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The Seven Lamps of Architecture
"I believe architecture must be the beginning of arts, and that the others must follow her in their time and order; and I think the prosperity of our schools of painting and sculpture, in which no one will deny the life, though many the health, depends upon that of our architecture." — John Ruskin.
In August of 1848, John Ruskin and his new bride visited northern France, for the gifted young critic wished to write a work that would examine the essence of Gothic architecture. By the following April, the book was finished. Titled The Seven Lamps of Architecture, it was far more than a treatise on the Gothic style; instead, it elaborated Ruskin's deepest convictions of the nature and role of architecture and its aesthetics. The book was published to immediate acclaim and has since become an acknowledged classic.
The "seven lamps" are Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and Obedience. In delineating the relationship of these terms to architecture, Ruskin distinguishes between architecture and mere building. Architecture is an exalting discipline that must dignify and ennoble public life. It must preserve the purity of the materials it uses; and it must serve as a source of power and renewal for the society that produces it. The author expounds these and many other ideas with exceptional passion and knowledge, expressed in a masterly prose style.
Today, Ruskin's timeless observations are as relevant as they were in Victorian times, making The Seven Lamps of Architecture required reading for architects, students, and other lovers of architecture, who will find in these pages a thoughtful and inspiring approach to one of man's noblest endeavors.
This authoritative edition includes excellent reproductions of the 14 original plates of Ruskin's superb drawings of architectural details from such structures as the Doge's Palace in Venice, Giotto's Campanile in Florence, and the Cathedral of Rouen.
In August of 1848, John Ruskin and his new bride visited northern France, for the gifted young critic wished to write a work that would examine the essence of Gothic architecture. By the following April, the book was finished. Titled The Seven Lamps of Architecture, it was far more than a treatise on the Gothic style; instead, it elaborated Ruskin's deepest convictions of the nature and role of architecture and its aesthetics. The book was published to immediate acclaim and has since become an acknowledged classic.
The "seven lamps" are Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and Obedience. In delineating the relationship of these terms to architecture, Ruskin distinguishes between architecture and mere building. Architecture is an exalting discipline that must dignify and ennoble public life. It must preserve the purity of the materials it uses; and it must serve as a source of power and renewal for the society that produces it. The author expounds these and many other ideas with exceptional passion and knowledge, expressed in a masterly prose style.
Today, Ruskin's timeless observations are as relevant as they were in Victorian times, making The Seven Lamps of Architecture required reading for architects, students, and other lovers of architecture, who will find in these pages a thoughtful and inspiring approach to one of man's noblest endeavors.
This authoritative edition includes excellent reproductions of the 14 original plates of Ruskin's superb drawings of architectural details from such structures as the Doge's Palace in Venice, Giotto's Campanile in Florence, and the Cathedral of Rouen.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1849
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About the author
John Ruskin
3,766 books480 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John Ruskin was an English writer, philosopher, art historian, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
Ruskin was heavily engaged by the work of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc which he taught to all his pupils including William Morris, notably Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionary, which he considered as "the only book of any value on architecture". Ruskin's writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural structures and ornamentation. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art gave way in time to plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society.
Ruskin was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J.M.W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". From the 1850s, he championed the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today.
John Ruskin was an English writer, philosopher, art historian, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
Ruskin was heavily engaged by the work of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc which he taught to all his pupils including William Morris, notably Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionary, which he considered as "the only book of any value on architecture". Ruskin's writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural structures and ornamentation. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art gave way in time to plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society.
Ruskin was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J.M.W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". From the 1850s, he championed the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today.
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December 26, 2015
This book is as they used to say in the sixties a hoot. It is a dazzling display of erudition, insight and laughable drivel. It was in a word everything that I hoped it would be. I read this book because Ruskin was greatly admired by Marcel Proust who considered him to be the greatest authority on aesthetic values of his generation. Such was Proust's admiration for Ruskin that he translated Ruskin's Bible of Amiens into French. I started the Seven Lamps of Architecture expecting a rant on art like one of the many from the Baron de Charlus in A la recherche du temps that is to say an hysterical plea for good taste constituted of wildly absurd pronouncements. That is exactly what I got. I enjoyed it tremendously although I am not quite sure who else would.
Let's start with the absurd. Ruskin stated flatly that that good architecture could never employ iron or steel. That would mean that William Jenney, Louis Sullivan, Mies Van der Rohe, John Paxton, Walter Gropius, Eero Saarinen and in fact all of the great modern architects were in fact quite dreadful. Ruskin argued that the Gothic style be made the official style of England and that regulations be put in place to ensure that all building in England conformed to it. He felt that train stations were strictly utilitarian structures and that none of the devices of architecture should be applied to them to enhance their appearance. Ruskin then must have hated Eiffel's Budapest train station, the Gare St. Lazare and the Victoria station. No mechanically created or shaped materials should be used in "architectural" buildings. Beams should be hand cut from timbers. Stones should all be cut individually. It is difficult to imagine greater nonsense that what Ruskin utters on so many instances in the Seven Lamps or Architecture.
There is certainly plenty to laugh at in the Seven Lamps of Architecture but as one advances one sees what a great critic Ruskin was. He explains what constitutes good taste and bad taste in architecture with brilliance. Lines and forms must be natural resembling those in nature. No veneers should be applied to disguise the real material. Ornamentation should be discreet.
Ruskin demonstrations incredible thoroughness in how he observes buildings. He measures doors and arches to establish the proportions the architect used. He shows that in one cathedral all the four doors at the front entrance had different widths which he argues was meant as a message from the architect that he the architect felt free to disregard the laws of symmetry.
The Seven Lamps of Architecture will be a great joy to read for anyone who has visited Venice and several of the great Gothic Cathedrals of England and France. This book is so overtly crazy and so tremendously wise in reality.
Let's start with the absurd. Ruskin stated flatly that that good architecture could never employ iron or steel. That would mean that William Jenney, Louis Sullivan, Mies Van der Rohe, John Paxton, Walter Gropius, Eero Saarinen and in fact all of the great modern architects were in fact quite dreadful. Ruskin argued that the Gothic style be made the official style of England and that regulations be put in place to ensure that all building in England conformed to it. He felt that train stations were strictly utilitarian structures and that none of the devices of architecture should be applied to them to enhance their appearance. Ruskin then must have hated Eiffel's Budapest train station, the Gare St. Lazare and the Victoria station. No mechanically created or shaped materials should be used in "architectural" buildings. Beams should be hand cut from timbers. Stones should all be cut individually. It is difficult to imagine greater nonsense that what Ruskin utters on so many instances in the Seven Lamps or Architecture.
