John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice

Doges Palace, Venice

10 March – 10 June 2018

This exhibition ‘John Ruskin, the Stones of Venice’, curated by Anna Ottani Cavina, was the first dedicated to John Ruskin located in Venice, Italy. The exhibition is located in the Loggia of the Doge’s Palace. Ruskin visited Venice many times during his life and recorded its buildings through writing, drawing, painting, and photography. The architecture of Venice fascinated Ruskin and he called himself ‘a foster child of Venice’. Ruskin saw Gothic Venice as a city where religion, government, and art fit together in harmony.

A detailed drawing of a Venetian clock tower looming over the city. — John Ruskin, ‘Stones of Venice: Types of Towers’, 1996P2077 © The Ruskin, Lancaster University

The exhibition focusses on Ruskin the artist, displaying works in a range of media including watercolour paintings and pen drawings, as well as some of Ruskin’s Venetian Notebooks.