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On Art and Life
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are.
112 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1853
89 people are currently reading
3379 people want to read
About the author
John Ruskin
3,738 books485 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 27, 2012Nietzsche said that with the death of the sacred, Beauty would continue, albeit accidentally.
Mr. John Ruskin, however, set his sights on an earlier age, developing six principles that could be applied to gothic beauty, and in so doing, in my eyes, set down the principles for Beauty in general.
The principles are: Rudeness, Changefulness, Naturalness, Grotesqueness, Rigidity and Redundancy.
In our post-industrial age, perhaps the most telling is the first, Rudeness. Mr. Ruskin defines Rudeness as the introduction of originality into a work at the expense of a polished, finished product. What, you may ask? That's not how I do it at work! Me either brother, but it's nice to know why nothing I produce is beautiful.
Which leads me to my next point concerning this little gem of a book. These principles can be applied, in my view, to Beauty in general, not just gothic. And it provides an interesting point of view with which to look at life. Suddenly, many of the 'best things' in life truly are free.
I had no real education in aesthetics before reading this book, and have now delved deeper into the subject because of it.
Maybe you will too.
Mr. John Ruskin, however, set his sights on an earlier age, developing six principles that could be applied to gothic beauty, and in so doing, in my eyes, set down the principles for Beauty in general.
The principles are: Rudeness, Changefulness, Naturalness, Grotesqueness, Rigidity and Redundancy.
In our post-industrial age, perhaps the most telling is the first, Rudeness. Mr. Ruskin defines Rudeness as the introduction of originality into a work at the expense of a polished, finished product. What, you may ask? That's not how I do it at work! Me either brother, but it's nice to know why nothing I produce is beautiful.
Which leads me to my next point concerning this little gem of a book. These principles can be applied, in my view, to Beauty in general, not just gothic. And it provides an interesting point of view with which to look at life. Suddenly, many of the 'best things' in life truly are free.
I had no real education in aesthetics before reading this book, and have now delved deeper into the subject because of it.
Maybe you will too.
December 7, 2013
Extracts from Ruskin's book The Stones of Venice in which he examines architecture as a way of understanding the political economy, social structure and cultural framework of Britain and other countries he has experienced.
Ruskin is radical, humanitarian, visionary. His insight is profound and he champions freedom and creativity as the foundation of artistic work. He refuses to divorce aesthetics from ethics. I completely changed my view of buildings when I read this. In every made thing I now look for the maker's soul. I wish I could raise Ruskin from the dead to comment on architecture and design today.
"You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him. You cannot make both."
Ruskin is radical, humanitarian, visionary. His insight is profound and he champions freedom and creativity as the foundation of artistic work. He refuses to divorce aesthetics from ethics. I completely changed my view of buildings when I read this. In every made thing I now look for the maker's soul. I wish I could raise Ruskin from the dead to comment on architecture and design today.
"You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him. You cannot make both."
May 4, 2009
"The law of nature is, that a certain quantity of work is necessary to produce a certain quantity of good, of any kind whatever. If you want knowledge, you must toil for it: if food, you must toil for it: and if pleasure, you must toil for it. But men do not acknowledge this law; or strive to evade it, hoping to get their knowledge, and food, and pleasure for nothing: and in this effort they either fail of getting them, and remain ignorant and miserable, or they obtain them by making other men work for their benefit; and then they are tyrants and robbers."
August 21, 2009
I will never look at fences in the same way again! John Ruskin was the original anti-WalMart guy, it would seem, and his ideas on responsible consumerism and dignity will stay with me forever. His ideas on jewels have even prompted me to get a different wedding band--that's some influence from beyond the grave!
December 12, 2019
Özellikle "Sanat ve Hayat" üzerine alıp beklediğimden fazlasını (özellikle gotik üzerine) bulduğum düşünsel bir yolculuk oldu. İkinci kısım "Demir" de enteresan bir konuşmanın metnini barındırıyor; Saban, Pranga, Kılıç ise acayip bir felsefe. John Ruskin güzel bir tanışıklık oldu.
discarded
December 14, 2023I think only Manfred Pfister's books had equally soporific effect on me.
