190 REVIEWS AND PAMPHLETS ON ART

20. We have by-and-by an equally comprehensive sketch of the essential characters of the Gothic cathedral; but this we need not quote, as it probably contains little that would be new to the reader. It is succeeded by the following interpretation of the spirit of the two styles:-

“Comparing, apart from enthusiasm, the two styles of Lombard and Pointed Architecture, they will strike you, I think, as the expression, respectively, of that alternate repose and activity which characterise the Christian life, exhibited in perfect harmony in Christ alone, who, on earth, spent His night in prayer to God, His day in doing good to man-in heaven, as we know by His own testimony, “worketh hitherto,” conjointly with the Father-for ever, at the same time, reposing on the infinity of His wisdom and of His power. Each, then, of these styles has its peculiar significance, each is perfect in its way. The Lombard Architecture, with its horizontal lines, its circular arches and expanding cupola, soothes and calms one; the Gothic, with its pointed arches, aspiring vaults and intricate tracery, rouses and excites-and why? Because the one symbolises an infinity of Rest, the other of Action, in the adoration and service of God. And this consideration will enable us to advance a step farther:-The aim of the one style is definite, of the other indefinite; we look up to the dome of heaven and calmly acquiesce in the abstract idea of infinity; but we only realise the impossibility of conceiving it by the flight of imagination from star to star, from firmament to firmament. Even so Lombard Architecture attained perfection, expressed its idea, accomplished its purpose-but Gothic never; the Ideal is unapproachable.”-Vol. ii. p. 23.

21. This idea occurs not only in this passage:-it is carried out through the following chapters;-at page 38, the pointed arch associated with the cupola is spoken of as a “fop interrupting the meditations of a philosopher”; at page 65, the “earlier contemplative style of the Lombards” is spoken of; at page 114, Giottesque art is “the expression of that Activity of the imagination which produced Gothic Architecture”; and, throughout, the analogy is prettily expressed, and ably supported; yet it is one of those against which we must warn the reader: it is altogether superficial, and extends not to the minds of those whose works it accidentally, and we think disputably, characterises. The transition from Romanesque (we prefer using the generic term)¹ to Gothic is natural and straightforward, in many

¹ [So in the Stones of Venice, vol. i. (Vol. IX. p. 34) Ruskin divides the styles into Classical, Romanesque, and Gothic.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]