Carrara has a history of marble and art documented since the Etruscans and the Romans. The British included Carrara in their handbooks for travellers in Northern Italy. Dickens visited Carrara in January 1845, and included his account of the quarries and the studii in "Pictures from Italy", published in 1846. The plenary lecture analyses Dickens's response to the sublime landscape of the marble quarries in Carrara, setting a specific focus on the cruel condition of the oxen that had to transport immense blocks from the quarries to the town. Typically, Dickens's description is at once realistic and infused with fantasy overtones deriving from the "Arabian Nights" and the history of the rock bird in the Travels of Sinbad the Sailor. The quarries are marked by the blood of the animals and they look like a valley full of diamonds and snakes. The landscape is indeed sublime. Down in Carrara, the artists studii are full of statues, especially imitation of famous masterpieces by Canova and other artists of the past. This kind of environment shows a quality of beauty made cheap by the imitations. The lecture also takes into consideration the reactions to Carrara in texts by John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Gabriele d'Annunzio, and Antonio Stoppani. The dichotomy remarked by Dickens between the cruel hard work on the peaks and the cheap beauty of most productions will also characterise further descriptions.

Dickens in Carrara: Blood on the Tracks / F. Orestano. ((Intervento presentato al convegno Dickens Fellowship Annual Conference “Dickens, art and landscape” tenutosi a Carrara nel 2017.

Dickens in Carrara: Blood on the Tracks

F. Orestano
2017

Abstract

Carrara has a history of marble and art documented since the Etruscans and the Romans. The British included Carrara in their handbooks for travellers in Northern Italy. Dickens visited Carrara in January 1845, and included his account of the quarries and the studii in "Pictures from Italy", published in 1846. The plenary lecture analyses Dickens's response to the sublime landscape of the marble quarries in Carrara, setting a specific focus on the cruel condition of the oxen that had to transport immense blocks from the quarries to the town. Typically, Dickens's description is at once realistic and infused with fantasy overtones deriving from the "Arabian Nights" and the history of the rock bird in the Travels of Sinbad the Sailor. The quarries are marked by the blood of the animals and they look like a valley full of diamonds and snakes. The landscape is indeed sublime. Down in Carrara, the artists studii are full of statues, especially imitation of famous masterpieces by Canova and other artists of the past. This kind of environment shows a quality of beauty made cheap by the imitations. The lecture also takes into consideration the reactions to Carrara in texts by John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Gabriele d'Annunzio, and Antonio Stoppani. The dichotomy remarked by Dickens between the cruel hard work on the peaks and the cheap beauty of most productions will also characterise further descriptions.
20-lug-2017
Dickens; Victorian Literature; art
Settore L-LIN/10 - Letteratura Inglese
Dickens Fellowship
Università degli Studi di Milano
http://www.dickenscarrara.it/programma/
Dickens in Carrara: Blood on the Tracks / F. Orestano. ((Intervento presentato al convegno Dickens Fellowship Annual Conference “Dickens, art and landscape” tenutosi a Carrara nel 2017.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/521878
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