The Purposes of Art
"the demand for perfection is always a sign
of a misunderstanding of the ends of art"
John Ruskin's The Stones of Venice (1851-53)
Points
for Reflection
John Ruskin's The Stones of Venice (1851-53), excerpts
- why does Ruskin spent so much time detailing the geographical and animal differences between northern and southern climes across Europe (156-57)?
- how does Ruskin distinguish among what he calls “servile ornament,” “constitutional ornament,” and “revolutionary ornament” in architectural design (159-60)? Into which category does Ruskin place contemporary English architecture and furniture (162-63)?
- why does Ruskin so highly praise the medieval or “Christian” system of architectural ornamentation (160-61)?
- why exactly does Ruskin value both imperfection and stylistic variation in Gothic architecture (160-63)?
- Ruskin deprecates the division of labor, a basic principle of industrialization (166). Why?
- according to Ruskin, noble labor requires obedience to three basic rules (166-67). What are they?
- what does Ruskin think of glass beads and cut gems (167)? Are you breaking his proposed rules?
- Ruskin allows that only artistic “masters” should be encouraged to work on finishing something perfectly (168), though he admits that with certain masters, like Leonardo da Vinci, this leads to works never being completed (172). Is this principle consistent with the democratic principles Ruskin is forwarding?
- what type of glass is Ruskin referring to when he criticizes the modern preoccupation with clear, accurately cut glass (169)?
- why does Ruskin criticize his contemporaries' tendency to assign design work (i.e. "thinking") to one individual, and labor to a separate person (170)? What new model does he propose (170-71)?
- does Ruskin praise imperfection in the human form for the same reasons (172) that Burke does?
- drawing upon the Christian tradition, Ruskin momentarily steps beyond the realm of art and claims that imperfection spawns what two virtues in humanity (172)?
"Andrea del Sarto" (c.1853; 1855)
- does Robert Browning wish us to sympathize with the titular speaker of "Andrea del Sarto"? Be ready to provide evidence to support your claim.
- what subtle types of evidence does del Sarto insert into his monodram that suggests his marriage is in trouble?
- why is it that del Sarto believes his paintings, though more accurate than his peers' work, do not lift him towards heaven (ll.78-103, 117-32)?
- why does del Sarto consider himself one of the "half-men" (ll.134-40)?
- is del Sarto made more of in Italy, where he now resides, than he was in France (ll.142-66)?
- why do you imagine that Lucrezia married del Sarto in the first place?
- does del Sarto reveal what it is that he might need forgiveness from King Francis (of France) for doing (ll.214-18, 245-49)?
- identify the inherent irony lacing lines 250-57.
- what type of relationship does Lucrezia apparently have with her cousin/relative?
- what strategy does del Sarto employ to deal with his pain?
- search online for some paintings by Adrea del Sarto. Do any particular elements of his artistic practice get captured by Robert Browning's poetic depiction of the artist?
Walter Pater's Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1868; 1873)
- the ideas of which Romantic poet closely prefigure Walter Pater's aestheticism as laid out in Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1868; 1873)?
- when Pater says that a work of art, a vista, a person, or a book are "valuable only for their virtues," what does he mean by "virtue"?
- which is a more necessary faculty for the effective critic, according to Pater, the right kind of temperament or the right kind of intellect?
- what characteristics of the Middle Age does Pater praise and also locate in the Renaissance?
- what do you make of Pater's assertion that a "unity of . . . spirit" pervaded the Renaissance, giving "unity to all the various products" of the period (1509)? Is it ridiculous to assume that any historical era is united by a spirit of the age? Could we identify a predominant spirit encompassing our own age?
- look carefully at Pater's analysis of Leonardo's "La Giaconda." Upon what variables does Pater's critique rely?
- Pater's note to the "Conclusion" of this work tells us that he didn't originally publish this last section "as [he] conceived it might possibly mislead some of the young men into whose hands it might fall." About what, exactly, might Pater have been concerned?
- is it possible to reconcile the following two passages:
- "There come, however, from time to time, eras . . . in which the thoughts of men draw nearer together than is their wont, and the many interests of the intellectual world combine in one complete type of general culture . . . Here, artists and philosophers and those whom the action of the world has elevated and made keen, do not live in isolation, but breathe a common air, and catch light and heat from each other's thoughts."
- "Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality through which no real voice has ever pierced on its way to us, or from us to that which we can only conjecture to be without. Every one of those impressions is the impression of the individual in his isolation, each mind keeping as a solitary prisoner its own dream of a world."
- what does Pater identify as humanity's chief failure?
- if one took the following precepts and calls to action seriously, how might one's life change?
- "To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain ecstasy, is success in life."
- "Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing of forces on their ways, is, on this short day of frost and sun, to sleep before evening."
- "For art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for those moments' sake."
Holy Family (Barberini) (1528)
Andrea del Sarto
Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu
