INTRODUCTION li

to copy accurately which only he and Armytage will take. Nevertheless, it will have to be done again, for it is to go on a large plate with five other traceries, and there was a mistake in the measurements of this; if you refer to my letter, you will find I said I had to do it over again. I will therefore send another little drawing or two belonging to the Plate and the measurement of this, and then Cuff can go on.”

This letter illustrates Ruskin’s “worry with the engravers” (which, however, seems to have included some due to his own account); it would also serve to explain the way in which the cost of producing the book was rendered very heavy.

The additional illustrations in this volume are photogravures from Ruskin’s drawings at Venice and Verona. The frontispiece is a general view of the Grand Canal, taken from near the Rialto. The drawing, which is in pencil (13˝x20), is at Brantwood; it was made in 1876.

Plates A, B and C are examples of the very numerous studies made by Ruskin during his work at Venice in preparation for The Stones. Plate A gives studies at the Church of the Frari; the original drawing, which is in pencil and wash (14x9), is now in the possession of Mrs. Arthur Severn. Plate B (the Palazzo del Cammello, with detail of some of the decoration) is also in Mrs. Severn’s possession; it is in pencil (9x6). The house is so called from the camel with a man in oriental costume sculptured on it. It is situated on the Canale della Maria dell’ Orto, and is one of three palaces built by the brothers Mastelli, who came from the Morea. Tintoret’s house, close by, is another of them. Ruskin’s sketch takes some liberty with the adjoining building-an old monastery, which is in fact a low building, though there is a high house beyond it. Plate C (details at the Casa Farsetti) is from a MS. sheet (with drawings pasted on by Ruskin) in the possession of Mr. George Allen. The whole sheet measures 14x11˝; the drawings are in pen and wash. The Casa Farsetti is described in the next volume, ch. v. § 8, and Appendix ii. (6).

Plate D is from one of several drawings by Ruskin of the Castelbarco Tomb at Verona. The drawing, which is at Brantwood, is in sepia (18x9). The drawing may be the one referred to by Ruskin in a letter to his father from Venice (February 24, 1852):-”I hope you will like a drawing I am making (more satisfactory than usual to myself) of that one [tomb] at Verona-my most beloved-at St. Anastasia.” So again, on August 30, 1851, he wrote in his diary:-”Again, thank God, in my beloved piazza St. Anastasia; with the little chapel opposite me-its pointed turrets of dark brick now seen against one flaming opening of pale gold in a grey sky of fading storm.” For further references to it, see below, p. 175.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]