Influence of John Ruskin on Architecture free essay sample

His elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. * In all of his writings he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. * He also made detailed sketches and painting of architectural structures and ornamentation. Many of which he drew as a small child which were deemed remarkable for a boy of his age due to their sophisticated and technicality. * First publications He was hugely influential in the layer half of the 19th century up to WW1 * Ruskin’s journeys as a child with his family have provided inspiration for his writing, * One of his first major publications came in September 1837 when a number of his writings entitled ‘The Poetry of Architecture’ appeared in Loudon’s Architectural Magazine under the pen name ‘Kata Phusin’ * Ruskin continued to produce various works that were published and widely recognised such as ‘Modern Painters’ in 1843. We will write a custom essay sample on Influence of John Ruskin on Architecture or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Touring and further Publications * Ruskin toured the continents with his parents in 1844, gaining further experience and giving him the opportunity to study medieval art and architecture in France, Switzerland and in particular Italy * During these travels he wrote the second volume of ‘Modern Painters’ in 1846 concentrating more on Renaissance and Pre-Renaissance artists. * The Seven Lamps * Over the next few years, Ruskin began to develop a keener interest in architecture, and in particular the gothic revival. This developing  interest led to the first work to solely bear his name, ‘The Seven Lamps of Architecture’, in 1849 which contained 14 plates etched by the author. * The title refers to seven moral categories that Ruskin considered vital to and inseparable from all architecture; sacrifice, truth, power, beauty, life, memory and obedience * With regards to moral obedience, Ruskin included his ideas on what Roman architecture should be, recommending certain styles such as Pisan Romanesque, Early Central Italian Gothic, Venetian Gothic and English Earliest Decorated ( as at the Angels Choir in Lincoln Cathedral). Seven Lamps also promoted the virtues of secular and protestant forms of Gothic architecture and was a challenge to the catholic influence of AWN Pugin. * Ruskin argued that restoration is destruction, and that ancient buildings should be preserved, but no attempt should be made to erase the accumulated history encoded in their decay. Ruskin recommended colour in buildings, flatness of surface as opposed to Pugin’s bold relief, play of light and shade, good bounding lines, squares or circles either in general boundaries or in smaller coloured areas, largeness of size and continuous repetition of arcading. * The Stones of Venice * In November 1849, Ruskin visited Venice, filling manuscript journals and notebooks with sketches and notes that he used for ‘The Stones of Venice’ later in 1857. * This publication covered two broad aspects – construction and decoration. Ruskin made many recommendations within the publication, including in particular his views and ideas regarding layers of walls by different means – by using different colours of stone or brick with marble; stratification for thick walls, chequered patterns for thin walls; towers to be plain and bold, detached if possible, not to be broken by buttresses and flat topped rather than pointed; and buttresses to be part of walls. He also included his views on the arch. * Volumes 2 and 3 In 1853, volumes II and III of ‘The Stones of Venice’ were produced by Ruskin * As well as describing such things as marble facing slabs for walls, Ruskin here considered the social conditions which would or would not allow craftsmen to enjoy working on purely decorative features, praising Gothic ornamentation. * Ruskin argued that it was an expression of the artists joy in free, creative work stating that the worker must be allowed to think and to express his own personality and ideas, ideally using his own hands, not machinery. Ruskin’s publications in Britain * Ruskin’s publications were not going unnoticed across the British Isles, in fact his works began to herald the Gothic revival movement in Britain and paved the way for the Arts and Crafts movement. * Ruskin rebelled against formal, classical art and architecture, but instead championed the asymmetrical rough architecture of medieval Europe. * Deane and Woodward * One of the first architects to respond was Thomas Deane who partnered with Benjamin Woodward in 1851. Their work was a gothic style influence by the principles of Ruskin. * Their first major design was the Museum Building at Trinity College in Dublin in 1857. * This particular building was a new engineering building inspired by Ruskin’s recommendations. * The finished building included huge chimneys, windows that ran together in arcades, grouped together within the facades, and a Grand Canal detailing that Ruskin admired in The Stones of Venice. In plan form the building included conventionally sized rooms and the interior included exotic colours, foliated carvings, alternating coloured boussoirs, and a number of unique carvings done by untrained, uneducated stone masons reflecting Ruskin’s idea of being able to freely create. * Kildare Street * In 1859, Deane and Woodward designed Kildare Street Club, a gentlemen’s club in Dublin at the heart of the Anglo-Irish Protestant ascendency. Their design as largely based on Italian Gothic style including floriated capitals with bird like detailing, interweaving, lettering and stone ‘monkeys’, and beasts playing billiards on the base of pillars * The club committee however altered their completely gothic style slightly to include large arched windows divided by thin columns * The building was described as being adorned by ‘whimsical beasts’ * Oxford Museum * A further examples of their work was the ne-gothic building of the Oxford Museum, completed in 1861. The design was directly influenced by Ruskin, who involved himself by making various suggestions to Woodward * The museum consisted of a large square court with a glass roof, supported by cast iron pillars. * Originally Ruskin wasn’t keen on the design, but later grew to appreciate it, as he believed it resembled a medieval cathedral. * Arcades, stone columns made from British stone, ornamentation of stonework and iron pillars carried Ruskin’s ideas throughout the entire building. * Woodward had set out the building as an exhibition of British stonework, creating a whole building of architecture. William Butterfield * A further figure to respond to the ideas and thinking of Ruskin was William Butterfield, notable with his design of All Saints Church in London in 1953. * He admires the ideas of stripes that Ruskin had described for brick walls and incorporated this into his design, using red brick, a materials that was long out of use in London, with the walls banded in black brick and the spire banded in stone with crisp edges. * The interior was richly patterned with inlays of marble and tile * The use of ornamentation and stencilling were also an influence of Ruskin’s critiques. George Edmund Street * George Edmund Street was an English architect who was also a leading practitioner of the Gothic Revival style influenced by Ruskin. * At an early age, he became deeply interested in the principles of gothic architecture, spending years studying it and later publishing his findings in ‘The Brick and Marble Architecture of Northern Italy’ in 1855. * One noticeable example of his work that resembles Ruskin’s ideals was the Church of St James the Less in Westminster in 1859, * Again, Street appreciated Ruskin’s ideas of stripes on exterior walls. He designed bands of different coloured brick to extend the full way to the roof, a style later described as ‘streaky bacon’. * Violent Gothic Revival * Between 1850 and 1870, the gothic revival passed through a violent period. * It was by turns geometrical, naturalistic and polychromatic, often unaccommodating and even brutal, illustrated by works of EW Goodwin, A Waterhouse and GG Scott. * However the designs of building still incorporated Ruskin’s descriptions such as bands of coloured slates, arcades, extravagant colours and medieval styles. Ruskin’s influence reached across the world and he was described as one of the more remarkable men not only of England but of all countries and times. * Theorists and practitioners over many disciplines acknowledges their debt to Ruskin, including architects such as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius who incorporated Ruskin’s ideas into their own work. * Ruskin continued to carry out works within art, including opening the Ruskin School of Drawing in 1869, until he dies in1900.