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The first citation of the word ‘renaissance’ in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1840, and it is clear that the word was then still thought of as French, requiring inverted commas and an explanation. Ruskin in the notebooks frequently uses some form of ‘cinquecento’, and Notebook M p.18 provides an example of Ruskin using ‘classical’, ‘cinquecento’ and ‘renaissance’ in one sentence, and it is not easy to see how Ruskin sees the relationship between the words in the notebooks. In his index at Notebook M2 p.191 he cites Notebook M2 p.121 under ‘cinq cento’; at Notebook M2 p.196 he cites Notebook M2 p.79, Notebook M2 p.110, Notebook M2 p.121, Gothic Book p.57 under ‘Renaissance’. There are no references in Ruskin’s indexes to the more carefully worked out analyses of the renaissance in Verona Book, and that invites speculation that those pages, which set out the beginnings of the thinking about renaissance architecture found at Works, 9.425 and in Stones of Venice III, represent a late stage in Ruskin’s notes.
At Works, 11.44 Ruskin calls the Palazzo Grimani on the Grand Canal ‘the principal type at Venice, and one of the best in Europe, of the central architecture of the Renaissance schools’.
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These schools were ‘founded upon the architecture of classic Rome at its best period’. And on the following page he writes: ‘It is this style in its purity and fullest form, - represented by such buildings as the Casa Grimani at Venice (built by San Micheli), the town hall at Vicenza (by Palladio), St. Peter’s at Rome (by Michael Angelo), St. Paul’s and Whitehall in London (by Wren and Inigo Jones), - which is the true antagonist of the Gothic school.’
Ruskin was in Stones of Venice seeking to trace the development of Gothic from Romanesque (a term originating in linguistics and defined by Ruskin as including Lombard and Byzantine styles) and the decline of Gothic into renaissance classicising. At Gothic Book p.36 he suggests that the Bon style was an intermediate step between the two.
In the notebooks the agenda that Ruskin set himself on 6th October 1849 in Dijon was primarily focused on Gothic, its development and its decline, and the criteria for distinguishing good Gothic from bad Gothic. Until Verona Book, apparently started on the return journey, there are few references to renaissance buildings and hardly any detailed analysis of them; the Casa Grimani appears only as the Post Office and a useful starting point for defining locations in Venice. Padua and Vicenza were visited by Ruskin on his return journey - see Notebook M2 pp.110ff. However the work of Palladio in Vicenza is ignored by Ruskin.
For Ruskin in these notebooks, observations in Padua and Vicenza illustrate earlier types used in ways which are base and vile in the Scuola di San Rocco in renaissance Venice (Notebook M2 pp.110-111). The work of Palladio in Vicenza, as in Venice, is ignored in all the notebooks.
At Verona Book pp.22-23 and Verona Book pp.39-40 there are the beginnings of a more systematic analysis of Renaissance architecture in Venice.
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The mistaken classicism of Palladio typified by San Giorgio Maggiore and called ‘double darkness’ at Works, 9.425, is distinguished in Verona Book from two different kinds of ‘translation’ into Renaissance style, translation from Byzantine and translation from Gothic. In both cases Ruskin makes the point that ecclesiastical and secular architecture made use of similar forms, as had been the case during earlier periods in Venice, but not during the Gothic period in Venice when the two were separate.
The Ca’ Dario (at Dorsoduro 352, Nadali & Vianello (1999) Tav. 51), and ‘Trevisan’ ( Palazzo Cappello Trevisan in Canonica at San Marco 4328) and the Church of the Miracoli are cited in Verona Book as examples of the translation from the Byzantine (called Romanesque at Verona Book p.39, though with the same meaning) to the Renaissance, with a strong feeling for colour: on the use of colour in both see Plate 1 at Works, 9.33.
See Works, 9.425 and the plate there for the Palazzo Trevisan Cappello as an example of the Byzantine Renaissance. Works, 11.256 discusses its dating and its relationship with the Ca’ Dario. The footnote at Works, 11.365 summarises the story of Bianca Cappello, popular with tourists and tourist guides. There is a reference at House Book 1 p.51L, confirmed by the index entry at Notebook M2 p.190L, and the note at Notebook M p.5L shows that he thought of it as the Palazzo Bianca Cappello.
See Quill (2000) pp.152-3 for photographs of both buildings and for their place in Ruskin’s thinking.
