Loggia of the Ducal Palace, Venice
1849–50
Medium
Watercolor over graphite
Dimensions
Sheet: 18 1/8 × 11 7/16 in. (46 × 29 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1908
Accession Number
08.227.39
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, where John Ruskin's *Loggia of the Duc Palace, Venice* (9–50) captivates with its precise watercolor over graphite. This 18 1/8 × 11 7/16 in. sheet captures the intricate arcade of Venice's iconic Doge's Palace, a masterpiece of Venetian Gothic architecture with slender columns that blend Byzantine and Islamic influences. Ruskin, leading 19th-century critic and artist, rendered these details with topographic accuracy, highlighting the palace's ornate tracery and sculptural elegance. Created during Ruskin's fervent cam...
About the Artist
John Ruskin
Ruskin was the most important British architectural critic of the nineteenth century. While still an undergraduate, Ruskin contributed a number of articles on "The Poetry of Architecture" under the nom de plume of Kata Phusin to J. C. Loudon's "Architectural Magazine." He was appointed first Slade Professor at Oxford University in 1868. He is the author of "The Stones of Venice."