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FICTIONS OF EMBASSY: LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE

FICTIONS OF EMBASSY: LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE COMPARATIVE LITERATURE / 112 elaborates the critical, editorial, and aesthetic problems occasioning a need for the change he proposes. The first half of Securing the Past reviews controversies related to the conservation and preservation of buildings and paintings. John Ruskin, who abhorred all attempts at restoration and preferred his medieval ruins unmolested by the aesthetic impositions of those seeking to reconstruct their notion of the “original,” serves as a stimulus for Eggert’s lucid critique of the problems incumbent in the curation of any structure. In this regard, Eggert is equally at home in discussing buildings in England, France, the U.S., and his native Australia. One might argue against Ruskin that a deeper understanding of the aesthetics of a period would more intelligently inform conservation practices, and this view is generally what conservators now assume, but for Eggert (and Ruskin) this aesthetic approach does not address the problem that a period’s aesthetics is derived through our interpretation of it. Moreover, this problem is compounded by the failure to confront a fundamental dilemma, about which the difference between the conservation of a building and the editing of a book is instructive. The fabric of a building is like the document http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

FICTIONS OF EMBASSY: LITERATURE AND DIPLOMACY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE

Mac Phail, Eric M.
Comparative Literature , Volume 63 (1) – Jan 1, 2011
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2011 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/00104124-1125331
Publisher site
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Abstract

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE / 112 elaborates the critical, editorial, and aesthetic problems occasioning a need for the change he proposes. The first half of Securing the Past reviews controversies related to the conservation and preservation of buildings and paintings. John Ruskin, who abhorred all attempts at restoration and preferred his medieval ruins unmolested by the aesthetic impositions of those seeking to reconstruct their notion of the “original,” serves as a stimulus for Eggert’s lucid critique of the problems incumbent in the curation of any structure. In this regard, Eggert is equally at home in discussing buildings in England, France, the U.S., and his native Australia. One might argue against Ruskin that a deeper understanding of the aesthetics of a period would more intelligently inform conservation practices, and this view is generally what conservators now assume, but for Eggert (and Ruskin) this aesthetic approach does not address the problem that a period’s aesthetics is derived through our interpretation of it. Moreover, this problem is compounded by the failure to confront a fundamental dilemma, about which the difference between the conservation of a building and the editing of a book is instructive. The fabric of a building is like the document

Journal

Comparative Literature – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2011

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