John Ruskin (1819–1900) was a renowned English art historian and theorist, poet, publicist, author of works on ethics, aesthetics, and natural science, and a social reformer. In his universal system, art and architecture exist in close connection with morality, religion, human life, and ultimately with nature, while the industrial revolution and the capitalization of society prove equally destructive to the environment, human souls, and the creative process. Ruskin's interpretation of art history least resembles an academic course, but he was the first professor of fine arts at Oxford University, whose speeches, 'filled with fiery passion and wonderful music,' made 'the deaf... hear and the blind see,' according to the testimony of his student Oscar Wilde.
The treatises “Seven Lights of Architecture” (1849) and “Lectures on Art” (1870), which are included in this book, are the alpha and omega of the art criticism of John Ruskin, an original and sometimes paradoxical thinker, whose reasoning is captivating with the precision of his insights.