PANOFSKY, ERWIN

PANOFSKY, ERWIN
PANOFSKY, ERWIN (1892–1968), U.S. art historian. Born in Hanover, Germany, he studied at universities in Berlin, Munich, and Breslau, receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Freiburg in 1914. He taught at the University of Hamburg from 1926 to 1933. After the Nazis achieved power in Germany, Panofsky was dismissed from his position and fled to the U.S. in 1934. Despite this traumatic period, Panofsky never publicly addressed his Jewish identity, and instead promulgated a liberal humanism in his writing about art. His scholarship on Jan van Eyck describes a particular German contribution to art history, perhaps arising from a need for an exile to identify a period in German history unsullied by the Nazis. Beginning in 1935, he was a professor of art history at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University, at the same time that Albert Einstein taught there. He remained at Princeton for the remainder of his life. He wrote on art from the medieval, Baroque, and Renaissance periods and developed the study of iconology in art history, that is, the manner in which theme, style, and symbol intersect in an image. His differentiation of iconography, that is, the descriptive aspects of a work of art, from iconology, a deeper level of interpretation which involves situating the image in a wider social, institutional, and cultural context, still defines the purview of modern art history. Panofsky is best known for his publications Studies in Iconology (1939); Albrecht Durer (1943); Early Netherlandish Painting (1953), with Dora Panofsky; Pandora's Box: The Changing Aspects of a Mythical Symbol (1956); and Meaning in the Visual Arts (1957). He also wrote in 1934 a still widely read interpretation of Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding. Panofsky's "Style and Medium in the Moving Pictures" (1937) is regarded as a classic film commentary. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy; he received the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Academy of America in 1962. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Kuspit, "Taking Refuge in Humanism: The Troubling Views of Erwin Panofsky," in: The Forward (Aug. 2, 1996); C. Landauer, "Erwin Panofsky and the Renascence of the Renaissance," in: Renaissance Quarterly (June 1994). (Nancy Buchwald (2nd ed.)

Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.

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  • Panofsky, Erwin — born March 30, 1892, Hannover, Ger. died March 14, 1968, Princeton, N.J., U.S. German born U.S. art historian. A professor at the University of Hamburg (1926–33), he fled Nazi Germany for the U.S. and in 1935 began teaching at Princeton s… …   Universalium

  • Panofsky, Erwin — (1892 1968)    art historian; helped establish Hamburg as a research center in art history. Born in Hamburg, he began studies in law, but switched under the influence of Freiburg s Wilhelm Voge to art history. He wrote his doctoral thesis in 1914 …   Historical dictionary of Weimar Republik

  • Panofsky, Erwin — (1892 1968)    American art historian, of German origin. Born in Hanover, he studied at the University of Freiburg and became professor at Hamburg. After the Nazi rise to power, he went to the US and became a professor at New York University, and …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • Panofsky, Erwin — (30 mar. 1892, Hannover, Alemania–14 mar. 1968, Princeton, N.J., EE.UU.). Historiador del arte estadounidense de origen alemán. Cuando era profesor de la Universidad de Hamburgo (1926–33), huyó de la Alemania nazi hacia EE.UU. y en 1935 comenzó a …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Erwin Panofsky — (also spelled Irwin Panofsky) (30 March 1892 14 March 1968) was a German Jewish art historian who emigrated to America and remains highly influential in the modern academic study of iconography. Many of his works remain in print, including… …   Wikipedia

  • Panofsky — Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (le 30 mars 1892 à Hanovre, Allemagne le 14 mars 1968 à Princeton) est un historien de l art et un essayiste allemand d origine juive émigré aux États Unis. Sommaire 1 Biographie 2 Ses apports …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Erwin Panofsky — Erwin Panofsky, né le 30 mars 1892, à Hanovre en Allemagne et mort le 14 mars 1968, à Princeton aux États Unis, est un historien de l art et un essayiste allemand d origine juive émigré aux États Unis. Sommaire 1 Biographie 2 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • PANOFSKY (E.) — PANOFSKY ERWIN (1892 1968) Loin de considérer l’histoire de l’art comme le simple récit événementiel de la succession des œuvres et des artistes à travers la juxtaposition des catalogues et des biographies, Erwin Panofsky a voulu le dernier peut… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Erwin — /err win/, n. a male given name: from Old English words meaning boar and friend. * * * (as used in expressions) McClung Clarence Erwin Panofsky Erwin Rommel Erwin Johannes Eugen Schrödinger Erwin * * * …   Universalium

  • Erwin — (as used in expressions) McClung, Clarence E(rwin) Panofsky, Erwin Rommel, Erwin (Johannes Eugen) Schrödinger, Erwin …   Enciclopedia Universal

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