<P> Heinrich Wölfflin ( 1864 -- 1945 ) , who studied under Burckhardt in Basel , is the `` father '' of modern art history . Wölfflin taught at the universities of Berlin , Basel , Munich , and Zurich . A number of students went on to distinguished careers in art history , including Jakob Rosenberg and Frida Schottmuller . He introduced a scientific approach to the history of art , focusing on three concepts . Firstly , he attempted to study art using psychology , particularly by applying the work of Wilhelm Wundt . He argued , among other things , that art and architecture are good if they resemble the human body . For example , houses were good if their façades looked like faces . Secondly , he introduced the idea of studying art through comparison . By comparing individual paintings to each other , he was able to make distinctions of style . His book Renaissance and Baroque developed this idea , and was the first to show how these stylistic periods differed from one another . In contrast to Giorgio Vasari , Wölfflin was uninterested in the biographies of artists . In fact he proposed the creation of an `` art history without names . '' Finally , he studied art based on ideas of nationhood . He was particularly interested in whether there was an inherently `` Italian '' and an inherently `` German '' style . This last interest was most fully articulated in his monograph on the German artist Albrecht Dürer . </P>
<P> Heinrich Wölfflin ( 1864 -- 1945 ) , who studied under Burckhardt in Basel , is the `` father '' of modern art history . Wölfflin taught at the universities of Berlin , Basel , Munich , and Zurich . A number of students went on to distinguished careers in art history , including Jakob Rosenberg and Frida Schottmuller . He introduced a scientific approach to the history of art , focusing on three concepts . Firstly , he attempted to study art using psychology , particularly by applying the work of Wilhelm Wundt . He argued , among other things , that art and architecture are good if they resemble the human body . For example , houses were good if their façades looked like faces . Secondly , he introduced the idea of studying art through comparison . By comparing individual paintings to each other , he was able to make distinctions of style . His book Renaissance and Baroque developed this idea , and was the first to show how these stylistic periods differed from one another . In contrast to Giorgio Vasari , Wölfflin was uninterested in the biographies of artists . In fact he proposed the creation of an `` art history without names . '' Finally , he studied art based on ideas of nationhood . He was particularly interested in whether there was an inherently `` Italian '' and an inherently `` German '' style . This last interest was most fully articulated in his monograph on the German artist Albrecht Dürer . </P>
who is considered to be the first modern art historian
who is considered to be the first modern art historian
Heinrich Wölfflin
Heinrich Wölfflin