Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T10:20:29.921Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Travel, Modernity and Rural Landscapes in Nineteenth-Century Liguria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2018

PIETRO PIANA ,
CHARLES WATKINS  and
ROSS BALZARETTI
PIETRO PIANA
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of [email protected]
CHARLES WATKINS
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of [email protected]
ROSS BALZARETTI
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

New roads and, later, railways were essential for the modernisation and rapid economic development of north-western Italy in the early nineteenth century. The new routes also encouraged an increasing number of foreign travellers to visit the region. They opened up fresh tracts of countryside and provided novel viewpoints and points of interest; many travellers took the opportunity to record these views with topographical drawings and watercolours. In this article we make use of some of these views to examine how the modernised transport routes released new places to be celebrated by tourists and became themselves features and objects of especial interest and comment. We examine the works of three artists, one English and two Italian, who depicted landscapes of contrasting rural Ligurian landscapes. Their drawings and prints are contextualised and interpreted with maps, field data, archival documents and contemporary descriptions of roads and railways by travellers and in guidebooks.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , October 2018 , pp. 167 - 193
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Black, Jeremy, Italy and the Grand Tour (New Haven and London, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brockedon, William, Traveller's Guide to Italy, or Road-Book from London to Naples (London, 1835)Google Scholar; R. Balzaretti, P. Piana and C. Watkins, ‘Travelling in Italy at Turner's Lifetime’, in David Blayney Brown, ed., Tate Research Publication (2015), <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/ross-balzaretti-pietro-piana-and-charles-watkins-travelling-in-italy-during-turners-r1176438>.

2. Barrell, John, The Dark Side of the Landscape: The Rural Poor in English Painting 1730–1840 (Cambridge, 1980)Google Scholar; Prince, Hugh, ‘Art and Agrarian Change’, in Cosgrove, D. and Daniels, S., eds, The Iconography of Landscape (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 98–118Google Scholar; Lowenthal, D., ‘British national identity and the English landscape’, Rural History, 2 (1991), 205–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Helland, J., ‘Locality and pleasure in landscape: a study of three nineteenth-century Scottish watercolourists’, Rural History, 8 (1997), 149–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3. Barrell, John, Edward Pugh of Ruthin 1763–1813: ‘A Native Artist’ (Cardiff, 2013)Google Scholar; Bonehill, John and Daniels, Stephen, eds, Paul Sandby, Picturing Britain (London, 2009)Google Scholar; Papone, Elisabetta and Serra, Andreana, eds, En plein air, Luigi Garibbo e il vedutismo tra Genova e Firenze (Genova, 2011)Google Scholar.

4. Calaresu, M., ‘From the street to stereotype: urban space, travel and the picturesque in late eighteenth-century Naples’, Italian Studies, 62 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Piana, P., Balzaretti, R., Moreno, D. and Watkins, C., ‘Topographical art and landscape history: Elizabeth Fanshawe (1779–1856) in early nineteenth-century Liguria’, Landscape History, 33 (2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Balzaretti, Piana and Watkins, ‘Travelling in Italy at Turner's Lifetime’.

5. von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, Italian Journey [1786–1788], trans. Auden, W. H. and Mayer, Elizabeth (1962, London, 1970), p. 217Google Scholar.

6. Jones, P. M., ‘Industrial enlightenment in practice: visitors to the Soho manufactory, 1765–1820’, Midland History, 33 (2000)Google Scholar; Macarthur, John, The Picturesque: Architecture, Disgust and Other Irregularities (London, 2007)Google Scholar; Watkins, Charles and Cowell, Ben, Uvedale Price (1747–1829): Decoding the Picturesque (Woodbridge, 2012)Google Scholar.

7. Bermingham, Anne, Learning to Draw (New Haven and London, 2000)Google Scholar.

8. Cevasco, Roberta, Memoria Verde: Un nuovo spazio per la geografia (Reggio Emilia, 2007)Google Scholar; Balzaretti, Ross, Pearce, Mark and Watkins, Charles, eds, Ligurian Landscapes: Studies in Archaeology, Geography and History (London, 2004)Google Scholar.

