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This paper reconstructs Ruskin's work from the perspective of the landscape, building upon the assumption that Modern Painters played a cardinal role in the emancipation of the genre. This reconstruction is complicated by the internal contradictions within the work: it cannot be regarded as a systematic work of philosophy, but belongs rather to the genre of sage writing. In volume I, Ruskin approached the landscape not from an aesthetic point of view, but from the direction of scientific truth. The aesthetic consequence of this was his anti-mimetic attitude, which differentiated between the imitation of nature and the uncovering of the truths of nature, and in this respect, he considered Turner the greatest master who had ever lived. Truth takes precedence over all aesthetic considerations, and for this reason Ruskin was resolutely against artistic tradition. Seen from his perspective, the history of landscape painting appeared as a series of scientific illustrations, which, with the forward march of science, came ever closer to truth-to-nature. The other two essential conditions of art, the other side of truth, were its moral and religious messages. Beauty is the work of God, and God must be praised in His work, in Nature. Only later did Ruskin introduce a historical dimension to the experience of the landscape. The modem era is characterised by the rise of the pre-eminent interest in the landscape, accompanied by a parallel decreasing interest in gods, saints, ancestors and humans. This later became the main motif of Ruskin's activities as a social critic and reformer. In relation to the loss of faith and the prospect of regaining it, Ruskin saw landscape painting as the representative art of the modern era. In the later volumes of Modem Painters, Ruskin carefully distinguished between the task of science, which is to investigate the essence and uncover the truths of material nature, and the task of art, which is to explore the possible viewpoints or aspects of material nature. In volume V of Modem Painters he firmly asserted - in diametric contradiction to his earlier views - that the greatness and truth of Turner did not rest on scientific truth, for in this respect the artist was completely ignorant. This paper interprets and evaluates Ruskin's extraordinarily harsh criticism of Claude Lorrain, which contrasts with the fact that Turner spent almost his entire life idolising and attempting to rival Claude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Edward Gordon Craig and W. B. Yeats's early work for the stage bears the clear influence of English landscape artist J. M. W. Turner as he was viewed by Victorian art critic John Ruskin. The article traces this influence as it unfolds during the first decade of the twentieth century when Craig and Yeats's leave behind theatrical realism for a more dramatic use of light and shade on stage, realised as part of an architectonic concept that was suffused with transcendental symbolism. Among other plays, Dido and Aeneas, The Vikings at Helgeland, The Shadowy Waters and The Hour-Glass are studied against Turner's The Old Téméraire and The Slave Ship as they had been evaluated in Ruskin's Modern Painters. Finally, Craig and Yeats's scenic ideals are compared to those of European theatre-makers Adolphe Appia and Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, who set out to re-think and revise the grandiose scenic concepts of German composer Richard Wagner. The article argues that Craig and Yeats's mission during this decade was to realise what came to be termed the "Theatre of Mood". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Dans sa biographie, Praeterita, John Ruskin décrit son premier aperçu des Alpes comme "not only the revelation of the beauty of the earth, but the opening of the first page of its volume" (XXXV. 116), établissant d’emblée un lien entre expérience et écriture, appréhension physique et méditation poétique, spectacle naturel et interprétation symbolique. Grand admirateur de Wordsworth, il prend soin par la suite de faire précéder chaque section de Modern Painters d’extraits de The Excursion, se faisant ainsi l’héritier d’une tradition romantique pour laquelle la montagne est le lieu privilégié de l’expression du sujet lyrique et le reflet d’une intériorité sans cesse en mouvement. Au fil de la plume, et à mesure que les découvertes géologiques et scientifiques nourrissent sa pensée, Ruskin s’éloigne cependant du romantisme et offre la vision d’un paysage déchiré, miroir d’une société en criseDans cette présentation, il s’agira d’analyser la façon dont Ruskin aborde la montagne sous un angle esthétique, mais également scientifique. A travers quelques exemples concrets d’esquisses et de descriptions de tableaux de Claude ou de Turner, nous verrons comment le regard du critique évolue et produit une vision changeante de la montagne, de simple objet d’étude à véritable métaphore de l’être humain more...

Mountains, that had been objects of indifference, fear, or even terror and loathing until the mid-18th century, became literary and pictorial subjects in their own right from the Romantic period onwards, especially in the wake of Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Héloïse (1761)—that radically changed the approach to nature—, and the first ascents of Mont Blanc in the 1780s that marked the beginning of Alpine tourism, and turned Chamonix (and later the Swiss Alps) into indispensable features of the "Grand Tour". We shall see the various—and sometimes complementary and converging—approaches to mountains from the late 18th century on: those emphasizing their pristine, Edenic nature; those extolling their power, sublimity and elemental violence, Turner’s paintings being emblematic in this respect : and those bringing out their divine essence, their sacred and holy quality. The corpus will mainly pertain to the latter category and through the study of Novalis, De Quincey, Ruskin, and Caspar David Friedrich’s paintings, we shall discover stories of birth and rebirth, regeneration and redemption. In the works of these authors, mountains—whether real or merely imaginary, whether the results of experience or pure fantasy—are nevertheless the locus of intense epiphanies leading to the advent of the self as true individual and artist more...

Graphic arts are not the only arts based on images: fiction (Gothic novels in particular) uses images which arouse comparable emotions. The object of this paper is to liken a number of set subjects typical of Gothic fiction to Turner’s use of the mezzotint technique in his Liber Studiorum. His engraved plates representing the St Gothard pass or Mont Cenis look as though they were illustrations of a number of passages of The Mysteries of Udolpho in which Ann Radcliffe describes mountains. The Via Mala and the "Devil’s Bridge" could be seen as graphic interpretations of certain scenes in The Italian or in Lewis’s Monk. The mezzotint technique, based on the progressive introduction of light on a copper plate which has been uniformly blackened, can be seen as a powerful metaphor of Gothic writing, because of its insistence on the dark side of people and nature, on "mountain gloom" and "mountain glory" more...

This article examines critical responses to J. M. W. Turner's Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying --Typhon Coming On (1840) and John Ruskin's 1843 critique of the painting, in the years following the publication of David Dabydeen's Turner (1994). The representation of drowning slaves in Turner's painting and in Ruskin's art criticism, has resulted in the emergence of something of a critical consensus in which both figures are seen either to neglect or take pleasure in the subject of slavery. The purpose of this article is to explore available evidence and to argue that insufficient attention has been paid to Turner's painting, to his politics and to his purpose in Slavers; to Ruskin's objectives in critiquing Turner; to distinctions between Ruskin's imperialism and his position on slavery; and to his examination of Turner's painting. In a corrective to recent critical assumptions, I suggest that in these instances claims made on these issues often rest on shaky foundations and that it is possible for more sustainable readings of Turner's painting and Ruskin's criticism to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

The article examines the painting titled "Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhon Coming On," by J. M. W Turner relative to the poem "Turner" by David Dabydeen. The author explored some of the contexts surrounding the painting before critically assessing Dabydeen's poetic reaction and representation of Turner and his painting. more...