INTRODUCTION xlix

worn on the stones.”¹ It is hoped that in the present edition a more satisfactory result has been obtained. The original drawings for many of the engraved illustrations in The Stones of Venice were given by Ruskin to Lady Simon, from whom they passed to Herbert, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Severn. They are now at Brantwood, and have been used by the lithographers in preparing the coloured plates for this edition. Any one who compares, say Plate I., in the first and in the second or third edition, will see in a moment how very poor the latter is in colour and general effect. But even in the first edition the coloured plates do not very correctly reproduce the original drawings. A comparison of the first edition with the present chromo-lithographs will reveal many differences, especially noticeable in the tones and detail of the backgrounds, and in the case of Plate XIX. in the general scheme of colour; in all such respects the present reproductions are the more faithful. Any reader who has access to an original edition of the volume, and who will compare Plate V. there with the corresponding plate in this edition, will note that in the latter shading has been introduced in the arches and the quatrefoil above them: this effect is inserted in accordance with shading pencilled in by Ruskin on the plate in Mr. Allen’s copy of the first edition. The present series of chromo-lithographs are, it should be added, within half-an-inch of the size of the original drawings.

The other engravings (with the exception of No. XX. printed from the original plate) are reproduced by photogravure from early impressions of the plates used in the first edition; the plates of sections, etc., have, however, been rendered by a line process which had not then attained its present perfection. The original drawings in Mr. Herbert Severn’s possession are very beautiful examples of Ruskin’s refinement of hand; the studies of capitals (Plate 8 in the next volume) in particular, done with a fine brush, are extraordinarily delicate. Certainly the engravers added nothing to his workmanship. The other illustrations, printed with the text, which, in the edition of 1886 and later were reproduced by electrotype process, are in this printed from the original woodcuts.

As this is the volume in which Ruskin first employed engravers² (for the plates in the first edition of Seven Lamps were etched by himself), a few words may here be given to the men whose reputation is now in large measure linked with Ruskin’s own. “The English school of engraving,” says Mr. Collingwood, “was then in its last and most accomplished period. Photography had not yet begun to supersede it, and the

¹ Hortus Inclusus, p. 143 (1st edition).

² Some of his verses in Friendship’s Offering had, however, been illustrated by engravings from his drawings: see his letter to George Smith on the comparative merits of various engravers of the day, in Vol. II. p. xlii. n.

IX. D

[Version 0.04: March 2008]