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The Stones of Venice is a three-volume treatise on Venetian art and architecture by English art historian John Ruskin, first published from 1851 to 1853. Intending to prove how the architecture in Venice exemplified the principles he discussed in his earlier work, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin examined the city in detail, describing for example over eighty churches. He discusses architecture of Venice's Byzantine, Gothic and Renaissance periods, and provides a general history of the city as well. The book aroused considerable interest in Victorian Britain and beyond. The chapter "The Nature of Gothic" (from volume 2) was admired by William Morris, who published it separately in an…
A harsh cornice angle meets a chamfer; you get to watch Ruskin make the case.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful account of ornament that builds its case through ordered examples from the natural world.
The chapter treats ornament as a serious visual practice, not a casual add-on. It moves from the idea that decoration is a way to be happy to a deliberate ordering of materials for ornament: crystals, waves, flames, clouds, shells, birds, foliage, and the human figure.
A dense, elegant meditation on how ornament turns nature into meaning.
Ruskin follows abstract line and color into architectural ornament, then widens the view through sea coils, river eddies, mosaics, coins, frescoes, and stonework.
Stone, leaf, and line become one long argument about how ornament grows.
Ruskin turns a cornice and a capital into a study of how stone can take on living form. He moves from the hard angle to the softening work of chamfer, then to the leaf-like truncations that give Venetian Gothic an organic cast.
Architecture talk from inside the studio.
Community radio with a wide front door.
Design conversations with cultural consequence.
Portrait craft from inside the working week.
Architecture as argument, archive, and lived space.
Architecture, patiently thought through aloud.
This LibriVox recording presents Chapter 20 Part 1 of John Ruskin's 'The Stones of Venice, Volume 1,' read by Lucretia B., establishing the philosophical foundation for the study of architectural ornament.
John Ruskin discusses the evolution of architectural shafts from walls, emphasizing the use of natural stone and the historical development of columns.
This LibriVox recording presents Chapter 20, Part 2 of John Ruskin's 1851 'The Stones of Venice, Volume 1,' read by Lucretia B.
This LibriVox recording of John Ruskin's 'The Stones of Venice, Volume 1,' Chapter 27 Part 2, read by Pamela, traces how Venetian and Lombardic cornice profiles developed into capital forms through a succession of morphological steps illustrated on plates 15 through 18.
John Ruskin explains the principles of arch masonry and stability, using examples like the Mount Cenis tunnel and Brunel's Thames tunnel.
John Ruskin's “The Base” examines how walls and shafts should begin with level, durable architectural members rather than excessive ornament.