There is certainly plenty to laugh at in the Seven Lamps of Architecture but as one advances one sees what a great critic Ruskin was. He explains what constitutes good taste and bad taste in architecture with brilliance. Lines and forms must be natural resembling those in nature. No veneers should be applied to disguise the real material. Ornamentation should be discreet.
Ruskin demonstrations incredible thoroughness in how he observes buildings. He measures doors and arches to establish the proportions the architect used. He shows that in one cathedral all the four doors at the front entrance had different widths which he argues was meant as a message from the architect that he the architect felt free to disregard the laws of symmetry.
The Seven Lamps of Architecture will be a great joy to read for anyone who has visited Venice and several of the great Gothic Cathedrals of England and France. This book is so overtly crazy and so tremendously wise in reality.
February 4, 2011
What I learned?
The Importance of Being Ornamental.
The Importance of Being Ornamental.
Read
September 1, 2021One of the oddities of Ruskin's thought is that it contains two largely contradictory tendencies. The first is an emphasis of the superiority of gothic architecture over other styles. Partly this is for social reasons: he saw the need for craft in such a style as providing a solution to the unemployment and unrest facing Europe at the time of writing. But it's also for aesthetic reasons; he saw classical models as unduly severe and crude, preferring gothic's adaptations of natural forms. The second is a tendency to castigate unnecessary decoration and ornament, although gothic is clearly rather more involved in this respect than the crude classical models he disliked so much.
Between these two propositions there are a few surprising points in this text. Firstly, Ruskin opines that "there appears no reason why iron should not be used as well as wood; and the time is probably near when a new system of architectural laws will be developed, adapted entirely to metallic construction." Ruskin did indeed have some involvement with one such building, the Natural History Museum in Oxford, and he does also note that there is no need for structures like railway buildings to be anything other than functional. Nonetheless, it's still hard to imagine him approving of the sort of buildings his prediction led to from Louis Sullivan to Mies van der Rohe. One of the other points that leaps out is an invective against restoration, which he sees as a form of deceit against the material truth to a building, preferring instead the patina of age and ultimately dereliction. Even so, Ruskin's ideas were fairly central to an industrial programme of restoration by architects like Gilbert Scott.
Between these two propositions there are a few surprising points in this text. Firstly, Ruskin opines that "there appears no reason why iron should not be used as well as wood; and the time is probably near when a new system of architectural laws will be developed, adapted entirely to metallic construction." Ruskin did indeed have some involvement with one such building, the Natural History Museum in Oxford, and he does also note that there is no need for structures like railway buildings to be anything other than functional. Nonetheless, it's still hard to imagine him approving of the sort of buildings his prediction led to from Louis Sullivan to Mies van der Rohe. One of the other points that leaps out is an invective against restoration, which he sees as a form of deceit against the material truth to a building, preferring instead the patina of age and ultimately dereliction. Even so, Ruskin's ideas were fairly central to an industrial programme of restoration by architects like Gilbert Scott.
December 13, 2009
Pretentious twaddle, much of which seems to have been disproved by later architectural events. Must have imagined it had some virtue when I picked it up, but so glad I only tackled this as a flying/waiting at airport filler.
May 27, 2019
Ruskin, John – The Seven Lamps of Architecture
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900). In one of our visits to the Tate Museum, there was the painting of Ophelia during her last moments, floating calmly with her hands pointing to the sky, before drowning in the water of a river. I loved it. It was painted by John Everet Millais (part of the Pre-Rafaelites brotherhood (Victorian art movement)). Trying to know more about the painting, I got to know that John Ruskin was an important art critique. I wanted to read this book, in order to know more about Ruskin and his criteria to evaluate art.
Practicing himself several disciplines (poetry, painting), with his critiques he anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability, and craft. One of his principles is art, architecture in consistency with nature (ultimate nerve or fiber of the mighty laws which govern the moral world). Failure is attributable to a confuse understanding of the thing actually to be done. The chapters of the book correspond to the seven lamps presented in the title.
CHAPTER I. THE LAMP OF SACRIFICE – Distinguish Architecture (Devotional; Memorial; Civil; Military; Domestic) and Building; The book becomes difficult because of the many references to God and to the Bible. God is mercy, need to pray or working on art. “I would fain introduce into it all magnificence, care, and beauty, where they are possible; but I would not have that useless expense in unnoticed fineries or formalities”. “… if you cannot afford marble, use Caen stone, but from the best bed; and if not stone, brick, but the best brick; preferring always what is good of a lower order of work or material, to what is bad of a higher…”; see about the meaning of Gothic; “Ornament cannot be overcharged if it be good, and is always overcharged when it is bad”.
CHAPTER II. THE LAMP OF TRUTH – See virtues of man. The line of the horizon is irregular and undefined; and this, too: Truth; truth is like writing fair, and comes only by practice. It goes far beyond an analysis of truth. Yes to the imagination, but not to lies. Deceits: painting of surface; use of cast or machine-made ornaments of any kind. Corruption might come from the use of iron. Metals may be used as a cement but not as support. Gilding has become innocent. “So fell the great dynasty of mediæval architecture. It was because it had lost its own strength, and disobeyed its own laws—because its order, and consistency, and organization, had been broken through—that it could oppose no resistance to the rush of overwhelming innovation. But they could not rise out of the ruins of their own violated truth.”9
CHAPTER III. THE LAMP OF POWER – (a) Exceeding preciousness and delicacy; (b) Severe, and, in many cases, mysterious, majesty. Sublimity high in proportion to the power expressed. What is accepted by Nature? Sometimes man destroys natural sublimity.
it is evidently in the architect's power to reach at least that degree of magnitude which is the lowest at which sublimity begins, rudely definable as that which will make a living figure look less than life beside it. We went many times to the Oxford Museum of National History, without understanding the historial process that it followed and the meaning of columns, roof, windows. “Power of architecture may be said to depend on the quantity (whether measured in space or intenseness) of its shadow”. Importance of light, shade, architectural details…”It is vain to endeavor to paint the sharp, grassy, intricate leafage, until this ruling form has been secured”. There are many men who could build a square mass.
CHAPTER IV. THE LAMP OF BEAUTY – For me, this was perhaps the best chapter. Beauty, derived chiefly from the external appearances of organic nature. Beyond a certain point, man cannot advance in the invention of beauty, without directly imitating natural form. Guilloché, lines and the cube, Portcullis (Tudor work), garlands. Drapery: only means we have of representing this natural force of earth (for falling water is less passive and less defined in its lines). “Work first, and then rest. Work first and then gaze”. “Every man knows where and how beauty gives him pleasure”. Proportion and Abstraction; symmetry without proportion is not composition. “Proportion is between three terms at least”. Abstraction= safe manner to design all things; then to mark the parts where high finish would be admisible, and then connect them by a graduated scale of abstraction with the rest. The colors should be those of natural stones= 1. Organic form dominant. 2. Organic form sub-dominant. 3. Organic form abstracted to outline. 4. Organic forms entirely lost. Geometrical patterns or variable cloudings in the most vivid color.Architecture could affect the human mind; "I took thee from the sheepcote, and from following the sheep."
