Gottfried Semper and the ornament in Architecture in the nineteenth century

Authors

  • Alice de Oliveira Viana Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

Keywords:

Ornamentation, Symbols, Style

Abstract

This work presents, comments and translates the text On architectural symbols (1854), written by the architect and theorist Gottfried Semper (1803-1879). Best known for his masterpiece Der Stil, Semper was in the midst of Victorian industrialisation when he wrote the text. It is a lecture given at the Department of Practical Art of the Schools of Design in London, where the author presents, among others, his considerations on architectural ornament, a theme that will be the subject of passionate theoretical disputes from then on and which at that time was mixed with the debate on style. It is believed that the translation and the reading are valid and timely not only for revealing the sophistication of the thinking of the time, but also for highlighting a theme that appears at the heart of the architectural debate today, that of ornamentation.

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Author Biography

Alice de Oliveira Viana, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

Arquiteta e Urbanista, formada pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (2005), mestre em Teoria e História das Artes Visuais pela Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (2008) e Doutora em Arquitetura e Urbanismo pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo (2017), com período de bolsa sanduíche na Universidade de Zurique, financiada pela CAPES.

References

BÖTTICHER, Carl. Die Tektonik der Hellenen. Potsdam: Verlag von Ferdinand Riegel, 1852.

HVATTUM, Mari. Crisis and correspondence: style in the nineteenth century. Architectural Histories, n.I, vol. I, pp.1-8, 2013. Disponível em https://journal.eahn.org/articles/10.5334/ah.an/. Acesso em 08.set.2017.

JONES, Owen. The grammar of ornament. London: Day & Son, 1856.

MALLGRAVE, Harry Francis. Gottfried Semper: architect of the nineteenth century. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.

REDGRAVE, Richard. Supplementary report on design. In: EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS. Reports by the juries on the subjects in the thirtyclasses into which the exhibition was divided. London: William Clowes and Sons, 1852.

SCHWARZER, Mitchell. Ontology and representation in Karl Bötticher’s theory of tectonics. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp.267-280, Set.1993. Disponível em http://www.jstor.org/stable/990835. Acesso em: 22.jun.2013.

SEMPER, Gottfried. London lecture of autumn 1854: On architectural symbols. In: PELLIZZI, Francesco (ed.). RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, New York, London: Cambridge University Press, 1985, v. 9, pp.61-67.

______. Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten, oder, Praktische Aesthetik. Ein Handbuch für Techniker, Künstler und Kunstfreund. Frankfurt: Verlag für Kunst und Wissenschaft, 1860, v.I.

______. The four elements of architecture and other writings. Trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave and Wolfgang Herrmann. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1989.

______. Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts; or Practical Aesthetics. 2 vol. Trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave and Michael Robinson. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2004.

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Published

2018-05-01

How to Cite

Viana, A. de O. . (2018). Gottfried Semper and the ornament in Architecture in the nineteenth century. arq.Urb, (22), 7–26. Retrieved from https://revistaarqurb.com.br/arqurb/article/view/53

Issue

No. 22 (2018): maio - ago.

Section

Papers

License

Authors hold copyright without any restrictions, being required to inform the initial publication in this journal in the event of a new publication of any work.