Architectural Symbolism: Body and Space in Heinrich Wölfflin and Wilhelm Worringer

Abstract

The paper questions Jacques Rançière’s conception of the modern aesthetic regime as the correlation between visuality and language by returning to two fundamental gures of modern art history, Heinrich Wöl in and Wilhelm Worringer. First, Wöl in’s “Prolegomena” (1886) is interpreted as an attempt to conceive architectural space in terms of a ectivity. Second, this conception of space is related to the Th. Vischer’s and J. Volkelt’s theory of symbolism. Third, the paper integrates this aesthetics in a model that conceives form as force (Goethe). Fourth, this modulation of a ectivity that justi es architectural space is confronted with Wilhelm Worringer’s concept of abstraction. After all, this notion responds also to a conception of art in terms of space and a ectivity. Finally, the paper debates the role of Wöl in’s “Prolegomena” from the perspective of architectural design and its relation to modernity.