MODERN PAINTERS | ||
| Volume IV—OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY | ||
| Volume V | { | OF LEAF BEAUTY |
| OF CLOUD BEAUTY | ||
| OF IDEAS OF RELATION | ||
NATIONAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION | ||
NEW YORK | CHICAGO | |
MODERN PAINTERS.
VOLUME IV.,
CONTAINING
PART V.,
OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY.
| The Gates of the Hills. |
| The Gates of the Hills. |
PREFACE.
I was in hopes that this volume might have gone its way without preface; but as I look over the sheets, I find in them various fallings short of old purposes which require a word of explanation.
Of which shortcomings, the chief is the want of reference to the landscape of the Poussins and Salvator; my original intention having been to give various examples of their mountain-drawing, that it might be compared with Turner's. But the ten years intervening between the commencement of this work and its continuation have taught me, among other things, that Life is shorter and less availably divisible than I had supposed: and I think now that its hours may be better employed than in making facsimiles of bad work. It would have required the greatest care, and prolonged labor, to give uncaricatured representations of Salvator's painting, or of any other work depending on the free dashes of the brush, so as neither to mend nor mar it. Perhaps in the next volume I may give one or two examples associated with vegetation; but in general, I shall be content with directing the reader's attention to the facts in nature, and in Turner; leaving him to carry out for himself whatever comparisons he may judge expedient.
I am afraid, also, that disappointment may be felt at not finding plates of more complete subject illustrating these chapters on mountain beauty. But the analysis into which I had to enter required the dissection of drawings, rather than their complete presentation; while, also, on the scale of any readable page, no effective presentation of large drawings could be given. Even my vignette, the frontispiece to the third volume, is partly spoiled by having too little white paper about it; and the fiftieth plate, from Turner's Goldau, necessarily omits, owing to its reduction, half the refinements of the foreground. It is quite waste of time and cost to reduce Turner's drawings at all; and I therefore consider these volumes only as Guides to them, hoping hereafter to illustrate some of the best on their own scale.
Several of the plates appear, in their present position, nearly unnecessary; 14 and 15, for instance, in Vol. III. These are illustrations of the chapters on the Firmament in the fifth volume; but I should have had the plates disproportionately crowded at last, if I had put all that it needed in that volume; and as these two bear somewhat on various matters spoken of in the third, I placed them where they are first alluded to. The frontispiece has chief reference to the same chapters; but seemed, in its three divisions, properly introductory to our whole subject. It is a simple sketch from nature, taken at sunset from the hills near Como, some two miles up the eastern side of the lake and about a thousand feet above it, looking towards Lugano. The sky is a little too heavy for the advantage of the landscape below; but I am not answerable for the sky. It was there.A
In the multitudinous letterings and references of this volume there may possibly be one or two awkward errata; but not so many as to make it necessary to delay the volume while I look it over again in search of them. The reader will perhaps be kind enough to note at once that in page 182, at the first line of the text, the words "general truth" refer to the angle-measurements, not to the diagrams; which latter are given merely for reference, and might cause some embarrassment if the statement of measured accuracy were supposed to refer to them.
One or two graver misapprehensions I had it in my mind to warn the reader against; but on the whole, as I have honestly tried to make the book intelligible, I believe it will be found intelligible by any one who thinks it worth a careful reading; and every day convinces me more and more that no warnings can preserve from misunderstanding those who have no desire to understand.
Denmark Hill, March, 1856.
A Persons unacquainted with hill scenery are apt to forget that the sky of the mountains is often close to the spectator. A black thundercloud may literally be dashing itself in his face, while the blue hills seen through its rents maybe thirty miles away. Generally speaking, we do not enough understand the nearness of many clouds, even in level countries, as compared with the land horizon. See also the close of § 12 in Chap. III of this volume.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PART V.
OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY.