Ruskin at Verona Book p.39 cites the Ca’ Dario and the Church of the Miracoli as examples of a secular building and a religious building of the Byzantine Renaissance using similar forms in secular and ecclesiastical contexts:
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The work of Palladio is also distinguished at Verona Book p.23 and Verona Book p.40 from those buildings which are the result of a translation from Gothic to Renaissance, what Ruskin at Verona Book p.40 calls the Veronese form. Notebook M2 p.121 is the reference for the cinquecento in Ruskin’s own index to M2. Ruskin there contrasts the delicacy and power of decoration of doors in Verona is contrasted with that of Venice: work in Verona is leading to worse things than the cinquecento in Venice, but incomparably finer in composition and architectural application. A similar point is made briefly at Notebook M2 p.123 where Veronese power of composition in every style is noted. Other buildings put in that category by Ruskin are: the Scuola di San Rocco, the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi, both in Venice, ‘Como’ and ‘Monza’, in each case presumably the Duomo.
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Photograph by George P. Landow, October 2000. It may be used for any scholarly or educational purpose without permission, as long as the previous credit appears. |
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The visual difference between the Scuola di San Rocco and the Frari is emphasized by their closeness to each other:
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Codussi’s Palazzo Vendramin Calergi has tracery similar to the Scuola di San Rocco:
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There is a detailed image of the tracery here.
The door of SS. Giovanni e Paolo is described as representing ‘one of the last conditions of Gothic design passing into the renaissance’ (Works, 11.384). There is a comment at Notebook M p.37 that the ornament of the door misses its purpose. There is a photograph here. For photographs of the door see Quill (2000) p.115.
Como, presumably the Duomo, is cited as an example of the Gothic Renaissance:
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Monza is put in the same category (though the basis for Ruskin’s dating is not clear):
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Palladio’s work, described as ‘utterly vile’ at Verona Book p.40, is at the end of a vista from the Piazzetta.
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To the left are the Ducal Palace windows without traceries, part of Ruskin’s evidence for the degradation of Venetian Gothic. To the right is the Sansovino Library (completed by Scamozzi), not mentioned in the notebooks, but at Works, 11.389 characterised as ‘graceful’ but ‘base’, ‘vulgar’ and ‘painful’.
The differences between Gothic work and the work of the renaissance are perceived by Ruskin as moral differences. The differences are at their clearest for Ruskin in the contrast described at Notebook M p.162L between the children of the 4th Capital and 35th Capital in the Ducal Palace. Series of Capitals of Lower Arcade. At Notebook M p.162L the life of the children, destined to become ‘Men’ of the earlier 4th capital is contrasted with the ‘fat stolid cheeks’ of the ‘barbered dunces’ destined to become perfumed coxcombs, of the ‘renaissance’ 35th capital. At Notebook M2 p.176 the ‘sophistication of Palladio’ is favoured by the ‘noblesse of Venice’ who ‘decorate their houses with the sources of their pleasure, with grinning masques and sculptured musical instruments’.
There are references to ‘renaissance’ and associated terms in the notebooks as follows:
Notebook M p.5 On the windows of Milan Cathedral like a ‘cinquecento kind of altar shaped table’
Notebook M p.10 The reference is to the Cortile della Canonica at Sant’ Ambrogio in Milan commissioned from Bramante by the Duke of Milan in the last decade of the 15th Century, and so, although cinquecento in style not strictly of that century. It is very beautiful but ‘I never felt how thoroughly wrong it was before’.
Notebook M p.14 Renaissance feeling of Monza - Ruskin calls the Duomo renaissance or cinquecento (cf. Notebook M p.37 and Notebook N p.42) though the basis for his dating of it is not clear.
Notebook M p.18 Monza Duomo ‘The whole work in its unity of classical or cinqu.cento dignity & grace & delicacy of ornament & moulding, with a pure early gothic plan, and intricacy of shadow, is unique; and marks a manner never yet worked out: and soon lost by the over prevalence of renaissance forms.’ Reference to drawing of ‘perhaps the loveliest cinque-cento capital I have yet seen’ at Notebook N p.42.
Notebook M p.37 The ‘Renaissance Ornament’ appears to be that of the door of SS Giovanni e Paolo, which is dated to 1458 and is from the workshop of Bartolomeo Bon. It is ‘far too imitative, missing its architectural purpose: A less detailed ornament would have been far more comprehensible to the eye in its place....fine cinque cento work, like that of Monza, while it is finished in its workmanship, is never wanting in architectural effect’. It is not clear whether Ruskin is here making a distinction between ‘renaissance’ and ‘cinquecento’ or between work that is fine and that which is not.
