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John Ruskin
British (1819-1900) |
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Image courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
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| Interior of St. Mark's, 1846 Pencil with watercolor 41.5 x 28.5 cm Ruskin School Collection WA RS.ED.209 |
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Ruskin’s use of a grey-colored paper is quite effective in evoking the texture of the stone structure and the damp effect of the church after the rain. The scene captured here is the interior of St. Mark’s in Venice. The viewer is situated in front of the Baptistry door of the South Portal, a backdrop for a freestanding marble pillar. The pillar belongs to a pair, captured by the Venetians from St. Jean d’Acre. The quality of this drawing is palpably sketchy as things are deliberately left unfinished. At the same time, he is clearly being selective in making certain elements very detailed, especially the freestanding pillar with its vegetal carvings. It is clear Ruskin is studying the forms and surfaces; penciled little numbers scattered throughout the drawing refer to more detailed drawings of those certain elements in the notes of his diary. The goal here is not to make a picturesque effect, but rather, to get at the accuracy of knowledge of some part of the building.
Such a drawing as this can most surely be grouped with those drawings that Ruskin made in order to document, record, and study the Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic styles he was so taken by in Venice. This group of drawings eventually was compiled into a collection entitled Examples of the Architecture of Venice which accompanied the volumes of Stones of Venice. After Ruskin’s death, these drawings were given to the Ruskin School of Drawing in 1871. Their precise and didactic qualities seem to have suited the instructive demands of the circumstance. In this drawing, the didactic quality of the composition stems from the pencil numbering to the sketchy quality. The way in which certain elements are highlighted and brought to the viewer’s attention pursues a very instructive tone.
Ruskin’s Venice projects revolved around an anxiety about the decay and the fall of Venice, actually a concern which was being dealt with at this time by St. Mark’s restoration. But Ruskin’s criticism of how St. Mark’s was being dealt with at this time was not solely that St. Mark’s was left to decay, but that he was also wary of its restoration where much of it was being replaced. Ruskin appreciated the passage of time’s imprint left on a building. He believed that the life of a building including its wear and weathering were essential to its historical character. He was vehemently opposed to its restoration which generally involved replacement and reproduction. His goal then was to make drawings to record buildings before they were treated in this way. Drawings such as Interior of St. Mark’s is thus a representative example of many drawings that demonstrated Ruskin’s need to document architecture, to revere the past as an inspiration to the present. Daguerrotypes were instrumental as study and research aids, but were not fully reliable according to Ruskin because of elements that couldn’t be captured such as the qualities of details that he brings out in his drawings.
Anny Su