DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61217#0299
‘ PRhETERITA.’
287
in reference to his story for children, The King of the
Golden River. It was a bit of ivy round a thorn stem
that first drew his eyes to the life of things, and next he
studied an aspen-tree against the sky on a road through
Fontainebleau; in a later page he avows that his draw-
ings of Venetian stones were “living and like.” And
with these traces of travel are the records of Beauvais,
Bourges, Chartres, Rouen, a magnificent chapter on
Geneva and the Rhone, and on his discovery of the
Campo Santo at Pisa, and of Lucca, to be beloved
for the rest of life. Here was the tomb of Ilaria del
Caretto, and
“ Here in Lucca I found myself suddenly in the pres-
ence of twelfth century buildings, originally set in such
balance of masonry that they could all stand without
mortar; and in material so incorruptible, that after six
hundred years of sunshine and rain, a lancet could not
now be put between their joints.”
In the Pisan cemetery Ruskin drew, seated on a
scaffold level with the frescoes.
“ I, . . . being by this time practised in delicate
curves, by having drawn trees and grass rightly, got far
better results than I had hoped, and had an extremely
happy fortnight of it. For as the triumph of Death
was no new thought to me, the life of hermits was no
temptation.”
At Florence he made friends with the Friars at Fiesole
(he insists upon “ Fesole,” with an acute accent that has
no existence in the Italian language), for the Friars had
287
in reference to his story for children, The King of the
Golden River. It was a bit of ivy round a thorn stem
that first drew his eyes to the life of things, and next he
studied an aspen-tree against the sky on a road through
Fontainebleau; in a later page he avows that his draw-
ings of Venetian stones were “living and like.” And
with these traces of travel are the records of Beauvais,
Bourges, Chartres, Rouen, a magnificent chapter on
Geneva and the Rhone, and on his discovery of the
Campo Santo at Pisa, and of Lucca, to be beloved
for the rest of life. Here was the tomb of Ilaria del
Caretto, and
“ Here in Lucca I found myself suddenly in the pres-
ence of twelfth century buildings, originally set in such
balance of masonry that they could all stand without
mortar; and in material so incorruptible, that after six
hundred years of sunshine and rain, a lancet could not
now be put between their joints.”
In the Pisan cemetery Ruskin drew, seated on a
scaffold level with the frescoes.
“ I, . . . being by this time practised in delicate
curves, by having drawn trees and grass rightly, got far
better results than I had hoped, and had an extremely
happy fortnight of it. For as the triumph of Death
was no new thought to me, the life of hermits was no
temptation.”
At Florence he made friends with the Friars at Fiesole
(he insists upon “ Fesole,” with an acute accent that has
no existence in the Italian language), for the Friars had