Loggia of the Ducal Palace, Venice 1849-50 John Ruskin British Ruskin painstakingly depicted the shafts, capitals, and ogival lacework of Venice's most famous Gothic loggia. The red tinge to the first two shafts comes from the use of a different colored marble to mark the place from which sentences of death were proclaimed. Through the loggia, Saint Mark's Basilica is visible. Ruskin, one of the most influential voices in the nineteenth-century art world, had a lasting love for Venice; among his most influential writings was a lengthy study of its history and architecture, The Stones of Venice (1851-53). His impassioned advocacy of the Venetian Gothic was a significant source for Gothic Revival architecture.. Loggia of the Ducal Palace, Venice 342383