Principles of Art History: the Problem of the Development of Style in Early Modern Art

Principles of Art History by Heinrich Woelfflin (1864–1945), a revolutionary attempt to construct a science of art through the study of the development of style, has been a foundational work of formalist art history since it was first published in 1915. At once systematic and subjective, and remarkable for its compelling descriptions of works of art, Woelfflin’s text has endured as an accessible yet rigorous approach to the study of style. Although Woelfflin applied his analysis to objects of early modern European art, Principles of Art History has been a fixture in the theoretical and methodological debates of the discipline of art history and has found a global audience.