18 THE STONES OF VENICE

minds of men, and they pursued it to the neglect of everything else. “This,” they cried, “we must have in all our work henceforward:” and they were obeyed. The lower workman secured method and finish, and lost, in exchange for them, his soul.*

§ 21. Now, therefore, do not let me be misunderstood when I speak generally of the evil spirit of the Renaissance. The reader may look through all I have written, from first to last, and he will not find one word but of the most profound reverence for those mighty men who could wear the Renaissance armour of proof, and yet not feel it encumber their living limbs,†-Leonardo and Michael Angelo, Ghirlandajo and Masaccio, Titian and Tintoret.‡ But I speak of the Renaissance as an evil time, because, when it saw those men go burning forth into the battle, it mistook their armour for their strength; and forthwith encumbered with the painful panoply every stripling who ought to have gone forth only with his own choice of three smooth stones out of the brook.¹

§ 22. This, then, the reader must always keep in mind when he is examining for himself any examples of cinquecento work. When it has been done by a truly great man, whose life and strength could not be oppressed, and who

* See the examination in St. Mark’s Rest of the clever work on the restored porch of St. Mark’s.² [1881.]

† Not that even these men were able to wear it altogether without harm, as we shall see in the next chapter.

‡ He will find plenty of words now, of extreme irreverence towards Leonardo, Michael Angelo, and Ghirlandajo.³ But I was only breaking my way through old prejudices, in 1851, and was still encumbered with the dust of them. But I think the reader will do me the justice to observe how carefully and temperately the advance was made; so that I have now only to confirm or complete its statements; and nothing of real good was ever denied by me, in the enemy’s ranks. See the passage just following of the Colleone statue. [1881.]

¹ [1 Samuel xvii. 40.]

² [So in the earlier editions of the “Travellers’ Edition.” In later editions, the words “to be given” were inserted after “examination.” The examination was not, however, made in St. Mark’s Rest; there is a passing allusion to the “restoration” of the porches in Fors Clavigera, Letter 78, and see Vol. X. p. 115 n.]

³ [For Leonardo, see Queen of the Air, § 157; for Ghirlandajo, Mornings in Florence, §§ 17, 18; for Michael Angelo, the lecture on The Relation of Michael Angelo to Tintoret.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]