CHAPTER V - THE LAMP OF LIFE - Living and dead. Vitality could give influence, value, or delightfulness: Frankness and its Audacity. What is finish? and what is its right place? Byzantine workmen built altogether from feeling = marvellous life, changefulness, and subtlety running through their every arrangement. Working out an effective symmetry by variations as subtle as those of Nature. It will be like that of poetry well read and deeply felt. Sculpture is not the mere cutting of the form of anything in stone; it is the cutting of the effect of it. Was it done with enjoyment while he was about it?
CHAPTER VI - THE LAMP OF MEMORY - Two strong conquerors of the forgetfulness of men are Poetry and Architecture. Decorations are consequently animated by a metaphorical or historical meaning. Each man would fain build to himself, and build for the little revolution of his own life only. Light as Arabs or the Gipsies? Or going for rest and of stability without the luxury of change. God has an altar in every man's dwelling.
Il. n'est. rose. sans. Épine.
Looking to the past or the future? When we build, let us think that we build for ever. "See! this our fathers did for us." Picturesqueness is Parasitical Sublimity. picturesque, as opposed to beauty. See schools to understand how shade and details are presented, hair, feathers, etc., “they become picturesque, and are so in art exactly in proportion to the prominence of these excrescential characters”. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us.
CHAPTER VII - THE LAMP OF OBEDIENCE - Every form of noble architecture is in some sort the embodiment of the Polity, Life, History, and Religious Faith of nations.”That principle, I mean, to which Polity owes its stability, Life its happiness, Faith its acceptance, Creation its continuance,— Obedience”. Are its laws strait?" The invention of a new style. “The chords of music, the harmonies of color, the general principles of the arrangement of sculptural masses, have been determined long ago, and, in all probability, cannot be added to any more than they can be altered”. Need for Obedience, Unity, Fellowship, and Order - Classical, Gothic, Tudor, Frenchj Flamboyant? Need for coherence. Stop at home!
The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900). In one of our visits to the Tate Museum, there was the painting of Ophelia during her last moments, floating calmly with her hands pointing to the sky, before drowning in the water of a river. I loved it. It was painted by John Everet Millais (part of the Pre-Rafaelites brotherhood (Victorian art movement)). Trying to know more about the painting, I got to know that John Ruskin was an important art critique. I wanted to read this book, in order to know more about Ruskin and his criteria to evaluate art.
Practicing himself several disciplines (poetry, painting), with his critiques he anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability, and craft. One of his principles is art, architecture in consistency with nature (ultimate nerve or fiber of the mighty laws which govern the moral world). Failure is attributable to a confuse understanding of the thing actually to be done. The chapters of the book correspond to the seven lamps presented in the title.
CHAPTER I. THE LAMP OF SACRIFICE – Distinguish Architecture (Devotional; Memorial; Civil; Military; Domestic) and Building; The book becomes difficult because of the many references to God and to the Bible. God is mercy, need to pray or working on art. “I would fain introduce into it all magnificence, care, and beauty, where they are possible; but I would not have that useless expense in unnoticed fineries or formalities”. “… if you cannot afford marble, use Caen stone, but from the best bed; and if not stone, brick, but the best brick; preferring always what is good of a lower order of work or material, to what is bad of a higher…”; see about the meaning of Gothic; “Ornament cannot be overcharged if it be good, and is always overcharged when it is bad”.
CHAPTER II. THE LAMP OF TRUTH – See virtues of man. The line of the horizon is irregular and undefined; and this, too: Truth; truth is like writing fair, and comes only by practice. It goes far beyond an analysis of truth. Yes to the imagination, but not to lies. Deceits: painting of surface; use of cast or machine-made ornaments of any kind. Corruption might come from the use of iron. Metals may be used as a cement but not as support. Gilding has become innocent. “So fell the great dynasty of mediæval architecture. It was because it had lost its own strength, and disobeyed its own laws—because its order, and consistency, and organization, had been broken through—that it could oppose no resistance to the rush of overwhelming innovation. But they could not rise out of the ruins of their own violated truth.”9
CHAPTER III. THE LAMP OF POWER – (a) Exceeding preciousness and delicacy; (b) Severe, and, in many cases, mysterious, majesty. Sublimity high in proportion to the power expressed. What is accepted by Nature? Sometimes man destroys natural sublimity.
it is evidently in the architect's power to reach at least that degree of magnitude which is the lowest at which sublimity begins, rudely definable as that which will make a living figure look less than life beside it. We went many times to the Oxford Museum of National History, without understanding the historial process that it followed and the meaning of columns, roof, windows. “Power of architecture may be said to depend on the quantity (whether measured in space or intenseness) of its shadow”. Importance of light, shade, architectural details…”It is vain to endeavor to paint the sharp, grassy, intricate leafage, until this ruling form has been secured”. There are many men who could build a square mass.
CHAPTER IV. THE LAMP OF BEAUTY – For me, this was perhaps the best chapter. Beauty, derived chiefly from the external appearances of organic nature. Beyond a certain point, man cannot advance in the invention of beauty, without directly imitating natural form. Guilloché, lines and the cube, Portcullis (Tudor work), garlands. Drapery: only means we have of representing this natural force of earth (for falling water is less passive and less defined in its lines). “Work first, and then rest. Work first and then gaze”. “Every man knows where and how beauty gives him pleasure”. Proportion and Abstraction; symmetry without proportion is not composition. “Proportion is between three terms at least”. Abstraction= safe manner to design all things; then to mark the parts where high finish would be admisible, and then connect them by a graduated scale of abstraction with the rest. The colors should be those of natural stones= 1. Organic form dominant. 2. Organic form sub-dominant. 3. Organic form abstracted to outline. 4. Organic forms entirely lost. Geometrical patterns or variable cloudings in the most vivid color.Architecture could affect the human mind; "I took thee from the sheepcote, and from following the sheep."
