Erwin Panofsky

Since its original publication, Erwin Panofsky's Meaning in the Visual Arts has been standard reading for students of art history. It is both an introduction to the study of art and, for those with more specialized interests, a profound discussion of art and life in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Panofsky's historical technique reveals an abundance of detail, detail he skillfully relates to the life and work of individual painters and their times. The papers in this volume represent a cross-section of Panofsky's major work. Included are selections from his well-known Studies in Iconology and The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer, plus an introduction and an epilogue--"The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline" and "Three Decades of Art History in the United States: Impressions of a Transplanted European"--as well as pieces written especially for this collection. All display Panofsky's vast erudition and deep commitment to a humanistic conception of art and art history.

Study of the myth of Pandora, its representation in art, and its mythological and religious significance.

Themes and concepts of Renaissance art are analysed and related to both classical and medieval tendencies.

This classic text presents the life, times, and works of Albrecht Durer. Through the skill and immense knowledge of Erwin Panofsky, the reader is dazzled not only by Durer the artist but also Durer in a wide array of other roles, including mathematician and scientific thinker. Originally published in 1943 in two volumes, The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer met with such wide popular and scholarly acclaim that it led to three editions and then, in 1955, to the first one-volume edition. Without sacrifice of text or illustrations, the book was reduced to this single volume by the omission of the Handlist and Concordance. The new introduction by Jeffrey Chipps Smith reflects upon Panofsky the man, the tumultuous circumstances surrounding the creation of his masterful monograph, its innovative contents, and its early critical reception. Erwin Panofsky was one of the most important art historians of the twentieth century. Panofsky taught for many years at Hamburg University but was forced by the Nazis to leave Germany. He joined the faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1935, where he spent the remainder of his career and wrote The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer. He developed an iconographic approach to art and interpreted works through an analysis of symbolism, history, and social factors.

Erwin Panofksy was one of the great scholars of the twentieth century. Panofsky modestly described his second annual Wimmer Lecture at Saint Vincent College as "another diffident attempt at correlating Gothic architecture and scholasticism," but it has remained in print in numerous languages for more than half a century. His lecture stands as a brilliant man's tribute to the legacy of Christian humanism.

"In 2012, a manuscript by renowned art historian Erwin Panofsky was rediscovered in a safe in Munich, in the basement of the Central Institute for Art History. Hidden for decades among folders and administrative files was Panofsky's thesis on Michelangelo-originally submitted to Hamburg University in March of 1920, abandoned when Panofsky fled Hitler's Germany in 1934, and thought to have been destroyed in the Allied bombings. A century on, Michelangelo's Design Principles makes this remarkable work available for the first time in English. Casting Panofsky's thought in an entirely new light, Michelangelo's Design Principles is the legendary scholar's only book-length examination of the art of the Italian Renaissance. He provides a compelling analysis of Michelangelo's artistic style and deftly compares it with that of Raphael, situating both Renaissance masters in the broader context of Western art. This illuminating book offers unique perspectives on Panofsky's early intellectual development and the state of research on Michelangelo and the High Renaissance at a period of transition in art history, when formalist readings of artworks began to take precedence over a biographical approach. Featuring an introduction by Gerda Panofsky that discusses the history of the manuscript and the significance of its rediscovery, Michelangelo's Design Principles is a crucial link between Panofsky's formalist training as a young art historian and his later work in iconology"--Dust jacket flap.

"The book had a wide impact on studies of Renaissance art and Early Netherlandish painting in particular, but also studies in iconography, art history, and intellectual history in general. The book is particularly well-known for its iconographic treatment of Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait as a kind of marriage contract. The book remains influential despite its reliance on black-and-white reproductions of paintings, which led to some errors of analysis."--The books that shaped art history (p. 95).

Tomb sculpture : four lectures on its changing aspects from Ancient Egypt to Bernini / by Erwin Panofsky ; edited by H.W. Janson ; foreword by Martin Warnke.