9. Bracewell, Wendy, ‘The Travellee's Eye: Reading European Travel Writing, 1750–1850’, in Kuehn, J. and Smethurst, P., eds, New Directions in Travel Writing Studies (2015, London), pp. 215–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Balzaretti, R., ‘Victorian travellers, Appennine landscapes and the development of cultural heritage in eastern Liguria’, History, 96 (2011), 436–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. Coppedè, Redoano Gino, Il sistema viario della Liguria nell'Età Moderna (Genova, 1989), p. 21Google Scholar.

11. Broers, M., ‘The myth and reality of Italian regionalism: a historical geography of Napoleonic Italy, 1801–1814’, American Historical Review, 108 (2003), 688–709CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Duggan, Christopher, The Force of Destiny: A History of Italy since 1796 (London 2007)Google Scholar; Howard, Edmund, Genoa: History and Art of an Old Seaport (Genova, 1978)Google Scholar.

12. See Schivelbusch, Wolfgang, The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century (Oakland, CA, 1979)Google Scholar; Revill, George, Railway (London, 2012)Google Scholar.

13. Cosgrove, D., ‘John Ruskin and the geographical imagination’, Geographical Review, 89 (1979), 43–62 (44)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Hunt, John Dixon, The Wider Sea: A Life of John Ruskin (London, 1982), p. 41Google Scholar.

15. Cook, E. T. and Wedderburn, Alexander, eds, The Works of John Ruskin, Volume V (Modern Painters Volume III) (London, 1904), p. 370Google Scholar.

16. Shapiro, H. I., ed., Ruskin in Italy: Letters to his Parents (Oxford, 1972), p. 121Google Scholar: 10th September 1845, Venice to his father, John James Ruskin; John James Ruskin to John Ruskin, London 15th and 19th September 1845.

17. Butler, Samuel, Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino (London, 1881), pp. 54–8Google Scholar.

18. Starke, Mariana, Travels in Italy, between 1792 and 1798, Containing a View of the Late Revolutions of that Country (London, 1802), p. 193Google Scholar.

19. Rev. John Chetwode Eustace, Classical Tour through Italy, An. MDCCCII (1815), third edition, Volume III, p. 464.

20. Palumbo, Roberto, La Via Aurelia, storia di una strada della Liguria di Levante (La Spezia, 2001)Google Scholar.

21. Archivio di Stato di Genova (ASG), Prefettura Sarda 89 Serie 1 Affari Generali nr 8 Ponti e Strade Reali Strada Reale di Levante, Lettera del Sig Argenti incaricato della direzione della nuova Strada di Levante all’ Intendente Generale di Genova Cavalier De Marini, loose letter, 1818.

22. Brandolini, P., Faccini, F., A. Robbiano and R. Terranova, ‘Geomorphological hazard and monitoring activity along the western rocky coast of the Portofino Promontory (Italy)’, Quaternary International, 171 (2007), 131–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23. Piana, P., Watkins, C. and Balzaretti, R., ‘“Saved from the sordid axe”: representation and understanding of pine trees by English visitors to Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth century’, Landscape History, 37 (2016), 35–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24. Bruzzone, R., Watkins, C., Balzaretti, R. and Montanari, C., ‘Botanical relics of a lost landscape: herborising “upon the Cliffs about the Pharos” in Genoa, March 1664’, Landscape Research, 43 (2017), 1–17Google Scholar.

25. Biographie Universelle, Paroletti (Victor-Modeste), Tome 76 (Paris, 1844), pp. 308– 09.

26. Paroletti, Vittorio, Viaggio romantico pittorico nelle provincie occidentali dell'antica e moderna Italia (Torino, 1824), p. 37Google Scholar.

27. Paroletti, Viaggio romantico-pittorico, p. 24, trans. Piana, Watkins, Balzaretti (this article).

28. Strutt, Elizabeth, A Spinster's Tour in France, The States of Genoa & c. during the year 1827 (London, 1828), p. 421Google Scholar.

29. Johnson, James, Change of Air, or the Pursuit of Health an Autumnal Excursion through France, Switzerland and Italy in the year 1829 (London, 1829), p. 233Google Scholar.

30. Joseph Mallord William Turner, View on Coast of the Riviera di Levante, graphite on paper 143 x 97 mm, from ‘Genoa and Florence’, Tate D21467 Turner Bequest CCXXXIII 28 a (1828), <http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/D/D21/D21467_9.jpg> [accessed 10th October 2017].

