Erwin "Pan" Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey)[1] was

a German art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi
regime. Panofsky's work represents a high point in the modern academic study of iconography, which he
used in hugely influential[2] works like his "little book" Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art and
his masterpiece,[2] Early Netherlandish Painting. Many of his works are still in print, including Studies in
Iconology: Humanist Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (1939), Meaning in the Visual Arts (1955),
and his eponymous 1943 study ofAlbrecht Drer. Panofsky's ideas were also highly influential in
intellectual history in general,[3] particularly in his use of historical ideas to interpret artworks and viceversa.

Erwin Panofsky, (born March 30, 1892, Hannover, Germanydied March 14, 1968, Princeton, New
Jersey, U.S.) German American art historian who gained particular prominence for his studies
in iconography (the study of symbols and themes in works of art).
Panofsky studied at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau and was a 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 in New York City, and in 1935 he became professor of art history at the Institute for Advanced
Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Panofskys writings are distinguished by their critical penetration, erudition, and rich allusions to literature,
philosophy, and history. He studied many iconographic, stylistic, and theoretical aspects of medieval and
Renaissance art and wrote a seminal account of Albrecht Drer as well as a definitive history of early
Dutch painting. Among his major works in English are Studies in Iconology (1939); The Codex Huygens
and Leonardo da Vincis Art Theory (1940); Albrecht Drer, 2 vol. (1943; later published as The Life and
Art of Albrecht Drer [1955]); 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 Panofskys most important articles and
essays on a wide variety of subjects; Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, 2 vol. (1960);
andTomb Sculpture (1964).