222 THE STONES OF VENICE III. NATURALISM

what it has of grace, and life, and light, and holiness, and leave all, or at least as much as possible, of the rest undrawn. The faces of their figures express no evil passion; the skies of their landscapes are without storm; the prevalent character of their colour is brightness, and of their chiaroscuro fulness of light. The early Italian and Flemish painters, Angelico and Hemling, Perugino, Francia, Raffaelle in his best time, John Bellini, and our own Stothard, belong eminently to this class.¹

§ 53. The second, or greatest class, render all that they see in nature unhesitatingly, with a kind of divine grasp and government of the whole, sympathizing with all the good, and yet confessing, permitting, and bringing good out of the evil also. Their subject is infinite as nature, their colour equally balanced between splendour and sadness, reaching occasionally the highest degrees of both, and their chiaroscuro equally balanced between light and shade.

The principal men of this class are Michael Angelo, Leonardo, Giotto, Tintoret, and Turner. Raffaelle in his second time, Titian, and Rubens are transitional; the first inclining to the eclectic, and the last two to the impure class, Raffaelle rarely giving all the evil, Titian and Rubens rarely all the good.²

§ 54. The last class perceive and imitate evil only. They cannot draw the trunk of a tree without blasting and shattering it, nor a sky except covered with stormy clouds; they delight in the beggary and brutality of the human race; their colour is for the most part subdued or lurid, and the greater spaces of their pictures are occupied by darkness.

¹ [For the “purism” of Fra Angelico-its strength and its weakness-see Modern Painters, vol. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 332); vol. iii. ch. vi. § 4; and Ethics of the Dust, §§ 85, 86. The true spelling of the next painter’s name (as researches later than the date of this book have shown), is Hans Memlinc (1430-1494), the Fra Angelico, we may call him, of Flanders. For Perugino, Francia, and the early Raffaelle in this connection, see Modern Painters, vol. ii. (Vol. IV. pp. 330-331). For Stothard, as “the Angelico of England,” see Modern Painters, vol. ii. (Vol. IV. p. 194); vol. iii. ch. vi. § 5; and The Cestus of Aglaia, § 80. For John Bellini, see The Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret.]

² [For these painters, see General Index; and in regard to their relative ranks, see the class list drawn up by Ruskin in 1845, Vol. IV. pp. xxxiv. -xxxv., and the references to other lists there noted.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]