop descending in order on his right; the Emperor, with King and
+Baron descending in order on his left; the ecclesiastical body of the
+whole Church on the right side, and the laity,--chiefly its poets and
+artists, on the left.
+
+Then, the redeemed Church nevertheless giving itself up to the vanities
+and temptations of the world, its forgetful saints are seen feasting,
+with their children dancing before them, (the Seven Mortal Sins, say
+some commentators). But the wise-hearted of them confess their sins
+to another ghost of St. Dominic; and confessed, becoming as little
+children, enter hand in hand the gate of the Eternal Paradise, crowned
+with flowers by the waiting angels, and admitted by St. Peter among the
+serenely joyful crowd of all the saints, above whom the white Madonna
+stands reverently before the throne. There is, so far as I know,
+throughout all the schools of Christian art, no other so perfect
+statement of the noble policy and religion of men.
+
+I had intended to give the best account of it in my power; but, when at
+Florence, lost all time for writing that I might copy the group of the
+Pope and Emperor for the schools of Oxford; and the work since done
+by Mr. Caird has informed me of so much, and given me, in some of its
+suggestions, so much to think of, that I believe it will be best and
+most just to print at once his account of the fresco as a supplement
+to these essays of mine, merely indicating any points on which I have
+objections to raise, and so leave matters till Fors lets me see Florence
+once more.
+
+Perhaps she may, in kindness forbid my ever seeing it more, the wreck
+of it being now too ghastly and heartbreaking to any human soul that
+remembers the days of old. Forty years ago, there was assuredly no spot
+of ground, out of Palestine, in all the round world, on which, if you
+knew, even but a little, the true course of that world's history, you
+saw with so much joyful reverence the dawn of morning, as at the foot of
+the Tower of Giotto. For there the traditions of faith and hope, of
+both the Gentile and Jewish races, met for their beautiful labour: the
+Baptistery of Florence is the last building raised on the earth by the
+descendants of the workmen taught by Dædalus: and the Tower of Giotto is
+the loveliest of those raised on earth under the inspiration of the men
+who lifted up the tabernacle in the wilderness. Of living Greek work
+there is none after the Florentine Baptistery; of living Christian work,
+none so perfect as the Tower of Giotto; and, under the gleam and shadow
+of their marbles, the morning light was haunted by the ghosts of the
+Father of Natural Science, Galileo; of Sacred Art, Angelico, and the
+Master of Sacred Song. Which spot of ground the modern Florentine has
+made his principal hackney-coach stand and omnibus station. The hackney
+coaches, with their more or less farmyard-like litter of occasional hay,
+and smell of variously mixed horse-manure, are yet in more permissible
+harmony with the place than the ordinary populace of a fashionable
+promenade would be, with its cigars, spitting, and harlot-planned
+fineries: but the omnibus place of call being in front of the door of
+the tower, renders it impossible to stand for a moment near it, to look
+at the sculptures either of the eastern or southern side; while the
+north side is enclosed with an iron railing, and usually encumbered with
+lumber as well: not a soul in Florence ever caring now for sight of any
+piece of its old artists' work; and the mass of strangers being on the
+whole intent on nothing but getting the omnibus to go by steam; and so
+seeing the cathedral in one swift circuit, by glimpses between the puffs
+of it.
+
+The front of Notre Dame of Paris was similarly turned into a
+coach-office when I last saw it--1872. [Footnote: See Fors Clavigera in
+that year.] Within fifty yards of me as I write, the Oratory of the Holy
+Ghost is used for a tobacco-store, and in fine, over all Europe, mere
+Caliban bestiality and Satyric ravage staggering, drunk and desperate,
+into every once enchanted cell where the prosperity of kingdoms ruled
+and the miraculous-ness of beauty was shrined in peace.
+
+Deluge of profanity, drowning dome and tower in Stygian pool of vilest
+thought,--nothing now left sacred, in the places where once--nothing was
+profane.
+
+For _that_ is indeed the teaching, if you could receive it, of the Tower
+of Giotto; as of all Christian art in its day. Next to declaration
+of the facts of the Gospel, its purpose, (often in actual work the
+eagerest,) was to show the _power_ of the Gospel. History of Christ in
+due place; yes, history of all He did, and how He died: but then, and
+often, as I say, with more animated imagination, the showing of His
+risen presence in granting the harvests and guiding the labour of the
+year. All sun and rain, and length or decline of days received from His
+hand; all joy, and grief, and strength, or cessation of labour,
+indulged or endured, as in His sight and to His glory. And the familiar
+employments of the seasons, the homely toils of the peasant, the
+lowliest skills of the craftsman, are signed always on the stones of the
+Church, as the first and truest condition of sacrifice and offering.
+
+Of these representations of human art under heavenly guidance, the
+series of bas-reliefs which stud the base of this tower of Giotto's must
+be held certainly the chief in Europe. [Footnote: For account of the
+series on the main archivolt of St. Mark's, see my sketch of the schools
+of Venetian sculpture in third forthcoming number of 'St. Mark's
+Rest.'] At first you may be surprised at the smallness of their scale
+in proportion to their masonry; but this smallness of scale enabled the
+master workmen of the tower to execute them with their own hands; and
+for the rest, in the very finest architecture, the decoration of most
+precious kind is usually thought of as a jewel, and set with space
+round it,--as the jewels of a crown, or the clasp of a girdle. It is in
+general not possible for a great workman to carve, himself, a greatly
+conspicuous series of ornament; nay, even his energy fails him in
+design, when the bas-relief extends itself into incrustation, or
+involves the treatment of great masses of stone. If his own does not,
+the spectator's will. It would be the work of a long summer's day to
+examine the over-loaded sculptures of the Certosa of Pavia; and yet in
+the tired last hour, you would be empty-hearted. Read but these inlaid
+jewels of Giotto's once with patient following; and your hour's study
+will give you strength for all your life. So far as you can, examine
+them of course on the spot; but to know them thoroughly you must have
+their photographs: the subdued colour of the old marble fortunately
+keeps the lights subdued, so that the photograph may be made more tender
+in the shadows than is usual in its renderings of sculpture, and there
+are few pieces of art which may now be so well known as these, in quiet
+homes far away.
+
+We begin on the western side. There are seven sculptures on the western,
+southern, and northern sides: six on the eastern; counting the Lamb over
+the entrance door of the tower, which divides the complete series
+into two groups of eighteen and eight. Itself, between them, being the
+introduction to the following eight, you must count it as the first
+of the terminal group; you then have the whole twenty-seven sculptures
+divided into eighteen and nine.
+
+Thus lettering the groups on each side for West, South, East, and North,
+we have:
+
+                         W.  S.  E.  N.
+                         7 + 7 + 6 + 7 = 27; or,
+
+                         W.  S.  E.
+                         7 + 7 + 4     = 18; and,
+
+                                 E.  N.
+                                 2 + 7 = 9
+
+There is a very special reason for this division by nines but,
+for convenience' sake, I shall number the whole from 1 to 27,
+straightforwardly. And if you will have patience with me, I should
+like to go round the tower once and again; first observing the general
+meaning and connection of the subjects and then going back to examine
+the technical points in each, and such minor specialties as it may be
+well, at the first time, to pass over.
+
+1. The series begins, then, on the west side, with the Creation of
+Man. It is not the beginning of the story of Genesis; but the simple
+assertion that God made us, and breathed, and still breathes, into our
+nostrils the breath of life.
+
+This, Giotto tells you to believe as the beginning of all knowledge and
+all power. [Footnote: So also the Master-builder of the Ducal Palace of
+Venice. See Fors Clavigera for June of this year.] This he tells you to
+believe, as a thing which he himself knows.
+
+He will tell you nothing but what he _does_ know.
+
+2. Therefore, though Giovanna Pisano and his fellow sculptors had given,
+literally, the taking of the rib out of Adam's side, Giotto merely gives
+the mythic expression of the truth he knows,--"they two shall be one
+flesh."
+
+3. And though all the theologians and poets of his time would have
+expected, if not demanded, that his next assertion, after that of the
+Creation of Man, should be of the Fall of Man, he asserts nothing of
+the kind. He knows nothing of what man was. What he is, he knows best of
+living men at that hour, and proceeds to say. The next sculpture is of
+Eve spinning and Adam hewing the ground into clods. Not _digging_: you
+cannot, usually, dig but in ground already dug. The native earth you
+must hew.
+
+They are not clothed in skins. What would have been the use of Eve
+spinning if she could not weave? They wear, each, one simple piece of
+drapery, Adam's knotted behind him, Eve's fastened around her neck with
+a rude brooch.
+
+Above them are an oak and an apple-tree. Into the apple-tree a little
+bear is trying to climb.
+
+The meaning of which entire myth is, as I read it, that men and women
+must both eat their bread with toil. That the first duty of man is to
+feed his family, and the first duty of the woman to clothe it. That the
+trees of the field are given us for strength and for delight, and that
+the wild beasts of the field must have their share with us. [Footnote:
+The oak and apple boughs are placed, with the same meaning, by Sandro
+Botticelli, in the lap of Zipporah. The figure of the bear is again
+represented by Jacopo della Quercia, on the north door of the Cathedral
+of Florence. I am not sure of its complete meaning.]
+
+4. The fourth sculpture, forming the centre-piece of the series on the
+west side, is nomad pastoral life.
+
+Jabal, the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle,
+lifts the curtain of his tent to look out upon his flock. His dog
+watches it.
+
+5. Jubal, the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
+
+That is to say, stringed and wind instruments;--the lyre and reed. The
+first arts (with the Jew and Greek) of the shepherd David, and shepherd
+Apollo.
+
+Giotto has given him the long level trumpet, afterwards adopted so
+grandly in the sculptures of La Robbia and Donatello. It is, I think,
+intended to be of wood, as now the long Swiss horn, and a long and
+shorter tube are bound together.
+
+6. Tubal Cain, the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron.
+
+Giotto represents him as sitting, _fully robed_, turning a wedge of
+bronze on the anvil with extreme watchfulness.
+
+These last three sculptures, observe, represent the life of the race
+of Cain; of those who are wanderers, and have no home. _Nomad_ pastoral
+life; Nomad artistic life, Wandering Willie; yonder organ man, whom you
+want to send the policeman after, and the gipsy who is mending the old
+schoolmistress's kettle on the grass, which the squire has wanted so
+long to take into his park from the roadside.
+
+7. Then the last sculpture of the seven begins the story of the race of
+Seth, and of home life. The father of it lying drunk under his trellised
+vine; such the general image of civilized society, in the abstract,
+thinks Giotto.
+
+With several other meanings, universally known to the Catholic world of
+that day,--too many to be spoken of here.
+
+The second side of the tower represents, after this introduction, the
+sciences and arts of civilized or home life.
+
+8. Astronomy. In nomad life you may serve yourself of the guidance of
+the stars; but to know the laws of _their_ nomadic life, your own must
+be fixed.
+
+The astronomer, with his sextant revolving on a fixed pivot, looks up
+to the vault of the heavens and beholds their zodiac; prescient of what
+else with optic glass the Tuscan artist viewed, at evening, from the top
+of Fésole.
+
+Above the dome of heaven, as yet unseen, are the Lord of the worlds and
+His angels. To-day, the Dawn and the Daystar: to-morrow, the Daystar
+arising in the heart.
+
+9. Defensive architecture. The building of the watchtower. The beginning
+of security in possession.
+
+10. Pottery. The making of pot, cup, and platter. The first civilized
+furniture; the means of heating liquid, and serving drink and meat with
+decency and economy.
+
+11. Riding. The subduing of animals to domestic service.
+
+12. Weaving. The making of clothes with swiftness, and in precision of
+structure, by help of the loom.
+
+13. Law, revealed as directly from heaven.
+
+14. Dædalus (not Icarus, but the father trying the wings). The conquest
+of the element of air.
+
+As the seventh subject of the first group introduced the arts of home
+after those of the savage wanderer, this seventh of the second group
+introduces the arts of the missionary, or civilized and gift-bringing
+wanderer.
+
+15. The Conquest of the Sea. The helmsman, and two rowers, rowing as
+Venetians, face to bow.
+
+16. The Conquest of the Earth. Hercules victor over Antæus. Beneficent
+strength of civilization crushing the savageness of inhumanity.
+
+17. Agriculture. The oxen and plough.
+
+18. Trade. The cart and horses.
+
+19. And now the sculpture over the door of the tower. The Lamb of God,
+expresses the Law of Sacrifice, and door of ascent to heaven. And then
+follow the fraternal arts of the Christian world.
+
+20. Geometry. Again the angle sculpture, introductory to the following
+series. We shall see presently why this science must be the foundation
+of the rest.
+
+21. Sculpture.
+
+22. Painting.
+
+23. Grammar.
+
+24. Arithmetic. The laws of number, weight, and measures of capacity.
+
+25 Music. The laws of number, weight (or force), and measure, applied to
+sound.
+
+26. Logic. The laws of number and measure applied to thought.
+
+27. The Invention of Harmony.
+
+You see now--by taking first the great division of pre-Christian and
+Christian arts, marked by the door of the Tower; and then the divisions
+into four successive historical periods, marked by its angles--that
+you have a perfect plan of human civilization. The first side is of the
+nomad life, learning how to assert its supremacy over other wandering
+creatures, herbs, and beasts. Then the second side is the fixed home
+life, developing race and country; then the third side, the human
+intercourse between stranger races; then the fourth side, the harmonious
+arts of all who are gathered into the fold of Christ.
+
+Now let us return to the first angle, and examine piece by piece with
+care.
+
+1. _Creation of Man._
+
+Scarcely disengaged from the clods of the earth, he opens his eyes to
+the face of Christ. Like all the rest of the sculptures, it is less
+the representation of a past fact than of a constant one. It is the
+continual state of man, 'of the earth,' yet seeing God.
+
+Christ holds the book of His Law--the 'Law of life'--in His left hand.
+
+The trees of the garden above are,--central above Christ, palm (immortal
+life); above Adam, oak (human life). Pear, and fig, and a large-leaved
+ground fruit (what?) complete the myth of the Food of Life.
+
+As decorative sculpture, these trees are especially to be noticed, with
+those in the two next subjects, and the Noah's vine as differing in
+treatment from Giotto's foliage, of which perfect examples are seen in
+16 and 17. Giotto's branches are set in close sheaf-like clusters; and
+every mass disposed with extreme formality of radiation. The leaves of
+these first, on the contrary, are arranged with careful concealment of
+their ornamental system, so as to look inartificial. This is done so
+studiously as to become, by excess, a little unnatural!--Nature herself
+is more decorative and formal in grouping. But the occult design is very
+noble, and every leaf modulated with loving, dignified, exactly
+right and sufficient finish; not done to show skill, nor with mean
+forgetfulness of main subject, but in tender completion and harmony with
+it.
+
+Look at the subdivisions of the palm leaves with your magnifying glass.
+The others are less finished in this than in the next subject. Man
+himself incomplete, the leaves that are created with him, for his life,
+must not be so.
+
+(Are not his fingers yet short; growing?)
+
+2. _Creation of Woman._
+
+Far, in its essential qualities, the transcendent sculpture of this
+subject, Ghiberti's is only a dainty elaboration and beautification of
+it, losing its solemnity and simplicity in a flutter of feminine grace.
+The older sculptor thinks of the Uses of Womanhood, and of its dangers
+and sins, before he thinks of its beauty; but, were the arm not lost,
+the quiet naturalness of this head and breast of Eve, and the bending
+grace of the submissive rendering of soul and body to perpetual
+guidance by the hand of Christ--(_grasping_ the arm, note, for full
+support)--would be felt to be far beyond Ghiberti's in beauty, as in
+mythic truth.
+
+The line of her body joins with that of the serpent-ivy round the tree
+trunk above her: a double myth--of her fall, and her support afterwards
+by her husband's strength. "Thy desire shall be to thy husband." The
+fruit of the tree--double-set filbert, telling nevertheless the happy
+equality.
+
+The leaves in this piece are finished with consummate poetical care
+and precision. Above Adam, laurel (a virtuous woman is a crown to
+her husband); the filbert for the two together; the fig, for fruitful
+household joy (under thy vine and fig-tree [Footnote: Compare Fors
+Clavigera, February, 1877.]--but vine properly the masculine joy); and
+the fruit taken by Christ for type of all naturally growing food, in his
+own hunger.
+
+Examine with lens the ribbing of these leaves, and the insertion on
+their stem of the three laurel leaves on extreme right: and observe that
+in all cases the sculptor works the moulding _with_ his own part of the
+design; look how he breaks variously deeper into it, beginning from
+the foot of Christ, and going up to the left into full depth above the
+shoulder.
+
+3. _Original labour._
+
+Much poorer, and intentionally so. For the myth of the creation of
+humanity, the sculptor uses his best strength, and shows supremely the
+grace of womanhood; but in representing the first peasant state of life,
+makes the grace of woman by no means her conspicuous quality. She
+even walks awkwardly; some feebleness in foreshortening the foot
+also embarrassing the sculptor. He knows its form perfectly--but its
+perspective, not quite yet.
+
+The trees stiff and stunted--they also needing culture. Their fruit
+dropping at present only into beasts' mouths.
+
+4. _Jabal._
+
+If you have looked long enough, and carefully enough, at the three
+previous sculptures, you cannot but feel that the hand here is utterly
+changed. The drapery sweeps in broader, softer, but less true folds; the
+handling is far more delicate; exquisitely sensitive to gradation over
+broad surfaces--scarcely using an incision of any depth but in outline;
+studiously reserved in appliance of shadow, as a thing precious and
+local--look at it above the puppy's head, and under the tent.
+
+This is assuredly painter's work, not mere sculptor's. I have no doubt
+whatever it is by the own hand of the shepherd-boy of Fésole. Cimabue
+had found him drawing, (more probably _scratching_ with Etrurian point,)
+one of his sheep upon a stone. These, on the central foundation-stone of
+his tower he engraves, looking back on the fields of life: the time soon
+near for him to draw the curtains of his tent.
+
+I know no dog like this in method of drawing, and in skill of giving the
+living form without one touch of chisel for hair, or incision for eye,
+except the dog barking at Poverty in the great fresco of Assisi.
+
+Take the lens and look at every piece of the work from corner to
+corner--note especially as a thing which would only have been enjoyed by
+a painter, and which all great painters do intensely enjoy--the _fringe_
+of the tent, [Footnote: "I think Jabal's tent is made of leather; the
+relaxed intervals between the tent-pegs show a curved ragged edge like
+leather near the ground" (Mr. Caird). The edge of the opening is still
+more characteristic, I think.] and precise insertion of its point in the
+angle of the hexagon, prepared for by the archaic masonry indicated in
+the oblique joint above; [Footnote: Prints of these photographs which
+do not show the masonry all round the hexagon are quite valueless for
+study.] architect and painter thinking at once, and _doing_ as they
+thought.
+
+I gave a lecture to the Eton boys a year or two ago, on little more than
+the shepherd's dog, which is yet more wonderful in magnified scale of
+photograph. The lecture is partly published--somewhere, but I can't
+refer to it.
+
+5. _Jubal_.
+
+Still Giotto's, though a little less delighted in; but with exquisite
+introduction of the Gothic of his own tower. See the light surface
+sculpture of a mosaic design in the horizontal moulding.
+
+Note also the painter's freehand working of the complex mouldings of the
+table--also resolvedly oblong, not square; see central flower.
+
+6. _Tubal Cain_.
+
+Still Giotto's, and entirely exquisite; finished with no less care than
+the shepherd, to mark the vitality of this art to humanity; the spade
+and hoe--its heraldic bearing--hung on the hinged door. [Footnote:
+Pointed out to me by Mr. Caird, who adds farther, "I saw a forge
+identical with this one at Pelago the other day,--the anvil resting on
+a tree-stump: the same fire, bellows, and implements; the door in two
+parts, the upper part like a shutter, and used for the exposition
+of finished work as a sign of the craft; and I saw upon it the same
+finished work of the same shape as in the bas-relief--a spade and a
+hoe."] For subtlety of execution, note the texture of wooden block under
+anvil, and of its iron hoop.
+
+The workman's face is the best sermon on the dignity of labour yet
+spoken by thoughtful man. Liberal Parliaments and fraternal Reformers
+have nothing essential to say more.
+
+7. _Noah_.
+
+Andrea Pisano's again, more or less imitative of Giotto's work.
+
+8. _Astronomy_.
+
+We have a new hand here altogether. The hair and drapery bad; the face
+expressive, but blunt in cutting; the small upper heads, necessarily
+little more than blocked out, on the small scale; but not suggestive
+of grace in completion: the minor detail worked with great mechanical
+precision, but little feeling; the lion's head, with leaves in its ears,
+is quite ugly; and by comparing the work of the small cusped arch at the
+bottom with Giotto's soft handling of the mouldings of his, in 5, you
+may for ever know common mason's work from fine Gothic. The zodiacal
+signs are quite hard and common in the method of bas-relief, but quaint
+enough in design: Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, on the broad heavenly
+belt; Taurus upside down, Gemini, and Cancer, on the small globe.
+
+I think the whole a restoration of the original panel, or else an
+inferior workman's rendering of Giotto's design, which the next piece
+is, with less question.
+
+9. _Building_.
+
+The larger figure, I am disposed finally to think, represents civic
+power, as in Lorenzetti's fresco at Siena. The extreme rudeness of
+the minor figures may be guarantee of their originality; it is the
+smoothness of mass and hard edge work that make me suspect the 8th for a
+restoration.
+
+10. _Pottery_.
+
+Very grand; with much painter's feeling, and fine mouldings again.
+The _tiled_ roof projecting in the shadow above, protects the first
+Ceramicus-home. I think the women are meant to be carrying some kind of
+wicker or reed-bound water-vessel. The Potter's servant explains to them
+the extreme advantages of the new invention. I can't make any conjecture
+about the author of this piece.
+
+11. _Riding_.
+
+Again Andrea Pisano's, it seems to me. Compare the tossing up of the
+dress behind the shoulders, in 3 and 2. The head is grand, having nearly
+an Athenian profile: the loss of the horse's fore-leg prevents me from
+rightly judging of the entire action. I must leave riders to say.
+
+12. _Weaving_.
+
+Andrea's again, and of extreme loveliness; the stooping face of the
+woman at the loom is more like a Leonardo drawing than sculpture. The
+action of throwing the large shuttle, and all the structure of the
+loom and its threads, distinguishing rude or smooth surface, are quite
+wonderful. The figure on the right shows the use and grace of finely
+woven tissue, under and upper--that over the bosom so delicate that the
+line of separation from the flesh of the neck is unseen.
+
+If you hide with your hand the carved masonry at the bottom, the
+composition separates itself into two pieces, one disagreeably
+rectangular. The still more severely rectangular masonry throws out
+by contrast all that is curved and rounded in the loom, and unites the
+whole composition; that is its aesthetic function; its historical one is
+to show that weaving is queen's work, not peasant's; for this is palace
+masonry.
+
+13. _The Giving of Law_.
+
+More strictly, of _the_ Book of God's Law: the only one which _can_
+ultimately be obeyed. [Footnote: Mr. Caird convinced me of the real
+meaning of this sculpture. I had taken it for the giving of a book,
+writing further of it as follows:--
+
+All books, rightly so called, are Books of Law, and all Scripture is
+given by inspiration of God. (What _we_ now mostly call a book, the
+infinite reduplication and vibratory echo of a lie, is not given but
+belched up out of volcanic clay by the inspiration of the devil.) On the
+Book-giver's right hand the students in cell, restrained by the lifted
+right hand:
+
+"Silent, you, till you know"; then, perhaps, you also.
+
+On the left, the men of the world, kneeling, receive the gift.
+
+Recommendable seal, this, for Mr. Mudie!
+
+Mr. Caird says: "The book is written law, which is given by Justice to
+the inferiors, that they may know the laws regulating their relations
+to their superiors--who are also under the hand of law. The vassal is
+protected by the accessibility of formularized law. The superior is
+restrained by the right hand of power." ]
+
+The authorship of this is very embarrassing to me. The face of the
+central figure is most noble, and all the work good, but not delicate;
+it is like original work of the master whose design No. 8 might be a
+restoration.
+
+14 _Dædalus_.
+
+Andrea Pisano again; the head superb, founded on Greek models, feathers
+of wings wrought with extreme care; but with no precision of arrangement
+or feeling. How far intentional in awkwardness, I cannot say; but note
+the good mechanism of the whole plan, with strong standing board for the
+feet.
+
+15. _Navigation_.
+
+An intensely puzzling one; coarse (perhaps unfinished) in work, and done
+by a man who could not row; the plaited bands used for rowlocks being
+pulled the wrong way. Right, had the rowers been rowing Englishwise:
+but the water at the boat's head shows its motion forwards, the way the
+oarsmen look. I cannot make out the action of the figure at the stern;
+it ought to be steering with the stern oar.
+
+The water seems quite unfinished. Meant, I suppose, for surface and
+section of sea, with slimy rock at the bottom; but all stupid and
+inefficient.
+
+16. _Hercules and Antæus._
+
+The Earth power, half hidden by the earth, its hair and hand becoming
+roots, the strength of its life passing through the ground into the oak
+tree. With Cercyon, but first named, (Plato, _Laws_, book VII., 796),
+Antæus is the master of contest without use;--[GREEK: philoneikias
+achrestou]--and is generally the power of pure selfishness and its
+various inflation to insolence and degradation to cowardice;--finding
+its strength only in fall back to its Earth,--he is the master, in a
+word, of all such kind of persons as have been writing lately about the
+"interests of England." He is, therefore, the Power invoked by Dante
+to place Virgil and him in the lowest circle of Hell;--"Alcides whilom
+felt,--that grapple, straitened sore," etc. The Antæus in the sculpture
+is very grand; but the authorship puzzles me, as of the next piece, by
+the same hand. I believe both Giotto's design.
+
+17. _Ploughing._
+
+The sword in its Christian form. Magnificent: the grandest expression
+of the power of man over the earth and its strongest creatures that I
+remember in early sculpture,--(or for that matter, in late). It is the
+subduing of the bull which the sculptor thinks most of; the plough,
+though large, is of wood, and the handle slight. But the pawing and
+bellowing labourer he has bound to it!--here is victory.
+
+18. _The Chariot._
+
+The horse also subdued to draught--Achilles' chariot in its first, and
+to be its last, simplicity. The face has probably been grand--the figure
+is so still. Andrea's, I think by the flying drapery.
+
+19. _The Lamb, with the symbol of Resurrection._
+
+Over the door: 'I am the door;--by me, if any man enter in,' etc. Put
+to the right of the tower, you see, fearlessly, for the convenience of
+staircase ascent; all external symmetry being subject with the great
+builders to interior use; and then, out of the rightly ordained
+infraction of formal law, comes perfect beauty; and when, as here,
+the Spirit of Heaven is working with the designer, his thoughts are
+suggested in truer order, by the concession to use. After this sculpture
+comes the Christian arts,--those which necessarily imply the conviction
+of immortality. Astronomy without Christianity only reaches as far
+as--'Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels--and put all
+_things_ under His feet':--Christianity says beyond this,--'Know ye
+not that we shall judge angels (as also the lower creatures shall judge
+us!)' [Footnote: In the deep sense of this truth, which underlies all
+the bright fantasy and humour of Mr. Courthope's "Paradise of Birds,"
+that rhyme of the risen spirit of Aristophanes may well be read under
+the tower of Giotto, beside his watch-dog of the fold.] The series of
+sculptures now beginning, show the arts which _can_ only be accomplished
+through belief in Christ.
+
+20. _Geometry_.
+
+Not 'mathematics': _they_ have been implied long ago in astronomy and
+architecture; but the due Measuring of the Earth and all that is on it.
+Actually done only by Christian faith--first inspiration of the great
+Earth-measurers. Your Prince Henry of Spain, your Columbus, your Captain
+Cook, (whose tomb, with the bright artistic invention and religious
+tenderness which are so peculiarly the gifts of the nineteenth century,
+we have just provided a fence for, of old cannon open-mouthed, straight
+up towards Heaven--your modern method of symbolizing the only appeal
+to Heaven of which the nineteenth century has left itself capable--'The
+voice of thy Brother's blood crieth to me'--your outworn cannon,
+now silently agape, but sonorous in the ears of angels with that
+appeal)--first inspiration, I say, of these; constant inspiration of
+all who set true landmarks and hold to them, knowing their measure; the
+devil interfering, I observe, lately in his own way, with the Geometry
+of Yorkshire, where the landed proprietors, [Footnote: I mean no
+accusation against any class; probably the one-fielded statesman is more
+eager for his little gain of fifty yards of grass than the squire for
+his bite and sup out of the gypsy's part of the roadside. But it is
+notable enough to the passing traveller, to find himself shut into a
+narrow road between high stone dykes which he can neither see over nor
+climb over, (I always deliberately pitch them down myself, wherever I
+need a gap,) instead of on a broad road between low grey walls with
+all the moor beyond--and the power of leaping over when he chooses in
+innocent trespass for herb, or view, or splinter of grey rock.] when
+the neglected walls by the roadside tumble down, benevolently repair
+the same, with better stonework, _outside_ always of the fallen
+heaps;--which, the wall being thus built _on_ what was the public road,
+absorb themselves, with help of moss and time, into the heaving swells
+of the rocky field-and behold, gain of a couple of feet--along so much
+of the road as needs repairing operations.
+
+This then, is the first of the Christian sciences: division of land
+rightly, and the general law of measuring between wisely-held compass
+points. The type of mensuration, circle in square, on his desk, I use
+for my first exercise in the laws of Fésole.
+
+21. _Sculpture_.
+
+The first piece of the closing series on the north side of the
+Campanile, of which some general points must be first noted, before any
+special examination.
+
+The two initial ones, Sculpture and Painting, are by tradition the only
+ones attributed to Giotto's own hand. The fifth, Song, is known, and
+recognizable in its magnificence, to be by Luca della Robbia. The
+remaining four are all of Luca's school,--later work therefore, all
+these five, than any we have been hitherto examining, entirely different
+in manner, and with late flower-work beneath them instead of our
+hitherto severe Gothic arches. And it becomes of course instantly a
+vital question--Did Giotto die leaving the series incomplete, only its
+subjects chosen, and are these two bas-reliefs of Sculpture and Painting
+among his last works? or was the series ever completed, and these later
+bas-reliefs substituted for the earlier ones, under Luca's influence, by
+way of conducting the whole to a grander close, and making their order
+more representative of Florentine art in its fulness of power?
+
+I must repeat, once more, and with greater insistence respecting
+Sculpture than Painting, that I do not in the least set myself up for a
+critic of authenticity,--but only of absolute goodness. My readers may
+trust me to tell them what is well done or ill; but by whom, is quite
+a separate question, needing for any certainty, in this school of
+much-associated masters and pupils, extremest attention to minute
+particulars not at all bearing on my objects in teaching.
+
+Of this closing group of sculptures, then, all I can tell you is that
+the fifth is a quite magnificent piece of work, and recognizably, to
+my extreme conviction, Luca della Robbia's; that the last, Harmonia, is
+also fine work; that those attributed to Giotto are fine in a different
+way,--and the other three in reality the poorest pieces in the series,
+though done with much more advanced sculptural dexterity.
+
+But I am chiefly puzzled by the two attributed to Giotto, because they
+are much coarser than those which seem to me so plainly his on the west
+side, and slightly different in workmanship--with much that is common
+to both, however, in the casting of drapery and mode of introduction of
+details. The difference may be accounted for partly by haste or failing
+power, partly by the artist's less deep feeling of the importance of
+these merely symbolic figures, as compared with those of the Fathers
+of the Arts; but it is very notable and embarrassing notwithstanding,
+complicated as it is with extreme resemblance in other particulars.
+
+You cannot compare the subjects on the tower itself; but of my series of
+photographs take 6 and 21, and put them side by side.
+
+I need not dwell on the conditions of resemblance, which are instantly
+visible; but the _difference_ in the treatment of the heads is
+incomprehensible. That of the Tubal Cain is exquisitely finished, and
+with a painter's touch; every lock of the hair laid with studied flow,
+as in the most beautiful drawing. In the 'Sculpture,' it is struck out
+with ordinary tricks of rapid sculptor trade, entirely unfinished,
+and with offensively frank use of the drill hole to give picturesque
+rustication to the beard.
+
+Next, put 22 and 5 back to back. You see again the resemblance in the
+earnestness of both figures, in the unbroken arcs of their backs, in the
+breaking of the octagon moulding by the pointed angles; and here, even
+also in the general conception of the heads. But again, in the one of
+Painting, the hair is struck with more vulgar indenting and drilling,
+and the Gothic of the picture frame is less precise in touch and later
+in style. Observe, however,--and this may perhaps give us some definite
+hint for clearing the question,--a picture-frame _would be_ less precise
+in making, and later in style, properly, than cusped arches to be put
+under the feet of the inventor of all musical sound by breath of man.
+And if you will now compare finally the eager tilting of the workman's
+seat in 22 and 6, and the working of the wood in the painter's low table
+for his pots of colour, and his three-legged stool, with that of Tubal
+Cain's anvil block; and the way in which the lines of the forge and
+upper triptych are in each composition used to set off the rounding of
+the head, I believe you will have little hesitation in accepting my own
+view of the matter--namely, that the three pieces of the Fathers of the
+Arts were wrought with Giotto's extremest care for the most precious
+stones of his tower; that also, being a sculptor and painter, he did the
+other two, but with quite definite and wilful resolve that they _should
+be_, as mere symbols of his own two trades, wholly inferior to the other
+subjects of the patriarchs; that he made the Sculpture picturesque and
+bold as you see it is, and showed all a sculptor's tricks in the work of
+it; and a sculptor's Greek subject, Bacchus, for the model of it;
+that he wrought the Painting, as the higher art, with more care, still
+keeping it subordinate to the primal subjects, but showed, for a lesson
+to all the generations of painters for evermore,--this one lesson, like
+his circle of pure line containing all others,--'Your soul and body must
+be all in every touch.'
+
+I can't resist the expression of a little piece of personal exultation,
+in noticing that he holds his pencil as I do myself: no writing master,
+and no effort (at one time very steady for many months), having ever
+cured me of that way of holding both pen and pencil between my fore
+and second finger; the third and fourth resting the backs of them on my
+paper.
+
+As I finally arrange these notes for press, I am further confirmed in my
+opinion by discovering little finishings in the two later pieces which
+I was not before aware of. I beg the masters of High Art, and sublime
+generalization, to take a good magnifying glass to the 'Sculpture' and
+look at the way Giotto has cut the compasses, the edges of the chisels,
+and the keyhole of the lock of the toolbox. For the rest, nothing
+could be more probable, in the confused and perpetually false mass of
+Florentine tradition, than the preservation of the memory of Giotto's
+carving his own two trades, and the forgetfulness, or quite as likely
+ignorance, of the part he took with Andrea Pisano in the initial
+sculptures. I now take up the series of subjects at the point where we
+broke off, to trace their chain of philosophy to its close. To Geometry,
+which gives to every man his possession of house and land, succeed 21,
+Sculpture, and 22, Painting, the adornments of permanent habitation. And
+then, the great arts of education in a Christian home. First--
+
+23. _Grammar_, or more properly Literature altogether, of which we have
+already seen the ancient power in the Spanish Chapel series; then,
+
+24. _Arithmetic_, central here as also in the Spanish Chapel, for the
+same reasons; here, more impatiently asserting, with both hands, that
+two, on the right, you observe-and two on the left-do indeed and for
+ever make Four. Keep your accounts, you, with your book of double entry,
+on that principle; and you will be safe in this world and the next, in
+your steward's office. But by no means so, if you ever admit the usurers
+Gospel of Arithmetic, that two and two make Five. You see by the rich
+hem of his robe that the asserter of this economical first principle is
+a man well to do in the world.
+
+25. _Logic_. The art of Demonstration. Vulgarest of the whole series,
+far too expressive of the mode in which argument is conducted by those
+who are not masters of its reins.
+
+26. _Song._
+
+The essential power of music in animal life. Orpheus, the symbol of it
+all, the inventor properly of Music, the Law of Kindness, as Dædalus of
+Music, the Law of Construction. Hence the "Orphic life" is one of ideal
+mercy, (vegetarian,)--Plato, _Laws_, Book VI., 782,--and he is named
+first after Dædalus, and in balance to him as head of the school of
+harmonists, in Book III., 677, (Steph.) Look for the two singing
+birds clapping their wings in the tree above him; then the five mystic
+beasts,--closest to his feet the irredeemable boar; then lion and bear,
+tiger, unicorn, and fiery dragon closest to his head, the flames of its
+mouth mingling with his breath as he sings. The audient eagle, alas! has
+lost the beak, and is only recognizable by his proud holding of himself;
+the duck, sleepily delighted after muddy dinner, close to his shoulder,
+is a true conquest. Hoopoe, or indefinite bird of crested race, behind;
+of the other three no clear certainty. The leafage throughout such as
+only Luca could do, and the whole consummate in skill and understanding.
+
+27. _Harmony._
+
+Music of Song, in the full power of it, meaning perfect education in all
+art of the Muses and of civilized life: the mystery of its concord is
+taken for the symbol of that of a perfect state; one day, doubtless, of
+the perfect world. So prophesies the last corner stone of the Shepherd's
+Tower.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Mornings in Florence, by John Ruskin, M.a.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    .side      { float: right; font-size: 75%; width: 25%; padding-left: 0.8em;
+               border-left: dashed thin; margin-left: 0.8em; text-align: left;
+               text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;
+               font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mornings in Florence, by John Ruskin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mornings in Florence
+
+Author: John Ruskin
+
+
+Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7227]
+This file was first posted on March 28, 2003
+Last Updated: May 21, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORNINGS IN FLORENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Text file produced by Michelle Shephard, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+HTML file produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      MORNINGS IN FLORENCE
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By John Ruskin, M.A.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <b>CONTENTS</b>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>MORNINGS IN FLORENCE.</b> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> THE FIRST MORNING. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE SECOND MORNING. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> THE THIRD MORNING. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> THE FOURTH MORNING. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> THE FIFTH MORNING. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> THE SIXTH MORNING. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      MORNINGS IN FLORENCE.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE FIRST MORNING.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      SANTA CROCE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      If there is one artist, more than another, whose work it is desirable that
+      you should examine in Florence, supposing that you care for old art at
+      all, it is Giotto. You can, indeed, also see work of his at Assisi; but it
+      is not likely you will stop there, to any purpose. At Padua there is much;
+      but only of one period. At Florence, which is his birthplace, you can see
+      pictures by him of every date, and every kind. But you had surely better
+      see, first, what is of his best time and of the best kind. He painted very
+      small pictures and very large&mdash;painted from the age of twelve to
+      sixty&mdash;painted some subjects carelessly which he had little interest
+      in&mdash;some carefully with all his heart. You would surely like, and it
+      would certainly be wise, to see him first in his strong and earnest work,&mdash;to
+      see a painting by him, if possible, of large size, and wrought with his
+      full strength, and of a subject pleasing to him. And if it were, also, a
+      subject interesting to yourself,&mdash;better still.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, if indeed you are interested in old art, you cannot but know the
+      power of the thirteenth century. You know that the character of it was
+      concentrated in, and to the full expressed by, its best king, St. Louis.
+      You know St. Louis was a Franciscan, and that the Franciscans, for whom
+      Giotto was continually painting under Dante's advice, were prouder of him
+      than of any other of their royal brethren or sisters. If Giotto ever would
+      imagine anybody with care and delight, it would be St. Louis, if it
+      chanced that anywhere he had St. Louis to paint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Also, you know that he was appointed to build the Campanile of the Duomo,
+      because he was then the best master of sculpture, painting, and
+      architecture in Florence, and supposed to be without superior in the
+      world. [Footnote: "Cum in universe orbe non reperiri dicatur quenquam qui
+      sufficientior sit in his et aliis multis artibus magistro Giotto Bondonis
+      de Florentia, pictore, et accipiendus sit in patriâ, velut magnus
+      magister."&mdash;(Decree of his appointment, quoted by Lord Lindsay, vol.
+      ii., p. 247.)]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And that this commission was given him late in life, (of course he could
+      not have designed the Campanile when he was a boy;) so therefore, if you
+      find any of his figures painted under pure campanile architecture, and the
+      architecture by his hand, you know, without other evidence, that the
+      painting must be of his strongest time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So if one wanted to find anything of his to begin with, especially, and
+      could choose what it should be, one would say, "A fresco, life size, with
+      campanile architecture behind it, painted in an important place; and if
+      one might choose one's subject, perhaps the most interesting saint of all
+      saints&mdash;for him to do for us&mdash;would be St. Louis."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wait then for an entirely bright morning; rise with the sun, and go to
+      Santa Croce, with a good opera-glass in your pocket, with which you shall
+      for once, at any rate, see an opus; and, if you have time, several opera.
+      Walk straight to the chapel on the right of the choir ("k" in your
+      Murray's guide). When you first get into it, you will see nothing but a
+      modern window of glaring glass, with a red-hot cardinal in one pane&mdash;which
+      piece of modern manufacture takes away at least seven-eighths of the light
+      (little enough before) by which you might have seen what is worth sight.
+      Wait patiently till you get used to the gloom. Then, guarding your eyes
+      from the accursed modern window as best you may, take your opera-glass and
+      look to the right, at the uppermost of the two figures beside it. It is
+      St. Louis, under campanile architecture, painted by&mdash;Giotto? or the
+      last Florentine painter who wanted a job&mdash;over Giotto? That is the
+      first question you have to determine; as you will have henceforward, in
+      every case in which you look at a fresco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes there will be no question at all. These two grey frescos at the
+      bottom of the walls on the right and left, for instance, have been
+      entirely got up for your better satisfaction, in the last year or two&mdash;over
+      Giotto's half-effaced lines. But that St. Louis? Re-painted or not, it is
+      a lovely thing,&mdash;there can be no question about that; and we must
+      look at it, after some preliminary knowledge gained, not inattentively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your Murray's Guide tells you that this chapel of the Bardi della Libertà,
+      in which you stand, is covered with frescos by Giotto; that they were
+      whitewashed, and only laid bare in 1853; that they were painted between
+      1296 and 1304; that they represent scenes in the life of St. Francis; and
+      that on each side of the window are paintings of St. Louis of Toulouse,
+      St. Louis king of France, St. Elizabeth, of Hungary, and St. Claire,&mdash;"all
+      much restored and repainted." Under such recommendation, the frescos are
+      not likely to be much sought after; and accordingly, as I was at work in
+      the chapel this morning, Sunday, 6th September, 1874, two nice-looking
+      Englishmen, under guard of their valet de place, passed the chapel without
+      so much as looking in.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will perhaps stay a little longer in it with me, good reader, and find
+      out gradually where you are. Namely, in the most interesting and perfect
+      little Gothic chapel in all Italy&mdash;so far as I know or can hear.
+      There is no other of the great time which has all its frescos in their
+      place. The Arena, though far larger, is of earlier date&mdash;not pure
+      Gothic, nor showing Giotto's full force. The lower chapel at Assisi is not
+      Gothic at all, and is still only of Giotto's middle time. You have here,
+      developed Gothic, with Giotto in his consummate strength, and nothing
+      lost, in form, of the complete design.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By restoration&mdash;judicious restoration, as Mr. Murray usually calls it&mdash;there
+      is no saying how much you have lost, Putting the question of restoration
+      out of your mind, however, for a while, think where you are, and what you
+      have got to look at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are in the chapel next the high altar of the great Franciscan church
+      of Florence. A few hundred yards west of you, within ten minutes' walk, is
+      the Baptistery of Florence. And five minutes' walk west of that is the
+      great Dominican church of Florence, Santa Maria Novella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Get this little bit of geography, and architectural fact, well into your
+      mind. There is the little octagon Baptistery in the middle; here, ten
+      minutes' walk east of it, the Franciscan church of the Holy Cross; there,
+      five minutes walk west of it, the Dominican church of St. Mary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, that little octagon Baptistery stood where it now stands (and was
+      finished, though the roof has been altered since) in the eighth century.
+      It is the central building of Etrurian Christianity,&mdash;of European
+      Christianity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the day it was finished, Christianity went on doing her best, in
+      Etruria and elsewhere, for four hundred years,&mdash;and her best seemed
+      to have come to very little,&mdash;when there rose up two men who vowed to
+      God it should come to more. And they made it come to more, forthwith; of
+      which the immediate sign in Florence was that she resolved to have a fine
+      new cross-shaped cathedral instead of her quaint old little octagon one;
+      and a tower beside it that should beat Babel:&mdash;which two buildings
+      you have also within sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But your business is not at present with them; but with these two earlier
+      churches of Holy Cross and St. Mary. The two men who were the effectual
+      builders of these were the two great religious Powers and Reformers of the
+      thirteenth century;&mdash;St. Francis, who taught Christian men how they
+      should behave, and St. Dominic, who taught Christian men what they should
+      think. In brief, one the Apostle of Works; the other of Faith. Each sent
+      his little company of disciples to teach and to preach in Florence: St.
+      Francis in 1212; St. Dominic in 1220.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The little companies were settled&mdash;one, ten minutes' walk east of the
+      old Baptistery; the other five minutes' walk west of it. And after they
+      had stayed quietly in such lodgings as were given them, preaching and
+      teaching through most of the century; and had got Florence, as it were,
+      heated through, she burst out into Christian poetry and architecture, of
+      which you have heard much talk:&mdash;burst into bloom of Arnolfo, Giotto,
+      Dante, Orcagna, and the like persons, whose works you profess to have come
+      to Florence that you may see and understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Florence then, thus heated through, first helped her teachers to build
+      finer churches. The Dominicans, or White Friars the Teachers of Faith,
+      began their church of St. Mary's in 1279. The Franciscans, or Black
+      Friars, the teachers of Works, laid the first stone of this church of the
+      Holy Cross in 1294. And the whole city laid the foundations of its new
+      cathedral in 1298. The Dominicans designed their own building; but for the
+      Franciscans and the town worked the first great master of Gothic art,
+      Arnolfo; with Giotto at his side, and Dante looking on, and whispering
+      sometimes a word to both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here you stand beside the high altar of the Franciscans' church, under
+      a vault of Arnolfo's building, with at least some of Giotto's colour on it
+      still fresh; and in front of you, over the little altar, is the only
+      reportedly authentic portrait of St. Francis, taken from life by Giotto's
+      master. Yet I can hardly blame my two English friends for never looking
+      in. Except in the early morning light, not one touch of all this art can
+      be seen. And in any light, unless you understand the relations of Giotto
+      to St. Francis, and of St. Francis to humanity, it will be of little
+      interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Observe, then, the special character of Giotto among the great painters of
+      Italy is his being a practical person. Whatever other men dreamed of, he
+      did. He could work in mosaic; he could work in marble; he could paint; and
+      he could build; and all thoroughly: a man of supreme faculty, supreme
+      common sense. Accordingly, he ranges himself at once among the disciples
+      of the Apostle of Works, and spends most of his time in the same
+      apostleship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now the gospel of Works, according to St. Francis, lay in three things.
+      You must work without money, and be poor. You must work without pleasure,
+      and be chaste. You must work according to orders, and be obedient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those are St. Francis's three articles of Italian opera. By which grew the
+      many pretty things you have come to see here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now if you will take your opera-glass and look up to the roof above
+      Arnolfo's building, you will see it is a pretty Gothic cross vault, in
+      four quarters, each with a circular medallion, painted by Giotto. That
+      over the altar has the picture of St. Francis himself. The three others,
+      of his Commanding Angels. In front of him, over the entrance arch,
+      Poverty. On his right hand, Obedience. On his left, Chastity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Poverty, in a red patched dress, with grey wings, and a square nimbus of
+      glory above her head, is flying from a black hound, whose head is seen at
+      the corner of the medallion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chastity, veiled, is imprisoned in a tower, while angels watch her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Obedience bears a yoke on her shoulders, and lays her hand on a book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, this same quatrefoil, of St. Francis and his three Commanding Angels,
+      was also painted, but much more elaborately, by Giotto, on the cross vault
+      of the lower church of Assisi, and it is a question of interest which of
+      the two roofs was painted first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Your Murray's Guide tells you the frescos in this chapel were painted
+      between 1296 and 1304. But as they represent, among other personages, St.
+      Louis of Toulouse, who was not canonized till 1317, that statement is not
+      altogether tenable. Also, as the first stone of the church was only laid
+      in 1294, when Giotto was a youth of eighteen, it is little likely that
+      either it would have been ready to be painted, or he ready with his scheme
+      of practical divinity, two years later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Farther, Arnolfo, the builder of the main body of the church, died in
+      1310. And as St. Louis of Toulouse was not a saint till seven years
+      afterwards, and the frescos therefore beside the window not painted in
+      Arnolfo's day, it becomes another question whether Arnolfo left the
+      chapels or the church at all, in their present form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On which point&mdash;now that I have shown you where Giotto's St. Louis is&mdash;I
+      will ask you to think awhile, until you are interested; and then I will
+      try to satisfy your curiosity. There fore, please leave the little chapel
+      for the moment, and walk down the nave, till you come to two sepulchral
+      slabs near the west end, and then look about you and see what sort of a
+      church Santa Croce is.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without looking about you at all, you may find, in your Murray, the useful
+      information that it is a church which "consists of a very wide nave and
+      lateral aisles, separated by seven fine pointed arches." And as you will
+      be&mdash;under ordinary conditions of tourist hurry&mdash;glad to learn so
+      much, <i>without</i> looking, it is little likely to occur to you that
+      this nave and two rich aisles required also, for your complete present
+      comfort, walls at both ends, and a roof on the top. It is just possible,
+      indeed, you may have been struck, on entering, by the curious disposition
+      of painted glass at the east end;&mdash;more remotely possible that, in
+      returning down the nave, you may this moment have noticed the extremely
+      small circular window at the west end; but the chances are a thousand to
+      one that, after being pulled from tomb to tomb round the aisles and
+      chapels, you should take so extraordinary an additional amount of pains as
+      to look up at the roof,&mdash;unless you do it now, quietly. It will have
+      had its effect upon you, even if you don't, without your knowledge. You
+      will return home with a general impression that Santa Croce is, somehow,
+      the ugliest Gothic church you ever were in. Well, that is really so; and
+      now, will you take the pains to see why?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are two features, on which, more than on any others, the grace and
+      delight of a fine Gothic building depends; one is the springing of its
+      vaultings, the other the proportion and fantasy of its traceries. <i>This</i>
+      church of Santa Croce has no vaultings at all, but the roof of a
+      farm-house barn. And its windows are all of the same pattern,&mdash;the
+      exceedingly prosaic one of two pointed arches, with a round hole above,
+      between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And to make the simplicity of the roof more conspicuous, the aisles are
+      successive sheds, built at every arch. In the aisles of the Campo Santo of
+      Pisco, the unbroken flat roof leaves the eye free to look to the
+      traceries; but here, a succession of up-and-down sloping beam and lath
+      gives the impression of a line of stabling rather than a church aisle. And
+      lastly, while, in fine Gothic buildings, the entire perspective concludes
+      itself gloriously in the high and distant apse, here the nave is cut
+      across sharply by a line of ten chapels, the apse being only a tall recess
+      in the midst of them, so that, strictly speaking, the church is not of the
+      form of a cross, but of a letter T.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Can this clumsy and ungraceful arrangement be indeed the design of the
+      renowned Arnolfo?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, this is purest Arnolfo-Gothic; not beautiful by any means; but
+      deserving, nevertheless, our thoughtfullest examination. We will trace its
+      complete character another day; just now we are only concerned with this
+      pre-Christian form of the letter T, insisted upon in the lines of chapels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Respecting which you are to observe, that the first Christian churches in
+      the catacombs took the form of a blunt cross naturally; a square chamber
+      having a vaulted recess on each side; then the Byzantine churches were
+      structurally built in the form of an equal cross; while the heraldic and
+      other ornamental equal-armed crosses are partly signs of glory and
+      victory, partly of light, and divine spiritual presence. [Footnote: See,
+      on this subject generally, Mr. R. St. J. Tyrwhitt's "Art-Teaching of the
+      Primitive Church." S. P. B. K., 1874.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the Franciscans and Dominicans saw in the cross no sign of triumph,
+      but of trial.[Footnote: I have never obtained time for any right study of
+      early Christian church-discipline,&mdash;nor am I sure to how many other
+      causes, the choice of the form of the basilica may be occasionally
+      attributed, or by what other communities it may be made. Symbolism, for
+      instance, has most power with the Franciscans, and convenience for
+      preaching with the Dominicans; but in all cases, and in all places, the
+      transition from the close tribune to the brightly-lighted apse, indicates
+      the change in Christian feeling between regarding a church as a place for
+      public judgment or teaching, or a place for private prayer and
+      congregational praise. The following passage from the Dean of
+      Westminster's perfect history of his Abbey ought to be read also in the
+      Florentine church:&mdash;"The nearest approach to Westminster Abbey in
+      this aspect is the church of Santa Croce at Florence. There, as here, the
+      present destination of the building was no part of the original design,
+      but was the result of various converging causes. As the church of one of
+      the two great preaching orders, it had a nave large beyond all proportion
+      to its choir. That order being the Franciscan, bound by vows of poverty,
+      the simplicity of the worship preserved the whole space clear from any
+      adventitious ornaments. The popularity of the Franciscans, especially in a
+      convent hallowed by a visit from St. Francis himself, drew to it not only
+      the chief civic festivals, but also the numerous families who gave alms to
+      the friars, and whose connection with their church was, for this reason,
+      in turn encouraged by them. In those graves, piled with standards und
+      achievements of the noble families of Florence, were successively interred&mdash;not
+      because of their eminence, but as members or friends of those families&mdash;some
+      of the most illustrious personages of the fifteenth century. Thus it came
+      to pass, as if by accident, that in the vault of the Buonarotti was laid
+      Michael Angelo; in the vault of the Viviani the preceptor of one of their
+      house, Galileo. From those two burials the church gradually be same the
+      recognized shrine of Italian genius."] The wounds of their Master were to
+      be their inheritance. So their first aim was to make what image to the
+      cross their church might present, distinctly that of the actual instrument
+      of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And they did this most effectually by using the form of the letter T, that
+      of the Furca or Gibbet,&mdash;not the sign of peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Also, their churches were meant for use; not show, nor self-glorification,
+      nor town-glorification. They wanted places for preaching, prayer,
+      sacrifice, burial; and had no intention of showing how high they could
+      build towers, or how widely they could arch vaults. Strong walls, and the
+      roof of a barn,&mdash;these your Franciscan asks of his Arnolfo. These
+      Arnolfo gives,&mdash;thoroughly and wisely built; the successions of gable
+      roof being a new device for strength, much praised in its day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This stern humor did not last long. Arnolfo himself had other notions;
+      much more Cimabue and Giotto; most of all, Nature and Heaven. Something
+      else had to be taught about Christ than that He was wounded to death.
+      Nevertheless, look how grand this stern form would be, restored to its
+      simplicity. It is not the old church which is in itself unimpressive. It
+      is the old church defaced by Vasari, by Michael Angelo, and by modern
+      Florence. See those huge tombs on your right hand and left, at the sides
+      of the aisles, with their alternate gable and round tops, and their
+      paltriest of all possible sculpture, trying to be grand by bigness, and
+      pathetic by expense. Tear them all down in your imagination; fancy the
+      vast hall with its massive pillars,&mdash;not painted calomel-pill colour,
+      as now, but of their native stone, with a rough, true wood for roof,&mdash;and
+      a people praying beneath them, strong in abiding, and pure in life, as
+      their rocks and olive forests That was Arnolfo's Santa Croce. Nor did his
+      work remain long without grace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That very line of chapels in which we found our St. Louis shows signs of
+      change in temper. <i>They</i> have no pent-house roofs, but true Gothic
+      vaults: we found our four-square type of Franciscan Law on one of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable, then, that these chapels may be later than the rest&mdash;even
+      in their stonework. In their decoration, they are so, assuredly; belonging
+      already to the time when the story of St. Francis was becoming a
+      passionate tradition, told and painted everywhere with delight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And that high recess, taking the place of apse, in the centre,&mdash;see
+      how noble it is in the coloured shade surrounding and joining the glow of
+      its windows, though their form be so simple. You are not to be amused here
+      by patterns in balanced stone, as a French or English architect would
+      amuse you, says Arnolfo. "You are to read and think, under these severe
+      walls of mine; immortal hands will write upon them." We will go back,
+      therefore, into this line of manuscript chapels presently; but first, look
+      at the two sepulchral slabs by which you are standing. That farther of the
+      two from the west end is one of the most beautiful pieces of fourteenth
+      century sculpture in this world; and it contains simple elements of
+      excellence, by your understanding of which you may test your power of
+      understanding the more difficult ones you will have to deal with
+      presently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It represents an old man, in the high deeply-folded cap worn by scholars
+      and gentlemen in Florence from 1300&mdash;1500, lying dead, with a book in
+      his breast, over which his hands are folded. At his feet is this
+      inscription: "Temporibus hic suis phylosophye atq. medicine culmen fuit
+      Galileus de Galileis olim Bonajutis qui etiam summo in magistratu miro
+      quodam modo rempublicam dilexit, cujus sancte memorie bene acte vite pie
+      benedictus filius hunc tumulum patri sibi suisq. posteris edidit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Murray tells you that the effigies "in low relief" (alas, yes, low
+      enough now&mdash;worn mostly into flat stones, with a trace only of the
+      deeper lines left, but originally in very bold relief,) with which the
+      floor of Santa Croce is inlaid, of which this by which you stand is
+      characteristic, are "interesting from the costume," but that, "except in
+      the case of John Ketterick, Bishop of St. David's, few of the other names
+      have any interest beyond the walls of Florence." As, however, you are at
+      present within the walls of Florence, you may perhaps condescend to take
+      some interest in this ancestor or relation of the Galileo whom Florence
+      indeed left to be externally interesting, and would not allow to enter in
+      her walls.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+[Footnote:                "Seven years a prisoner at the city gate,
+                 Let in but his grave-clothes."
+                                     <i>Rogers' "Italy</i>."]
