Erwin Panofsky

Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892, in Hannover – March 14, 1968, in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime.

His work represents a high point in the modern academic study of iconography, including his hugely influential ''Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art'' and his masterpiece ''Early Netherlandish Painting''. Many of his books 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 1943 study ''The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer''.

Panofsky's ideas were highly influential in intellectual history in general, particularly in his use of historical ideas to interpret artworks and vice versa. Provided by Wikipedia