CHAPTER V - THE LAMP OF LIFE - Living and dead. Vitality could give influence, value, or delightfulness: Frankness and its Audacity. What is finish? and what is its right place? Byzantine workmen built altogether from feeling = marvellous life, changefulness, and subtlety running through their every arrangement. Working out an effective symmetry by variations as subtle as those of Nature. It will be like that of poetry well read and deeply felt. Sculpture is not the mere cutting of the form of anything in stone; it is the cutting of the effect of it. Was it done with enjoyment while he was about it?
CHAPTER VI - THE LAMP OF MEMORY - Two strong conquerors of the forgetfulness of men are Poetry and Architecture. Decorations are consequently animated by a metaphorical or historical meaning. Each man would fain build to himself, and build for the little revolution of his own life only. Light as Arabs or the Gipsies? Or going for rest and of stability without the luxury of change. God has an altar in every man's dwelling.
Il. n'est. rose. sans. Épine.
Looking to the past or the future? When we build, let us think that we build for ever. "See! this our fathers did for us." Picturesqueness is Parasitical Sublimity. picturesque, as opposed to beauty. See schools to understand how shade and details are presented, hair, feathers, etc., “they become picturesque, and are so in art exactly in proportion to the prominence of these excrescential characters”. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us.
CHAPTER VII - THE LAMP OF OBEDIENCE - Every form of noble architecture is in some sort the embodiment of the Polity, Life, History, and Religious Faith of nations.”That principle, I mean, to which Polity owes its stability, Life its happiness, Faith its acceptance, Creation its continuance,— Obedience”. Are its laws strait?" The invention of a new style. “The chords of music, the harmonies of color, the general principles of the arrangement of sculptural masses, have been determined long ago, and, in all probability, cannot be added to any more than they can be altered”. Need for Obedience, Unity, Fellowship, and Order - Classical, Gothic, Tudor, Frenchj Flamboyant? Need for coherence. Stop at home!
The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
March 4, 2015
"I could smile when I hear the hopeful exultation of many, at the new reach of worldly science, and vigor of worldly effort; as if we were again at the beginning of days. There is thunder on the horizon as well as dawn. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar."
That delightfully apocalyptic tidbit concludes what must be one of the weirder treatises on architecture out there. Even leaving aside his alleged pedophilia, Ruskin comes off as a bit of a freak. There are anti-Catholic tirades aplenty, and just overall a ton of preaching. And as for the principles of architecture, here's a rundown of what I've learned:
Late Gothic sucks.
Everything after Gothic sucks.
Every German building sucks.
A few English and French buildings don't suck, but most of them do.
Pretty much the only great buildings are in northern Italy.
St. Peter's Basilica is tacky as hell, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa is the ugliest building in Italy (because it is vertically symmetrical).
Shapes that don't appear in nature are by definition ugly.
We shouldn't restore buildings, ever.
If you give a shit about sculpting people's hair, you should use a material that will fall apart easily (because that is picturesque).
Nations should have actual rules about what styles architects are allowed to use (mostly just early Gothic).
So that's is. The writing is very good, though.
That delightfully apocalyptic tidbit concludes what must be one of the weirder treatises on architecture out there. Even leaving aside his alleged pedophilia, Ruskin comes off as a bit of a freak. There are anti-Catholic tirades aplenty, and just overall a ton of preaching. And as for the principles of architecture, here's a rundown of what I've learned:
Late Gothic sucks.
Everything after Gothic sucks.
Every German building sucks.
A few English and French buildings don't suck, but most of them do.
Pretty much the only great buildings are in northern Italy.
St. Peter's Basilica is tacky as hell, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa is the ugliest building in Italy (because it is vertically symmetrical).
Shapes that don't appear in nature are by definition ugly.
We shouldn't restore buildings, ever.
If you give a shit about sculpting people's hair, you should use a material that will fall apart easily (because that is picturesque).
Nations should have actual rules about what styles architects are allowed to use (mostly just early Gothic).
So that's is. The writing is very good, though.
July 6, 2012
as postmodernist, this book is hard to read now
January 21, 2024
Though the book is written in the old format of English and contains a bit of filler, it is coherent and presents many philosophical notions that are not well understood by modern-day architects, but are crucial for good Architecture that enhances our living and behaviour.
The seven Lamps of Architecture, as Ruskin called them, can be seen as the seven virtues of architecture, which are related to the worldview of the architect and the inhabitants of the building.
For me, Beauty and Memory were the best chapters.
Here are some reflections on my ideas, which were advanced by the writer's perspective on the topic:
Sacrifice
It is necessary to offer what is precious to us, not just anything, as an act that pleases God. Ritualization is the act in which we sacrifice different aspects of our being, including our time, to manifest the understanding of religion as a coherent set of behaviours and beliefs that go together.
It is an ordered behaviour that encodes memory in the nervous system, making it hard to be wiped out. It is a process and activity in which we try to reach a higher purpose than just this life by offering up to God to bind ourselves with the higher power.
We must devote our art to the service of God by doing the best we can in the most perfect way possible. Therefore, it is essential to focus on how the thing is done, not just how much of it is done, to distribute a good deed upon others as if we are doing it for ourselves. This would make people feel the sense of the huge effort that was offered to them, not only as mandatory work but also as a beautification of their lives.
Creating ornaments has an aspect that shows us devotion, discipline, and a great amount of time that has been sacrificed to create that adoration. This sacrifice is offered for the higher goal of life, which is beautification as a manner of faith in the ultimate creator.
The absence of that virtue in architecture, which is human labour in devotion for the sake of beautification, will make the whole thing worthless.
Truth
There is a purpose for our being in this life. That purpose should guide us through our life, and we should not forget it; otherwise, we will be forgotten by God and cast off His guidance in our life. That purpose is to be good and to do good to others, to improve our lives and our communities. And what better way to do that than architecture?
There is wisdom in this world that is facing calamities voluntarily, facing our fears so that we can overthrow them and get better. If we face problems with positive thinking of the benefits that we will gain as experiences from a problem, we will have won the game.
The truth lies in knowing this ultimate Goal and submitting ourselves to God as the first step in creating a good intention toward others. Additionally, by understanding the true purpose of our existence here on earth and acknowledging that life will be full of problems, we can overcome them by relying on God's guidance.
Power
Architecture has the value of giving an impression of human power, but this power should be gained by following the spirit of God.
Moreover, the habit of an architect should be to think in terms of shadows and how they contribute to the whole. A mighty mass shows greatness; however, we must have a distribution of scales to link the size of a human being with those masses, and the best way to achieve that is by using ornaments to fill the intermediate spaces. The main element in producing good power is using good proportions abstracted from the mathematical structure in nature. When an architect is capable of applying this knowledge to his work, he will gain the power of reaching a degree of magnitude which is the lowest at which sublimity begins.