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      I am not sure if I rightly place or construe the phrase in the above
+      inscription, "cujus sancte memorie bene acte;" but, in main purport, the
+      legend runs thus: "This Galileo of the Galilei was, in his times, the head
+      of philosophy and medicine; who also in the highest magistracy loved the
+      republic marvellously; whose son, blessed in inheritance of his holy
+      memory and well-passed and pious life, appointed this tomb for his father,
+      for himself, and for his posterity."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no date; but the slab immediately behind it, nearer the western
+      door, is of the same style, but of later and inferior work, and bears date&mdash;I
+      forget now of what early year in the fifteenth century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Florence was still in her pride; and you may observe, in this epitaph,
+      on what it was based. That her philosophy was studied <i>together with
+      useful arts,</i> and as a part of them; that the masters in these became
+      naturally the masters in public affairs; that in such magistracy, they
+      loved the State, and neither cringed to it nor robbed it; that the sons
+      honoured their fathers, and received their fathers' honour as the most
+      blessed inheritance. Remember the phrase "vite pie bene dictus filius," to
+      be compared with the "nos nequiores" of the declining days of all states,&mdash;chiefly
+      now in Florence, France and England.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus much for the local interest of name. Next for the universal interest
+      of the art of this tomb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is the crowning virtue of all great art that, however little is left of
+      it by the injuries of time, that little will be lovely. As long as you can
+      see anything, you can see&mdash;almost all;&mdash;so much the hand of the
+      master will suggest of his soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here you are well quit, for once, of restoration. No one cares for
+      this sculpture; and if Florence would only thus put all her old sculpture
+      and painting under her feet, and simply use them for gravestones and
+      oilcloth, she would be more merciful to them than she is now. Here, at
+      least, what little is left is true.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, if you look long, you will find it is not so little. That worn face
+      is still a perfect portrait of the old man, though like one struck out at
+      a venture, with a few rough touches of a master's chisel. And that falling
+      drapery of his cap is, in its few lines, faultless, and subtle beyond
+      description.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, here is a simple but most useful test of your capacity for
+      understanding Florentine sculpture or painting. If you can see that the
+      lines of that cap are both right, and lovely; that the choice of the folds
+      is exquisite in its ornamental relations of line; and that the softness
+      and ease of them is complete,&mdash;though only sketched with a few dark
+      touches,&mdash;then you can understand Giotto's drawing, and Botticelli's;&mdash;Donatello's
+      carving and Luca's. But if you see nothing in <i>this</i> sculpture, you
+      will see nothing in theirs, <i>of</i> theirs. Where they choose to imitate
+      flesh, or silk, or to play any vulgar modern trick with marble&mdash;(and
+      they often do)&mdash;whatever, in a word, is French, or American, or
+      Cockney, in their work, you can see; but what is Florentine, and for ever
+      great&mdash;unless you can see also the beauty of this old man in his
+      citizen's cap,&mdash;you will see never.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is more in this sculpture, however, than its simple portraiture and
+      noble drapery. The old man lies on a piece of embroidered carpet; and,
+      protected by the higher relief, many of the finer lines of this are almost
+      uninjured; in particular, its exquisitely-wrought fringe and tassels are
+      nearly perfect. And if you will kneel down and look long at the tassels of
+      the cushion under the head, and the way they fill the angles of the stone,
+      you will,&mdash;or may&mdash;know, from this example alone, what noble
+      decorative sculpture is, and was, and must be, from the days of earliest
+      Greece to those of latest Italy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Exquisitely sculptured fringe!" and you have just been abusing sculptors
+      who play tricks with marble! Yes, and you cannot find a better example, in
+      all the museums of Europe, of the work of a man who does <i>not</i> play
+      tricks with it&mdash;than this tomb. Try to understand the difference: it
+      is a point of quite cardinal importance to all your future study of
+      sculpture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I <i>told</i> you, observe, that the old Galileo was lying on a piece of
+      embroidered carpet. I don't think, if I had not told you, that you would
+      have found it out for yourself. It is not so like a carpet as all that
+      comes to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But had it been a modern trick-sculpture, the moment you came to the tomb
+      you would have said, "Dear me! how wonderfully that carpet is done,&mdash;it
+      doesn't look like stone in the least&mdash;one longs to take it up and
+      beat it, to get the dust off."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now whenever you feel inclined to speak so of a sculptured drapery, be
+      assured, without more ado, the sculpture is base, and bad. You will merely
+      waste your time and corrupt your taste by looking at it. Nothing is so
+      easy as to imitate drapery in marble. You may cast a piece any day; and
+      carve it with such subtlety that the marble shall be an absolute image of
+      the folds. But that is not sculpture. That is mechanical manufacture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No great sculptor, from the beginning of art to the end of it, has ever
+      carved, or ever will, a deceptive drapery. He has neither time nor will to
+      do it. His mason's lad may do that if he likes. A man who can carve a limb
+      or a face never finishes inferior parts, but either with a hasty and
+      scornful chisel, or with such grave and strict selection of their lines as
+      you know at once to be imaginative, not imitative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if, as in this case, he wants to oppose the simplicity of his central
+      subject with a rich background,&mdash;a labyrinth of ornamental lines to
+      relieve the severity of expressive ones,&mdash;he will carve you a carpet,
+      or a tree, or a rose thicket, with their fringes and leaves and thorns,
+      elaborated as richly as natural ones; but always for the sake of the
+      ornamental form, never of the imitation; yet, seizing the natural
+      character in the lines he gives, with twenty times the precision and
+      clearness of sight that the mere imitator has. Examine the tassels of the
+      cushion, and the way they blend with the fringe, thoroughly; you cannot
+      possibly see finer ornamental sculpture. Then, look at the same tassels in
+      the same place of the slab next the west end of the church, and you will
+      see a scholar's rude imitation of a master's hand, though in a fine
+      school. (Notice, however, the folds of the drapery at the feet of this
+      figure: they are cut so as to show the hem of the robe within as well as
+      without, and are fine.) Then, as you go back to Giotto's chapel, keep to
+      the left, and just beyond the north door in the aisle is the much
+      celebrated tomb of C. Marsuppini, by Desiderio of Settignano. It is very
+      fine of its kind; but there the drapery is chiefly done to cheat you, and
+      chased delicately to show how finely the sculptor could chisel it. It is
+      wholly vulgar and mean in cast of fold. Under your feet, as you look at
+      it, you will tread another tomb of the fine time, which, looking last at,
+      you will recognize the difference between the false and true art, as far
+      as there is capacity in you at present to do so. And if you really and
+      honestly like the low-lying stones, and see more beauty in them, you have
+      also the power of enjoying Giotto, into whose chapel we will return
+      to-morrow;&mdash;not to-day, for the light must have left it by this time;
+      and now that you have been looking at these sculptures on the floor you
+      had better traverse nave and aisle across and across; and get some idea of
+      that sacred field of stone. In the north transept you will find a
+      beautiful knight, the finest in chiselling of all these tombs, except one
+      by the same hand in the south aisle just where it enters the south
+      transept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Examine the lines of the Gothic niches traced above them; and what is left
+      of arabesque on their armour. They are far more beautiful and tender in
+      chivalric conception than Donatello's St. George, which is merely a piece
+      of vigorous naturalism founded on these older tombs. If you will drive in
+      the evening to the Chartreuse in Val d'Ema, you may see there an uninjured
+      example of this slab-tomb by Donatello himself; very beautiful; but not so
+      perfect as the earlier ones on which it is founded. And you may see some
+      fading light and shade of monastic life, among which if you stay till the
+      fireflies come out in the twilight, and thus get to sleep when you come
+      home, you will be better prepared for to-morrow morning's walk&mdash;if
+      you will take another with me&mdash;than if you go to a party, to talk
+      sentiment about Italy, and hear the last news from London and New York.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SECOND MORNING.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE GOLDEN GATE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      To-day, as early as you please, and at all events before doing anything
+      else, let us go to Giotto's own parish-church, Santa Maria Novella. If,
+      walking from the Strozzi Palace, you look on your right for the "Way of
+      the Beautiful Ladies," it will take you quickly there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do not let anything in the way of acquaintance, sacristan, or chance
+      sight, stop you in doing what I tell you. Walk straight up to the church,
+      into the apse of it;&mdash;(you may let your eyes rest, as you walk, on
+      the glow of its glass, only mind the step, half way;)&mdash;and lift the
+      curtain; and go in behind the grand marble altar, giving anybody who
+      follows you anything they want, to hold their tongues, or go away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You know, most probably, already, that the frescos on each side of you are
+      Ghirlandajo's. You have been told they are very fine, and if you know
+      anything of painting, you know the portraits in them are so. Nevertheless,
+      somehow, you don't really enjoy these frescos, nor come often here, do
+      you?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reason of which is, that if you are a nice person, they are not nice
+      enough for you; and if a vulgar person, not vulgar enough. But if you are
+      a nice person, I want you to look carefully, to-day, at the two lowest,
+      next the windows, for a few minutes, that you may better feel the art you
+      are really to study, by its contrast with these.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On your left hand is represented the birth of the Virgin, On your right,
+      her meeting with Elizabeth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You can't easily see better pieces&mdash;nowhere more pompous pieces&mdash;of
+      flat goldsmiths' work. Ghirlandajo was to the end of his life a mere
+      goldsmith, with a gift of portraiture. And here he has done his best, and
+      has put a long wall in wonderful perspective, and the whole city of
+      Florence behind Elizabeth's house in the hill country; and a splendid
+      bas-relief, in the style of Luca della Robbia, in St. Anne's bedroom; and
+      he has carved all the pilasters, and embroidered all the dresses, and
+      flourished and trumpeted into every corner; and it is all done, within
+      just a point, as well as it can be done; and quite as well as Ghirlandajo
+      could do it. But the point in which it <i>just</i> misses being as well as
+      it can be done, is the vital point. And it is all simply&mdash;good for
+      nothing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Extricate yourself from the goldsmith's rubbish of it, and look full at
+      the Salutation. You will say, perhaps, at first, "What grand and graceful
+      figures!" Are you sure they are graceful? Look again and you will see
+      their draperies hang from them exactly as they would from two
+      clothes-pegs. Now, fine drapery, really well drawn, as it hangs from a
+      clothes-peg, is always rather impressive, especially if it be disposed in
+      large breadths and deep folds; but that is the only grace of their
+      figures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Secondly. Look at the Madonna, carefully. You will find she is not the
+      least meek&mdash;only stupid,&mdash;as all the other women in the picture
+      are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "St. Elizabeth, you think, is nice"? Yes; "and she says, 'Whence is this
+      to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' really with a great
+      deal of serious feeling?" Yes, with a great deal. Well, you have looked
+      enough at those two. Now&mdash;just for another minute&mdash;look at the
+      birth of the Virgin. "A most graceful group, (your Murray's Guide tells
+      you,) in the attendant servants." Extremely so. Also, the one holding the
+      child is rather pretty. Also, the servant pouring out the water does it
+      from a great height, without splashing, most cleverly. Also, the lady
+      coming to ask for St. Anne, and see the baby, walks majestically and is
+      very finely dressed. And as for that bas-relief in the style of Luca della
+      Robbia, you might really almost think it <i>was</i> Luca! The very best
+      plated goods, Master Ghirlandajo, no doubt&mdash;always on hand at your
+      shop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, now you must ask for the Sacristan, who is civil and nice enough,
+      and get him to let you into the green cloister, and then go into the less
+      cloister opening out of it on the right, as you go down the steps; and you
+      must ask for the tomb of the Marcheza Stiozzi Ridolfi; and in the recess
+      behind the Marcheza's tomb&mdash;very close to the ground, and in
+      excellent light, if the day is fine&mdash;you will see two small frescos,
+      only about four feet wide each, in odd-shaped bits of wall&mdash;quarters
+      of circles; representing&mdash;that on the left, the Meeting of Joachim
+      and Anna at the Golden Gate; and that on the right, the Birth of the
+      Virgin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No flourish of trumpets here, at any rate, you think! No gold on the gate;
+      and, for the birth of the Virgin&mdash;is this all! Goodness!&mdash;nothing
+      to be seen, whatever, of bas-reliefs, nor fine dresses, nor graceful
+      pourings out of water, nor processions of visitors?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No. There's but one thing you can see, here, which you didn't in
+      Ghirlandajo's fresco, unless you were very clever and looked hard for it&mdash;the
+      Baby! And you are never likely to see a more true piece of Giotto's work
+      in this world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A round-faced, small-eyed little thing, tied up in a bundle!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes, Giotto was of opinion she must have appeared really not much else
+      than that. But look at the servant who has just finished dressing her;&mdash;awe-struck,
+      full of love and wonder, putting her hand softly on the child's head, who
+      has never cried. The nurse, who has just taken her, is&mdash;the nurse,
+      and no more: tidy in the extreme, and greatly proud and pleased: but would
+      be as much so with any other child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ghirlandajo's St. Anne (I ought to have told you to notice that,&mdash;you
+      can afterwards) is sitting strongly up in bed, watching, if not directing,
+      all that is going on. Giotto's lying down on the pillow, leans her face on
+      her hand; partly exhausted, partly in deep thought. She knows that all
+      will be well done for the child, either by the servants, or God; she need
+      not look after anything.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the foot of the bed is the midwife, and a servant who has brought drink
+      for St. Anne. The servant stops, seeing her so quiet; asking the midwife,
+      Shall I give it her now? The midwife, her hands lifted under her robe, in
+      the attitude of thanksgiving, (with Giotto distinguishable always, though
+      one doesn't know how, from that of prayer,) answers, with her look, "Let
+      be&mdash;she does not want anything."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the door a single acquaintance is coming in, to see the child. Of
+      ornament, there is only the entirely simple outline of the vase which the
+      servant carries; of colour, two or three masses of sober red, and pure
+      white, with brown and gray.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is all. And if you can be pleased with this, you can see Florence.
+      But if not, by all means amuse yourself there, if you find it amusing, as
+      long as you like; you can never see it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if indeed you are pleased, ever so little, with this fresco, think
+      what that pleasure means. I brought you, on purpose, round, through the
+      richest overture, and farrago of tweedledum and tweedledee, I could find
+      in Florence; and here is a tune of four notes, on a shepherd's pipe,
+      played by the picture of nobody; and yet you like it! You know what music
+      is, then. Here is another little tune, by the same player, and sweeter. I
+      let you hear the simplest first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fresco on the left hand, with the bright blue sky, and the rosy
+      figures! Why, anybody might like that!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yes; but, alas, all the blue sky is repainted. It <i>was</i> blue always,
+      however, and bright too; and I dare say, when the fresco was first done,
+      anybody <i>did</i> like it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You know the story of Joachim and Anna, I hope? Not that I do, myself,
+      quite in the ins and outs; and if you don't I'm not going to keep you
+      waiting while I tell it. All you need know, and you scarcely, before this
+      fresco, need know so much, is, that here are an old husband and old wife,
+      meeting again by surprise, after losing each other, and being each in
+      great fear;&mdash;meeting at the place where they were told by God each to
+      go, without knowing what was to happen there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "So they rushed into one another's arms, and kissed each other."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No, says Giotto,&mdash;not that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They advanced to meet, in a manner conformable to the strictest laws of
+      composition; and with their draperies cast into folds which no one until
+      Raphael could have arranged better."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No, says Giotto,&mdash;not that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      St. Anne has moved quickest; her dress just falls into folds sloping
+      backwards enough to tell you so much. She has caught St. Joachim by his
+      mantle, and draws him to her, softly, by that. St. Joachim lays his hand
+      under her arm, seeing she is like to faint, and holds her up. They do not
+      kiss each other&mdash;only look into each other's eyes. And God's angel
+      lays his hand on their heads.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Behind them, there are two rough figures, busied with their own affairs,&mdash;two
+      of Joachim's shepherds; one, bare headed, the other wearing the wide
+      Florentine cap with the falling point behind, which is exactly like the
+      tube of a larkspur or violet; both carrying game, and talking to each
+      other about&mdash;Greasy Joan and her pot, or the like. Not at all the
+      sort of persons whom you would have thought in harmony with the scene;&mdash;by
+      the laws of the drama, according to Racine or Voltaire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No, but according to Shakespeare, or Giotto, these are just the kind of
+      persons likely to be there: as much as the angel is likely to be there
+      also, though you will be told nowadays that Giotto was absurd for putting
+      <i>him</i> into the sky, of which an apothecary can always produce the
+      similar blue, in a bottle. And now that you have had Shakespeare, and
+      sundry other men of head and heart, following the track of this shepherd
+      lad, <i>you</i> can forgive him his grotesques in the corner. But that he
+      should have forgiven them to himself, after the training he had, this is
+      the wonder! <i>We</i> have seen simple pictures enough in our day; and
+      therefore we think that of course shepherd boys will sketch shepherds:
+      what wonder is there in that?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I can show you how in <i>this</i> shepherd boy it was very wonderful
+      indeed, if you will walk for five minutes back into the church with me,
+      and up into the chapel at the end of the south transept,&mdash;at least if
+      the day is bright, and you get the Sacristan to undraw the window-curtain
+      in the transept itself. For then the light of it will be enough to show
+      you the entirely authentic and most renowned work of Giotto's master; and
+      you will see through what schooling the lad had gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A good and brave master he was, if ever boy had one; and, as you will find
+      when you know really who the great men are, the master is half their life;
+      and well they know it&mdash;always naming themselves from their master,
+      rather than their families. See then what kind of work Giotto had been
+      first put to. There is, literally, not a square inch of all that panel&mdash;some
+      ten feet high by six or seven wide&mdash;which is not wrought in gold and
+      colour with the fineness of a Greek manuscript. There is not such an
+      elaborate piece of ornamentation in the first page of any Gothic king's
+      missal, as you will find in that Madonna's throne;&mdash;the Madonna
+      herself is meant to be grave and noble only; and to be attended only by
+      angels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And here is this saucy imp of a lad declares his people must do without
+      gold, and without thrones; nay, that the Golden Gate itself shall have no
+      gilding that St. Joachim and St. Anne shall have only one angel between
+      them: and their servants shall have their joke, and nobody say them nay!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is most wonderful; and would have been impossible, had Cimabue been a
+      common man, though ever so great in his own way. Nor could I in any of my
+      former thinking understand how it was, till I saw Cimabue's own work at
+      Assisi; in which he shows himself, at heart, as independent of his gold as
+      Giotto,&mdash;even more intense, capable of higher things than Giotto,
+      though of none, perhaps, so keen or sweet. But to this day, among all the
+      Mater Dolorosas of Christianity, Cimabue's at Assisi is the noblest; nor
+      did any painter after him add one link to the chain of thought with which
+      he summed the creation of the earth, and preached its redemption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He evidently never checked the boy, from the first day he found him.
+      Showed him all he knew: talked with him of many things he felt himself
+      unable to paint: made him a workman and a gentleman,&mdash;above all, a
+      Christian,&mdash;yet left him&mdash;a shepherd. And Heaven had made him
+      such a painter, that, at his height, the words of his epitaph are in
+      nowise overwrought: "Ille ego sum, per quem pictura extincta revixit."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A word or two, now, about the repainting by which <i>this</i> pictura
+      extincta has been revived to meet existing taste. The sky is entirely
+      daubed over with fresh blue; yet it leaves with unusual care the original
+      outline of the descending angel, and of the white clouds about his body.
+      This idea of the angel laying his hands on the two heads&mdash;(as a
+      bishop at Confirmation does, in a hurry; and I've seen one sweep four
+      together, like Arnold de Winkelied),&mdash;partly in blessing, partly as a
+      symbol of their being brought together to the same place by God,&mdash;was
+      afterwards repeated again and again: there is one beautiful little echo of
+      it among the old pictures in the schools of Oxford. This is the first
+      occurrence of it that I know in pure Italian painting; but the idea is
+      Etruscan-Greek, and is used by the Etruscan sculptors of the door of the
+      Baptistery of Pisa, of the <i>evil</i> angel, who "lays the heads
+      together" of two very different persons from these&mdash;Herodias and her
+      daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Joachim, and the shepherd with the larkspur cap, are both quite safe; the
+      other shepherd a little reinforced; the black bunches of grass, hanging
+      about are retouches. They were once bunches of plants drawn with perfect
+      delicacy and care; you may see one left, faint, with heart-shaped leaves,
+      on the highest ridge of rock above the shepherds. The whole landscape is,
+      however, quite undecipherably changed and spoiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will be apt to think at first, that if anything has been restored,
+      surely the ugly shepherd's uglier feet have. No, not at all. Restored feet
+      are always drawn with entirely orthodox and academical toes, like the
+      Apollo Belvidere's. You would have admired them very much. These are
+      Giotto's own doing, every bit; and a precious business he has had of it,
+      trying again and again&mdash;in vain. Even hands were difficult enough to
+      him, at this time; but feet, and bare legs! Well, he'll have a try, he
+      thinks, and gets really a fair line at last, when you are close to it;
+      but, laying the light on the ground afterwards, he dare not touch this
+      precious and dear-bought outline. Stops all round it, a quarter of an inch
+      off, [Footnote: Perhaps it is only the restorer's white on the ground that
+      stops; but I think a restorer would never have been so wise, but have gone
+      right up to the outline, and spoiled all.] with such effect as you see.
+      But if you want to know what sort of legs and feet he <i>can</i> draw,
+      look at our <i>lambs</i>, in the corner of the fresco under the arch on
+      your left!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And there is one on your right, though more repainted&mdash;the little
+      Virgin presenting herself at the Temple,&mdash;about which I could also
+      say much. The stooping figure, kissing the hem of her robe without her
+      knowing, is, as far as I remember, first in this fresco; the origin,
+      itself, of the main design in all the others you know so well; (and with
+      its steps, by the way, in better perspective already than most of them).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "<i>This</i> the original one!" you will be inclined to exclaim, if you
+      have any general knowledge of the subsequent art. "<i>This</i> Giotto! why
+      it's a cheap rechauffé of Titian!" No, my friend. The boy who tried so
+      hard to draw those steps in perspective had been carried down others, to
+      his grave, two hundred years before Titian ran alone at Cadore. But, as
+      surely as Venice looks on the sea, Titian looked upon this, and caught the
+      reflected light of it forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What kind of boy is this, think you, who can make Titian his copyist,&mdash;Dante
+      his friend? What new power is here which is to change the heart of Italy?&mdash;can
+      you see it, feel it, writing before you these words on the faded wall?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "You shall see things&mdash;as they Are."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the least with the greatest, because God made them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "And the greatest with the least, because God made <i>you</i>, and gave
+      you eyes and a heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I. You shall see things&mdash;as they are. So easy a matter that, you
+      think? So much more difficult and sublime to paint grand processions and
+      golden thrones, than St. Anne faint on her pillow, and her servant at
+      pause?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Easy or not, it is all the sight that is required of you in this world,&mdash;to
+      see things, and men, and yourself,&mdash;as they are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II. And the least with the greatest, because God made them,&mdash;shepherd,
+      and flock, and grass of the field, no less than the Golden Gate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III. But also the golden gate of Heaven itself, open, and the angels of
+      God coming down from it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These three things Giotto taught, and men believed, in his day. Of which
+      Faith you shall next see brighter work; only before we leave the cloister,
+      I want to sum for you one or two of the instant and evident technical
+      changes produced in the school of Florence by this teaching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of quite the first results of Giotto's simply looking at things as
+      they were, was his finding out that a red thing was red, and a brown thing
+      brown, and a white thing white&mdash;all over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Greeks had painted anything anyhow,&mdash;gods black, horses red, lips
+      and cheeks white; and when the Etruscan vase expanded into a Cimabue
+      picture, or a Tafi mosaic, still,&mdash;except that the Madonna was to
+      have a blue dress, and everything else as much gold on it as could be
+      managed,&mdash;there was very little advance in notions of colour.
+      Suddenly, Giotto threw aside all the glitter, and all the conventionalism;
+      and declared that he saw the sky blue, the tablecloth white, and angels,
+      when he dreamed of them, rosy. And he simply founded the schools of colour
+      in Italy&mdash;Venetian and all, as I will show you to-morrow morning, if
+      it is fine. And what is more, nobody discovered much about colour after
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But a deeper result of his resolve to look at things as they were, was his
+      getting so heartily interested in them that he couldn't miss their
+      decisive <i>moment</i>. There is a decisive instant in all matters; and if
+      you look languidly, you are sure to miss it. Nature seems always, somehow,
+      trying to make you miss it. "I will see that through," you must say, "with
+      out turning my head"; or you won't see the trick of it at all. And the
+      most significant thing in all his work, you will find hereafter, is his
+      choice of moments. I will give you at once two instances in a picture
+      which, for other reasons, you should quickly compare with these frescos.
+      Return by the Via delle Belle Donne; keep the Casa Strozzi on your right;
+      and go straight on, through the market. The Florentines think themselves
+      so civilized, forsooth, for building a nuovo Lung-Arno, and three
+      manufactory chimneys opposite it: and yet sell butchers' meat, dripping
+      red, peaches, and anchovies, side by side: it is a sight to be seen. Much
+      more, Luca della Robbia's Madonna in the circle above the chapel door.
+      Never pass near the market without looking at it; and glance from the
+      vegetables underneath to Luca's leaves and lilies, that you may see how
+      honestly he was trying to make his clay like the garden-stuff. But to-day,
+      you may pass quickly on to the Uffizii, which will be just open; and when
+      you enter the great gallery, turn to the right, and there, the first
+      picture you come at will be No. 6, Giotto's "Agony in the garden."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I used to think it so dull that I could not believe it was Giotto's. That
+      is partly from its dead colour, which is the boy's way of telling you it
+      is night:&mdash;more from the subject being one quite beyond his age, and
+      which he felt no pleasure in trying at. You may see he was still a boy,
+      for he not only cannot draw feet yet, in the least, and scrupulously hides
+      them therefore; but is very hard put to it for the hands, being obliged to
+      draw them mostly in the same position,&mdash;all the four fingers
+      together. But in the careful bunches of grass and weeds you will see what
+      the fresco foregrounds were before they got spoiled; and there are some
+      things he can understand already, even about that Agony, thinking of it in
+      his own fixed way. Some things,&mdash;not altogether to be explained by
+      the old symbol of the angel with the cup. He will try if he cannot explain
+      them better in those two little pictures below; which nobody ever looks
+      at; the great Roman sarcophagus being put in front of them, and the light
+      glancing on the new varnish so that you must twist about like a lizard to
+      see anything. Nevertheless, you may make out what Giotto meant.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" In what was
+      its bitterness?&mdash;thought the boy. "Crucifixion?&mdash;Well, it hurts,
+      doubtless; but the thieves had to bear it too, and many poor human
+      wretches have to bear worse on our battlefields. But"&mdash;and he thinks,
+      and thinks, and then he paints his two little pictures for the predella.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They represent, of course, the sequence of the time in Gethsemane; but see
+      what choice the youth made of his moments, having two panels to fill.
+      Plenty of choice for him&mdash;in pain. The Flagellation&mdash;the Mocking&mdash;the
+      Bearing of the Cross;&mdash;all habitually given by the Margheritones, and
+      their school, as extremes of pain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "No," thinks Giotto. "There was worse than all that. Many a good man has
+      been mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, slain. But who was ever so
+      betrayed? Who ever saw such a sword thrust in his mother's heart?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He paints, first, the laying hands on Him in the garden, but with only two
+      principal figures,&mdash;Judas and Peter, of course; Judas and Peter were
+      always principal in the old Byzantine composition,&mdash;Judas giving the
+      kiss&mdash;Peter cutting off the servant's ear. But the two are here, not
+      merely principal, but almost alone in sight, all the other figures thrown
+      back; and Peter is not at all concerned about the servant, or his struggle
+      with him. He has got him down,&mdash;but looks back suddenly at Judas
+      giving the kiss. What!&mdash;<i>you</i> are the traitor, then&mdash;you!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Yes," says Giotto; "and you, also, in an hour more."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The other picture is more deeply felt, still. It is of Christ brought to
+      the foot of the cross. There is no wringing of hands or lamenting crowd&mdash;no
+      haggard signs of fainting or pain in His body. Scourging or fainting,
+      feeble knee and torn wound,&mdash;he thinks scorn of all that, this
+      shepherd-boy. One executioner is hammering the wedges of the cross harder
+      down. The other&mdash;not ungently&mdash;is taking Christ's red robe off
+      His shoulders. And St. John, a few yards off, is keeping his mother from
+      coming nearer. She looks <i>down</i>, not at Christ; but tries to come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now you may go on for your day's seeings through the rest of the
+      gallery, if you will&mdash;Fornarina, and the wonderful cobbler, and all
+      the rest of it. I don't want you any more till to-morrow morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But if, meantime, you will sit down,&mdash;say, before Sandro Botticelli's
+      "Fortitude," which I shall want you to look at, one of these days; (No.
+      1299, innermost room from the Tribune,) and there read this following
+      piece of one of my Oxford lectures on the relation of Cimabue to Giotto,
+      you will be better prepared for our work to-morrow morning in Santa Croce;
+      and may find something to consider of, in the room you are in. Where, by
+      the way, observe that No. 1288 is a most true early Lionardo, of extreme
+      interest: and the savants who doubt it are&mdash;never mind what; but sit
+      down at present at the feet of Fortitude, and read.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those of my readers who have been unfortunate enough to interest
+      themselves in that most profitless of studies&mdash;the philosophy of art&mdash;have
+      been at various times teased or amused by disputes respecting the relative
+      dignity of the contemplative and dramatic schools.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Contemplative, of course, being the term attached to the system of
+      painting things only for the sake of their own niceness&mdash;a lady
+      because she is pretty, or a lion because he is strong: and the dramatic
+      school being that which cannot be satisfied unless it sees something going
+      on: which can't paint a pretty lady unless she is being made love to, or
+      being murdered; and can't paint a stag or a lion unless they are being
+      hunted, or shot, or the one eating the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You have always heard me&mdash;or, if not, will expect by the very tone of
+      this sentence to hear me, now, on the whole recommend you to prefer the
+      Contemplative school. But the comparison is always an imperfect and unjust
+      one, unless quite other terms are introduced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The real greatness or smallness of schools is not in their preference of
+      inactivity to action, nor of action to inactivity. It is in their
+      preference of worthy things to unworthy, in rest; and of kind action to
+      unkind, in business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A Dutchman can be just as solemnly and entirely contemplative of a lemon
+      pip and a cheese paring, as an Italian of the Virgin in Glory. An English
+      squire has pictures, purely contemplative, of his favorite horse&mdash;and
+      a Parisian lady, pictures, purely contemplative, of the back and front of
+      the last dress proposed to her in La Mode Artistique. All these works
+      belong to the same school of silent admiration;&mdash;the vital question
+      concerning them is, "What do you admire?"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now therefore, when you hear me so often saying that the Northern races&mdash;Norman
+      and Lombard,&mdash;are active, or dramatic, in their art; and that the
+      Southern races&mdash;Greek and Arabian,&mdash;are contemplative, you ought
+      instantly to ask farther, Active in what? Contemplative of what? And the
+      answer is, The active art&mdash;Lombardic,&mdash;rejoices in hunting and
+      fighting; the contemplative art&mdash;Byzantine,&mdash;contemplates the
+      mysteries of the Christian faith.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And at first, on such answer, one would be apt at once to conclude&mdash;All
+      grossness must be in the Lombard; all good in the Byzantine. But again we
+      should be wrong,&mdash;and extremely wrong. For the hunting and fighting
+      did practically produce strong, and often virtuous, men; while the
+      perpetual and inactive contemplation of what it was impossible to
+      understand, did not on the whole render the contemplative persons,
+      stronger, wiser, or even more amiable. So that, in the twelfth century,
+      while the Northern art was only in need of direction, the Southern was in
+      need of life. The North was indeed spending its valour and virtue on
+      ignoble objects; but the South disgracing the noblest objects by its want
+      of valour and virtue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Central stood Etruscan Florence&mdash;her root in the earth, bound with
+      iron and brass&mdash;wet with the dew of heaven. Agriculture in
+      occupation, religious in thought, she accepted, like good ground, the
+      good; refused, like the Rock of Fesole, the evil; directed the industry of
+      the Northman into the arts of peace; kindled the dreams of the Byzantine
+      with the fire of charity. Child of her peace, and exponent of her passion,
+      her Cimabue became the interpreter to mankind of the meaning of the Birth
+      of Christ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We hear constantly, and think naturally, of him as of a man whose peculiar
+      genius in painting suddenly reformed its principles; who suddenly painted,
+      out of his own gifted imagination, beautiful instead of rude pictures; and
+      taught his scholar Giotto to carry on the impulse; which we suppose
+      thenceforward to have enlarged the resources and bettered the achievements
+      of painting continually, up to our own time,&mdash;when the triumphs of
+      art having been completed, and its uses ended, something higher is offered
+      to the ambition of mankind; and Watt and Faraday initiate the Age of
+      Manufacture and Science, as Cimabue and Giotto instituted that of Art and
+      Imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this conception of the History of Mental and Physical culture, we much
+      overrate the influence, though we cannot overrate the power, of the men by
+      whom the change seems to have been effected. We cannot overrate their
+      power,&mdash;for the greatest men of any age, those who become its leaders
+      when there is a great march to be begun, are indeed separated from the
+      average intellects of their day by a distance which is immeasurable in any
+      ordinary terms of wonder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we far overrate their influence; because the apparently sudden result
+      of their labour or invention is only the manifested fruit of the toil and
+      thought of many who preceded them, and of whose names we have never heard.
+      The skill of Cimabue cannot be extolled too highly; but no Madonna by his
+      hand could ever have rejoiced the soul of Italy, unless for a thousand
+      years before, many a nameless Greek and nameless Goth had adorned the
+      traditions, and lived in the love, of the Virgin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In like manner, it is impossible to overrate the sagacity, patience, or
+      precision, of the masters in modern mechanical and scientific discovery.
+      But their sudden triumph, and the unbalancing of all the world by their
+      words, may not in any wise be attributed to their own power, or even to
+      that of the facts they have ascertained. They owe their habits and methods
+      of industry to the paternal example, no less than the inherited energy, of
+      men who long ago prosecuted the truths of nature, through the rage of war,
+      and the adversity of superstition; and the universal and overwhelming
+      consequences of the facts which their followers have now proclaimed,
+      indicate only the crisis of a rapture produced by the offering of new
+      objects of curiosity to nations who had nothing to look at; and of the
+      amusement of novel motion and action to nations who had nothing to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing to look at! That is indeed&mdash;you will find, if you consider of
+      it&mdash;our sorrowful case. The vast extent of the advertising frescos of
+      London, daily refreshed into brighter and larger frescos by its
+      billstickers, cannot somehow sufficiently entertain the popular eyes. The
+      great Mrs. Allen, with her flowing hair, and equally flowing promises,
+      palls upon repetition, and that Madonna of the nineteenth century smiles
+      in vain above many a borgo unrejoiced; even the excitement of the
+      shop-window, with its unattainable splendours, or too easily attainable
+      impostures, cannot maintain itself in the wearying mind of the populace,
+      and I find my charitable friends inviting the children, whom the streets
+      educate only into vicious misery, to entertainments of scientific vision,
+      in microscope or magic lantern; thus giving them something to look at,
+      such as it is;&mdash;fleas mostly; and the stomachs of various vermin; and
+      people with their heads cut off and set on again;&mdash;still <i>something</i>,
+      to look at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fame of Cimabue rests, and justly, on a similar charity. He gave the
+      populace of his day something to look at; and satisfied their curiosity
+      with science of something they had long desired to know. We have
+      continually imagined in our carelessness, that his triumph consisted only
+      in a new pictorial skill; recent critical writers, unable to comprehend
+      how any street populace could take pleasure in painting, have ended by
+      denying his triumph altogether, and insisted that he gave no joy to
+      Florence; and that the "Joyful quarter" was accidentally so named&mdash;or
+      at least from no other festivity than that of the procession attending
+      Charles of Anjou. I proved to you, in a former lecture, that the old
+      tradition was true, and the delight of the people unquestionable. But that
+      delight was not merely in the revelation of an art they had not known how
+      to practise; it was delight in the revelation of a Madonna whom they had
+      not known how to love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again; what was revelation to <i>them</i>&mdash;we suppose farther and as
+      unwisely, to have been only art in <i>him</i>; that in better laying of
+      colours,&mdash;in better tracing of perspectives&mdash;in recovery of
+      principles, of classic composition&mdash;he had manufactured, as our
+      Gothic Firms now manufacture to order, a Madonna&mdash;in whom he believed
+      no more than they.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not so. First of the Florentines, first of European men&mdash;he attained
+      in thought, and saw with spiritual eyes, exercised to discern good from
+      evil,&mdash;the face of her who was blessed among women; and with his
+      following hand, made visible the Magnificat of his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He magnified the Maid; and Florence rejoiced in her Queen. But it was left
+      for Giotto to make the queenship better beloved, in its sweet humiliation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You had the Etruscan stock in Florence&mdash;Christian, or at least
+      semi-Christian; the statue of Mars still in its streets, but with its
+      central temple built for Baptism in the name of Christ. It was a race
+      living by agriculture; gentle, thoughtful, and exquisitely fine in
+      handiwork. The straw bonnet of Tuscany&mdash;the Leghorn&mdash;is pure
+      Etruscan art, young ladies:&mdash;only plaited gold of God's harvest,
+      instead of the plaited gold of His earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You had then the Norman and Lombard races coming down on this: kings, and
+      hunters&mdash;splendid in war&mdash;insatiable of action. You had the
+      Greek and Arabian races flowing from the east, bringing with them the law
+      of the City, and the dream of the Desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Cimabue&mdash;Etruscan born, gave, we saw, the life of the Norman to the
+      tradition of the Greek: eager action to holy contemplation. And what more
+      is left for his favourite shepherd boy Giotto to do, than this, except to
+      paint with ever-increasing skill? We fancy he only surpassed Cimabue&mdash;eclipsed
+      by greater brightness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not so. The sudden and new applause of Italy would never have been won by
+      mere increase of the already-kindled light. Giotto had wholly another work
+      to do. The meeting of the Norman race with the Byzantine is not merely
+      that of action with repose&mdash;not merely that of war with religion,&mdash;it
+      is the meeting of <i>domestic</i> life with <i>monastic</i>, and of
+      practical household sense with unpractical Desert insanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have no other word to use than this last. I use it reverently, meaning a
+      very noble thing; I do not know how far I ought to say&mdash;even a divine
+      thing. Decide that for yourselves. Compare the Northern farmer with St.
+      Francis; the palm hardened by stubbing Thornaby waste, with the palm
+      softened by the imagination of the wounds of Christ. To my own thoughts,
+      both are divine; decide that for yourselves; but assuredly, and without
+      possibility of other decision, one is, humanly speaking, healthy; the
+      other <i>un</i>healthy; one sane, the other&mdash;insane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To reconcile Drama with Dream, Cimabue's task was comparatively an easy
+      one. But to reconcile Sense with&mdash;I still use even this following
+      word reverently&mdash;Nonsense, is not so easy; and he who did it first,&mdash;no
+      wonder he has a name in the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must lean, however, still more distinctly on the word "domestic." For it
+      is not Rationalism and commercial competition&mdash;Mr. Stuart Mill's"
+      other career for woman than that of wife and mother "&mdash;which are
+      reconcilable, by Giotto, or by anybody else, with divine vision. But
+      household wisdom, labour of love, toil upon earth according to the law of
+      Heaven&mdash;these are reconcilable, in one code of glory, with revelation
+      in cave or island, with the endurance of desolate and loveless days, with
+      the repose of folded hands that wait Heaven's time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Domestic and monastic. He was the first of Italians&mdash;the first of
+      Christians&mdash;who <i>equally</i> knew the virtue of both lives; and who
+      was able to show it in the sight of men of all ranks,&mdash;from the
+      prince to the shepherd; and of all powers,&mdash;from the wisest
+      philosopher to the simplest child.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For, note the way in which the new gift of painting, bequeathed to him by
+      his great master, strengthened his hands. Before Cimabue, no beautiful
+      rendering of human form was possible; and the rude or formal types of the
+      Lombard and Byzantine, though they would serve in the tumult of the chase,
+      or as the recognized symbols of creed, could not represent personal and
+      domestic character. Faces with goggling eyes and rigid lips might be
+      endured with ready help of imagination, for gods, angels, saints, or
+      hunters&mdash;or for anybody else in scenes of recognized legend, but
+      would not serve for pleasant portraiture of one's own self&mdash;or of the
+      incidents of gentle, actual life. And even Cimabue did not venture to
+      leave the sphere of conventionally reverenced dignity. He still painted&mdash;though
+      beautifully&mdash;only the Madonna, and the St. Joseph, and the Christ.
+      These he made living,&mdash;Florence asked no more: and "Credette Cimabue
+      nella pintura tener lo campo."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Giotto came from the field, and saw with his simple eyes a lowlier
+      worth. And he painted&mdash;the Madonna, and St. Joseph, and the Christ,&mdash;yes,
+      by all means if you choose to call them so, but essentially,&mdash;Mamma,
+      Papa, and the Baby. And all Italy threw up its cap,&mdash;"Ora ha Giotto
+      il grido."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For he defines, explains, and exalts, every sweet incident of human
+      nature; and makes dear to daily life every mystic imagination of natures
+      greater than our own. He reconciles, while he intensifies, every virtue of
+      domestic and monastic thought. He makes the simplest household duties
+      sacred, and the highest religious passions serviceable and just.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE THIRD MORNING.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      BEFORE THE SOLDAN.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      I promised some note of Sandro's Fortitude, before whom I asked you to sit
+      and read the end of my last letter; and I've lost my own notes about her,
+      and forget, now, whether she has a sword, or a mace;&mdash;it does not
+      matter. What is chiefly notable in her is&mdash;that you would not, if you
+      had to guess who she was, take her for Fortitude at all. Everybody else's
+      Fortitudes announce themselves clearly and proudly. They have tower-like
+      shields, and lion-like helmets&mdash;and stand firm astride on their legs,&mdash;and
+      are confidently ready for all comers. Yes;&mdash;that is your common
+      Fortitude. Very grand, though common. But not the highest, by any means.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ready for all comers, and a match for them,&mdash;thinks the universal
+      Fortitude;&mdash;no thanks to her for standing so steady, then!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Botticelli's Fortitude is no match, it may be, for any that are
+      coming. Worn, somewhat; and not a little weary, instead of standing ready
+      for all comers, she is sitting,&mdash;apparently in reverie, her fingers
+      playing restlessly and idly&mdash;nay, I think&mdash;even nervously, about
+      the hilt of her sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For her battle is not to begin to-day; nor did it begin yesterday. Many a
+      morn and eve have passed since it began&mdash;and now&mdash;is this to be
+      the ending day of it? And if this&mdash;by what manner of end?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is what Sandro's Fortitude is thinking. And the playing fingers about
+      the sword-hilt would fain let it fall, if it might be: and yet, how
+      swiftly and gladly will they close on it, when the far-off trumpet blows,
+      which she will hear through all her reverie!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is yet another picture of Sandro's here, which you must look at
+      before going back to Giotto: the small Judith in the room next the
+      Tribune, as you return from this outer one. It is just under Lionardo's
+      Medusa. She is returning to the camp of her Israel, followed by her maid
+      carrying the head of Holofernes. And she walks in one of Botticelli's
+      light dancing actions, her drapery all on flutter, and her hand, like
+      Fortitude's, light on the sword-hilt, but daintily&mdash;not nervously,
+      the little finger laid over the cross of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And at the first glance&mdash;you will think the figure merely a piece of
+      fifteenth-century affectation. 'Judith, indeed!&mdash;say rather the
+      daughter of Herodias, at her mincingest.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, yes&mdash;Botticelli <i>is</i> affected, in the way that all men in
+      that century necessarily were. Much euphuism, much studied grace of
+      manner, much formal assertion of scholarship, mingling with his force of
+      imagination. And he likes twisting the fingers of hands about, just as
+      Correggio does. But he never does it like Correggio, without cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Look at Judith again,&mdash;at her face, not her drapery,&mdash;and
+      remember that when a man is base at the heart, he blights his virtues into
+      weaknesses; but when he is true at the heart, he sanctifies his weaknesses
+      into virtues. It is a weakness of Botticelli's, this love of dancing
+      motion and waved drapery; but why has he given it full flight here?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Do you happen to know anything about Judith yourself, except that she cut
+      off Holofernes' head; and has been made the high light of about a million
+      of vile pictures ever since, in which the painters thought they could
+      surely attract the public to the double show of an execution, and a pretty
+      woman,&mdash;especially with the added pleasure of hinting at previously
+      ignoble sin?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When you go home to-day, take the pains to write out for yourself, in the
+      connection I here place them, the verses underneath numbered from the book
+      of Judith; you will probably think of their meaning more carefully as you
+      write.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Begin thus:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Now at that time, Judith heard thereof, which was the daughter of Merari,
+      ... the son of Simeon, the son of Israel." And then write out,
+      consecutively, these pieces&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chapt. viii., verses 2 to 8. (Always inclusive,) and read the whole
+      chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chapt. ix., verses 1 and 5 to 7, beginning this piece with the previous
+      sentence, "Oh God, oh my God, hear me also, a widow."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Chapt. ix., verses 11 to 14. Chapter x., verses 1 to 5. Chapter xiii.,
+      verses 6 to 10. Chapter xv., verses 11 to 13. Chapter xvi., verses 1 to 6.
+      Chapter xvi., verses 11 to 15. Chapter xvi., verses 18 and 19. Chapter
+      xvi., verses 23 to 25.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, as in many other cases of noble history, apocryphal and other, I do
+      not in the least care how far the literal facts are true. The conception
+      of facts, and the idea of Jewish womanhood, are there, grand and real as a
+      marble statue,&mdash;possession for all ages. And you will feel, after you
+      have read this piece of history, or epic poetry, with honourable care,
+      that there is somewhat more to be thought of and pictured in Judith, than
+      painters have mostly found it in them to show you; that she is not merely
+      the Jewish Delilah to the Assyrian Samson; but the mightiest, purest,
+      brightest type of high passion in severe womanhood offered to our human
+      memory. Sandro's picture is but slight; but it is true to her, and the
+      only one I know that is; and after writing out these verses, you will see
+      why he gives her that swift, peaceful motion, while you read in her face,
+      only sweet solemnity of dreaming thought. "My people delivered, and by my
+      hand; and God has been gracious to His handmaid!" The triumph of Miriam
+      over a fallen host, the fire of exulting mortal life in an immortal hour,
+      the purity and severity of a guardian angel&mdash;all are here; and as her
+      servant follows, carrying indeed the head, but invisible&mdash;(a mere
+      thing to be carried&mdash;no more to be so much as thought of)&mdash;she
+      looks only at her mistress, with intense, servile, watchful love.
+      Faithful, not in these days of fear only, but hitherto in all her life,
+      and afterwards forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After you have seen it enough, look also for a little while at Angelico's
+      Marriage and Death of the Virgin, in the same room; you may afterwards
+      associate the three pictures always together in your mind. And, looking at
+      nothing else to-day in the Uffizi, let us go back to Giotto's chapel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We must begin with this work on our left hand, the Death of St. Francis;
+      for it is the key to all the rest. Let us hear first what Mr. Crowe
+      directs us to think of it. "In the composition of this scene, Giotto
+      produced a masterpiece, which served as a model but too often feebly
+      imitated by his successors. Good arrangement, variety of character and
+      expression in the heads, unity and harmony in the whole, make this an
+      exceptional work of its kind. As a composition, worthy of the fourteenth
+      century, Ghirlandajo and Benedetto da Majano both imitated, without being
+      able to improve it. No painter ever produced its equal except Raphael; nor
+      could a better be created except in so far as regards improvement in the
+      mere rendering of form."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these inspiring observations by the rapturous Crowe, more cautious
+      Cavalcasella [Footnote: I venture to attribute the wiser note to Signor
+      Cavalcasella because I have every reason to put real confidence in his
+      judgment. But it was impossible for any man, engaged as he is, to go over
+      all the ground covered by so extensive a piece of critical work as these
+      three volumes contain, with effective attention.] appends a refrigerating
+      note, saying, "The St. Francis in the glory is new, but the angels are in
+      part preserved. The rest has all been more or less retouched; and no
+      judgment can be given as to the colour of this&mdash;or any other (!)&mdash;of
+      these works."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are, therefore&mdash;instructed reader&mdash;called upon to admire a
+      piece of art which no painter ever produced the equal of except Raphael;
+      but it is unhappily deficient, according to Crowe, in the "mere rendering
+      of form"; and, according to Signor Cavalcasella, "no opinion can be given
+      as to its colour."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Warned thus of the extensive places where the ice is dangerous, and
+      forbidden to look here either for form or colour, you are to admire "the
+      variety of character and expression in the heads." I do not myself know
+      how these are to be given without form or colour; but there appears to me,
+      in my innocence, to be only one head in the whole picture, drawn up and
+      down in different positions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The "unity and harmony" of the whole&mdash;which make this an exceptional
+      work of its kind&mdash;mean, I suppose, its general look of having been
+      painted out of a scavenger's cart; and so we are reduced to the last
+      article of our creed according to Crowe,&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the composition of this scene Giotto produced a masterpiece."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, possibly. The question is, What you mean by 'composition.' Which,
+      putting modern criticism now out of our way, I will ask the reader to
+      think, in front of this wreck of Giotto, with some care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Was it, in the first place, to Giotto, think you, the "composition of a
+      scene," or the conception of a fact? You probably, if a fashionable
+      person, have seen the apotheosis of Margaret in Faust? You know what care
+      is taken, nightly, in the composition of that scene,&mdash;how the
+      draperies are arranged for it; the lights turned off, and on; the
+      fiddlestrings taxed for their utmost tenderness; the bassoons exhorted to
+      a grievous solemnity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You don't believe, however, that any real soul of a Margaret ever appeared
+      to any mortal in that manner?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Here</i> is an apotheosis also. Composed!&mdash;yes; figures high on
+      the right and left, low in the middle, etc., etc., etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the important questions seem to me, Was there ever a St. Francis?&mdash;<i>did</i>
+      he ever receive stigmata?&mdash;<i>did</i>his soul go up to heaven&mdash;did
+      any monk see it rising&mdash;and did Giotto mean to tell us so? If you
+      will be good enough to settle these few small points in your mind first,
+      the "composition" will take a wholly different aspect to you, according to
+      your answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor does it seem doubtful to me what your answer, after investigation
+      made, must be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There assuredly was a St. Francis, whose life and works you had better
+      study than either to-day's Galignani, or whatever, this year, may supply
+      the place of the Tichborne case, in public interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His reception of the stigmata is, perhaps, a marvellous instance of the
+      power of imagination over physical conditions; perhaps an equally
+      marvellous instance of the swift change of metaphor into tradition; but
+      assuredly, and beyond dispute, one of the most influential, significant,
+      and instructive traditions possessed by the Church of Christ. And, that,
+      if ever soul rose to heaven from the dead body, his soul did so rise, is
+      equally sure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, finally, Giotto believed that all he was called on to represent,
+      concerning St. Francis, really had taken place, just as surely as you, if
+      you are a Christian, believe that Christ died and rose again; and he
+      represents it with all fidelity and passion: but, as I just now said, he
+      is a man of supreme common sense;&mdash;has as much humour and clearness
+      of sight as Chaucer, and as much dislike of falsehood in clergy, or in
+      professedly pious people: and in his gravest moments he will still see and
+      say truly that what is fat, is fat&mdash;and what is lean, lean&mdash;and
+      what is hollow, empty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His great point, however, in this fresco, is the assertion of the reality
+      of the stigmata against all question. There is not only one St. Thomas to
+      be convinced; there are five;&mdash;one to each wound. Of these, four are
+      intent only on satisfying their curiosity, and are peering or probing; one
+      only kisses the hand he has lifted. The rest of the picture never was much
+      more than a grey drawing of a noble burial service; of all concerned in
+      which, one monk, only, is worthy to see the soul taken up to heaven; and
+      he is evidently just the monk whom nobody in the convent thought anything
+      of. (His face is all repainted; but one can gather this much, or little,
+      out of it, yet.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the composition, or "unity and harmony of the whole," as a burial
+      service, we may better judge after we have looked at the brighter picture
+      of St. Francis's Birth&mdash;birth spiritual, that is to say, to his
+      native heaven; the uppermost, namely, of the three subjects on this side
+      of the chapel. It is entirely characteristic of Giotto; much of it by his
+      hand&mdash;all of it beautiful. All important matters to be known of
+      Giotto you may know from this fresco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      'But we can't see it, even with our opera-glasses, but all foreshortened
+      and spoiled. What is the use of lecturing us on this?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is precisely the first point which is essentially Giottesque in it;
+      its being so out of the way! It is this which makes it a perfect specimen
+      of the master. I will tell you next something about a work of his which
+      you can see perfectly, just behind you on the opposite side of the wall;
+      but that you have half to break your neck to look at this one, is the very
+      first thing I want you to feel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a characteristic&mdash;(as far as I know, quite a universal one)&mdash;of
+      the greatest masters, that they never expect you to look at them; seem
+      always rather surprised if you want to; and not overpleased. Tell them you
+      are going to hang their picture at the upper end of the table at the next
+      great City dinner, and that Mr. So and So will make a speech about it; you
+      produce no impression upon them whatever, or an unfavourable one. The
+      chances are ten to one they send you the most rubbishy thing they can find
+      in their lumber-room. But send for one of them in a hurry, and tell him
+      the rats have gnawed a nasty hole behind the parlor door, and you want it
+      plastered and painted over;&mdash;and he does you a masterpiece which the
+      world will peep behind your door to look at for ever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have no time to tell you why this is so; nor do I know why, altogether;
+      but so it is.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Giotto, then, is sent for, to paint this high chapel: I am not sure if he
+      chose his own subjects from the life of St. Francis: I think so,&mdash;but
+      of course can't reason on the guess securely. At all events, he would have
+      much of his own way in the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now you must observe that painting a Gothic chapel rightly is just the
+      same thing as painting a Greek vase rightly. The chapel is merely the vase
+      turned upside-down, and outside-in. The principles of decoration are
+      exactly the same. Your decoration is to be proportioned to the size of
+      your vase; to be together delightful when you look at the cup, or chapel,
+      as a whole; to be various and entertaining when you turn the cup round;
+      (you turn <i>yourself</i> round in the chapel;) and to bend its heads and
+      necks of figures about, as it best can, over the hollows, and ins and
+      outs, so that anyhow, whether too long or too short-possible or impossible&mdash;they
+      may be living, and full of grace. You will also please take it on my word
+      today&mdash;in another morning walk you shall have proof of it&mdash;that
+      Giotto was a pure Etruscan-Greek of the thirteenth century: converted
+      indeed to worship St. Francis instead of Heracles; but as far as
+      vase-painting goes, precisely the Etruscan he was before. This is nothing
+      else than a large, beautiful, coloured Etruscan vase you have got,
+      inverted over your heads like a diving-bell.' [Footnote: I observe that
+      recent criticism is engaged in proving all Etruscan vases to be of late
+      manufacture, in imitation of archaic Greek. And I therefore must briefly
+      anticipate a statement which I shall have to enforce in following letters.
+      Etruscan art remains in its own Italian valleys, of the Arno and upper
+      Tiber, in one unbroken series of work, from the seventh century before
+      Christ, to this hour, when the country whitewasher still scratches his
+      plaster in Etruscan patterns. All Florentine work of the finest kind&mdash;Luca
+      della Robbia's, Ghiberti's, Donatello's, Filippo Lippi's, Botticelli's,
+      Fra Angelico's&mdash;is absolutely pure Etruscan, merely changing its
+      subjects, and representing the Virgin instead of Athena, and Christ
+      instead of Jupiter. Every line of the Florentine chisel in the fifteenth
+      century is based on national principles of art which existed in the
+      seventh century before Christ; and Angelico, in his convent of St.
+      Dominic, at the foot of the hill of Fésole, is as true an Etruscan as the
+      builder who laid the rude stones of the wall along its crest&mdash;of
+      which modern civilization has used the only arch that remained for cheap
+      building stone. Luckily, I sketched it in 1845. but alas, too carelessly,&mdash;never
+      conceiving of the brutalities of modern Italy as possible.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, after the quatrefoil ornamentation of the top of the bell,
+      you get two spaces at the sides under arches, very difficult to cramp
+      one's picture into, if it is to be a picture only; but entirely
+      provocative of our old Etruscan instinct of ornament. And, spurred by the
+      difficulty, and pleased by the national character of it, we put our best
+      work into these arches, utterly neglectful of the public below,&mdash;who
+      will see the white and red and blue spaces, at any rate, which is all they
+      will want to see, thinks Giotto, if he ever looks down from his scaffold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Take the highest compartment, then, on the left, looking towards the
+      window. It was wholly impossible to get the arch filled with figures,
+      unless they stood on each other's heads; so Giotto ekes it out with a
+      piece of fine architecture. Raphael, in the Sposalizio, does the same, for
+      pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he puts two dainty little white figures, bending, on each flank, to
+      stop up his corners. But he puts the taller inside on the right, and
+      outside on the left. And he puts his Greek chorus of observant and
+      moralizing persons on each side of his main action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he puts one Choragus&mdash;or leader of chorus, supporting the main
+      action&mdash;on each side. Then he puts the main action in the middle&mdash;which
+      is a quarrel about that white bone of contention in the centre. Choragus
+      on the right, who sees that the bishop is going to have the best of it,
+      backs him serenely. Choragus on the left, who sees that his impetuous
+      friend is going to get the worst of it, is pulling him back, and trying to
+      keep him quiet. The subject of the picture, which, after you are quite
+      sure it is good as a decoration, but not till then, you may be allowed to
+      understand, is the following. One of St. Francis's three great virtues
+      being Obedience, he begins his spiritual life by quarreling with his
+      father. He, I suppose in modern terms I should say, commercially invests
+      some of his father's goods in charity. His father objects to that
+      investment; on which St. Francis runs away, taking what he can find about
+      the house along with him. His father follows to claim his property, but
+      finds it is all gone, already; and that St. Francis has made friends with
+      the Bishop of Assisi. His father flies into an indecent passion, and
+      declares he will disinherit him; on which St. Francis then and there takes
+      all his clothes off, throws them frantically in his father's face, and
+      says he has nothing more to do with clothes or father. The good Bishop, in
+      tears of admiration, embraces St. Francis, and covers him with his own
+      mantle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have read the picture to you as, if Mr. Spurgeon knew anything about
+      art, Mr. Spurgeon would read it,&mdash;that is to say, from the plain,
+      common sense, Protestant side. If you are content with that view of it,
+      you may leave the chapel, and, as far as any study of history is
+      concerned, Florence also; for you can never know anything either about
+      Giotto, or her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet do not be afraid of my re-reading it to you from the mystic,
+      nonsensical, and Papistical side. I am going to read it to you&mdash;if
+      after many and many a year of thought, I am able&mdash;as Giotto meant it;
+      Giotto being, as far as we know, then the man of strongest brain and hand
+      in Florence; the best friend of the best religious poet of the world; and
+      widely differing, as his friend did also, in his views of the world, from
+      either Mr. Spurgeon, or Pius IX.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first duty of a child is to obey its father and mother; as the first
+      duty of a citizen to obey the laws of his state. And this duty is so
+      strict that I believe the only limits to it are those fixed by Isaac and
+      Iphigenia. On the other hand, the father and mother have also a fixed duty
+      to the child&mdash;not to provoke it to wrath. I have never heard this
+      text explained to fathers and mothers from the pulpit, which is curious.
