Footnote 10, Chapter 7, of the author's Ruskin's Poetic Argument: The Design of the Major Works, which Cornell University Press published in 1985. It appears in the Victorian web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
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Hills and Saunders, A Window of the Oxford Museum: The Sculptor O'Shea at Work. 1858. Photograph. Source: Facing Works, 16.228. [Not in print edition]
An image exactly intermediate between the organic structure of a Gothic cathedral and the organic structure of a human economy was provided by an actual building project. In 1856 work began on the Oxford Museum, an emporium for the study of biological sciences and built under the direction of Ruskin's friend, Dr. Henry Acland. It was the first major building to follow closely the principles Ruskin had laid down in his writings on Gothic, including the role of the workman. Disputes arose, however, between college authorities and the manner of decoration, and in an amusing incident, the most talented of the workmen, an Irish sculptor named O'Shea, was reprimanded by the Master of the University while carving an ornament. As O'Shea told it: "'What are you at?' says he. 'Monkeys,' says I. 'Come down directly,' says he; 'you shall not destroy the property of the University."' O'Shea was let go, but not before he had painted a series of parrots and owls, apparently as a gesture of impudence. At Acland's orders, the heads were struck off (XVI, xlix-1). We might see in the episode an allegory of two voices within Ruskin himself-the imperious schoolmaster and the sportiveness of fancy.
Last modified December 2000