Beauty
The other value of Architecture is in Beauty, and the Beauty of architecture lies in the image of natural creation. The feeling of Beauty by mankind is both subjective and objective. Subjective in the sense of the original normative disposition of the human being. Moreover, there is a utility in Beauty itself by the way it can be a reason for preserving Architecture. However, for something to be beautiful, it has to fulfil a certain level of functionality. Objective, as we all have a common sense of Beauty because it is innate in all of us by which we can differentiate between right and wrong. The purpose of real beauty in the objective sense is to be shared and recognized by the community. The power of Beauty lies in conceiving with aid from natural forms as in Ornaments that contain beauty. Additionally, proportionality and abstraction are the two conditions that are essential and can distinguish Architecture from other art.
Life
To create something that has life, you must give it a bit of yours - from your effort and time. In addition, you have to have a good intention for the creation in the first place.
Was the thing made with the intention of creating beauty?
Was it created for you to manifest your destiny as a beautifier?
Was it created with enjoyment?
Were you happy sacrificing all of these things for that purpose?
If the answer to all of these questions is "yes", then you would have exercised the use of goodwill in order to give life to your creation.
Memory
To have a realistic worldview that can explain many phenomena, we need to have good cognition. This can be gained by interpreting and understanding the world around us so that we can create a meaningful memory that allows us to act properly. Architecture could be a tool for manifesting this as a practice in which we live, share, and participate with our community. It can help us remember important aspects of our history, thus affecting our social behaviour. Therefore, architecture has to render history and preserve the inheritances of past ages. The house needs to be built to last. We can preserve our memory through ritualization and through elements in architecture such as ornaments that are made with intellectual intention. Ornaments are a primary manifestation of human intelligence, by which we encode the memory in the world around us to be passed to posterity. We use memory not only to remember the past but also to predict the future. We need to use it to save our own mistakes so that we do not repeat them. The further we aim without the desire to be ourselves the witnesses of what we have laboured for, the wider and richer the outcome will be.
Obedience
You have to have freedom by which you choose to obey, not the other way around.
Architecture must be subjected to a law that guarantees its stability and sustainability. It should not be subject to a personal whim of following a certain style, whereas style is only the outcome of a long process by which we reach our creative creation.
Obeying clear rules could guarantee cutting down choices and being dependent on what we have rather than our memory. Hence, being more creative instead of relying on copying.
In conclusion, as previously mentioned, each of those Lamps stands upon 7 virtues: Sacrifice - Faith, Truth - Resilience, Power - Worship, Beauty - Beautification, Life - Good Intention, Memory - Dependence, and Obedience - Submission. Traditional Architecture was used to make all of those virtues embodied within it. There was a higher purpose to it than just living this life and getting by. Embedding those virtues means that we see a life beyond this life, and we need to work for it. We have a moral burden to bear, and that will be the adventure of our life. It is what we are built for.
The seven Lamps of Architecture, as Ruskin called them, can be seen as the seven virtues of architecture, which are related to the worldview of the architect and the inhabitants of the building.
For me, Beauty and Memory were the best chapters.
Here are some reflections on my ideas, which were advanced by the writer's perspective on the topic:
Sacrifice
It is necessary to offer what is precious to us, not just anything, as an act that pleases God. Ritualization is the act in which we sacrifice different aspects of our being, including our time, to manifest the understanding of religion as a coherent set of behaviours and beliefs that go together.
It is an ordered behaviour that encodes memory in the nervous system, making it hard to be wiped out. It is a process and activity in which we try to reach a higher purpose than just this life by offering up to God to bind ourselves with the higher power.
We must devote our art to the service of God by doing the best we can in the most perfect way possible. Therefore, it is essential to focus on how the thing is done, not just how much of it is done, to distribute a good deed upon others as if we are doing it for ourselves. This would make people feel the sense of the huge effort that was offered to them, not only as mandatory work but also as a beautification of their lives.
Creating ornaments has an aspect that shows us devotion, discipline, and a great amount of time that has been sacrificed to create that adoration. This sacrifice is offered for the higher goal of life, which is beautification as a manner of faith in the ultimate creator.
The absence of that virtue in architecture, which is human labour in devotion for the sake of beautification, will make the whole thing worthless.
Truth
There is a purpose for our being in this life. That purpose should guide us through our life, and we should not forget it; otherwise, we will be forgotten by God and cast off His guidance in our life. That purpose is to be good and to do good to others, to improve our lives and our communities. And what better way to do that than architecture?
There is wisdom in this world that is facing calamities voluntarily, facing our fears so that we can overthrow them and get better. If we face problems with positive thinking of the benefits that we will gain as experiences from a problem, we will have won the game.
The truth lies in knowing this ultimate Goal and submitting ourselves to God as the first step in creating a good intention toward others. Additionally, by understanding the true purpose of our existence here on earth and acknowledging that life will be full of problems, we can overcome them by relying on God's guidance.
Power
Architecture has the value of giving an impression of human power, but this power should be gained by following the spirit of God.
Moreover, the habit of an architect should be to think in terms of shadows and how they contribute to the whole. A mighty mass shows greatness; however, we must have a distribution of scales to link the size of a human being with those masses, and the best way to achieve that is by using ornaments to fill the intermediate spaces. The main element in producing good power is using good proportions abstracted from the mathematical structure in nature. When an architect is capable of applying this knowledge to his work, he will gain the power of reaching a degree of magnitude which is the lowest at which sublimity begins.
Beauty
The other value of Architecture is in Beauty, and the Beauty of architecture lies in the image of natural creation. The feeling of Beauty by mankind is both subjective and objective. Subjective in the sense of the original normative disposition of the human being. Moreover, there is a utility in Beauty itself by the way it can be a reason for preserving Architecture. However, for something to be beautiful, it has to fulfil a certain level of functionality. Objective, as we all have a common sense of Beauty because it is innate in all of us by which we can differentiate between right and wrong. The purpose of real beauty in the objective sense is to be shared and recognized by the community. The power of Beauty lies in conceiving with aid from natural forms as in Ornaments that contain beauty. Additionally, proportionality and abstraction are the two conditions that are essential and can distinguish Architecture from other art.
Life
To create something that has life, you must give it a bit of yours - from your effort and time. In addition, you have to have a good intention for the creation in the first place.
Was the thing made with the intention of creating beauty?
Was it created for you to manifest your destiny as a beautifier?
Was it created with enjoyment?
Were you happy sacrificing all of these things for that purpose?
If the answer to all of these questions is "yes", then you would have exercised the use of goodwill in order to give life to your creation.
