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

The lithograph shows Apollo in the centre, holding his lyre. A fawn stands beside him, and a woman stands to either side. The print reproduces the decoration of a black-figure amphora, recorded in 1838 with the Roman dealer Depoletti. It was plate XXIX in the second volume of Lenormant and de Witte's "Elite des monuments céramographiques", published in 1857. It was presumably taken from Ruskin's copy of the work now preserved in the Ruskin Library (inventory no. 1996B2621), which is missing many of its plates.

The print was first catalogued by Ruskin in 1870, as no. 207 in the Standard Series, framed with another print from Lenormant and de Witte of a red-figure illustration of Apollo; they formed part of a series 'arranged chiefly with the view of showing the change in Greek conception of deity'. It retained its number in the 1871 catalogue of the Standard and Reference Series but, by the time Cook and Wedderburn were compiling their edition of the catalogues (published in 1906), the frame had been moved to no. 189. Cook and Wedderburn note (XXI.45 n. 1) that it carried its original number (207) on the edge of its frame, but the new number (189) on the face. Presumably, it was easier to engrave and attach a new ivory label on the edge of the frame than it was to remove or gild over the painted number on the face.

According to Ruskin, the change in the ancient Greek conception of deity took place between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, and was marked by a development from conceiving of the gods as embodiments of physical forces to individual, characterised intelligences; from active to passive figures; and from grotesque to deliberately-selected beautiful depictions. At the same time, ceramic decoration changed from painting black figures on the red ground to painting a black background, letting the red ground show through in the figures themselves - though this soon led to careless execution. He believed the best vases were red-figure vases produced just after the transition (Catalogue of Examples, pp. 25-27; Standard and Reference catalogue, pp. 28-30).

Ruskin described the print as showing 'Apollo, the sun of morning': discussing the frame in his lecture on "Light" on 16 March 1870, Ruskin described him 'walking on the earth, god of the morning, singing to her lyre, the fawn beside her, again with the gleam of light on its breast' (Lectures on Art, § 154 = XX.148; the image was reproduced as figure 3 = XX.148). Ruskin also discussed the depiction of the light on the fawns' breasts in the upper images in Reference Series nos 187, 188 and 189: he suggested that it might express 'the direction of the light, when that direction is important'. He believed that the fawn symolised 'wavering and glancing motion on the ground, as well as of the light and shadow through the leaves, chequering the ground as the fawn is dappled'. (Lectures on Art, §§ 155-156 = XX.148-149.)