31. Piana et al., ‘Topographical art and landscape history’, 65–82; Piana, Watkins and Balzaretti, ‘“Saved from the sordid axe”’, 35–56.

32. Starke, Mariana, Information and Directions for Travellers on the Continent, 5th edn (London, 1828), p. 531Google Scholar.

33. Faccini, F., Robbiano, A. and Roccati, A., ‘Engineering geological map of the Chiavari city area (Liguria, Italy)’, Journal of Maps, 8 (2012), 893–903CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34. Starke, Information and Directions for Travellers, p. 532.

35. Brandolini, P., Faccini, F., Robbiano, A. and Terranova, R., ‘Slope instability on rocky coast: a case study from Le Grazie landslides (eastern Liguria, northern Italy)’, Geological Society, (special publications) 322 (2009), 143–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36. Casanova, Giovanni, ‘Per una storia dell'alta Val Polcevera dalla riforma della Repubblica Genovese al Regno di Sardegna’, in di Campomorone, Comune, ed., Studi e ricerche cultura del territorio (Campomorone, 1987)Google Scholar, cited in Palumbo, Roberto, La Strada dei Giovi e il Passo della Bocchetta (Genova, 2003), p. 21Google Scholar.

37. ASG Raccolta Cartografica, 75/89 Pianta, veduta e profilo di un tratto della strada della Bocchetta traversante un ponte (1785).

38. ASG Prefettura Sarda 85, Memoria dei Deputati dei Senato, Qual progetto meriti preferenza: quello di migliorare la Strada della Bocchetta o quello di costruire la Strada della Scrivia? (undated document, c. 1816, Section 1).

39. Rocca, Luigi, Pesi e misure antiche di Genova e del Genovesato (Genova, 1871), p. 106Google Scholar.

40. ASG Prefettura Sarda 85, Memoria dei Deputati, section 4.

41. Palumbo, La Strada dei Giovi, p. 17.

42. Morgan, Lady, Italy, Vol. 1 (London, 1821), p. 385Google Scholar.

43. Robert Heywood, A Journey to Italy in 1826 (privately printed, 1919), p. 32.

44. ASG Prefettura Sarda 85, Rapporto sulla Nuova Strada di Val di Scrivia 1816.

45. ASG Prefettura Sarda 85, loose letter, 31st August 1821.

46. ASG Prefettura Sarda 85, loose letter, 18th May 1822.

47. ASG Prefettura Sarda 86, loose letters 18th July 1822, 26th July 1822.

48. Cavazza, Serafino, Novi, Cittá del Piemonte (Tortona, 1982), p. 21Google Scholar.

49. ASG Prefettura Sarda 85, loose letter, 9th April 1822.

50. M. Silvano, ‘Vie, viaggi, viaggiatori nel Novese nella prima metá dell'Ottocento’, Novinostra, 3–4 (1985), 199–218 (207).

51. Brockedon, Traveller's Guide to Italy, p. 82; Casalis, Goffredo, Dizionario geografico, storico, statistico e commerciale degli stati di S.M. il Re di Sardegna, Vol. VIII (Torino, 1841), p. 543Google Scholar; Piana et al., ‘Topographical art and landscape history’, 65–82; Pedemonte, Sergio, Per una storia del Comune di Isola del Cantone (Savignone, 2012)Google Scholar.

52. Gazzetta Piemontese, 4th September 1834, p. 563.

53. Tacchella, Lorenzo, Borgo Fornari e la sua Pieve nella storia (Verona, 1959), p. 23Google Scholar.

54. Sergio Pedemonte, personal communication (July 2017).

55. ASG Prefettura Sarda 211 Circondario di Genova, Amministrazione dei boschi, Tabella indicativa dei terreni che si propongono per essere dichiarati banditi, Provincia di Genova (1839).

56. ASG Prefettura Sarda 211 Boschi e Selve, Quadro generale dei terreni laterali agli alvei dei fiumi o torrenti suscettibili della piantagione prescritta dall'art 40 del Reg.

57. Brockedon, Traveller's Guide to Italy, pp. 90–1.

58. Kalla-Bishop, Peter Michael, Italian Railways (Newton Abbott, 1971), pp. 24–6Google Scholar.

59. Handbook for Travellers in Northern Italy, comprising Piedmont, Liguria, Venetia, Parma, Modena and Romagna, 8th edn (London, 1860).