November 20, 2018
When one mentions John Ruskin, a certain image of a rigid and moralist stance should be unearthed. As the proponent of Theoria in art and its role in making art a meaningful field of life, John Ruskin while talking about Gothic architecture and the uses of iron really does not stray away from his teleological stance when dealing with whatever topic.
Indeed, Ruskin in his essay “The Nature of Gothic” explores the features of Gothic architecture and debunks the prejudice that originate from the grotesque and “imperfect” visual renderings (gargoyles and extravagant arches and vaulted roofs were seen as unappealing when compared to the Roman counterpart). He enumerates and thoroughly explains each feature as to prove that this kind of architecture is not a non-aesthetic deviation, but a continuation of it. Yet, aestheticism for Ruskin can NEVER exist without a dash of morality. In his analysis, he brings forth the questions of freedom, slavery, Humanism and tradition. Architecture in this sense is a substantiation of a set of values and a representation of a mindset (again art is stripped from its artistry).
In the second essay entitled “The Work of Iron”, Ruskin employs his skill of smooth transitioning to include his stances vis à vis the uses of Iron in family, society, and politics. He argues that the complementary use of iron in the hands of women (needles=clothes) and those of men (plough and swords=food and security) make up a “happy nation”. He then indulges into a tirade about the necessity of using iron as a means of smiting and punishment as to assert the part of exemplum in this essay…and so on and so forth. At some point, this has become a sermon about Sin disguised under a supposed guidebook on the uses of iron.
In summation, I did not expect a less holier-than-thou attitude from such an author. His writings are so drenched in preaching tones that it becomes forcefully far-fetched.
Indeed, Ruskin in his essay “The Nature of Gothic” explores the features of Gothic architecture and debunks the prejudice that originate from the grotesque and “imperfect” visual renderings (gargoyles and extravagant arches and vaulted roofs were seen as unappealing when compared to the Roman counterpart). He enumerates and thoroughly explains each feature as to prove that this kind of architecture is not a non-aesthetic deviation, but a continuation of it. Yet, aestheticism for Ruskin can NEVER exist without a dash of morality. In his analysis, he brings forth the questions of freedom, slavery, Humanism and tradition. Architecture in this sense is a substantiation of a set of values and a representation of a mindset (again art is stripped from its artistry).
In the second essay entitled “The Work of Iron”, Ruskin employs his skill of smooth transitioning to include his stances vis à vis the uses of Iron in family, society, and politics. He argues that the complementary use of iron in the hands of women (needles=clothes) and those of men (plough and swords=food and security) make up a “happy nation”. He then indulges into a tirade about the necessity of using iron as a means of smiting and punishment as to assert the part of exemplum in this essay…and so on and so forth. At some point, this has become a sermon about Sin disguised under a supposed guidebook on the uses of iron.
In summation, I did not expect a less holier-than-thou attitude from such an author. His writings are so drenched in preaching tones that it becomes forcefully far-fetched.
September 5, 2024
I picked this up when traveling because it was light, small and looked interesting. All three things are true.
My biggest takeaway from this work is that the art of creating things is SUPPOSED to be flawed. A piece of art not being perfect is what shows of our humanity best, making the thing beautiful and valuable.
A good word!
My biggest takeaway from this work is that the art of creating things is SUPPOSED to be flawed. A piece of art not being perfect is what shows of our humanity best, making the thing beautiful and valuable.
A good word!
