Part of the Cathedral of St. Lô, Normandy
John Ruskin
R. P. Cuff, engraver
1855
7 x 4 5/32 inches
Plate II, The Seven Lamps of Architecture in Works, 8.81
According to the editors of the Library Edition, Ruskin refers to this plate on pp. 81, 122, 211.
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow
From “The Lamp of Power”
The ice spiculse 2 of the North, and its broken sunshine, seem to have image in, and influence on, the work ; and the leaves which, under the Italian's hand, roll, and flow, and bow down over their black shadows, as in the weariness of noon-day heat, are, in the North, crisped and frost-bitten, wrinkled on the edges, and sparkling as if with dew. But the rounding of the ruling form is not less sought and felt. In the lower part of Plate I. is the finial of the pediment given in Plate II., from the cathedral of St. Lô. It is exactly similar in feeling to the Byzantine capital, being rounded under the abacus by four branches 8 of thistle-leaves, whose stems, springing from the angles, bend outwards and fall back to the head, throwing their jaggy spines down upon the full light, forming two sharp quatrefoils.[122]
From “The Lamp of Life”
In Plate II. (part of a small chapel attached to the West front of the Cathedral of St. Lô), the reader will see an instance, from the same architecture, of a violation of its own principles for the sake of a peculiar meaning. If there be any one feature which the flamboyant architect loved to decorate richly, it was the niche it was what the capital is to the Corinthian order; yet in the case before us there is an ugly beehive put in the place of the principal niche of the arch. I am not sure if I am right in my interpretation of its meaning, but I have little doubt that two figures below, now broken away, once represented an Annunciation ; and on another part of the same cathedral, I find the descent of the Spirit, encompassed by rays of light, represented very nearly in the form of the niche in question; which appears, therefore, to be intended for a representation of this effulgence, while at the same time it was made a canopy for the delicate figures below. Whether this was its meaning or not, it is remarkable as a daring departure from the common habits of the time. [p. 221]
References
Ruskin, John. Works, "The Library Edition." eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. 39 vols. London: George Allen, 1903-1912.
Ruskin, John. The Seven Lamps of Architecture in Works, vol. 8. Hathi Trust Digital Library. Web. 3 June 2010.
Last modified 3 June 2010