Aventuras italianas 1835-1837. Los primeros viajes en Italia de Ruskin y Viollet-le-Duc.

Comparing John Ruskin and Viollet le Duc to highlight their opposing approaches to protecting the past is frequent when reading about them and is indeed valid and effective. Here we take this approach, moving along with their travels in Italy which also have never been compared. Interpreting preservation as conservation and maintenance on one hand, or restoration and repair on the other are the opposing strategies upheld by these two authoritative figures in European cultural attitudes to restoration in the mid-19th century. Focusing on the 1830s, and their first visits to Italy – not yet studied in parallel – implies grasping how their experience of architecture, landscape, and Italian society influenced their later reflections on conservation. Here we examine the impact on their contemporaries and future generations of the concept of the ‘monument’ as a lasting object that can be repaired and perfected, or an animated one, reflecting its time and the nature of the places and local traditions. The aim is to highlight the impact on contemporary and future generations of a concept of the ‘monument’ as a lasting object that can be repaired and perfected, rather than a ‘live’ one, because it is marked by time, and conditioned by the nature of the places and local traditions.