April 9, 2023
มีสองส่วน ชอบครึ่งแรก ครึ่งหลังเฉย ๆ
ครึ่งแรกหลัก ๆ พูดถึงสถาปัตยกรรม Gothic ถ้าแปลตรง ๆ คือมาจากชนเผ่า Goth ให้นัยว่าเป็นศิลปะที่ดิบเถื่อนไรงี้ แต่รัสกินเองชื่นชมสไตล์ Gothic เพราะเป็นศิลปะที่ทำให้คนสร้างได้แสดงออกถึงความเป็นมนุษย์ ไม่ใช่งานที่เหมือนสั่งตัดมาเป๊ะ ๆๆ และทำให้แรงงานมีความเป็นมนุษย์มากขึ้น
ครึ่งหลังอาจจะฟังดูแปลก ๆ คือพูดถึงเหล็ก ในงานศิลปะ สถาปัตยกรรม และเชิงพาณิชย์ ด้วยความที่รัสกินเป็นสาย Romantic แกก็บอกว่าเหล็กที่มัน "ดูมีชีวิต" น่าชื่นชมมากกว่าเหล็กมันเงาสะท้อนแสง เหล็กที่มีชีวิตก็ไม่ใช่อะไรที่ไหนฮะ เหล็กที่มีสนิทนั่นเอง แล้วแกก็ลากไปพูดถึงการใช้แรงงานผลิตเหล็ก การกดขี่แรงงานอะไรพวกนี้ด้วย ส่วนนี้แอบให้ฟีลแบบคอมมิวนิสต์หน่อย ๆ
เสียตรงที่รู้สึกออกนอกเรื่องเยอะหน่อย แต่ก็มีบางประโยคที่น่าจดจำอยู่ เลยให้ไปสามดาว
ครึ่งแรกหลัก ๆ พูดถึงสถาปัตยกรรม Gothic ถ้าแปลตรง ๆ คือมาจากชนเผ่า Goth ให้นัยว่าเป็นศิลปะที่ดิบเถื่อนไรงี้ แต่รัสกินเองชื่นชมสไตล์ Gothic เพราะเป็นศิลปะที่ทำให้คนสร้างได้แสดงออกถึงความเป็นมนุษย์ ไม่ใช่งานที่เหมือนสั่งตัดมาเป๊ะ ๆๆ และทำให้แรงงานมีความเป็นมนุษย์มากขึ้น
ครึ่งหลังอาจจะฟังดูแปลก ๆ คือพูดถึงเหล็ก ในงานศิลปะ สถาปัตยกรรม และเชิงพาณิชย์ ด้วยความที่รัสกินเป็นสาย Romantic แกก็บอกว่าเหล็กที่มัน "ดูมีชีวิต" น่าชื่นชมมากกว่าเหล็กมันเงาสะท้อนแสง เหล็กที่มีชีวิตก็ไม่ใช่อะไรที่ไหนฮะ เหล็กที่มีสนิทนั่นเอง แล้วแกก็ลากไปพูดถึงการใช้แรงงานผลิตเหล็ก การกดขี่แรงงานอะไรพวกนี้ด้วย ส่วนนี้แอบให้ฟีลแบบคอมมิวนิสต์หน่อย ๆ
เสียตรงที่รู้สึกออกนอกเรื่องเยอะหน่อย แต่ก็มีบางประโยคที่น่าจดจำอยู่ เลยให้ไปสามดาว
December 29, 2022
This was incredibly engaging and thought-provoking. Ruskin seamlessly weaved together various genres (nature, political, art, etc.) into two addresses and it made for such a compelling read. It was also quite convicting. I think ever modern consumer should read this and some of the ideas he put forth about the things we buy. (I have to agree with what another review said about how Ruskin would not be a fan of SheIn were he alive today, as well as many other companies that unethically manufacture products in mass without regard to those exploited in the process - both "laborers" and the environment).
April 16, 2019
This is brilliant, and full of compassion and humanity, so the best kind of book to me. When I read first several pages, I thought okay, this is going to be a dull and difficult book with all the architectural terms, but the more into it, the more I am attracted by the perceptible enthusiasm Ruskin felt to the subjects of his writing - the prose is beautiful and sometime magnificent, and his wisdom toward life. The second essay is about iron, the rusty iron; I am just amazed by his standpoints - how could one be so brilliant to make such a dull topic so interesting and thought-provoking?
When my to-read shelf is a little bit clearer, I look forward to reading him more.
"It is a law of this universe, that the best things shall be seldomest seen in their best form."
"On the other hand, if you will make a man of a working creature [a thinking being], you cannot make a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing; and the engine-turned precision is lost at once. Out come all his roughness, all his dulness, all his incapability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure, pause after pause: but out comes the whole of majesty of him also: and we know the height of it only when we see the clouds settling upon him."
When my to-read shelf is a little bit clearer, I look forward to reading him more.
