In partnership with The Ruskin, Lancaster University – our much anticipated Blue Gallery Summer Exhibition opens Friday 3rd July.
Ruskin was one of the largest private collectors of minerals in 19th Century and gave invaluable collections to public institutions, schools and universities. With loans of remarkable specimens, Treasures of the Earth explores his love of stones and their profound meaning to him. The exhibition coincides with the publication of The Mineral World of John Ruskin by Roy Starkey. Roy will be giving a talk about his research during the exhibition and other related events are being planned over the Summer.
A World Rich in Treasures
Treasures of the Earth brings together for the first time some of Ruskin’s most precious minerals, many of which he donated to national and local institutions, including the famous Edwardes Ruby and the Somerville Regalia. The show explores the mineral riches of Ruskin’s collections, his contribution to the emerging science of mineralogy, and the spiritual interpretation he put upon them. There are important loans from a number of institutions including the Natural History Museum, Sheffield Museums and Galleries, and The John Rylands Librray, who are lending a 12th Century treasure binding of the New Testament.
Mankind has revered precious stones throughout history. Their ability to reflect and refract light, their hidden nature and the mystery of their formation, have imbued them with sacred qualities in the imagination of humanity. Ruskin’s knowledge of minerals and his interest in the scientific understanding of them was both up to date and informed; but he was also captivated by the symbolic meanings they embodied in our culture, and he pursued this in his writings and teaching. In parallel to his intellectual knowledge, he developed a personal mythology which drew richly on astrology, heraldry, folklore and art.
In The Laws of Fesole Ruskin introduces his concept of The Twelve Zodiacal Colours. These special colours are arranged in a circle of alternating wildflowers and gemstones. They form a rich and intense palette for the artist, composed of colours that symbolize the sacred blossoming of our world. In The Iris of the Earth – a chapter in Ruskin’s book Deucalion – he describes this circle of colour as the rainbow-coloured eye of the earth.
As a child growing up in London, young John Ruskin spent time playing in a small gravelly stream in the grounds of his house. Like so many young children, he modelled his world in miniature, and it was from this attention to small things that he built his understanding of the wider world. In later life Ruskin attributed his love of minerals to these intimate childhood experiences, and to his father’s gift of a small set of semi-precious stones. His father observed, ‘From Boyhood he has been artist, but he has been a geologist from Infancy’. The treasure store of nature was Ruskin’s great teacher.
The exhibition runs from 3rd July – 25th October 2026 in the Blue Gallery
With thanks to Sheffield Museums Trust (Collection of the Guild of St George), John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester, the Natural History Museum, London and Somerville College, University of Oxford for lending works to the exhibition.