DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61217#0224
212
JOHN RUSKIN.
the black horses — the spiritual and animal natures.
“ He became at last Grceculus esuriens, little and hungry,
and every man’s errand boy,” but this was in late
ages, “ by his iniquity, and his competition, and his
love of talking.”
Ruskin gives a Greek lesson on the modesty of art:
no block for building should be larger than a cart can
carry, or a cross-beam and a couple of pulleys can lift;
a lesson on the modesty of material in sculpture—clay,
marble, metal having their limitations, which are also
their particular powers; an exquisite lesson on the
subtle laws of low relief; one on art-handicraft and art
for the multitude. As far as I know, the first—it is not
quite the only—reference to Japanese art is in these
lectures, which were illustrated by an admirably vital
Japanese fish; but Oriental art was generally repre-
sented, in Ruskin’s mind, by the Indian, which is
obscure, dateless, and dead.
Two quotations follow, which need no explicit con-
nexion here with the rest:—
“ Art is not possible to any sickly person, but involves
the action and force of a strong man’s arm from the
shoulder.”
And this from the lecture on Imagination :—
“ Remember . . . that it is of the very highest im-
portance that you should know what you are, and
determine to be the best that you may be; but it is
of no importance whatever, except as it may contribute
to that end, to know what you have been. Whether
JOHN RUSKIN.
the black horses — the spiritual and animal natures.
“ He became at last Grceculus esuriens, little and hungry,
and every man’s errand boy,” but this was in late
ages, “ by his iniquity, and his competition, and his
love of talking.”
Ruskin gives a Greek lesson on the modesty of art:
no block for building should be larger than a cart can
carry, or a cross-beam and a couple of pulleys can lift;
a lesson on the modesty of material in sculpture—clay,
marble, metal having their limitations, which are also
their particular powers; an exquisite lesson on the
subtle laws of low relief; one on art-handicraft and art
for the multitude. As far as I know, the first—it is not
quite the only—reference to Japanese art is in these
lectures, which were illustrated by an admirably vital
Japanese fish; but Oriental art was generally repre-
sented, in Ruskin’s mind, by the Indian, which is
obscure, dateless, and dead.
Two quotations follow, which need no explicit con-
nexion here with the rest:—
“ Art is not possible to any sickly person, but involves
the action and force of a strong man’s arm from the
shoulder.”
And this from the lecture on Imagination :—
“ Remember . . . that it is of the very highest im-
portance that you should know what you are, and
determine to be the best that you may be; but it is
of no importance whatever, except as it may contribute
to that end, to know what you have been. Whether