*The Life of Forms* (1934), a book by Henri Focillon (1881–1943)—a seminal figure in both the French and American art-historical traditions—represents the quintessence of his theory of form. For Focillon, artistic form is neither a sign nor an idea but a living metamorphosis unfolding across space, matter, consciousness, and time—generating "meanings that emanate from the form itself." Building on the ideas of German formalists (Wölfflin, Hildebrand) and drawing inspiration from Bergsonian vitalism, the author examines the life of artistic forms through a tripartite cycle: experimentation (trials), "classical" balance (sometimes succeeded by refinement), and "baroque" dissolution. In Focillon’s view, this formal life "generates new conditions for the historical, social, and moral life" of humanity. Such an approach also liberates concepts of style, materials, and artistic techniques from their inherent inertia, revealing their active potential—whether creative or destructive.