Notebook M p.110 Rude leafy florid capitals and renaissance feeling of plinths of House 55 in Calle Magno. See House Book 2 p.7 and Door Book p.26.
Notebook M p.115L Renaissance portal of door of church of St. Apollinare in Venice.
Notebook M p.167 Church of the Miracoli: the ‘repetition of the cinquecento commonplace nonsense’. The church, from the Lombardi workshop, was consecrated in 1489. Compare the reference to the Miracoli and to San Giobbe, which also has work attributed to Pietro Lombardo from 1470, at Notebook M p.207.
Notebook M p.207 - main door of San Giobbe as a lovely example of cinquecento work.
Notebook M p.208 - cinquecento shield on house in Campo Santa Maria Formosa. Compare Bit Book p.19.
Notebook M2 p.2back The decline of Italian Gothic, unlike that of French Gothic, came about ‘not altogether ungracefully: because never having lost sight of the surface, the cinque cento work mixed naturally with the rest’. Compare Notebook N.Front free endpaper recto.
Notebook M2 p.13L Reference to the renaissance pyramid opposite Giant’s Stair. Compare Notebook M2 p.72.
Notebook M2 p.46 The development and decline of leaf cornices.
Notebook M2 p.70 The lines of the Falier capitals are drawn with a precision which no cinque cento work could possibly surpass.
Notebook M2 pp.79f (and see Works, 9.471 for a version of the note there) The Scuola di San Rocco is one of the most interesting renaissance buildings in Venice - decoration is detached from architecture.
Notebook M2 p.80 Noble restraint of the Ducal Palace distinguished from the ‘sense into nonsense’ of the cinquecento.
Notebook M2 p.110 In Padua the return in the Renaissance time to the earliest types, but, Notebook M2 p.111, vile and base.
Notebook M2 p.117 Combination in Verona of Lombard surface ornament with Pisan Gothic, than which nothing can be more chaste pure and solemn: and even when they take the Renaissance infection, they strike out a style not indeed good - but with a Love and nationality [cf the reference to nationality at Works, 1.37 [n/a]] in it, of which the Palladio and Sansovino [It is odd that Ruskin regularly lumps together architects as different as Palladio and Sansovino] houses are as void as they are of real beauty.
Notebook M2 p.121 This is the reference for the cinquecento in Ruskin’s own index to M2. The delicacy and power of decoration of doors in Verona is contrasted with that of Venice. Work in Verona is leading to worse things than the cinquecento in Venice, but incomparably finer in composition and architectural application. A similar point is made briefly at Notebook M2 p.123 where Veronese power of composition in every style is noted.
Notebook M2 p.130 in his discussion of San Michele at Pavia Ruskin contrasts cinquecento, Lombard and Byzantine bird carving with that of the Ducal Palace.
Notebook M2 pp.137f. renaissance work of the cortile of the Ducal Palace in Venice.
Notebook M2 p.150 Roman Arch at Orange ‘covered with ornamentation, not as in the vile cenque cento, in raised relief, but all simply drawn by lines of sharp incision on the surface.
Notebook M2 p.161 renaissance faults part of the stylistic complexity of Valence Cathedral
Notebook M2 p.167 Combination of classical dentil and Gothic form looking like renaissance barbarism
Notebook M2 p.179 Bourges cathedral Porch - joyless and valueless, like the commonest accumulations of the renaissance.
Notebook M2 p.172 The grotesques of Lyon contrasted with the flat and cold cinquecento
Door Book p.9 renaissance windows, archivolt a renaissance form.
Door Book pp.33-34L Madonna dell’ Orto ‘very valuable as an expansion into cinque cento of the late rose and leaf plinth’
Door Book p.38 House No 90 - a transition from the florid to the most delicate & best form of renaissance.
Door Book p.37L - cherub heads very like, if not exactly like those of the renaissance
Door Book p.38L Campiello del Piovan. ‘I class this house as a remarkable example of transition to Cinque cento without passing through 4 foil tracery and with it, I should group the house close to Ponte dei Gesuiti which has I think exactly the same plinth cornice & capitals.
Door Book p.38 transition from florid to most delicate and best form of renaissance.
