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At Works, 9.40 Ruskin summarises his view of what he calls the Lombard style:
The whole body of the Northern architecture, represented by that of the Lombards, may be described as rough but majestic work, round arched, with grouped shafts, added vaulting shafts, and endless imagery of active life and fantastic superstitions. In that form the Lombards brought it into Italy in the seventh century and it remains to this day in St. Ambrogio of Milan, and St. Michele of Pavia.
Ruskin visited Sant’ Ambrogio on his journey to Venice, and recorded detailed observations. On his return journey from Venice he examined San Michele at Pavia noting what he sees as similarities with English Romanesque, though the ornaments were ‘altogether different’ (Notebook M2 p.126). There are elements which are Byzantine, though it is important to note the ‘exact differences’ (Notebook M2 p.126): Lombard animals are ‘fiercely alive’ (Notebook M2 p.130).
Ruskin identifies fragmentary evidence of Lombard work in Venice. At Works, 9.97 he suggests that the existence of a dripstone is one criterion, as the North had more to fear from rain than the South. At Notebook M p.77 he defines a Lombardic family of capitals, and at Notebook M p.152 discusses their development from the Corinthian.
See Notebook M2 p.115 and Notebook M2 p.116 on the contrast between Romanesque spirit and Byzantine torpor arising from observations of the Duomo of Verona, and Notebook M2 p.171L on the contrast between Byzantine languor and Lombard fury as Ruskin reflects on the west fronts of the cathedrals of Bourges and Lyon.
Notebook M2 p.1 shows the importance to Ruskin of the surface lines of Lombard work, called by Selvatico ‘sgarbati e scorretti solchi’ (Selvatico (1847) p.68), the furrows made by a plough, lines which Ruskin sees as characteristic of ‘Proutism’ or ‘Proutishness’.
At Notebook M p.78 Ruskin refers to the Lombard invasion under Alboin, who had his capital at Pavia. At Works, 20.359 [n/a] and Works, 20.360 [n/a] Ruskin discusses him and moral and artistic implications of his cruelty and of the new pre-eminence of women.
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]