The Art of Ruskin and the Spirit of Place : txt
John Dixon Hunt.
- 286 pages : illustrations (color, black & white) ; 26 cm. book
Include index.
Preface -- 1. The Paragone of Drawing and Writing -- 2. Ruskin's Picturesque -- 3. Geology, Mineralogy, Mountains -- 4. Water, Rivers, Meteorology -- 5. Places and Genius Loci -- 6. Venice -- 7. Drawing, Learning and Teaching -- 8. An Iconography and Geography of Ruskin's Imagination -- Abbreviations and References -- Further Reading -- Acknowledgements -- Photo Acknowledgements -- Index.
English art critic John Ruskin was one of the great visionaries of his time, and his influential books and letters on the power of art challenged the foundations of Victorian life. He loved looking. Sometimes it informed the things he wrote, but often it provided access to the many topographical and cultural topics he explored--rocks, plants, birds, Turner, Venice, the Alps. In The Art of Ruskin and the Spirit of Place, John Dixon Hunt focuses for the first time on what Ruskin drew, rather than wrote, offering a new perspective on Ruskin's visual imagination. Through analysis of more than 150 drawings and sketches, many reproduced here, he shows how Ruskin's art shaped his writings, his thoughts, and his sense of place.