III

ADDRESSES ON DECORATIVE COLOUR¹

(1854)

I. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN ILLUMINATION AND PAINTING

[Delivered on Saturday, November 11th, 1854]

1. MR. RUSKIN commenced by stating that he was not going to read a paper, or to speak from notes, and it was a mistake in the advertisement² to say that he intended to deliver a lecture. It was not a lecture, but a little friendly talk, and his object was to address himself to the students present, and place before them, in a familiar way, things which were useful.

Before entering upon this subject, however, he wished to glance at one or two historical points, with the view of explaining the examples he proposed to set before them. In these days it was a very common practice to laugh at the Middle Ages and hold them up to ridicule. Truly they were ridiculous in many senses, but certainly they were not ridiculous in their way of writing. They did not write in those days so much as we do now, but they wrote much better when they did write. Even so far back as the seventh century, the Saxon writing began to acquire character and dignity and beauty, though the writing of that period differed materially from anything that we did now. The specimen he now submitted

¹ [The three following addresses, on “Decorative Colour as applicable to Architectural and other Purposes,” were given by Ruskin, in 1854, at the Architectural Museum, as stated above (Introduction, p. lxvi.). They were not written out by him, nor were they printed in any of his works. They were, however, reported at the time in the press; and especially in the Morning Chronicle (November 13, 27, and December 11), and the Builder (November 25, December 2, 16). A fuller report, collated from these and other sources, was given in Part II., pp. 125-153, of Ruskiniana (privately printed in 1892). The present report is based on this last version, but has been somewhat amended (see above, p. lxvi.). The numbering of the paragraphs is now introduced.]

² [The lecture had been advertised in the Athenæum of October 21, 1854, and elsewhere. It appears that a printed synopsis was also issued-at any rate of the second and third lectures-(see §§ 14, 29), but the editors have not been able to find a copy of it.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]