IV - THE PRESERVATION OF ITALIAN PICTURES: REMARKS AT A MEETING OF THE ARUNDEL SOCIETY (JUNE 25, 1857)

Summary

Mr. Ruskin addressed the meeting after Mr. Layard had concluded, and gave eloquent confirmation to all Mr. Layard had said of the progress of destruction among the great mural monuments of Italian art. He impressed on the meeting the facts, first, that fresco preserved to us the best thoughts of the greatest painters. Secondly, he pointed out that this work was just that which could be reproduced with best effect by chromo-lithography and outline. Then he dwelt on the peculiar danger to which such works were exposed, and the duty that lay upon us to save, if we could, these records of a time when art and literature were the only exponents of men's best thoughts and noblest energies. If any of us, walking in the street, saw a picture flung into the carriage-way, who would not pick up the dishonoured canvas and set its face to the wall for safety? Still more, if we saw a man so flung under the horses’ hoofs, and if he called to us, and said he had to impart some truth he believed it of import for men to know, would we leave him to die and carry his thought to the grave? Even so Italy is calling to us to save these relics of her greater and happier time from that dissolution through which she herself must pass to what of new life may be in store for her. He did not believe the Arundel Society would be deaf to her appeal.