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

The photograph shows the main porch of the west front of San Zeno, Verona, created by a certain Niccolò da Ficarolo c.1138, including the famous bronze doors; it is taken from left of centre. The reliefs to the left of the doors, signed by Guillelmus, show scenes from the life of Christ, with two panels below, of two duels, one on horseback involving Theodoric, the other on foot. The reliefs to the right of the doors, signed by Niccolò (although not necessarily by him in person) show the story of Adam and Eve, and two panels of Theodoric hunting a deer which is leading him to hell. The reliefs on the doors show, on the left, scenes from the nativity, childhood, and passion of Christ, with a few scenes from the Life of St John the Baptist and the story of Adam and Eve below; and on the right, scenes from the Old Testament and life of St Zeno. The typanum carries a full-length figure of St Zeno, and scenes from his life. The canopy above the doorway is supported on a column on each side, which each rest on the back of a sculpted lion.

Although Cook and Wedderburn state (XXI.6) that 'No. 151 [in the Standard Series in the Catalogue of Examples] ... became No. 69 in the "Catalogue of the Reference Series"', this is not strictly true, as no. 69 was left blank in that catalogue; as they state elsewhere (XXI. 32 n. 2), the photograph was presumably moved back into the series at a later date.

In his entry for the photograph in the "Catalogue of Examples", Ruskin listed it as one of the examples of architecture which depends for its effect upon the decoration of surfaces (rather than the composition of three-dimensional forms); it was also one of the first items to be placed in the group which was to represent sculpture and architecture 'founded ... on the visions and emotions connected with fixed faith in a future life'. Ruskin repeated this statement in "Aratra Pentelici" (§ 20 = XX.213-214), where he used the photograph to display a range of sculptural techniques, from shallow relief to fully-rounded, and to make the points '(1) that sculpture is essentially the production of a pleasant bossiness or roundness of surface; (2) that the pleasantness of that bossy condition to the eye is irrespective of imitation on one side, and of structure on the other.' Later in "Aratra Pentelici" (§ 160 = XX.314-315), Ruskin praised the fineness of the block-cutting, visible in 'the line that traces the architrave around the arch'; the fineness of the sculpture was again praised in § 228 (= XX.361-362. In "The Stones of Venice" (vol. I, ch. xvi, § 6), the porch of San Zeno exemplified the perfect simplicity of a single (rather than triple) church porch. Ruskin included this photograph as the first item in his exhibition of "Drawings and Photographs, Illustrative of the Art of Verona", held at the Royal Institution, in February 1870.