Birnbaum‘s “Baroque Principle” and the Czech reception of Heinrich Wölfflin

Abstract

This paper deals with the essay ´The Baroque Principle in the History of Architecture’, published by Czech art historian Vojtěch Birnbaum in 1924. The placement of this work in the context of the reception of Heinrich Wölfflin’s methodological initiatives questions the originality of Birnbaum’s ideas and shows the negative role of anti-German resentments in the Czech art historiography of the 20th century.

Keywords

• Vojtěch Birnbaum
• Heinrich Wölfflin
• Czech art historiography