PANOFSKY, ERWIN

born March 30, 1892, Hannover, Ger. died March 14, 1968, Princeton, N.J., U.S. German-born American art historian who gained particular prominence for his studies in iconography (the study of symbols and themes in works of art). Panofsky was educated at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau and was professor at the University of Hamburg from 1926 to 1933. He first went to the United States in 1931 as visiting professor at New York University, New York, and in 1935 became professor of art history at The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J. Panofsky's writings are distinguished by their variety of subject, critical penetration, erudition, and rich allusiveness to literature, philosophy, and history. Panofsky studied many iconographic, stylistic, and theoretical aspects of medieval and Renaissance art and wrote a classic account of Albrecht Drer and a definitive history of early Dutch painting. Among his major works in English are Studies in Iconology (1939); The Codex Huygens and Leonardo da Vinci's Art Theory (1940); Albrecht Drer, 2 vol. (1943; also republished as The Life and Art of Albrecht Drer ); Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St. Denis and Its Art Treasures (1946); Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (1951); Early Netherlandish Painting, 2 vol. (1953); Meaning in the Visual Arts (1955), a collection of nine of Panofsky's most important articles and essays on a wide variety of subjects; Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (1960); and Tomb Sculpture (1964).