Erwin Panofsky was born in
Hanover,
Germany in
1892, and later died
March 14,
1968. In the interim, however, he was a famous
art historian. He is still famous, though no longer historying. His father was
Arnord Panofsky, and his mother was born
Caecilie Solling.
He studied in Berlin, Munich, and Freiburg, and received his PhD at the University of Freiburg in 1914. Two years later, he married art historian Dora Mosse (quite an appropriate name for an art historian, I find), and taught at the University of Hamburg from 1920 to 1933. He moved to New York, USA, in 1935.
In 1962 he received the Haskins Medal of the Mediaeval Academy of America. His wife died in 1965, so Panofsky got married to Gerda Soergel. He continued to teach at Princeton University, but had to stop due to reasons of death. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the British Academy.
His approach in art analysis was iconography, which was very new at the time, and interpreted art by its symbols, history, and social context. He specialised in mediaeval, Renaissance, mannerist, and baroque art.
He wrote rather alot:
Idea: A Concept in Art Theory (1924)
Studies in Iconology* (1939)
The Codex Huygens and Leonardo da Vinci's Art Theory (1940)
The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer (1943)
Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and Its Art Treasures (1946)
Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (1951)
Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character (1953)
Galileo as a Critic of the Arts (1954)
Meaning in the Visual Arts (1955)
Pandora's Box (1956)
Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (1957)
Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (1960)
The Iconography of Correggio's Camera di San Paolo (1961)
Tomb Sculpture (1964)
Problems in Titian, Mostly Iconographic (1969)
*This one is his most important. Don't break it.