John Ruskin, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Religious Imagination Sacre Conversazioni

This volume presents a collection of essays by leading experts which examine nineteenth century ideas about Christian theology, art, architecture, restoration, and curatorial practice. The volume unveils the importance of John Ruskin’s writing for today’s audience, and allies it with the dynamism of the Pre-Raphaelite religious imagination. Ruskin’s drawings and daguerreotypes, as well as Pre-Raphaelite paintings, stained glass, and engravings, are shown to be alive with visual theology: artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, Edward Burne-Jones, and Evelyn de Morgan illuminate aspects of faith and aesthetics.

The interdisciplinary nature of this volume encourages reflection upon praise, truth, and beauty. The aesthetic conversations between Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites themselves become a form of ‘sacra conversazione’.

1. Introduction.- 2. Earth and Heaven: Ruskin on Dirt, Work, and Beauty.- 3. Ruskin’s Venice: Embracing Sacred Fragments of Imperfect Beauty.- 4. ‘Those are Leaves’: Ruskin’s Analogical Imagination and the Pre-Raphaelite Theology of Nature.- 5. Sounds and Visions at The Chapel of St Michael and All Angels. 6. Ruskin, Rossetti, and the Sacra Conversazione of Colour.- 7. ‘The Loveliest Traditions of the Christian Legend’: Ruskin, Burne-Jones, and the Imaging of the Cross.- 8. Crystal Balls: Visions of Creation in the Art of Burne-Jones.- 9. A World Without Ceiling: Mary Watts’s ‘Language of Symbols’ at Limnerslease.- 10. Victorian Exodus: Visualising the Old Testament in Dalziels’ Bible Gallery (1881).- 11. Heaven on Earth: Evelyn De Morgan’s Rejection of Materialism.- 12. Art on Sundays: Henrietta Barnett and the Whitechapel Fine Art Loan Exhibitions.- 13. Envoi.

Sheona Beaumont is an artist and writer working with photography. She was Bishop Otter Scholar (2017-2020) with the Diocese of Chichester and King’s College London and has held artist residencies in various ecumenical settings. She is a co-founder of Visual Theology, whose first edited publication was Transforming Christian Thought in the Visual Arts (2021).

Madeleine Emerald Thiele is an art historian and public lecturer. Her research examines John Ruskin, Venice, Tractarian aesthetics and the angelic form within British art c.1840s–1900s. She is a co-founder of Visual Theology, whose first edited publication was Transforming Christian Thought in the Visual Arts (2021).