Early Netherlandish Painting (Panofsky book) explained

Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character is a 1953 book on art history by Erwin Panofsky, derived from the 1947–48 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures. The book had a wide impact^[2] on studies of Renaissance art and Early Netherlandish painting in particular, but also studies in iconography, art history, and intellectual history in general. The book is particularly well-known for its iconographic treatment of Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait as a kind of marriage contract, a hypothesis advanced by Panofsky as early as 1934. The book remains influential despite its reliance on black-and-white reproductions of paintings, which led to some errors of analysis.^[3]

Early Netherlandish Painting shares its title with the comprehensive, 14-volume survey by Max J. Friedländer, a fact obliquely acknowledged at the beginning of the preface.^[4]

Sources

• Holly, Michael Ann. Panofsky and the Foundations of Art History. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984
• Nash, Susie. "Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character, 1953". In: The Books that Shaped Art History, London: Thames & Hudson, 2013
• Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting, Its Origins and Character. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953
  • Reprinted in paperback as a Harper and Row "Icon Edition," 1971.
• Podro, Michael. The Critical Historians of Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982

External links

• Google Books
• Internet Archive (free registration required)

Notes and References

1. http://www.magnoliabox.com/art/106221/the-virgin-of-the-annunciation-from-the-portinari-triptych-c1479 The Virgin of the Annunciation, from the Portinari Triptych, c.1479 (oil on panel) Posters & Prints by Hugo van der Goes
2. Nash (2013), pp. 89–101
3. Nash (2013), p. 95
4. Early Netherlandish Painting, p. vii