+      For it appears to me that God will expect the parents to understand their
+      duty to their children, better even than children can be expected to know
+      their duty to their parents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But farther. A <i>child's</i> duty is to obey its parents. It is never
+      said anywhere in the Bible, and never was yet said in any good or wise
+      book, that a man's, or woman's, is. <i>When,</i> precisely, a child
+      becomes a man or a woman, it can no more be said, than when it should
+      first stand on its legs. But a time assuredly comes when it should. In
+      great states, children are always trying to remain children, and the
+      parents wanting to make men and women of them. In vile states, the
+      children are always wanting to be men and women, and the parents to keep
+      them children. It may be&mdash;and happy the house in which it is so&mdash;that
+      the father's at least equal intellect, and older experience, may remain to
+      the end of his life a law to his children, not of force, but of perfect
+      guidance, with perfect love. Rarely it is so; not often possible. It is as
+      natural for the old to be prejudiced as for the young to be presumptuous;
+      and, in the change of centuries, each generation has something to judge of
+      for itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this scene, on which Giotto has dwelt with so great force, represents,
+      not the child's assertion of his independence, but his adoption of another
+      Father.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You must not confuse the desire of this boy of Assisi to obey God rather
+      than man, with the desire of your young cockney Hopeful to have a
+      latch-key, and a separate allowance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No point of duty has been more miserably warped and perverted by false
+      priests, in all churches, than this duty of the young to choose whom they
+      will serve. But the duty itself does not the less exist; and if there be
+      any truth in Christianity at all, there will come, for all true disciples,
+      a time when they have to take that saying to heart, "He that loveth father
+      or mother more than me, is not worthy of me."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '<i>Loveth</i>'&mdash;observe. There is no talk of disobeying fathers or
+      mothers whom you do not love, or of running away from a home where you
+      would rather not stay. But to leave the home which is your peace, and to
+      be at enmity with those who are most dear to you,&mdash;this, if there be
+      meaning in Christ's words, one day or other will be demanded of His true
+      followers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And there is meaning in Christ's words. Whatever misuse may have been made
+      of them,&mdash;whatever false prophets&mdash;and Heaven knows there have
+      been many&mdash;have called the young children to them, not to bless, but
+      to curse, the assured fact remains, that if you will obey God, there will
+      come a moment when the voice of man will be raised, with all its holiest
+      natural authority, against you. The friend and the wise adviser&mdash;the
+      brother and the sister&mdash;the father and the master&mdash;the entire
+      voice of your prudent and keen-sighted acquaintance&mdash;the entire
+      weight of the scornful stupidity of the vulgar world&mdash;for <i>once</i>,
+      they will be against you, all at one. You have to obey God rather than
+      man. The human race, with all its wisdom and love, all its indignation and
+      folly, on one side,&mdash;God alone on the other. You have to choose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is the meaning of St. Francis's renouncing his inheritance; and it is
+      the beginning of Giotto's gospel of Works. Unless this hardest of deeds be
+      done first,&mdash;this inheritance of mammon and the world cast away,&mdash;all
+      other deeds are useless. You cannot serve, cannot obey, God and mammon. No
+      charities, no obediences, no self-denials, are of any use, while you are
+      still at heart in conformity with the world. You go to church, because the
+      world goes. You keep Sunday, because your neighbours keep it. But you
+      dress ridiculously, because your neighbours ask it; and you dare not do a
+      rough piece of work, because your neighbours despise it. You must renounce
+      your neighbour, in his riches and pride, and remember him in his distress.
+      That is St. Francis's 'disobedience.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now you can understand the relation of subjects throughout the chapel,
+      and Giotto's choice of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roof has the symbols of the three virtues of labour&mdash;Poverty,
+      Chastity, Obedience.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A. Highest on the left side, looking to the window. The life of St.
+      Francis begins in his renunciation of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      B. Highest on the right side. His new life is approved and ordained by the
+      authority of the church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      C. Central on the left side. He preaches to his own disciples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      D. Central on the right side. He preaches to the heathen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      E. Lowest on the left side. His burial.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      F. Lowest on the right side. His power after death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides these six subjects, there are, on the sides of the window, the
+      four great Franciscan saints, St. Louis of France, St. Louis of Toulouse,
+      St. Clare, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So that you have in the whole series this much given you to think of:
+      first, the law of St. Francis's conscience; then, his own adoption of it;
+      then, the ratification of it by the Christian Church; then, his preaching
+      it in life; then, his preaching it in death; and then, the fruits of it in
+      his disciples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have only been able myself to examine, or in any right sense to see, of
+      this code of subjects, the first, second, fourth, and the St. Louis and
+      Elizabeth. I will ask <i>you</i> only to look at two more of them, namely,
+      St. Francis before the Soldan, midmost on your right, and St. Louis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Soldan, with an ordinary opera-glass, you may see clearly enough; and
+      I think it will be first well to notice some technical points in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If the little virgin on the stairs of the temple reminded you of one
+      composition of Titian's, this Soldan should, I think, remind you of all
+      that is greatest in Titian; so forcibly, indeed, that for my own part, if
+      I had been told that a careful early fresco by Titian had been recovered
+      in Santa Croce, I could have believed both report and my own eyes, more
+      quickly than I have been able to admit that this is indeed by Giotto. It
+      is so great that&mdash;had its principles been understood-there was in
+      reality nothing more to be taught of art in Italy; nothing to be invented
+      afterwards, except Dutch effects of light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That there is no 'effect of light' here arrived at, I beg you at once to
+      observe as a most important lesson. The subject is St. Francis challenging
+      the Soldan's Magi,&mdash;fire-worshippers&mdash;to pass with him through
+      the fire, which is blazing red at his feet. It is so hot that the two Magi
+      on the other side of the throne shield their faces. But it is represented
+      simply as a red mass of writhing forms of flame; and casts no firelight
+      whatever. There is no ruby colour on anybody's nose: there are no black
+      shadows under anybody's chin; there are no Rembrandtesque gradations of
+      gloom, or glitterings of sword-hilt and armour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is this ignorance, think you, in Giotto, and pure artlessness? He was now
+      a man in middle life, having passed all his days in painting, and
+      professedly, and almost contentiously, painting things as he saw them. Do
+      you suppose he never saw fire cast firelight?&mdash;and he the friend of
+      Dante! who of all poets is the most subtle in his sense of every kind of
+      effect of light&mdash;though he has been thought by the public to know
+      that of fire only. Again and again, his ghosts wonder that there is no
+      shadow cast by Dante's body; and is the poet's friend, <i>because</i> a
+      painter, likely, therefore, not to have known that mortal substance casts
+      shadow, and terrestrial flame, light? Nay, the passage in the 'Purgatorio'
+      where the shadows from the morning sunshine make the flames redder,
+      reaches the accuracy of Newtonian science; and does Giotto, think you, all
+      the while, see nothing of the sort?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fact was, he saw light so intensely that he never for an instant
+      thought of painting it. He knew that to paint the sun was as impossible as
+      to stop it; and he was no trickster, trying to find out ways of seeming to
+      do what he did not. I can paint a rose,&mdash;yes; and I will. I can't
+      paint a red-hot coal; and I won't try to, nor seem to. This was just as
+      natural and certain a process of thinking with <i>him</i>, as the honesty
+      of it, and true science, were impossible to the false painters of the
+      sixteenth century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, what his art can honestly do to make you feel as much as he
+      wants you to feel, about this fire, he will do; and that studiously. That
+      the fire be <i>luminous</i> or not, is no matter just now. But that the
+      fire is <i>hot</i>, he would have you to know. Now, will you notice what
+      colours he has used in the whole picture. First, the blue background,
+      necessary to unite it with the other three subjects, is reduced to the
+      smallest possible space. St. Francis must be in grey, for that is his
+      dress; also the attendant of one of the Magi is in grey; but so warm,
+      that, if you saw it by itself, you would call it brown. The shadow behind
+      the throne, which Giotto knows he <i>can</i> paint, and therefore does, is
+      grey also. The rest of the picture [Footnote: The floor has been
+      repainted; but though its grey is now heavy and cold, it cannot kill the
+      splendour of the rest.] in at least six-sevenths of its area&mdash;is
+      either crimson, gold, orange, purple, or white, all as warm as Giotto
+      could paint them; and set off by minute spaces only of intense black,&mdash;the
+      Soldan's fillet at the shoulders, his eyes, beard, and the points
+      necessary in the golden pattern behind. And the whole picture is one glow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A single glance round at the other subjects will convince you of the
+      special character in this; but you will recognize also that the four upper
+      subjects, in which St. Francis's life and zeal are shown, are all in
+      comparatively warm colours, while the two lower ones&mdash;of the death,
+      and the visions after it&mdash;have been kept as definitely sad and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Necessarily, you might think, being full of monks' dresses. Not so. Was
+      there any need for Giotto to have put the priest at the foot of the dead
+      body, with the black banner stooped over it in the shape of a grave? Might
+      he not, had he chosen, in either fresco, have made the celestial visions
+      brighter? Might not St. Francis have appeared in the centre of a celestial
+      glory to the dreaming Pope, or his soul been seen of the poor monk, rising
+      through more radiant clouds? Look, however, how radiant, in the small
+      space allowed out of the blue, they are in reality. You cannot anywhere
+      see a lovelier piece of Giottesque colour, though here, you have to mourn
+      over the smallness of the piece, and its isolation. For the face of St.
+      Francis himself is repainted, and all the blue sky; but the clouds and
+      four sustaining angels are hardly retouched at all, and their iridescent
+      and exquisitely graceful wings are left with really very tender and
+      delicate care by the restorer of the sky. And no one but Giotto or Turner
+      could have painted them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For in all his use of opalescent and warm colour, Giotto is exactly like
+      Turner, as, in his swift expressional power, he is like Gainsborough. All
+      the other Italian religious painters work out their expression with toil;
+      he only can give it with a touch. All the other great Italian colourists
+      see only the beauty of colour, but Giotto also its brightness. And none of
+      the others, except Tintoret, understood to the full its symbolic power;
+      but with those&mdash;Giotto and Tintoret&mdash;there is always, not only a
+      colour harmony, but a colour secret. It is not merely to make the picture
+      glow, but to remind you that St. Francis preaches to a fire-worshipping
+      king, that Giotto covers the wall with purple and scarlet;&mdash;and
+      above, in the dispute at Assisi, the angry father is dressed in red,
+      varying like passion; and the robe with which his protector embraces St.
+      Francis, blue, symbolizing the peace of Heaven, Of course certain
+      conventional colours were traditionally employed by all painters; but only
+      Giotto and Tintoret invent a symbolism of their own for every picture.
+      Thus in Tintoret's picture of the fall of the manna, the figure of God the
+      Father is entirely robed in white, contrary to all received custom: in
+      that of Moses striking the rock, it is surrounded by a rainbow. Of
+      Giotto's symbolism in colour at Assisi, I have given account elsewhere.
+      [Footnote: 'Fors Clavigera' for September, 1874.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are not to think, therefore, the difference between the colour of the
+      upper and lower frescos unintentional. The life of St. Francis was always
+      full of joy and triumph. His death, in great suffering, weariness, and
+      extreme humility. The tradition of him reverses that of Elijah; living, he
+      is seen in the chariot of fire; dying, he submits to more than the common
+      sorrow of death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is, however, much more than a difference in colour between the upper
+      and lower frescos. There is a difference in manner which I cannot account
+      for; and above all, a very singular difference in skill,&mdash;indicating,
+      it seems to me, that the two lower were done long before the others, and
+      afterwards united and harmonized with them. It is of no interest to the
+      general reader to pursue this question; but one point he can notice
+      quickly, that the lower frescos depend much on a mere black or brown
+      outline of the features, while the faces above are evenly and completely
+      painted in the most accomplished Venetian manner:&mdash;and another,
+      respecting the management of the draperies, contains much interest for us.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Giotto never succeeded, to the very end of his days, in representing a
+      figure lying down, and at ease. It is one of the most curious points in
+      all his character. Just the thing which he could study from nature without
+      the smallest hindrance, is the thing he never can paint; while subtleties
+      of form and gesture, which depend absolutely on their momentariness, and
+      actions in which no model can stay for an instant, he seizes with
+      infallible accuracy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not only has the sleeping Pope, in the right hand lower fresco, his head
+      laid uncomfortably on his pillow, but all the clothes on him are in
+      awkward angles, even Giotto's instinct for lines of drapery failing him
+      altogether when he has to lay it on a reposing figure. But look at the
+      folds of the Soldan's robe over his knees. None could be more beautiful or
+      right; and it is to me wholly inconceivable that the two paintings should
+      be within even twenty years of each other in date&mdash;the skill in the
+      upper one is so supremely greater. We shall find, however, more than mere
+      truth in its casts of drapery, if we examine them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They are so simply right, in the figure of the Soldan, that we do not
+      think of them;&mdash;we see him only, not his dress But we see dress
+      first, in the figures of the discomfited Magi. Very fully draped
+      personages these, indeed,&mdash;with trains, it appears, four yards long,
+      and bearers of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The one nearest the Soldan has done his devoir as bravely as he could;
+      would fain go up to the fire, but cannot; is forced to shield his face,
+      though he has not turned back. Giotto gives him full sweeping breadth of
+      fold; what dignity he can;&mdash;a man faithful to his profession, at all
+      events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next one has no such courage. Collapsed altogether, he has nothing
+      more to say for himself or his creed. Giotto hangs the cloak upon him, in
+      Ghirlandajo's fashion, as from a peg, but with ludicrous narrowness of
+      fold. Literally, he is a 'shut-up' Magus&mdash;closed like a fan. He turns
+      his head away, hopelessly. And the last Magus shows nothing but his back,
+      disappearing through the door.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Opposed to them, in a modern work, you would have had a St. Francis
+      standing as high as he could in his sandals, contemptuous, denunciatory;
+      magnificently showing the Magi the door. No such thing, says Giotto. A
+      somewhat mean man; disappointing enough in presence-even in feature; I do
+      not understand his gesture, pointing to his forehead&mdash;perhaps
+      meaning, 'my life, or my head, upon the truth of this.' The attendant monk
+      behind him is terror-struck; but will follow his master. The dark Moorish
+      servants of the Magi show no emotion&mdash;will arrange their masters'
+      trains as usual, and decorously sustain their retreat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lastly, for the Soldan himself. In a modern work, you would assuredly have
+      had him staring at St. Francis with his eyebrows up, or frowning
+      thunderously at his Magi, with them bent as far down as they would go.
+      Neither of these aspects does he bear, according to Giotto. A perfect
+      gentleman and king, he looks on his Magi with quiet eyes of decision; he
+      is much the noblest person in the room&mdash;though an infidel, the true
+      hero of the scene, far more than St. Francis. It is evidently the Soldan
+      whom Giotto wants you to think of mainly, in this picture of Christian
+      missionary work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He does not altogether take the view of the Heathen which you would get in
+      an Exeter Hall meeting. Does not expatiate on their ignorance, their
+      blackness, or their nakedness. Does not at all think of the Florentine
+      Islington and Pentonville, as inhabited by persons in every respect
+      superior to the kings of the East; nor does he imagine every other
+      religion but his own to be log-worship. Probably the people who really
+      worship logs&mdash;whether in Persia or Pentonville&mdash;will be left to
+      worship logs to their hearts' content, thinks Giotto. But to those who
+      worship <i>God</i>, and who have obeyed the laws of heaven written in
+      their hearts, and numbered the stars of it visible to them,&mdash;to
+      these, a nearer star may rise; and a higher God be revealed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are to note, therefore, that Giotto's Soldan is the type of all
+      noblest religion and law, in countries where the name of Christ has not
+      been preached. There was no doubt what king or people should be chosen:
+      the country of the three Magi had already been indicated by the miracle of
+      Bethlehem; and the religion and morality of Zoroaster were the purest, and
+      in spirit the oldest, in the heathen world. Therefore, when Dante, in the
+      nineteenth and twentieth books of the Paradise, gives his final
+      interpretation of the law of human and divine justice in relation to the
+      gospel of Christ&mdash;the lower and enslaved body of the heathen being
+      represented by St. Philip's convert, ("Christians like these the Ethiop
+      shall condemn")&mdash;the noblest state of heathenism is at once chosen,
+      as by Giotto: "What may the <i>Persians</i> say unto <i>your</i> kings?"
+      Compare also Milton,&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                      "At the Soldan's chair,
+                Defied the best of Paynim chivalry."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And now, the time is come for you to look at Giotto's St. Louis, who is
+      the type of a Christian king.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You would, I suppose, never have seen it at all, unless I had dragged you
+      here on purpose. It was enough in the dark originally&mdash;is trebly
+      darkened by the modern painted glass&mdash;and dismissed to its oblivion
+      contentedly by Mr. Murray's "Four saints, all much restored and
+      repainted," and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcasella's serene "The St. Louis is
+      quite new."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, I am the last person to call any restoration whatever, judicious. Of
+      all destructive manias, that of restoration is the frightfullest and
+      foolishest. Nevertheless, what good, in its miserable way, it can bring,
+      the poor art scholar must now apply his common sense to take; there is no
+      use, because a great work has been restored, in now passing it by
+      altogether, not even looking for what instruction we still may find in its
+      design, which will be more intelligible, if the restorer has had any
+      conscience at all, to the ordinary spectator, than it would have been in
+      the faded work. When, indeed, Mr. Murray's Guide tells you that a <i>building</i>
+      has been 'magnificently restored,' you may pass the building by in
+      resigned despair; for <i>that</i> means that every bit of the old
+      sculpture has been destroyed, and modern vulgar copies put up in its
+      place. But a restored picture or fresco will often be, to <i>you</i>, more
+      useful than a pure one; and in all probability&mdash;if an important piece
+      of art&mdash;it will have been spared in many places, cautiously completed
+      in others, and still assert itself in a mysterious way&mdash;as Leonardo's
+      Cenacolo does&mdash;through every phase of reproduction. [Footnote: For a
+      test of your feeling in the matter, having looked well at these two lower
+      frescos in this chapel, walk round into the next, and examine the lower
+      one on your left hand as you enter that. You will find in your Murray that
+      the frescos in this chapel "were also till lately, (1862) covered with
+      whitewash"; but I happen to have a long critique of this particular
+      picture written in the year 1845, and I see no change in it since then.
+      Mr. Murray's critic also tells you to observe in it that "the daughter of
+      Herodias playing on a violin is not unlike Perugino's treatment of similar
+      subjects." By which Mr. Murray's critic means that the male musician
+      playing on a violin, whom, without looking either at his dress, or at the
+      rest of the fresco, he took for the daughter of Herodias, has a broad
+      face. Allowing you the full benefit of this criticism&mdash;there is still
+      a point or two more to be observed. This is the only fresco near the
+      ground in which Giotto's work is untouched, at least, by the modern
+      restorer. So felicitously safe it is, that you may learn from it at once
+      and for ever, what good fresco painting is&mdash;how quiet&mdash;how
+      delicately clear&mdash;how little coarsely or vulgarly attractive&mdash;how
+      capable of the most tender light and shade, and of the most exquisite and
+      enduring colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this latter respect, this fresco stands almost alone among the works of
+      Giotto; the striped curtain behind the table being wrought with a variety
+      and fantasy of playing colour which Paul Veronese could not better at his
+      best.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will find, without difficulty, in spite of the faint tints, the
+      daughter of Herodias in the middle of the picture&mdash;-slowly <i>moving</i>,
+      not dancing, to the violin music&mdash;she herself playing on a lyre. In
+      the farther corner of the picture, she gives St. John's head to her
+      mother; the face of Herodias is almost entirely faded, which may be a
+      farther guarantee to you of the safety of the rest. The subject of the
+      Apocalypse, highest on the right, is one of the most interesting mythic
+      pictures in Florence; nor do I know any other so completely rendering the
+      meaning of the scene between the woman in the wilderness, and the Dragon
+      enemy. But it cannot be seen from the floor level: and I have no power of
+      showing its beauty in words.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I can assure you, in the first place, that St. Louis is by no means
+      altogether new. I have been up at it, and found most lovely and true
+      colour left in many parts: the crown, which you will find, after our
+      mornings at the Spanish chapel, is of importance, nearly untouched; the
+      lines of the features and hair, though all more or less reproduced, still
+      of definite and notable character; and the junction throughout of added
+      colour so careful, that the harmony of the whole, if not delicate with its
+      old tenderness, is at least, in its coarser way, solemn and unbroken. Such
+      as the figure remains, it still possesses extreme beauty&mdash;profoundest
+      interest. And, as you can see it from below with your glass, it leaves
+      little to be desired, and may be dwelt upon with more profit than nine out
+      of ten of the renowned pictures of the Tribune or the Pitti. You will
+      enter into the spirit of it better if I first translate for you a little
+      piece from the Fioretti di San Francesco.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>"How St. Louis, King of France, went personally in the guise of a
+      pilgrim, to Perugia, to visit the holy Brother Giles.</i>&mdash;St. Louis,
+      King of France, went on pilgrimage to visit the sanctuaries of the world;
+      and hearing the most great fame of the holiness of Brother Giles, who had
+      been among the first companions of St. Francis, put it in his heart, and
+      determined assuredly that he would visit him personally; wherefore he came
+      to Perugia, where was then staying the said brother. And coming to the
+      gate of the place of the Brothers, with few companions, and being unknown,
+      he asked with great earnestness for Brother Giles, telling nothing to the
+      porter who he was that asked. The porter, therefore, goes to Brother
+      Giles, and says that there is a pilgrim asking for him at the gate. And by
+      God it was inspired in him and revealed that it was the King of France;
+      whereupon quickly with great fervour he left his cell and ran to the gate,
+      and without any question asked, or ever having seen each other before,
+      kneeling down together with greatest devotion, they embraced and kissed
+      each other with as much familiarity as if for a long time they had held
+      great friendship; but all the while neither the one nor the other spoke,
+      but stayed, so embraced, with such signs of charitable love, in silence.
+      And so having remained for a great while, they parted from one another,
+      and St. Louis went on his way, and Brother Giles returned to his cell. And
+      the King being gone, one of the brethren asked of his companion who he
+      was, who answered that he was the King of France. Of which the other
+      brothers being told, were in the greatest melancholy because Brother Giles
+      had never said a word to him; and murmuring at it, they said, 'Oh, Brother
+      Giles, wherefore hadst thou so country manners that to so holy a king, who
+      had come from France to see thee and hear from thee some good word, thou
+      hast spoken nothing?'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Answered Brother Giles: 'Dearest brothers, wonder not ye at this, that
+      neither I to him, nor he to me, could speak a word; for so soon as we had
+      embraced, the light of the divine wisdom revealed and manifested, to me,
+      his heart, and to him, mine; and so by divine operation we looked each in
+      the other's heart on what we would have said to one another, and knew it
+      better far than if we had spoken with the mouth, and with more
+      consolation, because of the defect of the human tongue, which cannot
+      clearly express the secrets of God, and would have been for discomfort
+      rather than comfort. And know, therefore, that the King parted from me
+      marvellously content, and comforted in his mind.'"
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of all which story, not a word, of course, is credible by any rational
+      person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Certainly not: the spirit, nevertheless, which created the story, is an
+      entirely indisputable fact in the history of Italy and of mankind. Whether
+      St. Louis and Brother Giles ever knelt together in the street of Perugia
+      matters not a whit. That a king and a poor monk could be conceived to have
+      thoughts of each other which no words could speak; and that indeed the
+      King's tenderness and humility made such a tale credible to the people,&mdash;this
+      is what you have to meditate on here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor is there any better spot in the world,&mdash;whencesoever your pilgrim
+      feet may have journeyed to it, wherein to make up so much mind as you have
+      in you for the making, concerning the nature of Kinghood and Princedom
+      generally; and of the forgeries and mockeries of both which are too often
+      manifested in their room. For it happens that this Christian and this
+      Persian King are better painted here by Giotto than elsewhere by any one,
+      so as to give you the best attainable conception of the Christian and
+      Heathen powers which have both received, in the book which Christians
+      profess to reverence, the same epithet as the King of the Jews Himself;
+      anointed, or Christos:&mdash;and as the most perfect Christian Kinghood
+      was exhibited in the life, partly real, partly traditional, of St. Louis,
+      so the most perfect Heathen Kinghood was exemplified in the life, partly
+      real, partly traditional, of Cyrus of Persia, and in the laws for human
+      government and education which had chief force in his dynasty. And before
+      the images of these two Kings I think therefore it will be well that you
+      should read the charge to Cyrus, written by Isaiah. The second clause of
+      it, if not all, will here become memorable to you&mdash;literally
+      illustrating, as it does, the very manner of the defeat of the Zoroastrian
+      Magi, on which Giotto founds his Triumph of Faith. I write the leading
+      sentences continuously; what I omit is only their amplification, which you
+      can easily refer to at home. (Isaiah xliv. 24, to xlv. 13.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb.
+      I the Lord that maketh all; that stretcheth forth the heavens, alone; that
+      spreadeth abroad the earth, alone; <i>that turneth wise men backward, and
+      maketh their knowledge, foolish; that confirmeth the word of his Servant,
+      and fulfilleth the counsel of his messengers</i>: that saith of Cyrus, He
+      is my Shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to
+      Jerusalem, 'thou shalt be built,' and to the temple, 'thy foundations
+      shall be laid."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Thus saith the Lord to his Christ;&mdash;to Cyrus, whose right hand I
+      have holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of
+      Kings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break
+      in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; and I
+      will give <i>thee</i> the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of
+      secret places, that thou mayest know that I the Lord, which call thee by
+      thy name, am the God of Israel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called
+      thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God beside me. I
+      girded thee, though thou hast not known me. That they may know, from the
+      <i>rising of the sun</i>, and from the west, that there is none beside me;
+      I am the Lord and there is none else. <i>I form the light</i>, and create
+      darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "I have raised him up in Righteousness, and will direct all his ways; he
+      shall build my city, and let go my captives, not for price nor reward,
+      saith the Lord of Nations."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To this last verse, add the ordinance of Cyrus in fulfilling it, that you
+      may understand what is meant by a King's being "raised up in
+      Righteousness," and notice, with respect to the picture under which you
+      stand, the Persian King's thought of the Jewish temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, [Footnote: 1st Esdras vi. 24.]
+      King Cyrus commanded that the house of the Lord at Jerusalem should be
+      built again, <i>where they do service with perpetual fire</i>; (the
+      italicized sentence is Darius's, quoting Cyrus's decree&mdash;the decree
+      itself worded thus), Thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia: [Footnote: Ezra i.
+      3, and 2nd Esdras ii. 3.] The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the
+      kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him an house at
+      Jerusalem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who is there among you of all his people?&mdash;his God be with him, and
+      let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and let the men of his place
+      help him with silver and with gold, and with goods and with beasts."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Between which "bringing the prisoners out of captivity" and modern
+      liberty, free trade, and anti-slavery eloquence, there is no small
+      interval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To these two ideals of Kinghood, then, the boy has reached, since the day
+      he was drawing the lamb on the stone, as Cimabue passed by. You will not
+      find two other such, that I know of, in the west of Europe; and yet there
+      has been many a try at the painting of crowned heads,&mdash;and King
+      George III and Queen Charlotte, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, are very fine, no
+      doubt. Also your black-muzzled kings of Velasquez, and Vandyke's
+      long-haired and white-handed ones; and Rubens' riders&mdash;in those
+      handsome boots. Pass such shadows of them as you can summon, rapidly
+      before your memory&mdash;then look at this St. Louis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His face&mdash;gentle, resolute, glacial-pure, thin-cheeked; so sharp at
+      the chin that the entire head is almost of the form of a knight's shield&mdash;the
+      hair short on the forehead, falling on each side in the old Greek-Etruscan
+      curves of simplest line, to the neck; I don't know if you can see without
+      being nearer, the difference in the arrangement of it on the two sides-the
+      mass of it on the right shoulder bending inwards, while that on the left
+      falls straight. It is one of the pretty changes which a modern workman
+      would never dream of&mdash;and which assures me the restorer has followed
+      the old lines rightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He wears a crown formed by an hexagonal pyramid, beaded with pearls on the
+      edges: and walled round, above the brow, with a vertical fortress-parapet,
+      as it were, rising into sharp pointed spines at the angles: it is chasing
+      of gold with pearl&mdash;beautiful in the remaining work of it; the Soldan
+      wears a crown of the same general form; the hexagonal outline signifying
+      all order, strength, and royal economy. We shall see farther symbolism of
+      this kind, soon, by Simon Memmi, in the Spanish chapel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot tell you anything definite of the two other frescos&mdash;for I
+      can only examine one or two pictures in a day; and never begin with one
+      till I have done with another; and I had to leave Florence without looking
+      at these&mdash;even so far as to be quite sure of their subjects. The
+      central one on the left is either the twelfth subject of Assisi&mdash;St.
+      Francis in Ecstacy; [Footnote: "Represented" (next to St. Francis before
+      the Soldan, at Assisi) "as seen one night by the brethren, praying,
+      elevated from the ground, his hands extended like the cross, and
+      surrounded by a shining cloud."&mdash;<i>Lord Lindsay</i>.] or the
+      eighteenth, the Apparition of St. Francis at Arles; [Footnote: "St.
+      Anthony of Padua was preaching at a general chapter of the order, held at
+      Arles, in 1224, when St. Francis appeared in the midst, his arms extended,
+      and in an attitude of benediction."&mdash;<i>Lord Lindsay</i>.] while the
+      lowest on the right may admit choice between two subjects in each half of
+      it: my own reading of them would be&mdash;that they are the twenty-first
+      and twenty-fifth subjects of Assisi, the Dying Friar [Footnote: "A brother
+      of the order, lying on his deathbed, saw the spirit of St. Francis rising
+      to heaven, and springing forward, cried, 'Tarry, Father, I come with
+      thee!' and fell back dead."&mdash;<i>Lord Lindsay</i>.] and Vision of Pope
+      Gregory IX.; [Footnote: "He hesitated, before canonizing St. Francis;
+      doubting the celestial infliction of the stigmata. St. Francis appeared to
+      him in a vision, and with a severe countenance reproving his unbelief,
+      opened his robe, and, exposing the wound in his side, filled a vial with
+      the blood that flowed from it, and gave it to the Pope, who awoke and
+      found it in his hand."&mdash;<i>Lord Lindsay</i>.] but Crowe and
+      Cavalcasella may be right in their different interpretation; [Footnote:
+      "As St. Francis was carried on his bed of sickness to St. Maria degli
+      Angeli, he stopped at an hospital on the roadside, and ordering his
+      attendants to turn his head in the direction of Assisi, he rose in his
+      litter and said, 'Blessed be thou amongst cities! may the blessing of God
+      cling to thee, oh holy place, for by thee shall many souls be saved;' and,
+      having said this, he lay down and was carried on to St. Maria degli
+      Angeli. On the evening of the 4th of October his death was revealed at the
+      very hour to the bishop of Assisi on Mount Sarzana."&mdash;<i>Crowe and
+      Cavalcasella.</i>] in any case, the meaning of the entire system of work
+      remains unchanged, as I have given it above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE FOURTH MORNING.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE VAULTED BOOK.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      As early as may be this morning, let us look for a minute or two into the
+      cathedral:&mdash;I was going to say, entering by one of the side doors of
+      the aisles;&mdash;but we can't do anything else, which perhaps might not
+      strike you unless you were thinking specially of it. There are no transept
+      doors; and one never wanders round to the desolate front. From either of
+      the side doors, a few paces will bring you to the middle of the nave, and
+      to the point opposite the middle of the third arch from the west end;
+      where you will find yourself&mdash;if well in the mid-wave&mdash;standing
+      on a circular slab of green porphyry, which marks the former place of the
+      grave of the bishop Zenobius. The larger inscription, on the wide circle
+      of the floor outside of you, records the translation of his body; the
+      smaller one round the stone at your feet&mdash;"quiescimus, domum hanc
+      quum adimus ultimam"&mdash;is a painful truth, I suppose, to travellers
+      like us, who never rest anywhere now, if we can help it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Resting here, at any rate, for a few minutes, look up to the whitewashed
+      vaulting of the compartment of the roof next the west end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will see nothing whatever in it worth looking at. Nevertheless, look a
+      little longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the longer you look, the less you will understand why I tell you to
+      look. It is nothing but a whitewashed ceiling: vaulted indeed,&mdash;but
+      so is many a tailor's garret window, for that matter. Indeed, now that you
+      have looked steadily for a minute or so, and are used to the form of the
+      arch, it seems to become so small that you can almost fancy it the ceiling
+      of a good-sized lumber-room in an attic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having attained to this modest conception of it, carry your eyes back to
+      the similar vault of the second compartment, nearer you. Very little
+      further contemplation will reduce that also to the similitude of a
+      moderately-sized attic. And then, resolving to bear, if possible&mdash;for
+      it is worth while,&mdash;the cramp in your neck for another quarter of a
+      minute, look right up to the third vault, over your head; which, if not,
+      in the said quarter of a minute, reducible in imagination to a tailor's
+      garret, will at least sink, like the two others, into the semblance of a
+      common arched ceiling, of no serious magnitude or majesty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, glance quickly down from it to the floor, and round at the space,
+      (included between the four pillars), which that vault covers. It is sixty
+      feet square,[Footnote: Approximately. Thinking I could find the dimensions
+      of the duomo anywhere, I only paced it myself,&mdash;and cannot, at this
+      moment, lay my hand on English measurements of it.]&mdash;four hundred
+      square yards of pavement,&mdash;and I believe you will have to look up
+      again more than once or twice, before you can convince yourself that the
+      mean-looking roof is swept indeed over all that twelfth part of an acre.
+      And still less, if I mistake not, will you, without slow proof, believe,
+      when you turn yourself round towards the east end, that the narrow niche
+      (it really looks scarcely more than a niche) which occupies, beyond the
+      dome, the position of our northern choirs, is indeed the unnarrowed
+      elongation of the nave, whose breadth extends round you like a frozen
+      lake. From which experiments and comparisons, your conclusion, I think,
+      will be, and I am sure it ought to be, that the most studious ingenuity
+      could not produce a design for the interior of a building which should
+      more completely hide its extent, and throw away every common advantage of
+      its magnitude, than this of the Duomo of Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having arrived at this, I assure you, quite securely tenable conclusion,
+      we will quit the cathedral by the western door, for once, and as quickly
+      as we can walk, return to the Green cloister of Sta. Maria Novella; and
+      place ourselves on the south side of it, so as to see as much as we can of
+      the entrance, on the opposite side, to the so-called 'Spanish Chapel.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is, indeed, within the opposite cloister, an arch of entrance, plain
+      enough. But no chapel, whatever, externally manifesting itself as worth
+      entering. No walls, or gable, or dome, raised above the rest of the
+      outbuildings&mdash;only two windows with traceries opening into the
+      cloister; and one story of inconspicuous building above. You can't
+      conceive there should be any effect of <i>magnitude</i> produced in the
+      interior, however it has been vaulted or decorated. It may be pretty, but
+      it cannot possibly look large.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Entering it, nevertheless, you will be surprised at the effect of height,
+      and disposed to fancy that the circular window cannot surely be the same
+      you saw outside, looking so low, I had to go out again, myself, to make
+      sure that it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And gradually, as you let the eye follow the sweep of the vaulting arches,
+      from the small central keystone-boss, with the Lamp carved on it, to the
+      broad capitals of the hexagonal pillars at the angles,&mdash;there will
+      form itself in your mind, I think, some impression not only of vastness in
+      the building, but of great daring in the builder; and at last, after
+      closely following out the lines of a fresco or two, and looking up and up
+      again to the coloured vaults, it will become to you literally one of the
+      grandest places you ever entered, roofed without a central pillar. You
+      will begin to wonder that human daring ever achieved anything so
+      magnificent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But just go out again into the cloister, and recover knowledge of the
+      facts. It is nothing like so large as the blank arch which at home we
+      filled with brickbats or leased for a gin-shop under the last railway we
+      made to carry coals to Newcastle. And if you pace the floor it covers, you
+      will find it is three feet less one way, and thirty feet less the other,
+      than that single square of the Cathedral which was roofed like a tailor's
+      loft,&mdash;accurately, for I did measure here, myself, the floor of the
+      Spanish chapel is fifty-seven feet by thirty-two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I hope, after this experience, that you will need no farther conviction of
+      the first law of noble building, that grandeur depends on proportion and
+      design&mdash;not, except in a quite secondary degree, on magnitude. Mere
+      size has, indeed, under all disadvantage, some definite value; and so has
+      mere splendour. Disappointed as you may be, or at least ought to be, at
+      first, by St. Peter's, in the end you will feel its size,&mdash;and its
+      brightness. These are all you <i>can</i> feel in it&mdash;it is nothing
+      more than the pump-room at Leamington built bigger;&mdash;but the bigness
+      tells at last: and Corinthian pillars whose capitals alone are ten feet
+      high, and their acanthus leaves, three feet six long, give you a serious
+      conviction of the infallibility of the Pope, and the fallibility of the
+      wretched Corinthians, who invented the style indeed, but built with
+      capitals no bigger than hand-baskets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Vastness <i>has</i> thus its value. But the glory of architecture is to be&mdash;whatever
+      you wish it to be,&mdash;lovely, or grand, or comfortable,&mdash;on such
+      terms as it can easily obtain. Grand, by proportion&mdash;lovely, by
+      imagination&mdash;comfortable, by ingenuity&mdash;secure, by honesty: with
+      such materials and in such space as you have got to give it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Grand&mdash;by proportion, I said; but ought to have said by <i>dis</i>proportion.
+      Beauty is given by the relation of parts&mdash;size, by their comparison.
+      The first secret in getting the impression of size in this chapel is the
+      <i>dis</i>proportion between pillar and arch. You take the pillar for
+      granted,&mdash;it is thick, strong, and fairly high above your head. You
+      look to the vault springing from it&mdash;and it soars away, nobody knows
+      where.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another great, but more subtle secret is in the <i>in</i>equality and
+      immeasurability of the curved lines; and the hiding of the form by the
+      colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To begin, the room, I said, is fifty-seven feet wide, and only thirty-two
+      deep. It is thus nearly one-third larger in the direction across the line
+      of entrance, which gives to every arch, pointed and round, throughout the
+      roof, a different spring from its neighbours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The vaulting ribs have the simplest of all profiles&mdash;that of a
+      chamfered beam. I call it simpler than even that of a square beam; for in
+      barking a log you cheaply get your chamfer, and nobody cares whether the
+      level is alike on each side: but you must take a larger tree, and use much
+      more work to get a square. And it is the same with stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And this profile is&mdash;fix the conditions of it, therefore, in your
+      mind,&mdash;venerable in the history of mankind as the origin of all
+      Gothic tracery-mouldings; venerable in the history of the Christian Church
+      as that of the roof ribs, both of the lower church of Assisi, bearing the
+      scroll of the precepts of St. Francis, and here at Florence, bearing the
+      scroll of the faith of St. Dominic. If you cut it out in paper, and cut
+      the corners off farther and farther, at every cut, you will produce a
+      sharper profile of rib, connected in architectural use with differently
+      treated styles. But the entirely venerable form is the massive one in
+      which the angle of the beam is merely, as it were, secured and completed
+      in stability by removing its too sharp edge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, the vaulting ribs, as in Giotto's vault, then, have here, under
+      their painting, this rude profile: but do not suppose the vaults are
+      simply the shells cast over them. Look how the ornamental borders fall on
+      the capitals! The plaster receives all sorts of indescribably
+      accommodating shapes&mdash;the painter contracting and stopping his design
+      upon it as it happens to be convenient. You can't measure anything; you
+      can't exhaust; you can't grasp,&mdash;except one simple ruling idea, which
+      a child can grasp, if it is interested and intelligent: namely, that the
+      room has four sides with four tales told upon them; and the roof four
+      quarters, with another four tales told on those. And each history in the
+      sides has its correspondent history in the roof. Generally, in good
+      Italian decoration, the roof represents constant, or essential facts; the
+      walls, consecutive histories arising out of them, or leading up to them.
+      Thus here, the roof represents in front of you, in its main quarter, the
+      Resurrection&mdash;the cardinal fact of Christianity; opposite (above,
+      behind you), the Ascension; on your left hand, the descent of the Holy
+      Spirit; on your right, Christ's perpetual presence with His Church,
+      symbolized by His appearance on the Sea of Galilee to the disciples in the
+      storm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The correspondent walls represent: under the first quarter, (the
+      Resurrection), the story of the Crucifixion; under the second quarter,
+      (the Ascension), the preaching after that departure, that Christ will
+      return&mdash;symbolized here in the Dominican church by the consecration
+      of St. Dominic; under the third quarter, (the descent of the Holy Spirit),
+      the disciplining power of human virtue and wisdom; under the fourth
+      quarter, (St. Peter's Ship), the authority and government of the State and
+      Church.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The order of these subjects, chosen by the Dominican monks themselves, was
+      sufficiently comprehensive to leave boundless room for the invention of
+      the painter. The execution of it was first intrusted to Taddeo Gaddi, the
+      best architectural master of Giotto's school, who painted the four
+      quarters of the roof entirely, but with no great brilliancy of invention,
+      and was beginning to go down one of the sides, when, luckily, a man of
+      stronger brain, his friend, came from Siena. Taddeo thankfully yielded the
+      room to him; he joined his own work to that of his less able friend in an
+      exquisitely pretty and complimentary way; throwing his own greater
+      strength into it, not competitively, but gradually and helpfully. When,
+      however, he had once got himself well joined, and softly, to the more
+      simple work, he put his own force on with a will and produced the most
+      noble piece of pictorial philosophy [Footnote: There is no philosophy <i>taught</i>
+      either by the school of Athens or Michael Angelo's 'Last Judgment,' and
+      the 'Disputa' is merely a graceful assemblage of authorities, the effects
+      of such authority not being shown.] and divinity existing in Italy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This pretty, and, according to all evidence by me attainable, entirely
+      true, tradition has been all but lost, among the ruins of fair old
+      Florence, by the industry of modern mason-critics&mdash;who, without
+      exception, labouring under the primal (and necessarily unconscious)
+      disadvantage of not knowing good work from bad, and never, therefore,
+      knowing a man by his hand or his thoughts, would be in any case
+      sorrowfully at the mercy of mistakes in a document; but are tenfold more
+      deceived by their own vanity, and delight in overthrowing a received idea,
+      if they can.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Farther: as every fresco of this early date has been retouched again and
+      again, and often painted half over,&mdash;and as, if there has been the
+      least care or respect for the old work in the restorer, he will now and
+      then follow the old lines and match the old colours carefully in some
+      places, while he puts in clearly recognizable work of his own in others,&mdash;two
+      critics, of whom one knows the first man's work well, and the other the
+      last's, will contradict each other to almost any extent on the securest
+      grounds. And there is then no safe refuge for an uninitiated person but in
+      the old tradition, which, if not literally true, is founded assuredly on
+      some root of fact which you are likely to get at, if ever, through it
+      only. So that my general directions to all young people going to Florence
+      or Rome would be very short: "Know your first volume of Vasari, and your
+      two first books of Livy; look about you, and don't talk, nor listen to
+      talking."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On those terms, you may know, entering this chapel, that in Michael
+      Angelo's time, all Florence attributed these frescos to Taddeo Gaddi and
+      Simon Memmi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have studied neither of these artists myself with any speciality of
+      care, and cannot tell you positively, anything about them or their works.
+      But I know good work from bad, as a cobbler knows leather, and I can tell
+      you positively the quality of these frescos, and their relation to
+      contemporary panel pictures; whether authentically ascribed to Gaddi,
+      Memmi, or any one else, it is for the Florentine Academy to decide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roof, and the north side, down to the feet of the horizontal line of
+      sitting figures, were originally third-rate work of the school of Giotto;
+      the rest of the chapel was originally, and most of it is still,
+      magnificent work of the school of Siena. The roof and north side have been
+      heavily repainted in, many places; the rest is faded and injured, but not
+      destroyed in its most essential qualities. And now, farther, you must bear
+      with just a little bit of tormenting history of painters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were two Gaddis, father and son,&mdash;Taddeo and Angelo. And there
+      were two Memmis, brothers,&mdash;Simon and Philip.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I daresay you will find, in the modern books, that Simon's real name was
+      Peter, and Philip's real name was Bartholomew; and Angelo's real name was
+      Taddeo, and Taddeo's real name was Angelo; and Memmi's real name was
+      Gaddi, and Gaddi's real name was Memmi. You may find out all that at your
+      leisure, afterwards, if you like. What it is important for you to know
+      here, in the Spanish Chapel, is only this much that follows:&mdash;There
+      were certainly two persons once called Gaddi, both rather stupid in
+      religious matters and high art; but one of them, I don't know or care
+      which, a true decorative painter of the most exquisite skill, a perfect
+      architect, an amiable person, and a great lover of pretty domestic life.
+      Vasari says this was the father, Taddeo. He built the Ponte Vecchio; and
+      the old stones of it&mdash;which if you ever look at anything on the Ponte
+      Vecchio but the shops, you may still see (above those wooden pent-houses)
+      with the Florentine shield&mdash;were so laid by him that they are
+      unshaken to this day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He painted an exquisite series of frescos at Assisi from the Life of
+      Christ; in which,&mdash;just to show you what the man's nature is,&mdash;when
+      the Madonna has given Christ into Simeon's arms, she can't help holding
+      out her own arms to him, and saying, (visibly,) "Won't you come back to
+      mamma?" The child laughs his answer&mdash;"I love <i>you</i>, mamma; but
+      I'm quite happy just now."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well; he, or he and his son together, painted these four quarters of the
+      roof of the Spanish Chapel. They were very probably much retouched
+      afterwards by Antonio Veneziano, or whomsoever Messrs. Crowe and
+      Cavalcasella please; but that architecture in the descent of the Holy
+      Ghost is by the man who painted the north transept of Assisi, and there
+      need be no more talk about the matter,&mdash;for you never catch a
+      restorer doing his old architecture right again. And farther, the
+      ornamentation of the vaulting ribs <i>is</i> by the man who painted the
+      Entombment, No. 31 in the Galerie des Grands Tableaux, in the catalogue of
+      the Academy for 1874. Whether that picture is Taddeo Gaddi's or not, as
+      stated in the catalogue, I do not know; but I know the vaulting ribs of
+      the Spanish Chapel are painted by the same hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again: of the two brothers Memmi, one or other, I don't know or care
+      which, had an ugly way of turning the eyes of his figures up and their
+      mouths down; of which you may see an entirely disgusting example in the
+      four saints attributed to Filippo Memmi on the cross wall of the north
+      (called always in Murray's guide the south, because he didn't notice the
+      way the church was built) transept of Assisi. You may, however, also see
+      the way the mouth goes down in the much repainted, but still
+      characteristic No. 9 in the Uffizii. [Footnote: This picture bears the
+      inscription (I quote from the French catalogue, not having verified it
+      myself), "Simon Martini, et Lippus Memmi de Senis me pinxerunt." I have no
+      doubt whatever, myself, that the two brothers worked together on these
+      frescoes of the Spanish Chapel: but that most of the Limbo is Philip's,
+      and the Paradise, scarcely with his interference, Simon's.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now I catch the wring and verjuice of this brother again and again, among
+      the minor heads of the lower frescoes in this Spanish Chapel. The head of
+      the Queen beneath Noah, in the Limbo,&mdash;(see below) is unmistakable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Farther: one of the two brothers, I don't care which, had a way of
+      painting leaves; of which you may see a notable example in the rod in the
+      hand of Gabriel in that same picture of the Annunciation in the Uffizii.
+      No Florentine painter, or any other, ever painted leaves as well as that,
+      till you get down to Sandro Botticelli, who did them much better. But the
+      man who painted that rod in the hand of Gabriel, painted the rod in the
+      right hand of Logic in the Spanish Chapel,&mdash;and nobody else in
+      Florence, or the world, <i>could</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Farther (and this is the last of the antiquarian business); you see that
+      the frescoes on the roof are, on the whole, dark with much blue and red in
+      them, the white spaces coming out strongly. This is the characteristic
+      colouring of the partially defunct school of Giotto, becoming merely
+      decorative, and passing into a colourist school which connected itself
+      afterwards with the Venetians. There is an exquisite example of all its
+      specialities in the little Annunciation in the Uffizii, No. 14, attributed
+      to Angelo Gaddi, in which you see the Madonna is stupid, and the angel
+      stupid, but the colour of the whole, as a piece of painted glass, lovely;
+      and the execution exquisite,&mdash;at once a painter's and jeweller's;
+      with subtle sense of chiaroscuro underneath; (note the delicate shadow of
+      the Madonna's arm across her breast).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The head of this school was (according to Vasari) Taddeo Gaddi; and
+      henceforward, without further discussion, I shall speak of him as the
+      painter of the roof of the Spanish Chapel,&mdash;not without suspicion,
+      however, that his son Angelo may hereafter turn out to have been the
+      better decorator, and the painter of the frescoes from the life of Christ
+      in the north transept of Assisi,&mdash;with such assistance as his son or
+      scholars might give&mdash;and such change or destruction as time, Antonio
+      Veneziano, or the last operations of the Tuscan railroad company, may have
+      effected on them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, you see that the frescos on the walls are of paler
+      colours, the blacks coming out of these clearly, rather than the whites;
+      but the pale colours, especially, for instance, the whole of the Duomo of
+      Florence in that on your right, very tender and lovely. Also, you may feel
+      a tendency to express much with outline, and draw, more than paint, in the
+      most interesting parts; while in the duller ones, nasty green and yellow
+      tones come out, which prevent the effect of the whole from being very
+      pleasant. These characteristics belong, on the whole, to the school of
+      Siena; and they indicate here the work <i>assuredly</i> of a man of vast
+      power and most refined education, whom I shall call without further
+      discussion, during the rest of this and the following morning's study,
+      Simon Memmi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And of the grace and subtlety with which he joined his work to that of the
+      Gaddis, you may judge at once by comparing the Christ standing on the
+      fallen gate of the Limbo, with the Christ in the Resurrection above. Memmi
+      has retained the dress and imitated the general effect of the figure in
+      the roof so faithfully that you suspect no difference of mastership&mdash;nay,
+      he has even raised the foot in the same awkward way: but you will find
+      Memmi's foot delicately drawn-Taddeo's, hard and rude: and all the folds
+      of Memmi's drapery cast with unbroken grace and complete gradations of
+      shade, while Taddeo's are rigid and meagre; also in the heads, generally
+      Taddeo's type of face is square in feature, with massive and inelegant
+      clusters or volutes of hair and beard; but Memmi's delicate and long in
+      feature, with much divided and flowing hair, often arranged with exquisite
+      precision, as in the finest Greek coins. Examine successively in this
+      respect only the heads of Adam, Abel, Methuselah, and Abraham, in the
+      Limbo, and you will not confuse the two designers any more. I have not had
+      time to make out more than the principal figures in the Limbo, of which
+      indeed the entire dramatic power is centred in the Adam and Eve. The
+      latter dressed as a nun, in her fixed gaze on Christ, with her hands
+      clasped, is of extreme beauty: and however feeble the work of any early
+      painter may be, in its decent and grave inoffensiveness it guides the
+      imagination unerringly to a certain point. How far you are yourself
+      capable of filling up what is left untold and conceiving, as a reality,
+      Eve's first look on this her child, depends on no painter's skill, but on
+      your own understanding. Just above Eve is Abel, bearing the lamb: and
+      behind him, Noah, between his wife and Shem: behind them, Abraham, between
+      Isaac and Ishmael; (turning from Ishmael to Isaac), behind these, Moses,
+      between Aaron and David. I have not identified the others, though I find
+      the white-bearded figure behind Eve called Methuselah in my notes: I know
+      not on what authority. Looking up from these groups, however, to the roof
+      painting, you will at once feel the imperfect grouping and ruder features
+      of all the figures; and the greater depth of colour. We will dismiss these
+      comparatively inferior paintings at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The roof and walls must be read together, each segment of the roof forming
+      an introduction to, or portion of, the subject on the wall below. But the
+      roof must first be looked at alone, as the work of Taddeo Gaddi, for the
+      artistic qualities and failures of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I. In front, as you enter, is the compartment with the subject of the
+      Resurrection. It is the traditional Byzantine composition: the guards
+      sleeping, and the two angels in white saying to the women, "He is not
+      here," while Christ is seen rising with the flag of the Cross.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it would be difficult to find another example of the subject, so
+      coldly treated&mdash;so entirely without passion or action. The faces are
+      expressionless; the gestures powerless. Evidently the painter is not
+      making the slightest effort to conceive what really happened, but merely
+      repeating and spoiling what he could remember of old design, or himself
+      supply of commonplace for immediate need. The "Noli me tangere," on the
+      right, is spoiled from Giotto, and others before him; a peacock, woefully
+      plumeless and colourless, a fountain, an ill drawn toy-horse, and two
+      toy-children gathering flowers, are emaciate remains of Greek symbols. He
+      has taken pains with the vegetation, but in vain. Yet Taddeo Gaddi was a
+      true painter, a very beautiful designer, and a very amiable person. How
+      comes he to do that Resurrection so badly?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the first place, he was probably tired of a subject which was a great
+      strain to his feeble imagination; and gave it up as impossible: doing
+      simply the required figures in the required positions. In the second, he
+      was probably at the time despondent and feeble because of his master's
+      death. See Lord Lindsay, II. 273, where also it is pointed out that in the
+      effect of the light proceeding from the figure of Christ, Taddeo Gaddi
+      indeed was the first of the Giottisti who showed true sense of light and
+      shade. But until Lionardo's time the innovation did not materially affect
+      Florentine art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II. The Ascension (opposite the Resurrection, and not worth looking at,
+      except for the sake of making more sure our conclusions from the first
+      fresco). The Madonna is fixed in Byzantine stiffness, without Byzantine
+      dignity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III. The Descent of the Holy Ghost, on the left hand. The Madonna and
+      disciples are gathered in an upper chamber: underneath are the Parthians,
+      Medes, Elamites, etc., who hear them speak in their own tongues.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Three dogs are in the foreground&mdash;their mythic purpose the same as
+      that of the two verses which affirm the fellowship of the dog in the
+      journey and return of Tobias: namely, to mark the share of the lower
+      animals in the gentleness given by the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV. The Church sailing on the Sea of the World. St. Peter coming to Christ
+      on the water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I was too little interested in the vague symbolism of this fresco to
+      examine it with care&mdash;the rather that the subject beneath, the
+      literal contest of the Church with the world, needed more time for study
+      in itself alone than I had for all Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On this, and the opposite side of the chapel, are represented, by Simon
+      Memmi's hand, the teaching power of the Spirit of God, and the saving
+      power of the Christ of God, in the world, according to the understanding
+      of Florence in his time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We will take the side of Intellect first, beneath the pouring forth of the
+      Holy Spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the point of the arch beneath, are the three Evangelical Virtues.
+      Without these, says Florence, you can have no science. Without Love,
+      Faith, and Hope&mdash;no intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under these are the four Cardinal Virtues, the entire group being thus
+      arranged:&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                         A
+                      B     C
+                   D   E   F   G
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A, Charity; flames issuing from her head and hands. B, Faith; holds cross
+      and shield, quenching fiery darts. This symbol, so frequent in modern
+      adaptation from St. Paul's address to personal faith, is rare in older
+      art. C, Hope, with a branch of lilies. D, Temperance; bridles a black
+      fish, on which she stands. E, Prudence, with a book. F, Justice, with
+      crown and baton. G, Fortitude, with tower and sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under these are the great prophets and apostles; on the left,[Footnote: I
+      can't find my note of the first one on the left; answering to Solomon,
+      opposite.] David, St. Paul, St. Mark, St. John; on the right, St. Matthew,
+      St. Luke, Moses, Isaiah, Solomon. In the midst of the Evangelists, St.
+      Thomas Aquinas, seated on a Gothic throne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now observe, this throne, with all the canopies below it, and the complete
+      representation of the Duomo of Florence opposite, are of finished Gothic
+      of Orecagna's school&mdash;later than Giotto's Gothic. But the building in
+      which the apostles are gathered at the Pentecost is of the early
+      Romanesque mosaic school, with a wheel window from the duomo of Assisi,
+      and square windows from the Baptistery of Florence. And this is always the
+      type of architecture used by Taddeo Gaddi: while the finished Gothic could
+      not possibly have been drawn by him, but is absolute evidence of the later
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the line of prophets, as powers summoned by their voices, are the
+      mythic figures of the seven theological or spiritual, and the seven <i>ge</i>ological
+      or natural sciences: and under the feet of each of them, the figure of its
+      Captain-teacher to the world.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+I had better perhaps give you the names of this entire series of figures
+from left to right at once. You will see presently why they are numbered
+in a reverse order.
+
+                               Beneath whom
+8. Civil Law. The Emperor Justinian. 9. Canon Law. Pope Clement V. 10.
+Practical Theology. Peter Lombard. 11. Contemplative Theology. Dionysius
+the Areopagite. 12. Dogmatic Theology. Boethius. 13. Mystic Theology.
+St. John Damascene. 14. Polemic Theology. St. Augustine. 7. Arithmetic.
+Pythagoras. 6. Geometry. Euclid. 5. Astronomy. Zoroaster. 4. Music.
+Tubalcain. 3. Logic. Aristotle. 2. Rhetoric. Cicero. 1. Grammar.
+Priscian.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Here, then, you have pictorially represented, the system of manly
+      education, supposed in old Florence to be that necessarily instituted in
+      great earthly kingdoms or republics, animated by the Spirit shed down upon
+      the world at Pentecost. How long do you think it will take you, or ought
+      to take, to see such a picture? We were to get to work this morning, as
+      early as might be: you have probably allowed half an hour for Santa Maria
+      Novella; half an hour for San Lorenzo; an hour for the museum of sculpture
+      at the Bargello; an hour for shopping; and then it will be lunch time, and
+      you mustn't be late, because you are to leave by the afternoon train, and
+      must positively be in Rome to-morrow morning. Well, of your half-hour for
+      Santa Maria Novella,&mdash;after Ghirlandajo's choir, Orcagna's transept,
+      and Cimabue's Madonna, and the painted windows, have been seen properly,
+      there will remain, suppose, at the utmost, a quarter of an hour for the
+      Spanish Chapel. That will give you two minutes and a half for each side,
+      two for the ceiling, and three for studying Murray's explanations or mine.
