"Baukunst": el pensamiento arquitectónico de Goethe

Abstract

Goethe’s interest in architecture increased in Italy. On his return, and in following Winckelmann (Anmerkungen über die Baukunst der Alten, 1762), he began a small treatise on architecture. Dated 1795 and entitled Baukunst, it comprises a folder of 13 numbered pages, some of them blank and some of them containing very lightly sketched pencil drawings, which point out its unfinished nature.
The text on each page occupies the right half, with the left side being left free for the corresponding drawings. Comparison of the text and drawings should provide us with a more complete vision of Goethe’s architectural theory as a counterpoint to his criticism and analytical and descriptive comments on the buildings he drew.