Squinches 1829

This is Friedrich Maximilian Hessemer's drawing "Squinches" at the Städel Museum, a delicate rendering of architectural elements. The composition is strikingly spare. Hessemer employs a minimal line to define the complex shapes of the squinches—the structures that transition a square space to a dome. The drawing's formal interest lies in how it captures architectural form and how it destabilizes established meanings. The squinches themselves, with their geometric precision, engage with new ways of thinking about space and structural possibility. Consider the drawing's openness—the starkness of the negative space around the structure. It is not just a depiction but an exploration of form that challenges fixed ideas about architectural representation. It asks us to contemplate structure, space and the semiotic system of signs by which we understand architectural forms.