On the Old Road, Vol. 2 (of 2) A Collection of Miscellaneous Essays and Articles on Art and Literature

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  Library Edition

  THE COMPLETE WORKS

  OF

  JOHN RUSKIN

  ON THE OLD ROAD
  VOLUMES I-II

  NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
  NEW YORK        CHICAGO




  ON THE OLD ROAD.

  _A COLLECTION OF
  MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS AND ARTICLES
  ON ART AND LITERATURE._

  PUBLISHED 1834-1885.

  VOL. II.




  CONTENTS OF VOL. II.


                                                          PAGE

  PICTURE GALLERIES.

    PARLIAMENTARY EVIDENCE:--
      NATIONAL GALLERY SITE COMMISSION. 1857                  3
      SELECT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 1860          25
      THE ROYAL ACADEMY COMMISSION                           50
    A MUSEUM OR PICTURE GALLERY                              71

  MINOR WRITINGS UPON ART.

      THE CAVALLI MONUMENTS, VERONA. 1872                    89
      VERONA AND ITS RIVERS (WITH CATALOGUE). 1870           99
      CHRISTIAN ART AND SYMBOLISM. 1872                     118
      ART SCHOOLS OF MEDIAEVAL CHRISTENDOM. 1876             121
      THE EXTENSION OF RAILWAYS. 1876                       125
      THE STUDY OF BEAUTY. 1883                             132

  NOTES ON NATURAL SCIENCE.

      THE COLOR OF THE RHINE. 1834                          141
      THE STRATA OF MONT BLANC. 1834                        143
      THE INDURATION OF SANDSTONE. 1836                     145
      THE TEMPERATURE OF SPRING AND RIVER WATER. 1836.      148
      METEOROLOGY. 1839                                     153
      TREE TWIGS. 1861                                      158
      STRATIFIED ALPS OF SAVOY. 1863                        162
      INTELLECTUAL CONCEPTION AND ANIMATED LIFE. 1871       168

  LITERATURE.

      FICTION--FAIR AND FOUL. 1880-81                       175
      FAIRY STORIES. 1868                                   290

  ECONOMY.

      HOME, AND ITS ECONOMIES. 1873                         299
      USURY. A REPLY AND A REJOINDER. 1880                  314
      USURY. A PREFACE. 1885                                340

  THEOLOGY.

      NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS. 1851         347
      THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE CHURCH. 1879-81. (Letters
        and Epilogue.)                                               382
      THE NATURE AND AUTHORITY OF MIRACLE. 1873             418

  AN OXFORD LECTURE. 1878                                            429


       *       *       *       *       *


  PICTURE GALLERIES:

  _THEIR FUNCTIONS AND FORMATION._


  A. PARLIAMENTARY EVIDENCE.

      NATIONAL GALLERY SITE COMMISSION 1857.
      SELECT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS 1860.
      THE ROYAL ACADEMY COMMISSION 1863.

  B. LETTERS ON A MUSEUM OR PICTURE GALLERY.

                 (_Art Journal, June and August, 1880._)


       *       *       *       *       *


PICTURE GALLERIES--THEIR FUNCTIONS AND FORMATION.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY SITE COMMISSION.[1]

_Evidence of John Ruskin, Monday, April 6, 1857._


114. _Chairman._ Has your attention been turned to the desirableness of
uniting sculpture with painting under the same roof?--Yes.

What is your opinion on the subject?--I think it almost essential that
they should be united, if a National Gallery is to be of service in
teaching the course of art.

Sculpture of all kinds, or only ancient sculpture?--Of all kinds.

Do you think that the sculpture in the British Museum should be in the
same building with the pictures in the National Gallery, that is to say,
making an application of your principle to that particular case?--Yes,
certainly; I think so for several reasons--chiefly because I think the
taste of the nation can only be rightly directed by having always
sculpture and painting visible together. Many of the highest and best
points of painting, I think, can only be discerned after some discipline
of the eye by sculpture. That is one very essential reason. I think that
after looking at sculpture one feels the grace of composition infinitely
more, and one also feels how that grace of composition was reached by
the painter.

Do you consider that if works of sculpture and works of painting were
placed in the same gallery, the same light would be useful for both of
them?--I understood your question only to refer to their collection
under the same roof. I should be sorry to see them in the same room.

You would not mix them up in the way in which they are mixed up in the
Florentine Gallery, for instance?--Not at all. I think, on the contrary,
that the one diverts the mind from the other, and that, although the one
is an admirable discipline, you should take some time for the
examination of sculpture, and pass afterwards into the painting room,
and so on. You should not be disturbed while looking at paintings by the
whiteness of the sculpture.

You do not then approve, for example, of the way in which the famous
room, the Tribune, at Florence, is arranged?--No; I think it is merely
arranged for show--for showing how many rich things can be got together.

115.