Poet, literary critic and historian whose work became representative of the so-called New Art History. Bonnefoy was born to [Marius] élie Bonnefoy (1888-1936), a railroad worker, and Hélène Maury (Bonnefoy) (1889-1972), a teacher. As a child he spent summers at his grandfather's house in the southern France town of Toirac, near the River Lot. His father died when Bonnefoy was just thirteen, affecting the boy deeply. Bonnefoy graduated with honors from the Lycée Descartes in 1941, continuing study at the Université de Poitiers, 1942, in mathematics.

semiotic methodology of art history

Medievalist art historian, particularly the Romanesque, and theorist. Focillon's father was the engraver and occasional salon reviewer Victor-Louis Focillon (1849-1918). The younger Focillon grew up amidst the artists Edouard Vuillard and Auguste Rodin and the early documenter of Impressionism, Gustave Geffroy. His early schooling was in Paris at the Lycée Charlemagne and Lycée Henri IV. As a young man he helped Geffroy write first volume of Geffroy's series Les Musées d'Europe (The Museums of Europe) in 1900.

Medievalist art historian; influential in French Romanesque studies and stained glass. Grodecki was raised in a Polish-speaking family in Russian-controlled Poland. When he was eighteen, he left to study stagecraft under Emil Preetorius (1883-1973) in Berlin. Later he moved to Paris, enrolling at the école du Louvre. His teacher, Charles Mauricheau-Beaupré advised him to take courses by Henri Focillon at the Sorbonne and Collège de France.

Assistant professor; specialist in medieval Burgundian sculpture, particularly Claus Sluter, as well as medieval painting and illumination and costume studies. Liebreich was born in Bocholt, Germany in 1899 to Max Liebreich, a manufacturer, and an undocumented mother. Liebreich earned her abitur in 1921. From 1921 to 1925 she studied art history, history, and archaeology in Munich, Berlin, and Bonn under Paul Clemen and Adolph Goldschmidt. Liebreich earned her doctorate in 1925 at Bonn under Clemen.