W lfflin, Architecture and the Problem of Stilwandlung

This article argues that more so than style, it was the mechanism that caused style change that galvanized W lfflin’s inquiry starting with his doctoral dissertation (1886) to the Principles of Art History (1915). The late 19th century broadly-based discussion of style in architecture (that gathered Semper, G ller, Riegl and many others) provided him with the “laboratory” where he first developed the concepts of subject/object relationship and reception/perception that informed his mature work. This initial and very productive dialogue with architecture, also meant that W lfflin had an effect upon architecture culture both in his own time and subsequently, through the work of his student Sigfried Giedion.