Ruskin's first catalogue of 300 works for the instruction of undergraduates and his notes on the use of particular examples.
The lithograph shows Apollo holding his lyre, and a man with a staff, identified by Lenormant and de Witte as Carmanor, Chrysothemis or Crotopus. It reproduces the decoration of a red-figure amphora then in the collection of a Monsieur Rollin. The print was plate XVI 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 1871, when it appeared as no. 25 in the Educational Series, entitled "Poetry (Orpheus or Amphion, with Old Age, listening)", placed in Case II, "Elementary Illustrations of Greek Design". It remained in the same position, although renumbered as no. 50, in the 1874 catalogue of the series, but does not appear in Ruskin's 1878 reorganisation of the series.
Presented by John Ruskin to the Ruskin Drawing School (University of Oxford), 1875; transferred from the Ruskin Drawing School to the Ashmolean Museum, c.1949.
Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Educational Series (London: Smith, Elder, 1871), cat. Educational no. 25
Ruskin, John, Catalogue of the Educational Series (London: Spottiswoode, 1874), cat. Educational no. 50
Lenormant, Charles, and Jean de Witte, Elite des monuments céramographiques: Matériaux pour l'histoire des religions et des moeurs de l'antiquité, 4 vols in 8 (Paris: Leleux, 1844-1861), vol. II, pl. XVI
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. Educational no. 50