Rosario Assunto

Rosario Assunto was born on March 28, 1915, in Caltanissetta, Kingdom of Italy, and passed away on January 24, 1994, in Rome, Italy. He was an Italian philosopher, art theorist, and landscape aesthetician. He earned his doctorate in jurisprudence in 1938 and subsequently began a teaching career. From 1944 to 1951, he studied philosophy with Pantaleo Carabellese at the Sapienza University of Rome, later becoming an assistant to Carabellese and Luigi Scaravelli. In 1955, he became a private lecturer, and from 1968 to 1980, he served as a professor of aesthetics at the University of Urbino. In 1981, he moved to Rome to teach as a professor of the history of Italian philosophy. Assunto maintained a distance from the public discourse of the 1970s and beyond, partly due to his individualistic stance and the changing philosophical landscape. His work on gardens and landscapes was recognized in 1991 with the Carlo Scarpa International Prize for the Garden, acknowledging his advocacy for the value of gardens as heritage and places for contemplation. He was married to art historian Wanda Gaeta and died of a tumor. His key philosophical contributions lie in landscape aesthetics, particularly his theories on the garden, and his exploration of the relationship between nature and art. He distinguished between vertical (anagogic) and horizontal significance in his works, examining art and literature that aimed to transform the world or engage with philosophical questions.