DECORATION XXI. TREATMENT OF ORNAMENT 289

nearly all the Byzantine sculptors: this particular peacock is meant to be seen at some distance (how far off I know not, for it is an interpolation in the building where it occurs, of which more hereafter),¹ but at all events at a distance of thirty or forty feet; I have put it close to you that you may see plainly the rude rings and rods which stand for the eyes and quills, but at the just distance their effects is perfect.

§ 11. And the simplicity of the means here employed may help us, both to some clear understanding of the spirit of Ninevite and Egyptian work, and to some perception of the kind of enfantillage or archaicism to which it may be possible, even in days of advanced science, legitimately to return. The architect has no right, as we said before, to require of us a picture of Titian’s in order to complete his design; neither has he the right to calculate on the co-operation of perfect sculptors, in subordinate capacities. Far from this; his business is to dispense with such aid altogether, and to devise such a system of ornament as shall be capable of execution by uninventive and even unintelligent workmen; for supposing that he required noble sculpture for his ornament, how far would this at once limit the number and the scale of possible buildings? Architecture is the work of nations; but we cannot have nations of great sculptors. Every house in every street of every city ought to be good architecture, but we cannot have Chantrey or Thorwaldsen² at work upon it: nor, even if we chose only to devote ourselves to our public buildings, could the mass and majesty of them be great, if we required all to be executed by great men: greatness is not to be had in the required quantity. Giotto may design a campanile, but he cannot carve it; he can only carve one or two of the bas-reliefs at the base of it.³ And with every increase of your fastidiousness in the execution of your ornament, you diminish the possible number

¹ [See Stones of Venice, vol. iii., Venetian Index, s. “Badoer, Palazzo.”]

² Instead of “Chantrey” ed. 1 reads “Flaxman,” who is cited again in a similar passage in Seven Lamps, Vol. VIII. p. 44.]

³ [For a description of these bas-reliefs, and a discussion of the amount of Giotto’s handiwork in them, see Mornings in Florence, ch. vi.]

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