Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“It is only by honest reverence for art itself, and by great self-respect in the practice of it, that it can be rescued from dilettantism.”
- Date
- 1856
Meaning of “It is only by honest reverence for art…”
Ruskin makes self-respect visible in workmanship: professional dignity comes from reverence for the work and serious standards in practice, not from chasing admiration or the social position of being called great.
Where does it come from?
Modern Painters, Volume III, Part IV, Chapter III, “Of the Real Nature of Greatness of Style,” section 3, printed page 26, Project Gutenberg #38923. Ruskin contrasts pursuing art to become a “great man” or attract admiration with honest reverence for art and self-respect in its practice, which he says can rescue art from dilettantism and fit it for service. This is nineteenth-century art-critical / vocational argument, not a modern organizational or occupational-health rule.
