Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0853318956, Paperback)

Of the many foreign travelers who have written about Venice there is none to surpass John Ruskin, the great nineteenthcentury writer, artist and critic, whose massive three-EDITION work The Stones of Venice (1851-3) remains one of the most influential books on art and architecture ever written. Known and read all over the world in Ruskin's lifetime, the Stones surveyed the buildings of Venice and developed an aesthetic and intellectual argument which is still at the heart of the debate on the meaning of architecture and craftsmanship. To mark the centenary of Ruskin's death in 1900, Sarah Quill has compiled an illustrated guide to The Stones of Venice, linking Ruskin's descriptions of individual buildings with a contemporary photographic record of the architecture and sculpture as it is seen today. This abridgment excludes interiors and paintings, concentrating on the exterior architecture and sculpture of Venice, all of which may be seen from the street or from the water without entering a building. Much of Ruskin's splendid prose is reproduced, together with many of his drawings and watercolors and a number of nineteenth-century engravings of the period. More than 200 photographs taken by Sarah Quill during the last years of the twentieth century identify the details described by Ruskin and show the extent to which the city's architecture has survived, or changed, since publication of The Stones of Venice 150 years before. The opening chapter by Alan Windsor provides informative introductions to Ruskin's involvement with Venice, and to the periods and styles of Venetian architecture. Ruskin, a superb draftsman, wrote that he wished life were long enough to illustrate his books more fully. The photographs included in this edition redress that balance and the modern reader will find that Ruskin is still an eloquent and persuasive guide to the architecture of this unique and fragile city. Contents: Introductions, Alan Windsor; Before "the Stones": Ruskin's early impressions of Venice, documented in letters and reminiscences; The Stones of Venice: Byzantine: Torcello-Murano-St Mark's-Byzantine palaces; The Stones of Venice: Gothic: Gothic palaces and churches-The Ducal Palace; The Stones of Venice: Renaissance: Early, central and "grotesque" Renaissance architecture; After "the Stones": Ruskin's later engagement with Venice; his views on the restoration issues; Glossary; Bibliography and recommended reading; Index.