THE GREAT MIRROR 



81 



a hot wind, the reflection of the steamer smoke on the 

 broken water became a very dark cobalt, and the sea 

 itself, breaking over white reefs and shelving rocks, 

 showed a vivid aquamarine. The sun has just gone 

 dowTi in a blaze of fire that licked the tops of all the 

 waves into flame. In portions, where the surface is 

 comparatively smooth, the yellow of the sky makes a 

 golden floor of the sea. The edges of the shore show 

 ultramarine, and just out of the line of sun-fire the sea 

 looks like blue ink. This is the coloring of Turner's 

 'Ulysses and Polyphemus' which I have always 

 thought something of an impossibility in its hue and 

 tone, something done by Turner for artistic effect, re- 

 gardless of truth. I do not know now that Turner put 

 in his cold gouts of blue against his hot golds because it 

 was true. He wanted the contrast — the relief of the 

 warm and cold colors — to make a picture; and Turner 

 was a picture maker rather than a nature or a truth 

 lover. But here is his effect in nature, nevertheless." 



A few days later at Eagusa, with the same 

 sea and the same weather, a slightly different 

 appearance was noted. 



"The day is hot, clear save for heap clouds 

 over Monte Sergio, the air rosy, opalescent, sway- 

 ing, wavering. The town, with its great walls and 

 round towers, its domes and turrets, lies below me, 

 yellow with the gleam of limestone and stained 

 marble, reddish with tile roofs that show everywhere, 

 and almost girdled by the deep blue sea. The white 

 road from Gravosa is gay with the gleam of villas seen 

 in between groups of tall palms, Ravenna pines, mul- 

 berry and sycamore trees. Dotted here and there are 



The Adri- 

 atic at sun- 

 set near 

 Spalato. 



Turner 

 pictures in 

 nature. 



The town of 

 Ragusa. 