"It is a law of this universe, that the best things shall be seldomest seen in their best form."
"On the other hand, if you will make a man of a working creature [a thinking being], you cannot make a tool. Let him but begin to imagine, to think, to try to do anything worth doing; and the engine-turned precision is lost at once. Out come all his roughness, all his dulness, all his incapability; shame upon shame, failure upon failure, pause after pause: but out comes the whole of majesty of him also: and we know the height of it only when we see the clouds settling upon him."
August 1, 2022
I only read this because the wifi at home broke down, but I have to say. This is a surprisingly brilliant read! I felt seen. Ruskin the Radical was definitely onto something. He explained so well his outrage of inequality in the labour market; things that I find hard to put into words. Still fascinated how someone can have so many reflections on iron and pebbles and rocks though
I enjoyed his strange but beautiful ramblings (based on a pebble on a beach) on how nature - Providence - provides both purpose and solution. Favourite bit is when Ruskin pulled out a Romans 3 to remind everyone that we incriminate ourselves when we participate in a labour system that continually oppresses. Definitely things worth thinking about!
"the callous indifference which pursues its own interests is at any cost of life, though it does not definitely adopt the purpose of sin, is a state of mind at once more heinous and more hopeless than the wildest aberrations of ungoverned passion."
Ruskin defo hates SHEIN.
I enjoyed his strange but beautiful ramblings (based on a pebble on a beach) on how nature - Providence - provides both purpose and solution. Favourite bit is when Ruskin pulled out a Romans 3 to remind everyone that we incriminate ourselves when we participate in a labour system that continually oppresses. Definitely things worth thinking about!
"the callous indifference which pursues its own interests is at any cost of life, though it does not definitely adopt the purpose of sin, is a state of mind at once more heinous and more hopeless than the wildest aberrations of ungoverned passion."
Ruskin defo hates SHEIN.
May 10, 2023
This was okay. Dated in language and concerns, but also somewhat timeless in Ruskin's concerns for art and life. I'd want to read both of these essays more in their context and from the original texts that they originate, in order to really "get" what Ruskin is going.
March 4, 2021
I'm in love with this book.
English: https://elifthereader.com/books/on-ar...
Türkçe: http://kitaplikkedisi.com/kitaplar/sa...
English: https://elifthereader.com/books/on-ar...
Türkçe: http://kitaplikkedisi.com/kitaplar/sa...
Read
January 5, 2024not finishing. very annoying to read. bought because of the pretty cover and it was only like $2 at my local bookstore so i'm not really pressed.
August 13, 2021
Really enjoyed Ruskin’s vivacious prose
August 24, 2014
A passionate and beautifully written book which says a great deal about the author as well as it's subject matter. Ruskin's aesthetic views and high-mindedness might imply impracticality and a view of human beings as stereotypes, distinguished, in Ruskin's day, by class. Not so. I am always struck by Ruskin's thoughts on fair trade and the value that he placed on actual physical work, arguing that ideas and the work which is needed to bring ideas into physical existence have equal value. He deplores the demeaning of craftsmanship by manufacturing and is unequivocal about his views on fair trade. Anything less than paying someone a fair price for their labour is stealing. I can't comment on his views on whether leaves should be rendered in marble, wood or iron in sculpture, but in this, I completely agree with him.
June 20, 2016
Can't say I disagree with anything in this book except, maybe, Ruskin's love for run on sentences. This collection of two influential chapters from his older books highlights the importance of aesthetics and labor in life. Despite being hundreds of years old, Ruskin's critique on the role of buildings & fences, and the human cost of making them, remains as relevant (if not more) today as it was when he wrote it.
December 7, 2024
The bulk of this was okay- nothing to write home about. But the bits that were good were astonishingly good and made it very worth reading
May 14, 2020
3.5 / 5.0
As an inclusion in the "Great Ideas" series, On Art and Life falls a bit short, at least from the imaginary standard I've set for such a project. Essentially, Ruskin is espousing humane causes in the face of estranging practices that were burgeoning as a result of industrialisation. He rues the fact that artisanship was on the decline - the loss of unevenness in the surfaces of visual arts, as emblematic of artistic vision and emotion - and that the new capitalist system deprives the fruit of labour from labourers and gives them to those who never sweated by plying the plough. His ideas are noble, and like all things concerning nobility, they are dimmed the more they become to relics of the past.
