The Stones of Venice, Volume 3 completes John Ruskin’s monumental study of the architecture of Venice, carrying his account into the Renaissance and the city’s long decline. Ruskin argues that the corruption of Venetian building accompanied the moral and spiritual decay of the republic, contrasting the vitality of the earlier Gothic with the pride and coldness he saw in later classical work.
This concluding volume gathers his analysis of palaces, churches, and ornament into a sweeping verdict on the relationship between art and the life of a society. Ruskin’s passionate prose and exacting observation make the book a masterpiece of criticism as well as architectural history. It remains one of the most powerful and influential works ever written about buildings and what they reveal about us.