"Restoration. It means the most total destruction which a building can suffer”. John Ruskin contro il restauro

The restoration, writes John Ruskin in the famous aphorism 31 of the Lamp of memory is “a destruction out of which no remnants can be gathered”. What are the remains Ruskin talks about? Certainly the material remains of the architecture: the stones, the mosaics, the paintings, the sculptures. But are these the only “remnants” that the past entrusts to us? Ruskin adds a reference to the spirit of the builder: “that spirit which is given only by the hand and eye of the workman, never can be recalled”. What is the relationship between matter and spirit? How does the spirit manifest itself to our gaze and make itself recognized? And, again, how come the restoration destroys it? We often tend to interpret Ruskin’s words by crushing them on a purely symbolic and allegorical level. The article will deepen these passages through the reading of Ruskin’s texts to highlight once again the fact that Ruskin’s thought on conservation does not come from a purely aesthetic but above all gnoseological attitude.