Ruskin on MineralsRuskin used mineral specimens to encourage students to take an interest in the beauty and complexity of the natural world.
His interest in geology began in early childhood. It was encouraged by his father, who returned one day from the Lake District with a large collection of minerals purchased from a Lakeland geologist.
In
Deucalion (1875-83), the work that Ruskin devoted to geology, he dwells on the unrivalled influence that his first box of minerals had on the rest of his life.
The Ruskin biographer, Tim Hilton, records that he 'began a mineralogical dictionary at the age of twelve' (The Early Years, p. 17). Hilton reflects that 'Ruskin valued his stones first of all for their visual particularity', that 'They appealed to that love of detail which was so marked a feature of his visual sense'.
Apart from inspiring a close method of drawing, these geological interests prompted appreciation of the architecture of Venice, amongst whose stones he found an 'incrusted' style of decoration (
Works, 9, p. 323).
A colourful description of the Museum's mineral collection is contained in an article from 1879 in the
Magazine of Art:
'The contents of the museum may be divided into precious stones, pictures, and books. The minerals are, indeed, a choice collection.