DECORATION XX. MATERIAL OF ORNAMENT 261

without the respective gateways above. The best of all the later capitals of the Ducal palace of Venice¹ depends for great part of its value on the richness of a small campanile, which is pointed to proudly by a small emperor in a turned-up hat, who, the legend informs us, is “Numa Pompilio, imperador, edifichador di tempi e chiese.”

§ 12. Shipping may be introduced, or rich fancy of vestments, crowns, and ornaments, exactly on the same conditions as architecture; and if the reader will look back to my definition of the picturesque in the Seven Lamps,² he will see why I said, above, that they might only be prominent when the purpose of the subject was partly picturesque; that is to say, when the mind is intended to derive part of its enjoyment from the parasitical qualities or accidents of the thing, not from the heart of the thing itself.

And thus, while we must regret the flapping sails in the death of Nelson in Trafalgar-square,³ we may yet most heartily enjoy the sculpture of a storm in one of the bas-reliefs of the tomb of St. Pietro Martire in the church of St. Eustorgio at Milan, where the grouping of the figures is most fancifully complicated by the under-cut cordage of the vessel.⁴

§ 13. In all these instances, however, observe that the permission to represent the human work as an ornament is conditional on its being necessary to the representation of a scene, or explanation of an action. On no terms whatever could any such subject be independently admissible.

¹ [Capital 36: see the description in vol. ii. ch. vii. § 127.]

² [Ch. vi. § 16, Vol. VIII. p. 236.]

³ [The bas-relief of the Death of Nelson on one of the sides of the pedestal is by J. E. Carew (1785-1865).]

⁴ [The following is Ruskin’s note on this tomb in the diary of 1849:-

“A most glorious piece of Gothic in the church of St. Eustorgio at Milan: statues standing in front of the square red pillars with flowing foliage capitals, about half the size of life-very Mino da Fiesole like-complete sculpture painting, with exquisite costume. The Temperantia with a veil and ivy crown pouring water into a vase, the water cut in a wavy detached stream; and the Obedientia with a cattle (?) [sic] yoke, pre-eminently beautiful. Much spoiled by gilding above. A bas-relief of a ship with ropes all undercut out of the marble, remarkable for its picturesqueness and depth.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]