60. Luciano Re, ‘The masonry bridges and viaducts of the first Piedmontese railway, 1845–1853’, in A. Sinopoli, ed., Arch Bridges, History, Analysis, Assessment, Maintenance and Repair, proceedings of the second international arch bridge conference, Venice/Italy, 6–9th October 1998 (Brookfield, 1998), pp. 73–80.

61. Giuliano, Maurizio, Viaggio da Torino a Genova (Torino, 1853), p. 103Google Scholar; Re, The Masonry Bridges, p. 76; Schram, Albert, Railways and the Formation of the Italian State in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1997)Google Scholar.

62. Re, The Masonry Bridges.

63. Dragone, Piergiorgio, Pittori dell'Ottocento in Piemonte, Arte e Cultura Figurativa 1830–1865 (Torino, 2002)Google Scholar.

64. Bossoli, Carlo, Views of the Railway between Turin and Genoa (London, 1853)Google Scholar; Charles Newton, ‘Day, William (1797–1845)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/63102> [accessed 10th August 2017]. Bossoli and Day collaborated a few years later in the publication of an album of fifty-two tinted lithographs titled The Beautiful Scenery and Chief Places of Interest throughout the Crimea from Paintings by Carlo Bossoli (London, 1856).

65. Giuliano, Maurizio, Viaggio da Torino a Genova (Torino, 1853).Google Scholar

66. Macarthur, The Picturesque; Watkins and Cowell, Uvedale Price (1747–1829).

67. Handbook for Travellers in Northern Italy, p. 52.

68. Piana et al., ‘Topographical art and landscape history’.

69. Vallese, Davide, Appunti di Storia Ferroviaria Ligure (Genova, 2011)Google Scholar.

70. Alford, Henry, The Riviera: Pen and Pencil Sketches from Cannes to Genoa (London, 1871), p. 51Google Scholar. The metaphor is from Butler, Samuel, Hudibras (London, 1684)Google Scholar: Canto II, ‘And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn/From black to red began to turn’.

71. Alford, The Riviera, Pen and Pencil Sketches, p. 62.

72. Ibid., pp. 109–10.

73. Ibid., p. 161.

74. Bertolotto, Andrea and Pessano, Samuele, Da Savona a Ventimiglia, viaggio in ferrovia (Firenze, 1871), pp. 93, 163Google Scholar.

75. Giubilei, Maria Flora, La pittura di paesaggio in Liguria tra Otto e Novecento (Genova, 1990)Google Scholar.

76. Seitun, Stella, ‘Il vedutismo tra ispirazione romantica e realismo’, in Enrico, A. and Seitun, S., eds, Natura, Realtà e Modernità: Pittura in Liguria tra ‘800 e ‘900 (Genova, 2015), p. 26Google Scholar.

77. Hunt, The Wider Sea A Life of John Ruskin, p. 41.

78. Jones, ‘Industrial enlightenment in practice’; Rodner, William, J. M. W. Turner: Romantic Painter of the Industrial Revolution (Berkeley, 1997)Google Scholar.

79. <https://topographicalart.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/industrialisation-at-the-turn-of-the-twentieth-century-in-genoa-alfred-sells-in-cornigliano/>.

80. Strachan, Edward and Bolton, Roy, Views of Russia and Russian Works on Paper (London, 2010).Google Scholar

81. The ‘vedutismo’ was the link between traditional eighteenth-century landscape art, characterised by a linearity of perspective and fixity of scene, and the realism of the nineteenth century that engaged with the subjectivity and emotional attitude of the artist: Beringheli, Germano, Dizionario degli artisti liguri (Genova, 1991)Google Scholar; Papone and Serra, eds, En plein air.

82. Maitte, Corine, ‘The European “Grand Tour” of Italian entrepreneurs’, in Sweet, R., Verhoeven, G. and Goldsmith, S., eds, Beyond the Grand Tour. Northern Metropolises and the Evolution of Early Modern Travel Behaviour (London and New York, 2017)Google Scholar.

83. Hearder, Harry, Cavour (New York and London, 1994)Google Scholar.