432 THE STONES OF VENICE

period. It will be seen that it requires no great ingenuity to distinguish between such design as that of fig. 12 and that of fig. 14.

§ 131. It is very possible that the reader may at first like fig. 14 the best. I shall endeavour, in the next chapter,¹ to show why he should not; but it must also be noted, that fig. 12 has lost, and fig. 14 gained, both largely, under the hands of the engraver. All the bluntness and coarseness of feeling in the workmanship of fig. 14 have disappeared on this small scale, and all the subtle refinements in the broad masses of fig. 12 have vanished. They could not, indeed, be rendered in line engraving, unless by the hand of Albert Dürer;² and I have, therefore, abandoned, for the present, all endeavour to represent any more important mass of the early sculpture of the Ducal Palace: but I trust that, in a few months, casts of many portions will be within the reach of the inhabitants of London,³ and that they will be able to judge for themselves of their perfect, pure, unlaboured naturalism; the freshness, elasticity, and softness of their leafage, united with the most noble symmetry and severe reserve,-no running to waste, no loose or experimental lines, no extravagance, and no weakness. Their design is always sternly architectural; there is none of the wildness or redundance of natural vegetation, but there is all the strength, freedom, and tossing flow of the breathing leaves, and all the undulation of their surfaces, rippled, as they grew, by the summer winds, as the sands are by the sea.

§ 132. This early sculpture of the Ducal Palace, then, represents the state of Gothic work in Venice at its central and proudest period, i.e., circa 1350. After this time, all is decline,-of what nature and by what steps, we shall inquire in the ensuing chapter; for as this investigation, though

¹ [See the next volume, ch. i. § § 6 seq., and compare above, ch. vi. § 64.]

² [Ruskin had plates by Dürer in his room at Venice: see above, p. 301 n.]

³ [Some casts were made for the Crystal Palace: see above, p. 114; others were made for Ruskin, and copies of them were presented by him to the Architectural Museum: see below, p. 467.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]