+      Two minutes and a half you have got, then&mdash;(and I observed, during my
+      five weeks' work in the chapel, that English visitors seldom gave so much)&mdash;to
+      read this scheme given you by Simon Memmi of human spiritual education. In
+      order to understand the purport of it, in any the smallest degree, you
+      must summon to your memory, in the course of these two minutes and a half,
+      what you happen to be acquainted with of the doctrines and characters of
+      Pythagoras, Zoroaster, Aristotle, Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Augustine,
+      and the emperor Justinian, and having further observed the expressions and
+      actions attributed by the painter to these personages, judge how far he
+      has succeeded in reaching a true and worthy ideal of them, and how large
+      or how subordinate a part in his general scheme of human learning he
+      supposes their peculiar doctrines properly to occupy. For myself, being,
+      to my much sorrow, now an old person; and, to my much pride, an
+      old-fashioned one, I have not found my powers either of reading or memory
+      in the least increased by any of Mr. Stephenson's or Mr. Wheatstone's
+      inventions; and though indeed I came here from Lucca in three hours
+      instead of a day, which it used to take, I do not think myself able, on
+      that account, to see any picture in Florence in less time than it took
+      formerly, or even obliged to hurry myself in any investigations connected
+      with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Accordingly, I have myself taken five weeks to see the quarter of this
+      picture of Simon Memmi's: and can give you a fairly good account of that
+      quarter, and some partial account of a fragment or two of those on the
+      other walls: but, alas! only of their pictorial qualities in either case;
+      for I don't myself know anything whatever, worth trusting to, about
+      Pythagoras, or Dionysius the Areopagite; and have not had, and never shall
+      have, probably, any time to learn much of them; while in the very feeblest
+      light only,&mdash;in what the French would express by their excellent word
+      'lueur,'&mdash;I am able to understand something of the characters of
+      Zoroaster, Aristotle, and Justinian. But this only increases in me the
+      reverence with which I ought to stand before the work of a painter, who
+      was not only a master of his own craft, but so profound a scholar and
+      theologian as to be able to conceive this scheme of picture, and write the
+      divine law by which Florence was to live. Which Law, written in the
+      northern page of this Vaulted Book, we will begin quiet interpretation of,
+      if you care to return hither, to-morrow morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE FIFTH MORNING.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE STRAIT GATE.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      As you return this morning to St. Mary's, you may as well observe&mdash;the
+      matter before us being concerning gates,&mdash;that the western façade of
+      the church is of two periods. Your Murray refers it all to the latest of
+      these;&mdash;I forget when, and do not care;&mdash;in which the largest
+      flanking columns, and the entire effective mass of the walls, with their
+      riband mosaics and high pediment, were built in front of, and above, what
+      the barbarian renaissance designer chose to leave of the pure old
+      Dominican church. You may see his ungainly jointings at the pedestals of
+      the great columns, running through the pretty, parti-coloured base, which,
+      with the 'Strait' Gothic doors, and the entire lines of the fronting and
+      flanking tombs (where not restored by the Devil-begotten brood of modern
+      Florence), is of pure, and exquisitely severe and refined, fourteenth
+      century Gothic, with superbly carved bearings on its shields. The small
+      detached line of tombs on the left, untouched in its sweet colour and
+      living weed ornament, I would fain have painted, stone by stone: but one
+      can never draw in front of a church in these republican days; for all the
+      blackguard children of the neighbourhood come to howl, and throw stones,
+      on the steps, and the ball or stone play against these sculptured tombs,
+      as a dead wall adapted for that purpose only, is incessant in the fine
+      days when I could have worked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If you enter by the door most to the left, or north, and turn immediately
+      to the right, on the interior of the wall of the façade is an
+      Annunciation, visible enough because well preserved, though in the dark,
+      and extremely pretty in its way,&mdash;of the decorated and ornamental
+      school following Giotto:&mdash;I can't guess by whom, nor does it much
+      matter; but it is well To look at it by way of contrast with the delicate,
+      intense, slightly decorated design of Memmi,&mdash;in which, when you
+      return into the Spanish chapel, you will feel the dependence for its
+      effect on broad masses of white and pale amber, where the decorative
+      school would have had mosaic of red, blue, and gold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our first business this morning must be to read and understand the writing
+      on the book held open by St. Thomas Aquinas, for that informs us of the
+      meaning of the whole picture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is this text from the Book of Wisdom VII. 6.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+            "Optavi, et datus est mihi sensus.
+             Invocavi, et venit in me Spiritus Sapientiae,
+             Et preposui illam regnis et sedibus."
+
+            "I willed, and Sense was given me.
+             I prayed, and the Spirit of Wisdom came upon me.
+             And I set her before, (preferred her to,) kingdoms
+             and thrones."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The common translation in our English Apocrypha loses the entire meaning
+      of this passage, which&mdash;not only as the statement of the experience
+      of Florence in her own education, but as universally descriptive of the
+      process of all noble education whatever&mdash;we had better take pains to
+      understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      First, says Florence "I willed, (in sense of resolutely desiring,) and
+      Sense was given me." You must begin your education with the distinct
+      resolution to know what is true, and choice of the strait and rough road
+      to such knowledge. This choice is offered to every youth and maid at some
+      moment of their life;&mdash;choice between the easy downward road, so
+      broad that we can dance down it in companies, and the steep narrow way,
+      which we must enter alone. Then, and for many a day afterwards, they need
+      that form of persistent Option, and Will: but day by day, the 'Sense' of
+      the rightness of what they have done, deepens on them, not in consequence
+      of the effort, but by gift granted in reward of it. And the Sense of
+      difference between right and wrong, and between beautiful and unbeautiful
+      things, is confirmed in the heroic, and fulfilled in the industrious,
+      soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is the process of education in the earthly sciences, and the morality
+      connected with them. Reward given to faithful Volition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next, when Moral and Physical senses are perfect, comes the desire for
+      education in the higher world, where the senses are no more our Teachers;
+      but the Maker of the senses. And that teaching, we cannot get by labour,
+      but only by petition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Invocavi, et venit in me Spiritus Sapientiae"&mdash;"I prayed, and the
+      Spirit of Wisdom," (not, you observe, <i>was given</i>, [Footnote: I in
+      careless error, wrote "was given" in 'Fors Clavigera.] but,) "<i>came</i>
+      upon me." The <i>personal</i> power of Wisdom: the "[Greek: sophia]" or
+      Santa Sophia, to whom the first great Christian temple was dedicated. This
+      higher wisdom, governing by her presence, all earthly conduct, and by her
+      teaching, all earthly art, Florence tells you, she obtained only by
+      prayer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And these two Earthly and Divine sciences are expressed beneath in the
+      symbols of their divided powers;&mdash;Seven terrestrial, Seven celestial,
+      whose names have been already indicated to you:&mdash;in which figures I
+      must point out one or two technical matters, before touching their
+      interpretation. They are all by Simon Memmi originally; but repainted,
+      many of them all over, some hundred years later,&mdash;(certainly after
+      the discovery of America, as you will see)&mdash;by an artist of
+      considerable power, and some feeling for the general action of the
+      figures; but of no refinement or carelessness. He dashes massive paint in
+      huge spaces over the subtle old work, puts in his own chiaro-oscuro where
+      all had been shadeless, and his own violent colour where all had been
+      pale, and repaints the faces so as to make them, to his notion, prettier
+      and more human: some of this upper work has, however, come away since, and
+      the original outline, at least, is traceable; while in the face of the
+      Logic, the Music, and one or two others, the original work is very pure.
+      Being most interested myself in the earthly sciences, I had a scaffolding
+      put up, made on a level with them, and examined them inch by inch, and the
+      following report will be found accurate until next repainting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For interpretation of them, you must always take the central figure of the
+      Science, with the little medallion above it, and the figure below, all
+      together. Which I proceed to do, reading first from left to right for the
+      earthly sciences, and then from right to left the heavenly ones, to the
+      centre, where their two highest powers sit, side by side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We begin, then, with the first in the list given above, (Vaulted Book,
+      page 75):&mdash;Grammar, in the corner farthest from the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. GRAMMAR: more properly Grammaticë, "Grammatic Act" the Art of <i>Letters</i>
+      or "Literature," or using the word which to some English ears will carry
+      most weight with it,&mdash;"Scripture," and its use. The Art of faithfully
+      reading what has been written for our learning; and of clearly writing
+      what we would make immortal of our thoughts. Power which consists first in
+      recognizing letters; secondly, in forming them; thirdly, in the
+      understanding and choice of words which errorless shall express our
+      thought. Severe exercises all, reaching&mdash;very few living persons
+      know, how far: beginning properly in childhood, then only to be truly
+      acquired. It is wholly impossible&mdash;this I say from too sorrowful
+      experience&mdash;to conquer by any effort or time, habits of the hand
+      (much more of head and soul) with which the vase of flesh has been formed
+      and filled in youth,&mdash;the law of God being that parents shall compel
+      the child in the day of its obedience into habits of hand, and eye, and
+      soul, which, when it is old, shall not, by any strength, or any weakness,
+      be departed from.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Enter ye in," therefore, says Grammaticë, "at the Strait Gate." She
+      points through it with her rod, holding a fruit(?) for reward, in her left
+      hand. The gate is very strait indeed&mdash;her own waist no less so, her
+      hair fastened close. She had once a white veil binding it, which is lost.
+      Not a gushing form of literature, this,&mdash;or in any wise disposed to
+      subscribe to Mudie's, my English friends&mdash;or even patronize Tauchnitz
+      editions of&mdash;what is the last new novel you see ticketed up today in
+      Mr. Goodban's window? She looks kindly down, nevertheless, to the three
+      children whom she is teaching&mdash;two boys and a girl: (Qy. Does this
+      mean that one girl out of every two should not be able to read or write? I
+      am quite willing to accept that inference, for my own part,&mdash;should
+      perhaps even say, two girls out of three). This girl is of the highest
+      classes, crowned, her golden hair falling behind her the Florentine girdle
+      round her hips&mdash;(not waist, the object being to leave the lungs full
+      play; but to keep the dress always well down in dancing or running). The
+      boys are of good birth also, the nearest one with luxuriant curly hair&mdash;only
+      the profile of the farther one seen. All reverent and eager. Above, the
+      medallion is of a figure looking at a fountain. Underneath, Lord Lindsay
+      says, Priscian, and is, I doubt not, right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;The figure is said by Crowe to be entirely
+      repainted. The dress is so throughout&mdash;both the hands also, and the
+      fruit, and rod. But the eyes, mouth, hair above the forehead, and outline
+      of the rest, with the faded veil, and happily, the traces left of the
+      children, are genuine; the strait gate perfectly so, in the colour
+      underneath, though reinforced; and the action of the entire figure is well
+      preserved: but there is a curious question about both the rod and fruit.
+      Seen close, the former perfectly assumes the shape of folds of dress
+      gathered up over the raised right arm, and I am not absolutely sure that
+      the restorer has not mistaken the folds&mdash;at the same time changing a
+      pen or style into a rod. The fruit also I have doubts of, as fruit is not
+      so rare at Florence that it should be made a reward. It is entirely and
+      roughly repainted, and is oval in shape. In Giotto's Charity, luckily not
+      restored, at Assisi, the guide-books have always mistaken the heart she
+      holds for an apple:&mdash;and my own belief is that originally, the
+      Grammaticë of Simon Memmi made with her right hand the sign which said,
+      "Enter ye in at the Strait Gate," and with her left, the sign which said,
+      "My son, give me thine Heart."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      II. RHETORIC. Next to learning how to read and write, you are to learn to
+      speak; and, young ladies and gentlemen, observe,&mdash;to speak as little
+      as possible, it is farther implied, till you <i>have</i> learned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the streets of Florence at this day you may hear much of what some
+      people call "rhetoric"&mdash;very passionate speaking indeed, and quite
+      "from the heart"&mdash;such hearts as the people have got. That is to say,
+      you never hear a word uttered but in a rage, either just ready to burst,
+      or for the most part, explosive instantly: everybody&mdash;man, woman, or
+      child&mdash;roaring out their incontinent, foolish, infinitely
+      contemptible opinions and wills, on every smallest occasion, with flashing
+      eyes, hoarsely shrieking and wasted voices,&mdash;insane hope to drag by
+      vociferation whatever they would have, out of man and God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now consider Simon Memmi's Rhetoric. The Science of Speaking, primarily;
+      of making oneself <i>heard</i> therefore: which is not to be done by
+      shouting. She alone, of all the sciences, carries a scroll: and being a
+      speaker gives you something to read. It is not thrust forward at you at
+      all, but held quietly down with her beautiful depressed right hand; her
+      left hand set coolly and strongly on her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And you will find that, thus, she alone of all the sciences <i>needs no
+      use of her hands</i>. All the others have some important business for
+      them. She none. She can do all with her lips, holding scroll, or bridle,
+      or what you will, with her right hand, her left on her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, look at the talkers in the streets of Florence, and see how, being
+      essentially <i>un</i>able to talk, they try to make lips of their fingers!
+      How they poke, wave, flourish, point, jerk, shake finger and fist at their
+      antagonists&mdash;dumb essentially, all the while, if they knew it;
+      unpersuasive and ineffectual, as the shaking of tree branches in the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You will at first think her figure ungainly and stiff. It is so, partly,
+      the dress being more coarsely repainted than in any other of the series.
+      But she is meant to be both stout and strong. What she has to say is
+      indeed to persuade you, if possible; but assuredly to overpower you. And
+      <i>she</i> has not the Florentine girdle, for she does not want to move.
+      She has her girdle broad at the waist&mdash;of all the sciences, you would
+      at first have thought, the one that most needed breath! No, says Simon
+      Memmi. You want breath to run, or dance, or fight with. But to speak!&mdash;If
+      you know <i>how</i>, you can do your work with few words; very little of
+      this pure Florentine air will be enough, if you shape it rightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note, also, that calm setting of her hand against her side. You think
+      Rhetoric should be glowing, fervid, impetuous? No, says Simon Memmi. Above
+      all things,&mdash;<i>cool</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now let us read what is written on her scroll:&mdash;Mulceo, dum
+      loquor, varios induta colores.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her chief function, to melt; make soft, thaw the hearts of men with kind
+      fire; to overpower with peace; and bring rest, with rainbow colours. The
+      chief mission of all words that they should be of comfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You think the function of words is to excite? Why, a red rag will do that,
+      or a blast through a brass pipe. But to give calm and gentle heat; to be
+      as the south wind, and the iridescent rain, to all bitterness of frost;
+      and bring at once strength, and healing. This is the work of human lips,
+      taught of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One farther and final lesson is given in the medallion above. Aristotle,
+      and too many modern rhetoricians of his school, thought there could be
+      good speaking in a false cause. But above Simon Memmi's Rhetoric is <i>Truth</i>,
+      with her mirror.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is a curious feeling, almost innate in men, that though they are
+      bound to speak truth, in speaking to a single person, they may lie as much
+      as they please, provided they lie to two or more people at once. There is
+      the same feeling about killing: most people would shrink from shooting one
+      innocent man; but will fire a mitrailleuse contentedly into an innocent
+      regiment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When you look down from the figure of the Science, to that of Cicero,
+      beneath, you will at first think it entirely overthrows my conclusion that
+      Rhetoric has no need of her hands. For Cicero, it appears, has three
+      instead of two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The uppermost, at his chin, is the only genuine one. That raised, with the
+      finger up, is entirely false. That on the book, is repainted so as to defy
+      conjecture of its original action.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But observe how the gesture of the true one confirms instead of
+      overthrowing what I have said above. Cicero is not speaking at all, but
+      profoundly thinking <i>before</i> he speaks. It is the most abstractedly
+      thoughtful face to be found among all the philosophers; and very
+      beautiful. The whole is under Solomon, in the line of Prophets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;These two figures have suffered from
+      restoration more than any others, but the right hand of Rhetoric is still
+      entirely genuine, and the left, except the ends of the fingers. The ear,
+      and hair just above it, are quite safe, the head well set on its original
+      line, but the crown of leaves rudely retouched, and then faded. All the
+      lower part of the figure of Cicero has been not only repainted but
+      changed; the face is genuine&mdash;I believe retouched, but so cautiously
+      and skilfully, that it is probably now more beautiful than at first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      III. LOGIC. The science of reasoning, or more accurately Reason herself,
+      or pure intelligence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Science to be gained after that of Expression, says Simon Memmi; so, young
+      people, it appears, that though you must not speak before you have been
+      taught how to speak, you may yet properly speak before you have been
+      taught how to think.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For indeed, it is only by frank speaking that you <i>can</i> learn how to
+      think. And it is no matter how wrong the first thoughts you have may be,
+      provided you express them clearly;&mdash;and are willing to have them put
+      right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fortunately, nearly all of this beautiful figure is practically safe, the
+      outlines pure everywhere, and the face perfect: the <i>prettiest</i>, as
+      far as I know, which exists in Italian art of this early date. It is
+      subtle to the extreme in gradations of colour: the eyebrows drawn, not
+      with a sweep of the brush, but with separate cross touches in the line of
+      their growth&mdash;exquisitely pure in arch; the nose straight and fine;
+      the lips&mdash;playful slightly, proud, unerringly cut; the hair flowing
+      in sequent waves, ordered as if in musical time; head perfectly upright on
+      the shoulders; the height of the brow completed by a crimson frontlet set
+      with pearls, surmounted by a <i>fleur-de-lys</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her shoulders were exquisitely drawn, her white jacket fitting close to
+      soft, yet scarcely rising breasts; her arms singularly strong, at perfect
+      rest; her hands, exquisitely delicate. In her right, she holds a branching
+      and leaf-bearing rod, (the syllogism); in her left, a scorpion with double
+      sting, (the dilemma)&mdash;more generally, the powers of rational
+      construction and dissolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath her, Aristotle,&mdash;intense keenness of search in his
+      half-closed eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Medallion above, (less expressive than usual) a man writing, with his head
+      stooped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The whole under Isaiah, in the line of Prophets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;The only parts of this figure which have
+      suffered seriously in repainting are the leaves of the rod, and the
+      scorpion. I have no idea, as I said above, what the background once was;
+      it is now a mere mess of scrabbled grey, carried over the vestiges, still
+      with care much redeemable, of the richly ornamental extremity of the rod,
+      which was a cluster of green leaves on a black ground. But the scorpion is
+      indecipherably injured, most of it confused repainting, mixed with the
+      white of the dress, the double sting emphatic enough still, but not on the
+      first lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Aristotle is very genuine throughout, except his hat, and I think that
+      must be pretty nearly on the old lines, through I cannot trace them. They
+      are good lines, new or old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IV. MUSIC. After you have learned to reason, young people, of course you
+      will be very grave, if not dull, you think. No, says Simon Memmi. By no
+      means anything of the kind. After learning to reason, you will learn to
+      sing; for you will want to. There is so much reason for singing in the
+      sweet world, when one thinks rightly of it. None for grumbling, provided
+      always you <i>have</i> entered in at the strait gate. You will sing all
+      along the road then, in a little while, in a manner pleasant for other
+      people to hear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This figure has been one of the loveliest in the series, an extreme
+      refinement and tender severity being aimed at throughout. She is crowned,
+      not with laurel, but with small leaves,&mdash;I am not sure what they are,
+      being too much injured: the face thin, abstracted, wistful; the lips not
+      far open in their low singing; the hair rippling softly on the shoulders.
+      She plays on a small organ, richly ornamented with Gothic tracery, the
+      down slope of it set with crockets like those of Santa Maria del Fiore.
+      Simon Memmi means that <i>all</i> music must be "sacred." Not that you are
+      never to sing anything but hymns, but that whatever is rightly called
+      music, or work of the Muses, is divine in help and healing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The actions of both hands are singularly sweet. The right is one of the
+      loveliest things I ever saw done in painting. She is keeping down one note
+      only, with her third finger, seen under the raised fourth: the thumb, just
+      passing under; all the curves of the fingers exquisite, and the pale light
+      and shade of the rosy flesh relieved against the ivory white and brown of
+      the notes. Only the thumb and end of the forefinger are seen of the left
+      hand, but they indicate enough its light pressure on the bellows.
+      Fortunately, all these portions of the fresco are absolutely intact.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Underneath, Tubal-Cain. Not Jubal, as you would expect. Jubal is the
+      inventor of musical instruments. Tubal-Cain, thought the old Florentines,
+      invented harmony. They, the best smiths in the world, knew the differences
+      in tones of hammer strokes on anvil. Curiously enough, the only piece of
+      true part-singing, done beautifully and joyfully, which I have heard this
+      year in Italy, (being south of Alps exactly six months, and ranging from
+      Genoa to Palermo) was out of a busy smithy at Perugia. Of bestial howling,
+      and entirely frantic vomiting up of hopelessly damned souls through their
+      still carnal throats, I have heard more than, please God, I will ever
+      endure the hearing of again in one of His summers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You think Tubal-Cain very ugly? Yes. Much like a shaggy baboon: not
+      accidentally, but with most scientific understanding of baboon character.
+      Men must have looked like that, before they had invented harmony, or felt
+      that one note differed from another, says, and knows Simon Memmi.
+      Darwinism, like all widely popular and widely mischievous fallacies, has
+      many a curious gleam and grain of truth in its tissue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under Moses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Medallion, a youth drinking. Otherwise, you might have thought only church
+      music meant, and not feast music also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;The Tubal-Cain, one of the most entirely
+      pure and precious remnants of the old painting, nothing lost: nothing but
+      the redder ends of his beard retouched. Green dress of Music, in the body
+      and over limbs entirely repainted: it was once beautifully embroidered;
+      sleeves, partly genuine, hands perfect, face and hair nearly so. Leaf
+      crown faded and broken away, but not retouched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      V. ASTRONOMY. Properly Astro-logy, as (Theology) the knowledge of so much
+      of the stars as we can know wisely; not the attempt to define their laws
+      for them. Not that it is unbecoming of us to find out, if we can, that
+      they move in ellipses, and so on; but it is no business of ours. What
+      effects their rising and setting have on man, and beast, and leaf; what
+      their times and changes are, seen and felt in this world, it is our
+      business to know, passing our nights, if wakefully, by that divine
+      candlelight, and no other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She wears a dark purple robe; holds in her left hand the hollow globe with
+      golden zodiac and meridians: lifts her right hand in noble awe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the
+      stars, which Thou hast ordained."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crowned with gold, her dark hair in elliptic waves, bound with glittering
+      chains of pearl. Her eyes dark, lifted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath her, Zoroaster,[Footnote: Atlas! according to poor Vasari, and
+      sundry modern guides. I find Vasari's mistakes usually of this <i>brightly</i>
+      blundering kind. In matters needing research, after a while, I find <i>he</i>
+      is right, usually.] entirely noble and beautiful, the delicate Persian
+      head made softer still by the elaborately wreathed silken hair, twisted
+      into the pointed beard, and into tapering plaits, falling on his
+      shoulders. The head entirely thrown back, he looks up with no distortion
+      of the delicately arched brow: writing, as he gazes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the association of the religion of the Magi with their own in the mind
+      of the Florentines of this time, see "Before the Soldan."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dress must always have been white, because of its beautiful opposition
+      to the purple above and that of Tubal-Cain beside it. But it has been too
+      much repainted to be trusted anywhere, nothing left but a fold or two in
+      the sleeves. The cast of it from the knees down is entirely beautiful, and
+      I suppose on the old lines; but the restorer could throw a fold well when
+      he chose. The warm light which relieves the purple of Zoroaster above, is
+      laid in by him. I don't know if I should have liked it better, flat, as it
+      was, against the dark purple; it seems to me quite beautiful now. The full
+      red flush on the face of the Astronomy is the restorer's doing also. She
+      was much paler, if not quite pale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under St. Luke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Medallion, a stern man, with sickle and spade. For the flowers, and for
+      us, when stars have risen and set such and such times;&mdash;remember.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;Left hand globe, most of the important
+      folds of the purple dress, eyes, mouth, hair in great part, and crown,
+      genuine. Golden tracery on border of dress lost; extremity of falling
+      folds from left sleeve altered and confused, but the confusion prettily
+      got out of. Right hand and much of face and body of dress repainted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Zoroaster's head quite pure. Dress repainted, but carefully, leaving the
+      hair untouched. Right hand and pen, now a common feathered quill, entirely
+      repainted, but dexterously and with feeling. The hand was once slightly
+      different in position, and held, most probably, a reed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VI. GEOMETRY. You have now learned, young ladies and gentlemen, to read,
+      to speak, to think, to sing, and to see. You are getting old, and will
+      have soon to think of being married; you must learn to build your house,
+      therefore. Here is your carpenter's square for you, and you may safely and
+      wisely contemplate the ground a little, and the measures and laws relating
+      to that, seeing you have got to abide upon it:&mdash;and that you have
+      properly looked at the stars; not before then, lest, had you studied the
+      ground first, you might perchance never have raised your heads from it.
+      This is properly the science of all laws of practical labour, issuing in
+      beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She looks down, a little puzzled, greatly interested, holding her
+      carpenter's square in her left hand, not wanting that but for practical
+      work; following a diagram with her right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her beauty, altogether soft and in curves, I commend to your notice, as
+      the exact opposite of what a vulgar designer would have imagined for her.
+      Note the wreath of hair at the back of her head, which though fastened by
+      a <i>spiral</i> fillet, escapes at last, and flies off loose in a sweeping
+      curve. Contemplative Theology is the only other of the sciences who has
+      such wavy hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath her, Euclid, in white turban. Very fine and original work
+      throughout; but nothing of special interest in him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under St. Matthew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Medallion, a soldier with a straight sword (best for science of defence),
+      octagon shield, helmet like the beehive of Canton Vaud. As the secondary
+      use of music in feasting, so the secondary use of geometry in war&mdash;her
+      noble art being all in sweetest peace&mdash;is shown in the medallion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;It is more than fortunate that in nearly
+      every figure, the original outline of the hair is safe. Geometry's has
+      scarcely been retouched at all, except at the ends, once in single knots,
+      now in confused double ones. The hands, girdle, most of her dress, and her
+      black carpenter's square are original. Face and breast repainted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VII. ARITHMETIC. Having built your house, young people, and understanding
+      the light of heaven, and the measures of earth, you may marry&mdash;and
+      can't do better. And here is now your conclusive science, which you will
+      have to apply, all your days, to all your affairs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Science of Number. Infinite in solemnity of use in Italy at this time;
+      including, of course, whatever was known of the higher abstract
+      mathematics and mysteries of numbers, but reverenced especially in its
+      vital necessity to the prosperity of families and kingdoms, and first
+      fully so understood here in commercial Florence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her hand lifted, with two fingers bent, two straight, solemnly enforcing
+      on your attention her primal law&mdash;Two and two are&mdash;four, you
+      observe,&mdash;not five, as those accursed usurers think.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under her, Pythagoras.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Above, medallion of king, with sceptre and globe, counting money. Have you
+      ever chanced to read carefully Carlyle's account of the foundation of the
+      existing Prussian empire, in economy?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You can, at all events, consider with yourself a little, what empire this
+      queen of the terrestrial sciences must hold over the rest, if they are to
+      be put to good use; or what depth and breadth of application there is in
+      the brief parables of the counted cost of Power, and number of Armies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To give a very minor, but characteristic, instance. I have always felt
+      that with my intense love of the Alps, I ought to have been able to make a
+      drawing of Chamouni, or the vale of Cluse, which should give people more
+      pleasure than a photograph; but I always wanted to do it as I saw it, and
+      engrave pine for pine, and crag for crag, like Albert Dürer. I broke my
+      strength down for many a year, always tiring of my work, or finding the
+      leaves drop off, or the snow come on, before I had well begun what I meant
+      to do. If I had only <i>counted</i> my pines first, and calculated the
+      number of hours necessary to do them in the manner of Dürer, I should have
+      saved the available drawing time of some five years, spent in vain effort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Turner counted his pines, and did all that could be done for them, and
+      rested content with that.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So in all the affairs of life, the arithmetical part of the business is
+      the dominant one. How many and how much have we? How many and how much do
+      we want? How constantly does noble Arithmetic of the finite lose itself in
+      base Avarice of the Infinite, and in blind imagination of it! In counting
+      of minutes, is our arithmetic ever solicitous enough? In counting our
+      days, is she ever severe enough? How we shrink from putting, in their
+      decades, the diminished store of them! And if we ever pray the solemn
+      prayer that we may be taught to number them, do we even try to do it after
+      praying?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;The Pythagoras almost entirely genuine. The
+      upper figures, from this inclusive to the outer wall, I have not been able
+      to examine thoroughly, my scaffolding not extending beyond the Geometry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here then we have the sum of sciences,&mdash;seven, according to the
+      Florentine mind&mdash;necessary to the secular education of man and woman.
+      Of these the modern average respectable English gentleman and gentlewoman
+      know usually only a little of the last, and entirely hate the prudent
+      applications of that: being unacquainted, except as they chance here and
+      there to pick up a broken piece of information, with either grammar,
+      rhetoric, music, [Footnote: Being able to play the piano and admire
+      Mendelssohn is not knowing music.] astronomy, or geometry; and are not
+      only unacquainted with logic, or the use of reason, themselves, but
+      instinctively antagonistic to its use by anybody else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are now to read the series of the Divine sciences, beginning at the
+      opposite side, next the window.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      VIII. CIVIL LAW. Civil, or 'of citizens,' not only as distinguished from
+      Ecclesiastical, but from Local law. She is the universal Justice of the
+      peaceful relations of men throughout the world, therefore holds the globe,
+      with its <i>three</i> quarters, white, as being justly governed, in her
+      left hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She is also the law of eternal equity, not erring statute; therefore holds
+      her sword <i>level</i> across her breast. She is the foundation of all
+      other divine science. To know anything whatever about God, you must begin
+      by being Just.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Dressed in red, which in these frescoes is always a sign of power, or
+      zeal; but her face very calm, gentle and beautiful. Her hair bound close,
+      and crowned by the royal circlet of gold, with pure thirteenth century
+      strawberry leaf ornament.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under her, the Emperor Justinian, in blue, with conical mitre of white and
+      gold; the face in profile, very beautiful. The imperial staff in his right
+      hand, the Institutes in his left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Medallion, a figure, apparently in distress, appealing for justice.
+      (Trajan's suppliant widow?)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;The three divisions of the globe in her
+      hand were originally inscribed ASIA, AFRICA, EUROPE. The restorer has
+      ingeniously changed AF into AME&mdash;RICA. Faces, both of the science and
+      emperor, little retouched, nor any of the rest altered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      IX. CHRISTIAN LAW. After the justice which rules men, comes that which
+      rules the Church of Christ. The distinction is not between secular law,
+      and ecclesiastical authority, but between the equity of humanity, and the
+      law of Christian discipline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In full, straight-falling, golden robe, with white mantle over it; a
+      church in her left hand; her right raised, with the forefinger lifted;
+      (indicating heavenly source of all Christian law? or warning?)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Head-dress, a white veil floating into folds in the air. You will find
+      nothing in these frescoes without significance; and as the escaping hair
+      of Geometry indicates the infinite conditions of lines of the higher
+      orders, so the floating veil here indicates that the higher relations of
+      Christian justice are indefinable. So her golden mantle indicates that it
+      is a glorious and excellent justice beyond that which unchristian men
+      conceive; while the severely falling lines of the folds, which form a kind
+      of gabled niche for the head of the Pope beneath, correspond with the
+      strictness of true Church discipline firmer as well as more luminous
+      statute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath, Pope Clement V., in red, lifting his hand, not in the position of
+      benediction, but, I suppose, of injunction,&mdash;only the forefinger
+      straight, the second a little bent, the two last quite. Note the strict
+      level of the book; and the vertical directness of the key.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The medallion puzzles me. It looks like a figure counting money.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;Fairly well preserved; but the face of the
+      science retouched: the grotesquely false perspective of the Pope's tiara,
+      one of the most curiously naïve examples of the entirely ignorant feeling
+      after merely scientific truth of form which still characterized Italian
+      art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Type of church interesting in its extreme simplicity; no idea of transept,
+      campanile, or dome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      X. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. The beginning of the knowledge of God being Human
+      Justice, and its elements defined by Christian Law, the application of the
+      law so defined follows, first with respect to man, then with respect to
+      God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's&mdash;and to God the
+      things that are God's."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have therefore now two sciences, one of our duty&mdash;to men, the
+      other to their Maker.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the first: duty to men. She holds a circular medallion,
+      representing Christ preaching on the Mount, and points with her right hand
+      to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sermon on the Mount is perfectly expressed by the craggy pinnacle in
+      front of Christ, and the high dark horizon. There is curious evidence
+      throughout all these frescos of Simon Memmi's having read the Gospels with
+      a quite clear understanding of their innermost meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have called this science Practical Theology:&mdash;the instructive
+      knowledge, that is to say, of what God would have us do, personally, in
+      any given human relation: and the speaking His Gospel therefore by act.
+      "Let your light so shine before men."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She wears a green dress, like Music her hair in the Arabian arch, with
+      jewelled diadem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under David. Medallion, Almsgiving. Beneath her, Peter Lombard,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;It is curious that while the instinct of
+      perspective was not strong enough to enable any painter at this time to
+      foreshorten a foot, it yet suggested to them the expression of elevation
+      by raising the horizon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have not examined the retouching. The hair and diadem at least are
+      genuine, the face is dignified and compassionate, and much on the old
+      lines.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XI. DEVOTIONAL THEOLOGY.&mdash;Giving glory to God, or, more accurately,
+      whatever feelings He desires us to have towards Him, whether of affection
+      or awe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is the science or method of <i>devotion</i> for Christians
+      universally, just as the Practical Theology is their science or method of
+      <i>action</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In blue and red: a narrow black rod still traceable in the left hand; I am
+      not sure of its meaning. ("Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me?") The
+      other hand open in admiration, like Astronomy's; but Devotion's is held at
+      her breast. Her head very characteristic of Memmi, with upturned eyes, and
+      Arab arch in hair. Under her, Dionysius the Areopagite&mdash;mending his
+      pen! But I am doubtful of Lord Lindsay's identification of this figure,
+      and the action is curiously common and meaningless. It may have meant that
+      meditative theology is essentially a writer, not a preacher.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The medallion, on the other hand, is as ingenious. A mother lifting her
+      hands in delight at her child's beginning to take notice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under St. Paul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;Both figures very genuine, the lower one
+      almost entirely so. The painting of the red book is quite exemplary in
+      fresco style.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XII. DOGMATIC THEOLOGY.&mdash;After action and worship, thought becoming
+      too wide and difficult, the need of dogma becomes felt; the assertion,
+      that is, within limited range, of the things that are to be believed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since whatever pride and folly pollute Christian scholarship naturally
+      delight in dogma, the science itself cannot but be in a kind of disgrace
+      among sensible men: nevertheless it would be difficult to overvalue the
+      peace and security which have been given to humble persons by forms of
+      creed; and it is evident that either there is no such thing as theology,
+      or some of its knowledge must be thus, if not expressible, at least
+      reducible within certain limits of expression, so as to be protected from
+      misinterpretation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In red,&mdash;again the sign of power,&mdash;crowned with a black (once
+      golden?) triple crown, emblematic of the Trinity. The left hand holding a
+      scoop for winnowing corn; the other points upwards. "Prove all things&mdash;hold
+      fast that which is good, or of God."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath her, Boethius. Under St. Mark. Medallion, female figure, laying
+      hands on breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;The Boethius entirely genuine, and the
+      painting of his black book, as of the red one beside it, again worth
+      notice, showing how pleasant and interesting the commonest things become,
+      when well painted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have not examined the upper figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XIII. MYSTIC THEOLOGY. [Footnote: Blunderingly in the guide-books called
+      'Faith!'] Monastic science, above dogma, and attaining to new revelation
+      by reaching higher spiritual states.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In white robes, her left hand gloved (I don't know why)&mdash;holding
+      chalice. She wears a nun's veil fastened under her chin, her hair fastened
+      close, like Grammar's, showing her necessary monastic life; all states of
+      mystic spiritual life involving retreat from much that is allowable in the
+      material and practical world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is no possibility of denying this fact, infinite as the evils are
+      which have arisen from misuse of it. They have been chiefly induced by
+      persons who falsely pretended to lead monastic life, and led it without
+      having natural faculty for it. But many more lamentable errors have arisen
+      from the pride of really noble persons, who have thought it would be a
+      more pleasing thing to God to be a sibyl or a witch, than a useful
+      housewife. Pride is always somewhat involved even in the true effort: the
+      scarlet head-dress in the form of a horn on the forehead in the fresco
+      indicates this, both here, and in the Contemplative Theology.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under St. John.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Medallion unintelligible, to me. A woman laying hands on the shoulders of
+      two small figures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Technical Points</i>.&mdash;More of the minute folds of the white dress
+      left than in any other of the repainted draperies. It is curious that
+      minute division has always in drapery, more or less, been understood as an
+      expression of spiritual life, from the delicate folds of Athena's peplus
+      down to the rippled edges of modern priests' white robes; Titian's breadth
+      of fold, on the other hand, meaning for the most part bodily power. The
+      relation of the two modes of composition was lost by Michael Angelo, who
+      thought to express spirit by making flesh colossal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the rest, the figure is not of any interest, Memmi's own mind being
+      intellectual rather than mystic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      XIV. POLEMIC THEOLOGY.[Footnote: Blunderingly called 'Charity' in the
+      guide-books.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Who goes forth, conquering and to conquer?" "For we war, not with flesh
+      and blood," etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In red, as sign of power, but not in armour, because she is herself
+      invulnerable. A close red cap, with cross for crest, instead of helmet.
+      Bow in left hand; long arrow in right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She partly means Aggressive Logic: compare the set of her shoulders and
+      arms with Logic's.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She is placed the last of the Divine sciences, not as their culminating
+      power, but as the last which can be rightly learned. You must know all the
+      others, before you go out to battle. Whereas the general principle of
+      modern Christendom is to go out to battle without knowing <i>any one</i>
+      of the others; one of the reasons for this error, the prince of errors,
+      being the vulgar notion that truth may be ascertained by debate! Truth is
+      never learned, in any department of industry, by arguing, but by working,
+      and observing. And when you have got good hold of one truth, for certain,
+      two others will grow out of it, in a beautifully dicotyledonous fashion,
+      (which, as before noticed, is the meaning of the branch in Logic's right
+      hand). Then, when you have got so much true knowledge as is worth fighting
+      for, you are bound to fight for it. But not to debate about it, any more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is, however, one further reason for Polemic Theology being put
+      beside Mystic. It is only in some approach to mystic science that any man
+      becomes aware of what St. Paul means by "spiritual wickedness in heavenly
+      [Footnote: With cowardly intentional fallacy, translated 'high' in the
+      English Bible.] places;" or, in any true sense, knows the enemies of God
+      and of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Beneath St. Augustine. Showing you the proper method of controversy;&mdash;perfectly
+      firm; perfectly gentle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You are to distinguish, of course, controversy from rebuke. The assertion
+      of truth is to be always gentle: the chastisement of wilful falsehood may
+      be&mdash;very much the contrary indeed. Christ's sermon on the Mount is
+      full of polemic theology, yet perfectly gentle:&mdash;"Ye have heard that
+      it hath been said&mdash;but <i>I</i> say unto you";&mdash;"And if ye
+      salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?" and the like. But
+      His "Ye fools and blind, for whether is greater," is not merely the
+      exposure of error, but rebuke of the avarice which made that error
+      possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under the throne of St. Thomas; and next to Arithmetic, of the terrestrial
+      sciences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Medallion, a soldier, but not interesting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Technical Points.&mdash;Very genuine and beautiful throughout. Note the
+      use of St. Augustine's red bands, to connect him with the full red of the
+      upper figures; and compare the niche formed by the dress of Canon Law,
+      above the Pope, for different artistic methods of attaining the same
+      object,&mdash;unity of composition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But lunch time is near, my friends, and you have that shopping to do, you
+      know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE SIXTH MORNING.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      THE SHEPHERD'S TOWER.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      I am obliged to interrupt my account of the Spanish chapel by the
+      following notes on the sculptures of Giotto's Campanile: first because I
+      find that inaccurate accounts of those sculptures are in course of
+      publication; and chiefly because I cannot finish my work in the Spanish
+      chapel until one of my good Oxford helpers, Mr. Caird, has completed some
+      investigations he has undertaken for me upon the history connected with
+      it. I had written my own analysis of the fourth side, believing that in
+      every scene of it the figure of St. Dominic was repeated. Mr. Caird first
+      suggested, and has shown me already good grounds for his belief,[Footnote:
+      He wrote thus to me on 11th November last: "The three preachers are
+      certainly different. The first is Dominic; the second, Peter Martyr, whom
+      I have identified from his martyrdom on the other wall; and the third,
+      Aquinas."] that the preaching monks represented are in each scene intended
+      for a different person. I am informed also of several careless mistakes
+      which have got into my description of the fresco of the Sciences; and
+      finally, another of my young helpers, Mr. Charles F. Murray,&mdash;one,
+      however, whose help is given much in the form of antagonism,&mdash;informs
+      me of various critical discoveries lately made, both by himself, and by
+      industrious Germans, of points respecting the authenticity of this and
+      that, which will require notice from me: more especially he tells me of
+      certification that the picture in the Uffizii, of which I accepted the
+      ordinary attribution to Giotto, is by Lorenzo Monaco,&mdash;which indeed
+      may well be, without in the least diminishing the use to you of what I
+      have written of its predella, and without in the least, if you think
+      rightly of the matter, diminishing your confidence in what I tell you of
+      Giotto generally. There is one kind of knowledge of pictures which is the
+      artist's, and another which is the antiquary's and the picture-dealer's;
+      the latter especially acute, and founded on very secure and wide knowledge
+      of canvas, pigment, and tricks of touch, without, necessarily, involving
+      any knowledge whatever of the qualities of art itself. There are few
+      practised dealers in the great cities of Europe whose opinion would not be
+      more trustworthy than mine, (if you could <i>get</i> it, mind you,) on
+      points of actual authenticity. But they could only tell you whether the
+      picture was by such and such a master, and not at all what either the
+      master or his work were good for. Thus, I have, before now, taken drawings
+      by Varley and by Cousins for early studies by Turner, and have been
+      convinced by the dealers that they knew better than I, as far as regarded
+      the authenticity of those drawings; but the dealers don't know Turner, or
+      the worth of him, so well as I, for all that. So also, you may find me
+      again and again mistaken among the much more confused work of the early
+      Giottesque schools, as to the authenticity of this work or the other; but
+      you will find (and I say it with far more sorrow than pride) that I am
+      simply the only person who can at present tell you the real worth of <i>any</i>;
+      you will find that whenever I tell you to look at a picture, it is worth
+      your pains; and whenever I tell you the character of a painter, that it <i>is</i>
+      his character, discerned by me faithfully in spite of all confusion of
+      work falsely attributed to him in which similar character may exist. Thus,
+      when I mistook Cousins for Turner, I was looking at a piece of subtlety in
+      the sky of which the dealer had no consciousness whatever, which was
+      essentially Turneresque, but which another man might sometimes equal;
+      whereas the dealer might be only looking at the quality of Whatman's
+      paper, which Cousins used, and Turner did not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not, in the meanwhile, to leave you quite guideless as to the main subject
+      of the fourth fresco in the Spanish chapel,&mdash;the Pilgrim's Progress
+      of Florence,&mdash;here is a brief map of it:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the right, in lowest angle, St. Dominic preaches to the group of
+      Infidels; in the next group towards the left, he (or some one very like
+      him) preaches to the Heretics: the Heretics proving obstinate, he sets his
+      dogs at them, as at the fatallest of wolves, who being driven away, the
+      rescued lambs are gathered at the feet of the Pope. I have copied the head
+      of the very pious, but slightly weak-minded, little lamb in the centre, to
+      compare with my rough Cumberland ones, who have had no such grave
+      experiences. The whole group, with the Pope above, (the niche of the Duomo
+      joining with and enriching the decorative power of his mitre,) is a quite
+      delicious piece of design.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Church being thus pacified, is seen in worldly honour under the powers
+      of the Spiritual and Temporal Rulers. The Pope, with Cardinal and Bishop
+      descending in order on his right; the Emperor, with King and Baron
+      descending in order on his left; the ecclesiastical body of the whole
+      Church on the right side, and the laity,&mdash;chiefly its poets and
+      artists, on the left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, the redeemed Church nevertheless giving itself up to the vanities
+      and temptations of the world, its forgetful saints are seen feasting, with
+      their children dancing before them, (the Seven Mortal Sins, say some
+      commentators). But the wise-hearted of them confess their sins to another
+      ghost of St. Dominic; and confessed, becoming as little children, enter
+      hand in hand the gate of the Eternal Paradise, crowned with flowers by the
+      waiting angels, and admitted by St. Peter among the serenely joyful crowd
+      of all the saints, above whom the white Madonna stands reverently before
+      the throne. There is, so far as I know, throughout all the schools of
+      Christian art, no other so perfect statement of the noble policy and
+      religion of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I had intended to give the best account of it in my power; but, when at
+      Florence, lost all time for writing that I might copy the group of the
+      Pope and Emperor for the schools of Oxford; and the work since done by Mr.
+      Caird has informed me of so much, and given me, in some of its
+      suggestions, so much to think of, that I believe it will be best and most
+      just to print at once his account of the fresco as a supplement to these
+      essays of mine, merely indicating any points on which I have objections to
+      raise, and so leave matters till Fors lets me see Florence once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps she may, in kindness forbid my ever seeing it more, the wreck of
+      it being now too ghastly and heartbreaking to any human soul that
+      remembers the days of old. Forty years ago, there was assuredly no spot of
+      ground, out of Palestine, in all the round world, on which, if you knew,
+      even but a little, the true course of that world's history, you saw with
+      so much joyful reverence the dawn of morning, as at the foot of the Tower
+      of Giotto. For there the traditions of faith and hope, of both the Gentile
+      and Jewish races, met for their beautiful labour: the Baptistery of
+      Florence is the last building raised on the earth by the descendants of
+      the workmen taught by Dædalus: and the Tower of Giotto is the loveliest of
+      those raised on earth under the inspiration of the men who lifted up the
+      tabernacle in the wilderness. Of living Greek work there is none after the
+      Florentine Baptistery; of living Christian work, none so perfect as the
+      Tower of Giotto; and, under the gleam and shadow of their marbles, the
+      morning light was haunted by the ghosts of the Father of Natural Science,
+      Galileo; of Sacred Art, Angelico, and the Master of Sacred Song. Which
+      spot of ground the modern Florentine has made his principal hackney-coach
+      stand and omnibus station. The hackney coaches, with their more or less
+      farmyard-like litter of occasional hay, and smell of variously mixed
+      horse-manure, are yet in more permissible harmony with the place than the
+      ordinary populace of a fashionable promenade would be, with its cigars,
+      spitting, and harlot-planned fineries: but the omnibus place of call being
+      in front of the door of the tower, renders it impossible to stand for a
+      moment near it, to look at the sculptures either of the eastern or
+      southern side; while the north side is enclosed with an iron railing, and
+      usually encumbered with lumber as well: not a soul in Florence ever caring
+      now for sight of any piece of its old artists' work; and the mass of
+      strangers being on the whole intent on nothing but getting the omnibus to
+      go by steam; and so seeing the cathedral in one swift circuit, by glimpses
+      between the puffs of it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The front of Notre Dame of Paris was similarly turned into a coach-office
+      when I last saw it&mdash;1872. [Footnote: See Fors Clavigera in that
+      year.] Within fifty yards of me as I write, the Oratory of the Holy Ghost
+      is used for a tobacco-store, and in fine, over all Europe, mere Caliban
+      bestiality and Satyric ravage staggering, drunk and desperate, into every
+      once enchanted cell where the prosperity of kingdoms ruled and the
+      miraculous-ness of beauty was shrined in peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Deluge of profanity, drowning dome and tower in Stygian pool of vilest
+      thought,&mdash;nothing now left sacred, in the places where once&mdash;nothing
+      was profane.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For <i>that</i> is indeed the teaching, if you could receive it, of the
+      Tower of Giotto; as of all Christian art in its day. Next to declaration
+      of the facts of the Gospel, its purpose, (often in actual work the
+      eagerest,) was to show the <i>power</i> of the Gospel. History of Christ
+      in due place; yes, history of all He did, and how He died: but then, and
+      often, as I say, with more animated imagination, the showing of His risen
+      presence in granting the harvests and guiding the labour of the year. All
+      sun and rain, and length or decline of days received from His hand; all
+      joy, and grief, and strength, or cessation of labour, indulged or endured,
+      as in His sight and to His glory. And the familiar employments of the
+      seasons, the homely toils of the peasant, the lowliest skills of the
+      craftsman, are signed always on the stones of the Church, as the first and
+      truest condition of sacrifice and offering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of these representations of human art under heavenly guidance, the series
+      of bas-reliefs which stud the base of this tower of Giotto's must be held
+      certainly the chief in Europe. [Footnote: For account of the series on the
+      main archivolt of St. Mark's, see my sketch of the schools of Venetian
+      sculpture in third forthcoming number of 'St. Mark's Rest.'] At first you
+      may be surprised at the smallness of their scale in proportion to their
+      masonry; but this smallness of scale enabled the master workmen of the
+      tower to execute them with their own hands; and for the rest, in the very
+      finest architecture, the decoration of most precious kind is usually
+      thought of as a jewel, and set with space round it,&mdash;as the jewels of
+      a crown, or the clasp of a girdle. It is in general not possible for a
+      great workman to carve, himself, a greatly conspicuous series of ornament;
+      nay, even his energy fails him in design, when the bas-relief extends
+      itself into incrustation, or involves the treatment of great masses of
+      stone. If his own does not, the spectator's will. It would be the work of
+      a long summer's day to examine the over-loaded sculptures of the Certosa
+      of Pavia; and yet in the tired last hour, you would be empty-hearted. Read
+      but these inlaid jewels of Giotto's once with patient following; and your
+      hour's study will give you strength for all your life. So far as you can,
+      examine them of course on the spot; but to know them thoroughly you must
+      have their photographs: the subdued colour of the old marble fortunately
+      keeps the lights subdued, so that the photograph may be made more tender
+      in the shadows than is usual in its renderings of sculpture, and there are
+      few pieces of art which may now be so well known as these, in quiet homes
+      far away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We begin on the western side. There are seven sculptures on the western,
+      southern, and northern sides: six on the eastern; counting the Lamb over
+      the entrance door of the tower, which divides the complete series into two
+      groups of eighteen and eight. Itself, between them, being the introduction
+      to the following eight, you must count it as the first of the terminal
+      group; you then have the whole twenty-seven sculptures divided into
+      eighteen and nine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus lettering the groups on each side for West, South, East, and North,
+      we have:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+                         W.  S.  E.  N.
+                         7 + 7 + 6 + 7 = 27; or,
+
+                         W.  S.  E.
+                         7 + 7 + 4     = 18; and,
+
+                                 E.  N.
+                                 2 + 7 = 9
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      There is a very special reason for this division by nines but, for
+      convenience' sake, I shall number the whole from 1 to 27,
+      straightforwardly. And if you will have patience with me, I should like to
+      go round the tower once and again; first observing the general meaning and
+      connection of the subjects and then going back to examine the technical
+      points in each, and such minor specialties as it may be well, at the first
+      time, to pass over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. The series begins, then, on the west side, with the Creation of Man. It
+      is not the beginning of the story of Genesis; but the simple assertion
+      that God made us, and breathed, and still breathes, into our nostrils the
+      breath of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This, Giotto tells you to believe as the beginning of all knowledge and
+      all power. [Footnote: So also the Master-builder of the Ducal Palace of
+      Venice. See Fors Clavigera for June of this year.] This he tells you to
+      believe, as a thing which he himself knows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He will tell you nothing but what he <i>does</i> know.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. Therefore, though Giovanna Pisano and his fellow sculptors had given,
+      literally, the taking of the rib out of Adam's side, Giotto merely gives
+      the mythic expression of the truth he knows,&mdash;"they two shall be one
+      flesh."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. And though all the theologians and poets of his time would have
+      expected, if not demanded, that his next assertion, after that of the
+      Creation of Man, should be of the Fall of Man, he asserts nothing of the
+      kind. He knows nothing of what man was. What he is, he knows best of
+      living men at that hour, and proceeds to say. The next sculpture is of Eve
+      spinning and Adam hewing the ground into clods. Not <i>digging</i>: you
+      cannot, usually, dig but in ground already dug. The native earth you must
+      hew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They are not clothed in skins. What would have been the use of Eve
+      spinning if she could not weave? They wear, each, one simple piece of
+      drapery, Adam's knotted behind him, Eve's fastened around her neck with a
+      rude brooch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Above them are an oak and an apple-tree. Into the apple-tree a little bear
+      is trying to climb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meaning of which entire myth is, as I read it, that men and women must
+      both eat their bread with toil. That the first duty of man is to feed his
+      family, and the first duty of the woman to clothe it. That the trees of
+      the field are given us for strength and for delight, and that the wild
+      beasts of the field must have their share with us. [Footnote: The oak and
+      apple boughs are placed, with the same meaning, by Sandro Botticelli, in
+      the lap of Zipporah. The figure of the bear is again represented by Jacopo
+      della Quercia, on the north door of the Cathedral of Florence. I am not
+      sure of its complete meaning.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. The fourth sculpture, forming the centre-piece of the series on the
+      west side, is nomad pastoral life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Jabal, the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle,
+      lifts the curtain of his tent to look out upon his flock. His dog watches
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. Jubal, the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That is to say, stringed and wind instruments;&mdash;the lyre and reed.
+      The first arts (with the Jew and Greek) of the shepherd David, and
+      shepherd Apollo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Giotto has given him the long level trumpet, afterwards adopted so grandly
+      in the sculptures of La Robbia and Donatello. It is, I think, intended to
+      be of wood, as now the long Swiss horn, and a long and shorter tube are
+      bound together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. Tubal Cain, the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Giotto represents him as sitting, <i>fully robed</i>, turning a wedge of
+      bronze on the anvil with extreme watchfulness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These last three sculptures, observe, represent the life of the race of
+      Cain; of those who are wanderers, and have no home. <i>Nomad</i> pastoral
+      life; Nomad artistic life, Wandering Willie; yonder organ man, whom you
+      want to send the policeman after, and the gipsy who is mending the old
+      schoolmistress's kettle on the grass, which the squire has wanted so long
+      to take into his park from the roadside.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. Then the last sculpture of the seven begins the story of the race of
+      Seth, and of home life. The father of it lying drunk under his trellised
+      vine; such the general image of civilized society, in the abstract, thinks
+      Giotto.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With several other meanings, universally known to the Catholic world of
+      that day,&mdash;too many to be spoken of here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The second side of the tower represents, after this introduction, the
+      sciences and arts of civilized or home life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. Astronomy. In nomad life you may serve yourself of the guidance of the
+      stars; but to know the laws of <i>their</i> nomadic life, your own must be
+      fixed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The astronomer, with his sextant revolving on a fixed pivot, looks up to
+      the vault of the heavens and beholds their zodiac; prescient of what else
+      with optic glass the Tuscan artist viewed, at evening, from the top of
+      Fésole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Above the dome of heaven, as yet unseen, are the Lord of the worlds and
+      His angels. To-day, the Dawn and the Daystar: to-morrow, the Daystar
+      arising in the heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9. Defensive architecture. The building of the watchtower. The beginning
+      of security in possession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      10. Pottery. The making of pot, cup, and platter. The first civilized
+      furniture; the means of heating liquid, and serving drink and meat with
+      decency and economy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      11. Riding. The subduing of animals to domestic service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      12. Weaving. The making of clothes with swiftness, and in precision of
+      structure, by help of the loom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      13. Law, revealed as directly from heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      14. Dædalus (not Icarus, but the father trying the wings). The conquest of
+      the element of air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the seventh subject of the first group introduced the arts of home
+      after those of the savage wanderer, this seventh of the second group
+      introduces the arts of the missionary, or civilized and gift-bringing
+      wanderer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      15. The Conquest of the Sea. The helmsman, and two rowers, rowing as
+      Venetians, face to bow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      16. The Conquest of the Earth. Hercules victor over Antæus. Beneficent
+      strength of civilization crushing the savageness of inhumanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      17. Agriculture. The oxen and plough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      18. Trade. The cart and horses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      19. And now the sculpture over the door of the tower. The Lamb of God,
+      expresses the Law of Sacrifice, and door of ascent to heaven. And then
+      follow the fraternal arts of the Christian world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      20. Geometry. Again the angle sculpture, introductory to the following
+      series. We shall see presently why this science must be the foundation of
+      the rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      21. Sculpture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      22. Painting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      23. Grammar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      24. Arithmetic. The laws of number, weight, and measures of capacity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      25 Music. The laws of number, weight (or force), and measure, applied to
+      sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      26. Logic. The laws of number and measure applied to thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      27. The Invention of Harmony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You see now&mdash;by taking first the great division of pre-Christian and
+      Christian arts, marked by the door of the Tower; and then the divisions
+      into four successive historical periods, marked by its angles&mdash;that
+      you have a perfect plan of human civilization. The first side is of the
+      nomad life, learning how to assert its supremacy over other wandering
+      creatures, herbs, and beasts. Then the second side is the fixed home life,
+      developing race and country; then the third side, the human intercourse
+      between stranger races; then the fourth side, the harmonious arts of all
+      who are gathered into the fold of Christ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now let us return to the first angle, and examine piece by piece with
+      care.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      1. <i>Creation of Man.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Scarcely disengaged from the clods of the earth, he opens his eyes to the
+      face of Christ. Like all the rest of the sculptures, it is less the
+      representation of a past fact than of a constant one. It is the continual
+      state of man, 'of the earth,' yet seeing God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Christ holds the book of His Law&mdash;the 'Law of life'&mdash;in His left
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trees of the garden above are,&mdash;central above Christ, palm
+      (immortal life); above Adam, oak (human life). Pear, and fig, and a
+      large-leaved ground fruit (what?) complete the myth of the Food of Life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As decorative sculpture, these trees are especially to be noticed, with
+      those in the two next subjects, and the Noah's vine as differing in
+      treatment from Giotto's foliage, of which perfect examples are seen in 16
+      and 17. Giotto's branches are set in close sheaf-like clusters; and every
+      mass disposed with extreme formality of radiation. The leaves of these
+      first, on the contrary, are arranged with careful concealment of their
+      ornamental system, so as to look inartificial. This is done so studiously
+      as to become, by excess, a little unnatural!&mdash;Nature herself is more
+      decorative and formal in grouping. But the occult design is very noble,
+      and every leaf modulated with loving, dignified, exactly right and
+      sufficient finish; not done to show skill, nor with mean forgetfulness of
+      main subject, but in tender completion and harmony with it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Look at the subdivisions of the palm leaves with your magnifying glass.
