[Photographs by George P. Landow and Cynthia J. Gamble 2010. You may use any of these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a website or include it in a print document.]
Comparing The Seven Lamps of Architecture to the sculpture Ruskin described
The high points of the Ruskinian pilgrimage came each time we located the specific details of architecture and sculpture about which Ruskin wrote. Left: Norma Wilson checks out the carvings surrounding the south door of Rouen Cathedral while Cynthia Gamble searches through her transcriptions of Ruskin's comments in letters and diaries at the University of Lancaster and Jim Spates looks through his notes. Middle: Cynthia points to one of the carvings. Cynthia photographed George, Jim, and Norma in the courtyard.
Ruskin's Plate X and two modern photographs. We not only identified the sculpture to which Ruskin referred but also listened while Jim read the passages from The Seven Lamps of Architecture.
Left two: Jim comparing one of Ruskin's plates from The Seven Lamps of Architecture. and pointing to the carving in question. Details of the carving near the South door that Ruskin illustrates and discusses in Plate XIV in Seven Lamps. Right two: Plate X and its likely subject.
Before leaving Rouen
Just before we left for Caen, Diane brought us back to the South door to read Proust's comments on it and Ruskin. Left: Jim and Norma await Diane's arrival. Middle two: Diane points to the plaque about which Proust wrote and she reads from an English translation of his description and comments. Right: Kevin, holding his mom's cane, photographs the group.
More about On the Old Road V — June 2010
- The Master of the Old Road sends an e-mail invitation to fellow Ruskinians
- George Landow arrives in Rouen and finds himself in the Twilight Zone
- George meets up with the Ruskinians
- Lunch near St. Maclou
- Reading Ruskin in the presence of the work he describes
- Paul André Sement gets us into St. Maclou
- The Ossuary or Boneyard
- From Rouen to Caen with a stop at Lisieux
- With The Ruskinians in Caen — St. Peter's Church. William the Conqueror's castle, men wearing lipstick, and other grotesques
- With The Ruskinians in St. Lô, Coutances, and Bayeux — a long day
- The first two days in Chartres
- The last morning in Chartres
Last modified 5 July 2010