wouldn't worry about the hijack - I think this one fell off the rails some way back. good to know, then, that here on the Board we're still aiming high Kevin, and that we can hold our own with the museum

There are few specific pieces in the gallery that I recall, it all looks so striking - some of the pate de vere with lizards etc., and the Daum and Lalique plus some cut glass, but have to say I don't remember seeing the jug you mention ............ perhaps they didn't think it was up to their usual standard.
regret I'm no expert on Ruskin - he may well have commented on Botticelli in the way you mention - perhaps this is mentioned somewhere in his 'Stones of Venice' do you think? Botticelli definitely a genius and warrants adulation - the set piece of his Birth of Venus must have been hijacked as many times as any other historic image........... unfortunately, the two most well known of his works ... Primavera and Birth of Venus are prevented by the Uffizi from leaving Florence - I nearly asked for a refund.