Wölfflin, Heinrich

(born June 21, 1864, Basel, Switz.—died July 19, 1945, Basel) Swiss art historian. He was educated at the universities of Basel, Berlin, and Munich, and his doctoral thesis already showed the approach he was later to develop: an analysis of form based on a psychological interpretation of the creative process. His chief work, Principles of Art History (1915), synthesized his ideas into a complete aesthetic system that was to become of great importance in art criticism. He eschewed the popular anecdotal approach and emphasized the formal stylistic analysis of drawing, composition, light, colour, subject matter, and other pictorial elements as they were handled similarly by the painters of a particular period or national school.

Find more information on Wölfflin, Heinrich. Upgrade to Britannica Online for more on Wölfflin, Heinrich.