Part 1 (1/2)

Ariadne Florentina

by John Ruskin

LECTURE I

DEFINITION OF THE ART OF ENGRAVING

1 The entrance on ins the fourth year of my official work in Oxford; and I doubt not that so themselves, very doubtfully--at all events, I ask myself, very anxiously--what has been done

For practical result, I have not ht since, that I would entleman ished to attend this course for purposes of study My class, so minded, nuht not therefore, by rights, to be at Oxford at all; and the fourth is the last re unit of the class I had last year

2 Yet I neither in this reproach myself, nor, if I could, would I reproach the students who are not here I do not reproach myself; for it was impossible for rammar for them at the same ti a school froenerally been absent myself In all this, there is retted

I say, I had to write rammar These three volumes of lectures under s I want you first to know None of s are done fluently; the second volume of ”Modern Painters” was all of it written twice--most of it, four times,--over; and these lectures have been written, I don't kno many times You may think that this was done merely in an author's vanity, not in a tutor's care To the vanity I plead guilty,--no man isit _known_ ofit _said_ of me that I am a s called a fine writer, --that nobody need mind what I say

3 Well, then, besides this vanity, I have soive me credit for it or not, as you choose, but it is sincere And that your advancedos for it In these three years I have got ra instruood order; and noill try e can do Not that, even now, you are to depend onI shall henceforward think of the lectures less, of the schools more; butin Florence or in Lancashi+re--not here

4 I have already told you several tih which I mean every student in these schools should pass, is one which shall enable them to understand the elementary principles of the finest art

It will necessarily be severe, and seem to lead to no immediate result

Soht what is iives prospect of a manifest success

But suppose they should coic and Rhetoric, and tell hieon, or the Bishop of ----

He would say to them,--I cannot, and if I could I would not, tell you how to preach like Mr Spurgeon, or the Bishop of ---- Your own character will form your style; your own zeal will direct it; your own obstinacy or ignorance erate it; but_any_ particular style; and to teach you the laws of all language, and the essential power of your own

In like manner, this course, which I propose to you in art, will be calculated only to give you judgment and method in future study, to establish to your conviction the laws of general art, and to enable you to draw, if not with genius, at least with sense and propriety

The course, so far as it consists in practice, will be defined in my Instructions for the schools And the theory connected with that practice is set down in the three lectures at the end of the first course I delivered--those on Line, Light, and Color

You will have, therefore, to get this book,[B] and it is the only one which you will need to have of your own,--the others are placed, for reference, where they will be accessible to you

5 In the 139th paragraph it states the order of your practical study in these ter co to draw a steady line, li with absolute correctness the for command over flat tints, so that you may be able to fill the spaces you have inclosed evenly, either with shade or color, according to the school you adopt; and, finally, to obtain the power of adding such fineness of drawing, within the masses, as shall express their undulation, and their characters of form and texture”

And now, since in your course of practice you are first required to attain the power of drawing lines accurately and delicately, so in the course of theory, or gran, exemplified by the schools which (- 137) you will find characterized as the Schools of Line

6 If I had command of as much time as I should like to spend with you on this subject, I would begin with the early forn But, for general service and interest, it will be better that I should sketch what has been accoreatest masters in that manner; the rather that their work is more or less accessible to all, and has developed into the vast industries ofinfluences of education and sources of pleasure aation, so far fro, will facilitate our examination of the history of the nobler arts You will see in the preface to my lectures on Greek sculpture that I intend them to be followed by a course on architecture, and that by one on Florentine sculpture But the art of engraving is so h not less essentially elsewhere, a basis of style both in architecture and sculpture, that it is absolutely necessary I should explain to you in what the skill of the engraver consists, before I can define with accuracy that of ether in the h Street, is, indeed, a prior art to that either of building or sculpture, and is an inseparable part of both, when they are rightly practiced

7 And while we thus examine the scope of this first of the arts, it will be necessary that we learn also the scope of ly acquaint ourselves with the raphy of the schools of Florence To understand the tereat master is to lay the best, if not the only, foundation for the understanding of all; and I shall thereforeaim of this course of lectures to remind you of what is known, and direct you to what is knowable, of the life and character of the greatest Florentine , Sandro Botticelli; and, incidentally, to give you soreatest master of the German, or any northern, school, Hans Holbein

8 You ” in a soine, a wider, sense, than that which you are accusto a wider sense, it is in reality a more accurate and restricted one, while yet it eht application of the art And I wish, in this first lecture, toof the word, and proper range of the art of, engraving; inlecture, to show you its place in Italian schools, and then, in due order, the place it ought to take in our own, and in all schools

9 First then, to-day, of the Differentia, or essential quality of Engraving, as distinguished from other arts

What ansould youwas? Perhaps the readiest which would occur to you would be, ”The translation of pictures into black and white byreduplication of iraphy, we do not call it engraving,--whereas we speak contentedly and continually of seal engraving, in which there is no question of black and white And, as scholars, you know that this custoa per The central syllable of the word has beco the most permanent of furrows

10 But are you prepared absolutely to accept this li as a pictorial art? Will you call nothing an engraving, except a group of furrows or cavities cut in a hard substance? What shall we say of h indeed furrows and cavities are producedthe pictures and nize and adht and shade except those which are visibly produced by dots or furrows? Ithese i them?