[151] Signed Bartolomeus Bozza, 1634, 1647, 1656, etc. [Ruskin.]

  [152] An obvious slip.  The mosaic is on the west wall of the south
  transept. [Cook and Wedderburn.]

  [153] Guida di Venezia, p. 6. [Ruskin.]

  [154] Fritters and liquors for sale.

  [155] Antony and Cleopatra, 2. 5. 29.

  [156] Matthew xxi, 12 and John ii, 16.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

VOLUME II, CHAPTER 6

I believe, then, that the characteristic or moral elements of Gothic are the following, placed in the order of their importance: 

1.  Savageness. 2.  Changefulness. 3.  Naturalism. 4.  Grotesqueness. 5.  Rigidity. 6.  Redundance.

These characters are here expressed as belonging to the building; as belonging to the builder, they would be expressed thus:—­1.  Savageness, or Rudeness. 2.  Love of Change. 3.  Love of Nature. 4.  Disturbed Imagination. 5.  Obstinacy. 6.  Generosity.  And I repeat, that the withdrawal of any one, or any two, will not at once destroy the Gothic character of a building, but the removal of a majority of them will.  I shall proceed to examine them in their order.

1.  SAVAGENESS.  I am not sure when the word “Gothic” was first generically applied to the architecture of the North; but I presume that, whatever the date of its original usage, it was intended to imply reproach, and express the barbaric character of the nations among whom that architecture arose.  It never implied that they were literally of Gothic lineage, far less that their architecture had been originally invented by the Goths themselves; but it did imply that they and their buildings together exhibited a degree of sternness and rudeness, which, in contradistinction to the character of Southern and Eastern nations, appeared like a perpetual reflection of the contrast between the Goth and the Roman in their first encounter.  And when that fallen Roman, in the utmost impotence of his luxury, and insolence of his guilt, became the model for the imitation of civilized Europe, at the close of the so-called Dark Ages, the word Gothic became a term of unmitigated contempt, not unmixed with aversion.  From that contempt, by the exertion of the antiquaries and architects of this century, Gothic architecture has been sufficiently vindicated; and perhaps some among us, in our admiration of the magnificent science of its structure, and sacredness of its expression, might desire that the term of ancient reproach should be withdrawn, and some other, of more apparent honourableness, adopted in its place.  There is no chance, as there is no need, of such a substitution.  As far as the epithet was used scornfully, it was used falsely; but there is no reproach in the word, rightly understood; on the contrary, there is a profound truth, which the instinct of mankind almost unconsciously recognizes.  It is true, greatly and deeply true, that the architecture of the North is rude and wild; but it is not true, that, for this reason, we are to condemn it, or despise.  Far otherwise:  I believe it is in this very character that it deserves our profoundest reverence.