Carla Bartolomucci
RA
pagina a fronte Fig. 1 W. Turner, Mer de Glace, 1812 (©Tate London, Creative Commons CC-BY-NCND 3.0) in <https:// www.tate.org.uk/art/ artworks/turner-merde-glace-a01011> [29/06/2019].
Con il testo tra virgolette Ruskin si riferisce a: «the mountains and high places do not mar its beauty, nor want their use, where the beasts have a shelter provided» (Robert Fleming, The fullfilling of the Scripture, 1726, p. 133). 2 R. Giuseppe, John Ruskin e le origini della moderna teoria del restauro, «Restauro», a. 3, n. 13-14, 1974, pp. 13-73. 3 A. Malcolm, The Emotional Truth of Mountains: Ruskin and J.M.W. Turner, «Caliban», 23, 2008, pp. 21-28, <https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/1088> [21/05/2019]; L. Roussillon-Constanty, In Sight of Mont Blanc: an Approach to Ruskin’s Perception of the Mountain, «Caliban», 23, pp. 2008, pp. 37-44, <https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/1098> [19/06/2019]. 4 Vedi le mostre: John Ruskin e le Alpi (Torino 1990), Le sentiment de la montagne (Grenoble 1998) e diversi articoli (F. Dentice, I 1
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John Ruskin e le “Cattedrali della Terra”: le montagne come monumento Carla Bartolomucci | carla.bartolomucci@univaq.it Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile-Architettura, Ambientale Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
Abstract John Ruskin frequented the Alps throughout all his life and wrote many works on mountains, giving a relevant contribution to the interest developed with the Grand Tour and the discovery of glaciers already since the 18th century. His definition of mountains as “cathedrals of the earth” effectively indicates the magnificence, but also the perception of mountains seen as a natural monument – hence the need for protection. Ruskin’s attention reveals a sensitivity that goes beyond the Romantic feeling for landscape, expressing very modern concepts on the defence of the mountain environment; he told with singular premonition about the risks caused by tourism. Moreover, in his writings a special link appears between mountains attraction and his way of seeing art and architecture: Ruskin meticulously observed forms, structures, materials, degradation. He studied the geological formations as “constructions” and represented them in drawings, paintings and suggestive literary descriptions. Mountains become with Ruskin a veritable “monument” to be safeguarded, so much so he explicitly dedicated to them some of his lessons at Oxford University. Parole chiave Paesaggio montano, valore monumentale, storia, tutela, restauro
[The mountains] seem to have been built for the human race, as at once their schools and cathedrals; full of treasures of illuminated manuscript for the scholar, kindly in simple lessons to the worker, quiet in pale cloisters for the thinker, glorious in holiness for the worshipper. And of these great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock, pavements of cloud, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple traversed by the continual stars, […] “They are inhabited by the Beasts”1 J. Ruskin, Of Mountain Beauty (1856), in “Works”, vol. 6, cap. XX: The mountain glory, p. 425
Introduzione L’interesse di Ruskin per le montagne, rilevato già da tempo2, è stato finora considerato perlopiù dalla critica d’arte per le considerazioni sull’estetica del paesaggio mon-