Heinrich Wölfflin

This book features a crystalline new translation of one of art history's most influential works-published on its one-hundredth anniversary. Principles of Art History by Heinrich Wolfflin (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, Wolfflin's text has endured as an accessible yet rigorous approach to the study of style. Although Wolfflin 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. With translations in twenty-four languages and many reprints, Wolfflin's work may be the most widely read and translated book of art history ever. This new English translation, appearing one hundred years after the original publication, returns readers to Wolfflin's 1915 text and images. It also includes the first English translations of the prefaces and afterword that Wolfflin himself added to later editions. Introductory essays provide a historical and critical framework, referencing debates engendered by Principles in the twentieth century for a renewed reading of the text in the twenty-first.

Ein Klassiker der Kunstwissenschaft Heinrich Wolfflin: wie sich der Stil der italienischen Renaissance aufloste und in den sogenannten Barock uberging. Inspiriert durch die architekturgeschichtlichen Arbeiten seines Lehrers Jacob Burckhardt, zeigen sich jedoch bereits in dieser 'Erstlingsschrift', wie Wolfflin sie selbst nannte, die Elemente der von ihm gepragten methodisch-formalen Kunstanschauung, die versucht, uber ein sinnliches Erleben ins Wesen eines Kunstwerks einzudringen, sich jedoch gleichzeitig auf die Auswertung archivalischer und literarischer Dokumente abstutzt. Mit diesem Ansatz trug Wolfflin wesentlich zur Etablierung der Kunstgeschichte als Wissenschaft bei. Seine Bucher, deren beruhmtestes wohl die Kunstwissenschaftlichen Grundbegriffe (Schwabe, 19. Aufl. 2004) ist, sind dank Wolfflins schriftstellerischem Talent fur alle Interessierten mit viel Genuss und grossem Gewinn zu lesen.

Originally published in Germany during the 1920s, this now-classic study surveys the works of 64 major artists in terms of style, quality, and mode of representation. A brilliant contribution to the methodology or art criticism, it features 120 black-and-white illustrations of works by Botticelli, Durer, Holbein, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Vermeer, and others.