Untangling the Threads of Gottfried Semper's Legacy in Le Corbusier's Formative Years

Abstract

Direct evidence for Le Corbusier’s encounters with the writings of nineteenth-century German architect and theorist Gottfried Semper is limited to a few brief early mentions in the archival record, and connections between the two men have been mentioned only rarely by historians and others interested in Le Corbusier’s work. In Untangling theThreads of Gottfried Semper’s Legacy in Le Corbusier’s Formative Years, José Miguel Mantilla argues that these connections merit closer attention, given Semper’s stature, even in the early twentieth century, and his impact on many of those from whom Le Corbusier adapted his own ideas. Le Corbusier’s ideas concerning links between artistic style and the spirit or psychology of an era, his belief in architecture’s autonomy in relation to technique and use, and his conversion from the vernacular and medievalist forms emphasized by his mentor Charles L’Eplattenier to Greco-Roman classical ones all seem at least indirectly indebted to Semper’s theories. Mantilla explores the connections between the men, particularly in regard to issues of artistic creation.