EPILOGUE 237

Chrétienne,¹) which runs down from Egypt through the Byzantines to Venice in one unbroken and ever clearer stream,-a sacred language just as accurately spoken and easily read by its scholars as old Greek itself,-was at that time wholly unknown to me; but guessed at here and there, or hit upon by chance nearly enough for use: what farther speciality of imagination there was in this painter connected with clouds, and seas, and mountains, I understood beyond any one else, but did not much hope for sympathy in that perception, any more than with my love for the Alps; but told what was there as well and as clearly as I could, just as I took the angles of the Matterhorn and weighed the minute-burden of sand in the streams of Chamouni.² The chiaroscuro and other such artistic qualities were seldom much insisted on to the public, only noted in my private diaries; and indeed the mere technique of what may be called upholsterer’s composition, (colour and shade without significance, and addressed to the eye only,) had been well mastered and got past by me as early as the third volume of Modern Painters. The reader may perhaps care to see the sort of work done for this part of my business only: so here is a piece of my diary for the year 1845, which begins at Genoa, and is not irrelevant to the matters treated of in this chapter, though I give it only as a “pièce justificative.”

PALAZZO DURAZZO.³

The Magdalen given to Titian, coarse and vulgar in highest degree, but well painted.

CAPUCINO (Bernard Strozzi), a grand and Velasquez-like portrait of a Bishop.

GUIDO.-Three very valuable heads. 1st, one called la Vestale. She is raising a purple veil, under which she shows a face grand in contour, but flushed and sensual, the under dress rich, fastened by a large ruby at the throat. It is a fine instance of great dignity of feature, obtained while only the lower part of the forehead is shown. 2nd, Portia, all black and stage-like, drawing-room costume, but fine. 3rd, The Roman daughter, more pale and luminous, rays of light falling

¹ [Ruskin refers to a book on this subject in Vol. X. p. 128 n.]

² [For the angles of the Matterhorn, see Modern Painters, vol. iv. ch. xiv.; for Ruskin’s weighing of the sand in the streams of Chamouni, ibid, ch. xii. § 2.]

³ [The Palazzo Marcello Durazzo, in the Via Balba.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]