Panofsky, Erwin

(1892-1968)

   art historian; helped establish Hamburg as a research center in art history. Born in Hamburg, he began studies in law, but switched under the influence of Freiburg's Wilhelm Voge to art history. He wrote his doctoral thesis in 1914 on Durer's theory of art and completed his Habilitation in 1920 at Hamburg. In 1921 he was entrusted with Hamburg's seminar in art history. Befriended by Fritz Saxl, Aby Warburg's* librarian, he collaborated in shaping the Warburg Library's solid art history collection. He also worked with, and was influenced by, Ernst Cassirer,* a member of Ham-burg's philosophy faculty. He became full professor in 1926.

   Panofsky was a cultural historian. His research embraced antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance; his teaching (often done at the Warburg Library) covered artistic methods, perspectives, and proportions. His interest was more in the contextual framework of a piece of art than in its aesthetic properties and more in demonstrating the organic unity of a historical period than in art per se. His writing, esteemed for its elegance and lucidity, received broader recog-nition outside Germany than at home.

   Of Jewish ancestry, Panofsky resigned in 1933 and emigrated to the United States. By 1935 he held a professorship at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. When World War II ended, several German universities awarded him honorary doctorates, and Hamburg unavailingly invited his return.

   REFERENCES:Ferretti, Cassirer, Panofsky, and Warburg; Gombrich, "Obituary"; Holly, Panofsky; Podro, Critical Historians of Art; Suddeutsche Zeitung.