DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18975#0267
THINGS TO BE STUDIED
228
instead of at half the height of the head. But his manner of work is always
right; and his tragic power, though rarely developed, and warped by habits
of caricature, is, in reality, as great as his grotesque power.
There is no fear of his hurting your taste, as long as your principal work
lies among art of so totally different a character as most oi that which I have
recommended to you ; and you may, therefore, get great good by copying
almost anything of his that may come in your way; except only his illustra-
tions, lately published, to CwdereZ/a, and and Ffop
o' ?;zy 2V7M7MA, which are much over-laboured, and contused in line. You
should get them, but do not copy them.
4. ALFRED R.ETHEL.I
I only know two publications by him; one, the "Dance of Death," with
text by Reinick, published in Leipsic, but to be had now of any London
bookseller for the sum, 1 believe, of eighteen pence, and containing six plates
full of instructive character; the other, of two plates only, " Death the
Avenger," and "Death the Friend." These two are tar superior to the
" Todtentanz," and, if you^ can get them, will be enough in themselves to
show all that Rethel can teach you. If you {[dislike ghastly subjects, get
" Death the Friend " only.
5. BEWICK.
The execution of the plumage in Bewick's birds is the most masterly
thing ever yet done in woodcutting; it is worked just as Paul Veronese would
have worked in wood, had he taken to it. His vignettes, though too coarse
in execution, and vulgar in types of form, to be good copies, show, never-
theless, intellectual power of the highest order; and there are pieces of
sentiment in them, either pathetic or satirical,- which have never since been
equalled in illustrations of this simple kind; the bitter intensity of the feeling
being just like that which characterises some of the leading Pre-Raphaelites.
Bewick is the Burns of painting.
6. BLAKE.s
The jBoof of <7o6, engraved by himself, is of the highest rank in certain
characters of imagination and expression ; in the mode of obtaining certain
effects of light it will also be a very useful example to you. In expressing
conditions of glaring and flickering light, Blake is greater than Rembrandt.
* [For a note on Rethel and his drawings for "The Dance of Death, " see Vol. XII.
p. 48b ; and for an account of the "two plates," ?5?a!., pp. 507, 508.]
2 [As, for instance, in the case mentioned in Vol. XIII. p. 435, where, in the note,
other references by Ruskin to Bewick are given.]
s [For Ruskin's other references to Blake, see Vol. V. p. 138 : Vol. VIII. p. 25G 77.;
Yol. XIV. p. 354. 77?'.? of 3oo/r of <7o5 were engraved and published
by him in 1825 ; a facsimile edition was published by J. M. Dent in 1902.]
228
instead of at half the height of the head. But his manner of work is always
right; and his tragic power, though rarely developed, and warped by habits
of caricature, is, in reality, as great as his grotesque power.
There is no fear of his hurting your taste, as long as your principal work
lies among art of so totally different a character as most oi that which I have
recommended to you ; and you may, therefore, get great good by copying
almost anything of his that may come in your way; except only his illustra-
tions, lately published, to CwdereZ/a, and and Ffop
o' ?;zy 2V7M7MA, which are much over-laboured, and contused in line. You
should get them, but do not copy them.
4. ALFRED R.ETHEL.I
I only know two publications by him; one, the "Dance of Death," with
text by Reinick, published in Leipsic, but to be had now of any London
bookseller for the sum, 1 believe, of eighteen pence, and containing six plates
full of instructive character; the other, of two plates only, " Death the
Avenger," and "Death the Friend." These two are tar superior to the
" Todtentanz," and, if you^ can get them, will be enough in themselves to
show all that Rethel can teach you. If you {[dislike ghastly subjects, get
" Death the Friend " only.
5. BEWICK.
The execution of the plumage in Bewick's birds is the most masterly
thing ever yet done in woodcutting; it is worked just as Paul Veronese would
have worked in wood, had he taken to it. His vignettes, though too coarse
in execution, and vulgar in types of form, to be good copies, show, never-
theless, intellectual power of the highest order; and there are pieces of
sentiment in them, either pathetic or satirical,- which have never since been
equalled in illustrations of this simple kind; the bitter intensity of the feeling
being just like that which characterises some of the leading Pre-Raphaelites.
Bewick is the Burns of painting.
6. BLAKE.s
The jBoof of <7o6, engraved by himself, is of the highest rank in certain
characters of imagination and expression ; in the mode of obtaining certain
effects of light it will also be a very useful example to you. In expressing
conditions of glaring and flickering light, Blake is greater than Rembrandt.
* [For a note on Rethel and his drawings for "The Dance of Death, " see Vol. XII.
p. 48b ; and for an account of the "two plates," ?5?a!., pp. 507, 508.]
2 [As, for instance, in the case mentioned in Vol. XIII. p. 435, where, in the note,
other references by Ruskin to Bewick are given.]
s [For Ruskin's other references to Blake, see Vol. V. p. 138 : Vol. VIII. p. 25G 77.;
Yol. XIV. p. 354. 77?'.? of 3oo/r of <7o5 were engraved and published
by him in 1825 ; a facsimile edition was published by J. M. Dent in 1902.]