| page | |||
| Chapter | I.— | Of the Turnerian Picturesque | 1 |
| " | II.— | Of Turnerian Topography | 16 |
| " | III.— | Of Turnerian Light | 34 |
| " | IV.— | Of Turnerian Mystery: First, as Essential | 56 |
| " | V.— | Of Turnerian Mystery: Secondly, Wilful | 68 |
| " | VI.— | The Firmament | 82 |
| " | VII.— | The Dry Land | 89 |
| " | VIII.— | Of the Materials of Mountains: First, Compact Crystallines | 99 |
| " | IX.— | Of the Materials of Mountains: Secondly, Slaty Crystallines | 113 |
| " | X.— | Of the Materials of Mountains: Thirdly, Slaty Coherents | 122 |
| " | XI.— | Of the Materials of Mountains: Fourthly, Compact Coherents | 127 |
| " | XII.— | Of the Sculpture of Mountains: First, the Lateral Ranges | 137 |
| " | XIII.— | Of the Sculpture of Mountains: Secondly, the Central Peaks | 157 |
| " | XIV.— | Resulting Forms: First, Aiguilles | 173 |
| " | XV.— | Resulting Forms: Second, Crests | 195 |
| " | XVI.— | Resulting Forms: Third, Precipices | 228 |
| " | XVII.— | Resulting Forms: Fourthly, Banks | 262 |
| " | XVIII.— | Resulting Forms: Fifthly, Stones | 301 |
| " | XIX.— | The Mountain Gloom | 317 |
| " | XX.— | The Mountain Glory | 344 |
APPENDIX.
| I. | Modern Grotesque | 385 |
| II. | Rock Cleavage | 391 |
| III. | Logical Education | 399 |
LIST OF PLATES TO VOL. IV.
| Drawn by | Engraved by | |||
| Frontispiece. The Gates of the Hills | J. M. W. Turner | J. Cousen | ||
| Plate | Facing page | |||
| 18. | The Transition from Ghirlandajo to Claude | Ghirlandajo and Claude | J. H. Le Keux | 1 |
| 19. | The Picturesque of Windmills | Stanfield and Turner | J. H. Le Keux | 7 |
| 20. | The Pass of FaÏdo. 1. Simple Topography | The Author | The Author | 22 |
| 21. | The Pass of FaÏdo 2. Turnerian Topography | J. M. W. Turner | The Author | 24 |
| 22. | Turner's Earliest Nottingham | J. M. W. Turner | T. Boys | 29 |
| 23. | Turner's Latest Nottingham | J. M. W. Turner | T. Boys | 30 |
| 24. | The Towers of Fribourg | The Author | J. C. Armytage | 32 |
| 25. | Things in General | The Author | J. H. Le Keux | 32 |
| 26. | The Law of Evanescence | The Author | R. P. Cuff | 71 |
| 27. | The Aspen under Idealization | Turner, etc. | J. Cousen | 76 |
| 28. | The Aspen Unidealized | The Author | J. C. Armytage | 77 |
| 29. | Aiguille Structure | The Author | J. C. Armytage | 160 |
| 30. | The Ideal of Aiguilles | The Author, etc. | R. P. Cuff | 177 |
| 31. | The Aiguille BlaitiÈre | The Author | J. C. Armytage | 185 |
| 32. | Aiguille-drawing | Turner, etc. | J. H. Le Keux | 191 |
| 33. | Contours of Aiguille Bouchard | The Author | R. P. Cuff | 204 |
| 34. | Cleavage of Aiguille Bouchard | The Author | The Author | 211 |
| 35. | Crests of La CÔte and Taconay | The Author | The Author | 212 |
| 36. | Crest of La CÔte | The Author | T. Lupton | 213 |
| 37. | Crests of the Slaty Crystallines | J. M. W. Turner | The Author | 222 |
| 38. | The Cervin, from the East and North-east | The Author | J. C. Armytage | 233 |
| 39. | The Cervin from the North-west | The Author | J. C. Armytage | 238 |
| 40. | The Mountains of Villeneuve | The Author | J. H. Le Keux | 246 |
| 12. | A. The Shores of Wharfe | J. M. W. Turner | Thos. Lupton | 251 |
| 41. | The Rocks of Arona | The Author | J. H. Le Keux | 255 |
| 42. | Leaf Curvature Magnolia and Laburnum | The Author | R. P. Cuff | 269 |
| 43. | Leaf Curvature Dead Laurel | The Author | R. P. Cuff | 269 |
| 44. | Leaf Curvature Young Ivy | The Author | R. P. Cuff | 269 |
| 45. | DÉbris Curvature | The Author | R. P. Cuff | 285 |
| 46. | The Buttresses of an Alp | The Author | J. H. Le Keux | 286 |
| 47. | The Quarry of Carrara | The Author | J. H. Le Keux | 299 |
| 48. | Bank of Slaty Crystallines | Daguerreotype | J. C. Armytage | 304 |
| 49. | Truth and Untruth of Stones | Turner and Claude | Thos. Lupton | 308 |
| 50. | Goldau | J. M. W. Turner | J. Cousen | 312 |
| 18. The Transition from Ghirlandajo to Claude. |