+      The others are less finished in this than in the next subject. Man himself
+      incomplete, the leaves that are created with him, for his life, must not
+      be so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (Are not his fingers yet short; growing?)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      2. <i>Creation of Woman.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Far, in its essential qualities, the transcendent sculpture of this
+      subject, Ghiberti's is only a dainty elaboration and beautification of it,
+      losing its solemnity and simplicity in a flutter of feminine grace. The
+      older sculptor thinks of the Uses of Womanhood, and of its dangers and
+      sins, before he thinks of its beauty; but, were the arm not lost, the
+      quiet naturalness of this head and breast of Eve, and the bending grace of
+      the submissive rendering of soul and body to perpetual guidance by the
+      hand of Christ&mdash;(<i>grasping</i> the arm, note, for full support)&mdash;would
+      be felt to be far beyond Ghiberti's in beauty, as in mythic truth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The line of her body joins with that of the serpent-ivy round the tree
+      trunk above her: a double myth&mdash;of her fall, and her support
+      afterwards by her husband's strength. "Thy desire shall be to thy
+      husband." The fruit of the tree&mdash;double-set filbert, telling
+      nevertheless the happy equality.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The leaves in this piece are finished with consummate poetical care and
+      precision. Above Adam, laurel (a virtuous woman is a crown to her
+      husband); the filbert for the two together; the fig, for fruitful
+      household joy (under thy vine and fig-tree [Footnote: Compare Fors
+      Clavigera, February, 1877.]&mdash;but vine properly the masculine joy);
+      and the fruit taken by Christ for type of all naturally growing food, in
+      his own hunger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Examine with lens the ribbing of these leaves, and the insertion on their
+      stem of the three laurel leaves on extreme right: and observe that in all
+      cases the sculptor works the moulding <i>with</i> his own part of the
+      design; look how he breaks variously deeper into it, beginning from the
+      foot of Christ, and going up to the left into full depth above the
+      shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      3. <i>Original labour.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Much poorer, and intentionally so. For the myth of the creation of
+      humanity, the sculptor uses his best strength, and shows supremely the
+      grace of womanhood; but in representing the first peasant state of life,
+      makes the grace of woman by no means her conspicuous quality. She even
+      walks awkwardly; some feebleness in foreshortening the foot also
+      embarrassing the sculptor. He knows its form perfectly&mdash;but its
+      perspective, not quite yet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trees stiff and stunted&mdash;they also needing culture. Their fruit
+      dropping at present only into beasts' mouths.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      4. <i>Jabal.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If you have looked long enough, and carefully enough, at the three
+      previous sculptures, you cannot but feel that the hand here is utterly
+      changed. The drapery sweeps in broader, softer, but less true folds; the
+      handling is far more delicate; exquisitely sensitive to gradation over
+      broad surfaces&mdash;scarcely using an incision of any depth but in
+      outline; studiously reserved in appliance of shadow, as a thing precious
+      and local&mdash;look at it above the puppy's head, and under the tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is assuredly painter's work, not mere sculptor's. I have no doubt
+      whatever it is by the own hand of the shepherd-boy of Fésole. Cimabue had
+      found him drawing, (more probably <i>scratching</i> with Etrurian point,)
+      one of his sheep upon a stone. These, on the central foundation-stone of
+      his tower he engraves, looking back on the fields of life: the time soon
+      near for him to draw the curtains of his tent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I know no dog like this in method of drawing, and in skill of giving the
+      living form without one touch of chisel for hair, or incision for eye,
+      except the dog barking at Poverty in the great fresco of Assisi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Take the lens and look at every piece of the work from corner to corner&mdash;note
+      especially as a thing which would only have been enjoyed by a painter, and
+      which all great painters do intensely enjoy&mdash;the <i>fringe</i> of the
+      tent, [Footnote: "I think Jabal's tent is made of leather; the relaxed
+      intervals between the tent-pegs show a curved ragged edge like leather
+      near the ground" (Mr. Caird). The edge of the opening is still more
+      characteristic, I think.] and precise insertion of its point in the angle
+      of the hexagon, prepared for by the archaic masonry indicated in the
+      oblique joint above; [Footnote: Prints of these photographs which do not
+      show the masonry all round the hexagon are quite valueless for study.]
+      architect and painter thinking at once, and <i>doing</i> as they thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I gave a lecture to the Eton boys a year or two ago, on little more than
+      the shepherd's dog, which is yet more wonderful in magnified scale of
+      photograph. The lecture is partly published&mdash;somewhere, but I can't
+      refer to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      5. <i>Jubal</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still Giotto's, though a little less delighted in; but with exquisite
+      introduction of the Gothic of his own tower. See the light surface
+      sculpture of a mosaic design in the horizontal moulding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Note also the painter's freehand working of the complex mouldings of the
+      table&mdash;also resolvedly oblong, not square; see central flower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      6. <i>Tubal Cain</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still Giotto's, and entirely exquisite; finished with no less care than
+      the shepherd, to mark the vitality of this art to humanity; the spade and
+      hoe&mdash;its heraldic bearing&mdash;hung on the hinged door. [Footnote:
+      Pointed out to me by Mr. Caird, who adds farther, "I saw a forge identical
+      with this one at Pelago the other day,&mdash;the anvil resting on a
+      tree-stump: the same fire, bellows, and implements; the door in two parts,
+      the upper part like a shutter, and used for the exposition of finished
+      work as a sign of the craft; and I saw upon it the same finished work of
+      the same shape as in the bas-relief&mdash;a spade and a hoe."] For
+      subtlety of execution, note the texture of wooden block under anvil, and
+      of its iron hoop.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The workman's face is the best sermon on the dignity of labour yet spoken
+      by thoughtful man. Liberal Parliaments and fraternal Reformers have
+      nothing essential to say more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      7. <i>Noah</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrea Pisano's again, more or less imitative of Giotto's work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8. <i>Astronomy</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have a new hand here altogether. The hair and drapery bad; the face
+      expressive, but blunt in cutting; the small upper heads, necessarily
+      little more than blocked out, on the small scale; but not suggestive of
+      grace in completion: the minor detail worked with great mechanical
+      precision, but little feeling; the lion's head, with leaves in its ears,
+      is quite ugly; and by comparing the work of the small cusped arch at the
+      bottom with Giotto's soft handling of the mouldings of his, in 5, you may
+      for ever know common mason's work from fine Gothic. The zodiacal signs are
+      quite hard and common in the method of bas-relief, but quaint enough in
+      design: Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, on the broad heavenly belt;
+      Taurus upside down, Gemini, and Cancer, on the small globe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I think the whole a restoration of the original panel, or else an inferior
+      workman's rendering of Giotto's design, which the next piece is, with less
+      question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      9. <i>Building</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The larger figure, I am disposed finally to think, represents civic power,
+      as in Lorenzetti's fresco at Siena. The extreme rudeness of the minor
+      figures may be guarantee of their originality; it is the smoothness of
+      mass and hard edge work that make me suspect the 8th for a restoration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      10. <i>Pottery</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very grand; with much painter's feeling, and fine mouldings again. The <i>tiled</i>
+      roof projecting in the shadow above, protects the first Ceramicus-home. I
+      think the women are meant to be carrying some kind of wicker or reed-bound
+      water-vessel. The Potter's servant explains to them the extreme advantages
+      of the new invention. I can't make any conjecture about the author of this
+      piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      11. <i>Riding</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again Andrea Pisano's, it seems to me. Compare the tossing up of the dress
+      behind the shoulders, in 3 and 2. The head is grand, having nearly an
+      Athenian profile: the loss of the horse's fore-leg prevents me from
+      rightly judging of the entire action. I must leave riders to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      12. <i>Weaving</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrea's again, and of extreme loveliness; the stooping face of the woman
+      at the loom is more like a Leonardo drawing than sculpture. The action of
+      throwing the large shuttle, and all the structure of the loom and its
+      threads, distinguishing rude or smooth surface, are quite wonderful. The
+      figure on the right shows the use and grace of finely woven tissue, under
+      and upper&mdash;that over the bosom so delicate that the line of
+      separation from the flesh of the neck is unseen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If you hide with your hand the carved masonry at the bottom, the
+      composition separates itself into two pieces, one disagreeably
+      rectangular. The still more severely rectangular masonry throws out by
+      contrast all that is curved and rounded in the loom, and unites the whole
+      composition; that is its aesthetic function; its historical one is to show
+      that weaving is queen's work, not peasant's; for this is palace masonry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      13. <i>The Giving of Law</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      More strictly, of <i>the</i> Book of God's Law: the only one which <i>can</i>
+      ultimately be obeyed. [Footnote: Mr. Caird convinced me of the real
+      meaning of this sculpture. I had taken it for the giving of a book,
+      writing further of it as follows:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All books, rightly so called, are Books of Law, and all Scripture is given
+      by inspiration of God. (What <i>we</i> now mostly call a book, the
+      infinite reduplication and vibratory echo of a lie, is not given but
+      belched up out of volcanic clay by the inspiration of the devil.) On the
+      Book-giver's right hand the students in cell, restrained by the lifted
+      right hand:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "Silent, you, till you know"; then, perhaps, you also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the left, the men of the world, kneeling, receive the gift.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Recommendable seal, this, for Mr. Mudie!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Caird says: "The book is written law, which is given by Justice to the
+      inferiors, that they may know the laws regulating their relations to their
+      superiors&mdash;who are also under the hand of law. The vassal is
+      protected by the accessibility of formularized law. The superior is
+      restrained by the right hand of power." ]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The authorship of this is very embarrassing to me. The face of the central
+      figure is most noble, and all the work good, but not delicate; it is like
+      original work of the master whose design No. 8 might be a restoration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      14 <i>Dædalus</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Andrea Pisano again; the head superb, founded on Greek models, feathers of
+      wings wrought with extreme care; but with no precision of arrangement or
+      feeling. How far intentional in awkwardness, I cannot say; but note the
+      good mechanism of the whole plan, with strong standing board for the feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      15. <i>Navigation</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An intensely puzzling one; coarse (perhaps unfinished) in work, and done
+      by a man who could not row; the plaited bands used for rowlocks being
+      pulled the wrong way. Right, had the rowers been rowing Englishwise: but
+      the water at the boat's head shows its motion forwards, the way the
+      oarsmen look. I cannot make out the action of the figure at the stern; it
+      ought to be steering with the stern oar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The water seems quite unfinished. Meant, I suppose, for surface and
+      section of sea, with slimy rock at the bottom; but all stupid and
+      inefficient.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      16. <i>Hercules and Antæus.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Earth power, half hidden by the earth, its hair and hand becoming
+      roots, the strength of its life passing through the ground into the oak
+      tree. With Cercyon, but first named, (Plato, <i>Laws</i>, book VII., 796),
+      Antæus is the master of contest without use;&mdash;[GREEK: philoneikias
+      achrestou]&mdash;and is generally the power of pure selfishness and its
+      various inflation to insolence and degradation to cowardice;&mdash;finding
+      its strength only in fall back to its Earth,&mdash;he is the master, in a
+      word, of all such kind of persons as have been writing lately about the
+      "interests of England." He is, therefore, the Power invoked by Dante to
+      place Virgil and him in the lowest circle of Hell;&mdash;"Alcides whilom
+      felt,&mdash;that grapple, straitened sore," etc. The Antæus in the
+      sculpture is very grand; but the authorship puzzles me, as of the next
+      piece, by the same hand. I believe both Giotto's design.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      17. <i>Ploughing.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sword in its Christian form. Magnificent: the grandest expression of
+      the power of man over the earth and its strongest creatures that I
+      remember in early sculpture,&mdash;(or for that matter, in late). It is
+      the subduing of the bull which the sculptor thinks most of; the plough,
+      though large, is of wood, and the handle slight. But the pawing and
+      bellowing labourer he has bound to it!&mdash;here is victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      18. <i>The Chariot.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The horse also subdued to draught&mdash;Achilles' chariot in its first,
+      and to be its last, simplicity. The face has probably been grand&mdash;the
+      figure is so still. Andrea's, I think by the flying drapery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      19. <i>The Lamb, with the symbol of Resurrection.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Over the door: 'I am the door;&mdash;by me, if any man enter in,' etc. Put
+      to the right of the tower, you see, fearlessly, for the convenience of
+      staircase ascent; all external symmetry being subject with the great
+      builders to interior use; and then, out of the rightly ordained infraction
+      of formal law, comes perfect beauty; and when, as here, the Spirit of
+      Heaven is working with the designer, his thoughts are suggested in truer
+      order, by the concession to use. After this sculpture comes the Christian
+      arts,&mdash;those which necessarily imply the conviction of immortality.
+      Astronomy without Christianity only reaches as far as&mdash;'Thou hast
+      made him a little lower than the angels&mdash;and put all <i>things</i>
+      under His feet':&mdash;Christianity says beyond this,&mdash;'Know ye not
+      that we shall judge angels (as also the lower creatures shall judge us!)'
+      [Footnote: In the deep sense of this truth, which underlies all the bright
+      fantasy and humour of Mr. Courthope's "Paradise of Birds," that rhyme of
+      the risen spirit of Aristophanes may well be read under the tower of
+      Giotto, beside his watch-dog of the fold.] The series of sculptures now
+      beginning, show the arts which <i>can</i> only be accomplished through
+      belief in Christ.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      20. <i>Geometry</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not 'mathematics': <i>they</i> have been implied long ago in astronomy and
+      architecture; but the due Measuring of the Earth and all that is on it.
+      Actually done only by Christian faith&mdash;first inspiration of the great
+      Earth-measurers. Your Prince Henry of Spain, your Columbus, your Captain
+      Cook, (whose tomb, with the bright artistic invention and religious
+      tenderness which are so peculiarly the gifts of the nineteenth century, we
+      have just provided a fence for, of old cannon open-mouthed, straight up
+      towards Heaven&mdash;your modern method of symbolizing the only appeal to
+      Heaven of which the nineteenth century has left itself capable&mdash;'The
+      voice of thy Brother's blood crieth to me'&mdash;your outworn cannon, now
+      silently agape, but sonorous in the ears of angels with that appeal)&mdash;first
+      inspiration, I say, of these; constant inspiration of all who set true
+      landmarks and hold to them, knowing their measure; the devil interfering,
+      I observe, lately in his own way, with the Geometry of Yorkshire, where
+      the landed proprietors, [Footnote: I mean no accusation against any class;
+      probably the one-fielded statesman is more eager for his little gain of
+      fifty yards of grass than the squire for his bite and sup out of the
+      gypsy's part of the roadside. But it is notable enough to the passing
+      traveller, to find himself shut into a narrow road between high stone
+      dykes which he can neither see over nor climb over, (I always deliberately
+      pitch them down myself, wherever I need a gap,) instead of on a broad road
+      between low grey walls with all the moor beyond&mdash;and the power of
+      leaping over when he chooses in innocent trespass for herb, or view, or
+      splinter of grey rock.] when the neglected walls by the roadside tumble
+      down, benevolently repair the same, with better stonework, <i>outside</i>
+      always of the fallen heaps;&mdash;which, the wall being thus built <i>on</i>
+      what was the public road, absorb themselves, with help of moss and time,
+      into the heaving swells of the rocky field-and behold, gain of a couple of
+      feet&mdash;along so much of the road as needs repairing operations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This then, is the first of the Christian sciences: division of land
+      rightly, and the general law of measuring between wisely-held compass
+      points. The type of mensuration, circle in square, on his desk, I use for
+      my first exercise in the laws of Fésole.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      21. <i>Sculpture</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first piece of the closing series on the north side of the Campanile,
+      of which some general points must be first noted, before any special
+      examination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two initial ones, Sculpture and Painting, are by tradition the only
+      ones attributed to Giotto's own hand. The fifth, Song, is known, and
+      recognizable in its magnificence, to be by Luca della Robbia. The
+      remaining four are all of Luca's school,&mdash;later work therefore, all
+      these five, than any we have been hitherto examining, entirely different
+      in manner, and with late flower-work beneath them instead of our hitherto
+      severe Gothic arches. And it becomes of course instantly a vital question&mdash;Did
+      Giotto die leaving the series incomplete, only its subjects chosen, and
+      are these two bas-reliefs of Sculpture and Painting among his last works?
+      or was the series ever completed, and these later bas-reliefs substituted
+      for the earlier ones, under Luca's influence, by way of conducting the
+      whole to a grander close, and making their order more representative of
+      Florentine art in its fulness of power?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I must repeat, once more, and with greater insistence respecting Sculpture
+      than Painting, that I do not in the least set myself up for a critic of
+      authenticity,&mdash;but only of absolute goodness. My readers may trust me
+      to tell them what is well done or ill; but by whom, is quite a separate
+      question, needing for any certainty, in this school of much-associated
+      masters and pupils, extremest attention to minute particulars not at all
+      bearing on my objects in teaching.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of this closing group of sculptures, then, all I can tell you is that the
+      fifth is a quite magnificent piece of work, and recognizably, to my
+      extreme conviction, Luca della Robbia's; that the last, Harmonia, is also
+      fine work; that those attributed to Giotto are fine in a different way,&mdash;and
+      the other three in reality the poorest pieces in the series, though done
+      with much more advanced sculptural dexterity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But I am chiefly puzzled by the two attributed to Giotto, because they are
+      much coarser than those which seem to me so plainly his on the west side,
+      and slightly different in workmanship&mdash;with much that is common to
+      both, however, in the casting of drapery and mode of introduction of
+      details. The difference may be accounted for partly by haste or failing
+      power, partly by the artist's less deep feeling of the importance of these
+      merely symbolic figures, as compared with those of the Fathers of the
+      Arts; but it is very notable and embarrassing notwithstanding, complicated
+      as it is with extreme resemblance in other particulars.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      You cannot compare the subjects on the tower itself; but of my series of
+      photographs take 6 and 21, and put them side by side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I need not dwell on the conditions of resemblance, which are instantly
+      visible; but the <i>difference</i> in the treatment of the heads is
+      incomprehensible. That of the Tubal Cain is exquisitely finished, and with
+      a painter's touch; every lock of the hair laid with studied flow, as in
+      the most beautiful drawing. In the 'Sculpture,' it is struck out with
+      ordinary tricks of rapid sculptor trade, entirely unfinished, and with
+      offensively frank use of the drill hole to give picturesque rustication to
+      the beard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next, put 22 and 5 back to back. You see again the resemblance in the
+      earnestness of both figures, in the unbroken arcs of their backs, in the
+      breaking of the octagon moulding by the pointed angles; and here, even
+      also in the general conception of the heads. But again, in the one of
+      Painting, the hair is struck with more vulgar indenting and drilling, and
+      the Gothic of the picture frame is less precise in touch and later in
+      style. Observe, however,&mdash;and this may perhaps give us some definite
+      hint for clearing the question,&mdash;a picture-frame <i>would be</i> less
+      precise in making, and later in style, properly, than cusped arches to be
+      put under the feet of the inventor of all musical sound by breath of man.
+      And if you will now compare finally the eager tilting of the workman's
+      seat in 22 and 6, and the working of the wood in the painter's low table
+      for his pots of colour, and his three-legged stool, with that of Tubal
+      Cain's anvil block; and the way in which the lines of the forge and upper
+      triptych are in each composition used to set off the rounding of the head,
+      I believe you will have little hesitation in accepting my own view of the
+      matter&mdash;namely, that the three pieces of the Fathers of the Arts were
+      wrought with Giotto's extremest care for the most precious stones of his
+      tower; that also, being a sculptor and painter, he did the other two, but
+      with quite definite and wilful resolve that they <i>should be</i>, as mere
+      symbols of his own two trades, wholly inferior to the other subjects of
+      the patriarchs; that he made the Sculpture picturesque and bold as you see
+      it is, and showed all a sculptor's tricks in the work of it; and a
+      sculptor's Greek subject, Bacchus, for the model of it; that he wrought
+      the Painting, as the higher art, with more care, still keeping it
+      subordinate to the primal subjects, but showed, for a lesson to all the
+      generations of painters for evermore,&mdash;this one lesson, like his
+      circle of pure line containing all others,&mdash;'Your soul and body must
+      be all in every touch.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I can't resist the expression of a little piece of personal exultation, in
+      noticing that he holds his pencil as I do myself: no writing master, and
+      no effort (at one time very steady for many months), having ever cured me
+      of that way of holding both pen and pencil between my fore and second
+      finger; the third and fourth resting the backs of them on my paper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I finally arrange these notes for press, I am further confirmed in my
+      opinion by discovering little finishings in the two later pieces which I
+      was not before aware of. I beg the masters of High Art, and sublime
+      generalization, to take a good magnifying glass to the 'Sculpture' and
+      look at the way Giotto has cut the compasses, the edges of the chisels,
+      and the keyhole of the lock of the toolbox. For the rest, nothing could be
+      more probable, in the confused and perpetually false mass of Florentine
+      tradition, than the preservation of the memory of Giotto's carving his own
+      two trades, and the forgetfulness, or quite as likely ignorance, of the
+      part he took with Andrea Pisano in the initial sculptures. I now take up
+      the series of subjects at the point where we broke off, to trace their
+      chain of philosophy to its close. To Geometry, which gives to every man
+      his possession of house and land, succeed 21, Sculpture, and 22, Painting,
+      the adornments of permanent habitation. And then, the great arts of
+      education in a Christian home. First&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      23. <i>Grammar</i>, or more properly Literature altogether, of which we
+      have already seen the ancient power in the Spanish Chapel series; then,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      24. <i>Arithmetic</i>, central here as also in the Spanish Chapel, for the
+      same reasons; here, more impatiently asserting, with both hands, that two,
+      on the right, you observe-and two on the left-do indeed and for ever make
+      Four. Keep your accounts, you, with your book of double entry, on that
+      principle; and you will be safe in this world and the next, in your
+      steward's office. But by no means so, if you ever admit the usurers Gospel
+      of Arithmetic, that two and two make Five. You see by the rich hem of his
+      robe that the asserter of this economical first principle is a man well to
+      do in the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      25. <i>Logic</i>. The art of Demonstration. Vulgarest of the whole series,
+      far too expressive of the mode in which argument is conducted by those who
+      are not masters of its reins.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      26. <i>Song.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The essential power of music in animal life. Orpheus, the symbol of it
+      all, the inventor properly of Music, the Law of Kindness, as Dædalus of
+      Music, the Law of Construction. Hence the "Orphic life" is one of ideal
+      mercy, (vegetarian,)&mdash;Plato, <i>Laws</i>, Book VI., 782,&mdash;and he
+      is named first after Dædalus, and in balance to him as head of the school
+      of harmonists, in Book III., 677, (Steph.) Look for the two singing birds
+      clapping their wings in the tree above him; then the five mystic beasts,&mdash;closest
+      to his feet the irredeemable boar; then lion and bear, tiger, unicorn, and
+      fiery dragon closest to his head, the flames of its mouth mingling with
+      his breath as he sings. The audient eagle, alas! has lost the beak, and is
+      only recognizable by his proud holding of himself; the duck, sleepily
+      delighted after muddy dinner, close to his shoulder, is a true conquest.
+      Hoopoe, or indefinite bird of crested race, behind; of the other three no
+      clear certainty. The leafage throughout such as only Luca could do, and
+      the whole consummate in skill and understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      27. <i>Harmony.</i>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Music of Song, in the full power of it, meaning perfect education in all
+      art of the Muses and of civilized life: the mystery of its concord is
+      taken for the symbol of that of a perfect state; one day, doubtless, of
+      the perfect world. So prophesies the last corner stone of the Shepherd's
+      Tower.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mornings in Florence, by John Ruskin
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+</pre>
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+  </body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mornings in Florence, by John Ruskin
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Mornings in Florence
+
+Author: John Ruskin
+
+
+Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7227]
+This file was first posted on March 28, 2003
+Last Updated: May 21, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORNINGS IN FLORENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Michelle Shephard, Eric Eldred, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MORNINGS IN FLORENCE
+
+
+By John Ruskin, M.A.
+
+
+
+
+MORNINGS IN FLORENCE.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRST MORNING.
+
+SANTA CROCE.
+
+
+If there is one artist, more than another, whose work it is desirable
+that you should examine in Florence, supposing that you care for old art
+at all, it is Giotto. You can, indeed, also see work of his at Assisi;
+but it is not likely you will stop there, to any purpose. At Padua there
+is much; but only of one period. At Florence, which is his birthplace,
+you can see pictures by him of every date, and every kind. But you had
+surely better see, first, what is of his best time and of the best kind.
+He painted very small pictures and very large--painted from the age of
+twelve to sixty--painted some subjects carelessly which he had little
+interest in--some carefully with all his heart. You would surely like,
+and it would certainly be wise, to see him first in his strong and
+earnest work,--to see a painting by him, if possible, of large size, and
+wrought with his full strength, and of a subject pleasing to him. And if
+it were, also, a subject interesting to yourself,--better still.
+
+Now, if indeed you are interested in old art, you cannot but know the
+power of the thirteenth century. You know that the character of it was
+concentrated in, and to the full expressed by, its best king, St. Louis.
+You know St. Louis was a Franciscan, and that the Franciscans, for whom
+Giotto was continually painting under Dante's advice, were prouder of
+him than of any other of their royal brethren or sisters. If Giotto ever
+would imagine anybody with care and delight, it would be St. Louis, if
+it chanced that anywhere he had St. Louis to paint.
+
+Also, you know that he was appointed to build the Campanile of the
+Duomo, because he was then the best master of sculpture, painting, and
+architecture in Florence, and supposed to be without superior in the
+world. [Footnote: "Cum in universe orbe non reperiri dicatur quenquam
+qui sufficientior sit in his et aliis multis artibus magistro Giotto
+Bondonis de Florentia, pictore, et accipiendus sit in patria, velut
+magnus magister."--(Decree of his appointment, quoted by Lord Lindsay,
+vol. ii., p. 247.)]
+
+And that this commission was given him late in life, (of course he could
+not have designed the Campanile when he was a boy;) so therefore, if you
+find any of his figures painted under pure campanile architecture, and
+the architecture by his hand, you know, without other evidence, that the
+painting must be of his strongest time.
+
+So if one wanted to find anything of his to begin with, especially, and
+could choose what it should be, one would say, "A fresco, life size,
+with campanile architecture behind it, painted in an important place;
+and if one might choose one's subject, perhaps the most interesting
+saint of all saints--for him to do for us--would be St. Louis."
+
+Wait then for an entirely bright morning; rise with the sun, and go
+to Santa Croce, with a good opera-glass in your pocket, with which you
+shall for once, at any rate, see an opus; and, if you have time, several
+opera. Walk straight to the chapel on the right of the choir ("k" in
+your Murray's guide). When you first get into it, you will see nothing
+but a modern window of glaring glass, with a red-hot cardinal in
+one pane--which piece of modern manufacture takes away at least
+seven-eighths of the light (little enough before) by which you might
+have seen what is worth sight. Wait patiently till you get used to the
+gloom. Then, guarding your eyes from the accursed modern window as best
+you may, take your opera-glass and look to the right, at the uppermost
+of the two figures beside it. It is St. Louis, under campanile
+architecture, painted by--Giotto? or the last Florentine painter who
+wanted a job--over Giotto? That is the first question you have to
+determine; as you will have henceforward, in every case in which you
+look at a fresco.
+
+Sometimes there will be no question at all. These two grey frescos at
+the bottom of the walls on the right and left, for instance, have
+been entirely got up for your better satisfaction, in the last year or
+two--over Giotto's half-effaced lines. But that St. Louis? Re-painted or
+not, it is a lovely thing,--there can be no question about that; and
+we must look at it, after some preliminary knowledge gained, not
+inattentively.
+
+Your Murray's Guide tells you that this chapel of the Bardi della
+Liberta, in which you stand, is covered with frescos by Giotto; that
+they were whitewashed, and only laid bare in 1853; that they were
+painted between 1296 and 1304; that they represent scenes in the life
+of St. Francis; and that on each side of the window are paintings of St.
+Louis of Toulouse, St. Louis king of France, St. Elizabeth, of
+Hungary, and St. Claire,--"all much restored and repainted." Under such
+recommendation, the frescos are not likely to be much sought after; and
+accordingly, as I was at work in the chapel this morning, Sunday, 6th
+September, 1874, two nice-looking Englishmen, under guard of their valet
+de place, passed the chapel without so much as looking in.
+
+You will perhaps stay a little longer in it with me, good reader, and
+find out gradually where you are. Namely, in the most interesting and
+perfect little Gothic chapel in all Italy--so far as I know or can hear.
+There is no other of the great time which has all its frescos in their
+place. The Arena, though far larger, is of earlier date--not pure
+Gothic, nor showing Giotto's full force. The lower chapel at Assisi is
+not Gothic at all, and is still only of Giotto's middle time. You have
+here, developed Gothic, with Giotto in his consummate strength, and
+nothing lost, in form, of the complete design.
+
+By restoration--judicious restoration, as Mr. Murray usually calls
+it--there is no saying how much you have lost, Putting the question of
+restoration out of your mind, however, for a while, think where you are,
+and what you have got to look at.
+
+You are in the chapel next the high altar of the great Franciscan church
+of Florence. A few hundred yards west of you, within ten minutes' walk,
+is the Baptistery of Florence. And five minutes' walk west of that is
+the great Dominican church of Florence, Santa Maria Novella.
+
+Get this little bit of geography, and architectural fact, well into your
+mind. There is the little octagon Baptistery in the middle; here, ten
+minutes' walk east of it, the Franciscan church of the Holy Cross;
+there, five minutes walk west of it, the Dominican church of St. Mary.
+
+Now, that little octagon Baptistery stood where it now stands (and was
+finished, though the roof has been altered since) in the eighth century.
+It is the central building of Etrurian Christianity,--of European
+Christianity.
+
+From the day it was finished, Christianity went on doing her best, in
+Etruria and elsewhere, for four hundred years,--and her best seemed to
+have come to very little,--when there rose up two men who vowed to God
+it should come to more. And they made it come to more, forthwith; of
+which the immediate sign in Florence was that she resolved to have a
+fine new cross-shaped cathedral instead of her quaint old little octagon
+one; and a tower beside it that should beat Babel:--which two buildings
+you have also within sight.
+
+But your business is not at present with them; but with these two
+earlier churches of Holy Cross and St. Mary. The two men who were the
+effectual builders of these were the two great religious Powers and
+Reformers of the thirteenth century;--St. Francis, who taught Christian
+men how they should behave, and St. Dominic, who taught Christian men
+what they should think. In brief, one the Apostle of Works; the other of
+Faith. Each sent his little company of disciples to teach and to preach
+in Florence: St. Francis in 1212; St. Dominic in 1220.
+
+The little companies were settled--one, ten minutes' walk east of the
+old Baptistery; the other five minutes' walk west of it. And after they
+had stayed quietly in such lodgings as were given them, preaching and
+teaching through most of the century; and had got Florence, as it were,
+heated through, she burst out into Christian poetry and architecture,
+of which you have heard much talk:--burst into bloom of Arnolfo, Giotto,
+Dante, Orcagna, and the like persons, whose works you profess to have
+come to Florence that you may see and understand.
+
+Florence then, thus heated through, first helped her teachers to build
+finer churches. The Dominicans, or White Friars the Teachers of Faith,
+began their church of St. Mary's in 1279. The Franciscans, or Black
+Friars, the teachers of Works, laid the first stone of this church of
+the Holy Cross in 1294. And the whole city laid the foundations of its
+new cathedral in 1298. The Dominicans designed their own building; but
+for the Franciscans and the town worked the first great master of
+Gothic art, Arnolfo; with Giotto at his side, and Dante looking on, and
+whispering sometimes a word to both.
+
+And here you stand beside the high altar of the Franciscans' church,
+under a vault of Arnolfo's building, with at least some of Giotto's
+colour on it still fresh; and in front of you, over the little altar, is
+the only reportedly authentic portrait of St. Francis, taken from life
+by Giotto's master. Yet I can hardly blame my two English friends for
+never looking in. Except in the early morning light, not one touch of
+all this art can be seen. And in any light, unless you understand the
+relations of Giotto to St. Francis, and of St. Francis to humanity, it
+will be of little interest.
+
+Observe, then, the special character of Giotto among the great painters
+of Italy is his being a practical person. Whatever other men dreamed
+of, he did. He could work in mosaic; he could work in marble; he could
+paint; and he could build; and all thoroughly: a man of supreme faculty,
+supreme common sense. Accordingly, he ranges himself at once among the
+disciples of the Apostle of Works, and spends most of his time in the
+same apostleship.
+
+Now the gospel of Works, according to St. Francis, lay in three
+things. You must work without money, and be poor. You must work without
+pleasure, and be chaste. You must work according to orders, and be
+obedient.
+
+Those are St. Francis's three articles of Italian opera. By which grew
+the many pretty things you have come to see here.
+
+And now if you will take your opera-glass and look up to the roof above
+Arnolfo's building, you will see it is a pretty Gothic cross vault, in
+four quarters, each with a circular medallion, painted by Giotto. That
+over the altar has the picture of St. Francis himself. The three others,
+of his Commanding Angels. In front of him, over the entrance arch,
+Poverty. On his right hand, Obedience. On his left, Chastity.
+
+Poverty, in a red patched dress, with grey wings, and a square nimbus of
+glory above her head, is flying from a black hound, whose head is seen
+at the corner of the medallion.
+
+Chastity, veiled, is imprisoned in a tower, while angels watch her.
+
+Obedience bears a yoke on her shoulders, and lays her hand on a book.
+
+Now, this same quatrefoil, of St. Francis and his three Commanding
+Angels, was also painted, but much more elaborately, by Giotto, on
+the cross vault of the lower church of Assisi, and it is a question of
+interest which of the two roofs was painted first.
+
+Your Murray's Guide tells you the frescos in this chapel were painted
+between 1296 and 1304. But as they represent, among other personages,
+St. Louis of Toulouse, who was not canonized till 1317, that statement
+is not altogether tenable. Also, as the first stone of the church was
+only laid in 1294, when Giotto was a youth of eighteen, it is little
+likely that either it would have been ready to be painted, or he ready
+with his scheme of practical divinity, two years later.
+
+Farther, Arnolfo, the builder of the main body of the church, died in
+1310. And as St. Louis of Toulouse was not a saint till seven years
+afterwards, and the frescos therefore beside the window not painted
+in Arnolfo's day, it becomes another question whether Arnolfo left the
+chapels or the church at all, in their present form.
+
+On which point--now that I have shown you where Giotto's St. Louis is--I
+will ask you to think awhile, until you are interested; and then I
+will try to satisfy your curiosity. There fore, please leave the little
+chapel for the moment, and walk down the nave, till you come to two
+sepulchral slabs near the west end, and then look about you and see what
+sort of a church Santa Croce is.
+
+Without looking about you at all, you may find, in your Murray, the
+useful information that it is a church which "consists of a very wide
+nave and lateral aisles, separated by seven fine pointed arches." And as
+you will be--under ordinary conditions of tourist hurry--glad to learn
+so much, _without_ looking, it is little likely to occur to you that
+this nave and two rich aisles required also, for your complete present
+comfort, walls at both ends, and a roof on the top. It is just
+possible, indeed, you may have been struck, on entering, by the curious
+disposition of painted glass at the east end;--more remotely possible
+that, in returning down the nave, you may this moment have noticed the
+extremely small circular window at the west end; but the chances are
+a thousand to one that, after being pulled from tomb to tomb round
+the aisles and chapels, you should take so extraordinary an additional
+amount of pains as to look up at the roof,--unless you do it now,
+quietly. It will have had its effect upon you, even if you don't,
+without your knowledge. You will return home with a general impression
+that Santa Croce is, somehow, the ugliest Gothic church you ever were
+in. Well, that is really so; and now, will you take the pains to see
+why?
+
+There are two features, on which, more than on any others, the grace and
+delight of a fine Gothic building depends; one is the springing of its
+vaultings, the other the proportion and fantasy of its traceries.
+_This_ church of Santa Croce has no vaultings at all, but the roof of
+a farm-house barn. And its windows are all of the same pattern,--the
+exceedingly prosaic one of two pointed arches, with a round hole above,
+between them.
+
+And to make the simplicity of the roof more conspicuous, the aisles are
+successive sheds, built at every arch. In the aisles of the Campo Santo
+of Pisco, the unbroken flat roof leaves the eye free to look to the
+traceries; but here, a succession of up-and-down sloping beam and lath
+gives the impression of a line of stabling rather than a church aisle.
+And lastly, while, in fine Gothic buildings, the entire perspective
+concludes itself gloriously in the high and distant apse, here the nave
+is cut across sharply by a line of ten chapels, the apse being only a
+tall recess in the midst of them, so that, strictly speaking, the church
+is not of the form of a cross, but of a letter T.
+
+Can this clumsy and ungraceful arrangement be indeed the design of the
+renowned Arnolfo?
+
+Yes, this is purest Arnolfo-Gothic; not beautiful by any means; but
+deserving, nevertheless, our thoughtfullest examination. We will trace
+its complete character another day; just now we are only concerned with
+this pre-Christian form of the letter T, insisted upon in the lines of
+chapels.
+
+Respecting which you are to observe, that the first Christian churches
+in the catacombs took the form of a blunt cross naturally; a square
+chamber having a vaulted recess on each side; then the Byzantine
+churches were structurally built in the form of an equal cross; while
+the heraldic and other ornamental equal-armed crosses are partly signs
+of glory and victory, partly of light, and divine spiritual presence.
+[Footnote: See, on this subject generally, Mr. R. St. J. Tyrwhitt's
+"Art-Teaching of the Primitive Church." S. P. B. K., 1874.]
+
+But the Franciscans and Dominicans saw in the cross no sign of triumph,
+but of trial.[Footnote: I have never obtained time for any right study
+of early Christian church-discipline,--nor am I sure to how many other
+causes, the choice of the form of the basilica may be occasionally
+attributed, or by what other communities it may be made. Symbolism,
+for instance, has most power with the Franciscans, and convenience for
+preaching with the Dominicans; but in all cases, and in all places,
+the transition from the close tribune to the brightly-lighted apse,
+indicates the change in Christian feeling between regarding a church as
+a place for public judgment or teaching, or a place for private prayer
+and congregational praise. The following passage from the Dean of
+Westminster's perfect history of his Abbey ought to be read also in the
+Florentine church:--"The nearest approach to Westminster Abbey in this
+aspect is the church of Santa Croce at Florence. There, as here, the
+present destination of the building was no part of the original design,
+but was the result of various converging causes. As the church of one
+of the two great preaching orders, it had a nave large beyond all
+proportion to its choir. That order being the Franciscan, bound by vows
+of poverty, the simplicity of the worship preserved the whole
+space clear from any adventitious ornaments. The popularity of the
+Franciscans, especially in a convent hallowed by a visit from St.
+Francis himself, drew to it not only the chief civic festivals, but also
+the numerous families who gave alms to the friars, and whose connection
+with their church was, for this reason, in turn encouraged by them.
+In those graves, piled with standards und achievements of the noble
+families of Florence, were successively interred--not because of their
+eminence, but as members or friends of those families--some of the most
+illustrious personages of the fifteenth century. Thus it came to pass,
+as if by accident, that in the vault of the Buonarotti was laid Michael
+Angelo; in the vault of the Viviani the preceptor of one of their
+house, Galileo. From those two burials the church gradually be same the
+recognized shrine of Italian genius."] The wounds of their Master were
+to be their inheritance. So their first aim was to make what image to
+the cross their church might present, distinctly that of the actual
+instrument of death.
+
+And they did this most effectually by using the form of the letter T,
+that of the Furca or Gibbet,--not the sign of peace.
+
+Also, their churches were meant for use; not show, nor
+self-glorification, nor town-glorification. They wanted places for
+preaching, prayer, sacrifice, burial; and had no intention of showing
+how high they could build towers, or how widely they could arch vaults.
+Strong walls, and the roof of a barn,--these your Franciscan asks of
+his Arnolfo. These Arnolfo gives,--thoroughly and wisely built; the
+successions of gable roof being a new device for strength, much praised
+in its day.
+
+This stern humor did not last long. Arnolfo himself had other notions;
+much more Cimabue and Giotto; most of all, Nature and Heaven. Something
+else had to be taught about Christ than that He was wounded to death.
+Nevertheless, look how grand this stern form would be, restored to its
+simplicity. It is not the old church which is in itself unimpressive.
+It is the old church defaced by Vasari, by Michael Angelo, and by modern
+Florence. See those huge tombs on your right hand and left, at the sides
+of the aisles, with their alternate gable and round tops, and their
+paltriest of all possible sculpture, trying to be grand by bigness, and
+pathetic by expense. Tear them all down in your imagination; fancy the
+vast hall with its massive pillars,--not painted calomel-pill colour, as
+now, but of their native stone, with a rough, true wood for roof,--and
+a people praying beneath them, strong in abiding, and pure in life, as
+their rocks and olive forests That was Arnolfo's Santa Croce. Nor did
+his work remain long without grace.
+
+That very line of chapels in which we found our St. Louis shows signs
+of change in temper. _They_ have no pent-house roofs, but true Gothic
+vaults: we found our four-square type of Franciscan Law on one of them.
+
+It is probable, then, that these chapels may be later than the
+rest--even in their stonework. In their decoration, they are so,
+assuredly; belonging already to the time when the story of St. Francis
+was becoming a passionate tradition, told and painted everywhere with
+delight.
+
+And that high recess, taking the place of apse, in the centre,--see how
+noble it is in the coloured shade surrounding and joining the glow of
+its windows, though their form be so simple. You are not to be amused
+here by patterns in balanced stone, as a French or English architect
+would amuse you, says Arnolfo. "You are to read and think, under these
+severe walls of mine; immortal hands will write upon them." We will go
+back, therefore, into this line of manuscript chapels presently; but
+first, look at the two sepulchral slabs by which you are standing. That
+farther of the two from the west end is one of the most beautiful pieces
+of fourteenth century sculpture in this world; and it contains simple
+elements of excellence, by your understanding of which you may test your
+power of understanding the more difficult ones you will have to deal
+with presently.
+
+It represents an old man, in the high deeply-folded cap worn by scholars
+and gentlemen in Florence from 1300--1500, lying dead, with a book
+in his breast, over which his hands are folded. At his feet is this
+inscription: "Temporibus hic suis phylosophye atq. medicine culmen fuit
+Galileus de Galileis olim Bonajutis qui etiam summo in magistratu miro
+quodam modo rempublicam dilexit, cujus sancte memorie bene acte vite pie
+benedictus filius hunc tumulum patri sibi suisq. posteris edidit."
+
+Mr. Murray tells you that the effigies "in low relief" (alas, yes,
+low enough now--worn mostly into flat stones, with a trace only of the
+deeper lines left, but originally in very bold relief,) with which the
+floor of Santa Croce is inlaid, of which this by which you stand is
+characteristic, are "interesting from the costume," but that, "except
+in the case of John Ketterick, Bishop of St. David's, few of the other
+names have any interest beyond the walls of Florence." As, however, you
+are at present within the walls of Florence, you may perhaps condescend
+to take some interest in this ancestor or relation of the Galileo whom
+Florence indeed left to be externally interesting, and would not allow
+to enter in her walls.
+
+[Footnote:                "Seven years a prisoner at the city gate,
+                 Let in but his grave-clothes."
+                                     _Rogers' "Italy_."]
+
+I am not sure if I rightly place or construe the phrase in the above
+inscription, "cujus sancte memorie bene acte;" but, in main purport, the
+legend runs thus: "This Galileo of the Galilei was, in his times, the
+head of philosophy and medicine; who also in the highest magistracy
+loved the republic marvellously; whose son, blessed in inheritance of
+his holy memory and well-passed and pious life, appointed this tomb for
+his father, for himself, and for his posterity."
+
+There is no date; but the slab immediately behind it, nearer the western
+door, is of the same style, but of later and inferior work, and bears
+date--I forget now of what early year in the fifteenth century.
+
+But Florence was still in her pride; and you may observe, in this
+epitaph, on what it was based. That her philosophy was studied _together
+with useful arts,_ and as a part of them; that the masters in these
+became naturally the masters in public affairs; that in such magistracy,
+they loved the State, and neither cringed to it nor robbed it; that the
+sons honoured their fathers, and received their fathers' honour as the
+most blessed inheritance. Remember the phrase "vite pie bene dictus
+filius," to be compared with the "nos nequiores" of the declining days
+of all states,--chiefly now in Florence, France and England.
+
+Thus much for the local interest of name. Next for the universal
+interest of the art of this tomb.
+
+It is the crowning virtue of all great art that, however little is left
+of it by the injuries of time, that little will be lovely. As long as
+you can see anything, you can see--almost all;--so much the hand of the
+master will suggest of his soul.
+
+And here you are well quit, for once, of restoration. No one cares
+for this sculpture; and if Florence would only thus put all her
+old sculpture and painting under her feet, and simply use them for
+gravestones and oilcloth, she would be more merciful to them than she is
+now. Here, at least, what little is left is true.
+
+And, if you look long, you will find it is not so little. That worn face
+is still a perfect portrait of the old man, though like one struck out
+at a venture, with a few rough touches of a master's chisel. And that
+falling drapery of his cap is, in its few lines, faultless, and subtle
+beyond description.
+
+And now, here is a simple but most useful test of your capacity for
+understanding Florentine sculpture or painting. If you can see that the
+lines of that cap are both right, and lovely; that the choice of the
+folds is exquisite in its ornamental relations of line; and that the
+softness and ease of them is complete,--though only sketched with a
+few dark touches,--then you can understand Giotto's drawing, and
+Botticelli's;--Donatello's carving and Luca's. But if you see nothing
+in _this_ sculpture, you will see nothing in theirs, _of_ theirs. Where
+they choose to imitate flesh, or silk, or to play any vulgar modern
+trick with marble--(and they often do)--whatever, in a word, is French,
+or American, or Cockney, in their work, you can see; but what is
+Florentine, and for ever great--unless you can see also the beauty of
+this old man in his citizen's cap,--you will see never.
+
+There is more in this sculpture, however, than its simple portraiture
+and noble drapery. The old man lies on a piece of embroidered carpet;
+and, protected by the higher relief, many of the finer lines of this
+are almost uninjured; in particular, its exquisitely-wrought fringe and
+tassels are nearly perfect. And if you will kneel down and look long
+at the tassels of the cushion under the head, and the way they fill the
+angles of the stone, you will,--or may--know, from this example alone,
+what noble decorative sculpture is, and was, and must be, from the days
+of earliest Greece to those of latest Italy.
+
+"Exquisitely sculptured fringe!" and you have just been abusing
+sculptors who play tricks with marble! Yes, and you cannot find a better
+example, in all the museums of Europe, of the work of a man who does
+_not_ play tricks with it--than this tomb. Try to understand the
+difference: it is a point of quite cardinal importance to all your
+future study of sculpture.
+
+I _told_ you, observe, that the old Galileo was lying on a piece of
+embroidered carpet. I don't think, if I had not told you, that you would
+have found it out for yourself. It is not so like a carpet as all that
+comes to.
+
+But had it been a modern trick-sculpture, the moment you came to the
+tomb you would have said, "Dear me! how wonderfully that carpet is
+done,--it doesn't look like stone in the least--one longs to take it up
+and beat it, to get the dust off."
+
+Now whenever you feel inclined to speak so of a sculptured drapery,
+be assured, without more ado, the sculpture is base, and bad. You will
+merely waste your time and corrupt your taste by looking at it. Nothing
+is so easy as to imitate drapery in marble. You may cast a piece
+any day; and carve it with such subtlety that the marble shall be
+an absolute image of the folds. But that is not sculpture. That is
+mechanical manufacture.
+
+No great sculptor, from the beginning of art to the end of it, has ever
+carved, or ever will, a deceptive drapery. He has neither time nor will
+to do it. His mason's lad may do that if he likes. A man who can carve
+a limb or a face never finishes inferior parts, but either with a hasty
+and scornful chisel, or with such grave and strict selection of their
+lines as you know at once to be imaginative, not imitative.
+
+But if, as in this case, he wants to oppose the simplicity of his
+central subject with a rich background,--a labyrinth of ornamental lines
+to relieve the severity of expressive ones,--he will carve you a carpet,
+or a tree, or a rose thicket, with their fringes and leaves and thorns,
+elaborated as richly as natural ones; but always for the sake of the
+ornamental form, never of the imitation; yet, seizing the natural
+character in the lines he gives, with twenty times the precision and
+clearness of sight that the mere imitator has. Examine the tassels of
+the cushion, and the way they blend with the fringe, thoroughly; you
+cannot possibly see finer ornamental sculpture. Then, look at the same
+tassels in the same place of the slab next the west end of the church,
+and you will see a scholar's rude imitation of a master's hand, though
+in a fine school. (Notice, however, the folds of the drapery at the feet
+of this figure: they are cut so as to show the hem of the robe within as
+well as without, and are fine.) Then, as you go back to Giotto's chapel,
+keep to the left, and just beyond the north door in the aisle is the
+much celebrated tomb of C. Marsuppini, by Desiderio of Settignano. It
+is very fine of its kind; but there the drapery is chiefly done to cheat
+you, and chased delicately to show how finely the sculptor could chisel
+it. It is wholly vulgar and mean in cast of fold. Under your feet, as
+you look at it, you will tread another tomb of the fine time, which,
+looking last at, you will recognize the difference between the false and
+true art, as far as there is capacity in you at present to do so. And if
+you really and honestly like the low-lying stones, and see more beauty
+in them, you have also the power of enjoying Giotto, into whose chapel
+we will return to-morrow;--not to-day, for the light must have left it
+by this time; and now that you have been looking at these sculptures on
+the floor you had better traverse nave and aisle across and across; and
+get some idea of that sacred field of stone. In the north transept you
+will find a beautiful knight, the finest in chiselling of all these
+tombs, except one by the same hand in the south aisle just where it
+enters the south transept.
+
+Examine the lines of the Gothic niches traced above them; and what
+is left of arabesque on their armour. They are far more beautiful and
+tender in chivalric conception than Donatello's St. George, which is
+merely a piece of vigorous naturalism founded on these older tombs. If
+you will drive in the evening to the Chartreuse in Val d'Ema, you may
+see there an uninjured example of this slab-tomb by Donatello himself;
+very beautiful; but not so perfect as the earlier ones on which it is
+founded. And you may see some fading light and shade of monastic life,
+among which if you stay till the fireflies come out in the twilight, and
+thus get to sleep when you come home, you will be better prepared for
+to-morrow morning's walk--if you will take another with me--than if you
+go to a party, to talk sentiment about Italy, and hear the last news
+from London and New York.
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND MORNING.
+
+THE GOLDEN GATE.
+
+
+To-day, as early as you please, and at all events before doing anything
+else, let us go to Giotto's own parish-church, Santa Maria Novella. If,
+walking from the Strozzi Palace, you look on your right for the "Way of
+the Beautiful Ladies," it will take you quickly there.
+
+Do not let anything in the way of acquaintance, sacristan, or chance
+sight, stop you in doing what I tell you. Walk straight up to the
+church, into the apse of it;--(you may let your eyes rest, as you walk,
+on the glow of its glass, only mind the step, half way;)--and lift the
+curtain; and go in behind the grand marble altar, giving anybody who
+follows you anything they want, to hold their tongues, or go away.
+
+You know, most probably, already, that the frescos on each side of you
+are Ghirlandajo's. You have been told they are very fine, and if you
+know anything of painting, you know the portraits in them are so.
+Nevertheless, somehow, you don't really enjoy these frescos, nor come
+often here, do you?
+
+The reason of which is, that if you are a nice person, they are not nice
+enough for you; and if a vulgar person, not vulgar enough. But if you
+are a nice person, I want you to look carefully, to-day, at the two
+lowest, next the windows, for a few minutes, that you may better feel
+the art you are really to study, by its contrast with these.
+
+On your left hand is represented the birth of the Virgin, On your right,
+her meeting with Elizabeth.
+
+You can't easily see better pieces--nowhere more pompous pieces--of
+flat goldsmiths' work. Ghirlandajo was to the end of his life a mere
+goldsmith, with a gift of portraiture. And here he has done his best,
+and has put a long wall in wonderful perspective, and the whole city of
+Florence behind Elizabeth's house in the hill country; and a splendid
+bas-relief, in the style of Luca della Robbia, in St. Anne's bedroom;
+and he has carved all the pilasters, and embroidered all the dresses,
+and flourished and trumpeted into every corner; and it is all done,
+within just a point, as well as it can be done; and quite as well as
+Ghirlandajo could do it. But the point in which it _just_ misses
+being as well as it can be done, is the vital point. And it is all
+simply--good for nothing.
+
+Extricate yourself from the goldsmith's rubbish of it, and look full
+at the Salutation. You will say, perhaps, at first, "What grand and
+graceful figures!" Are you sure they are graceful? Look again and you
+will see their draperies hang from them exactly as they would from two
+clothes-pegs. Now, fine drapery, really well drawn, as it hangs from a
+clothes-peg, is always rather impressive, especially if it be disposed
+in large breadths and deep folds; but that is the only grace of their
+figures.
+
+Secondly. Look at the Madonna, carefully. You will find she is not the
+least meek--only stupid,--as all the other women in the picture are.
+
+"St. Elizabeth, you think, is nice"? Yes; "and she says, 'Whence is
+this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?' really with
+a great deal of serious feeling?" Yes, with a great deal. Well, you have
+looked enough at those two. Now--just for another minute--look at the
+birth of the Virgin. "A most graceful group, (your Murray's Guide tells
+you,) in the attendant servants." Extremely so. Also, the one holding
+the child is rather pretty. Also, the servant pouring out the water does
+it from a great height, without splashing, most cleverly. Also, the lady
+coming to ask for St. Anne, and see the baby, walks majestically and
+is very finely dressed. And as for that bas-relief in the style of Luca
+della Robbia, you might really almost think it _was_ Luca! The very best
+plated goods, Master Ghirlandajo, no doubt--always on hand at your shop.
+
+Well, now you must ask for the Sacristan, who is civil and nice enough,
+and get him to let you into the green cloister, and then go into the
+less cloister opening out of it on the right, as you go down the steps;
+and you must ask for the tomb of the Marcheza Stiozzi Ridolfi; and in
+the recess behind the Marcheza's tomb--very close to the ground, and
+in excellent light, if the day is fine--you will see two small frescos,
+only about four feet wide each, in odd-shaped bits of wall--quarters of
+circles; representing--that on the left, the Meeting of Joachim and Anna
+at the Golden Gate; and that on the right, the Birth of the Virgin.
+
+No flourish of trumpets here, at any rate, you think! No gold on the
+gate; and, for the birth of the Virgin--is this all! Goodness!--nothing
+to be seen, whatever, of bas-reliefs, nor fine dresses, nor graceful
+pourings out of water, nor processions of visitors?
+
+No. There's but one thing you can see, here, which you didn't in
+Ghirlandajo's fresco, unless you were very clever and looked hard for
+it--the Baby! And you are never likely to see a more true piece of
+Giotto's work in this world.
+
+A round-faced, small-eyed little thing, tied up in a bundle!
+
+Yes, Giotto was of opinion she must have appeared really not much
+else than that. But look at the servant who has just finished dressing
+her;--awe-struck, full of love and wonder, putting her hand softly on
+the child's head, who has never cried. The nurse, who has just taken
+her, is--the nurse, and no more: tidy in the extreme, and greatly proud
+and pleased: but would be as much so with any other child.
+
+Ghirlandajo's St. Anne (I ought to have told you to notice that,--you
+can afterwards) is sitting strongly up in bed, watching, if not
+directing, all that is going on. Giotto's lying down on the pillow,
+leans her face on her hand; partly exhausted, partly in deep thought.
+She knows that all will be well done for the child, either by the
+servants, or God; she need not look after anything.
+
+At the foot of the bed is the midwife, and a servant who has brought
+drink for St. Anne. The servant stops, seeing her so quiet; asking the
+midwife, Shall I give it her now? The midwife, her hands lifted under
+her robe, in the attitude of thanksgiving, (with Giotto distinguishable
+always, though one doesn't know how, from that of prayer,) answers, with
+her look, "Let be--she does not want anything."
+
+At the door a single acquaintance is coming in, to see the child. Of
+ornament, there is only the entirely simple outline of the vase which
+the servant carries; of colour, two or three masses of sober red, and
+pure white, with brown and gray.
+
+That is all. And if you can be pleased with this, you can see Florence.
+But if not, by all means amuse yourself there, if you find it amusing,
+as long as you like; you can never see it.
+
+But if indeed you are pleased, ever so little, with this fresco, think
+what that pleasure means. I brought you, on purpose, round, through the
+richest overture, and farrago of tweedledum and tweedledee, I could find
+in Florence; and here is a tune of four notes, on a shepherd's pipe,
+played by the picture of nobody; and yet you like it! You know what
+music is, then. Here is another little tune, by the same player, and
+sweeter. I let you hear the simplest first.
+
+The fresco on the left hand, with the bright blue sky, and the rosy
+figures! Why, anybody might like that!
+
+Yes; but, alas, all the blue sky is repainted. It _was_ blue always,
+however, and bright too; and I dare say, when the fresco was first done,
+anybody _did_ like it.
+
+You know the story of Joachim and Anna, I hope? Not that I do, myself,
+quite in the ins and outs; and if you don't I'm not going to keep you
+waiting while I tell it. All you need know, and you scarcely, before
+this fresco, need know so much, is, that here are an old husband and old
+wife, meeting again by surprise, after losing each other, and being each
+in great fear;--meeting at the place where they were told by God each to
+go, without knowing what was to happen there.
+
+"So they rushed into one another's arms, and kissed each other."
+
+No, says Giotto,--not that.
+
+"They advanced to meet, in a manner conformable to the strictest laws of
+composition; and with their draperies cast into folds which no one until
+Raphael could have arranged better."
+
+No, says Giotto,--not that.
+
+St. Anne has moved quickest; her dress just falls into folds sloping
+backwards enough to tell you so much. She has caught St. Joachim by his
+mantle, and draws him to her, softly, by that. St. Joachim lays his hand
+under her arm, seeing she is like to faint, and holds her up. They do
+not kiss each other--only look into each other's eyes. And God's angel
+lays his hand on their heads.
+
+Behind them, there are two rough figures, busied with their own
+affairs,--two of Joachim's shepherds; one, bare headed, the other
+wearing the wide Florentine cap with the falling point behind, which is
+exactly like the tube of a larkspur or violet; both carrying game, and
+talking to each other about--Greasy Joan and her pot, or the like. Not
+at all the sort of persons whom you would have thought in harmony with
+the scene;--by the laws of the drama, according to Racine or Voltaire.
+
+No, but according to Shakespeare, or Giotto, these are just the kind of
+persons likely to be there: as much as the angel is likely to be there
+also, though you will be told nowadays that Giotto was absurd for
+putting _him_ into the sky, of which an apothecary can always produce
+the similar blue, in a bottle. And now that you have had Shakespeare,
+and sundry other men of head and heart, following the track of this
+shepherd lad, _you_ can forgive him his grotesques in the corner. But
+that he should have forgiven them to himself, after the training he had,
+this is the wonder! _We_ have seen simple pictures enough in our
+day; and therefore we think that of course shepherd boys will sketch
+shepherds: what wonder is there in that?
+
+I can show you how in _this_ shepherd boy it was very wonderful indeed,
+if you will walk for five minutes back into the church with me, and up
+into the chapel at the end of the south transept,--at least if the day
+is bright, and you get the Sacristan to undraw the window-curtain in the
+transept itself. For then the light of it will be enough to show you the
+entirely authentic and most renowned work of Giotto's master; and you
+will see through what schooling the lad had gone.
+
+A good and brave master he was, if ever boy had one; and, as you will
+find when you know really who the great men are, the master is half
+their life; and well they know it--always naming themselves from their
+master, rather than their families. See then what kind of work Giotto
+had been first put to. There is, literally, not a square inch of all
+that panel--some ten feet high by six or seven wide--which is not
+wrought in gold and colour with the fineness of a Greek manuscript.
