Thrones - “The Quarry”
John Ruskin writes, “Since the first dominion of men was asserted over the ocean, three thrones, of mark beyond all others, have been set upon its sands: the thrones of Tyre, Venice, and England. Of the First of these great powers only the memory remains; of the Second, the ruin; the Third, which inherits their greatness, if it forget their example, may be led through prouder eminence to less pitied destruction.” Tyre is emblematic of remembrances; Venice is illustrative of desolation; and England characterizes eminence.
“The Ducal Place” - “The Quarry”
Ruskin explicates, “The Ducal palace of Venice contains the three elements in exactly equal proportions—the Roman, Lombard, and Arab. It is the central building of the world.” The palace’s import is attributed to the well-adjusted integration of ‘Roman, Lombard and Arab’ panaches.
Corruption - “The Quarry”
Corruption of architecture is equivalent to the corrosion of the authenticity: “All the Gothics in existence, southern or northern, were corrupted at once: the German and French lost themselves in every species of extravagance; the English Gothic was confined, in its insanity…and at Venice into the insipid confusion of the Porta della Carta and wild crockets of St. Mark’s.” The corruption is accredited to religious deviations which resulted in the far-reaching amendment of the gothic architectures; the corruption can be linked to Venice’s deterioration.
Decoration - “The Virtues of Architecture”
Decorations profoundly delineate architecture. Ruskin elucidates, “The architect of Bourges Cathedral liked hawthorns; so he has covered his porch with hawthorn,—it is a perfect Niobe of May. Never was such hawthorn; you would try to gather it forthwith, but for fear of being pricked. The old Lombard architects liked hunting; so they covered their work with horses and hounds, and men blowing trumpets two yards long. The base Renaissance architects of Venice liked masquing and fiddling; so they covered their work with comic masks and musical instruments.” Decorations are representative of predilections. The decorations aggrandize the form of a construction. Architect’s partialities are imaged in the adornments that they handpick from the structures.
