ABSTRACT
Alois Riegl is regarded, along with Wölfflin and Panofsky, as one of the founders of art history as a discipline. All three were steeped in the tradition of German Idealist philosophy stemming from Kant and Hegel. This is perhaps especially true of Riegl, whose mission, as he saw it, was to counter an increasingly influential materialist conception of art. He associated this tendency with the name of Gottfried Semper, a writer on art theory and a prominent architect whose buildings adorn the centre of Vienna. Riegl accused the ‘Semperians’ of holding the view that style is the product of a conjunction of certain materials and techniques. Riegl countered this idea by introducing what he called the Kunstwollen-a will to make art in a particular style that transcends any necessities imposed by practical utility, available materials, or technologies.
