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?

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Dinah Birch 13 episodes
  Professor of English
• Keith Hanley No other episodes
  Professor of English Literature and Director of the Ruskin Programme
• Stefan Collini 2 episodes
  Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature

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Programme ID: p003k9bv

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9bv

Auto-category: 700 (Arts and Recreation)