The Elements of Drawing, John Ruskin’s teaching collection at Oxford

The Elements of Drawing, John Ruskin’s teaching collection at Oxford

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The Roofs and Pinnacles of San Fermo Maggiore, Verona, from the south-east John Wharlton Bunney

  • Curator’s description:

    Description

    The drawing shows the roofs and pinnacles of the church of San Fermo Maggiore, in Verona - i.e. the parts built around 1313. The view is very fore-shortened, from the south-east, and shows, from left to right, the facade of the south transept, the back of the west front, the south side of the nave, the east front and its polygonal apse (only half drawn by Bunney), and the pointed steeple of the campanile (again half-drawn). The following drawing, Reference Series no. 115, is a similar view, taken from further to the east. The drawing was most probably done during Bunney's only recorded trip to Verona in 1869, where he was joined by Ruskin who was there at intervals from May to August that year.

    The drawing, along with all the other items numbered from 107 to 150 in the Reference Series, was never catalogued by Ruskin, appearing for the first time in Cook and Wedderburn's edition of the Drawing School catalogues as no. 114 in the Reference Series.

    Whilst he wrote little about San Fermo, Ruskin clearly valued the church, describing it as 'wrought with the most exquisite proportion and precision of workmanship', and describing how 'all Venetian work' was 'coarse in comparison' to the arches of the outer arcade (Stones of Venice, vol. I, ch. xi, § 12 = IX.169 and vol. II, ch. vii, § 36 = X.302).

  • Details

    Artist/maker
    John Wharlton Bunney (1828 - 1882)
    Object type
    drawing
    Material and technique
    watercolour over graphite on wove paper
    Dimensions
    371 x 429 mm
    Associated place
    Provenance

    Presumably presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School (University of Oxford); first recorded in the Ruskin Drawing School in 1906; transferred from the Ruskin Drawing School to the Ashmolean Museum c.1949

    No. of items
    1
    Accession no.
    WA.RS.REF.114
  • Subject terms allocated by curators:

    Subjects

  • References in which this object is cited include:

    References

    Ruskin, John, ‘The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes and Instructions’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 21, cat. Reference no. 114

Location

    • Western Art Print Room

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