CH. II THE LAMP OF TRUTH 85

APHORISM 15. Cast-iron ornamentation barbarous.²

all,* (since all stone is naturally supposed to be carved by hand,) we must not carve it by machinery; neither must we use any artificial stone cast into shape, nor any stucco ornaments of the colour of stone, or which might in any wise be mistaken for it, as the stucco mouldings in the cortile of the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, which cast a shame and suspicion over every part of the building. But for ductile and fusible materials, as clay, iron, and bronze, since these will usually be supposed to have been cast or stamped, it is at our pleasure to employ them as we will; remembering that they become precious, or otherwise, just in proportion to the hand-work upon them, or to the clearness of their reception of the handwork of their mould. But¹ I believe no cause to have been more active in the degradation of our national feeling for beauty than the constant use of castiron ornaments. The common iron work of the middle ages was as simple as it was effective, composed of leafage cut flat out of sheet iron, and twisted at the workman’s will.³ No ornaments, on the

* The sentence now put in a parenthesis is the false assumption which destroys all the force of the arguments in the last couple of pages. The conclusion given in Aphorism 15 is, however, wide-based enough, and thoroughly sound. [1880.]

¹ [The first part of this aphorism (down to “as those of cast-iron”) is not in the MS., which reads instead as follows:-

“Thus a coin, which, by the weight of blows, has been forced into close following and accepting of every line of its die, is a nobler thing than a bronze statue which has trickled languidly into its mould (unless it be afterwards highly finished by hand). But my own feeling is that except in brick work, and for purposes of coinage, all moulds are heresies, and everything moulded valueless. I do not see any use nor beauty in cast bronzes; and while, on the score of truth, we can hardly allege anything against them, since they and all other cast work are always distinguishable...”]

² [The text of the aphorism, in black-letter in the 1880 edition, is from “But I believe no cause ...” down to “found in their company.”]

³ [Ruskin discussed iron-work in The Two Paths (1859), in which book the frontispiece gave some beautiful examples. He had begun to study Italian iron-work much earlier. Thus in his 1846 diary he noted:-

VERONA, May 10.-I think the iron-work of Italy is even more peculiar and valuable than its stone, especially in balconies. One of its chief features is the constant use of it in leaves instead of bars; sometimes mere broad ribbons bent into the bulging balcony form which I sketched here under the vine (note name of street, Strada degli Amanti); this form I saw at Arona, opposed directly to modern bars, and appearing peculiarly beautiful, partly

[Version 0.04: March 2008]