“Sólo para obtener información”: John Ruskin y la arqueología de la arquitectura

Abstract

This article positions one episode in the life of British art critic John Ruskin as a transition from Romanticism to Modernism in microcosm. Between 1845 and 1849, his textual, artistic and archival practices underwent a complete transformation. His iterative process of seeing, interpreting and drawing moved away from practices associated with the Picturesque into modes associated with contemporary antiquarianism. His project, to record the details of Venetian architecture in minute detail before they were lost to restoration, forced Ruskin to engage in different ways with concepts he had already begun to explore: notions of truth, life and labour, which would profoundly influence his future role as a self-declared prophet.