“On far mont Rose the sun is red” (MS IA, g.2; Poems [1891]; Works [1903])—Monte Rosa, the second‐highest mountain in the Alps, after Mont Blanc, lies to the northwest of Milan, its peaks reflecting the color of the setting sun.

“Relieved” (MS IA, g.2; Poems [1891]; Works [1903])—Adjectival use of the participle of the verb relieve, used here in a rare figurative sense, “to stand out in relief” or “to bring into relief”, which the Oxford English Dictionary traces to eighteenth‐century commentary on painting, as in examples from a 1795 treatise on painting in oils, and from Joshua Reynoldsʼs (1723–92) Discourses (1769–90): “To Ariadne is given (say the criticks) a red scarf, to relieve the figure from the sea, which is behind her” (Reynolds, Discourses [1797], 1:183 [Discourse 8]). Mary Richardson, obviously copying information from a guidebook during the journey through , uses the Italian term alti relievi to describe sculpture. The dictionary also cites a later instance from Ruskin himself, in The Stones of Venice: “I drove on to Brentford, and walked over Kew Bridge; the twilight relieving in purple masses the foliage on the Island above it” (preface to third edition [1874], Ruskin, Works, 9:12). (See “relieve, v.”, OED Online, accessed 16 January 2015; Diary of Mary Richardson, 1833, 52.) Ruskin began learning oil painting from his drawing master, Charles Runciman, in 1832; see Charles Runciman (1798–1864).

“Full many a spiry pinnacle, / . . . / Each with his sculptured statue prest / They seem to stand in that thin air / As on a thread of Gossamer” (MS IA, g.2; Poems [1891]; Works [1903])— Ruskin refers to the many spires of the Milan Duomo, which are fretted with ornament and topped with statues. As noted in the diary of his cousin, Mary Richardson, she, John, amd John James braved the 486 steps to the top of the cathedral where, according to Mariana Starke in her 1833 guidebook, “the spiry fret‐work, carving, and sculpture can be viewed to advantage” (Starke, Travels in Europe, 48; Diary of Mary Richardson, 1833, 47).

As viewed by the Ruskins in 1833, the Gothic exterior of the cathedral remained an ongoing project. As Starke explained, the Duomoʼs “Gothic Edifice of white marble [was] begun in the year 1386; but the exterior was left unfinished till the reign of Napoleon, who ordered it to be completed after the designs of [Carlo] Amati [1776–1852]: and though much has been accomplished, much still remained undone when the Emperor of Austria [i.e., Francis I, formerly Holy Roman Emperor Francis II] resumed the government of the Milanese; it is said, however, that Napoleonʼs plan will still be followed” (Starke, Travels in Europe, 48). Napoleon gave the order for completion of the facade in 1805, when the cathedral provided the setting for his coronation as king of Italy. The resulting Kingdom of Italy ended the brief life of the Napoleonic Cisalpine Republic, of which Bonaparte (as First Consul of France) had served as titular head. Having been declared emperor of France in 1804, Bonaparte reduced Italy to a satellite kingdom, delegating practical matters of government to his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais (1781–1824), but promising that he would not unite the iron crown of Lombardy with the crown of France (Gregory, Napoleonʼs Italy, 65–67). For Napoleonʼs attempts to impress the stamp of imperial government on Milanʼs neoclassical as well as gothic architecture—monuments that the Ruskins also sought out during their visit to the city—see Neoclassical and Napoleonic‐Era Architecture in Milan.