Ruskin and Italy

Ruskin first travelled to Northern Italy (Como, Milan, Pavia, Genoa and Turin) with his parents in 1833. He travelled to Italy again in 1835 when the family visited Milan, Verona and, for the first time, Venice. They travelled to Italy again in 1840-41 for a ten month period following Ruskin's becoming ill at Oxford after the marriage of Adèle Domecq. On this occasion the places visited included Genoa, Lucca, Pisa, Florence, Sienna, Rome, Amalfi, Naples, Albano, Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Venice, Verona and Milan. Ruskin, aged 26, travelled to Italy again in 1845 without his parents, visiting Genoa, Sestri, Lucca, Pisa, Florence, Venice and Padua. Important studies of nature were made at Sestri, and of art and architecture in Lucca and Pisa. In Venice Ruskin encountered the work of Tintoretto for the first time. Here he also met Mrs Anna Jameson, researching for her Sacred and Legendary Art. He repeated the tour in 1846 with his parents. Places visited included Verona, Venice, Pisa, Padua, Bologna and Florence. On this trip the architectural interests of the previous year became a preoccupation which was to lead to The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The Stones of Venice (1851-3). In the winter of 1849-50 Ruskin visited Verona and Venice with his wife Effie. They returned in the winter of 1851-52. On both occasions Ruskin continued his architectural studies. Ruskin returned to Italy in 1858, studying Veronese in Turin, and again in 1862 when he visited Milan and studied Luini. In 1869 he returned to Verona from which he made short trips to Venice where he 'discovered' Carpaccio. He travelled to Italy again with groups of friends and relations in 1870 and 1872. In 1870 he continued his study of Tintoretto and on both occasions studied Carpaccio. In 1872 he visited Florence. He visited Rome and Assisi in 1874, and studied the work of Giotto. From September 1876 to May 1877 Ruskin made a lone trip to Venice. In 1882, following his third period of madness, he visited Italy, including Pisa, with W. G. Collingwood. His last visit, encompassing Milan and Venice, was made in 1888.

JM

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