The Stone Of Venice Essay

John Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice went over the history of the three eras of architecture: Bzyantine, Gothic, and Renaissance. In his analysis he talked about what he thought each art style met to him and what it met to others. It is also noteworthy to mention that Ruskin was a Victorian writer, art critic, thinker and artist. He also published this work in three volumes between 1851 and 1853. Ruskin also made the argument that the Gothic style was actually preferable to the Renaissance style. The beginning of the analysis is on the arches as he devoted the first three chapters to the arches and their evolution. He described the art as a necessary support for the building. He also gave the arches a moral element by creating a metaphor between …show more content…
This is because arches no longer possessed the variety they had during the Gothic period. Arches were generally plain Byzantine or Roman-style arches. However, Ruskin devotes this entire volume of The Stones of Venice to his discussion of Renaissance architecture, much of which is highlighted by a general distaste for the period as a whole. It would be incorrect to say that he disliked every Renaissance structure in Venice, for he greatly praise several of them, but he did feel that the era’s architecture grew worse through each of the three stages within the Renaissance that he observed. Ruskin stated that during the early stages of the renaissance that the first corruptions were introduced to the Gothic schools. Ruskin believed that the architects were taught to produce boring and dull pieces of architecture, rather than the unique churches from the Gothic …show more content…
While some of the Gothic palace was built over, most of it now still coexists with the Renaissance palace. The original Ducal Palace is believed to have been built in the early ninth century. Ruskin considers the modern day Ducal Palace to be one of the last remnants of the city’s former glory, due to it being built during the Venetian Republic as it was developing as a world power. Ruskin then goes on to point out that while the Byzantine palace coincided with the foundation of the Venetian Republic, the Gothic palace coincided with the beginning of aristocratic rule in Venice. During the fifteenth century however, sections of the building were being redone in the Renaissance style, beginning with the destruction of the last remnants of the Byzantine palace and the building of a new facade facing the