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ABSTRACTS
Laura Gilli, John Ruskin: Decadence and Untruth of Architecture Ruskin, Venice and 19th Century Cultural Travel, Venice, 25th to 27th September, 2008, Ruskin Centre at Lancaster University and the Department of European and Postcolonial Studies of University of Ca' Foscari Venice The connection between Decadence and Truth of art shows itself to be a main heuristic instrument to understand the thought of John Ruskin. The notion of Decadence is always present in his work, as an essential concept both in literature – about ‘grand style’ – and in his speech about visual arts, where there is the attempt to struggle against the mediocrity and the coarseness prevailing in the Victorian Age. The idea of Decadence shows its complexity especially in the pages dedicated to architecture, in The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Modern Painters and The Stones of Venice, where the analysis of Venetian art leads the author to attractive reflections: then, the lagoon city is fundamental to understand the Aesthetics of Ruskin. Architecture is a privileged field because it is a point of intersection between individual and collectivity, the human and the divine; it is the sphere where the address about the relation between conceiving and executing, memory and civilization develops and the importance of ornament emerges: these central issues of Ruskin’s Aesthetics blend in the link between Decadence and Truth. The notion of Decadence and Truth is stratified: it is about the ontological statute of artistic work, the artist’s mission, the distinction between authentic and unauthentic art and the struggle against contemporary squalor. The ideal of Beauty is indissolubly connected with Truth: according to Ruskin, there isn’t beauty without truth. Consequently, the guide of artist is Truth, while the model of Truth is only in the Nature. Art is not independent, but it is subjected to the natural paradigm. In particular, the architect has to reproduce in his work those laws which regulate the Universe, as the architectural order is the reflection of the heavenly order: thus, Architecture results to be the union between the human and the divine, because it reflects the universal order created by God. Ruskin deals with the notion of ‘order’, which is near from the idea of κόσµος, as it is shown in Aristotele’s De Caelo, which indicates a harmonious and regulated totality. In the Renaissance, contrarily, Art is subjected to Science's authority and believes that the essence of Universe is a mathematic thing: thus, the Renaissance art is decadent, as it does not acknowledge the true essence of Universe. Therefore, Ruskin thinks that Decadence is a removal from Truth. On the contrary, Gothic as he writes in The Stones of Venice can reflect the liveliness of reality. Artistic decadence is also decadence of customs and removal from Truth in every manner: contemporary world forgets Truth and Beauty, so it does not understand not only the essence of universe, but also most of all the essence of human beings. Contemporary decadence condemns humans to live a deprived and undignified existence. Instead, in the Gothic capitals in Venice Ruskin read the development of an art that reaches the essence of Being, mirror of a society that respects human being and his work. In the speech of Gothic, there is the question of architectural decoration. Decoration represents the essence of Architecture as art: architecture is a mere construction without ornament. In addition, ornament, an