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

The lithograph shows Apollo, holding his lyre as he sits before the altar at Delphi. It reproduces the decoration of a cylix then in the collection of the Comte Léon de Laborde. It was plate IV 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 catalogued by Ruskin in the "Catalogue of Examples" of 1870, as no. 23 D in the Educational Series, alongside other plates of Apollo and Selene from Lenormant and de Witte. However, it did not reappear in any of his subsequent catalogues, and so was not part of the collection transferred to the University in the Deed of Gift of 31 May 1875. It can no longer be found in the collection, and is represented here by a surrogate taken from the Bodleian Library's copy of Lenormant and de Witte.

In his catalogue entry, Ruskin outlined how he wanted his students to copy the print, and remarked upon Apollo's 'large chin, characteristic of the finest time of Greek art'.