Personally, I believe Ruskin's ideas about placing imperfection on the pedestal is still applicable and even healthy today, but the problem with it lies in its vagueness: Ruskin uses another, un-told metric when he weighs various perfections. [It appears that he is attacking the use of machinery and how it influences the employers' and consumers' ideas of what man should be, and thus his bad perfection seems to have to do with outlines, more or less. But I'm sure he wouldn't have had anything against an artist who strove to perfect their own vision, provided such things could be finished (since Ruskin seemed to sneer a bit at Leonardo's dilatory perfectionism)! As long as the perfection wasn't of a sterile, visual sort.] Be that as it may, "perfection" on the whole is a dangerous and literally medieval idea, which can ruin the aesthetic glimmer in a person's eye, and hence it should be scrapped in its purely superficial sense. The inferences Ruskin draws from the imperfections of Gothic masonry etc. are purely personal, yet as such they should inspire rather than instruct the reader.
However, his somewhat Marxist idea about labour is not really applicable on the whole anymore. Machinery has been placed under the yoke of man, and no longer can such a shocking picture of reality drawn as Ruskin has, with sweaty, undernourished labourers beavering away while top-hatted tycoons grow fat on their crops. Contracts are made, and farmers do not need to grumble as much if they are well rewarded for their efforts. Even this little fact makes Ruskin's declamations simply dated, though there are other problems with capitalism that still exist today.
Ruskin also stressed the importance of duty, peaceful governance and the fact that social life is based on restraint, not on absolute freedom. Good ideas, yet seem like truisms these days.
But what really makes this little book is the way Ruskin weaves his narrative. He may start talking about Gothic blocks of stone, and suddenly we find that they have acted merely as metaphorical foundations for Ruskin's moral philosophy and his ideas about humanity. His aesthetics are prominent, alluring and rich - I mean, anyone who can draw such beautiful data from unevenly hewn masonry and, well, basically anything uneven! is a perspicacious visionary in my books. In the latter text, he starts out as a scientist holding forth on the merits (and poetic pleasantness) of iron, and soon the reader is awoken by the realisation that Ruskin has donned the clerical collar and is waxing grand about a metaphorical iron oppression. What happened? Just a moment ago, he was talking about the aesthetic nullity of iron fences and how he dislikes black and grey hues, and all of a sudden we're soaring above humankind, with our Dickensian Marx pointing out the great injustices of his time.
I'm not wondering at all that Ruskin influenced the likes of Tolstoy and Proust. He had an eye for burrowed beauty, a brain for courageous cogitations and a heart that beat like a blacksmith. And he writes like an inspired genius - or perhaps he is one. That's something I'll definitely need to find out!
As an inclusion in the "Great Ideas" series, On Art and Life falls a bit short, at least from the imaginary standard I've set for such a project. Essentially, Ruskin is espousing humane causes in the face of estranging practices that were burgeoning as a result of industrialisation. He rues the fact that artisanship was on the decline - the loss of unevenness in the surfaces of visual arts, as emblematic of artistic vision and emotion - and that the new capitalist system deprives the fruit of labour from labourers and gives them to those who never sweated by plying the plough. His ideas are noble, and like all things concerning nobility, they are dimmed the more they become to relics of the past.
Personally, I believe Ruskin's ideas about placing imperfection on the pedestal is still applicable and even healthy today, but the problem with it lies in its vagueness: Ruskin uses another, un-told metric when he weighs various perfections. [It appears that he is attacking the use of machinery and how it influences the employers' and consumers' ideas of what man should be, and thus his bad perfection seems to have to do with outlines, more or less. But I'm sure he wouldn't have had anything against an artist who strove to perfect their own vision, provided such things could be finished (since Ruskin seemed to sneer a bit at Leonardo's dilatory perfectionism)! As long as the perfection wasn't of a sterile, visual sort.] Be that as it may, "perfection" on the whole is a dangerous and literally medieval idea, which can ruin the aesthetic glimmer in a person's eye, and hence it should be scrapped in its purely superficial sense. The inferences Ruskin draws from the imperfections of Gothic masonry etc. are purely personal, yet as such they should inspire rather than instruct the reader.
