The Alps

The article deals with John Ruskin's frequent journeys to the Alps and the relevance of the work that stemmed from that experience. Ruskin substantially contributed to the myth of the Alps that shaped the imagination and travel habits of the Victorians. Embedded within his massive corpus a composite work is devoted to the Swiss, French, Italian chain: mountains are the ground of his enquiries on vision, on drawing, on architecture, on society, on geology, on mineralogy, on theology. In each work mountains fulfil some specific functions and meanings, but also develop and change in significance. Ruskin particularly cherished in his late years the Alps as a symbolical place and a ‘home’ and they are extensively present in his autobiography, Praeterita.