Visionary, Prophet, Preacher: the relationship between figuration and narration in the models of artistic and architectural creativity described by John Ruskin

The studies devoted to the influence exerted by John Ruskin on architecture in his time and in the following century focused mainly on the Gothic question, on the problem of restoration and on the relationship between image and structure or, more precisely, on the discussion concerning a Ruskinian interest in architecture limited to the surface image or extended to the constructive aspects, and, in general, to the more specifically disciplinary topics in spite of his not being an architect. Less attention has been paid to a subject that is discussed in his work with great lucidity and offers a solid theoretical structure – with immediate operational results – for a change under way in the second half of the 19th century: the model, or rather the different models, of artistic and architectural creativity.