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The Ruskin Project Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection at the Ashmolean Museum Ruskin and Oxford – 1 Gentleman Commoner, Christ Church, 1837-42 Involvement with University Museum, c. 1855-9 Elected Honorary Student, Christ Church, 1858
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The Ruskin Project Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection at the Ashmolean Museum
Ruskin and Oxford – 1 • Gentleman Commoner, Christ Church, 1837-42 • Involvement with University Museum, c.1855-9 • Elected Honorary Student, Christ Church, 1858 • Presented 60 Turner drawings to University Galleries, 1861 The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Ruskin and Oxford – 2 • Slade Professor of Fine Art, 1870-8 • Negotiated National Gallery’s loan of Turner drawings, 1879 • Slade Professor of Fine Art, 1883-5 The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Ruskin’s art school – 1 I want the room now occupied by the town classes for a grammar-school of Art. I wish to make it thoroughly interesting even to very young children, to fill it with prints by great masters for the general public, and with cases containing books, seals, casts of coins, etc., properly catalogued and illustrated, and to conduct the teaching there, with the assistance of Mr. Macdonald, ... The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Ruskin’s art school – 2 ... on a system designed primarily for the sons and daughters of gentlemen, though, I hope, not likely to be unprofitable even to (whatever we mean by the term) artisans and their children, but absolutely distinct from that adopted by the authorities at Kensington for the promotion of mechanical, and therefore vile, manufacture. Ruskin to Acland, 14 March 1871 The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
The Teaching CollectionStandard Series (a) ... Standards, which are never to be removed from the room in which they are placed: all 30” by 21” in cases – to be 100 of architecture; 100 of painting and sculpture – numbered and catalogued The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
The Teaching CollectionEducational Series (b) copies for practice – about 50 in number – also numbered and catalogued – in flat oak frames 20½ by 14 ½ - These also are never to leave the rooms. These are especially for the use of the Professor’s class. Ruskin to the Curators of the University Galleries, 17 March 1871 The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Assembling the Collection • General examples • Standard Series • Teaching examples • Educational Series – Professor’s Class (Ruskin) • Rudimentary Series – Town Class (Macdonald) The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
The Teaching Collection – Cabinets Cabinet for Reference Series Nos 101-125 The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Ruskin’s aims • They are taught drawing, primarily in order to direct their attention accurately to the beauty of God’s work in the material universe. Ruskin, 1859 • I am only trying to teach you to see. Ruskin, to the students of the Working Men’s College, between 1854 and 1860 The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Collection Comprises • 1,470 items • Drawings and watercolours • Prints • Photographs • Diagrams • Casts The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Drawings by Old Masters After Giulio Romano, Crab. Educational Series, No. 200. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Drawings by Turner J.M.W. Turner, The Junction of the Greta and Tees at Rokeby. Standard Series, No. 2. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Drawings by Ruskin after nature John Ruskin, Study of Wild Rose. Rudimentary Series, No. 238. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Drawings by Ruskin of buildings John Ruskin, The Baptistery, Florence. Reference Series, No. 120. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Drawings by Ruskin of works of art John Ruskin after Vittore Carpaccio, St Ursula on her Bier. Rudimentary Series, No. 106bis. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Drawings and watercolours by Ruskin’s assistants and protégés Arthur Burgess, Owl in Mantegna’s fresco of the Martyrdom of St James. Rudimentary Series, No. 46. Francesca Alexander, Isabella of l'Abetone. Francesca Cabinet, No. 2. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Prints by Old Masters Albrecht Dürer, St Jerome and his Lion. Educational Series, No. 159. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Prints by Turner W. Say & J.M.W. Turner, Chain of Alps from Grenoble to Chamberi (“The Alps of the Chartreuse”). Rudimentary Series, No. 167. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Plates from illustrated books Lenormant & de Witte, Élite des monuments céramographiques, Paris Leleux, 1844-1861: Vol. III, pl. 15. Educational Series, No. 48. Le Vaillant, Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux de Paradis ..., Paris, 1806: Vol. II, no. 30. Rudimentary Series, No. 216. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Photographs Photograph after Filippo Lippi, The Coronation of the Virgin, Florence, Uffizi. Reference Series, No. 101. South Transept of Rouen Cathedral before its Restoration. Reference Series, No. 51. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Diagrams George Allen after John Ruskin, Construction for Placing the Honour-Points. Rudimentary Series, No. 6. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Subsequent history • Deed of Gift, 1875 • Gave Ruskin Art Collection to University • Formalised 1861 gift of Turners • Formalised £5,000 endowment for Drawing Mastership • Continuous rearrangement (notably 1878) • 1886 removal of works The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
After Ruskin’s death • Attempts to establish scope of existing Collection following Ruskin’s death in 1900 • Deals with Ruskin’s heirs over some objects • Cook & Wedderburn’s catalogue, 1906 • Transfer from Ruskin School, c.1949 The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
