Why did John Ruskin think Renaissance architecture marked Venice’s decline?

In his influential treatise The Stones of Venice, John Ruskin argued that the rise of Renaissance architecture signaled a profound decline in Venetian society. He contended that while Gothic architecture served as a pure expression of national faith and domestic virtue, the Renaissance style represented "concealed national infidelity" and "domestic corruption."1

Ruskin viewed art and architecture as direct reflections of the social and moral conditions of their time. He characterized the transition to the Renaissance as a fall from a medieval "Eden," associating the new architectural style with impiety, arrogance, and a shift toward political impotence and social frivolity. By contrasting the creative freedom and artistic fulfillment found in Gothic craftsmanship with the mechanical regularity of later styles, Ruskin used architectural history as a moral polemic to critique the values he believed the Renaissance movement embodied.2