Gothic Book p.14 An examination of the Frari doors, and their place in relation to the development of cinquecento styles:
Frari doors. like mahogany cutting : always repeated[.] In classical ornament always simple lines to sharp edge: In flamboyant: complication and shade[.] q.how to trace these doors further They seem to become fall back to Frari [i.e. It is difficult to find any earlier examples than Frari, to which it is possible to trace St. John and Paul and San Rocco] school, in the door of this St John & Paul. & wreathed leaves of Scuola di San Rocco shafts: Cinque cento doors rare [‘this seems to be ‘rare’ not ‘same’; to balance ‘common’ in next part of the sentence.] in Venice: as common in Verona - The transition through Ghiberti [The reference is presumably to the forms of Ghiberti’s Baptistery door in Florence] manner not marked[.] The Lombardi coloured palaces peculiar [The reference is presumably to the coloured decorative stone used on buildings from the workshops of Tullio and Pietro Lombardo, and buildings such as the Ca’ Dario, classified by Ruskin as belonging to the Byzantine renaissance] . Q. Affection of [painters ?]
Gothic Book p.36 - a note presumably in the Frari which is important in showing how Ruskin understood the Bon style in relation to the cinque cento and the central architecture of the renaissance schools (Works, 11.44):
The Bon time may be noted as one of a kind of insipid St Pauls {cherub} beauty: curious as coming between the quaint character of middle ages. & the refined cinque cento. We receded into it.
Gothic Book p.57 This page on the Palazzo Morisini-Brandolin, San Polo1789, is cited by Ruskin in his index at Notebook M2 p.196 under ‘Renaissance’. Compare Notebook M pp.145-146.
House Book 1 p.13L reference to Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni, Dorsoduro 1057, Nadali & Vianello (1999) Tav. 50, attributed to Scamozzi from 1609, as the ‘renaissance one’. Reference to Palace Book
House Book 1 p.14L Two bad renaissance statues (presumably the putti carrying shields) on Palazzo Loredan dell’Ambasciatore Dorsoduro 1261, Nadali & Vianello (1999) Tav. 40.
House Book 1 p.37 Late fluted columns used in the restoration of Water Story of Palazzo Falier Canossa (San Marco 2914) contrasted with the unrestored columns ‘on the other side’.
House Book 1 p.42L Cinquecento balcony of first storey of Palazzo Contarini contrasted with the vile modern balcony of the second story
House Book 1 p.44 Reference to Pisani cornice (cf. House Book 2 p.29) and the renaissance Pisani house [Is that the late renaissance Palazzo at San Marco 2809 to which Ruskin refers at Works, 11.398 or the early renaissance house at San Polo 2766?].
House Book 1 p.50 House 42:
4 det. 6th all plastered up. and the place of the at ones occupied by late cinq cento.
House Book 2 p.29 Door, cornices, capitals and plinth of Palazzo Mastelli Spada about time of Pisani (cf House Book 1 p.44)
1st story is all renaissance about time of Cornices of Pisani [Palazzo Pisani San Polo 2766?]. with cinque cento capitals - set if I mistake not on earlier shafts. The camel and man stand on a later Pisani renaissance plinth. & are themselves bad later work.
House Book 2 p.30 Palazzo Benzi-Zecchini, at Cannaregio 3458, is the name given by Ruskin, though the description is a continuation of his account of Palazzo Mastelli Spada: the renaissance leaves - ‘all is imitation, cheap and slovenly’.
House Book 2 p.31 Young Foscari - renaissance pattern of capitals and renaissance staircase.
In Cortile - R A capitals on leaf bases - [‘balls’ seems more likely than ‘falls’; the note seems to be making the point that the forms are renaissance] between - renaissance[.] Curious rudely cut -late - but fine leaf capital like Doges palace on a banded shaft. fragment [perhaps ‘fragments’] of Aquileia - renaissance staircase.
Notebook N.Front free endpaper recto reference to renaissance of France in a note developed at Notebook M2 pp.1back-3back
Notebook N p.42 Compare Notebook M p.18 - drawing of cinquecento capital at Monza.
Notebook N p.44L bad renaissance cherubs of Ca’ Foscari
Notebook N p.59 ‘All Vicenza Venetian palaces seem to be of a luxuriant renaissance manner’
Notebook N pp.60L and 60 Vicenza
The balcony brackets exquisitely luxuriant sharp & flowery [‘flowing’ seems a possible reading.] [drawing] on the verge of [‘on the verge of’ seems a later insertion to qualify ‘renaissance’ to distinguish it from the lower storey ‘added afterwards’ which ‘is renaissance’.] but the whole is renaissance and the lower story is renaissance added afterwards
Notebook N p.64 Vicenza luxuriant renaissance roses
Notebook N p.73 drawing of a form which occurs richly loaded with renaissance ornament.
St M[arks] Book p.6L reference to renaissance addition apparently merely an indication of location for the diagram of the moulding
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