罗斯金的主题

罗斯金研究了意大利北部的建筑。他观察了维罗纳的圣费尔莫拱门，拱门“由细石制成，镶有一圈红砖，整个拱门都经过精心雕琢和精确装配。”*罗斯金注意到威尼斯哥特式宫殿的相同之处，但这是一个相同而不同的地方。与今天郊区的科德角不同，建筑细节不是在他所描绘的中世纪城镇制造或预制的。罗斯金说,

"...the forms and mode of decoration of all the features were universally alike; not servilely alike, but fraternally; not with the sameness of coins cast from one mould, but with the likeness of the members of one family." — Section XLVI, Chapter VII Gothic Palaces, 威尼斯之石，第二卷

*第七章第三十六节

对机器大发雷霆

在他的一生中，罗斯金将工业化的英国景观与中世纪城市伟大的哥特式建筑进行了比较。人们只能想象罗斯金会怎么说今天的工程木材或乙烯基壁板。罗斯金说,

"It is only good for God to create without toil; that which man can create without toil is worthless: machine ornaments are no ornaments at all." — Appendix 17, 威尼斯之石，第一卷

工业时代人的非人性化

今天鼓励谁去思考？罗斯金承认，一个人可以像机器一样，被训练去生产完美、快速制造的产品。但我们想让人类变成机械人吗？在我们今天的商业和工业中，思考有多危险？罗斯金说,

"Understand this clearly: You can teach a man to draw a straight line, and to cut one; to strike a curved line, and to carve it; and to copy and carve any number of given lines or forms, with admirable speed and perfect precision; and you find his work perfect of its kind: but if you ask him to think about any of those forms, to consider if he cannot find any better in his own head, he stops; his execution becomes hesitating; he thinks, and ten to one he thinks wrong; ten to one he makes a mistake in the first touch he gives to his work as a thinking being. But you have made a man of him for all that. He was only a machine before, an animated tool." — Section XI, Chapter VI - The Nature of Gothic, 威尼斯之石，第二卷

什么是建筑学(architecture)？

回答“什么是建筑？”这一问题并非易事。约翰·罗斯金一生都在表达自己的观点，用人类的术语定义建筑环境。罗斯金说,

"Architecture is the art which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by man for whatsoever uses, that the sight of them contributes to his mental health, power and pleasure." — Section I, Chapter I The Lamp of Sacrifice, 建筑的七盏灯

尊重环境、自然形态和当地材料

今天的绿色建筑和绿色设计是一些开发者的事后想法。对约翰·罗斯金来说，自然形态就是一切。罗斯金说,

"...for whatever is in architecture fair or beautiful, is imitated from natural forms....An architect should live as little in cities as a painter. Send him to our hills, and let him study there what nature understands by a buttress, and what by a dome." — Sections II and XXIV, Chapter III The Lamp of Power, 建筑的七盏灯

维罗纳的罗斯金：手工制作的艺术性和诚实性

1849年，作为一个年轻人，罗斯金在他最重要的著作《建筑的七盏灯》中的“真理之灯”一章中对铸铁装饰进行了抨击。罗斯金是如何形成这些信念的？

年轻时，约翰·罗斯金（John Ruskin）随家人前往欧洲大陆，这是他成年后一直坚持的一种习俗。旅行是一段观察建筑、素描和绘画并继续写作的时间。在研究意大利北部城市威尼斯和维罗纳时，罗斯金意识到他在建筑中看到的美是由人的手创造的。罗斯金说,

"The iron is always wrought, not cast, beaten first into thin leaves, and then cut either into strips or bands, two or three inches broad, which are bent into various curves to form the sides of the balcony, or else into actual leafage, sweeping and free, like the leaves of nature, with which it is richly decorated. There is no end to the variety of design, no limit to the lightness and flow of the forms, which the workman can produce out of iron treated in this manner; and it is very nearly as impossible for any metal-work, so handled, to be poor, or ignoble in effect, as it is for cast metal-work to be otherwise." — Section XXII, Chapter VII Gothic Palaces, 威尼斯之石第二卷

罗斯金对手工艺品的赞誉不仅影响了艺术和艺术；手工艺运动，但也继续普及工匠风格的房子和家具，如Stickley。

罗斯金对机器的愤怒

约翰·罗斯金（John Ruskin）在铸铁建筑的爆炸式流行期间生活和写作，这是一个他鄙视的人造世界。当他还是个孩子的时候，他曾画过维罗纳的埃尔贝广场（Piazza dele Erbe），这里展示了这座广场，他还记得熟铁和石雕阳台的美丽。玛菲宫顶上的石头栏杆和凿制的神像对罗斯金、建筑和装饰来说都是有价值的细节，是由人而不是机器制作的。

罗斯金在《真理之灯》一书中写道：“因为这不是物质，而是人类劳动的缺失，使事物变得毫无价值。他最常见的例子是：

铸铁上的拉斯金

"But I believe no cause to have been more active in the degradation of our natural feeling for beauty, than the constant use of cast iron ornaments. The common iron work of the middle ages was as simple as it was effective, composed of leafage cut flat out of sheet iron, and twisted at the workman's will. No ornaments, on the contrary, are so cold, clumsy, and vulgar, so essentially incapable of a fine line, or shadow, as those of cast iron....there is no hope of the progress of the arts of any nation which indulges in these vulgar and cheap substitutes for real decoration." — Section XX, Chapter II The Lamp of Truth, 建筑的七盏灯

