Focillon, Henri

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Henri Focillon (äNrē´ fôsēyôN´), 1881–1943, French art historian. Focillon, who was professor of art history at the Collège de France, was an authority on medieval art, the subject of his two-volume treatise Art of the West in the Middle Ages (2d ed. 1969). His book Life Forms in Art (1934) outlines his formal, organic conception of the art historical method, stressing analysis of style and technique over subjective interpretation.