His early works prefigured the distinctive artistic style he would later develop.

prefigured 是动词 prefigure 的过去式。prefigure 由前缀 pre-（表示"在...之前"）和 figure（"形象、形状"）组成，字面意思是"提前展现形象"，引申为"预示、预先展示"的意思。