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This is dated by Willis (1835) p.165 to the ninth century, but he draws attention to the uncertainty of the dates he gives. For Lindsay (1847) I p.65, in a passage referred to by Ruskin at Notebook M p.78, it is, together with S.Cyriaco at Ancona and St. Mark’s in Venice, one of the three principal Byzantine churches in Italy following the introduction of the style by Justinian’s church of San Vitale in Ravenna. For Lindsay:
The interior is singularly simple and beautiful, presenting the Greek cross and dome, while externally it is surrounded on three sides by an open portico, the pillars of which support a slanting wooden roof; they are of all shapes and sizes, some round, some square-shafted, some polygonal , - their capitals, a medley of Corinthian and of square blocks, either absolutely plain or covered with the usual basket-work tracery.
Works, 9.41 sets out Ruskin’s view of its place in the architectural history of Venice. Strangely Santa Fosca at Torcello is taken by Ruskin as an example, along with the cathedral at Torcello, San Giacomo di Rialto, and the crypt of St. Mark’s, of a distinct group of ecclesiastical buildings in which Byzantine influence is exceedingly slight.
Works, 9.149 figure 28 is of Santa Fosca with a comment on the figure at Works, 9.148.
Bit Book pp.69ff a series of drawings / diagrams.
Notebook M p.191 and Notebook M p.192 (apart from the last two lines which are about the Duomo) has a detailed description of Santa Fosca, including the stilted arches, which are otherwise seen by Ruskin as characteristically Byzantine. Ruskin is surprised by its basketwork capitals, because he had supposed basketwork capitals to be ‘Byzantine only’, and he is convinced that Santa Fosca is not Byzantine in form, though he does not set out his reasons for that conclusion. He seems nowhere to mention the apse of Santa Fosca despite the obvious similarities between it and the apse at Murano.
The reference at Bit Book p.10L is to the church of Santa Fosca in Cannaregio, not Torcello.
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[Version 0.05: May 2008]