Memory
To have a realistic worldview that can explain many phenomena, we need to have good cognition. This can be gained by interpreting and understanding the world around us so that we can create a meaningful memory that allows us to act properly. Architecture could be a tool for manifesting this as a practice in which we live, share, and participate with our community. It can help us remember important aspects of our history, thus affecting our social behaviour. Therefore, architecture has to render history and preserve the inheritances of past ages. The house needs to be built to last. We can preserve our memory through ritualization and through elements in architecture such as ornaments that are made with intellectual intention. Ornaments are a primary manifestation of human intelligence, by which we encode the memory in the world around us to be passed to posterity. We use memory not only to remember the past but also to predict the future. We need to use it to save our own mistakes so that we do not repeat them. The further we aim without the desire to be ourselves the witnesses of what we have laboured for, the wider and richer the outcome will be.
Obedience
You have to have freedom by which you choose to obey, not the other way around.
Architecture must be subjected to a law that guarantees its stability and sustainability. It should not be subject to a personal whim of following a certain style, whereas style is only the outcome of a long process by which we reach our creative creation.
Obeying clear rules could guarantee cutting down choices and being dependent on what we have rather than our memory. Hence, being more creative instead of relying on copying.
In conclusion, as previously mentioned, each of those Lamps stands upon 7 virtues: Sacrifice - Faith, Truth - Resilience, Power - Worship, Beauty - Beautification, Life - Good Intention, Memory - Dependence, and Obedience - Submission. Traditional Architecture was used to make all of those virtues embodied within it. There was a higher purpose to it than just living this life and getting by. Embedding those virtues means that we see a life beyond this life, and we need to work for it. We have a moral burden to bear, and that will be the adventure of our life. It is what we are built for.
September 30, 2020
Quite an interesting and informative review of some European architectural highlights, which was spoiled for me by the illegible illustrations and the frequent use of Americanisms in the text. I refuse to "labor" when I can "labour" and I am sure that Ruskin would have agreed. I note this is an Amazon reprint, says it all really.
On the other hand Ruskin's God bothering is a chore and it spoils the flow of his descriptions, but has to be accepted, I suppose, given that much of the architecture he reviews is church and cathedral.
As an insight into architectural thinking in the 1840s it is valuable, even worthwhile.
On the other hand Ruskin's God bothering is a chore and it spoils the flow of his descriptions, but has to be accepted, I suppose, given that much of the architecture he reviews is church and cathedral.
As an insight into architectural thinking in the 1840s it is valuable, even worthwhile.
March 12, 2024
Iconic ramblings by madman ruskin SO seminal!!
March 11, 2021
Some specific points of architectural criticism made in The Seven Lamps of Architecture are difficult to follow. The examples John Ruskin points to were drawn from a canon of Continental and English buildings that few readers now have at their command. But if the particulars seem dated, the lamps are still luminous. Ruskin explains on the opening pages that he is seeking “laws of right” by which human creative endeavors might be guided. That word “law” is too bounded for what he has in mind, and so he uses the metaphor of the lamp. The words that head the seven chapters serve as lamps that could light the way not just in architecture but any work of artistic creation.
The seven words don’t at first appear promising for art criticism: sacrifice, truth, power, beauty, life, memory, and obedience. Some might seem to reflect an antiquated conception of art (obedience) and others look far too general to be of any real critical use (beauty), but in each case Ruskin’s writing is so fine and his arguments so meticulously developed that he never fails to enlarge my own sense of how to evaluate art. That’s not to say that The Seven Lamps doesn’t feel dated at many points. How could we possibly encounter the arch critic of the Victorian era without sensing deep in our Modernist bones that this is a view that has been tried and found wanting. Yet for every point in which his argument feels like a Victorian time capsule, another one bears a prophetic challenge to the Modernist world we built in the 20th century, and continue working on now well into the 21st. This world around us is emphatically not the one that Ruskin hoped would come down the line.
Since this book is from the dead center of the 19th century, it’s not like Ruskin knew about Modernism. If we think about Modernism as a rejection of artistic ornament, a willingness to experiment with materials and methods, and above all a desire to “make it new,” then The Seven Lamps functions as a running debate with those principles. I’ll give a quick example. In the “Lamp of Memory” Ruskin writes: “Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.” This sense that architecture should serve as the physical memory of a society, and that buildings should tell stories, is bracing in the face of contemporary cityscapes lined with skyscrapers that for all their windowed gleam seem intent on being delivered from time and place. But Ruskin is pointing out what’s lacking in this world: social memory and responsibility. That’s ultimately what’s most memorable in Ruskin’s work: not so much his specific architectural ideas as his deeply serious sense of social responsibility.
The language of Ruskin is dense and expressive in ways that hardly have a place in today’s intellectual exchange. His thoughts demand a full page for complete development, and they could not possibly be condensed into a tweet or a thread of tweets. His writing is expansive and complicated; it embraces complexity; it’s never snarky. I don’t know if it would even be possible to express his opinions about art in the academic and media environment of our time.
The seven words don’t at first appear promising for art criticism: sacrifice, truth, power, beauty, life, memory, and obedience. Some might seem to reflect an antiquated conception of art (obedience) and others look far too general to be of any real critical use (beauty), but in each case Ruskin’s writing is so fine and his arguments so meticulously developed that he never fails to enlarge my own sense of how to evaluate art. That’s not to say that The Seven Lamps doesn’t feel dated at many points. How could we possibly encounter the arch critic of the Victorian era without sensing deep in our Modernist bones that this is a view that has been tried and found wanting. Yet for every point in which his argument feels like a Victorian time capsule, another one bears a prophetic challenge to the Modernist world we built in the 20th century, and continue working on now well into the 21st. This world around us is emphatically not the one that Ruskin hoped would come down the line.
Since this book is from the dead center of the 19th century, it’s not like Ruskin knew about Modernism. If we think about Modernism as a rejection of artistic ornament, a willingness to experiment with materials and methods, and above all a desire to “make it new,” then The Seven Lamps functions as a running debate with those principles. I’ll give a quick example. In the “Lamp of Memory” Ruskin writes: “Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.” This sense that architecture should serve as the physical memory of a society, and that buildings should tell stories, is bracing in the face of contemporary cityscapes lined with skyscrapers that for all their windowed gleam seem intent on being delivered from time and place. But Ruskin is pointing out what’s lacking in this world: social memory and responsibility. That’s ultimately what’s most memorable in Ruskin’s work: not so much his specific architectural ideas as his deeply serious sense of social responsibility.
The language of Ruskin is dense and expressive in ways that hardly have a place in today’s intellectual exchange. His thoughts demand a full page for complete development, and they could not possibly be condensed into a tweet or a thread of tweets. His writing is expansive and complicated; it embraces complexity; it’s never snarky. I don’t know if it would even be possible to express his opinions about art in the academic and media environment of our time.
