242 ST. MARK’S REST

twelve sheep-six on one side, six on the other, of a throne: on which throne is set a cross; and on the top of the cross a circle; and in the circle, a little caprioling creature.¹

And outside of all, are two palm trees, one on each side; and under each palm tree, two baskets of dates; and over the twelve sheep, is written in delicate Greek letters “The holy Apostles”; and over the little caprioling creature, “The Lamb.”

Fig. 3

44. Take your glass and study the carving of this basrelief intently. It is full of sweet care, subtlety, tenderness of touch, and mind; and fine cadence and change of line in the little bowing heads and bending leaves. Decorative in the extreme; a kind of stone-stitching or sampler-work, done with the innocence of a girl’s heart, and in a like unlearned fulness. Here is a Christian man, bringing order and loveliness into the mere furrows of stone. Not by any means as learned as a butcher, in the joints of lambs; nor as a grocer, in baskets of dates; nor as a gardener, in endogenous plants: but an artist to the heart’s core; and no less true a lover of Christ and His word. Helpless, with his childish art, to carve Christ, he carves a cross, and caprioling little thing in a ring at the top of it. You may try-you-to carve Christ, if you can. Helpless to conceive

¹ [Ruskin procured a cast of this bas-relief in 1852: see his account of it in Vol. X. p. 466.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]