260 THE STONES OF VENICE

figure sculpture; sometimes the bearing arches are plain, and the ornamentation above them is composed of foliated apertures. But the element of foliation must enter somewhere, or the style is imperfect. And our final definition of Gothic will, therefore, stand thus:-

“Foliated Architecture, which uses the pointed arch for the roof proper, and the gable for the roof-mask.”

§ 99. And now there is but one point more to be examined, and we have done.

Foliation, while it is the most distinctive and peculiar, is also the easiest method of decoration which Gothic architecture possesses; and, although in the disposition of the proportions and forms of foils, the most noble imagination may be shown, yet a builder without imagination at all, or any other faculty of design, can produce some effect upon the mass of his work by merely covering it with foolish foliation. Throw any number of crossing lines together at random, as in Fig. 19, and fill all their squares and oblong openings with quatrefoils and cinquefoils, and you will immediately have what will stand, with most people, for very satisfactory Gothic. The slightest possible acquaintance with existing forms will enable any architect to vary his patterns of foliation with as much ease as he would those of a kaleidoscope, and¹ to produce a building which the present European

¹ [Fig. 19 is evidently taken from the Houses of Parliament. In the MS. Ruskin let himself go more violently, inserting here the words:-

“and-though the result to any one who knows and loves true Gothic is not only valueless, but even disgusting-to produce....”

For other expressions of his dislike of the building in question, see note at Vol. IV. p. 307; Vol. VIII. p. 147 n.; and in Vol. XII., in the lectures on Illumination.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]