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

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

Browse: 1470 objects

Reference URL

Actions

Send e-mail

Contact us about this object

Send e-mail

Send to a friend

Marbles at Verona: Base of a Pilaster on the Facade of Sant' Anastasia, Verona John Ruskin

  • Curator’s description:

    Description

    The drawing shows the bottom section of two pilasters on the west facade of the church of Sant' Anastasia, Verona. These are: the pilaster on the left edge of the facade, where it joins onto the wall which supports the Castelbarco Tomb; in front of it, only partially drawn, is the pilaster immediately to the left of main portal. Both are made up of marbles and other stones of different colours, and the far pilaster is decorated with foliate patterns in relief. They are drawn from above, and to the side: Taylor suggests Ruskin took advantage of the scaffold which had been erected by some workmen at the time he was working on the drawing. Ruskin also drew the upper sections of the pilasters from the same angle, and this drawing is now no. 93 in the Educational Series.

    Ruskin's diary includes entries on 9 and 15 June 1869 recording work on this drawing, which he called 'St Anastasia base'. He included both drawings in his Verona exhibition in February 1870, noting of the upper section that 'The purple and fine-grained white marbles of the pilaster are entirely uninjured in surface by three hundred years' exposure' (under no. 39 = XIX.457). This drawing showed 'the effect of differently coloured marbles arranged in carefully unequal masses' (no. 40 = XIX.457). He also seems to have referred to them in his lecture on colour on 23 February 1871, noting that the areas of colour were 'edified', i.e. laid next to each other like stones in walls, rather than superimposed. They also showed how, by surrounding white paper with colour, its whiteness was intensified; and he remarked upon the absence of black in them. (Lectures on Landscape, §§ 72-3 = XXII.55.) Although Educational Series no. 93 was first catalogued in the Oxford collections in 1871, Ruskin never included this drawing in his Oxford catalogues: it was first recorded in the collections in 1906, by Cook and Wedderburn.

  • Details

    Artist/maker
    John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
    Object type
    drawing
    Material and technique
    watercolour and bodycolour over graphite on paper, some lines ruled
    Dimensions
    536 x 354 mm
    Associated place
    Inscription
    Verso:
    Bottom right corner, graphite, upside down within an oval: Ref. 68.
    Left edge, towards bottom, the Ruskin School's stamp
    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.068
  • Subject terms allocated by curators:

    Subjects

  • References in which this object is cited include:

    References

    Taylor, Gerald, ‘John Ruskin: A Catalogue of Drawings by John Ruskin in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford’, 7 fascicles, 1998, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, no. 111

    Penny, Nicholas, Ruskin's Drawings, Ashmolean - Christie's Handbooks (London: Phaidon, 1988), no. 27

    Ruskin, John, ‘Drawings and Photographs, Illustrative of the Art of Verona, Shown at the Royal Institution, Feb. 4th 1870’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 19, no. 40 = XIX.457; and see no. 39

    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. 68

    Ruskin, John, ‘Lectures on Landscape: Delivered at Oxford in Lent Term, 1871’, Edward T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, eds, The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, 39 (London: George Allen, 1903-1912), 22

Location

    • Western Art Print Room

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum