John Ruskin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of John Ruskin. He was the most brilliant art critic of his age, perhaps the most brilliant that Britain has ever produced, but he was much more than that. A champion of Turner and an enemy of Whistler, he placed the study of art and architecture at the heart of a moral assault on Victorian life. In the stone work of a Gothic cathedral, Ruskin saw all that was right about medieval society and all that was wrong about his own capitalist age.But why was Ruskin so critical of his own time? What deep currents of thought infused his ideas? And how much does our thinking, about society, the environment, art and work owe to this unusual man?
→ Listen on BBC Sounds website (UK only)
→ Or listen on: Apple Podcasts
Guests
- Dinah Birch
13 episodes
Professor of English, Liverpool University -
Keith Hanley No other episodes
Professor of English Literature and Director of the Ruskin Programme, Lancaster University - Stefan Collini
2 episodes
Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge
Related episodes
-
William Morris
5 Jul, 2018 820 English and Old English literatures -
The Artist
28 Mar, 2002 700 Arts -
Bohemianism
9 Oct, 2003 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology -
Pitt-Rivers
28 Feb, 2013 930 History of the Ancient World -
Sir Thomas Browne
6 Jun, 2019 820 English and Old English literatures -
The Sublime
12 Feb, 2004 110 Metaphysics -
Fossils
22 Mar, 2001 560 Fossils and prehistoric life -
The Later Romantics
15 Apr, 2004 820 English and Old English literatures -
Mill
18 May, 2006 320 Political science -
The Romantics
12 Oct, 2000 820 English and Old English literatures
Programme ID: p003k9bv
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9bv
Auto-category: 709.2 (Arts—history, geographic treatment, biography)
Hello (First sentence from this episode)
Hello, John Ruskin was the most brilliant art critic of his age, perhaps the most brilliant that Britain's ever produced.