April 29, 2020
There is no doubt at all that John Ruskin was an odd bird indeed. But good Lord, the man had Opinions.
In 1848, Ruskin toured northern France with his bride (poor girl), and I assume, earlier Italy. It was here that he fell in love with (certain examples) of Gothic architecture. For Ruskin, architecture was the first of the arts, because it was not created by a person, but rather by a culture (his primary examples being cathedrals that took, in some cases, hundreds of years to create). He speaks of the creation of these glorious buildings as nearly akin to a language that this particular region speaks, and although it might vary through the years, it is still identifiable and distinct from others.
What he loves is mostly early Gothic. Don’t even consider anything later, and he will absolutely go Joan Crawford on you if you mention cast iron.
But here’s the best part. A gifted artist, he did a series of etchings of various details of his favorite places to prove his point and they are utterly gorgeous. They appear to be soft pencil sketchings, more than anything else, and Plate II, a cornice in an old church with a bit of grass growing in a crack, will take your breath away.
Let’s hear a bit of his voice in full cry. Describing how an architect needs to think in terms of not just the design, but light and shadow:
…conceiving it as it will be when the dawn lights it, and the dusk leaves it; when its stones will be hot and its crannies cool; when the lizards will bask on the one, and the birds build in the other.
In 1848, Ruskin toured northern France with his bride (poor girl), and I assume, earlier Italy. It was here that he fell in love with (certain examples) of Gothic architecture. For Ruskin, architecture was the first of the arts, because it was not created by a person, but rather by a culture (his primary examples being cathedrals that took, in some cases, hundreds of years to create). He speaks of the creation of these glorious buildings as nearly akin to a language that this particular region speaks, and although it might vary through the years, it is still identifiable and distinct from others.
What he loves is mostly early Gothic. Don’t even consider anything later, and he will absolutely go Joan Crawford on you if you mention cast iron.
But here’s the best part. A gifted artist, he did a series of etchings of various details of his favorite places to prove his point and they are utterly gorgeous. They appear to be soft pencil sketchings, more than anything else, and Plate II, a cornice in an old church with a bit of grass growing in a crack, will take your breath away.
Let’s hear a bit of his voice in full cry. Describing how an architect needs to think in terms of not just the design, but light and shadow:
…conceiving it as it will be when the dawn lights it, and the dusk leaves it; when its stones will be hot and its crannies cool; when the lizards will bask on the one, and the birds build in the other.
July 5, 2020
The knowledge in this book is not only dated but also offensive, for example, saying that people that travel by trains don't care about beauty so the train stations should be built around the function only? Really? At the same time there are explanations for his theories like "it's a huge topic so I don't want to go into it, trust me". Sadly, it was a waste of time.
February 22, 2011
It's slow reading, because I have to put myself in Ruskin "headspace" whenever I pick it up. I remember blitzing through it in college, but I was taking a Victorian lit class, and it was all Victorian English, all the time.
October 1, 2018
Slow, slow reading...I admittedly skimmed the latter 2/3 of the book. I found the "Lamp of Memory" to be the most interesting section, as it gets to the heart of historic preservation. The rest of the book felt like a long, opinionated rant.
January 21, 2021
I thought it might've been about Architecture. It wasn't really. It wasn't even about lamps.
Five stars to Ruskin for surprising me with beautiful prose and some fascinating perspectives, and two stars deducted for being - what we today might call - a bloody weirdo.
Five stars to Ruskin for surprising me with beautiful prose and some fascinating perspectives, and two stars deducted for being - what we today might call - a bloody weirdo.
January 4, 2023
John Ruskin understood the architecture and the cities much more than a post-modernist with thousands of master’s degree could ever be understood. Modern architecture, as Roger Scruton well said, is an architecture without any morality to a generation without heroes, moralities, or truths.
August 6, 2009
I didn't quite finish this one. I'm wanting to try reading it again once I know a little more about architecture.
September 12, 2025
I wasn’t expecting to like this book. Indeed, I half expected to find it boring and repetitive. It’s over a hundred and seventy years old; a book written by a man very much of his time (1849!); and with ideas that are a tad quant by today’s standards. And to be sure it was quite wordy and dramatic at times with all the flourishes we’ve come to expect from Victorian literature (the Narrator read it like he was reciting Shakespeare!).
And yet, I honestly love this book.
I love it in spite of its flaws. I won’t go through each of the seven lamps. You can find them with a quick google search. Instead I’ll just zero in on the last two because they left the deepest impression on me. The Lamp of Memory and the Lamp of Obedience.
According to Ruskin, architecture must respect the culture that created her. It does so by respecting the environment in which it will reside. Given the current state of the world, this resonated with me. With the threat of climate change and the history of segregation, architecture will have to grapple with both memory and meaning in this new century. What does architecture even mean today? And whose “memory” or for that matter “culture” is served by it? Ruskin isn’t speaking to this obviously but his passionate defense for cultural identity transcends his own time.
As for the Lamp of Obedience. No he’s not advocating fascism. He’s advocating deference to the style that best suits the structure. In his case, the best of the “Anglo-Saxon tradition,” rather than the newer industrial era architecture that was emerging at that time. For him change for the sake of change isn’t always the wisest choice. Instead of discarding what works for what’s new why not appreciate the care and quality of style and method that served the English so well since the Medieval period? The Gothic architecture the English took such pride in for its quotidian craftsmanship and adherence to tradition and sublimity?
He isn’t quite so persuasive here as in other places but to me it shows the value of craft over convenience. In this present age of artifice over substance, there might be more here now than in the nineteenth century before there were even cars. The next generation of architects will have to find ways of finding common ground between the Artificial and the Authentic. Ruskin advocates not to discard the past so quickly. I agree.
I can’t say enough about this book. It’s simply a great read and I enjoyed every second of it. Highly recommend. 👍🏾👍🏾
And yet, I honestly love this book.
I love it in spite of its flaws. I won’t go through each of the seven lamps. You can find them with a quick google search. Instead I’ll just zero in on the last two because they left the deepest impression on me. The Lamp of Memory and the Lamp of Obedience.
According to Ruskin, architecture must respect the culture that created her. It does so by respecting the environment in which it will reside. Given the current state of the world, this resonated with me. With the threat of climate change and the history of segregation, architecture will have to grapple with both memory and meaning in this new century. What does architecture even mean today? And whose “memory” or for that matter “culture” is served by it? Ruskin isn’t speaking to this obviously but his passionate defense for cultural identity transcends his own time.
