Art and Nature in Glass Architecture: Ruskin’s and Semper’s Criticism

Abstract

One of the architectural typologies that the 19th century gave birth is, without a doubt, the greenhouse. The Crystal Palace epitomizes a function in which nature and art cooperate, a relationship that in the eyes of two of the most severe theorists and art critics of the time, John Ruskin and Gottfried Semper, is inadmissible. Either from the consideration of the social use of art, either from the definition of architecture for its monumentality, both authors condemn the large-scale construction in glass and iron.