Heinrich Wölfflin (21 June 1864,
Winterthur – 19 July 1945,
Zurich) was a
Swiss art historian, whose objective classifying principles ("
painterly" vs. "linear" and the like) were influential in the development of
formal analysis in art history in the early 20th century. He taught at Basel, Berlin and Munich in the generation that raised German art history to pre-eminence. His three great books, still consulted, are
Renaissance und Barock (1888),
Die Klassische Kunst (1898, "Classic Art"), and
Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe (1915, "Principles of Art History").