"Latent in Darkness". La Guida di Ruskin all'Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia

From Darkness to Light: Writers in Museums 1798-1898 In this chapter I focus on the Guide to the Principal Pictures in the Academy of Fine Arts at Venice published in two parts in 1877. In this much-underrated work, Ruskin talks us through the rooms of the gallery using a language that is often unconventional for the genre but is, I hope to demonstrate, carefully and deliberately chosen. Words are used so as to fit within a programme of picture viewing that he had been elaborating in several essays since the 1850s, and that he implicitly puts into practice in the Guide. ‘Dark’, ‘light’, ‘bright’ and related words prove to be key signifiers in this educational visit. At a time when debates concerning the introduction of artificial light into picture galleries were heating up, Ruskin makes his voice heard against the practice, resisting primarily for conservational reasons, but also because he sensed that this might bring about changes in the way we perceive and frame the artwork.