Panofsky, Erwin, 1892-1968, American art historian, b. Germany, Ph.D. Univ. of Freiburg, 1914. After teaching (1921-33) at the Univ. of Hamburg and serving as professor of fine arts at New York Univ., he joined (1935) the faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, N.J. His writings are among the most important of the 20th cent. in art history. Panofsky contributed studies, particularly in the realm of iconography, of the medieval, Renaissance, mannerist, and baroque periods. He is admired for his immense erudition, his discoveries, and his profound observations, laced with touches of humor. Among his principal works in English are Studies in Iconology (1939, 2d ed. 1962), Albrecht Dürer (1943, 4th ed. 1955), Early Netherlandish Painting (1953), and Renaissance and Renascenses in Western Art (2d ed. 1965). Other writings include The Codex Huygens and Leonardo da Vinci's Art Theory (1940), Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St.-Denis and Its Art Treasures (1946), Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (1951), Galileo as a Critic of the Arts (1954), Meaning in the Visual Arts (1955), Correggio's Camera di San Paolo (1961), Tomb Sculpture (1964), Idea: A Concept in Art Theory (1924, tr. 1968), and Problems in Titian, Mostly Iconographic (1969).

(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 Institute for Advanced Study. He gained prominence for his studies in iconography, the study of symbols and themes in works of art. His writings are distinguished by their variety of subjects, critical penetration, erudition, and rich allusions to literature, philosophy, and history. Among his major works are the groundbreaking Studies in Iconology (1939), Albrecht Dürer (1943), and Early Netherlandish Painting (1953).

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Panofsky may refer to one of the following:

People

• Erwin Panofsky, an art historian
• Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky, a German-American physicist, a son of Erwin Panofsky

Other

• Panofsky Prize awarded in the field of particle physics
• Panofsky Ratio, a quantity measured in pion-nucleon interactions, named after Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky