Wölfflin, Heinrich (hīn`rĭkh völf`lĭn), 1864–1945, Swiss art historian. Wölfflin's formal stylistic analysis of motifs and composition in art combined cultural history and psychological insight into the creative process to form a complete aesthetic system. His theory of form greatly influenced the development of art criticism. Wölfflin's ideas were spread through his teaching (1893–1934) at the universities of Basel, Berlin, Munich, and Zürich, and through his books, Renaissance und Barock (1888), Classic Art (1899, tr. 1953), and his most celebrated work, Principles of Art History (1915, tr. 1932).

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.