450 APPENDIX TO PART II

pretty thick. The glory of the St. Catherine, a single line, follows the flow of the hair so as to take the shape of a cup, and that of the Madonna in a less degree. The form of the female heads is too square, their expression finer than Raffaelle. Draperies crimson, green, and black; rigid, but very fine.

§ 2. The horse part of Guido’s Nessus [No. 1454] is dappled, and the dappling of a grey which looks exactly like shadow. It confuses the eye improperly, as if it were an ill-shaped shadow cast by Deianira’s dress and foot. The unity of the body is fine-there is a straining at the thighs of the man which sympathises with the lines of the horse’s dewlap into which they fall.

§ 3. A singular instance of refinement in Titian [No. 1590: “Alphonso di Ferrara and Laura di Dianti”], a mirror held to the back of a lady dressing her hair. The mirror is nearly black and invisible, only one square bright light upon it, but on looking close, the light is found to be truly the image of the window given by vertical strokes chiefly, and to be interrupted by a curve below; that of the woman’s head reflected. On looking close, the whole figure is seen in the shade of the mirror; the half light on the back, the dark dress, the clasp or knot on the shoulder, and a reflected light on the edge of this shoulder all clear and sharp, no slurring. The face and head-dress of Flora are also reflected in front of the armour of the man.¹

§ 4. Leonardo’s “Bacchus” [No. 1602], very fine; remarkable for the exquisite drawing of all the botanical details; almost a Flemish delicacy superadded to Italian treatment. The columbine is used in it extensively, and a campanula, whose bell is blue and expansive, whose stalk separates at joints, marked by triple groups of leaves. The ivy leaves around the head of Bacchus of fine cold green.

§ 5. Francesco di Bianchi, il Frari [No. 1167: “Virgin and Child”], very fine; a grand head of a monk on the left; a child, as an angel, playing guitar; of most perfect beauty. Background a pure, warm, marvellous grey blue, but tone of flesh rather earthy and cold. In front of the Madonna, a hole in the pavement like a grave, with flowers growing out of it.²

§ 6. Note leaf and flower [reference to drawing] used in foreground of Titian’s small “Holy Family” [No. 1580]. The flower is of a dull yellowish brown-may perhaps have been yellow. On the table-cloth in his “Supper at Emmaus” [No. 1581], some flowers are strewed, of which the principal is a blue one with white heart and black stripes (in the heart). In the great stalactite Leonardo [“La Vierge aux Rochers,” No. 1599] flags and aloes are used beside the above mentioned flowers. The same flower is, I think, used [reference to drawing]. Its centre is also white, but its colour is of a much fainter grey blue, with a strong tinge of green. Possibly Leonardo’s, allowing for change, may be the true colour, and Titian’s purified, as he did the columbine.³ In Raphael’s chief Madonna (child leaping out of cradle) [No. 1498-”The Holy Family of Francis I.”], the flowers are articulated (with which the Angel is crowning the Madonna) even to harshness, like a hard

¹ [Here in the diary follow the notes on Tintoret’s “Susannah” and “a rascally Canaletti,” given below, pp. 459 n., 468 n.]

² [Ruskin again noted this picture in 1854, but the page in the diary is torn at the side: see below, p. 471.]

³ [In his Notes of 1854 Ruskin again notes these flowers, adding, “Leonardo is wrong; it is the common borage.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]