+There is not such an elaborate piece of ornamentation in the first
+page of any Gothic king's missal, as you will find in that Madonna's
+throne;--the Madonna herself is meant to be grave and noble only; and to
+be attended only by angels.
+
+And here is this saucy imp of a lad declares his people must do without
+gold, and without thrones; nay, that the Golden Gate itself shall have
+no gilding that St. Joachim and St. Anne shall have only one angel
+between them: and their servants shall have their joke, and nobody say
+them nay!
+
+It is most wonderful; and would have been impossible, had Cimabue been
+a common man, though ever so great in his own way. Nor could I in any of
+my former thinking understand how it was, till I saw Cimabue's own work
+at Assisi; in which he shows himself, at heart, as independent of
+his gold as Giotto,--even more intense, capable of higher things than
+Giotto, though of none, perhaps, so keen or sweet. But to this day,
+among all the Mater Dolorosas of Christianity, Cimabue's at Assisi is
+the noblest; nor did any painter after him add one link to the chain of
+thought with which he summed the creation of the earth, and preached its
+redemption.
+
+He evidently never checked the boy, from the first day he found him.
+Showed him all he knew: talked with him of many things he felt himself
+unable to paint: made him a workman and a gentleman,--above all, a
+Christian,--yet left him--a shepherd. And Heaven had made him such a
+painter, that, at his height, the words of his epitaph are in nowise
+overwrought: "Ille ego sum, per quem pictura extincta revixit."
+
+A word or two, now, about the repainting by which _this_ pictura
+extincta has been revived to meet existing taste. The sky is entirely
+daubed over with fresh blue; yet it leaves with unusual care the
+original outline of the descending angel, and of the white clouds about
+his body. This idea of the angel laying his hands on the two heads--(as
+a bishop at Confirmation does, in a hurry; and I've seen one sweep four
+together, like Arnold de Winkelied),--partly in blessing, partly as a
+symbol of their being brought together to the same place by God,--was
+afterwards repeated again and again: there is one beautiful little echo
+of it among the old pictures in the schools of Oxford. This is the first
+occurrence of it that I know in pure Italian painting; but the idea is
+Etruscan-Greek, and is used by the Etruscan sculptors of the door of the
+Baptistery of Pisa, of the _evil_ angel, who "lays the heads together"
+of two very different persons from these--Herodias and her daughter.
+
+Joachim, and the shepherd with the larkspur cap, are both quite safe;
+the other shepherd a little reinforced; the black bunches of grass,
+hanging about are retouches. They were once bunches of plants drawn
+with perfect delicacy and care; you may see one left, faint, with
+heart-shaped leaves, on the highest ridge of rock above the shepherds.
+The whole landscape is, however, quite undecipherably changed and
+spoiled.
+
+You will be apt to think at first, that if anything has been restored,
+surely the ugly shepherd's uglier feet have. No, not at all. Restored
+feet are always drawn with entirely orthodox and academical toes, like
+the Apollo Belvidere's. You would have admired them very much. These are
+Giotto's own doing, every bit; and a precious business he has had of
+it, trying again and again--in vain. Even hands were difficult enough to
+him, at this time; but feet, and bare legs! Well, he'll have a try, he
+thinks, and gets really a fair line at last, when you are close to it;
+but, laying the light on the ground afterwards, he dare not touch this
+precious and dear-bought outline. Stops all round it, a quarter of an
+inch off, [Footnote: Perhaps it is only the restorer's white on the
+ground that stops; but I think a restorer would never have been so
+wise, but have gone right up to the outline, and spoiled all.] with such
+effect as you see. But if you want to know what sort of legs and feet he
+_can_ draw, look at our _lambs_, in the corner of the fresco under the
+arch on your left!
+
+And there is one on your right, though more repainted--the little Virgin
+presenting herself at the Temple,--about which I could also say much.
+The stooping figure, kissing the hem of her robe without her knowing,
+is, as far as I remember, first in this fresco; the origin, itself, of
+the main design in all the others you know so well; (and with its steps,
+by the way, in better perspective already than most of them).
+
+"_This_ the original one!" you will be inclined to exclaim, if you have
+any general knowledge of the subsequent art. "_This_ Giotto! why it's a
+cheap rechauffe of Titian!" No, my friend. The boy who tried so hard
+to draw those steps in perspective had been carried down others, to
+his grave, two hundred years before Titian ran alone at Cadore. But, as
+surely as Venice looks on the sea, Titian looked upon this, and caught
+the reflected light of it forever.
+
+What kind of boy is this, think you, who can make Titian his
+copyist,--Dante his friend? What new power is here which is to change
+the heart of Italy?--can you see it, feel it, writing before you these
+words on the faded wall?
+
+"You shall see things--as they Are."
+
+"And the least with the greatest, because God made them."
+
+"And the greatest with the least, because God made _you_, and gave you
+eyes and a heart."
+
+I. You shall see things--as they are. So easy a matter that, you think?
+So much more difficult and sublime to paint grand processions and golden
+thrones, than St. Anne faint on her pillow, and her servant at pause?
+
+Easy or not, it is all the sight that is required of you in this
+world,--to see things, and men, and yourself,--as they are.
+
+II. And the least with the greatest, because God made them,--shepherd,
+and flock, and grass of the field, no less than the Golden Gate.
+
+III. But also the golden gate of Heaven itself, open, and the angels of
+God coming down from it.
+
+These three things Giotto taught, and men believed, in his day. Of
+which Faith you shall next see brighter work; only before we leave the
+cloister, I want to sum for you one or two of the instant and evident
+technical changes produced in the school of Florence by this teaching.
+
+One of quite the first results of Giotto's simply looking at things as
+they were, was his finding out that a red thing was red, and a brown
+thing brown, and a white thing white--all over.
+
+The Greeks had painted anything anyhow,--gods black, horses red, lips
+and cheeks white; and when the Etruscan vase expanded into a Cimabue
+picture, or a Tafi mosaic, still,--except that the Madonna was to have
+a blue dress, and everything else as much gold on it as could be
+managed,--there was very little advance in notions of colour. Suddenly,
+Giotto threw aside all the glitter, and all the conventionalism; and
+declared that he saw the sky blue, the tablecloth white, and angels,
+when he dreamed of them, rosy. And he simply founded the schools of
+colour in Italy--Venetian and all, as I will show you to-morrow morning,
+if it is fine. And what is more, nobody discovered much about colour
+after him.
+
+But a deeper result of his resolve to look at things as they were, was
+his getting so heartily interested in them that he couldn't miss their
+decisive _moment_. There is a decisive instant in all matters; and
+if you look languidly, you are sure to miss it. Nature seems always,
+somehow, trying to make you miss it. "I will see that through," you must
+say, "with out turning my head"; or you won't see the trick of it at
+all. And the most significant thing in all his work, you will find
+hereafter, is his choice of moments. I will give you at once two
+instances in a picture which, for other reasons, you should quickly
+compare with these frescos. Return by the Via delle Belle Donne; keep
+the Casa Strozzi on your right; and go straight on, through the market.
+The Florentines think themselves so civilized, forsooth, for building
+a nuovo Lung-Arno, and three manufactory chimneys opposite it: and yet
+sell butchers' meat, dripping red, peaches, and anchovies, side by side:
+it is a sight to be seen. Much more, Luca della Robbia's Madonna in the
+circle above the chapel door. Never pass near the market without looking
+at it; and glance from the vegetables underneath to Luca's leaves and
+lilies, that you may see how honestly he was trying to make his clay
+like the garden-stuff. But to-day, you may pass quickly on to the
+Uffizii, which will be just open; and when you enter the great gallery,
+turn to the right, and there, the first picture you come at will be No.
+6, Giotto's "Agony in the garden."
+
+I used to think it so dull that I could not believe it was Giotto's.
+That is partly from its dead colour, which is the boy's way of telling
+you it is night:--more from the subject being one quite beyond his age,
+and which he felt no pleasure in trying at. You may see he was still
+a boy, for he not only cannot draw feet yet, in the least, and
+scrupulously hides them therefore; but is very hard put to it for the
+hands, being obliged to draw them mostly in the same position,--all the
+four fingers together. But in the careful bunches of grass and weeds you
+will see what the fresco foregrounds were before they got spoiled; and
+there are some things he can understand already, even about that Agony,
+thinking of it in his own fixed way. Some things,--not altogether to be
+explained by the old symbol of the angel with the cup. He will try if
+he cannot explain them better in those two little pictures below; which
+nobody ever looks at; the great Roman sarcophagus being put in front of
+them, and the light glancing on the new varnish so that you must twist
+about like a lizard to see anything. Nevertheless, you may make out what
+Giotto meant.
+
+"The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" In what
+was its bitterness?--thought the boy. "Crucifixion?--Well, it hurts,
+doubtless; but the thieves had to bear it too, and many poor human
+wretches have to bear worse on our battlefields. But"--and he thinks,
+and thinks, and then he paints his two little pictures for the predella.
+
+They represent, of course, the sequence of the time in Gethsemane; but
+see what choice the youth made of his moments, having two panels
+to fill. Plenty of choice for him--in pain. The Flagellation--the
+Mocking--the Bearing of the Cross;--all habitually given by the
+Margheritones, and their school, as extremes of pain.
+
+"No," thinks Giotto. "There was worse than all that. Many a good man has
+been mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, slain. But who was ever
+so betrayed? Who ever saw such a sword thrust in his mother's heart?"
+
+He paints, first, the laying hands on Him in the garden, but with only
+two principal figures,--Judas and Peter, of course; Judas and Peter were
+always principal in the old Byzantine composition,--Judas giving the
+kiss--Peter cutting off the servant's ear. But the two are here, not
+merely principal, but almost alone in sight, all the other figures
+thrown back; and Peter is not at all concerned about the servant, or
+his struggle with him. He has got him down,--but looks back suddenly at
+Judas giving the kiss. What!--_you_ are the traitor, then--you!
+
+"Yes," says Giotto; "and you, also, in an hour more."
+
+The other picture is more deeply felt, still. It is of Christ brought
+to the foot of the cross. There is no wringing of hands or lamenting
+crowd--no haggard signs of fainting or pain in His body. Scourging or
+fainting, feeble knee and torn wound,--he thinks scorn of all that,
+this shepherd-boy. One executioner is hammering the wedges of the cross
+harder down. The other--not ungently--is taking Christ's red robe off
+His shoulders. And St. John, a few yards off, is keeping his mother from
+coming nearer. She looks _down_, not at Christ; but tries to come.
+
+And now you may go on for your day's seeings through the rest of the
+gallery, if you will--Fornarina, and the wonderful cobbler, and all the
+rest of it. I don't want you any more till to-morrow morning.
+
+But if, meantime, you will sit down,--say, before Sandro Botticelli's
+"Fortitude," which I shall want you to look at, one of these days; (No.
+1299, innermost room from the Tribune,) and there read this following
+piece of one of my Oxford lectures on the relation of Cimabue to Giotto,
+you will be better prepared for our work to-morrow morning in Santa
+Croce; and may find something to consider of, in the room you are in.
+Where, by the way, observe that No. 1288 is a most true early Lionardo,
+of extreme interest: and the savants who doubt it are--never mind what;
+but sit down at present at the feet of Fortitude, and read.
+
+Those of my readers who have been unfortunate enough to interest
+themselves in that most profitless of studies--the philosophy of
+art--have been at various times teased or amused by disputes respecting
+the relative dignity of the contemplative and dramatic schools.
+
+Contemplative, of course, being the term attached to the system of
+painting things only for the sake of their own niceness--a lady because
+she is pretty, or a lion because he is strong: and the dramatic school
+being that which cannot be satisfied unless it sees something going on:
+which can't paint a pretty lady unless she is being made love to, or
+being murdered; and can't paint a stag or a lion unless they are being
+hunted, or shot, or the one eating the other.
+
+You have always heard me--or, if not, will expect by the very tone of
+this sentence to hear me, now, on the whole recommend you to prefer
+the Contemplative school. But the comparison is always an imperfect and
+unjust one, unless quite other terms are introduced.
+
+The real greatness or smallness of schools is not in their preference
+of inactivity to action, nor of action to inactivity. It is in their
+preference of worthy things to unworthy, in rest; and of kind action to
+unkind, in business.
+
+A Dutchman can be just as solemnly and entirely contemplative of a
+lemon pip and a cheese paring, as an Italian of the Virgin in Glory.
+An English squire has pictures, purely contemplative, of his favorite
+horse--and a Parisian lady, pictures, purely contemplative, of the back
+and front of the last dress proposed to her in La Mode Artistique. All
+these works belong to the same school of silent admiration;--the vital
+question concerning them is, "What do you admire?"
+
+Now therefore, when you hear me so often saying that the Northern
+races--Norman and Lombard,--are active, or dramatic, in their art; and
+that the Southern races--Greek and Arabian,--are contemplative, you
+ought instantly to ask farther, Active in what? Contemplative of what?
+And the answer is, The active art--Lombardic,--rejoices in hunting and
+fighting; the contemplative art--Byzantine,--contemplates the mysteries
+of the Christian faith.
+
+And at first, on such answer, one would be apt at once to conclude--All
+grossness must be in the Lombard; all good in the Byzantine. But again
+we should be wrong,--and extremely wrong. For the hunting and fighting
+did practically produce strong, and often virtuous, men; while the
+perpetual and inactive contemplation of what it was impossible to
+understand, did not on the whole render the contemplative persons,
+stronger, wiser, or even more amiable. So that, in the twelfth century,
+while the Northern art was only in need of direction, the Southern was
+in need of life. The North was indeed spending its valour and virtue
+on ignoble objects; but the South disgracing the noblest objects by its
+want of valour and virtue.
+
+Central stood Etruscan Florence--her root in the earth, bound with
+iron and brass--wet with the dew of heaven. Agriculture in occupation,
+religious in thought, she accepted, like good ground, the good; refused,
+like the Rock of Fesole, the evil; directed the industry of the Northman
+into the arts of peace; kindled the dreams of the Byzantine with the
+fire of charity. Child of her peace, and exponent of her passion, her
+Cimabue became the interpreter to mankind of the meaning of the Birth of
+Christ.
+
+We hear constantly, and think naturally, of him as of a man whose
+peculiar genius in painting suddenly reformed its principles; who
+suddenly painted, out of his own gifted imagination, beautiful instead
+of rude pictures; and taught his scholar Giotto to carry on the impulse;
+which we suppose thenceforward to have enlarged the resources and
+bettered the achievements of painting continually, up to our own
+time,--when the triumphs of art having been completed, and its uses
+ended, something higher is offered to the ambition of mankind; and Watt
+and Faraday initiate the Age of Manufacture and Science, as Cimabue and
+Giotto instituted that of Art and Imagination.
+
+In this conception of the History of Mental and Physical culture, we
+much overrate the influence, though we cannot overrate the power, of the
+men by whom the change seems to have been effected. We cannot overrate
+their power,--for the greatest men of any age, those who become its
+leaders when there is a great march to be begun, are indeed separated
+from the average intellects of their day by a distance which is
+immeasurable in any ordinary terms of wonder.
+
+But we far overrate their influence; because the apparently sudden
+result of their labour or invention is only the manifested fruit of the
+toil and thought of many who preceded them, and of whose names we have
+never heard. The skill of Cimabue cannot be extolled too highly; but no
+Madonna by his hand could ever have rejoiced the soul of Italy, unless
+for a thousand years before, many a nameless Greek and nameless Goth had
+adorned the traditions, and lived in the love, of the Virgin.
+
+In like manner, it is impossible to overrate the sagacity, patience, or
+precision, of the masters in modern mechanical and scientific discovery.
+But their sudden triumph, and the unbalancing of all the world by their
+words, may not in any wise be attributed to their own power, or even
+to that of the facts they have ascertained. They owe their habits and
+methods of industry to the paternal example, no less than the inherited
+energy, of men who long ago prosecuted the truths of nature, through the
+rage of war, and the adversity of superstition; and the universal and
+overwhelming consequences of the facts which their followers have
+now proclaimed, indicate only the crisis of a rapture produced by the
+offering of new objects of curiosity to nations who had nothing to look
+at; and of the amusement of novel motion and action to nations who had
+nothing to do.
+
+Nothing to look at! That is indeed--you will find, if you consider of
+it--our sorrowful case. The vast extent of the advertising frescos
+of London, daily refreshed into brighter and larger frescos by its
+billstickers, cannot somehow sufficiently entertain the popular eyes.
+The great Mrs. Allen, with her flowing hair, and equally flowing
+promises, palls upon repetition, and that Madonna of the nineteenth
+century smiles in vain above many a borgo unrejoiced; even the
+excitement of the shop-window, with its unattainable splendours, or too
+easily attainable impostures, cannot maintain itself in the wearying
+mind of the populace, and I find my charitable friends inviting
+the children, whom the streets educate only into vicious misery, to
+entertainments of scientific vision, in microscope or magic lantern;
+thus giving them something to look at, such as it is;--fleas mostly; and
+the stomachs of various vermin; and people with their heads cut off and
+set on again;--still _something_, to look at.
+
+The fame of Cimabue rests, and justly, on a similar charity. He gave the
+populace of his day something to look at; and satisfied their curiosity
+with science of something they had long desired to know. We have
+continually imagined in our carelessness, that his triumph consisted
+only in a new pictorial skill; recent critical writers, unable to
+comprehend how any street populace could take pleasure in painting, have
+ended by denying his triumph altogether, and insisted that he gave
+no joy to Florence; and that the "Joyful quarter" was accidentally so
+named--or at least from no other festivity than that of the procession
+attending Charles of Anjou. I proved to you, in a former lecture,
+that the old tradition was true, and the delight of the people
+unquestionable. But that delight was not merely in the revelation of an
+art they had not known how to practise; it was delight in the revelation
+of a Madonna whom they had not known how to love.
+
+Again; what was revelation to _them_--we suppose farther and as
+unwisely, to have been only art in _him_; that in better laying of
+colours,--in better tracing of perspectives--in recovery of principles,
+of classic composition--he had manufactured, as our Gothic Firms now
+manufacture to order, a Madonna--in whom he believed no more than they.
+
+Not so. First of the Florentines, first of European men--he attained
+in thought, and saw with spiritual eyes, exercised to discern good
+from evil,--the face of her who was blessed among women; and with his
+following hand, made visible the Magnificat of his heart.
+
+He magnified the Maid; and Florence rejoiced in her Queen. But it was
+left for Giotto to make the queenship better beloved, in its sweet
+humiliation.
+
+You had the Etruscan stock in Florence--Christian, or at least
+semi-Christian; the statue of Mars still in its streets, but with its
+central temple built for Baptism in the name of Christ. It was a race
+living by agriculture; gentle, thoughtful, and exquisitely fine in
+handiwork. The straw bonnet of Tuscany--the Leghorn--is pure Etruscan
+art, young ladies:--only plaited gold of God's harvest, instead of the
+plaited gold of His earth.
+
+You had then the Norman and Lombard races coming down on this: kings,
+and hunters--splendid in war--insatiable of action. You had the Greek
+and Arabian races flowing from the east, bringing with them the law of
+the City, and the dream of the Desert.
+
+Cimabue--Etruscan born, gave, we saw, the life of the Norman to the
+tradition of the Greek: eager action to holy contemplation. And what
+more is left for his favourite shepherd boy Giotto to do, than this,
+except to paint with ever-increasing skill? We fancy he only surpassed
+Cimabue--eclipsed by greater brightness.
+
+Not so. The sudden and new applause of Italy would never have been won
+by mere increase of the already-kindled light. Giotto had wholly another
+work to do. The meeting of the Norman race with the Byzantine is
+not merely that of action with repose--not merely that of war with
+religion,--it is the meeting of _domestic_ life with _monastic_, and of
+practical household sense with unpractical Desert insanity.
+
+I have no other word to use than this last. I use it reverently, meaning
+a very noble thing; I do not know how far I ought to say--even a divine
+thing. Decide that for yourselves. Compare the Northern farmer with St.
+Francis; the palm hardened by stubbing Thornaby waste, with the palm
+softened by the imagination of the wounds of Christ. To my own thoughts,
+both are divine; decide that for yourselves; but assuredly, and without
+possibility of other decision, one is, humanly speaking, healthy; the
+other _un_healthy; one sane, the other--insane.
+
+To reconcile Drama with Dream, Cimabue's task was comparatively an easy
+one. But to reconcile Sense with--I still use even this following word
+reverently--Nonsense, is not so easy; and he who did it first,--no
+wonder he has a name in the world.
+
+I must lean, however, still more distinctly on the word "domestic." For
+it is not Rationalism and commercial competition--Mr. Stuart Mill's"
+other career for woman than that of wife and mother "--which are
+reconcilable, by Giotto, or by anybody else, with divine vision. But
+household wisdom, labour of love, toil upon earth according to the law
+of Heaven--these are reconcilable, in one code of glory, with revelation
+in cave or island, with the endurance of desolate and loveless days,
+with the repose of folded hands that wait Heaven's time.
+
+Domestic and monastic. He was the first of Italians--the first of
+Christians--who _equally_ knew the virtue of both lives; and who was
+able to show it in the sight of men of all ranks,--from the prince to
+the shepherd; and of all powers,--from the wisest philosopher to the
+simplest child.
+
+For, note the way in which the new gift of painting, bequeathed to
+him by his great master, strengthened his hands. Before Cimabue, no
+beautiful rendering of human form was possible; and the rude or formal
+types of the Lombard and Byzantine, though they would serve in the
+tumult of the chase, or as the recognized symbols of creed, could not
+represent personal and domestic character. Faces with goggling eyes and
+rigid lips might be endured with ready help of imagination, for gods,
+angels, saints, or hunters--or for anybody else in scenes of recognized
+legend, but would not serve for pleasant portraiture of one's own
+self--or of the incidents of gentle, actual life. And even Cimabue did
+not venture to leave the sphere of conventionally reverenced dignity. He
+still painted--though beautifully--only the Madonna, and the St. Joseph,
+and the Christ. These he made living,--Florence asked no more: and
+"Credette Cimabue nella pintura tener lo campo."
+
+But Giotto came from the field, and saw with his simple eyes a
+lowlier worth. And he painted--the Madonna, and St. Joseph, and
+the Christ,--yes, by all means if you choose to call them so, but
+essentially,--Mamma, Papa, and the Baby. And all Italy threw up its
+cap,--"Ora ha Giotto il grido."
+
+For he defines, explains, and exalts, every sweet incident of human
+nature; and makes dear to daily life every mystic imagination of natures
+greater than our own. He reconciles, while he intensifies, every virtue
+of domestic and monastic thought. He makes the simplest household duties
+sacred, and the highest religious passions serviceable and just.
+
+
+
+
+THE THIRD MORNING.
+
+BEFORE THE SOLDAN.
+
+
+I promised some note of Sandro's Fortitude, before whom I asked you to
+sit and read the end of my last letter; and I've lost my own notes about
+her, and forget, now, whether she has a sword, or a mace;--it does not
+matter. What is chiefly notable in her is--that you would not, if you
+had to guess who she was, take her for Fortitude at all. Everybody
+else's Fortitudes announce themselves clearly and proudly. They have
+tower-like shields, and lion-like helmets--and stand firm astride on
+their legs,--and are confidently ready for all comers. Yes;--that is
+your common Fortitude. Very grand, though common. But not the highest,
+by any means.
+
+Ready for all comers, and a match for them,--thinks the universal
+Fortitude;--no thanks to her for standing so steady, then!
+
+But Botticelli's Fortitude is no match, it may be, for any that are
+coming. Worn, somewhat; and not a little weary, instead of standing
+ready for all comers, she is sitting,--apparently in reverie, her
+fingers playing restlessly and idly--nay, I think--even nervously, about
+the hilt of her sword.
+
+For her battle is not to begin to-day; nor did it begin yesterday. Many
+a morn and eve have passed since it began--and now--is this to be the
+ending day of it? And if this--by what manner of end?
+
+That is what Sandro's Fortitude is thinking. And the playing fingers
+about the sword-hilt would fain let it fall, if it might be: and yet,
+how swiftly and gladly will they close on it, when the far-off trumpet
+blows, which she will hear through all her reverie!
+
+There is yet another picture of Sandro's here, which you must look
+at before going back to Giotto: the small Judith in the room next the
+Tribune, as you return from this outer one. It is just under Lionardo's
+Medusa. She is returning to the camp of her Israel, followed by her maid
+carrying the head of Holofernes. And she walks in one of Botticelli's
+light dancing actions, her drapery all on flutter, and her hand, like
+Fortitude's, light on the sword-hilt, but daintily--not nervously, the
+little finger laid over the cross of it.
+
+And at the first glance--you will think the figure merely a piece of
+fifteenth-century affectation. 'Judith, indeed!--say rather the daughter
+of Herodias, at her mincingest.'
+
+Well, yes--Botticelli _is_ affected, in the way that all men in that
+century necessarily were. Much euphuism, much studied grace of manner,
+much formal assertion of scholarship, mingling with his force of
+imagination. And he likes twisting the fingers of hands about, just as
+Correggio does. But he never does it like Correggio, without cause.
+
+Look at Judith again,--at her face, not her drapery,--and remember that
+when a man is base at the heart, he blights his virtues into weaknesses;
+but when he is true at the heart, he sanctifies his weaknesses into
+virtues. It is a weakness of Botticelli's, this love of dancing motion
+and waved drapery; but why has he given it full flight here?
+
+Do you happen to know anything about Judith yourself, except that she
+cut off Holofernes' head; and has been made the high light of about a
+million of vile pictures ever since, in which the painters thought they
+could surely attract the public to the double show of an execution,
+and a pretty woman,--especially with the added pleasure of hinting at
+previously ignoble sin?
+
+When you go home to-day, take the pains to write out for yourself, in
+the connection I here place them, the verses underneath numbered from
+the book of Judith; you will probably think of their meaning more
+carefully as you write.
+
+Begin thus:
+
+"Now at that time, Judith heard thereof, which was the daughter of
+Merari, ... the son of Simeon, the son of Israel." And then write out,
+consecutively, these pieces--
+
+Chapt. viii., verses 2 to 8. (Always inclusive,) and read the whole
+chapter.
+
+Chapt. ix., verses 1 and 5 to 7, beginning this piece with the previous
+sentence, "Oh God, oh my God, hear me also, a widow."
+
+Chapt. ix., verses 11 to 14. Chapter x., verses 1 to 5. Chapter xiii.,
+verses 6 to 10. Chapter xv., verses 11 to 13. Chapter xvi., verses 1
+to 6. Chapter xvi., verses 11 to 15. Chapter xvi., verses 18 and 19.
+Chapter xvi., verses 23 to 25.
+
+Now, as in many other cases of noble history, apocryphal and other, I do
+not in the least care how far the literal facts are true. The conception
+of facts, and the idea of Jewish womanhood, are there, grand and real as
+a marble statue,--possession for all ages. And you will feel, after you
+have read this piece of history, or epic poetry, with honourable care,
+that there is somewhat more to be thought of and pictured in Judith,
+than painters have mostly found it in them to show you; that she is not
+merely the Jewish Delilah to the Assyrian Samson; but the mightiest,
+purest, brightest type of high passion in severe womanhood offered to
+our human memory. Sandro's picture is but slight; but it is true to her,
+and the only one I know that is; and after writing out these verses, you
+will see why he gives her that swift, peaceful motion, while you read
+in her face, only sweet solemnity of dreaming thought. "My people
+delivered, and by my hand; and God has been gracious to His handmaid!"
+The triumph of Miriam over a fallen host, the fire of exulting mortal
+life in an immortal hour, the purity and severity of a guardian
+angel--all are here; and as her servant follows, carrying indeed the
+head, but invisible--(a mere thing to be carried--no more to be so much
+as thought of)--she looks only at her mistress, with intense, servile,
+watchful love. Faithful, not in these days of fear only, but hitherto in
+all her life, and afterwards forever.
+
+After you have seen it enough, look also for a little while at
+Angelico's Marriage and Death of the Virgin, in the same room; you may
+afterwards associate the three pictures always together in your mind.
+And, looking at nothing else to-day in the Uffizi, let us go back to
+Giotto's chapel.
+
+We must begin with this work on our left hand, the Death of St. Francis;
+for it is the key to all the rest. Let us hear first what Mr. Crowe
+directs us to think of it. "In the composition of this scene, Giotto
+produced a masterpiece, which served as a model but too often feebly
+imitated by his successors. Good arrangement, variety of character and
+expression in the heads, unity and harmony in the whole, make this an
+exceptional work of its kind. As a composition, worthy of the fourteenth
+century, Ghirlandajo and Benedetto da Majano both imitated, without
+being able to improve it. No painter ever produced its equal except
+Raphael; nor could a better be created except in so far as regards
+improvement in the mere rendering of form."
+
+To these inspiring observations by the rapturous Crowe, more cautious
+Cavalcasella [Footnote: I venture to attribute the wiser note to Signor
+Cavalcasella because I have every reason to put real confidence in his
+judgment. But it was impossible for any man, engaged as he is, to go
+over all the ground covered by so extensive a piece of critical work
+as these three volumes contain, with effective attention.] appends a
+refrigerating note, saying, "The St. Francis in the glory is new, but
+the angels are in part preserved. The rest has all been more or less
+retouched; and no judgment can be given as to the colour of this--or any
+other (!)--of these works."
+
+You are, therefore--instructed reader--called upon to admire a piece of
+art which no painter ever produced the equal of except Raphael; but it
+is unhappily deficient, according to Crowe, in the "mere rendering of
+form"; and, according to Signor Cavalcasella, "no opinion can be given
+as to its colour."
+
+Warned thus of the extensive places where the ice is dangerous, and
+forbidden to look here either for form or colour, you are to admire "the
+variety of character and expression in the heads." I do not myself know
+how these are to be given without form or colour; but there appears to
+me, in my innocence, to be only one head in the whole picture, drawn up
+and down in different positions.
+
+The "unity and harmony" of the whole--which make this an exceptional
+work of its kind--mean, I suppose, its general look of having been
+painted out of a scavenger's cart; and so we are reduced to the last
+article of our creed according to Crowe,--
+
+"In the composition of this scene Giotto produced a masterpiece."
+
+Well, possibly. The question is, What you mean by 'composition.' Which,
+putting modern criticism now out of our way, I will ask the reader to
+think, in front of this wreck of Giotto, with some care.
+
+Was it, in the first place, to Giotto, think you, the "composition of
+a scene," or the conception of a fact? You probably, if a fashionable
+person, have seen the apotheosis of Margaret in Faust? You know what
+care is taken, nightly, in the composition of that scene,--how the
+draperies are arranged for it; the lights turned off, and on; the
+fiddlestrings taxed for their utmost tenderness; the bassoons exhorted
+to a grievous solemnity.
+
+You don't believe, however, that any real soul of a Margaret ever
+appeared to any mortal in that manner?
+
+_Here_ is an apotheosis also. Composed!--yes; figures high on the right
+and left, low in the middle, etc., etc., etc.
+
+But the important questions seem to me, Was there ever a St.
+Francis?--_did_ he ever receive stigmata?--_did_his soul go up to
+heaven--did any monk see it rising--and did Giotto mean to tell us so?
+If you will be good enough to settle these few small points in your mind
+first, the "composition" will take a wholly different aspect to you,
+according to your answer.
+
+Nor does it seem doubtful to me what your answer, after investigation
+made, must be.
+
+There assuredly was a St. Francis, whose life and works you had better
+study than either to-day's Galignani, or whatever, this year, may supply
+the place of the Tichborne case, in public interest.
+
+His reception of the stigmata is, perhaps, a marvellous instance of
+the power of imagination over physical conditions; perhaps an equally
+marvellous instance of the swift change of metaphor into tradition; but
+assuredly, and beyond dispute, one of the most influential, significant,
+and instructive traditions possessed by the Church of Christ. And, that,
+if ever soul rose to heaven from the dead body, his soul did so rise, is
+equally sure.
+
+And, finally, Giotto believed that all he was called on to represent,
+concerning St. Francis, really had taken place, just as surely as you,
+if you are a Christian, believe that Christ died and rose again; and he
+represents it with all fidelity and passion: but, as I just now said, he
+is a man of supreme common sense;--has as much humour and clearness
+of sight as Chaucer, and as much dislike of falsehood in clergy, or in
+professedly pious people: and in his gravest moments he will still see
+and say truly that what is fat, is fat--and what is lean, lean--and what
+is hollow, empty.
+
+His great point, however, in this fresco, is the assertion of the
+reality of the stigmata against all question. There is not only one St.
+Thomas to be convinced; there are five;--one to each wound. Of these,
+four are intent only on satisfying their curiosity, and are peering or
+probing; one only kisses the hand he has lifted. The rest of the picture
+never was much more than a grey drawing of a noble burial service; of
+all concerned in which, one monk, only, is worthy to see the soul taken
+up to heaven; and he is evidently just the monk whom nobody in the
+convent thought anything of. (His face is all repainted; but one can
+gather this much, or little, out of it, yet.)
+
+Of the composition, or "unity and harmony of the whole," as a burial
+service, we may better judge after we have looked at the brighter
+picture of St. Francis's Birth--birth spiritual, that is to say, to his
+native heaven; the uppermost, namely, of the three subjects on this side
+of the chapel. It is entirely characteristic of Giotto; much of it by
+his hand--all of it beautiful. All important matters to be known of
+Giotto you may know from this fresco.
+
+'But we can't see it, even with our opera-glasses, but all foreshortened
+and spoiled. What is the use of lecturing us on this?'
+
+That is precisely the first point which is essentially Giottesque in
+it; its being so out of the way! It is this which makes it a perfect
+specimen of the master. I will tell you next something about a work of
+his which you can see perfectly, just behind you on the opposite side of
+the wall; but that you have half to break your neck to look at this one,
+is the very first thing I want you to feel.
+
+It is a characteristic--(as far as I know, quite a universal one)--of
+the greatest masters, that they never expect you to look at them; seem
+always rather surprised if you want to; and not overpleased. Tell them
+you are going to hang their picture at the upper end of the table at the
+next great City dinner, and that Mr. So and So will make a speech about
+it; you produce no impression upon them whatever, or an unfavourable
+one. The chances are ten to one they send you the most rubbishy thing
+they can find in their lumber-room. But send for one of them in a hurry,
+and tell him the rats have gnawed a nasty hole behind the parlor
+door, and you want it plastered and painted over;--and he does you a
+masterpiece which the world will peep behind your door to look at for
+ever.
+
+I have no time to tell you why this is so; nor do I know why,
+altogether; but so it is.
+
+Giotto, then, is sent for, to paint this high chapel: I am not sure if
+he chose his own subjects from the life of St. Francis: I think so,--but
+of course can't reason on the guess securely. At all events, he would
+have much of his own way in the matter.
+
+Now you must observe that painting a Gothic chapel rightly is just the
+same thing as painting a Greek vase rightly. The chapel is merely the
+vase turned upside-down, and outside-in. The principles of decoration
+are exactly the same. Your decoration is to be proportioned to the size
+of your vase; to be together delightful when you look at the cup, or
+chapel, as a whole; to be various and entertaining when you turn the cup
+round; (you turn _yourself_ round in the chapel;) and to bend its heads
+and necks of figures about, as it best can, over the hollows, and ins
+and outs, so that anyhow, whether too long or too short-possible or
+impossible--they may be living, and full of grace. You will also please
+take it on my word today--in another morning walk you shall have proof
+of it--that Giotto was a pure Etruscan-Greek of the thirteenth century:
+converted indeed to worship St. Francis instead of Heracles; but as far
+as vase-painting goes, precisely the Etruscan he was before. This is
+nothing else than a large, beautiful, coloured Etruscan vase you have
+got, inverted over your heads like a diving-bell.' [Footnote: I observe
+that recent criticism is engaged in proving all Etruscan vases to be of
+late manufacture, in imitation of archaic Greek. And I therefore
+must briefly anticipate a statement which I shall have to enforce in
+following letters. Etruscan art remains in its own Italian valleys,
+of the Arno and upper Tiber, in one unbroken series of work, from
+the seventh century before Christ, to this hour, when the country
+whitewasher still scratches his plaster in Etruscan patterns. All
+Florentine work of the finest kind--Luca della Robbia's, Ghiberti's,
+Donatello's, Filippo Lippi's, Botticelli's, Fra Angelico's--is
+absolutely pure Etruscan, merely changing its subjects, and representing
+the Virgin instead of Athena, and Christ instead of Jupiter. Every line
+of the Florentine chisel in the fifteenth century is based on national
+principles of art which existed in the seventh century before Christ;
+and Angelico, in his convent of St. Dominic, at the foot of the hill of
+Fesole, is as true an Etruscan as the builder who laid the rude stones
+of the wall along its crest--of which modern civilization has used the
+only arch that remained for cheap building stone. Luckily, I sketched it
+in 1845. but alas, too carelessly,--never conceiving of the brutalities
+of modern Italy as possible.]
+
+Accordingly, after the quatrefoil ornamentation of the top of the bell,
+you get two spaces at the sides under arches, very difficult to
+cramp one's picture into, if it is to be a picture only; but entirely
+provocative of our old Etruscan instinct of ornament. And, spurred by
+the difficulty, and pleased by the national character of it, we put
+our best work into these arches, utterly neglectful of the public
+below,--who will see the white and red and blue spaces, at any rate,
+which is all they will want to see, thinks Giotto, if he ever looks down
+from his scaffold.
+
+Take the highest compartment, then, on the left, looking towards the
+window. It was wholly impossible to get the arch filled with figures,
+unless they stood on each other's heads; so Giotto ekes it out with a
+piece of fine architecture. Raphael, in the Sposalizio, does the same,
+for pleasure.
+
+Then he puts two dainty little white figures, bending, on each flank,
+to stop up his corners. But he puts the taller inside on the right,
+and outside on the left. And he puts his Greek chorus of observant and
+moralizing persons on each side of his main action.
+
+Then he puts one Choragus--or leader of chorus, supporting the main
+action--on each side. Then he puts the main action in the middle--which
+is a quarrel about that white bone of contention in the centre. Choragus
+on the right, who sees that the bishop is going to have the best of it,
+backs him serenely. Choragus on the left, who sees that his impetuous
+friend is going to get the worst of it, is pulling him back, and trying
+to keep him quiet. The subject of the picture, which, after you are
+quite sure it is good as a decoration, but not till then, you may be
+allowed to understand, is the following. One of St. Francis's three
+great virtues being Obedience, he begins his spiritual life by
+quarreling with his father. He, I suppose in modern terms I should say,
+commercially invests some of his father's goods in charity. His father
+objects to that investment; on which St. Francis runs away, taking what
+he can find about the house along with him. His father follows to claim
+his property, but finds it is all gone, already; and that St. Francis
+has made friends with the Bishop of Assisi. His father flies into an
+indecent passion, and declares he will disinherit him; on which
+St. Francis then and there takes all his clothes off, throws them
+frantically in his father's face, and says he has nothing more to
+do with clothes or father. The good Bishop, in tears of admiration,
+embraces St. Francis, and covers him with his own mantle.
+
+I have read the picture to you as, if Mr. Spurgeon knew anything about
+art, Mr. Spurgeon would read it,--that is to say, from the plain, common
+sense, Protestant side. If you are content with that view of it, you
+may leave the chapel, and, as far as any study of history is concerned,
+Florence also; for you can never know anything either about Giotto, or
+her.
+
+Yet do not be afraid of my re-reading it to you from the mystic,
+nonsensical, and Papistical side. I am going to read it to you--if after
+many and many a year of thought, I am able--as Giotto meant it; Giotto
+being, as far as we know, then the man of strongest brain and hand in
+Florence; the best friend of the best religious poet of the world; and
+widely differing, as his friend did also, in his views of the world,
+from either Mr. Spurgeon, or Pius IX.
+
+The first duty of a child is to obey its father and mother; as the first
+duty of a citizen to obey the laws of his state. And this duty is so
+strict that I believe the only limits to it are those fixed by Isaac and
+Iphigenia. On the other hand, the father and mother have also a fixed
+duty to the child--not to provoke it to wrath. I have never heard this
+text explained to fathers and mothers from the pulpit, which is curious.
+For it appears to me that God will expect the parents to understand
+their duty to their children, better even than children can be expected
+to know their duty to their parents.
+
+But farther. A _child's_ duty is to obey its parents. It is never said
+anywhere in the Bible, and never was yet said in any good or wise book,
+that a man's, or woman's, is. _When,_ precisely, a child becomes a man
+or a woman, it can no more be said, than when it should first stand on
+its legs. But a time assuredly comes when it should. In great states,
+children are always trying to remain children, and the parents wanting
+to make men and women of them. In vile states, the children are always
+wanting to be men and women, and the parents to keep them children.
+It may be--and happy the house in which it is so--that the father's at
+least equal intellect, and older experience, may remain to the end of
+his life a law to his children, not of force, but of perfect guidance,
+with perfect love. Rarely it is so; not often possible. It is as natural
+for the old to be prejudiced as for the young to be presumptuous; and,
+in the change of centuries, each generation has something to judge of
+for itself.
+
+But this scene, on which Giotto has dwelt with so great force,
+represents, not the child's assertion of his independence, but his
+adoption of another Father.
+
+You must not confuse the desire of this boy of Assisi to obey God
+rather than man, with the desire of your young cockney Hopeful to have a
+latch-key, and a separate allowance.
+
+No point of duty has been more miserably warped and perverted by false
+priests, in all churches, than this duty of the young to choose whom
+they will serve. But the duty itself does not the less exist; and if
+there be any truth in Christianity at all, there will come, for all true
+disciples, a time when they have to take that saying to heart, "He that
+loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me."
+
+'_Loveth_'--observe. There is no talk of disobeying fathers or mothers
+whom you do not love, or of running away from a home where you would
+rather not stay. But to leave the home which is your peace, and to be at
+enmity with those who are most dear to you,--this, if there be meaning
+in Christ's words, one day or other will be demanded of His true
+followers.
+
+And there is meaning in Christ's words. Whatever misuse may have been
+made of them,--whatever false prophets--and Heaven knows there have
+been many--have called the young children to them, not to bless, but to
+curse, the assured fact remains, that if you will obey God, there will
+come a moment when the voice of man will be raised, with all its holiest
+natural authority, against you. The friend and the wise adviser--the
+brother and the sister--the father and the master--the entire voice of
+your prudent and keen-sighted acquaintance--the entire weight of the
+scornful stupidity of the vulgar world--for _once_, they will be against
+you, all at one. You have to obey God rather than man. The human race,
+with all its wisdom and love, all its indignation and folly, on one
+side,--God alone on the other. You have to choose.
+
+That is the meaning of St. Francis's renouncing his inheritance; and
+it is the beginning of Giotto's gospel of Works. Unless this hardest
+of deeds be done first,--this inheritance of mammon and the world cast
+away,--all other deeds are useless. You cannot serve, cannot obey, God
+and mammon. No charities, no obediences, no self-denials, are of any
+use, while you are still at heart in conformity with the world. You
+go to church, because the world goes. You keep Sunday, because your
+neighbours keep it. But you dress ridiculously, because your neighbours
+ask it; and you dare not do a rough piece of work, because your
+neighbours despise it. You must renounce your neighbour, in his riches
+and pride, and remember him in his distress. That is St. Francis's
+'disobedience.'
+
+And now you can understand the relation of subjects throughout the
+chapel, and Giotto's choice of them.
+
+The roof has the symbols of the three virtues of labour--Poverty,
+Chastity, Obedience.
+
+A. Highest on the left side, looking to the window. The life of St.
+Francis begins in his renunciation of the world.
+
+B. Highest on the right side. His new life is approved and ordained by
+the authority of the church.
+
+C. Central on the left side. He preaches to his own disciples.
+
+D. Central on the right side. He preaches to the heathen.
+
+E. Lowest on the left side. His burial.
+
+F. Lowest on the right side. His power after death.
+
+Besides these six subjects, there are, on the sides of the window,
+the four great Franciscan saints, St. Louis of France, St. Louis of
+Toulouse, St. Clare, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary.
+
+So that you have in the whole series this much given you to think of:
+first, the law of St. Francis's conscience; then, his own adoption of
+it; then, the ratification of it by the Christian Church; then, his
+preaching it in life; then, his preaching it in death; and then, the
+fruits of it in his disciples.
+
+I have only been able myself to examine, or in any right sense to see,
+of this code of subjects, the first, second, fourth, and the St. Louis
+and Elizabeth. I will ask _you_ only to look at two more of them,
+namely, St. Francis before the Soldan, midmost on your right, and St.
+Louis.
+
+The Soldan, with an ordinary opera-glass, you may see clearly enough;
+and I think it will be first well to notice some technical points in it.
+
+If the little virgin on the stairs of the temple reminded you of one
+composition of Titian's, this Soldan should, I think, remind you of all
+that is greatest in Titian; so forcibly, indeed, that for my own part,
+if I had been told that a careful early fresco by Titian had been
+recovered in Santa Croce, I could have believed both report and my own
+eyes, more quickly than I have been able to admit that this is indeed
+by Giotto. It is so great that--had its principles been understood-there
+was in reality nothing more to be taught of art in Italy; nothing to be
+invented afterwards, except Dutch effects of light.
+
+That there is no 'effect of light' here arrived at, I beg you at once
+to observe as a most important lesson. The subject is St. Francis
+challenging the Soldan's Magi,--fire-worshippers--to pass with him
+through the fire, which is blazing red at his feet. It is so hot that
+the two Magi on the other side of the throne shield their faces. But
+it is represented simply as a red mass of writhing forms of flame; and
+casts no firelight whatever. There is no ruby colour on anybody's
+nose: there are no black shadows under anybody's chin; there are no
+Rembrandtesque gradations of gloom, or glitterings of sword-hilt and
+armour.
+
+Is this ignorance, think you, in Giotto, and pure artlessness? He was
+now a man in middle life, having passed all his days in painting, and
+professedly, and almost contentiously, painting things as he saw them.
+Do you suppose he never saw fire cast firelight?--and he the friend of
+Dante! who of all poets is the most subtle in his sense of every kind of
+effect of light--though he has been thought by the public to know that
+of fire only. Again and again, his ghosts wonder that there is no shadow
+cast by Dante's body; and is the poet's friend, _because_ a painter,
+likely, therefore, not to have known that mortal substance casts shadow,
+and terrestrial flame, light? Nay, the passage in the 'Purgatorio' where
+the shadows from the morning sunshine make the flames redder, reaches
+the accuracy of Newtonian science; and does Giotto, think you, all the
+while, see nothing of the sort?
+
+The fact was, he saw light so intensely that he never for an instant
+thought of painting it. He knew that to paint the sun was as impossible
+as to stop it; and he was no trickster, trying to find out ways of
+seeming to do what he did not. I can paint a rose,--yes; and I will. I
+can't paint a red-hot coal; and I won't try to, nor seem to. This was
+just as natural and certain a process of thinking with _him_, as the
+honesty of it, and true science, were impossible to the false painters
+of the sixteenth century.
+
+Nevertheless, what his art can honestly do to make you feel as much as
+he wants you to feel, about this fire, he will do; and that studiously.
+That the fire be _luminous_ or not, is no matter just now. But that
+the fire is _hot_, he would have you to know. Now, will you notice what
+colours he has used in the whole picture. First, the blue background,
+necessary to unite it with the other three subjects, is reduced to the
+smallest possible space. St. Francis must be in grey, for that is his
+dress; also the attendant of one of the Magi is in grey; but so warm,
+that, if you saw it by itself, you would call it brown. The shadow
+behind the throne, which Giotto knows he _can_ paint, and therefore
+does, is grey also. The rest of the picture [Footnote: The floor has
+been repainted; but though its grey is now heavy and cold, it cannot
+kill the splendour of the rest.] in at least six-sevenths of its
+area--is either crimson, gold, orange, purple, or white, all as warm as
+Giotto could paint them; and set off by minute spaces only of intense
+black,--the Soldan's fillet at the shoulders, his eyes, beard, and the
+points necessary in the golden pattern behind. And the whole picture is
+one glow.
+
+A single glance round at the other subjects will convince you of the
+special character in this; but you will recognize also that the four
+upper subjects, in which St. Francis's life and zeal are shown, are all
+in comparatively warm colours, while the two lower ones--of the death,
+and the visions after it--have been kept as definitely sad and cold.
+
+Necessarily, you might think, being full of monks' dresses. Not so. Was
+there any need for Giotto to have put the priest at the foot of the dead
+body, with the black banner stooped over it in the shape of a grave?
+Might he not, had he chosen, in either fresco, have made the celestial
+visions brighter? Might not St. Francis have appeared in the centre of a
+celestial glory to the dreaming Pope, or his soul been seen of the poor
+monk, rising through more radiant clouds? Look, however, how radiant, in
+the small space allowed out of the blue, they are in reality. You cannot
+anywhere see a lovelier piece of Giottesque colour, though here, you
+have to mourn over the smallness of the piece, and its isolation. For
+the face of St. Francis himself is repainted, and all the blue sky; but
+the clouds and four sustaining angels are hardly retouched at all, and
+their iridescent and exquisitely graceful wings are left with really
+very tender and delicate care by the restorer of the sky. And no one but
+Giotto or Turner could have painted them.
+
+For in all his use of opalescent and warm colour, Giotto is exactly like
+Turner, as, in his swift expressional power, he is like Gainsborough.
+All the other Italian religious painters work out their expression with
+toil; he only can give it with a touch. All the other great Italian
+colourists see only the beauty of colour, but Giotto also its
+brightness. And none of the others, except Tintoret, understood to the
+full its symbolic power; but with those--Giotto and Tintoret--there is
+always, not only a colour harmony, but a colour secret. It is not merely
+to make the picture glow, but to remind you that St. Francis preaches
+to a fire-worshipping king, that Giotto covers the wall with purple
+and scarlet;--and above, in the dispute at Assisi, the angry father
+is dressed in red, varying like passion; and the robe with which his
+protector embraces St. Francis, blue, symbolizing the peace of Heaven,
+Of course certain conventional colours were traditionally employed by
+all painters; but only Giotto and Tintoret invent a symbolism of their
+own for every picture. Thus in Tintoret's picture of the fall of the
+manna, the figure of God the Father is entirely robed in white, contrary
+to all received custom: in that of Moses striking the rock, it is
+surrounded by a rainbow. Of Giotto's symbolism in colour at Assisi, I
+have given account elsewhere. [Footnote: 'Fors Clavigera' for September,
+1874.]
+
+You are not to think, therefore, the difference between the colour of
+the upper and lower frescos unintentional. The life of St. Francis
+was always full of joy and triumph. His death, in great suffering,
+weariness, and extreme humility. The tradition of him reverses that of
+Elijah; living, he is seen in the chariot of fire; dying, he submits to
+more than the common sorrow of death.
+
+There is, however, much more than a difference in colour between the
+upper and lower frescos. There is a difference in manner which I
+cannot account for; and above all, a very singular difference in
+skill,--indicating, it seems to me, that the two lower were done long
+before the others, and afterwards united and harmonized with them. It
+is of no interest to the general reader to pursue this question; but
+one point he can notice quickly, that the lower frescos depend much on
+a mere black or brown outline of the features, while the faces above
+are evenly and completely painted in the most accomplished Venetian
+manner:--and another, respecting the management of the draperies,
+contains much interest for us.
+
+Giotto never succeeded, to the very end of his days, in representing a
+figure lying down, and at ease. It is one of the most curious points
+in all his character. Just the thing which he could study from nature
+without the smallest hindrance, is the thing he never can paint;
+while subtleties of form and gesture, which depend absolutely on their
+momentariness, and actions in which no model can stay for an instant, he
+seizes with infallible accuracy.
+
+Not only has the sleeping Pope, in the right hand lower fresco, his
+head laid uncomfortably on his pillow, but all the clothes on him are in
+awkward angles, even Giotto's instinct for lines of drapery failing him
+altogether when he has to lay it on a reposing figure. But look at the
+folds of the Soldan's robe over his knees. None could be more beautiful
+or right; and it is to me wholly inconceivable that the two paintings
+should be within even twenty years of each other in date--the skill in
+the upper one is so supremely greater. We shall find, however, more than
+mere truth in its casts of drapery, if we examine them.
+
+They are so simply right, in the figure of the Soldan, that we do not
+think of them;--we see him only, not his dress But we see dress first,
+in the figures of the discomfited Magi. Very fully draped personages
+these, indeed,--with trains, it appears, four yards long, and bearers of
+them.
+
+The one nearest the Soldan has done his devoir as bravely as he could;
+would fain go up to the fire, but cannot; is forced to shield his face,
+though he has not turned back. Giotto gives him full sweeping breadth
+of fold; what dignity he can;--a man faithful to his profession, at all
+events.
+
+The next one has no such courage. Collapsed altogether, he has nothing
+more to say for himself or his creed. Giotto hangs the cloak upon him,
+in Ghirlandajo's fashion, as from a peg, but with ludicrous narrowness
+of fold. Literally, he is a 'shut-up' Magus--closed like a fan. He turns
+his head away, hopelessly. And the last Magus shows nothing but his
+back, disappearing through the door.
+
+Opposed to them, in a modern work, you would have had a St. Francis
+standing as high as he could in his sandals, contemptuous, denunciatory;
+magnificently showing the Magi the door. No such thing, says Giotto. A
+somewhat mean man; disappointing enough in presence-even in feature;
+I do not understand his gesture, pointing to his forehead--perhaps
+meaning, 'my life, or my head, upon the truth of this.' The attendant
+monk behind him is terror-struck; but will follow his master. The
+dark Moorish servants of the Magi show no emotion--will arrange their
+masters' trains as usual, and decorously sustain their retreat.
+
+Lastly, for the Soldan himself. In a modern work, you would assuredly
+have had him staring at St. Francis with his eyebrows up, or frowning
+thunderously at his Magi, with them bent as far down as they would go.
+Neither of these aspects does he bear, according to Giotto. A perfect
+gentleman and king, he looks on his Magi with quiet eyes of decision; he
+is much the noblest person in the room--though an infidel, the true hero
+of the scene, far more than St. Francis. It is evidently the Soldan
+whom Giotto wants you to think of mainly, in this picture of Christian
+missionary work.
+
+He does not altogether take the view of the Heathen which you would get
+in an Exeter Hall meeting. Does not expatiate on their ignorance, their
+blackness, or their nakedness. Does not at all think of the Florentine
+Islington and Pentonville, as inhabited by persons in every respect
+superior to the kings of the East; nor does he imagine every other
+religion but his own to be log-worship. Probably the people who really
+worship logs--whether in Persia or Pentonville--will be left to worship
+logs to their hearts' content, thinks Giotto. But to those who worship
+_God_, and who have obeyed the laws of heaven written in their hearts,
+and numbered the stars of it visible to them,--to these, a nearer star
+may rise; and a higher God be revealed.
+
+You are to note, therefore, that Giotto's Soldan is the type of all
+noblest religion and law, in countries where the name of Christ has not
+been preached. There was no doubt what king or people should be chosen:
+the country of the three Magi had already been indicated by the miracle
+of Bethlehem; and the religion and morality of Zoroaster were the
+purest, and in spirit the oldest, in the heathen world. Therefore, when
+Dante, in the nineteenth and twentieth books of the Paradise, gives his
+final interpretation of the law of human and divine justice in relation
+to the gospel of Christ--the lower and enslaved body of the heathen
+being represented by St. Philip's convert, ("Christians like these
+the Ethiop shall condemn")--the noblest state of heathenism is at once
+chosen, as by Giotto: "What may the _Persians_ say unto _your_ kings?"
+Compare also Milton,--
+
+                      "At the Soldan's chair,
+                Defied the best of Paynim chivalry."
+
+And now, the time is come for you to look at Giotto's St. Louis, who is
+the type of a Christian king.
+
+You would, I suppose, never have seen it at all, unless I had dragged
+you here on purpose. It was enough in the dark originally--is trebly
+darkened by the modern painted glass--and dismissed to its oblivion
+contentedly by Mr. Murray's "Four saints, all much restored and
+repainted," and Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcasella's serene "The St. Louis
+is quite new."
+
+Now, I am the last person to call any restoration whatever, judicious.
+Of all destructive manias, that of restoration is the frightfullest and
+foolishest. Nevertheless, what good, in its miserable way, it can bring,
+the poor art scholar must now apply his common sense to take; there is
+no use, because a great work has been restored, in now passing it by
+altogether, not even looking for what instruction we still may find in
+its design, which will be more intelligible, if the restorer has had any
+conscience at all, to the ordinary spectator, than it would have been
+in the faded work. When, indeed, Mr. Murray's Guide tells you that a
+_building_ has been 'magnificently restored,' you may pass the building
+by in resigned despair; for _that_ means that every bit of the old
+sculpture has been destroyed, and modern vulgar copies put up in its
+place. But a restored picture or fresco will often be, to _you_, more
+useful than a pure one; and in all probability--if an important piece
+of art--it will have been spared in many places, cautiously completed
+in others, and still assert itself in a mysterious way--as Leonardo's
+Cenacolo does--through every phase of reproduction. [Footnote: For a
+test of your feeling in the matter, having looked well at these two
+lower frescos in this chapel, walk round into the next, and examine the
+lower one on your left hand as you enter that. You will find in your
+Murray that the frescos in this chapel "were also till lately, (1862)
+covered with whitewash"; but I happen to have a long critique of this
+particular picture written in the year 1845, and I see no change in it
+since then. Mr. Murray's critic also tells you to observe in it that
+"the daughter of Herodias playing on a violin is not unlike Perugino's
+treatment of similar subjects." By which Mr. Murray's critic means that
+the male musician playing on a violin, whom, without looking either at
+his dress, or at the rest of the fresco, he took for the daughter
+of Herodias, has a broad face. Allowing you the full benefit of this
+criticism--there is still a point or two more to be observed. This is
+the only fresco near the ground in which Giotto's work is untouched, at
+least, by the modern restorer. So felicitously safe it is, that you may
+learn from it at once and for ever, what good fresco painting
+is--how quiet--how delicately clear--how little coarsely or vulgarly
+attractive--how capable of the most tender light and shade, and of the
+most exquisite and enduring colour.
+
+In this latter respect, this fresco stands almost alone among the works
+of Giotto; the striped curtain behind the table being wrought with a
+variety and fantasy of playing colour which Paul Veronese could not
+better at his best.
+
+You will find, without difficulty, in spite of the faint tints, the
+daughter of Herodias in the middle of the picture---slowly _moving_,
+not dancing, to the violin music--she herself playing on a lyre. In the
+farther corner of the picture, she gives St. John's head to her mother;
+the face of Herodias is almost entirely faded, which may be a farther
+guarantee to you of the safety of the rest. The subject of the
+Apocalypse, highest on the right, is one of the most interesting mythic
+pictures in Florence; nor do I know any other so completely rendering
+the meaning of the scene between the woman in the wilderness, and the
+Dragon enemy. But it cannot be seen from the floor level: and I have no
+power of showing its beauty in words.]