However, his somewhat Marxist idea about labour is not really applicable on the whole anymore. Machinery has been placed under the yoke of man, and no longer can such a shocking picture of reality drawn as Ruskin has, with sweaty, undernourished labourers beavering away while top-hatted tycoons grow fat on their crops. Contracts are made, and farmers do not need to grumble as much if they are well rewarded for their efforts. Even this little fact makes Ruskin's declamations simply dated, though there are other problems with capitalism that still exist today.
Ruskin also stressed the importance of duty, peaceful governance and the fact that social life is based on restraint, not on absolute freedom. Good ideas, yet seem like truisms these days.
But what really makes this little book is the way Ruskin weaves his narrative. He may start talking about Gothic blocks of stone, and suddenly we find that they have acted merely as metaphorical foundations for Ruskin's moral philosophy and his ideas about humanity. His aesthetics are prominent, alluring and rich - I mean, anyone who can draw such beautiful data from unevenly hewn masonry and, well, basically anything uneven! is a perspicacious visionary in my books. In the latter text, he starts out as a scientist holding forth on the merits (and poetic pleasantness) of iron, and soon the reader is awoken by the realisation that Ruskin has donned the clerical collar and is waxing grand about a metaphorical iron oppression. What happened? Just a moment ago, he was talking about the aesthetic nullity of iron fences and how he dislikes black and grey hues, and all of a sudden we're soaring above humankind, with our Dickensian Marx pointing out the great injustices of his time.
I'm not wondering at all that Ruskin influenced the likes of Tolstoy and Proust. He had an eye for burrowed beauty, a brain for courageous cogitations and a heart that beat like a blacksmith. And he writes like an inspired genius - or perhaps he is one. That's something I'll definitely need to find out!
October 24, 2023
Зовсім невеличка книжечка з двома есеями: The Nature of Gothic та The Work of Iron, in Nature, Art and Policy. Моє знайомство з Джоном Раскіним. Звернув на нього увагу, як на одного із представників ліберальних мислителів Вікторіанської епохи, стоїть поруч з Джоном Міллем, як такі що вплинули на публічний дискурс 19 сторіччя.
Перший есей просто неперевершений! Є частиною більшої роботи Раскіна під назвою The Stones of Venice і розглядає архітектуру у контексті політичної та мистецької свободи. Дослідники дуже часто починають свої визначення, що таке готика, цитуючи цей есей Раскіна. Хочу тепер прочитати й ту більшу роботу, а то й ще зробити довільний переклад есею, наскільки текст дійсно прекрасний.
Другий есей дещо заплутаний, готувався як лекція, але моментами є цікавим прикладом ліберального мислення, що таке нація, що таке свобода, як одне пов'язано з іншим. Починає Раскін із заліза, як хімічного елементу, та опису його місця у світі, а потім метафорами переходить до обговорення суспільно-політичних та філософських речей. Як на мене, деякі ідеї викладені Раскіним і досі залишаються предметними, як той його коментар щодо війни: «Ти можеш вибороти мир, опираючись злу, або купити мир, домовляючись зі злом». Світ сьогодні дещо забувається цього уроку.
Перший есей просто неперевершений! Є частиною більшої роботи Раскіна під назвою The Stones of Venice і розглядає архітектуру у контексті політичної та мистецької свободи. Дослідники дуже часто починають свої визначення, що таке готика, цитуючи цей есей Раскіна. Хочу тепер прочитати й ту більшу роботу, а то й ще зробити довільний переклад есею, наскільки текст дійсно прекрасний.
Другий есей дещо заплутаний, готувався як лекція, але моментами є цікавим прикладом ліберального мислення, що таке нація, що таке свобода, як одне пов'язано з іншим. Починає Раскін із заліза, як хімічного елементу, та опису його місця у світі, а потім метафорами переходить до обговорення суспільно-політичних та філософських речей. Як на мене, деякі ідеї викладені Раскіним і досі залишаються предметними, як той його коментар щодо війни: «Ти можеш вибороти мир, опираючись злу, або купити мир, домовляючись зі злом». Світ сьогодні дещо забувається цього уроку.
