lxvi INTRODUCTION

Louvre, both for their intrinsic interest, and in order to illustrate further the careful and elaborate nature of his studies in this sort. For this purpose he gave in the Epilogue to The Stones of Venice, as “a pièce justificative,” some extracts from his notes on the galleries of Genoa, but those which are here put together from his diaries relating to the Louvre are both fuller and of more permanent interest.

The earliest of these Notes on the Louvre belong to 1844; the most elaborate, and the most carefully written, to 1849. The notes of that year are prefaced by a general passage in enthusiastic praise of the art of painting (p. 456). Similar Notes from a later diary (1854) follow. References to passages in his works where the same pictures are noticed are supplied in the footnotes. The references to the pictures have been altered to fit the present numbering of the Gallery. These written memoranda were supplemented, it should be remembered, by sketches, and sometimes by more elaborate studies from or copies of the pictures. An example of a study of this kind is Plate No. XII., in the Lectures on Architecture and Painting (see below, p. 112).

The next Appendix (p. 474) introduces us to a further artistic interest which had occupied much of Ruskin’s time and thought, as well as to a new form of activity. This Appendix contains reports of three Addresses on Decorative Colour as applicable to Architectural Purposes, given by Ruskin in November 1854. The addresses were never printed by him; and it seems doubtful if he had written them out; they seem to have been, as he says (p. 474), informal talks. The only manuscript referring to the lectures, which has been found among his papers, are a few rough notes in his diary of 1854. They were, however, reported at the time in the public press. The lectures, which were delivered on Saturday afternoons, excited a good deal of curiosity, and attracted large audiences. At the first, a vote of thanks was moved by Mr. Beresford Hope, and the reporters noticed that few working-men were present. The second and third lectures, on the other hand, were largely attended by artisans, and Ruskin was heartily cheered. The present reports are here reprinted for the most part from a version put together in a privately-printed volume of Ruskiniana issued in 1892. (For bibliographical particulars, see below, p. 474 n.) Quotations have been verified; some passages amended; and others added from Ruskin’s notes. Several drawings have been found at Brantwood which seem to have been used at these lectures, and from these, illustrations are now introduced. A few words are here necessary, first on the contents of these lectures, and secondly on the occasion of their delivery, in order to bring them into their place in Ruskin’s life.

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