Wölfflin, Heinrich (1864-1945)

Swiss art historian and writer on aesthetics. His analyses of style in art, such as Principles of Art History 1915, have been very influential, advocating an approach to art history that focuses on such properties as line, colour, and form. His main achievement was to establish art history as a rigorous intellectual discipline.

His particular interests were Renaissance and baroque art. He believed ‘composition’ to be the basis of aesthetics, and the human figure the basic subject of all great art. He used such pairs of concepts as ‘linear and painterly’ and ‘multiplicity and unity’ to explain how the art of different periods might be contrasted and evaluated. His other major works include Renaissance and Baroque 1888, Classic Art 1899, and The Art of Albrecht Dürer 1905.