The craftsman . THE RUSniN CROSS 275 no model-usual flat that the surfaces are flat or nearly so; there isling of the figures, and there is none of theground out of which figuresrise in true bas-relief* In-cised outline and deep hol-lows for emphasis arealone used to tell the story;the intention being to pre-serve the simple decorativecharacter of the work, con-sidering the cross as astanding-stone fretted overwith patterns like lace, notencrusted with scuIptor^srelief-carving. In this hardmaterial and for this pur-pose and position the in-cised sketchy style has ause and legitimacy of itsown,
The craftsman . THE RUSniN CROSS 275 no model-usual flat that the surfaces are flat or nearly so; there isling of the figures, and there is none of theground out of which figuresrise in true bas-relief* In-cised outline and deep hol-lows for emphasis arealone used to tell the story;the intention being to pre-serve the simple decorativecharacter of the work, con-sidering the cross as astanding-stone fretted overwith patterns like lace, notencrusted with scuIptor^srelief-carving. In this hardmaterial and for this pur-pose and position the in-cised sketchy style has ause and legitimacy of itsown, to which Mr, Rus-kin has referred in a para-graph of ** Aratra Pen-telici: **—** You have, inthe very outset and earliest. J0HN:RUSK1N I819bfiI900 stages of sculpture, your flat stone surface given you as asheet of white paper, on which you are required to pro-duce the utmost effect you can with the simplest means,cutting away as little of the stone as may be, to save bothtime and trouble; and, above all, leaving the block itself,when shaped, as solid as you can, that its surface maybetter resist weather, and the carved parts be as mucnprotected as possible by the masses left around them/ The line of mountains fromwhich the sun rises may recall the range of Mont Blancfrom Geneva, and every reader of Ruskin knows how hehas illustrated those aiguilles with pencil and pen, andhow Geneva was the place where his book was first con- 276 THE CRAFTSMAN ccfved,—** his true mother-town of Geneva/^ The pineshe described so enthusiastically and the foreground detailhe loved are suggested, as far as such carving can givethem; and the young sketcher, in the romantic artistscostume of the earlier part of the nineteent
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectart, bookyear1901