玻璃上的罗斯金

"Our modern glass is exquisitely clear in its substance, true in its form, accurate in its cutting. We are proud of this. We ought to be ashamed of it. The old Venice glass was muddy, inaccurate in all its forms, and clumsily cut, if at all. And the old Venetian was justly proud of it. For there is this difference between the English and Venetian workman, that the former thinks only of accurately matching his patterns, and getting his curves perfectly true and his edges perfectly sharp, and becomes a mere machine for rounding curves and sharpening edges, while the old Venetian cared not a whit whether his edges were sharp or not, but he invented a new design for every glass that he made, and never moulded a handle or a lip without a new fancy in it. And therefore, though some Venetian glass is ugly and clumsy enough, when made by clumsy and uninventive workmen, other Venetian glass is so lovely in its forms that no price is too great for it; and we never see the same form in it twice. Now you cannot have the finish and the varied form too. If the workman is thinking about his edges, he cannot be thinking of his design; if of his design, he cannot think of his edges. Choose whether you will pay for the lovely form or the perfect finish, and choose at the same moment whether you will make the worker a man or a grindstone." — Section XX, Chapter VI The Nature of Gothic, 威尼斯之石第二卷

工业时代人的非人性化

批评家约翰·罗斯金的作品影响了19世纪和20世纪的社会和劳工运动。罗斯金并没有活着看到亨利·福特的装配线，但他预测，不受约束的机械化将导致劳动力专业化。在我们自己的时代，我们想知道，如果要求建筑师只执行一项数字任务，无论是在有计算机的工作室还是在有激光束的项目现场，建筑师的创造力和创造力是否会受到影响。罗斯金说,

"We have much studied and much perfected, of late, the great civilized invention of the division of labor; only we give it a false name. It is not, truly speaking, the labor that is divided; but the men: — Divided into mere segments of men — broken into small fragments and crumbs of life; so that all the little piece of intelligence that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself in making the point of a pin, or the head of a nail. Now it is a good and desirable thing, truly, to make many pins in a day; but if we could only see with what crystal sand their points were polished — sand of human soul, much to be magnified before it can be discerned for what it is — we should think there might be some loss in it also. And the great cry that rises from all our manufacturing cities, louder than their furnace blast, is all in very deed for this — that we manufacture everything there except men; we blanch cotton, and strengthen steel, and refine sugar, and shape pottery; but to brighten, to strengthen, to refine, or to form a single living spirit, never enters into our estimate of advantages."—Section XVI, Chapter VI The Nature of Gothic, 威尼斯之石，第二卷

约翰·罗斯金在五六十岁时，继续在每月的时事通讯中发表他的社会著作，这些通讯统称为《Fors Clavigera：致英国工人的信》。请参阅《罗斯金图书馆新闻》，下载1871年至1884年间罗斯金的大量小册子的PDF文件。在此期间，罗斯金还建立了圣乔治公会，这是一个实验性的乌托邦社会，类似于19世纪超验主义者建立的美国公社。这种“工业资本主义的替代品”今天可能被称为“嬉皮士公社”

来源：背景，圣乔治公会网站[于2015年2月9日访问]

什么是建筑：罗斯金的记忆之灯(architecture: ruskin's lamp of memory)？

在当今的垃圾社会，我们建造的建筑是经久耐用还是成本过高？我们能否创造持久的设计，并用自然材料建造，让子孙后代享受？今天的Blob建筑是精心制作的数字艺术，还是在以后的岁月里显得太傻了？

约翰·罗斯金在他的作品中不断地定义建筑。更具体地说，他写道，没有它，我们就记不起来，架构就是记忆。罗斯金说,

"For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, or in its gold. Its glory is in its Age, and in that deep sense of voicefulness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, even of approval or condemnation, which we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of humanity....it is in that golden stain of time, that we are to look for the real light, and color, and preciousness of architecture...." — Section X, The Lamp of Memory, 建筑的七盏灯

约翰·罗斯金的遗产

当今天的建筑师坐在他的计算机前，拖拽设计线就像（或比）在英国科尼斯顿河上跳过石头一样容易，约翰·罗斯金19世纪的作品让我们停下来思考——这是设计建筑吗？当任何一位批判哲学家允许我们分享人类的思想特权时，他的遗产就建立了。罗斯金还活着。

罗斯金的遗产

• 创造了复兴哥特式建筑的新兴趣
• 影响了工艺美术运动和手工工艺
• 从他关于工业时代人类非人性化的著作中，人们对社会改革和劳工运动产生了浓厚的兴趣

约翰·罗斯金在布兰特伍德度过了他最后的28年，他俯瞰着湖区的科尼斯顿。有人说他疯了或是得了痴呆症；许多人说，他后来的作品显示出一个麻烦的人的迹象。虽然他的个人生活刺激了一些21世纪的电影观众，但他的天才却影响了一个多世纪以来思想更严肃的人。罗斯金于1900年在他的家中去世，他的家现在是向坎布里亚游客开放的博物馆。

如果约翰·罗斯金的作品不能吸引现代观众，那么他的个人生活肯定会吸引。他的角色出现在一部关于英国画家J.M.W.特纳的电影中，还有一部关于他的妻子埃菲·格雷的电影。

• 特纳先生，迈克·利导演的电影（2014）
• 艾菲·格雷，理查德·拉克斯顿执导的电影（2014）
• 《约翰·罗斯金：迈克·利和艾玛·汤普森把他搞错了》，《卫报》菲利普·霍尔，2014年10月7日
• 罗伯特·布朗内尔的《不便婚姻》（2013）