As for the Lamp of Obedience. No he’s not advocating fascism. He’s advocating deference to the style that best suits the structure. In his case, the best of the “Anglo-Saxon tradition,” rather than the newer industrial era architecture that was emerging at that time. For him change for the sake of change isn’t always the wisest choice. Instead of discarding what works for what’s new why not appreciate the care and quality of style and method that served the English so well since the Medieval period? The Gothic architecture the English took such pride in for its quotidian craftsmanship and adherence to tradition and sublimity?
He isn’t quite so persuasive here as in other places but to me it shows the value of craft over convenience. In this present age of artifice over substance, there might be more here now than in the nineteenth century before there were even cars. The next generation of architects will have to find ways of finding common ground between the Artificial and the Authentic. Ruskin advocates not to discard the past so quickly. I agree.
I can’t say enough about this book. It’s simply a great read and I enjoyed every second of it. Highly recommend. 👍🏾👍🏾
September 13, 2025
More and more I have the distressing fear that we can't really see the world the way Victorians saw it. There are lots of reasons for this, but the pertinent one here is Ruskin's authorial tone. What he says about architecture is fascinating. I often realized that he was expressing something that I had always felt but couldn't articulate about the effect that buildings have on us--what we love, what we hate, and why. But the tone, John. The TONE. The foundational belief that one has authority and wields it absolutely and righteously at all times! The oratorical style veers into hysteria all too often, but there are nuggets in here just the same, like when he talks about the Lamp of Truth and gets worked up about all the different kinds of lies there are:
The glistening and softly spoken lie
The patriotic lie of the historian
The provident lie of the politician
The zealous lie of the partisan
The merciful lie of the friend
The careless lie of each man to himself.
Essentially, this chapter is about why you're going to be disappointed in your floor if you use fake wood instead of real wood, but the volcanic PASSION he feels makes all fakeness something he has to rail against like the world will end if we keep adding all this fake wood everywhere. Since that's how I feel about artificial grass and the softly spoken lies of all sorts of people, I was with him here. PREACH, John. PREACH.
The glistening and softly spoken lie
The patriotic lie of the historian
The provident lie of the politician
The zealous lie of the partisan
The merciful lie of the friend
The careless lie of each man to himself.
Essentially, this chapter is about why you're going to be disappointed in your floor if you use fake wood instead of real wood, but the volcanic PASSION he feels makes all fakeness something he has to rail against like the world will end if we keep adding all this fake wood everywhere. Since that's how I feel about artificial grass and the softly spoken lies of all sorts of people, I was with him here. PREACH, John. PREACH.
January 2, 2023
Ruskin was only 30 years old when this was published, and it is the extended rant of someone has has spent many years developing their views. However, I found it coherent, interesting and an essential read.
It is the oldest source I've come across for some ideas that are still current (The Lamp of Truth eg to materials), and Ruskin is eloquent on many points that are relevent today (modern times ... desires to produce the largest results with the least cost), and some observations are timeless ("The man who has the eye and intellect will invent beautiful proportions, and cannot help it")
It was published 174 years ago so I found the explicit religiosity strange. This moral (Presbetarian?) driver is central to Ruskin's thought, and although Christian liturgy has waned, a moral framework to practice is probably as relevant today as it was then. (sustainability, inclusivity etc)
Ruskin is often subtle and pursuasive. Occasionally he seems to indulge in rhetoric ("I cannot conceive of any architect insane enough to project the vulgarization of Greek Architecture") and fanciful thinking (eg Britain should mandate a national style of architecture).
I read the Kindle edition which meant searching the references online separately but I now have a new appreciation of the Gothic.
Highly recommended just for Ruskin's design critiques.
It is the oldest source I've come across for some ideas that are still current (The Lamp of Truth eg to materials), and Ruskin is eloquent on many points that are relevent today (modern times ... desires to produce the largest results with the least cost), and some observations are timeless ("The man who has the eye and intellect will invent beautiful proportions, and cannot help it")
It was published 174 years ago so I found the explicit religiosity strange. This moral (Presbetarian?) driver is central to Ruskin's thought, and although Christian liturgy has waned, a moral framework to practice is probably as relevant today as it was then. (sustainability, inclusivity etc)
Ruskin is often subtle and pursuasive. Occasionally he seems to indulge in rhetoric ("I cannot conceive of any architect insane enough to project the vulgarization of Greek Architecture") and fanciful thinking (eg Britain should mandate a national style of architecture).
I read the Kindle edition which meant searching the references online separately but I now have a new appreciation of the Gothic.
Highly recommended just for Ruskin's design critiques.
December 5, 2020
What determining dimensions should good architecture be guided by? In the author's view, these are Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory, and Obedience. To be sure, since the first edition of this slim volume was published in 1849, many things have happened - and not just in architecture. While there are clearly outdated and even outright obscure views espoused herein, one must concede that Ruskin presents his theories with rigor and passion. Whilst his convoluted diction can often feel a bit tedious, there are likewise moments of beautiful clarity and memorable insights.
October 23, 2024
Honestly, I liked the book quite a bit to start, but Ruskin's theologically-based moralizing generalizations got increasingly tiresome such that by the end I could barely take him seriously. Some of his points I would agree with on their face, but the more he tried to explain the reasoning behind his position, the less I would agree with either his premises or reasoning. I can sort of see why he was such an influential critic at the time, but this perhaps just provides me more reason to be glad I wasn't alive during the Victorian era.
June 18, 2025
I read this because Proust was obsessed with John Ruskin and because I’m interested in architecture. Hundreds of pages of unbearable justification of ornamentation, of how the Catholic Church is idolatrous, blah blah blah, and how Anglicanism is good, or whatever. It’s important to mention that Ruskin apologizes at the beginning for having written this book without being an architect or an expert in architecture. I don’t forgive you, brother.
August 10, 2020
An essential reading for art conservation course. As opposite of viollet le duc line of work, both are essential reading to understand the art conservation history and introduce to charts and modern theories. Great reading. Ruskin knows how to write.
Read
January 23, 2024um. I don’t think I have a rating. I’m seeing thing is widely seen as somewhat funny or ironic in the architecture world, but largely I found it a little too western world oriented and crazy language.
November 8, 2017
Too much abstract passages about the moral or social role of architecture and too little comments about styles, history, techniques, masters, or masterpieces, etc.
March 13, 2018
John Ruskin disclaimed this endless essay towards the end of his career by concluding that it was a 'wretched rant'. I strongly agree.
March 31, 2019
I read this for a class and I have to say that I never quite understood what the hell was going on. Although I do kind of understand his views on conservation but I will leave it at that...
October 4, 2019
Movingly written.
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