“Aix la Chapelle” Drawing 1 of 1

Aachen Cathedral

Pen and ink, approx. ? × ? cm (image only).
The editors of the Library Edition describe the image as a “nearly full‐page one of a large Continental church” (Ruskin, Works, 2:350 n. 2). The drawing is in the manner of Samuel Prout (1783–1852); the nearly full‐page vertical image suggests the large scale of Proutʼs lithographs in Facsimiles of Sketches Made in Flanders and Germany.
Despite the uncertainty expressed by the editors of the Library Edition, the building depicted seems clearly enough intended to represent Aachen Cathedral, although Ruskin distorted the proportions of the building, making it seem more vertical than broad, by over‐emphasizing the Gothic structures that encircle the Carolingian. Ruskin orients the viewer from the southwest. On the left of the drawing, rises the cathedralʼs distinctive octagonal Palatine Chapel (which Ruskin represents as too narrow and spire‐like), capped by its baroque cupola. Outside the frame on the left, he has omitted from view the cathedralʼs west‐work (the neo‐Gothic tower that presently defines the western end was added to the Carolingian base in 1879–84). On the right of the drawing extends the fifteenth‐century choir.
Pen and ink, approx. ? × ? cm (image only).
The editors of the Library Edition describe the image as a “nearly full‐page one of a large Continental church” (Ruskin, Works, 2:350 n. 2). The drawing is in the manner of Samuel Prout (1783–1852); the nearly full‐page vertical image suggests the large scale of Proutʼs lithographs in Facsimiles of Sketches Made in Flanders and Germany.
Despite the uncertainty expressed by the editors of the Library Edition, the building depicted seems clearly enough intended to represent Aachen Cathedral, although Ruskin distorted the proportions of the building, making it seem more vertical than broad, by over‐emphasizing the Gothic structures that encircle the Carolingian. Ruskin orients the viewer from the southwest. On the left of the drawing, rises the cathedralʼs distinctive octagonal Palatine Chapel (which Ruskin represents as too narrow and spire‐like), capped by its baroque cupola. Outside the frame on the left, he has omitted from view the cathedralʼs west‐work (the neo‐Gothic tower that presently defines the western end was added to the Carolingian base in 1879–84). On the right of the drawing extends the fifteenth‐century choir.