SECOND, OR GOTHIC, PERIOD

CHAPTER VI

THE NATURE OF GOTHIC¹

§ 1. IF the reader will look back to the division of our subject which was made in the first chapter of the first volume,² he will find that we are now about to enter upon the examination of that school of Venetian architecture which

¹ [The first scheme of the chapter is mapped out in Ruskin’s diary of 1851-1852. He there proposed to divide the characteristics of Gothic into (1) chemical elements (see below, §§ 4-78), and (2) crystalline form (§§ 79-106). For the history and significance of the chapter, see above, Introduction, p. lviii.; and for particulars of separate reprints of it, Bibliographical Note, p. lxviii. Ruskin began work on it in Venice in February 1852, and in a letter to his father describes the difficulties to which he here alludes (§ 2):-

“22nd Feb.[1852].-... I have had great difficulty in defining Gothic, the fact being that to define an architectural style is like defining a language-you have pure Latin and impure Latin in every form and stage, till it becomes Italian and not Latin at all. One can say Cicero writes Latin and Dante Italian; I can say that Giotto built Gothic and Michael Angelo Classic; but between the two there are all manner of shades, so that one cannot say ‘here one ends and the other begins.’ I shall show that the greatest distinctive character of Gothic is in the workman’s heart and mind; but its outward distinctive test is the trefoiled arch [sketch], not the mere point [sketch of a plain pointed arch]. Gothic is pure and impure according to the prominence and severity of this arch. If people say, ‘Can we build Gothic by covering our buildings with trefoils,’ I answer No,-any more than a child can write Latin by copying words at random out of Cicero, but the words he copies are nevertheless the tests of a pure style.

“I have worked gradually up to this conclusion from the time I wrote the note ‘10, p. 87’ at page 203 of Seven Lamps [Vol. VIII. p. 129], and I shall show that this distinctive test of Gothic architecture is so by a mysterious ordainment;-being, first, a type of the Trinity in number; secondly, of all the beauty of vegetation upon the earth-which was what man was intended to express his love of, even when he built in stone; lastly, because it is the perfect expression of the strongest possible way of building an arch, which I, I believe, was the first to show in the Stones, vol. i. page 129, §§ 4, 5, 6, 7 [Vol. IX. pp. 166-167].”

With the latter part of this letter, cf. ch. iii. § 23, above, p. 53, and §§ 93-95, below, pp. 256-259.]

² [See Vol. IX. p. 47 n., where Ruskin’s first division of his subject, and his subsequent alteration of it, are set out.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]