Gottfried Semper's Writings on Style and Architecture Translated

A new French translation of Gottfried Semper's essays and excerpts from 'Der Stil', edited by philosopher Jacques Soulillou and published by Éditions Parenthèses, sheds light on the 19th-century aesthetic thinker. Semper (1803-1879), a Hamburg-born architect, art historian, archaeologist, philosopher, and teacher, was a tireless traveler and insurgent exiled in London and Zurich. He designed the Dresden Opera (rebuilt twice), the Zurich Polytechnic, and Vienna's Burgtheater, Kunsthistorisches Museum, and Naturhistorisches Museum. His thought, rooted in Prussian neoclassicism via Karl Friedrich Schinkel, opposed Hegelian abstraction and neo-Gothic romanticism. Semper argued that ancient architecture was fully covered in polychrome stucco and paint, a view shared with French architect Jacques Hittorff. He championed ornament as the first step toward art, containing the entire codex of formal aesthetics. Semper distinguished between 'Wand' (visible wall, related to 'Gewand' or garment) and 'Mauer' (structural wall), focusing on surface, symbol, and seduction. He linked art and architecture to bodily adornment, weaving, tattooing, and cosmetics, opposing modernist functionalism. His work remains relevant despite historical ruptures.