The
years of his life passed away before his task was accomplished; but
generation succeeded generation with unwearied enthusiasm, and the
cathedral front was at last lost in the tapestry of its traceries, like
a rock among the thickets and herbage of spring.
[157] The third kind of ornament, the Renaissance, is that in which
the inferior detail becomes principal, the executor of every minor
portion being required to exhibit skill and possess knowledge as
great as that which is possessed by the master of the design; and
in the endeavour to endow him with this skill and knowledge, his
own original power is overwhelmed, and the whole building becomes a
wearisome exhibition of well-educated imbecility. We must fully
inquire into the nature of this form of error, when we arrive at
the examination of the Renaissance schools. [Ruskin.]
[158] Job xix, 26.
[159] _Matthew_ viii, 9.
[160] Vide Preface to _Fair Maid of Perth_. [Ruskin.]
[161] The Elgin marbles are supposed by many persons to be "perfect".
In the most important portions they indeed approach perfection,
but only there. The draperies are unfinished, the hair and wool
of the animals are unfinished, and the entire bas-reliefs of the
frieze are roughly cut. [Ruskin.
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