The Art Criticism of John Ruskin

Abstract

Ruskin was the most important aesthetic arbiter of the 19th century. In The Stones of Venice, Modern Painters and Seven Lamps of Architecture he developed rules and standards that are contemporary in their range of sympathies. However, Ruskin also wrote thousands of pages of criticism. This anthology by Robert Herbert contains the essential thought of Ruskin on architecture, painting, sculpture and the relationship of art to its social and moral context.