+
+But I can assure you, in the first place, that St. Louis is by no means
+altogether new. I have been up at it, and found most lovely and true
+colour left in many parts: the crown, which you will find, after our
+mornings at the Spanish chapel, is of importance, nearly untouched;
+the lines of the features and hair, though all more or less reproduced,
+still of definite and notable character; and the junction throughout of
+added colour so careful, that the harmony of the whole, if not delicate
+with its old tenderness, is at least, in its coarser way, solemn
+and unbroken. Such as the figure remains, it still possesses extreme
+beauty--profoundest interest. And, as you can see it from below with
+your glass, it leaves little to be desired, and may be dwelt upon with
+more profit than nine out of ten of the renowned pictures of the Tribune
+or the Pitti. You will enter into the spirit of it better if I first
+translate for you a little piece from the Fioretti di San Francesco.
+
+_"How St. Louis, King of France, went personally in the guise of a
+pilgrim, to Perugia, to visit the holy Brother Giles._--St. Louis, King
+of France, went on pilgrimage to visit the sanctuaries of the world; and
+hearing the most great fame of the holiness of Brother Giles, who had
+been among the first companions of St. Francis, put it in his heart, and
+determined assuredly that he would visit him personally; wherefore he
+came to Perugia, where was then staying the said brother. And coming to
+the gate of the place of the Brothers, with few companions, and being
+unknown, he asked with great earnestness for Brother Giles, telling
+nothing to the porter who he was that asked. The porter, therefore, goes
+to Brother Giles, and says that there is a pilgrim asking for him at
+the gate. And by God it was inspired in him and revealed that it was the
+King of France; whereupon quickly with great fervour he left his cell
+and ran to the gate, and without any question asked, or ever having seen
+each other before, kneeling down together with greatest devotion, they
+embraced and kissed each other with as much familiarity as if for a long
+time they had held great friendship; but all the while neither the
+one nor the other spoke, but stayed, so embraced, with such signs of
+charitable love, in silence. And so having remained for a great while,
+they parted from one another, and St. Louis went on his way, and Brother
+Giles returned to his cell. And the King being gone, one of the brethren
+asked of his companion who he was, who answered that he was the King
+of France. Of which the other brothers being told, were in the greatest
+melancholy because Brother Giles had never said a word to him; and
+murmuring at it, they said, 'Oh, Brother Giles, wherefore hadst thou so
+country manners that to so holy a king, who had come from France to see
+thee and hear from thee some good word, thou hast spoken nothing?'
+
+"Answered Brother Giles: 'Dearest brothers, wonder not ye at this, that
+neither I to him, nor he to me, could speak a word; for so soon as we
+had embraced, the light of the divine wisdom revealed and manifested,
+to me, his heart, and to him, mine; and so by divine operation we looked
+each in the other's heart on what we would have said to one another, and
+knew it better far than if we had spoken with the mouth, and with more
+consolation, because of the defect of the human tongue, which cannot
+clearly express the secrets of God, and would have been for discomfort
+rather than comfort. And know, therefore, that the King parted from me
+marvellously content, and comforted in his mind.'"
+
+Of all which story, not a word, of course, is credible by any rational
+person.
+
+Certainly not: the spirit, nevertheless, which created the story, is
+an entirely indisputable fact in the history of Italy and of mankind.
+Whether St. Louis and Brother Giles ever knelt together in the street
+of Perugia matters not a whit. That a king and a poor monk could be
+conceived to have thoughts of each other which no words could speak; and
+that indeed the King's tenderness and humility made such a tale credible
+to the people,--this is what you have to meditate on here.
+
+Nor is there any better spot in the world,--whencesoever your pilgrim
+feet may have journeyed to it, wherein to make up so much mind as
+you have in you for the making, concerning the nature of Kinghood and
+Princedom generally; and of the forgeries and mockeries of both which
+are too often manifested in their room. For it happens that this
+Christian and this Persian King are better painted here by Giotto than
+elsewhere by any one, so as to give you the best attainable conception
+of the Christian and Heathen powers which have both received, in the
+book which Christians profess to reverence, the same epithet as the King
+of the Jews Himself; anointed, or Christos:--and as the most perfect
+Christian Kinghood was exhibited in the life, partly real, partly
+traditional, of St. Louis, so the most perfect Heathen Kinghood was
+exemplified in the life, partly real, partly traditional, of Cyrus of
+Persia, and in the laws for human government and education which had
+chief force in his dynasty. And before the images of these two Kings
+I think therefore it will be well that you should read the charge to
+Cyrus, written by Isaiah. The second clause of it, if not all, will here
+become memorable to you--literally illustrating, as it does, the very
+manner of the defeat of the Zoroastrian Magi, on which Giotto founds
+his Triumph of Faith. I write the leading sentences continuously; what I
+omit is only their amplification, which you can easily refer to at home.
+(Isaiah xliv. 24, to xlv. 13.)
+
+"Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the
+womb. I the Lord that maketh all; that stretcheth forth the heavens,
+alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth, alone; _that turneth wise men
+backward, and maketh their knowledge, foolish; that confirmeth the word
+of his Servant, and fulfilleth the counsel of his messengers_: that
+saith of Cyrus, He is my Shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,
+even saying to Jerusalem, 'thou shalt be built,' and to the temple, 'thy
+foundations shall be laid."
+
+"Thus saith the Lord to his Christ;--to Cyrus, whose right hand I have
+holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of
+Kings.
+
+"I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will
+break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron;
+and I will give _thee_ the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of
+secret places, that thou mayest know that I the Lord, which call thee by
+thy name, am the God of Israel.
+
+"For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called
+thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
+
+"I am the Lord, and there is none else; there is no God beside me. I
+girded thee, though thou hast not known me. That they may know, from the
+_rising of the sun_, and from the west, that there is none beside me;
+I am the Lord and there is none else. _I form the light_, and create
+darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.
+
+"I have raised him up in Righteousness, and will direct all his ways; he
+shall build my city, and let go my captives, not for price nor reward,
+saith the Lord of Nations."
+
+To this last verse, add the ordinance of Cyrus in fulfilling it,
+that you may understand what is meant by a King's being "raised up in
+Righteousness," and notice, with respect to the picture under which you
+stand, the Persian King's thought of the Jewish temple.
+
+"In the first year of the reign of Cyrus, [Footnote: 1st Esdras vi. 24.]
+King Cyrus commanded that the house of the Lord at Jerusalem should
+be built again, _where they do service with perpetual fire_; (the
+italicized sentence is Darius's, quoting Cyrus's decree--the decree
+itself worded thus), Thus saith Cyrus, King of Persia: [Footnote: Ezra
+i. 3, and 2nd Esdras ii. 3.] The Lord God of heaven hath given me all
+the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him an house
+at Jerusalem.
+
+"Who is there among you of all his people?--his God be with him, and let
+him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and let the men of his place
+help him with silver and with gold, and with goods and with beasts."
+
+Between which "bringing the prisoners out of captivity" and modern
+liberty, free trade, and anti-slavery eloquence, there is no small
+interval.
+
+To these two ideals of Kinghood, then, the boy has reached, since the
+day he was drawing the lamb on the stone, as Cimabue passed by. You will
+not find two other such, that I know of, in the west of Europe; and yet
+there has been many a try at the painting of crowned heads,--and King
+George III and Queen Charlotte, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, are very fine,
+no doubt. Also your black-muzzled kings of Velasquez, and Vandyke's
+long-haired and white-handed ones; and Rubens' riders--in those handsome
+boots. Pass such shadows of them as you can summon, rapidly before your
+memory--then look at this St. Louis.
+
+His face--gentle, resolute, glacial-pure, thin-cheeked; so sharp at
+the chin that the entire head is almost of the form of a knight's
+shield--the hair short on the forehead, falling on each side in the old
+Greek-Etruscan curves of simplest line, to the neck; I don't know if you
+can see without being nearer, the difference in the arrangement of it
+on the two sides-the mass of it on the right shoulder bending inwards,
+while that on the left falls straight. It is one of the pretty changes
+which a modern workman would never dream of--and which assures me the
+restorer has followed the old lines rightly.
+
+He wears a crown formed by an hexagonal pyramid, beaded with pearls
+on the edges: and walled round, above the brow, with a vertical
+fortress-parapet, as it were, rising into sharp pointed spines at the
+angles: it is chasing of gold with pearl--beautiful in the remaining
+work of it; the Soldan wears a crown of the same general form; the
+hexagonal outline signifying all order, strength, and royal economy. We
+shall see farther symbolism of this kind, soon, by Simon Memmi, in the
+Spanish chapel.
+
+I cannot tell you anything definite of the two other frescos--for I can
+only examine one or two pictures in a day; and never begin with one till
+I have done with another; and I had to leave Florence without looking
+at these--even so far as to be quite sure of their subjects. The central
+one on the left is either the twelfth subject of Assisi--St. Francis
+in Ecstacy; [Footnote: "Represented" (next to St. Francis before the
+Soldan, at Assisi) "as seen one night by the brethren, praying, elevated
+from the ground, his hands extended like the cross, and surrounded by a
+shining cloud."--_Lord Lindsay_.] or the eighteenth, the Apparition of
+St. Francis at Arles; [Footnote: "St. Anthony of Padua was preaching at
+a general chapter of the order, held at Arles, in 1224, when St.
+Francis appeared in the midst, his arms extended, and in an attitude of
+benediction."--_Lord Lindsay_.] while the lowest on the right may admit
+choice between two subjects in each half of it: my own reading of them
+would be--that they are the twenty-first and twenty-fifth subjects of
+Assisi, the Dying Friar [Footnote: "A brother of the order, lying on his
+deathbed, saw the spirit of St. Francis rising to heaven, and springing
+forward, cried, 'Tarry, Father, I come with thee!' and fell back
+dead."--_Lord Lindsay_.] and Vision of Pope Gregory IX.; [Footnote:
+"He hesitated, before canonizing St. Francis; doubting the celestial
+infliction of the stigmata. St. Francis appeared to him in a vision, and
+with a severe countenance reproving his unbelief, opened his robe, and,
+exposing the wound in his side, filled a vial with the blood that
+flowed from it, and gave it to the Pope, who awoke and found it in his
+hand."--_Lord Lindsay_.] but Crowe and Cavalcasella may be right in
+their different interpretation; [Footnote: "As St. Francis was carried
+on his bed of sickness to St. Maria degli Angeli, he stopped at an
+hospital on the roadside, and ordering his attendants to turn his head
+in the direction of Assisi, he rose in his litter and said, 'Blessed
+be thou amongst cities! may the blessing of God cling to thee, oh holy
+place, for by thee shall many souls be saved;' and, having said this, he
+lay down and was carried on to St. Maria degli Angeli. On the evening of
+the 4th of October his death was revealed at the very hour to the bishop
+of Assisi on Mount Sarzana."--_Crowe and Cavalcasella._] in any case,
+the meaning of the entire system of work remains unchanged, as I have
+given it above.
+
+
+
+
+THE FOURTH MORNING.
+
+THE VAULTED BOOK.
+
+
+As early as may be this morning, let us look for a minute or two into
+the cathedral:--I was going to say, entering by one of the side doors
+of the aisles;--but we can't do anything else, which perhaps might
+not strike you unless you were thinking specially of it. There are no
+transept doors; and one never wanders round to the desolate front. From
+either of the side doors, a few paces will bring you to the middle of
+the nave, and to the point opposite the middle of the third arch
+from the west end; where you will find yourself--if well in the
+mid-wave--standing on a circular slab of green porphyry, which marks
+the former place of the grave of the bishop Zenobius. The larger
+inscription, on the wide circle of the floor outside of you, records
+the translation of his body; the smaller one round the stone at your
+feet--"quiescimus, domum hanc quum adimus ultimam"--is a painful truth,
+I suppose, to travellers like us, who never rest anywhere now, if we can
+help it.
+
+Resting here, at any rate, for a few minutes, look up to the whitewashed
+vaulting of the compartment of the roof next the west end.
+
+You will see nothing whatever in it worth looking at. Nevertheless, look
+a little longer.
+
+But the longer you look, the less you will understand why I tell you to
+look. It is nothing but a whitewashed ceiling: vaulted indeed,--but so
+is many a tailor's garret window, for that matter. Indeed, now that you
+have looked steadily for a minute or so, and are used to the form of
+the arch, it seems to become so small that you can almost fancy it the
+ceiling of a good-sized lumber-room in an attic.
+
+Having attained to this modest conception of it, carry your eyes back
+to the similar vault of the second compartment, nearer you. Very little
+further contemplation will reduce that also to the similitude of a
+moderately-sized attic. And then, resolving to bear, if possible--for it
+is worth while,--the cramp in your neck for another quarter of a minute,
+look right up to the third vault, over your head; which, if not, in the
+said quarter of a minute, reducible in imagination to a tailor's garret,
+will at least sink, like the two others, into the semblance of a common
+arched ceiling, of no serious magnitude or majesty.
+
+Then, glance quickly down from it to the floor, and round at the space,
+(included between the four pillars), which that vault covers. It is
+sixty feet square,[Footnote: Approximately. Thinking I could find the
+dimensions of the duomo anywhere, I only paced it myself,--and cannot,
+at this moment, lay my hand on English measurements of it.]--four
+hundred square yards of pavement,--and I believe you will have to look
+up again more than once or twice, before you can convince yourself that
+the mean-looking roof is swept indeed over all that twelfth part of an
+acre. And still less, if I mistake not, will you, without slow proof,
+believe, when you turn yourself round towards the east end, that
+the narrow niche (it really looks scarcely more than a niche) which
+occupies, beyond the dome, the position of our northern choirs, is
+indeed the unnarrowed elongation of the nave, whose breadth extends
+round you like a frozen lake. From which experiments and comparisons,
+your conclusion, I think, will be, and I am sure it ought to be, that
+the most studious ingenuity could not produce a design for the interior
+of a building which should more completely hide its extent, and throw
+away every common advantage of its magnitude, than this of the Duomo of
+Florence.
+
+Having arrived at this, I assure you, quite securely tenable conclusion,
+we will quit the cathedral by the western door, for once, and as quickly
+as we can walk, return to the Green cloister of Sta. Maria Novella; and
+place ourselves on the south side of it, so as to see as much as we
+can of the entrance, on the opposite side, to the so-called 'Spanish
+Chapel.'
+
+There is, indeed, within the opposite cloister, an arch of entrance,
+plain enough. But no chapel, whatever, externally manifesting itself as
+worth entering. No walls, or gable, or dome, raised above the rest
+of the outbuildings--only two windows with traceries opening into the
+cloister; and one story of inconspicuous building above. You can't
+conceive there should be any effect of _magnitude_ produced in the
+interior, however it has been vaulted or decorated. It may be pretty,
+but it cannot possibly look large.
+
+Entering it, nevertheless, you will be surprised at the effect of
+height, and disposed to fancy that the circular window cannot surely be
+the same you saw outside, looking so low, I had to go out again, myself,
+to make sure that it was.
+
+And gradually, as you let the eye follow the sweep of the vaulting
+arches, from the small central keystone-boss, with the Lamp carved on
+it, to the broad capitals of the hexagonal pillars at the angles,--there
+will form itself in your mind, I think, some impression not only of
+vastness in the building, but of great daring in the builder; and at
+last, after closely following out the lines of a fresco or two, and
+looking up and up again to the coloured vaults, it will become to you
+literally one of the grandest places you ever entered, roofed without a
+central pillar. You will begin to wonder that human daring ever achieved
+anything so magnificent.
+
+But just go out again into the cloister, and recover knowledge of the
+facts. It is nothing like so large as the blank arch which at home we
+filled with brickbats or leased for a gin-shop under the last railway we
+made to carry coals to Newcastle. And if you pace the floor it covers,
+you will find it is three feet less one way, and thirty feet less the
+other, than that single square of the Cathedral which was roofed like a
+tailor's loft,--accurately, for I did measure here, myself, the floor of
+the Spanish chapel is fifty-seven feet by thirty-two.
+
+I hope, after this experience, that you will need no farther conviction
+of the first law of noble building, that grandeur depends on proportion
+and design--not, except in a quite secondary degree, on magnitude. Mere
+size has, indeed, under all disadvantage, some definite value; and so
+has mere splendour. Disappointed as you may be, or at least ought to be,
+at first, by St. Peter's, in the end you will feel its size,--and its
+brightness. These are all you _can_ feel in it--it is nothing more than
+the pump-room at Leamington built bigger;--but the bigness tells at
+last: and Corinthian pillars whose capitals alone are ten feet high,
+and their acanthus leaves, three feet six long, give you a serious
+conviction of the infallibility of the Pope, and the fallibility of
+the wretched Corinthians, who invented the style indeed, but built with
+capitals no bigger than hand-baskets.
+
+Vastness _has_ thus its value. But the glory of architecture is to
+be--whatever you wish it to be,--lovely, or grand, or comfortable,--on
+such terms as it can easily obtain. Grand, by proportion--lovely, by
+imagination--comfortable, by ingenuity--secure, by honesty: with such
+materials and in such space as you have got to give it.
+
+Grand--by proportion, I said; but ought to have said by _dis_proportion.
+Beauty is given by the relation of parts--size, by their comparison.
+The first secret in getting the impression of size in this chapel is
+the _dis_proportion between pillar and arch. You take the pillar for
+granted,--it is thick, strong, and fairly high above your head. You look
+to the vault springing from it--and it soars away, nobody knows where.
+
+Another great, but more subtle secret is in the _in_equality and
+immeasurability of the curved lines; and the hiding of the form by the
+colour.
+
+To begin, the room, I said, is fifty-seven feet wide, and only
+thirty-two deep. It is thus nearly one-third larger in the direction
+across the line of entrance, which gives to every arch, pointed and
+round, throughout the roof, a different spring from its neighbours.
+
+The vaulting ribs have the simplest of all profiles--that of a chamfered
+beam. I call it simpler than even that of a square beam; for in barking
+a log you cheaply get your chamfer, and nobody cares whether the level
+is alike on each side: but you must take a larger tree, and use much
+more work to get a square. And it is the same with stone.
+
+And this profile is--fix the conditions of it, therefore, in your
+mind,--venerable in the history of mankind as the origin of all Gothic
+tracery-mouldings; venerable in the history of the Christian Church as
+that of the roof ribs, both of the lower church of Assisi, bearing the
+scroll of the precepts of St. Francis, and here at Florence, bearing the
+scroll of the faith of St. Dominic. If you cut it out in paper, and cut
+the corners off farther and farther, at every cut, you will produce a
+sharper profile of rib, connected in architectural use with differently
+treated styles. But the entirely venerable form is the massive one in
+which the angle of the beam is merely, as it were, secured and completed
+in stability by removing its too sharp edge.
+
+Well, the vaulting ribs, as in Giotto's vault, then, have here, under
+their painting, this rude profile: but do not suppose the vaults are
+simply the shells cast over them. Look how the ornamental borders
+fall on the capitals! The plaster receives all sorts of indescribably
+accommodating shapes--the painter contracting and stopping his design
+upon it as it happens to be convenient. You can't measure anything; you
+can't exhaust; you can't grasp,--except one simple ruling idea, which a
+child can grasp, if it is interested and intelligent: namely, that the
+room has four sides with four tales told upon them; and the roof four
+quarters, with another four tales told on those. And each history in
+the sides has its correspondent history in the roof. Generally, in good
+Italian decoration, the roof represents constant, or essential facts;
+the walls, consecutive histories arising out of them, or leading up
+to them. Thus here, the roof represents in front of you, in its main
+quarter, the Resurrection--the cardinal fact of Christianity; opposite
+(above, behind you), the Ascension; on your left hand, the descent of
+the Holy Spirit; on your right, Christ's perpetual presence with His
+Church, symbolized by His appearance on the Sea of Galilee to the
+disciples in the storm.
+
+The correspondent walls represent: under the first quarter, (the
+Resurrection), the story of the Crucifixion; under the second quarter,
+(the Ascension), the preaching after that departure, that Christ will
+return--symbolized here in the Dominican church by the consecration of
+St. Dominic; under the third quarter, (the descent of the Holy Spirit),
+the disciplining power of human virtue and wisdom; under the fourth
+quarter, (St. Peter's Ship), the authority and government of the State
+and Church.
+
+The order of these subjects, chosen by the Dominican monks themselves,
+was sufficiently comprehensive to leave boundless room for the invention
+of the painter. The execution of it was first intrusted to Taddeo Gaddi,
+the best architectural master of Giotto's school, who painted the
+four quarters of the roof entirely, but with no great brilliancy of
+invention, and was beginning to go down one of the sides, when, luckily,
+a man of stronger brain, his friend, came from Siena. Taddeo thankfully
+yielded the room to him; he joined his own work to that of his less able
+friend in an exquisitely pretty and complimentary way; throwing his
+own greater strength into it, not competitively, but gradually and
+helpfully. When, however, he had once got himself well joined, and
+softly, to the more simple work, he put his own force on with a will and
+produced the most noble piece of pictorial philosophy [Footnote: There
+is no philosophy _taught_ either by the school of Athens or Michael
+Angelo's 'Last Judgment,' and the 'Disputa' is merely a graceful
+assemblage of authorities, the effects of such authority not being
+shown.] and divinity existing in Italy.
+
+This pretty, and, according to all evidence by me attainable, entirely
+true, tradition has been all but lost, among the ruins of fair old
+Florence, by the industry of modern mason-critics--who, without
+exception, labouring under the primal (and necessarily unconscious)
+disadvantage of not knowing good work from bad, and never, therefore,
+knowing a man by his hand or his thoughts, would be in any case
+sorrowfully at the mercy of mistakes in a document; but are tenfold more
+deceived by their own vanity, and delight in overthrowing a received
+idea, if they can.
+
+Farther: as every fresco of this early date has been retouched again and
+again, and often painted half over,--and as, if there has been the least
+care or respect for the old work in the restorer, he will now and then
+follow the old lines and match the old colours carefully in some places,
+while he puts in clearly recognizable work of his own in others,--two
+critics, of whom one knows the first man's work well, and the other the
+last's, will contradict each other to almost any extent on the securest
+grounds. And there is then no safe refuge for an uninitiated person but
+in the old tradition, which, if not literally true, is founded assuredly
+on some root of fact which you are likely to get at, if ever, through
+it only. So that my general directions to all young people going to
+Florence or Rome would be very short: "Know your first volume of Vasari,
+and your two first books of Livy; look about you, and don't talk, nor
+listen to talking."
+
+On those terms, you may know, entering this chapel, that in Michael
+Angelo's time, all Florence attributed these frescos to Taddeo Gaddi and
+Simon Memmi.
+
+I have studied neither of these artists myself with any speciality
+of care, and cannot tell you positively, anything about them or their
+works. But I know good work from bad, as a cobbler knows leather, and I
+can tell you positively the quality of these frescos, and their relation
+to contemporary panel pictures; whether authentically ascribed to Gaddi,
+Memmi, or any one else, it is for the Florentine Academy to decide.
+
+The roof, and the north side, down to the feet of the horizontal line
+of sitting figures, were originally third-rate work of the school of
+Giotto; the rest of the chapel was originally, and most of it is still,
+magnificent work of the school of Siena. The roof and north side have
+been heavily repainted in, many places; the rest is faded and injured,
+but not destroyed in its most essential qualities. And now, farther, you
+must bear with just a little bit of tormenting history of painters.
+
+There were two Gaddis, father and son,--Taddeo and Angelo. And there
+were two Memmis, brothers,--Simon and Philip.
+
+I daresay you will find, in the modern books, that Simon's real name was
+Peter, and Philip's real name was Bartholomew; and Angelo's real name
+was Taddeo, and Taddeo's real name was Angelo; and Memmi's real name
+was Gaddi, and Gaddi's real name was Memmi. You may find out all that at
+your leisure, afterwards, if you like. What it is important for you to
+know here, in the Spanish Chapel, is only this much that follows:--There
+were certainly two persons once called Gaddi, both rather stupid in
+religious matters and high art; but one of them, I don't know or care
+which, a true decorative painter of the most exquisite skill, a perfect
+architect, an amiable person, and a great lover of pretty domestic life.
+Vasari says this was the father, Taddeo. He built the Ponte Vecchio; and
+the old stones of it--which if you ever look at anything on the
+Ponte Vecchio but the shops, you may still see (above those wooden
+pent-houses) with the Florentine shield--were so laid by him that they
+are unshaken to this day.
+
+He painted an exquisite series of frescos at Assisi from the Life of
+Christ; in which,--just to show you what the man's nature is,--when the
+Madonna has given Christ into Simeon's arms, she can't help holding
+out her own arms to him, and saying, (visibly,) "Won't you come back to
+mamma?" The child laughs his answer--"I love _you_, mamma; but I'm quite
+happy just now."
+
+Well; he, or he and his son together, painted these four quarters of
+the roof of the Spanish Chapel. They were very probably much retouched
+afterwards by Antonio Veneziano, or whomsoever Messrs. Crowe and
+Cavalcasella please; but that architecture in the descent of the Holy
+Ghost is by the man who painted the north transept of Assisi, and there
+need be no more talk about the matter,--for you never catch a restorer
+doing his old architecture right again. And farther, the ornamentation
+of the vaulting ribs _is_ by the man who painted the Entombment, No. 31
+in the Galerie des Grands Tableaux, in the catalogue of the Academy for
+1874. Whether that picture is Taddeo Gaddi's or not, as stated in the
+catalogue, I do not know; but I know the vaulting ribs of the Spanish
+Chapel are painted by the same hand.
+
+Again: of the two brothers Memmi, one or other, I don't know or care
+which, had an ugly way of turning the eyes of his figures up and their
+mouths down; of which you may see an entirely disgusting example in the
+four saints attributed to Filippo Memmi on the cross wall of the north
+(called always in Murray's guide the south, because he didn't notice the
+way the church was built) transept of Assisi. You may, however, also
+see the way the mouth goes down in the much repainted, but still
+characteristic No. 9 in the Uffizii. [Footnote: This picture bears the
+inscription (I quote from the French catalogue, not having verified it
+myself), "Simon Martini, et Lippus Memmi de Senis me pinxerunt." I have
+no doubt whatever, myself, that the two brothers worked together on
+these frescoes of the Spanish Chapel: but that most of the Limbo is
+Philip's, and the Paradise, scarcely with his interference, Simon's.]
+
+Now I catch the wring and verjuice of this brother again and again,
+among the minor heads of the lower frescoes in this Spanish Chapel.
+The head of the Queen beneath Noah, in the Limbo,--(see below) is
+unmistakable.
+
+Farther: one of the two brothers, I don't care which, had a way of
+painting leaves; of which you may see a notable example in the rod in
+the hand of Gabriel in that same picture of the Annunciation in the
+Uffizii. No Florentine painter, or any other, ever painted leaves as
+well as that, till you get down to Sandro Botticelli, who did them much
+better. But the man who painted that rod in the hand of Gabriel, painted
+the rod in the right hand of Logic in the Spanish Chapel,--and nobody
+else in Florence, or the world, _could_.
+
+Farther (and this is the last of the antiquarian business); you see that
+the frescoes on the roof are, on the whole, dark with much blue and
+red in them, the white spaces coming out strongly. This is the
+characteristic colouring of the partially defunct school of Giotto,
+becoming merely decorative, and passing into a colourist school which
+connected itself afterwards with the Venetians. There is an exquisite
+example of all its specialities in the little Annunciation in the
+Uffizii, No. 14, attributed to Angelo Gaddi, in which you see the
+Madonna is stupid, and the angel stupid, but the colour of the whole, as
+a piece of painted glass, lovely; and the execution exquisite,--at once
+a painter's and jeweller's; with subtle sense of chiaroscuro underneath;
+(note the delicate shadow of the Madonna's arm across her breast).
+
+The head of this school was (according to Vasari) Taddeo Gaddi; and
+henceforward, without further discussion, I shall speak of him as the
+painter of the roof of the Spanish Chapel,--not without suspicion,
+however, that his son Angelo may hereafter turn out to have been the
+better decorator, and the painter of the frescoes from the life of
+Christ in the north transept of Assisi,--with such assistance as his son
+or scholars might give--and such change or destruction as time, Antonio
+Veneziano, or the last operations of the Tuscan railroad company, may
+have effected on them.
+
+On the other hand, you see that the frescos on the walls are of paler
+colours, the blacks coming out of these clearly, rather than the whites;
+but the pale colours, especially, for instance, the whole of the Duomo
+of Florence in that on your right, very tender and lovely. Also, you may
+feel a tendency to express much with outline, and draw, more than paint,
+in the most interesting parts; while in the duller ones, nasty green and
+yellow tones come out, which prevent the effect of the whole from being
+very pleasant. These characteristics belong, on the whole, to the school
+of Siena; and they indicate here the work _assuredly_ of a man of vast
+power and most refined education, whom I shall call without further
+discussion, during the rest of this and the following morning's study,
+Simon Memmi.
+
+And of the grace and subtlety with which he joined his work to that of
+the Gaddis, you may judge at once by comparing the Christ standing on
+the fallen gate of the Limbo, with the Christ in the Resurrection above.
+Memmi has retained the dress and imitated the general effect of the
+figure in the roof so faithfully that you suspect no difference of
+mastership--nay, he has even raised the foot in the same awkward way:
+but you will find Memmi's foot delicately drawn-Taddeo's, hard and
+rude: and all the folds of Memmi's drapery cast with unbroken grace and
+complete gradations of shade, while Taddeo's are rigid and meagre; also
+in the heads, generally Taddeo's type of face is square in feature, with
+massive and inelegant clusters or volutes of hair and beard; but Memmi's
+delicate and long in feature, with much divided and flowing hair, often
+arranged with exquisite precision, as in the finest Greek coins. Examine
+successively in this respect only the heads of Adam, Abel, Methuselah,
+and Abraham, in the Limbo, and you will not confuse the two designers
+any more. I have not had time to make out more than the principal
+figures in the Limbo, of which indeed the entire dramatic power is
+centred in the Adam and Eve. The latter dressed as a nun, in her fixed
+gaze on Christ, with her hands clasped, is of extreme beauty: and
+however feeble the work of any early painter may be, in its decent and
+grave inoffensiveness it guides the imagination unerringly to a certain
+point. How far you are yourself capable of filling up what is left
+untold and conceiving, as a reality, Eve's first look on this her child,
+depends on no painter's skill, but on your own understanding. Just above
+Eve is Abel, bearing the lamb: and behind him, Noah, between his wife
+and Shem: behind them, Abraham, between Isaac and Ishmael; (turning from
+Ishmael to Isaac), behind these, Moses, between Aaron and David. I have
+not identified the others, though I find the white-bearded figure behind
+Eve called Methuselah in my notes: I know not on what authority. Looking
+up from these groups, however, to the roof painting, you will at once
+feel the imperfect grouping and ruder features of all the figures;
+and the greater depth of colour. We will dismiss these comparatively
+inferior paintings at once.
+
+The roof and walls must be read together, each segment of the roof
+forming an introduction to, or portion of, the subject on the wall
+below. But the roof must first be looked at alone, as the work of Taddeo
+Gaddi, for the artistic qualities and failures of it.
+
+I. In front, as you enter, is the compartment with the subject of the
+Resurrection. It is the traditional Byzantine composition: the guards
+sleeping, and the two angels in white saying to the women, "He is not
+here," while Christ is seen rising with the flag of the Cross.
+
+But it would be difficult to find another example of the subject, so
+coldly treated--so entirely without passion or action. The faces are
+expressionless; the gestures powerless. Evidently the painter is not
+making the slightest effort to conceive what really happened, but merely
+repeating and spoiling what he could remember of old design, or himself
+supply of commonplace for immediate need. The "Noli me tangere," on
+the right, is spoiled from Giotto, and others before him; a peacock,
+woefully plumeless and colourless, a fountain, an ill drawn toy-horse,
+and two toy-children gathering flowers, are emaciate remains of Greek
+symbols. He has taken pains with the vegetation, but in vain. Yet Taddeo
+Gaddi was a true painter, a very beautiful designer, and a very amiable
+person. How comes he to do that Resurrection so badly?
+
+In the first place, he was probably tired of a subject which was a great
+strain to his feeble imagination; and gave it up as impossible: doing
+simply the required figures in the required positions. In the second, he
+was probably at the time despondent and feeble because of his master's
+death. See Lord Lindsay, II. 273, where also it is pointed out that in
+the effect of the light proceeding from the figure of Christ, Taddeo
+Gaddi indeed was the first of the Giottisti who showed true sense
+of light and shade. But until Lionardo's time the innovation did not
+materially affect Florentine art.
+
+II. The Ascension (opposite the Resurrection, and not worth looking at,
+except for the sake of making more sure our conclusions from the first
+fresco). The Madonna is fixed in Byzantine stiffness, without Byzantine
+dignity.
+
+III. The Descent of the Holy Ghost, on the left hand. The Madonna
+and disciples are gathered in an upper chamber: underneath are the
+Parthians, Medes, Elamites, etc., who hear them speak in their own
+tongues.
+
+Three dogs are in the foreground--their mythic purpose the same as that
+of the two verses which affirm the fellowship of the dog in the journey
+and return of Tobias: namely, to mark the share of the lower animals in
+the gentleness given by the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ.
+
+IV. The Church sailing on the Sea of the World. St. Peter coming to
+Christ on the water.
+
+I was too little interested in the vague symbolism of this fresco to
+examine it with care--the rather that the subject beneath, the literal
+contest of the Church with the world, needed more time for study in
+itself alone than I had for all Florence.
+
+On this, and the opposite side of the chapel, are represented, by Simon
+Memmi's hand, the teaching power of the Spirit of God, and the saving
+power of the Christ of God, in the world, according to the understanding
+of Florence in his time.
+
+We will take the side of Intellect first, beneath the pouring forth of
+the Holy Spirit.
+
+In the point of the arch beneath, are the three Evangelical Virtues.
+Without these, says Florence, you can have no science. Without Love,
+Faith, and Hope--no intelligence.
+
+Under these are the four Cardinal Virtues, the entire group being thus
+arranged:--
+
+                         A
+                      B     C
+                   D   E   F   G
+
+A, Charity; flames issuing from her head and hands. B, Faith; holds
+cross and shield, quenching fiery darts. This symbol, so frequent in
+modern adaptation from St. Paul's address to personal faith, is rare in
+older art. C, Hope, with a branch of lilies. D, Temperance; bridles a
+black fish, on which she stands. E, Prudence, with a book. F, Justice,
+with crown and baton. G, Fortitude, with tower and sword.
+
+Under these are the great prophets and apostles; on the left,[Footnote:
+I can't find my note of the first one on the left; answering to Solomon,
+opposite.] David, St. Paul, St. Mark, St. John; on the right, St.
+Matthew, St. Luke, Moses, Isaiah, Solomon. In the midst of the
+Evangelists, St. Thomas Aquinas, seated on a Gothic throne.
+
+Now observe, this throne, with all the canopies below it, and the
+complete representation of the Duomo of Florence opposite, are of
+finished Gothic of Orecagna's school--later than Giotto's Gothic. But
+the building in which the apostles are gathered at the Pentecost is of
+the early Romanesque mosaic school, with a wheel window from the duomo
+of Assisi, and square windows from the Baptistery of Florence. And
+this is always the type of architecture used by Taddeo Gaddi: while
+the finished Gothic could not possibly have been drawn by him, but is
+absolute evidence of the later hand.
+
+Under the line of prophets, as powers summoned by their voices, are
+the mythic figures of the seven theological or spiritual, and the seven
+_ge_ological or natural sciences: and under the feet of each of them,
+the figure of its Captain-teacher to the world.
+
+I had better perhaps give you the names of this entire series of figures
+from left to right at once. You will see presently why they are numbered
+in a reverse order.
+
+                               Beneath whom
+8. Civil Law. The Emperor Justinian. 9. Canon Law. Pope Clement V. 10.
+Practical Theology. Peter Lombard. 11. Contemplative Theology. Dionysius
+the Areopagite. 12. Dogmatic Theology. Boethius. 13. Mystic Theology.
+St. John Damascene. 14. Polemic Theology. St. Augustine. 7. Arithmetic.
+Pythagoras. 6. Geometry. Euclid. 5. Astronomy. Zoroaster. 4. Music.
+Tubalcain. 3. Logic. Aristotle. 2. Rhetoric. Cicero. 1. Grammar.
+Priscian.
+
+Here, then, you have pictorially represented, the system of manly
+education, supposed in old Florence to be that necessarily instituted
+in great earthly kingdoms or republics, animated by the Spirit shed down
+upon the world at Pentecost. How long do you think it will take you,
+or ought to take, to see such a picture? We were to get to work this
+morning, as early as might be: you have probably allowed half an hour
+for Santa Maria Novella; half an hour for San Lorenzo; an hour for the
+museum of sculpture at the Bargello; an hour for shopping; and then it
+will be lunch time, and you mustn't be late, because you are to leave by
+the afternoon train, and must positively be in Rome to-morrow morning.
+Well, of your half-hour for Santa Maria Novella,--after Ghirlandajo's
+choir, Orcagna's transept, and Cimabue's Madonna, and the painted
+windows, have been seen properly, there will remain, suppose, at the
+utmost, a quarter of an hour for the Spanish Chapel. That will give you
+two minutes and a half for each side, two for the ceiling, and three for
+studying Murray's explanations or mine. Two minutes and a half you have
+got, then--(and I observed, during my five weeks' work in the chapel,
+that English visitors seldom gave so much)--to read this scheme given
+you by Simon Memmi of human spiritual education. In order to understand
+the purport of it, in any the smallest degree, you must summon to your
+memory, in the course of these two minutes and a half, what you happen
+to be acquainted with of the doctrines and characters of Pythagoras,
+Zoroaster, Aristotle, Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Augustine, and
+the emperor Justinian, and having further observed the expressions and
+actions attributed by the painter to these personages, judge how far he
+has succeeded in reaching a true and worthy ideal of them, and how large
+or how subordinate a part in his general scheme of human learning he
+supposes their peculiar doctrines properly to occupy. For myself,
+being, to my much sorrow, now an old person; and, to my much pride,
+an old-fashioned one, I have not found my powers either of reading
+or memory in the least increased by any of Mr. Stephenson's or Mr.
+Wheatstone's inventions; and though indeed I came here from Lucca in
+three hours instead of a day, which it used to take, I do not think
+myself able, on that account, to see any picture in Florence in less
+time than it took formerly, or even obliged to hurry myself in any
+investigations connected with it.
+
+Accordingly, I have myself taken five weeks to see the quarter of this
+picture of Simon Memmi's: and can give you a fairly good account of that
+quarter, and some partial account of a fragment or two of those on the
+other walls: but, alas! only of their pictorial qualities in either
+case; for I don't myself know anything whatever, worth trusting to,
+about Pythagoras, or Dionysius the Areopagite; and have not had, and
+never shall have, probably, any time to learn much of them; while in
+the very feeblest light only,--in what the French would express by
+their excellent word 'lueur,'--I am able to understand something of
+the characters of Zoroaster, Aristotle, and Justinian. But this only
+increases in me the reverence with which I ought to stand before the
+work of a painter, who was not only a master of his own craft, but so
+profound a scholar and theologian as to be able to conceive this scheme
+of picture, and write the divine law by which Florence was to live.
+Which Law, written in the northern page of this Vaulted Book, we will
+begin quiet interpretation of, if you care to return hither, to-morrow
+morning.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIFTH MORNING.
+
+THE STRAIT GATE.
+
+
+As you return this morning to St. Mary's, you may as well observe--the
+matter before us being concerning gates,--that the western facade of
+the church is of two periods. Your Murray refers it all to the latest of
+these;--I forget when, and do not care;--in which the largest flanking
+columns, and the entire effective mass of the walls, with their riband
+mosaics and high pediment, were built in front of, and above, what the
+barbarian renaissance designer chose to leave of the pure old Dominican
+church. You may see his ungainly jointings at the pedestals of the great
+columns, running through the pretty, parti-coloured base, which, with
+the 'Strait' Gothic doors, and the entire lines of the fronting and
+flanking tombs (where not restored by the Devil-begotten brood of modern
+Florence), is of pure, and exquisitely severe and refined, fourteenth
+century Gothic, with superbly carved bearings on its shields. The small
+detached line of tombs on the left, untouched in its sweet colour and
+living weed ornament, I would fain have painted, stone by stone: but one
+can never draw in front of a church in these republican days; for all
+the blackguard children of the neighbourhood come to howl, and
+throw stones, on the steps, and the ball or stone play against these
+sculptured tombs, as a dead wall adapted for that purpose only, is
+incessant in the fine days when I could have worked.
+
+If you enter by the door most to the left, or north, and turn
+immediately to the right, on the interior of the wall of the facade is
+an Annunciation, visible enough because well preserved, though in the
+dark, and extremely pretty in its way,--of the decorated and ornamental
+school following Giotto:--I can't guess by whom, nor does it much
+matter; but it is well To look at it by way of contrast with the
+delicate, intense, slightly decorated design of Memmi,--in which, when
+you return into the Spanish chapel, you will feel the dependence for
+its effect on broad masses of white and pale amber, where the decorative
+school would have had mosaic of red, blue, and gold.
+
+Our first business this morning must be to read and understand the
+writing on the book held open by St. Thomas Aquinas, for that informs us
+of the meaning of the whole picture.
+
+It is this text from the Book of Wisdom VII. 6.
+
+            "Optavi, et datus est mihi sensus.
+             Invocavi, et venit in me Spiritus Sapientiae,
+             Et preposui illam regnis et sedibus."
+
+            "I willed, and Sense was given me.
+             I prayed, and the Spirit of Wisdom came upon me.
+             And I set her before, (preferred her to,) kingdoms
+             and thrones."
+
+The common translation in our English Apocrypha loses the entire meaning
+of this passage, which--not only as the statement of the experience of
+Florence in her own education, but as universally descriptive of the
+process of all noble education whatever--we had better take pains to
+understand.
+
+First, says Florence "I willed, (in sense of resolutely desiring,) and
+Sense was given me." You must begin your education with the distinct
+resolution to know what is true, and choice of the strait and rough road
+to such knowledge. This choice is offered to every youth and maid at
+some moment of their life;--choice between the easy downward road, so
+broad that we can dance down it in companies, and the steep narrow way,
+which we must enter alone. Then, and for many a day afterwards, they
+need that form of persistent Option, and Will: but day by day, the
+'Sense' of the rightness of what they have done, deepens on them, not in
+consequence of the effort, but by gift granted in reward of it. And the
+Sense of difference between right and wrong, and between beautiful and
+unbeautiful things, is confirmed in the heroic, and fulfilled in the
+industrious, soul.
+
+That is the process of education in the earthly sciences, and the
+morality connected with them. Reward given to faithful Volition.
+
+Next, when Moral and Physical senses are perfect, comes the desire
+for education in the higher world, where the senses are no more our
+Teachers; but the Maker of the senses. And that teaching, we cannot get
+by labour, but only by petition.
+
+"Invocavi, et venit in me Spiritus Sapientiae"--"I prayed, and the
+Spirit of Wisdom," (not, you observe, _was given_, [Footnote: I in
+careless error, wrote "was given" in 'Fors Clavigera.] but,) "_came_
+upon me." The _personal_ power of Wisdom: the "[Greek: sophia]" or Santa
+Sophia, to whom the first great Christian temple was dedicated. This
+higher wisdom, governing by her presence, all earthly conduct, and by
+her teaching, all earthly art, Florence tells you, she obtained only by
+prayer.
+
+And these two Earthly and Divine sciences are expressed beneath in the
+symbols of their divided powers;--Seven terrestrial, Seven celestial,
+whose names have been already indicated to you:--in which figures I
+must point out one or two technical matters, before touching their
+interpretation. They are all by Simon Memmi originally; but repainted,
+many of them all over, some hundred years later,--(certainly after the
+discovery of America, as you will see)--by an artist of considerable
+power, and some feeling for the general action of the figures; but of no
+refinement or carelessness. He dashes massive paint in huge spaces over
+the subtle old work, puts in his own chiaro-oscuro where all had been
+shadeless, and his own violent colour where all had been pale, and
+repaints the faces so as to make them, to his notion, prettier and more
+human: some of this upper work has, however, come away since, and the
+original outline, at least, is traceable; while in the face of the
+Logic, the Music, and one or two others, the original work is very
+pure. Being most interested myself in the earthly sciences, I had a
+scaffolding put up, made on a level with them, and examined them inch
+by inch, and the following report will be found accurate until next
+repainting.
+
+For interpretation of them, you must always take the central figure of
+the Science, with the little medallion above it, and the figure below,
+all together. Which I proceed to do, reading first from left to right
+for the earthly sciences, and then from right to left the heavenly ones,
+to the centre, where their two highest powers sit, side by side.
+
+We begin, then, with the first in the list given above, (Vaulted Book,
+page 75):--Grammar, in the corner farthest from the window.
+
+1. GRAMMAR: more properly Grammatice, "Grammatic Act" the Art of
+_Letters_ or "Literature," or using the word which to some English ears
+will carry most weight with it,--"Scripture," and its use. The Art
+of faithfully reading what has been written for our learning; and of
+clearly writing what we would make immortal of our thoughts. Power
+which consists first in recognizing letters; secondly, in forming them;
+thirdly, in the understanding and choice of words which errorless shall
+express our thought. Severe exercises all, reaching--very few living
+persons know, how far: beginning properly in childhood, then only to be
+truly acquired. It is wholly impossible--this I say from too sorrowful
+experience--to conquer by any effort or time, habits of the hand (much
+more of head and soul) with which the vase of flesh has been formed and
+filled in youth,--the law of God being that parents shall compel the
+child in the day of its obedience into habits of hand, and eye,
+and soul, which, when it is old, shall not, by any strength, or any
+weakness, be departed from.
+
+"Enter ye in," therefore, says Grammatice, "at the Strait Gate." She
+points through it with her rod, holding a fruit(?) for reward, in her
+left hand. The gate is very strait indeed--her own waist no less so,
+her hair fastened close. She had once a white veil binding it, which is
+lost. Not a gushing form of literature, this,--or in any wise disposed
+to subscribe to Mudie's, my English friends--or even patronize Tauchnitz
+editions of--what is the last new novel you see ticketed up today in
+Mr. Goodban's window? She looks kindly down, nevertheless, to the three
+children whom she is teaching--two boys and a girl: (Qy. Does this mean
+that one girl out of every two should not be able to read or write? I am
+quite willing to accept that inference, for my own part,--should perhaps
+even say, two girls out of three). This girl is of the highest classes,
+crowned, her golden hair falling behind her the Florentine girdle round
+her hips--(not waist, the object being to leave the lungs full play; but
+to keep the dress always well down in dancing or running). The boys are
+of good birth also, the nearest one with luxuriant curly hair--only
+the profile of the farther one seen. All reverent and eager. Above, the
+medallion is of a figure looking at a fountain. Underneath, Lord Lindsay
+says, Priscian, and is, I doubt not, right.
+
+_Technical Points_.--The figure is said by Crowe to be entirely
+repainted. The dress is so throughout--both the hands also, and the
+fruit, and rod. But the eyes, mouth, hair above the forehead, and
+outline of the rest, with the faded veil, and happily, the traces left
+of the children, are genuine; the strait gate perfectly so, in the
+colour underneath, though reinforced; and the action of the entire
+figure is well preserved: but there is a curious question about both
+the rod and fruit. Seen close, the former perfectly assumes the shape
+of folds of dress gathered up over the raised right arm, and I am not
+absolutely sure that the restorer has not mistaken the folds--at the
+same time changing a pen or style into a rod. The fruit also I have
+doubts of, as fruit is not so rare at Florence that it should be made a
+reward. It is entirely and roughly repainted, and is oval in shape. In
+Giotto's Charity, luckily not restored, at Assisi, the guide-books have
+always mistaken the heart she holds for an apple:--and my own belief is
+that originally, the Grammatice of Simon Memmi made with her right hand
+the sign which said, "Enter ye in at the Strait Gate," and with her
+left, the sign which said, "My son, give me thine Heart."
+
+II. RHETORIC. Next to learning how to read and write, you are to learn
+to speak; and, young ladies and gentlemen, observe,--to speak as little
+as possible, it is farther implied, till you _have_ learned.
+
+In the streets of Florence at this day you may hear much of what some
+people call "rhetoric"--very passionate speaking indeed, and quite "from
+the heart"--such hearts as the people have got. That is to say, you
+never hear a word uttered but in a rage, either just ready to burst,
+or for the most part, explosive instantly: everybody--man, woman, or
+child--roaring out their incontinent, foolish, infinitely contemptible
+opinions and wills, on every smallest occasion, with flashing
+eyes, hoarsely shrieking and wasted voices,--insane hope to drag by
+vociferation whatever they would have, out of man and God.
+
+Now consider Simon Memmi's Rhetoric. The Science of Speaking, primarily;
+of making oneself _heard_ therefore: which is not to be done by
+shouting. She alone, of all the sciences, carries a scroll: and being a
+speaker gives you something to read. It is not thrust forward at you at
+all, but held quietly down with her beautiful depressed right hand; her
+left hand set coolly and strongly on her side.
+
+And you will find that, thus, she alone of all the sciences _needs no
+use of her hands_. All the others have some important business for them.
+She none. She can do all with her lips, holding scroll, or bridle, or
+what you will, with her right hand, her left on her side.
+
+Again, look at the talkers in the streets of Florence, and see how,
+being essentially _un_able to talk, they try to make lips of their
+fingers! How they poke, wave, flourish, point, jerk, shake finger and
+fist at their antagonists--dumb essentially, all the while, if they knew
+it; unpersuasive and ineffectual, as the shaking of tree branches in the
+wind.
+
+You will at first think her figure ungainly and stiff. It is so, partly,
+the dress being more coarsely repainted than in any other of the series.
+But she is meant to be both stout and strong. What she has to say is
+indeed to persuade you, if possible; but assuredly to overpower you. And
+_she_ has not the Florentine girdle, for she does not want to move. She
+has her girdle broad at the waist--of all the sciences, you would at
+first have thought, the one that most needed breath! No, says Simon
+Memmi. You want breath to run, or dance, or fight with. But to
+speak!--If you know _how_, you can do your work with few words; very
+little of this pure Florentine air will be enough, if you shape it
+rightly.
+
+Note, also, that calm setting of her hand against her side. You think
+Rhetoric should be glowing, fervid, impetuous? No, says Simon Memmi.
+Above all things,--_cool_.
+
+And now let us read what is written on her scroll:--Mulceo, dum loquor,
+varios induta colores.
+
+Her chief function, to melt; make soft, thaw the hearts of men with kind
+fire; to overpower with peace; and bring rest, with rainbow colours. The
+chief mission of all words that they should be of comfort.
+
+You think the function of words is to excite? Why, a red rag will do
+that, or a blast through a brass pipe. But to give calm and gentle heat;
+to be as the south wind, and the iridescent rain, to all bitterness
+of frost; and bring at once strength, and healing. This is the work of
+human lips, taught of God.
+
+One farther and final lesson is given in the medallion above. Aristotle,
+and too many modern rhetoricians of his school, thought there could
+be good speaking in a false cause. But above Simon Memmi's Rhetoric is
+_Truth_, with her mirror.
+
+There is a curious feeling, almost innate in men, that though they are
+bound to speak truth, in speaking to a single person, they may lie as
+much as they please, provided they lie to two or more people at once.
+There is the same feeling about killing: most people would shrink from
+shooting one innocent man; but will fire a mitrailleuse contentedly into
+an innocent regiment.
+
+When you look down from the figure of the Science, to that of Cicero,
+beneath, you will at first think it entirely overthrows my conclusion
+that Rhetoric has no need of her hands. For Cicero, it appears, has
+three instead of two.
+
+The uppermost, at his chin, is the only genuine one. That raised, with
+the finger up, is entirely false. That on the book, is repainted so as
+to defy conjecture of its original action.
+
+But observe how the gesture of the true one confirms instead of
+overthrowing what I have said above. Cicero is not speaking at all,
+but profoundly thinking _before_ he speaks. It is the most abstractedly
+thoughtful face to be found among all the philosophers; and very
+beautiful. The whole is under Solomon, in the line of Prophets.
+
+_Technical Points_.--These two figures have suffered from restoration
+more than any others, but the right hand of Rhetoric is still entirely
+genuine, and the left, except the ends of the fingers. The ear, and hair
+just above it, are quite safe, the head well set on its original line,
+but the crown of leaves rudely retouched, and then faded. All the lower
+part of the figure of Cicero has been not only repainted but changed;
+the face is genuine--I believe retouched, but so cautiously and
+skilfully, that it is probably now more beautiful than at first.
+
+III. LOGIC. The science of reasoning, or more accurately Reason herself,
+or pure intelligence.
+
+Science to be gained after that of Expression, says Simon Memmi; so,
+young people, it appears, that though you must not speak before you have
+been taught how to speak, you may yet properly speak before you have
+been taught how to think.
+
+For indeed, it is only by frank speaking that you _can_ learn how to
+think. And it is no matter how wrong the first thoughts you have may
+be, provided you express them clearly;--and are willing to have them put
+right.
+
+Fortunately, nearly all of this beautiful figure is practically safe,
+the outlines pure everywhere, and the face perfect: the _prettiest_,
+as far as I know, which exists in Italian art of this early date. It is
+subtle to the extreme in gradations of colour: the eyebrows drawn, not
+with a sweep of the brush, but with separate cross touches in the line
+of their growth--exquisitely pure in arch; the nose straight and fine;
+the lips--playful slightly, proud, unerringly cut; the hair flowing in
+sequent waves, ordered as if in musical time; head perfectly upright on
+the shoulders; the height of the brow completed by a crimson frontlet
+set with pearls, surmounted by a _fleur-de-lys_.
+
+Her shoulders were exquisitely drawn, her white jacket fitting close
+to soft, yet scarcely rising breasts; her arms singularly strong, at
+perfect rest; her hands, exquisitely delicate. In her right, she holds a
+branching and leaf-bearing rod, (the syllogism); in her left, a scorpion
+with double sting, (the dilemma)--more generally, the powers of rational
+construction and dissolution.
+
+Beneath her, Aristotle,--intense keenness of search in his half-closed
+eyes.
+
+Medallion above, (less expressive than usual) a man writing, with his
+head stooped.
+
+The whole under Isaiah, in the line of Prophets.
+
+_Technical Points_.--The only parts of this figure which have suffered
+seriously in repainting are the leaves of the rod, and the scorpion. I
+have no idea, as I said above, what the background once was; it is now a
+mere mess of scrabbled grey, carried over the vestiges, still with care
+much redeemable, of the richly ornamental extremity of the rod, which
+was a cluster of green leaves on a black ground. But the scorpion is
+indecipherably injured, most of it confused repainting, mixed with the
+white of the dress, the double sting emphatic enough still, but not on
+the first lines.
+
+The Aristotle is very genuine throughout, except his hat, and I think
+that must be pretty nearly on the old lines, through I cannot trace
+them. They are good lines, new or old.
+
+IV. MUSIC. After you have learned to reason, young people, of course you
+will be very grave, if not dull, you think. No, says Simon Memmi. By no
+means anything of the kind. After learning to reason, you will learn to
+sing; for you will want to. There is so much reason for singing in the
+sweet world, when one thinks rightly of it. None for grumbling, provided
+always you _have_ entered in at the strait gate. You will sing all along
+the road then, in a little while, in a manner pleasant for other people
+to hear.
+
+This figure has been one of the loveliest in the series, an extreme
+refinement and tender severity being aimed at throughout. She is
+crowned, not with laurel, but with small leaves,--I am not sure what
+they are, being too much injured: the face thin, abstracted, wistful;
+the lips not far open in their low singing; the hair rippling softly on
+the shoulders. She plays on a small organ, richly ornamented with Gothic
+tracery, the down slope of it set with crockets like those of Santa
+Maria del Fiore. Simon Memmi means that _all_ music must be "sacred."
+Not that you are never to sing anything but hymns, but that whatever
+is rightly called music, or work of the Muses, is divine in help and
+healing.
+
+The actions of both hands are singularly sweet. The right is one of the
+loveliest things I ever saw done in painting. She is keeping down one
+note only, with her third finger, seen under the raised fourth: the
+thumb, just passing under; all the curves of the fingers exquisite, and
+the pale light and shade of the rosy flesh relieved against the ivory
+white and brown of the notes. Only the thumb and end of the forefinger
+are seen of the left hand, but they indicate enough its light pressure
+on the bellows. Fortunately, all these portions of the fresco are
+absolutely intact.
+
+Underneath, Tubal-Cain. Not Jubal, as you would expect. Jubal is
+the inventor of musical instruments. Tubal-Cain, thought the old
+Florentines, invented harmony. They, the best smiths in the world, knew
+the differences in tones of hammer strokes on anvil. Curiously enough,
+the only piece of true part-singing, done beautifully and joyfully,
+which I have heard this year in Italy, (being south of Alps exactly six
+months, and ranging from Genoa to Palermo) was out of a busy smithy
+at Perugia. Of bestial howling, and entirely frantic vomiting up of
+hopelessly damned souls through their still carnal throats, I have heard
+more than, please God, I will ever endure the hearing of again in one of
+His summers.
+
+You think Tubal-Cain very ugly? Yes. Much like a shaggy baboon:
+not accidentally, but with most scientific understanding of baboon
+character. Men must have looked like that, before they had invented
+harmony, or felt that one note differed from another, says, and knows
+Simon Memmi. Darwinism, like all widely popular and widely mischievous
+fallacies, has many a curious gleam and grain of truth in its tissue.
+
+Under Moses.
+
+Medallion, a youth drinking. Otherwise, you might have thought only
+church music meant, and not feast music also.
+
+_Technical Points_.--The Tubal-Cain, one of the most entirely pure and
+precious remnants of the old painting, nothing lost: nothing but the
+redder ends of his beard retouched. Green dress of Music, in the body
+and over limbs entirely repainted: it was once beautifully embroidered;
+sleeves, partly genuine, hands perfect, face and hair nearly so. Leaf
+crown faded and broken away, but not retouched.
+
+V. ASTRONOMY. Properly Astro-logy, as (Theology) the knowledge of so
+much of the stars as we can know wisely; not the attempt to define their
+laws for them. Not that it is unbecoming of us to find out, if we can,
+that they move in ellipses, and so on; but it is no business of ours.
+What effects their rising and setting have on man, and beast, and leaf;
+what their times and changes are, seen and felt in this world, it is
+our business to know, passing our nights, if wakefully, by that divine
+candlelight, and no other.
+
+She wears a dark purple robe; holds in her left hand the hollow globe
+with golden zodiac and meridians: lifts her right hand in noble awe.
+
+"When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the
+stars, which Thou hast ordained."
+
+Crowned with gold, her dark hair in elliptic waves, bound with
+glittering chains of pearl. Her eyes dark, lifted.