August 25, 2018
This small book is comprised of a chapter (from another book) on Gothic architecture and a lecture on ironwork. Ruskin had a fine way of making these topics about humanity. It reads very smoothly considering it's from the mid-19th century. Some fine insights mixed with a bit of boredom.
January 4, 2019
Part Intro to historical architecture, part socialist critique of Victorian industrialism, part long digression on the nature of iron and rust.
May 3, 2021
A strong, if antiquated, little book. Ruskin juxtaposes much. Delineates much. Poetic, strident. The edicts are firm yet perceptive; cogent all the time.
Prose: 9
Style: 7.5
Theses: 9
Imagery: 8.5
Characters: N/A
Cohesion: 9
Force: 8
Prose: 9
Style: 7.5
Theses: 9
Imagery: 8.5
Characters: N/A
Cohesion: 9
Force: 8
October 8, 2019
“...the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art. No great man ever stops working till he has reached his point of failure: that is to say, his mind is always far in advance of his powers of execution...”
June 21, 2024
bro a certified yapper
September 8, 2020
Beautiful imagery and powerful thoughts.
February 18, 2018
This book consists of two sections, "The Nature of Gothic" from Vol. 2 of The Stones of Venice(1853), and "The Work of Iron", originally given as a lecture at Tunbridge Wells, and later published in The Two Paths(1859). I learnt of the importance of Ruskin's influence only recently when watching the movie Mr Turner(2014), starring one of my favourite actors, Timothy Spall, in the lead role. Ruskin was a supporter of the work of J.M.W. Turner and apparently played a role in elevating landscape painting as a major genre. I enjoy Turner's work immensely, and Ruskin's influence encouraged me to read some of his work. I have not been disappointed and I have discovered other works that I intend to read, which coincide with a particular publisher's series. I find the Dover Thrift Editions of great works easy to read in terms of size of print and page, and Dover also has a series on architecture (I have read the work of Le Corbusier from this series). Ruskin's The Seven Lamps of Architecture is presented in the Dover series, so this will be a welcome addition to my library. I find architecture fascinating, and while I recently designed and built my own chook pen, I stand in awe of the great architectural and engineering miracles we use every day, often without giving a thought for the magnificence of the outcome of thought and practice. There is something about architecture that stirs the soul. I am reminded of Lord Kenneth Clark's 1960s book and BBC TV series, Civilisation, where Clark tells the audience that his personal view of the history of civilisation focuses on art and architecture, and he does not care whether others should think him a fuddy-duddy or not. I went off in search of the precise words, and was struck that Clark's first words are Ruskin's! "Ruskin said":
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts—the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others; but of the three, the only quite trustworthy one is the last.However, in this book, Ruskin first focuses on the nature of Gothic architecture, and presents an interesting view of workmanship and the worker: if one wants a consistent product, much like a machine would produce, then the man becomes a tool - if one wants a creative man, then the outcome will be inconsistent, but of a finer nature. As the subtitle reads:
You must either make a tool of the creature, or a man of him. You cannot make both.Ruskin uses the example of Venetian glass and its artisanal qualities compared with the precisely uniform production glass of his time. I am pleased to learn that my own thoughts on the standardisation of education echo Ruskin's. Ruskin's idea of truth is:
...that great art, whether expressing itself in words, colours, or stones, does not say the same thing over and over again... Yet...I have the same argument against marking rubrics for essays - if it were possible to produce a perfect marking rubric, there would be no need to teach essay writing; yet marking rubrics are somehow seen as "fairer"! More likely, as Lord Kenneth Clark said, the ancient civilisations ended because they were "exhausted". Moreover, the next time I hear someone mention coining a phrase like "change fatigue", my scepticism will know no bounds! Ruskin (p. 36) basically outlines all we need to know about change, and more eloquently than any recent airport-read management guru book. The trouble with reading classic texts is one realises how much written today is a rip-off of the past, but presents itself as something new, without a hint of an acknowledgement. And this is not because it is plagiarised, but that the contemporary author has simply not done her or his homework, and has independently thought up something that had already been thought before. Imagine how much further we might advance if we did not have to reinvent the wheel every time we began to apply our thought-forces to a problem? Hence the literature review. But what if one could be original. Being original is more difficult than one might think. In the second section of the book, Ruskin discusses the importance of iron in its many forms. Here I learn more about geography, and the chalybeate spring (a natural mineral spring containing iron salts) at Tunbridge Well, and the importance of this site to so many great artists. Ruskin was addressing a general audience and arriving at turning "swords into ploughshares" (Isaiah 2:4) from a mineral spring is a fascinating journey that is captivating, if a little bewildering, as if caught up in some 1960s psychological experiment. There are several messages in this book, but most prominent is the belief that forcing labourers to work as machines in order to reduce the price of goods was STEALING (capitalised in the original) from the workers. (Ruskin believed that "the architect [should] work in the mason's yard with his men", p. 25) Moreover, love of order (or the standardisation aesthetic, as I would call it) is useful in "practical matters":
this is... only hidden from us... by false teaching. Nothing is a great work of art,
for the production of which rules or models can be given.
