More Goethe

From his book Italian Journey.

"The art of mosaic, which gave the Ancients their paved floors and the Christians the vaulted Heaven of their churches, has now been degraded to snuff boxes and bracelets. Our times are worse than we think."


Charlotte Mason tells about how Goethe grew up looking at some prints of Venice, and hearing his father talk about Italy, all his life. He had read about Italy, but hadn't yet visited it himself. The yearning to see it for himself became so strong that he had to limit what he read about Italy because it made him miserable. But now he's finally in Italy:

"My passionate desire to see these things [Italian sites] with my own eyes had grown to such a point that, if I had not taken the decision I am now acting upon [the decision to travel through Italy], I should have gone completely to pieces. More historical knowledge was no help. The things were in arm's reach [from Germany], yet I felt separated from them by an impenetrable barrier. Now I feel, not that I am seeing them for the first time, but that I am seeing them again."



"I have spent the day well, just looking and looking. It is the same in art as in life. The deeper one penetrates, the broader grows the view. In the sky of art, countless new stars keep appearing . . . "