416 THE STONES OF VENICE

I imagine the whole of this capital, therefore-the principal one of the old palace,-to have been intended to signify, first, the formation of the planets for the service of man upon the earth; secondly, the entire subjection of the fates and fortune of man to the will of God, as determined from the time when the earth and stars were made, and, in fact, written in the volume of the stars themselves.

Thus interpreted, the doctrines of judicial astrology were not only consistent with, but an aid to, the most spiritual and humble Christianity.

In the workmanship and grouping of its foliage, this capital is, on the whole, the finest I know in Europe. The sculptor has put his whole strength into it. I trust that it will appear among the other Venetian casts lately taken for the Crystal Palace; but if not, I have myself cast all its figures, and two of its leaves, and I intend to give drawings of them on a large scale in my folio work.¹

§ 116. NINETEENTH CAPITAL. This is, of course, the second counting from the Sea, on the Piazzetta side of the palace, calling that of the Fig-tree angle the first.

It is the most important capital, as a piece of evidence in point of dates, in the whole palace. Great pains have been taken with it, and in some portion of the accompanying furniture or ornaments of each of its figures a small piece of coloured marble has been inlaid, with peculiar significance: for the capital represents the arts of sculpture and architecture;² and the in laying of the coloured stones (which are far too small to be effective at a distance, and are found in this one capital only of the whole series) is merely an expression of the architect’s feeling of the essential importance of this art of inlaying, and of the value of colour generally in his own art.

¹ [The Crystal Palace, constructed mainly from the materials of the Great Exhibition of 1851, was opened to the public in 1854; its various “Courts” containing copies of the architecture and sculpture of various nations and styles: cf. above, p. 114. For Ruskin’s casts, see note on pp. 466-467. The intended drawings were not given, for the publication of the Examples was discontinued.]

² [See Vol. IX. pp. 259-261.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]