...but love of order has no more to do with our right enjoyment of architecture or painting, than love of punctuality with the appreciation of an opera.I daresay that Ruskin, if he were writing today, would be regarded as "discursive". But I like his style. There is so much that underpins his work, a depth of reading that is obvious, yet creates the scaffolding for his originality; political, yet not radical; radical, yet not revolutionary; revolutionary, yet not wanting to overthrow the status quo; accepting of change, or more importantly for my own thinking, of the punctuated equilibrium of living and civilisation, but all moving toward an end where men (sic) no longer wage war, having learnt to live peacefully (much like the literal truth-speaking "long-livers" in George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methuselah). I must admit that the portrayal of John Ruskin in Mr Turner influenced my reading mind, and I pictured a lisping flatterer who was socially-tolerated. But now having read Ruskin "in the flesh", I am inspired, and I just may have found the source of so many other things I enjoy (landscape painting, Clark's Civilisation, Turner's art, etc), and a new appreciation for the role of the critic.
April 30, 2010
“But, accurately speaking, no good work whatever can be perfect, and the demand for perfection is always a sign of a misunderstanding of the ends of art.” — John Ruskin, The Nature of Gothic
My copy was split into two long essays — one was “The Nature of Gothic” and the other “The Work of Iron”. I really, really enjoyed the former, which was a study into gothic architecture but also talking about art in general, perfection and imperfection in art, human hands in the art, etc. It’s Ruskin, so of course it was well-written and articulate. The latter essay though, was very strange. It made complete sense, but to go on for fifty pages on the importance of iron and specifically of iron oxide (rust) is kind of bizarre.
My copy was split into two long essays — one was “The Nature of Gothic” and the other “The Work of Iron”. I really, really enjoyed the former, which was a study into gothic architecture but also talking about art in general, perfection and imperfection in art, human hands in the art, etc. It’s Ruskin, so of course it was well-written and articulate. The latter essay though, was very strange. It made complete sense, but to go on for fifty pages on the importance of iron and specifically of iron oxide (rust) is kind of bizarre.
September 17, 2011
After initial getting over my preconceptions of Ruskin (as a niave, god lovin', lets return to the tree's type), I found the first essay beautifully insightful. After what I perceived as a few contradictions, he goes on to correct/absolve his intitial statements by his views on art as imperfect, art as a pursuit of failure, or at least ending in failure.
His attitide to life was inspiring in the essay on Gothic art/architecture, his essay on iron I found a little over the top, although at times prophetic. Also his comments on the act of creation/artistry or the artist are wonderfully good.
After being very sceptical, I am now interested in reading further works by Ruskin. But the essay on Iron really did start to grate. (iron gate) nevermind!
His attitide to life was inspiring in the essay on Gothic art/architecture, his essay on iron I found a little over the top, although at times prophetic. Also his comments on the act of creation/artistry or the artist are wonderfully good.
After being very sceptical, I am now interested in reading further works by Ruskin. But the essay on Iron really did start to grate. (iron gate) nevermind!
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