Mount Pilatus

Ruskin often returned to the chain of mountains overlooking Lake Lucerne in central Switzerland, and many of his drawings focus on the peaks of Mount Pilatus. In August 1835, he wrote in his diary, ‘Wherever you see [Mount Pilatus], its form is always beautiful, and the pine forests on its sides, and the turf out of which rise the tall peaked crags give it a variety of colour and form which is met with in few detached and low mountains.’ (Diary, Lucerne, 18 August 1835)

Ruskin would have been aware of the biblical associates of the mountain’s name from reading the King James Bible with his mother as a child. A Calvinist Evangelical, Margaret Ruskin (1781-1871) held deep religious beliefs and insisted that her son read and learn passages from the Bible. Ruskin would experience increasing conflict between his religious beliefs and scientific knowledge, and the language, imagery and stories of the Bible would have a profound effect on his thinking. Mount Pilatus is associated with the death of Pontius Pilate, who some suggest was buried there. The name may also be derived from ‘pileatus’ meaning ‘cloud-topped.’

Ruskin remained firm in the belief that the experience of moving from detail to detail through the experience of observing a mountain landscape, combined with an understanding of new scientific laws, would underscore a religious apprehension of nature and the grand design of the universe by God. Ruskin followed in Turner’s footsteps in the Alps. As with Turner, many of his paintings and sketches, were not intended for public display, but were produced as ‘on the spot’ documentation of the environment, or ‘syllables of thought’. Against a background tint of sky and cloud, Ruskin traces the lines of Mount Pilatus in pencil; adds depth and texture to the mountain side with high colour; contrasted against brilliant light, achieved with luminous white zinc pigment.

Reference no. 1996P0971