Wednesday 28 January 2015

Read in 2015 - 3: The Poetry of Architecture

"The Poetry of Architecture" was my reading companion on the train trips to and from work for several weeks. This collection of papers by John Ruskin was first published in 1838.

Although the free copy I downloaded from Amazon’s kindle shop came without illustrations, I was able to picture quite well most of what the author so vividly describes.
Apart from being vivid, at times his descriptions are also amusing; for instance when he says that
“…nothing can be more absurd than the humor prevailing at the present day among many of our peaceable old gentlemen, who never smelt powder in their lives, to eat their morning muffin in a savage-looking round tower, and admit quiet old ladies to a tea-party under the range of twenty-six cannon, which—it is lucky for the china—are all wooden ones,—as they are, in all probability, accurately and awfully pointed into the drawing-room windows.”
The book is split in two major parts, one about The Cottage and the other about The Villa. Cottages and villas in different countries are examined, and Ruskin explains in detail why certain ways of composing a building will look perfectly harmonious in one country or one situation, but won’t work at all anywhere else. He tells the reader at length about what blue, green and brown country means, and what sort of building will look and feel right in each. He severely warns against trying to imitate a different country’s style as well as against using too much or badly executed decorative elements. Some of his reasoning may appear curious to a 21st century reader, but keeping in mind the times when these papers were compiled makes for an interesting glimpse into the way people of intellectual rank (and with a certain standing in society) were thinking.

In an online version of this book, I found all the illustrations. I understand that the sketches were made by the author. Here is a picture of what is described as “The Highest House in England” (at Malham); to Ruskin, the ideal of a mountain cottage:


He has a lot to say about chimneys, of which he gives 18 different examples, describing and comparing them at length:


According to wikipedia, Ruskin (1819 – 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era. He is called “hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century”. Admittedly, I’d not heard of him until reading this book, but he appears to have been a multi-faceted and –talented person whose many other works may well be worth reading. His personal life, as described there, sounds rather sad and strange. I do not want to go into any detail here, but if you want to know more, you will easily find out for yourselves.

I don’t say this book would work as an architect’s handbook of today. But it certainly was worth reading, even though some sentences were so long that they nearly covered an entire “page” on my kindle, and it satisfied my recurring want for non-fiction reads.

13 comments:

  1. Hello Meike,

    We know Ruskin's writings about Italy quite well. He writes authoritatively and intelligently but, also, we find a romance in his writing which really does make the buildings or art works come alive.

    We have followed in his footsteps in Venice, with his book as companion, and it makes for a very memorable experience.

    The book you review here is not familiar although, in our time, we think that we must have had sight of it. Time to seek it out and read again. Definitely.

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    1. Hello Jane and Lance,

      It so rarely happens that someone knows one of the (half-)forgotten authors whose works I review here! As you say, he does indeed write authoritatively and intelligently, and the romance to be found in his writing makes it all the more readable.

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  2. Rushkin was a pompous twit who had the power to make or break an artist's career with a good or bad review. If he disliked a person, it didn't matter how great the art itself was. It was a power which he occasionally abused. I'm not surprised to learn that his personal life is described as sad and strange.

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    1. As I said, I knew nothing about him until I briefly researched his name on wikipedia for this review. A lot of what he says about what he presumes to be bad or no taste in the employers of architects of his time sounds rather condescending.

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  3. Ruskin is one of those people I feel I should know more about, but have been in no hurry to get acquainted with. A rather lovely view in the pleasant town of Kirkby Lonsdale is named after him and his Cumbrian home, Brantwood, is on the list of places that need to be visited ... I'm surprised he should suggest Malham is mountainous.

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    1. He classifies the house as "mountain cottage" not strictly speaking because of its geographical situation, but because, for him, it combines all elements he finds make up the British mountain cottage.
      I think this is your first time commenting on my blog; welcome to My Mental Library!

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  4. Ruskin lived in Sheffield for a lengthy portion of his life and in The Millennium Galleries by The Winter Gardens there is a room devoted to "The Ruskin Collection". He had many interests and talents - not a one trick pony.

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    1. He certainly was not a boring person, and neither was his life boring by the sound of it! I didn't know about his connection with Sheffield.

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  5. Hey Meike!
    There was a movie made last year by one of my favorites, Emma Thompson. She wrote, directed and starred in "Effie Gray", a movie about the love triangle between John Ruskin, Effie Gray, and the painter, Millais. You will have read about this if you read the details of some Ruskin's personal life. I've not seen the movie myself, but I would like to. It stars Dakota Fanning, and believe it or not, she is from Conyers, GA!!!
    I think that he must have been a fascinating fellow/. I am still hoping for the book by Jenny Woolf about the Victorians, I am sure she will have something to say about John Ruskin!
    (And by the way, Richard went to the John Ruskin School, near Croydon.)

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    1. Yes, Kay, I did come across Effie Gray when reading about Ruskin's personal life. Like I said above, it sounds like it was a rather strange and sad life. He missed out on such a lot! But maybe he never saw it that way.

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  6. I first came across John Ruskin in my late teens through the writings of W G Collingwood and have enjoyed his talent in poetry and art ever since although, to be honest, I've not read or viewed much in recent years. However he was an extraordinarily talented man in many fields and, as such, was very influential in many fields too. I wouldn't go as far as Carol (Canadian Chickadee) in saying he was a pompous twit. Like many powerful and talented people who are critics of art and so on he may well have been pompous and powerful people have always had the power simply by praising or criticising to turn fashionable society for or against someone or something. As it happens Ruskin was a supporter of Turner and of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood both of whom I also happen to admire (although not because of Ruskin's influence!). It's true, I believe, that Ruskin had a less than perfect life and was probably flawed in a way but then that's a very common problem for brilliant people.

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    1. Without knowing someone personally, I wouldn't call them a pompous twit, either, but of course we are all entitled to our own opinion. And as I said in my reply to Carol, he does come across as condescending sometimes, when he deems someone's taste not to be as refined as his own.
      I find it very interesting to see from everyone's comments how many of you knew Ruskin when, to me, he was completely unfamiliar. Most of the time when I have unearthed some rather obscure author from past times, nobody - inlcuding myself - had heard from them before.

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    2. I'm not really surprised that you'd not heard of Ruskin Meike. He is quite famous in the UK but not really as a writer principally as a poet and although as you know he had many other interests they wouldn't strike me as things most people will know him for: particularly younger people. I happened to be very interested in The English Lake District and W G Collingwood and I have an 1891 set of Collingwood's Ruskin's Poems as well as his 1893 Life and Work of John Ruskin published. So it was really Collingwood who led me to Ruskin in a way. I doubt now that many people other than lovers of the history of the Lakes will even have heard of Collingwood.

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