+
+Beneath her, Zoroaster,[Footnote: Atlas! according to poor Vasari,
+and sundry modern guides. I find Vasari's mistakes usually of this
+_brightly_ blundering kind. In matters needing research, after a while,
+I find _he_ is right, usually.] entirely noble and beautiful, the
+delicate Persian head made softer still by the elaborately wreathed
+silken hair, twisted into the pointed beard, and into tapering plaits,
+falling on his shoulders. The head entirely thrown back, he looks up
+with no distortion of the delicately arched brow: writing, as he gazes.
+
+For the association of the religion of the Magi with their own in the
+mind of the Florentines of this time, see "Before the Soldan."
+
+The dress must always have been white, because of its beautiful
+opposition to the purple above and that of Tubal-Cain beside it. But it
+has been too much repainted to be trusted anywhere, nothing left but
+a fold or two in the sleeves. The cast of it from the knees down is
+entirely beautiful, and I suppose on the old lines; but the restorer
+could throw a fold well when he chose. The warm light which relieves the
+purple of Zoroaster above, is laid in by him. I don't know if I should
+have liked it better, flat, as it was, against the dark purple; it
+seems to me quite beautiful now. The full red flush on the face of the
+Astronomy is the restorer's doing also. She was much paler, if not quite
+pale.
+
+Under St. Luke.
+
+Medallion, a stern man, with sickle and spade. For the flowers, and for
+us, when stars have risen and set such and such times;--remember.
+
+_Technical Points_.--Left hand globe, most of the important folds of
+the purple dress, eyes, mouth, hair in great part, and crown, genuine.
+Golden tracery on border of dress lost; extremity of falling folds from
+left sleeve altered and confused, but the confusion prettily got out of.
+Right hand and much of face and body of dress repainted.
+
+Zoroaster's head quite pure. Dress repainted, but carefully, leaving
+the hair untouched. Right hand and pen, now a common feathered quill,
+entirely repainted, but dexterously and with feeling. The hand was once
+slightly different in position, and held, most probably, a reed.
+
+VI. GEOMETRY. You have now learned, young ladies and gentlemen, to read,
+to speak, to think, to sing, and to see. You are getting old, and will
+have soon to think of being married; you must learn to build your house,
+therefore. Here is your carpenter's square for you, and you may safely
+and wisely contemplate the ground a little, and the measures and laws
+relating to that, seeing you have got to abide upon it:--and that
+you have properly looked at the stars; not before then, lest, had you
+studied the ground first, you might perchance never have raised your
+heads from it. This is properly the science of all laws of practical
+labour, issuing in beauty.
+
+She looks down, a little puzzled, greatly interested, holding her
+carpenter's square in her left hand, not wanting that but for practical
+work; following a diagram with her right.
+
+Her beauty, altogether soft and in curves, I commend to your notice,
+as the exact opposite of what a vulgar designer would have imagined
+for her. Note the wreath of hair at the back of her head, which though
+fastened by a _spiral_ fillet, escapes at last, and flies off loose in a
+sweeping curve. Contemplative Theology is the only other of the sciences
+who has such wavy hair.
+
+Beneath her, Euclid, in white turban. Very fine and original work
+throughout; but nothing of special interest in him.
+
+Under St. Matthew.
+
+Medallion, a soldier with a straight sword (best for science of
+defence), octagon shield, helmet like the beehive of Canton Vaud. As the
+secondary use of music in feasting, so the secondary use of geometry
+in war--her noble art being all in sweetest peace--is shown in the
+medallion.
+
+_Technical Points_.--It is more than fortunate that in nearly every
+figure, the original outline of the hair is safe. Geometry's has
+scarcely been retouched at all, except at the ends, once in single
+knots, now in confused double ones. The hands, girdle, most of her
+dress, and her black carpenter's square are original. Face and breast
+repainted.
+
+VII. ARITHMETIC. Having built your house, young people, and
+understanding the light of heaven, and the measures of earth, you may
+marry--and can't do better. And here is now your conclusive science,
+which you will have to apply, all your days, to all your affairs.
+
+The Science of Number. Infinite in solemnity of use in Italy at this
+time; including, of course, whatever was known of the higher abstract
+mathematics and mysteries of numbers, but reverenced especially in its
+vital necessity to the prosperity of families and kingdoms, and first
+fully so understood here in commercial Florence.
+
+Her hand lifted, with two fingers bent, two straight, solemnly
+enforcing on your attention her primal law--Two and two are--four, you
+observe,--not five, as those accursed usurers think.
+
+Under her, Pythagoras.
+
+Above, medallion of king, with sceptre and globe, counting money. Have
+you ever chanced to read carefully Carlyle's account of the foundation
+of the existing Prussian empire, in economy?
+
+You can, at all events, consider with yourself a little, what empire
+this queen of the terrestrial sciences must hold over the rest, if they
+are to be put to good use; or what depth and breadth of application
+there is in the brief parables of the counted cost of Power, and number
+of Armies.
+
+To give a very minor, but characteristic, instance. I have always felt
+that with my intense love of the Alps, I ought to have been able to make
+a drawing of Chamouni, or the vale of Cluse, which should give people
+more pleasure than a photograph; but I always wanted to do it as I saw
+it, and engrave pine for pine, and crag for crag, like Albert Duerer.
+I broke my strength down for many a year, always tiring of my work,
+or finding the leaves drop off, or the snow come on, before I had well
+begun what I meant to do. If I had only _counted_ my pines first, and
+calculated the number of hours necessary to do them in the manner of
+Duerer, I should have saved the available drawing time of some five
+years, spent in vain effort.
+
+But Turner counted his pines, and did all that could be done for them,
+and rested content with that.
+
+So in all the affairs of life, the arithmetical part of the business is
+the dominant one. How many and how much have we? How many and how much
+do we want? How constantly does noble Arithmetic of the finite lose
+itself in base Avarice of the Infinite, and in blind imagination of it!
+In counting of minutes, is our arithmetic ever solicitous enough?
+In counting our days, is she ever severe enough? How we shrink from
+putting, in their decades, the diminished store of them! And if we ever
+pray the solemn prayer that we may be taught to number them, do we even
+try to do it after praying?
+
+_Technical Points_.--The Pythagoras almost entirely genuine. The upper
+figures, from this inclusive to the outer wall, I have not been able to
+examine thoroughly, my scaffolding not extending beyond the Geometry.
+
+Here then we have the sum of sciences,--seven, according to the
+Florentine mind--necessary to the secular education of man and woman. Of
+these the modern average respectable English gentleman and gentlewoman
+know usually only a little of the last, and entirely hate the prudent
+applications of that: being unacquainted, except as they chance here
+and there to pick up a broken piece of information, with either grammar,
+rhetoric, music, [Footnote: Being able to play the piano and admire
+Mendelssohn is not knowing music.] astronomy, or geometry; and are not
+only unacquainted with logic, or the use of reason, themselves, but
+instinctively antagonistic to its use by anybody else.
+
+We are now to read the series of the Divine sciences, beginning at the
+opposite side, next the window.
+
+VIII. CIVIL LAW. Civil, or 'of citizens,' not only as distinguished from
+Ecclesiastical, but from Local law. She is the universal Justice of
+the peaceful relations of men throughout the world, therefore holds the
+globe, with its _three_ quarters, white, as being justly governed, in
+her left hand.
+
+She is also the law of eternal equity, not erring statute; therefore
+holds her sword _level_ across her breast. She is the foundation of
+all other divine science. To know anything whatever about God, you must
+begin by being Just.
+
+Dressed in red, which in these frescoes is always a sign of power,
+or zeal; but her face very calm, gentle and beautiful. Her hair bound
+close, and crowned by the royal circlet of gold, with pure thirteenth
+century strawberry leaf ornament.
+
+Under her, the Emperor Justinian, in blue, with conical mitre of white
+and gold; the face in profile, very beautiful. The imperial staff in his
+right hand, the Institutes in his left.
+
+Medallion, a figure, apparently in distress, appealing for justice.
+(Trajan's suppliant widow?)
+
+_Technical Points_.--The three divisions of the globe in her hand were
+originally inscribed ASIA, AFRICA, EUROPE. The restorer has ingeniously
+changed AF into AME--RICA. Faces, both of the science and emperor,
+little retouched, nor any of the rest altered.
+
+IX. CHRISTIAN LAW. After the justice which rules men, comes that which
+rules the Church of Christ. The distinction is not between secular law,
+and ecclesiastical authority, but between the equity of humanity, and
+the law of Christian discipline.
+
+In full, straight-falling, golden robe, with white mantle over it; a
+church in her left hand; her right raised, with the forefinger lifted;
+(indicating heavenly source of all Christian law? or warning?)
+
+Head-dress, a white veil floating into folds in the air. You will find
+nothing in these frescoes without significance; and as the escaping hair
+of Geometry indicates the infinite conditions of lines of the higher
+orders, so the floating veil here indicates that the higher relations of
+Christian justice are indefinable. So her golden mantle indicates that
+it is a glorious and excellent justice beyond that which unchristian men
+conceive; while the severely falling lines of the folds, which form a
+kind of gabled niche for the head of the Pope beneath, correspond with
+the strictness of true Church discipline firmer as well as more luminous
+statute.
+
+Beneath, Pope Clement V., in red, lifting his hand, not in the position
+of benediction, but, I suppose, of injunction,--only the forefinger
+straight, the second a little bent, the two last quite. Note the strict
+level of the book; and the vertical directness of the key.
+
+The medallion puzzles me. It looks like a figure counting money.
+
+_Technical Points_.--Fairly well preserved; but the face of the science
+retouched: the grotesquely false perspective of the Pope's tiara, one of
+the most curiously naive examples of the entirely ignorant feeling after
+merely scientific truth of form which still characterized Italian art.
+
+Type of church interesting in its extreme simplicity; no idea of
+transept, campanile, or dome.
+
+X. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. The beginning of the knowledge of God being Human
+Justice, and its elements defined by Christian Law, the application of
+the law so defined follows, first with respect to man, then with respect
+to God.
+
+"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's--and to God the things
+that are God's."
+
+We have therefore now two sciences, one of our duty--to men, the other
+to their Maker.
+
+This is the first: duty to men. She holds a circular medallion,
+representing Christ preaching on the Mount, and points with her right
+hand to the earth.
+
+The sermon on the Mount is perfectly expressed by the craggy pinnacle
+in front of Christ, and the high dark horizon. There is curious evidence
+throughout all these frescos of Simon Memmi's having read the Gospels
+with a quite clear understanding of their innermost meaning.
+
+I have called this science Practical Theology:--the instructive
+knowledge, that is to say, of what God would have us do, personally, in
+any given human relation: and the speaking His Gospel therefore by act.
+"Let your light so shine before men."
+
+She wears a green dress, like Music her hair in the Arabian arch, with
+jewelled diadem.
+
+Under David. Medallion, Almsgiving. Beneath her, Peter Lombard,
+
+_Technical Points_.--It is curious that while the instinct of
+perspective was not strong enough to enable any painter at this time to
+foreshorten a foot, it yet suggested to them the expression of elevation
+by raising the horizon.
+
+I have not examined the retouching. The hair and diadem at least are
+genuine, the face is dignified and compassionate, and much on the old
+lines.
+
+XI. DEVOTIONAL THEOLOGY.--Giving glory to God, or, more accurately,
+whatever feelings He desires us to have towards Him, whether of
+affection or awe.
+
+This is the science or method of _devotion_ for Christians universally,
+just as the Practical Theology is their science or method of _action_.
+
+In blue and red: a narrow black rod still traceable in the left hand; I
+am not sure of its meaning. ("Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me?")
+The other hand open in admiration, like Astronomy's; but Devotion's is
+held at her breast. Her head very characteristic of Memmi, with
+upturned eyes, and Arab arch in hair. Under her, Dionysius the
+Areopagite--mending his pen! But I am doubtful of Lord Lindsay's
+identification of this figure, and the action is curiously common and
+meaningless. It may have meant that meditative theology is essentially a
+writer, not a preacher.
+
+The medallion, on the other hand, is as ingenious. A mother lifting her
+hands in delight at her child's beginning to take notice.
+
+Under St. Paul.
+
+_Technical Points_.--Both figures very genuine, the lower one almost
+entirely so. The painting of the red book is quite exemplary in fresco
+style.
+
+XII. DOGMATIC THEOLOGY.--After action and worship, thought becoming too
+wide and difficult, the need of dogma becomes felt; the assertion, that
+is, within limited range, of the things that are to be believed.
+
+Since whatever pride and folly pollute Christian scholarship naturally
+delight in dogma, the science itself cannot but be in a kind of disgrace
+among sensible men: nevertheless it would be difficult to overvalue the
+peace and security which have been given to humble persons by forms of
+creed; and it is evident that either there is no such thing as theology,
+or some of its knowledge must be thus, if not expressible, at least
+reducible within certain limits of expression, so as to be protected
+from misinterpretation.
+
+In red,--again the sign of power,--crowned with a black (once golden?)
+triple crown, emblematic of the Trinity. The left hand holding a scoop
+for winnowing corn; the other points upwards. "Prove all things--hold
+fast that which is good, or of God."
+
+Beneath her, Boethius. Under St. Mark. Medallion, female figure, laying
+hands on breast.
+
+_Technical Points_.--The Boethius entirely genuine, and the painting of
+his black book, as of the red one beside it, again worth notice, showing
+how pleasant and interesting the commonest things become, when well
+painted.
+
+I have not examined the upper figure.
+
+XIII. MYSTIC THEOLOGY. [Footnote: Blunderingly in the guide-books called
+'Faith!'] Monastic science, above dogma, and attaining to new revelation
+by reaching higher spiritual states.
+
+In white robes, her left hand gloved (I don't know why)--holding
+chalice. She wears a nun's veil fastened under her chin, her hair
+fastened close, like Grammar's, showing her necessary monastic life;
+all states of mystic spiritual life involving retreat from much that is
+allowable in the material and practical world.
+
+There is no possibility of denying this fact, infinite as the evils are
+which have arisen from misuse of it. They have been chiefly induced by
+persons who falsely pretended to lead monastic life, and led it without
+having natural faculty for it. But many more lamentable errors have
+arisen from the pride of really noble persons, who have thought it would
+be a more pleasing thing to God to be a sibyl or a witch, than a useful
+housewife. Pride is always somewhat involved even in the true effort:
+the scarlet head-dress in the form of a horn on the forehead in the
+fresco indicates this, both here, and in the Contemplative Theology.
+
+Under St. John.
+
+Medallion unintelligible, to me. A woman laying hands on the shoulders
+of two small figures.
+
+_Technical Points_.--More of the minute folds of the white dress left
+than in any other of the repainted draperies. It is curious that minute
+division has always in drapery, more or less, been understood as an
+expression of spiritual life, from the delicate folds of Athena's peplus
+down to the rippled edges of modern priests' white robes; Titian's
+breadth of fold, on the other hand, meaning for the most part bodily
+power. The relation of the two modes of composition was lost by Michael
+Angelo, who thought to express spirit by making flesh colossal.
+
+For the rest, the figure is not of any interest, Memmi's own mind being
+intellectual rather than mystic.
+
+XIV. POLEMIC THEOLOGY.[Footnote: Blunderingly called 'Charity' in the
+guide-books.]
+
+"Who goes forth, conquering and to conquer?" "For we war, not with flesh
+and blood," etc.
+
+In red, as sign of power, but not in armour, because she is herself
+invulnerable. A close red cap, with cross for crest, instead of helmet.
+Bow in left hand; long arrow in right.
+
+She partly means Aggressive Logic: compare the set of her shoulders and
+arms with Logic's.
+
+She is placed the last of the Divine sciences, not as their culminating
+power, but as the last which can be rightly learned. You must know all
+the others, before you go out to battle. Whereas the general principle
+of modern Christendom is to go out to battle without knowing _any one_
+of the others; one of the reasons for this error, the prince of errors,
+being the vulgar notion that truth may be ascertained by debate! Truth
+is never learned, in any department of industry, by arguing, but by
+working, and observing. And when you have got good hold of one
+truth, for certain, two others will grow out of it, in a beautifully
+dicotyledonous fashion, (which, as before noticed, is the meaning of
+the branch in Logic's right hand). Then, when you have got so much true
+knowledge as is worth fighting for, you are bound to fight for it. But
+not to debate about it, any more.
+
+There is, however, one further reason for Polemic Theology being put
+beside Mystic. It is only in some approach to mystic science that any
+man becomes aware of what St. Paul means by "spiritual wickedness in
+heavenly [Footnote: With cowardly intentional fallacy, translated 'high'
+in the English Bible.] places;" or, in any true sense, knows the enemies
+of God and of man.
+
+Beneath St. Augustine. Showing you the proper method of
+controversy;--perfectly firm; perfectly gentle.
+
+You are to distinguish, of course, controversy from rebuke. The
+assertion of truth is to be always gentle: the chastisement of wilful
+falsehood may be--very much the contrary indeed. Christ's sermon on the
+Mount is full of polemic theology, yet perfectly gentle:--"Ye have heard
+that it hath been said--but _I_ say unto you";--"And if ye salute your
+brethren only, what do ye more than others?" and the like. But His "Ye
+fools and blind, for whether is greater," is not merely the exposure of
+error, but rebuke of the avarice which made that error possible.
+
+Under the throne of St. Thomas; and next to Arithmetic, of the
+terrestrial sciences.
+
+Medallion, a soldier, but not interesting.
+
+Technical Points.--Very genuine and beautiful throughout. Note the use
+of St. Augustine's red bands, to connect him with the full red of the
+upper figures; and compare the niche formed by the dress of Canon Law,
+above the Pope, for different artistic methods of attaining the same
+object,--unity of composition.
+
+But lunch time is near, my friends, and you have that shopping to do,
+you know.
+
+
+
+
+THE SIXTH MORNING.
+
+THE SHEPHERD'S TOWER.
+
+
+I am obliged to interrupt my account of the Spanish chapel by the
+following notes on the sculptures of Giotto's Campanile: first because
+I find that inaccurate accounts of those sculptures are in course of
+publication; and chiefly because I cannot finish my work in the Spanish
+chapel until one of my good Oxford helpers, Mr. Caird, has completed
+some investigations he has undertaken for me upon the history connected
+with it. I had written my own analysis of the fourth side, believing
+that in every scene of it the figure of St. Dominic was repeated. Mr.
+Caird first suggested, and has shown me already good grounds for his
+belief,[Footnote: He wrote thus to me on 11th November last: "The three
+preachers are certainly different. The first is Dominic; the second,
+Peter Martyr, whom I have identified from his martyrdom on the other
+wall; and the third, Aquinas."] that the preaching monks represented
+are in each scene intended for a different person. I am informed also
+of several careless mistakes which have got into my description of the
+fresco of the Sciences; and finally, another of my young helpers, Mr.
+Charles F. Murray,--one, however, whose help is given much in the form
+of antagonism,--informs me of various critical discoveries lately made,
+both by himself, and by industrious Germans, of points respecting the
+authenticity of this and that, which will require notice from me: more
+especially he tells me of certification that the picture in the Uffizii,
+of which I accepted the ordinary attribution to Giotto, is by Lorenzo
+Monaco,--which indeed may well be, without in the least diminishing the
+use to you of what I have written of its predella, and without in the
+least, if you think rightly of the matter, diminishing your confidence
+in what I tell you of Giotto generally. There is one kind of knowledge
+of pictures which is the artist's, and another which is the antiquary's
+and the picture-dealer's; the latter especially acute, and founded on
+very secure and wide knowledge of canvas, pigment, and tricks of touch,
+without, necessarily, involving any knowledge whatever of the qualities
+of art itself. There are few practised dealers in the great cities of
+Europe whose opinion would not be more trustworthy than mine, (if you
+could _get_ it, mind you,) on points of actual authenticity. But they
+could only tell you whether the picture was by such and such a master,
+and not at all what either the master or his work were good for. Thus,
+I have, before now, taken drawings by Varley and by Cousins for early
+studies by Turner, and have been convinced by the dealers that they knew
+better than I, as far as regarded the authenticity of those drawings;
+but the dealers don't know Turner, or the worth of him, so well as I,
+for all that. So also, you may find me again and again mistaken among
+the much more confused work of the early Giottesque schools, as to the
+authenticity of this work or the other; but you will find (and I say it
+with far more sorrow than pride) that I am simply the only person who
+can at present tell you the real worth of _any_; you will find that
+whenever I tell you to look at a picture, it is worth your pains;
+and whenever I tell you the character of a painter, that it _is_ his
+character, discerned by me faithfully in spite of all confusion of work
+falsely attributed to him in which similar character may exist. Thus,
+when I mistook Cousins for Turner, I was looking at a piece of subtlety
+in the sky of which the dealer had no consciousness whatever, which was
+essentially Turneresque, but which another man might sometimes equal;
+whereas the dealer might be only looking at the quality of Whatman's
+paper, which Cousins used, and Turner did not.
+
+Not, in the meanwhile, to leave you quite guideless as to the main
+subject of the fourth fresco in the Spanish chapel,--the Pilgrim's
+Progress of Florence,--here is a brief map of it:
+
+On the right, in lowest angle, St. Dominic preaches to the group of
+Infidels; in the next group towards the left, he (or some one very like
+him) preaches to the Heretics: the Heretics proving obstinate, he sets
+his dogs at them, as at the fatallest of wolves, who being driven away,
+the rescued lambs are gathered at the feet of the Pope. I have copied
+the head of the very pious, but slightly weak-minded, little lamb in the
+centre, to compare with my rough Cumberland ones, who have had no such
+grave experiences. The whole group, with the Pope above, (the niche of
+the Duomo joining with and enriching the decorative power of his mitre,)
+is a quite delicious piece of design.
+
+The Church being thus pacified, is seen in worldly honour under the
+powers of the Spiritual and Temporal Rulers. The Pope, with Cardinal
+and Bishop descending in order on his right; the Emperor, with King and
+Baron descending in order on his left; the ecclesiastical body of the
+whole Church on the right side, and the laity,--chiefly its poets and
+artists, on the left.
+
+Then, the redeemed Church nevertheless giving itself up to the vanities
+and temptations of the world, its forgetful saints are seen feasting,
+with their children dancing before them, (the Seven Mortal Sins, say
+some commentators). But the wise-hearted of them confess their sins
+to another ghost of St. Dominic; and confessed, becoming as little
+children, enter hand in hand the gate of the Eternal Paradise, crowned
+with flowers by the waiting angels, and admitted by St. Peter among the
+serenely joyful crowd of all the saints, above whom the white Madonna
+stands reverently before the throne. There is, so far as I know,
+throughout all the schools of Christian art, no other so perfect
+statement of the noble policy and religion of men.
+
+I had intended to give the best account of it in my power; but, when at
+Florence, lost all time for writing that I might copy the group of the
+Pope and Emperor for the schools of Oxford; and the work since done
+by Mr. Caird has informed me of so much, and given me, in some of its
+suggestions, so much to think of, that I believe it will be best and
+most just to print at once his account of the fresco as a supplement
+to these essays of mine, merely indicating any points on which I have
+objections to raise, and so leave matters till Fors lets me see Florence
+once more.
+
+Perhaps she may, in kindness forbid my ever seeing it more, the wreck
+of it being now too ghastly and heartbreaking to any human soul that
+remembers the days of old. Forty years ago, there was assuredly no spot
+of ground, out of Palestine, in all the round world, on which, if you
+knew, even but a little, the true course of that world's history, you
+saw with so much joyful reverence the dawn of morning, as at the foot of
+the Tower of Giotto. For there the traditions of faith and hope, of
+both the Gentile and Jewish races, met for their beautiful labour: the
+Baptistery of Florence is the last building raised on the earth by the
+descendants of the workmen taught by Daedalus: and the Tower of Giotto is
+the loveliest of those raised on earth under the inspiration of the men
+who lifted up the tabernacle in the wilderness. Of living Greek work
+there is none after the Florentine Baptistery; of living Christian work,
+none so perfect as the Tower of Giotto; and, under the gleam and shadow
+of their marbles, the morning light was haunted by the ghosts of the
+Father of Natural Science, Galileo; of Sacred Art, Angelico, and the
+Master of Sacred Song. Which spot of ground the modern Florentine has
+made his principal hackney-coach stand and omnibus station. The hackney
+coaches, with their more or less farmyard-like litter of occasional hay,
+and smell of variously mixed horse-manure, are yet in more permissible
+harmony with the place than the ordinary populace of a fashionable
+promenade would be, with its cigars, spitting, and harlot-planned
+fineries: but the omnibus place of call being in front of the door of
+the tower, renders it impossible to stand for a moment near it, to look
+at the sculptures either of the eastern or southern side; while the
+north side is enclosed with an iron railing, and usually encumbered with
+lumber as well: not a soul in Florence ever caring now for sight of any
+piece of its old artists' work; and the mass of strangers being on the
+whole intent on nothing but getting the omnibus to go by steam; and so
+seeing the cathedral in one swift circuit, by glimpses between the puffs
+of it.
+
+The front of Notre Dame of Paris was similarly turned into a
+coach-office when I last saw it--1872. [Footnote: See Fors Clavigera in
+that year.] Within fifty yards of me as I write, the Oratory of the Holy
+Ghost is used for a tobacco-store, and in fine, over all Europe, mere
+Caliban bestiality and Satyric ravage staggering, drunk and desperate,
+into every once enchanted cell where the prosperity of kingdoms ruled
+and the miraculous-ness of beauty was shrined in peace.
+
+Deluge of profanity, drowning dome and tower in Stygian pool of vilest
+thought,--nothing now left sacred, in the places where once--nothing was
+profane.
+
+For _that_ is indeed the teaching, if you could receive it, of the Tower
+of Giotto; as of all Christian art in its day. Next to declaration
+of the facts of the Gospel, its purpose, (often in actual work the
+eagerest,) was to show the _power_ of the Gospel. History of Christ in
+due place; yes, history of all He did, and how He died: but then, and
+often, as I say, with more animated imagination, the showing of His
+risen presence in granting the harvests and guiding the labour of the
+year. All sun and rain, and length or decline of days received from His
+hand; all joy, and grief, and strength, or cessation of labour,
+indulged or endured, as in His sight and to His glory. And the familiar
+employments of the seasons, the homely toils of the peasant, the
+lowliest skills of the craftsman, are signed always on the stones of the
+Church, as the first and truest condition of sacrifice and offering.
+
+Of these representations of human art under heavenly guidance, the
+series of bas-reliefs which stud the base of this tower of Giotto's must
+be held certainly the chief in Europe. [Footnote: For account of the
+series on the main archivolt of St. Mark's, see my sketch of the schools
+of Venetian sculpture in third forthcoming number of 'St. Mark's
+Rest.'] At first you may be surprised at the smallness of their scale
+in proportion to their masonry; but this smallness of scale enabled the
+master workmen of the tower to execute them with their own hands; and
+for the rest, in the very finest architecture, the decoration of most
+precious kind is usually thought of as a jewel, and set with space
+round it,--as the jewels of a crown, or the clasp of a girdle. It is in
+general not possible for a great workman to carve, himself, a greatly
+conspicuous series of ornament; nay, even his energy fails him in
+design, when the bas-relief extends itself into incrustation, or
+involves the treatment of great masses of stone. If his own does not,
+the spectator's will. It would be the work of a long summer's day to
+examine the over-loaded sculptures of the Certosa of Pavia; and yet in
+the tired last hour, you would be empty-hearted. Read but these inlaid
+jewels of Giotto's once with patient following; and your hour's study
+will give you strength for all your life. So far as you can, examine
+them of course on the spot; but to know them thoroughly you must have
+their photographs: the subdued colour of the old marble fortunately
+keeps the lights subdued, so that the photograph may be made more tender
+in the shadows than is usual in its renderings of sculpture, and there
+are few pieces of art which may now be so well known as these, in quiet
+homes far away.
+
+We begin on the western side. There are seven sculptures on the western,
+southern, and northern sides: six on the eastern; counting the Lamb over
+the entrance door of the tower, which divides the complete series
+into two groups of eighteen and eight. Itself, between them, being the
+introduction to the following eight, you must count it as the first
+of the terminal group; you then have the whole twenty-seven sculptures
+divided into eighteen and nine.
+
+Thus lettering the groups on each side for West, South, East, and North,
+we have:
+
+                         W.  S.  E.  N.
+                         7 + 7 + 6 + 7 = 27; or,
+
+                         W.  S.  E.
+                         7 + 7 + 4     = 18; and,
+
+                                 E.  N.
+                                 2 + 7 = 9
+
+There is a very special reason for this division by nines but,
+for convenience' sake, I shall number the whole from 1 to 27,
+straightforwardly. And if you will have patience with me, I should
+like to go round the tower once and again; first observing the general
+meaning and connection of the subjects and then going back to examine
+the technical points in each, and such minor specialties as it may be
+well, at the first time, to pass over.
+
+1. The series begins, then, on the west side, with the Creation of
+Man. It is not the beginning of the story of Genesis; but the simple
+assertion that God made us, and breathed, and still breathes, into our
+nostrils the breath of life.
+
+This, Giotto tells you to believe as the beginning of all knowledge and
+all power. [Footnote: So also the Master-builder of the Ducal Palace of
+Venice. See Fors Clavigera for June of this year.] This he tells you to
+believe, as a thing which he himself knows.
+
+He will tell you nothing but what he _does_ know.
+
+2. Therefore, though Giovanna Pisano and his fellow sculptors had given,
+literally, the taking of the rib out of Adam's side, Giotto merely gives
+the mythic expression of the truth he knows,--"they two shall be one
+flesh."
+
+3. And though all the theologians and poets of his time would have
+expected, if not demanded, that his next assertion, after that of the
+Creation of Man, should be of the Fall of Man, he asserts nothing of
+the kind. He knows nothing of what man was. What he is, he knows best of
+living men at that hour, and proceeds to say. The next sculpture is of
+Eve spinning and Adam hewing the ground into clods. Not _digging_: you
+cannot, usually, dig but in ground already dug. The native earth you
+must hew.
+
+They are not clothed in skins. What would have been the use of Eve
+spinning if she could not weave? They wear, each, one simple piece of
+drapery, Adam's knotted behind him, Eve's fastened around her neck with
+a rude brooch.
+
+Above them are an oak and an apple-tree. Into the apple-tree a little
+bear is trying to climb.
+
+The meaning of which entire myth is, as I read it, that men and women
+must both eat their bread with toil. That the first duty of man is to
+feed his family, and the first duty of the woman to clothe it. That the
+trees of the field are given us for strength and for delight, and that
+the wild beasts of the field must have their share with us. [Footnote:
+The oak and apple boughs are placed, with the same meaning, by Sandro
+Botticelli, in the lap of Zipporah. The figure of the bear is again
+represented by Jacopo della Quercia, on the north door of the Cathedral
+of Florence. I am not sure of its complete meaning.]
+
+4. The fourth sculpture, forming the centre-piece of the series on the
+west side, is nomad pastoral life.
+
+Jabal, the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle,
+lifts the curtain of his tent to look out upon his flock. His dog
+watches it.
+
+5. Jubal, the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
+
+That is to say, stringed and wind instruments;--the lyre and reed. The
+first arts (with the Jew and Greek) of the shepherd David, and shepherd
+Apollo.
+
+Giotto has given him the long level trumpet, afterwards adopted so
+grandly in the sculptures of La Robbia and Donatello. It is, I think,
+intended to be of wood, as now the long Swiss horn, and a long and
+shorter tube are bound together.
+
+6. Tubal Cain, the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron.
+
+Giotto represents him as sitting, _fully robed_, turning a wedge of
+bronze on the anvil with extreme watchfulness.
+
+These last three sculptures, observe, represent the life of the race
+of Cain; of those who are wanderers, and have no home. _Nomad_ pastoral
+life; Nomad artistic life, Wandering Willie; yonder organ man, whom you
+want to send the policeman after, and the gipsy who is mending the old
+schoolmistress's kettle on the grass, which the squire has wanted so
+long to take into his park from the roadside.
+
+7. Then the last sculpture of the seven begins the story of the race of
+Seth, and of home life. The father of it lying drunk under his trellised
+vine; such the general image of civilized society, in the abstract,
+thinks Giotto.
+
+With several other meanings, universally known to the Catholic world of
+that day,--too many to be spoken of here.
+
+The second side of the tower represents, after this introduction, the
+sciences and arts of civilized or home life.
+
+8. Astronomy. In nomad life you may serve yourself of the guidance of
+the stars; but to know the laws of _their_ nomadic life, your own must
+be fixed.
+
+The astronomer, with his sextant revolving on a fixed pivot, looks up
+to the vault of the heavens and beholds their zodiac; prescient of what
+else with optic glass the Tuscan artist viewed, at evening, from the top
+of Fesole.
+
+Above the dome of heaven, as yet unseen, are the Lord of the worlds and
+His angels. To-day, the Dawn and the Daystar: to-morrow, the Daystar
+arising in the heart.
+
+9. Defensive architecture. The building of the watchtower. The beginning
+of security in possession.
+
+10. Pottery. The making of pot, cup, and platter. The first civilized
+furniture; the means of heating liquid, and serving drink and meat with
+decency and economy.
+
+11. Riding. The subduing of animals to domestic service.
+
+12. Weaving. The making of clothes with swiftness, and in precision of
+structure, by help of the loom.
+
+13. Law, revealed as directly from heaven.
+
+14. Daedalus (not Icarus, but the father trying the wings). The conquest
+of the element of air.
+
+As the seventh subject of the first group introduced the arts of home
+after those of the savage wanderer, this seventh of the second group
+introduces the arts of the missionary, or civilized and gift-bringing
+wanderer.
+
+15. The Conquest of the Sea. The helmsman, and two rowers, rowing as
+Venetians, face to bow.
+
+16. The Conquest of the Earth. Hercules victor over Antaeus. Beneficent
+strength of civilization crushing the savageness of inhumanity.
+
+17. Agriculture. The oxen and plough.
+
+18. Trade. The cart and horses.
+
+19. And now the sculpture over the door of the tower. The Lamb of God,
+expresses the Law of Sacrifice, and door of ascent to heaven. And then
+follow the fraternal arts of the Christian world.
+
+20. Geometry. Again the angle sculpture, introductory to the following
+series. We shall see presently why this science must be the foundation
+of the rest.
+
+21. Sculpture.
+
+22. Painting.
+
+23. Grammar.
+
+24. Arithmetic. The laws of number, weight, and measures of capacity.
+
+25 Music. The laws of number, weight (or force), and measure, applied to
+sound.
+
+26. Logic. The laws of number and measure applied to thought.
+
+27. The Invention of Harmony.
+
+You see now--by taking first the great division of pre-Christian and
+Christian arts, marked by the door of the Tower; and then the divisions
+into four successive historical periods, marked by its angles--that
+you have a perfect plan of human civilization. The first side is of the
+nomad life, learning how to assert its supremacy over other wandering
+creatures, herbs, and beasts. Then the second side is the fixed home
+life, developing race and country; then the third side, the human
+intercourse between stranger races; then the fourth side, the harmonious
+arts of all who are gathered into the fold of Christ.
+
+Now let us return to the first angle, and examine piece by piece with
+care.
+
+1. _Creation of Man._
+
+Scarcely disengaged from the clods of the earth, he opens his eyes to
+the face of Christ. Like all the rest of the sculptures, it is less
+the representation of a past fact than of a constant one. It is the
+continual state of man, 'of the earth,' yet seeing God.
+
+Christ holds the book of His Law--the 'Law of life'--in His left hand.
+
+The trees of the garden above are,--central above Christ, palm (immortal
+life); above Adam, oak (human life). Pear, and fig, and a large-leaved
+ground fruit (what?) complete the myth of the Food of Life.
+
+As decorative sculpture, these trees are especially to be noticed, with
+those in the two next subjects, and the Noah's vine as differing in
+treatment from Giotto's foliage, of which perfect examples are seen in
+16 and 17. Giotto's branches are set in close sheaf-like clusters; and
+every mass disposed with extreme formality of radiation. The leaves of
+these first, on the contrary, are arranged with careful concealment of
+their ornamental system, so as to look inartificial. This is done so
+studiously as to become, by excess, a little unnatural!--Nature herself
+is more decorative and formal in grouping. But the occult design is very
+noble, and every leaf modulated with loving, dignified, exactly
+right and sufficient finish; not done to show skill, nor with mean
+forgetfulness of main subject, but in tender completion and harmony with
+it.
+
+Look at the subdivisions of the palm leaves with your magnifying glass.
+The others are less finished in this than in the next subject. Man
+himself incomplete, the leaves that are created with him, for his life,
+must not be so.
+
+(Are not his fingers yet short; growing?)
+
+2. _Creation of Woman._
+
+Far, in its essential qualities, the transcendent sculpture of this
+subject, Ghiberti's is only a dainty elaboration and beautification of
+it, losing its solemnity and simplicity in a flutter of feminine grace.
+The older sculptor thinks of the Uses of Womanhood, and of its dangers
+and sins, before he thinks of its beauty; but, were the arm not lost,
+the quiet naturalness of this head and breast of Eve, and the bending
+grace of the submissive rendering of soul and body to perpetual
+guidance by the hand of Christ--(_grasping_ the arm, note, for full
+support)--would be felt to be far beyond Ghiberti's in beauty, as in
+mythic truth.
+
+The line of her body joins with that of the serpent-ivy round the tree
+trunk above her: a double myth--of her fall, and her support afterwards
+by her husband's strength. "Thy desire shall be to thy husband." The
+fruit of the tree--double-set filbert, telling nevertheless the happy
+equality.
+
+The leaves in this piece are finished with consummate poetical care
+and precision. Above Adam, laurel (a virtuous woman is a crown to
+her husband); the filbert for the two together; the fig, for fruitful
+household joy (under thy vine and fig-tree [Footnote: Compare Fors
+Clavigera, February, 1877.]--but vine properly the masculine joy); and
+the fruit taken by Christ for type of all naturally growing food, in his
+own hunger.
+
+Examine with lens the ribbing of these leaves, and the insertion on
+their stem of the three laurel leaves on extreme right: and observe that
+in all cases the sculptor works the moulding _with_ his own part of the
+design; look how he breaks variously deeper into it, beginning from
+the foot of Christ, and going up to the left into full depth above the
+shoulder.
+
+3. _Original labour._
+
+Much poorer, and intentionally so. For the myth of the creation of
+humanity, the sculptor uses his best strength, and shows supremely the
+grace of womanhood; but in representing the first peasant state of life,
+makes the grace of woman by no means her conspicuous quality. She
+even walks awkwardly; some feebleness in foreshortening the foot
+also embarrassing the sculptor. He knows its form perfectly--but its
+perspective, not quite yet.
+
+The trees stiff and stunted--they also needing culture. Their fruit
+dropping at present only into beasts' mouths.
+
+4. _Jabal._
+
+If you have looked long enough, and carefully enough, at the three
+previous sculptures, you cannot but feel that the hand here is utterly
+changed. The drapery sweeps in broader, softer, but less true folds; the
+handling is far more delicate; exquisitely sensitive to gradation over
+broad surfaces--scarcely using an incision of any depth but in outline;
+studiously reserved in appliance of shadow, as a thing precious and
+local--look at it above the puppy's head, and under the tent.
+
+This is assuredly painter's work, not mere sculptor's. I have no doubt
+whatever it is by the own hand of the shepherd-boy of Fesole. Cimabue
+had found him drawing, (more probably _scratching_ with Etrurian point,)
+one of his sheep upon a stone. These, on the central foundation-stone of
+his tower he engraves, looking back on the fields of life: the time soon
+near for him to draw the curtains of his tent.
+
+I know no dog like this in method of drawing, and in skill of giving the
+living form without one touch of chisel for hair, or incision for eye,
+except the dog barking at Poverty in the great fresco of Assisi.
+
+Take the lens and look at every piece of the work from corner to
+corner--note especially as a thing which would only have been enjoyed by
+a painter, and which all great painters do intensely enjoy--the _fringe_
+of the tent, [Footnote: "I think Jabal's tent is made of leather; the
+relaxed intervals between the tent-pegs show a curved ragged edge like
+leather near the ground" (Mr. Caird). The edge of the opening is still
+more characteristic, I think.] and precise insertion of its point in the
+angle of the hexagon, prepared for by the archaic masonry indicated in
+the oblique joint above; [Footnote: Prints of these photographs which
+do not show the masonry all round the hexagon are quite valueless for
+study.] architect and painter thinking at once, and _doing_ as they
+thought.
+
+I gave a lecture to the Eton boys a year or two ago, on little more than
+the shepherd's dog, which is yet more wonderful in magnified scale of
+photograph. The lecture is partly published--somewhere, but I can't
+refer to it.
+
+5. _Jubal_.
+
+Still Giotto's, though a little less delighted in; but with exquisite
+introduction of the Gothic of his own tower. See the light surface
+sculpture of a mosaic design in the horizontal moulding.
+
+Note also the painter's freehand working of the complex mouldings of the
+table--also resolvedly oblong, not square; see central flower.
+
+6. _Tubal Cain_.
+
+Still Giotto's, and entirely exquisite; finished with no less care than
+the shepherd, to mark the vitality of this art to humanity; the spade
+and hoe--its heraldic bearing--hung on the hinged door. [Footnote:
+Pointed out to me by Mr. Caird, who adds farther, "I saw a forge
+identical with this one at Pelago the other day,--the anvil resting on
+a tree-stump: the same fire, bellows, and implements; the door in two
+parts, the upper part like a shutter, and used for the exposition
+of finished work as a sign of the craft; and I saw upon it the same
+finished work of the same shape as in the bas-relief--a spade and a
+hoe."] For subtlety of execution, note the texture of wooden block under
+anvil, and of its iron hoop.
+
+The workman's face is the best sermon on the dignity of labour yet
+spoken by thoughtful man. Liberal Parliaments and fraternal Reformers
+have nothing essential to say more.
+
+7. _Noah_.
+
+Andrea Pisano's again, more or less imitative of Giotto's work.
+
+8. _Astronomy_.
+
+We have a new hand here altogether. The hair and drapery bad; the face
+expressive, but blunt in cutting; the small upper heads, necessarily
+little more than blocked out, on the small scale; but not suggestive
+of grace in completion: the minor detail worked with great mechanical
+precision, but little feeling; the lion's head, with leaves in its ears,
+is quite ugly; and by comparing the work of the small cusped arch at the
+bottom with Giotto's soft handling of the mouldings of his, in 5, you
+may for ever know common mason's work from fine Gothic. The zodiacal
+signs are quite hard and common in the method of bas-relief, but quaint
+enough in design: Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces, on the broad heavenly
+belt; Taurus upside down, Gemini, and Cancer, on the small globe.
+
+I think the whole a restoration of the original panel, or else an
+inferior workman's rendering of Giotto's design, which the next piece
+is, with less question.
+
+9. _Building_.
+
+The larger figure, I am disposed finally to think, represents civic
+power, as in Lorenzetti's fresco at Siena. The extreme rudeness of
+the minor figures may be guarantee of their originality; it is the
+smoothness of mass and hard edge work that make me suspect the 8th for a
+restoration.
+
+10. _Pottery_.
+
+Very grand; with much painter's feeling, and fine mouldings again.
+The _tiled_ roof projecting in the shadow above, protects the first
+Ceramicus-home. I think the women are meant to be carrying some kind of
+wicker or reed-bound water-vessel. The Potter's servant explains to them
+the extreme advantages of the new invention. I can't make any conjecture
+about the author of this piece.
+
+11. _Riding_.
+
+Again Andrea Pisano's, it seems to me. Compare the tossing up of the
+dress behind the shoulders, in 3 and 2. The head is grand, having nearly
+an Athenian profile: the loss of the horse's fore-leg prevents me from
+rightly judging of the entire action. I must leave riders to say.
+
+12. _Weaving_.
+
+Andrea's again, and of extreme loveliness; the stooping face of the
+woman at the loom is more like a Leonardo drawing than sculpture. The
+action of throwing the large shuttle, and all the structure of the
+loom and its threads, distinguishing rude or smooth surface, are quite
+wonderful. The figure on the right shows the use and grace of finely
+woven tissue, under and upper--that over the bosom so delicate that the
+line of separation from the flesh of the neck is unseen.
+
+If you hide with your hand the carved masonry at the bottom, the
+composition separates itself into two pieces, one disagreeably
+rectangular. The still more severely rectangular masonry throws out
+by contrast all that is curved and rounded in the loom, and unites the
+whole composition; that is its aesthetic function; its historical one is
+to show that weaving is queen's work, not peasant's; for this is palace
+masonry.
+
+13. _The Giving of Law_.
+
+More strictly, of _the_ Book of God's Law: the only one which _can_
+ultimately be obeyed. [Footnote: Mr. Caird convinced me of the real
+meaning of this sculpture. I had taken it for the giving of a book,
+writing further of it as follows:--
+
+All books, rightly so called, are Books of Law, and all Scripture is
+given by inspiration of God. (What _we_ now mostly call a book, the
+infinite reduplication and vibratory echo of a lie, is not given but
+belched up out of volcanic clay by the inspiration of the devil.) On the
+Book-giver's right hand the students in cell, restrained by the lifted
+right hand:
+
+"Silent, you, till you know"; then, perhaps, you also.
+
+On the left, the men of the world, kneeling, receive the gift.
+
+Recommendable seal, this, for Mr. Mudie!
+
+Mr. Caird says: "The book is written law, which is given by Justice to
+the inferiors, that they may know the laws regulating their relations
+to their superiors--who are also under the hand of law. The vassal is
+protected by the accessibility of formularized law. The superior is
+restrained by the right hand of power." ]
+
+The authorship of this is very embarrassing to me. The face of the
+central figure is most noble, and all the work good, but not delicate;
+it is like original work of the master whose design No. 8 might be a
+restoration.
+
+14 _Daedalus_.
+
+Andrea Pisano again; the head superb, founded on Greek models, feathers
+of wings wrought with extreme care; but with no precision of arrangement
+or feeling. How far intentional in awkwardness, I cannot say; but note
+the good mechanism of the whole plan, with strong standing board for the
+feet.
+
+15. _Navigation_.
+
+An intensely puzzling one; coarse (perhaps unfinished) in work, and done
+by a man who could not row; the plaited bands used for rowlocks being
+pulled the wrong way. Right, had the rowers been rowing Englishwise:
+but the water at the boat's head shows its motion forwards, the way the
+oarsmen look. I cannot make out the action of the figure at the stern;
+it ought to be steering with the stern oar.
+
+The water seems quite unfinished. Meant, I suppose, for surface and
+section of sea, with slimy rock at the bottom; but all stupid and
+inefficient.
+
+16. _Hercules and Antaeus._
+
+The Earth power, half hidden by the earth, its hair and hand becoming
+roots, the strength of its life passing through the ground into the oak
+tree. With Cercyon, but first named, (Plato, _Laws_, book VII., 796),
+Antaeus is the master of contest without use;--[GREEK: philoneikias
+achrestou]--and is generally the power of pure selfishness and its
+various inflation to insolence and degradation to cowardice;--finding
+its strength only in fall back to its Earth,--he is the master, in a
+word, of all such kind of persons as have been writing lately about the
+"interests of England." He is, therefore, the Power invoked by Dante
+to place Virgil and him in the lowest circle of Hell;--"Alcides whilom
+felt,--that grapple, straitened sore," etc. The Antaeus in the sculpture
+is very grand; but the authorship puzzles me, as of the next piece, by
+the same hand. I believe both Giotto's design.
+
+17. _Ploughing._
+
+The sword in its Christian form. Magnificent: the grandest expression
+of the power of man over the earth and its strongest creatures that I
+remember in early sculpture,--(or for that matter, in late). It is the
+subduing of the bull which the sculptor thinks most of; the plough,
+though large, is of wood, and the handle slight. But the pawing and
+bellowing labourer he has bound to it!--here is victory.
+
+18. _The Chariot._
+
+The horse also subdued to draught--Achilles' chariot in its first, and
+to be its last, simplicity. The face has probably been grand--the figure
+is so still. Andrea's, I think by the flying drapery.
+
+19. _The Lamb, with the symbol of Resurrection._
+
+Over the door: 'I am the door;--by me, if any man enter in,' etc. Put
+to the right of the tower, you see, fearlessly, for the convenience of
+staircase ascent; all external symmetry being subject with the great
+builders to interior use; and then, out of the rightly ordained
+infraction of formal law, comes perfect beauty; and when, as here,
+the Spirit of Heaven is working with the designer, his thoughts are
+suggested in truer order, by the concession to use. After this sculpture
+comes the Christian arts,--those which necessarily imply the conviction
+of immortality. Astronomy without Christianity only reaches as far
+as--'Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels--and put all
+_things_ under His feet':--Christianity says beyond this,--'Know ye
+not that we shall judge angels (as also the lower creatures shall judge
+us!)' [Footnote: In the deep sense of this truth, which underlies all
+the bright fantasy and humour of Mr. Courthope's "Paradise of Birds,"
+that rhyme of the risen spirit of Aristophanes may well be read under
+the tower of Giotto, beside his watch-dog of the fold.] The series of
+sculptures now beginning, show the arts which _can_ only be accomplished
+through belief in Christ.
+
+20. _Geometry_.
+
+Not 'mathematics': _they_ have been implied long ago in astronomy and
+architecture; but the due Measuring of the Earth and all that is on it.
+Actually done only by Christian faith--first inspiration of the great
+Earth-measurers. Your Prince Henry of Spain, your Columbus, your Captain
+Cook, (whose tomb, with the bright artistic invention and religious
+tenderness which are so peculiarly the gifts of the nineteenth century,
+we have just provided a fence for, of old cannon open-mouthed, straight
+up towards Heaven--your modern method of symbolizing the only appeal
+to Heaven of which the nineteenth century has left itself capable--'The
+voice of thy Brother's blood crieth to me'--your outworn cannon,
+now silently agape, but sonorous in the ears of angels with that
+appeal)--first inspiration, I say, of these; constant inspiration of
+all who set true landmarks and hold to them, knowing their measure; the
+devil interfering, I observe, lately in his own way, with the Geometry
+of Yorkshire, where the landed proprietors, [Footnote: I mean no
+accusation against any class; probably the one-fielded statesman is more
+eager for his little gain of fifty yards of grass than the squire for
+his bite and sup out of the gypsy's part of the roadside. But it is
+notable enough to the passing traveller, to find himself shut into a
+narrow road between high stone dykes which he can neither see over nor
+climb over, (I always deliberately pitch them down myself, wherever I
+need a gap,) instead of on a broad road between low grey walls with
+all the moor beyond--and the power of leaping over when he chooses in
+innocent trespass for herb, or view, or splinter of grey rock.] when
+the neglected walls by the roadside tumble down, benevolently repair
+the same, with better stonework, _outside_ always of the fallen
+heaps;--which, the wall being thus built _on_ what was the public road,
+absorb themselves, with help of moss and time, into the heaving swells
+of the rocky field-and behold, gain of a couple of feet--along so much
+of the road as needs repairing operations.
+
+This then, is the first of the Christian sciences: division of land
+rightly, and the general law of measuring between wisely-held compass
+points. The type of mensuration, circle in square, on his desk, I use
+for my first exercise in the laws of Fesole.
+
+21. _Sculpture_.
+
+The first piece of the closing series on the north side of the
+Campanile, of which some general points must be first noted, before any
+special examination.
+
+The two initial ones, Sculpture and Painting, are by tradition the only
+ones attributed to Giotto's own hand. The fifth, Song, is known, and
+recognizable in its magnificence, to be by Luca della Robbia. The
+remaining four are all of Luca's school,--later work therefore, all
+these five, than any we have been hitherto examining, entirely different
+in manner, and with late flower-work beneath them instead of our
+hitherto severe Gothic arches. And it becomes of course instantly a
+vital question--Did Giotto die leaving the series incomplete, only its
+subjects chosen, and are these two bas-reliefs of Sculpture and Painting
+among his last works? or was the series ever completed, and these later
+bas-reliefs substituted for the earlier ones, under Luca's influence, by
+way of conducting the whole to a grander close, and making their order
+more representative of Florentine art in its fulness of power?
+
+I must repeat, once more, and with greater insistence respecting
+Sculpture than Painting, that I do not in the least set myself up for a
+critic of authenticity,--but only of absolute goodness. My readers may
+trust me to tell them what is well done or ill; but by whom, is quite
+a separate question, needing for any certainty, in this school of
+much-associated masters and pupils, extremest attention to minute
+particulars not at all bearing on my objects in teaching.
+
+Of this closing group of sculptures, then, all I can tell you is that
+the fifth is a quite magnificent piece of work, and recognizably, to
+my extreme conviction, Luca della Robbia's; that the last, Harmonia, is
+also fine work; that those attributed to Giotto are fine in a different
+way,--and the other three in reality the poorest pieces in the series,
+though done with much more advanced sculptural dexterity.
+
+But I am chiefly puzzled by the two attributed to Giotto, because they
+are much coarser than those which seem to me so plainly his on the west
+side, and slightly different in workmanship--with much that is common
+to both, however, in the casting of drapery and mode of introduction of
+details. The difference may be accounted for partly by haste or failing
+power, partly by the artist's less deep feeling of the importance of
+these merely symbolic figures, as compared with those of the Fathers
+of the Arts; but it is very notable and embarrassing notwithstanding,
+complicated as it is with extreme resemblance in other particulars.
+
+You cannot compare the subjects on the tower itself; but of my series of
+photographs take 6 and 21, and put them side by side.
+
+I need not dwell on the conditions of resemblance, which are instantly
+visible; but the _difference_ in the treatment of the heads is
+incomprehensible. That of the Tubal Cain is exquisitely finished, and
+with a painter's touch; every lock of the hair laid with studied flow,
+as in the most beautiful drawing. In the 'Sculpture,' it is struck out
+with ordinary tricks of rapid sculptor trade, entirely unfinished,
+and with offensively frank use of the drill hole to give picturesque
+rustication to the beard.
+
+Next, put 22 and 5 back to back. You see again the resemblance in the
+earnestness of both figures, in the unbroken arcs of their backs, in the
+breaking of the octagon moulding by the pointed angles; and here, even
+also in the general conception of the heads. But again, in the one of
+Painting, the hair is struck with more vulgar indenting and drilling,
+and the Gothic of the picture frame is less precise in touch and later
+in style. Observe, however,--and this may perhaps give us some definite
+hint for clearing the question,--a picture-frame _would be_ less precise
+in making, and later in style, properly, than cusped arches to be put
+under the feet of the inventor of all musical sound by breath of man.
+And if you will now compare finally the eager tilting of the workman's
+seat in 22 and 6, and the working of the wood in the painter's low table
+for his pots of colour, and his three-legged stool, with that of Tubal
+Cain's anvil block; and the way in which the lines of the forge and
+upper triptych are in each composition used to set off the rounding of
+the head, I believe you will have little hesitation in accepting my own
+view of the matter--namely, that the three pieces of the Fathers of the
+Arts were wrought with Giotto's extremest care for the most precious
+stones of his tower; that also, being a sculptor and painter, he did the
+other two, but with quite definite and wilful resolve that they _should
+be_, as mere symbols of his own two trades, wholly inferior to the other
+subjects of the patriarchs; that he made the Sculpture picturesque and
+bold as you see it is, and showed all a sculptor's tricks in the work of
+it; and a sculptor's Greek subject, Bacchus, for the model of it;
+that he wrought the Painting, as the higher art, with more care, still
+keeping it subordinate to the primal subjects, but showed, for a lesson
+to all the generations of painters for evermore,--this one lesson, like
+his circle of pure line containing all others,--'Your soul and body must
+be all in every touch.'
+
+I can't resist the expression of a little piece of personal exultation,
+in noticing that he holds his pencil as I do myself: no writing master,
+and no effort (at one time very steady for many months), having ever
+cured me of that way of holding both pen and pencil between my fore
+and second finger; the third and fourth resting the backs of them on my
+paper.
+
+As I finally arrange these notes for press, I am further confirmed in my
+opinion by discovering little finishings in the two later pieces which
+I was not before aware of. I beg the masters of High Art, and sublime
+generalization, to take a good magnifying glass to the 'Sculpture' and
+look at the way Giotto has cut the compasses, the edges of the chisels,
+and the keyhole of the lock of the toolbox. For the rest, nothing
+could be more probable, in the confused and perpetually false mass of
+Florentine tradition, than the preservation of the memory of Giotto's
+carving his own two trades, and the forgetfulness, or quite as likely
+ignorance, of the part he took with Andrea Pisano in the initial
+sculptures. I now take up the series of subjects at the point where we
+broke off, to trace their chain of philosophy to its close. To Geometry,
+which gives to every man his possession of house and land, succeed 21,
+Sculpture, and 22, Painting, the adornments of permanent habitation. And
+then, the great arts of education in a Christian home. First--
+
+23. _Grammar_, or more properly Literature altogether, of which we have
+already seen the ancient power in the Spanish Chapel series; then,
+
+24. _Arithmetic_, central here as also in the Spanish Chapel, for the
+same reasons; here, more impatiently asserting, with both hands, that
+two, on the right, you observe-and two on the left-do indeed and for
+ever make Four. Keep your accounts, you, with your book of double entry,
+on that principle; and you will be safe in this world and the next, in
+your steward's office. But by no means so, if you ever admit the usurers
+Gospel of Arithmetic, that two and two make Five. You see by the rich
+hem of his robe that the asserter of this economical first principle is
+a man well to do in the world.
+
+25. _Logic_. The art of Demonstration. Vulgarest of the whole series,
+far too expressive of the mode in which argument is conducted by those
+who are not masters of its reins.
+
+26. _Song._
+
+The essential power of music in animal life. Orpheus, the symbol of it
+all, the inventor properly of Music, the Law of Kindness, as Daedalus of
+Music, the Law of Construction. Hence the "Orphic life" is one of ideal
+mercy, (vegetarian,)--Plato, _Laws_, Book VI., 782,--and he is named
+first after Daedalus, and in balance to him as head of the school of
+harmonists, in Book III., 677, (Steph.) Look for the two singing
+birds clapping their wings in the tree above him; then the five mystic
+beasts,--closest to his feet the irredeemable boar; then lion and bear,
+tiger, unicorn, and fiery dragon closest to his head, the flames of its
+mouth mingling with his breath as he sings. The audient eagle, alas! has
+lost the beak, and is only recognizable by his proud holding of himself;
+the duck, sleepily delighted after muddy dinner, close to his shoulder,
+is a true conquest. Hoopoe, or indefinite bird of crested race, behind;
+of the other three no clear certainty. The leafage throughout such as
+only Luca could do, and the whole consummate in skill and understanding.
+
+27. _Harmony._
+
+Music of Song, in the full power of it, meaning perfect education in all
+art of the Muses and of civilized life: the mystery of its concord is
+taken for the symbol of that of a perfect state; one day, doubtless, of
+the perfect world. So prophesies the last corner stone of the Shepherd's
+Tower.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mornings in Florence, by John Ruskin
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