In the Ashmolean Solander box: Royal, Ruskin – Rudimentary Series, Nos 87-133. Volume: Ruskin – Volume IV. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Project’s aims • Digitise Teaching Collection, i.e. • Digital images (high resolution) • Text of Ruskin’s published & MS catalogues • Ashmolean catalogue information • Searchable • Browsable according to original arrangement(s) • Accessible over web (low resolution images) • Deposit with VADS (high resolution images) The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Funding & collaboration • Resource Enhancement Scheme (AHRB) • Funding • Ashmolean Museum • Collection, management, conservation • Learning Technologies Group (OUCS) • Databases and markup, search & delivery systems • Ruskin School • Website design • David Cooper • Photography • VADS • Recipient The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Data standards – images • Images • TIFF • 600 dpi • 24-bit colour • Image metadata • VRA Core Categories, Version 3 (“VRA3”) • http://www.vraweb.org/vracore3.htm The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Data standards – texts • TEI • http://www.tei-c.org/ The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Data standards – cataloguing • Categories for the Description of Works of Art (“CDWA”) • Getty Information Institute • http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/ standards/cdwa/ • Rejected: SPECTRUM • Museums Documentation Association • http://www.mda.org.uk/spectrum.htm • http://www.cimi.org/wg/xml_spectrum/ The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Catalogues • Catalogue of Examples Arranged for Elementary Study in the University Galleries, Oxford (Clarendon Press): 1870. • Standard and Reference series together, as well as Educational series. • Catalogue of the Educational Series, London (Smith, Elder & Co.): 1871. • Catalogue of the Reference Series including temporarily the First Section of the Standard Series, London (Smith, Elder & Co.): [1872]. • Instructions in Practice of Elementary Drawing, Arranged with Reference to the First Series of Examples in the Drawing Schools of the University of Oxford, s.n.: [1872] [3rd ed., 2nd issue] • Rudimentary Series. • Instructions in the Preliminary Exercises arranged for the Lower Drawing-School, Oxford, London (Smith, Elder & Co.): 1872. [4th ed.] • Rudimentary Series. • Instructions in the Preliminary Exercises arranged for the Lower Drawing-School, Oxford, London (Spottiswoode & Co.): 1873. [5th ed.] • Rudimentary Series. • Catalogue of the Educational Series, London (Spottiswoode & Co.): 1874. • ‘Educational Series 1878’. • MS copy by the Rev. E.P. Barrow of Dr D.P. Chase’s transcription of Ruskin’s dictated rearrangement.. • ‘Rudimentary Series 1878’. • MS copy by the Rev. E.P. Barrow of Dr D.P. Chase’s transcription of Ruskin’s dictated rearrangement.. • The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes and Instructions, London (George Allen): 1906. • The Works of John Ruskin: Library Edition, edited by E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn, Volume XXI. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Problems – reconciliation • Collation of catalogues with each other • http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/amulets/ ruskin/concordance.shtml • Collation of catalogues with collection • 1,470 catalogued works • 1,085 identified • 10 should be elsewhere • 75 missing in 1906 • 300 not yet found The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Copyright • Published works • Maker’s life + 70 years • Unpublished works • 70 years after first publication • Held by heirs, not by object’s owner • Who holds copyrights? • Solutions • If work has been published: • Check dates of artist • If unpublished • Does DACS represent estate? • Do we have a record on file? • Advertise? • Disclaimer on website The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
Bibliography • John Ruskin, The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogues, Notes and Instructions, London (George Allen): 1906. (Library Edition, Volume XXI.) • John Ruskin, The Ruskin Art Collection at Oxford: Catalogue of the Rudimentary Series, edited by Robert Hewison, London (Lion and Unicorn Press): 1984. • Robert Hewison, Ruskin and Oxford: The Art of Education, Oxford (Clarendon Press): 1996. The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
The Ruskin Project http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/amulets/ruskin/ Dr Rupert ShepherdManager, The Ruskin ProjectDepartment of Western ArtAshmolean MuseumBeaumont StreetOxford OX1 2PH rupert.shepherd@ashmus.ox.ac.uk The Ruskin Project: Digitising the Ruskin Teaching Collection
End Result of Ruskin Project “a developed interface to facilitate browsing, searching, and analysis” Audience:Artists, Art Historians, Literary Scholars, Teachers and the general public
Data Sources • Catalogues • Listings of the content of the collection at given points in time • Museum curatorial information • Information about the objects • Images • 1300 photographs (to be produced)
XML Mark-up • Catalogues • TEI ( http://www.tei-c.org/ ) • Museum curatorial information • Getty CDWA (http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/cdwa/ ) • Image Metadata • VRA 3.0 (http://www.vraweb.org/vracore3.htm )
Catalogues • Scanned using OCR • originals are good enough • Proof read and marked up to minimal level by helper • Script will run to identify each entry uniquely • Further markup (linking) added by experts
Creation of Images • TIFF format • 600 dpi (or as appropriate for small/large works) • 24 bit colour • Calibration: electronic and colour bars • Final file size of ~50 MB • Archived to HFS • 1300 images => 65 GB storage requirement
Images • Create ‘web master’ file from master image (TIFF) • Create JPEGs at various resolutions for web delivery. • Process images on the fly using ImageMagick( http://www.imagemagick.org/ ) • water marks • limited resolutions • limited dimensions
Delivery - Browsing & Analysis • Catalogues provide snapshots of collection • Present predefined pathways through the collection • Path Creation Scheme( http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/jtap/pcs/ ) • Allows users to create their own annotated pathways through the site
Delivery - Search • The difficult part! • Free text searching of: • Catalogues • Image descriptions • Presentation in a meaningful way