IV.PRE-RAPHAELITISM 137

111. Now our object to-night is indeed only to inquire into a matter of art; but we cannot do so properly until we consider this art in its relation to the inner spirit of the age in which it exists; and by doing so we shall not only arrive at the most just conclusions respecting our present subject, but we shall obtain the means of arriving at just conclusions respecting many other things.

Now the division of time which the Pre-Raphaelites have adopted, in choosing Raphael as the man whose works mark the separation between Mediævalism and Modernism, is perfectly accurate. It has been accepted as such by all their opponents.

You have, then, the three periods: Classicalism, extending to the fall of the Roman empire; Mediævalism, extending from that fall to the close of the fifteenth century; and Modernism thenceforward to our days.

112. And in examining into the spirit of these three epochs, observe, I don’t mean to compare their bad men,-I don’t mean to take Tiberius as a type of Classicalism, nor Ezzelin¹ as a type of Mediævalism, nor Robespierre as a type of Modernism. Bad men are like each other in all epochs; and in the Roman, the Paduan, or the Parisian, sensuality and cruelty admit of little distinction in the manners of their manifestation. But among men comparatively virtuous, it is important to study the phases of character; and it is into these only that it is necessary for us to inquire. Consider therefore, first, the essential difference in character between three of the most devoted military heroes whom the three great epochs of the world have produced,-all three devoted to the service of their country,-all of them dying therein. I mean, Leonidas in the

¹ [Eccelino, or Ezzelino da Romano (1194-1259), fourth of that name, a famous Ghibelline chief, lord of Padua, Vicenza, and Verona, and a faithful servant of the Emperpor Frederick II. His “merciless cruelty and callousness to human suffering brand him as an enemy to mankind,” and Dante makes him one of those who expiate the sin of cruelty in the lake of blood in the seventh circle of hell (Inferno, xii.). Ruskin refers to him again in Modern Painters, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vii. § 7; Verona and its Rivers, § 9; Eagle’s Nest, § 35; Val d’ Arno, § 96; and Fors Clavigera, Letters 84 and 93.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]