Early Netherlandish Painting: Volume 1

Early Netherlandish Painting #1

by Erwin Panofsky

Nearly 600 pages of text and plates. "One of the greatest books ever written in the field of art history." -- George Henderson

Genres: Art History, Art, Nonfiction, History

624 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 1971

About the author

Erwin Panofsky was a German art historian, whose academic career was pursued almost entirely in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime. In 1935, while teaching concurrently at New York University and Princeton University (something he continued to do his entire career), he was invited to join the faculty of the newly formed Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. From 1947 to 1948 Panofsky was the Charles Eliot Norton professor at Harvard University.

Panofsky's work remains highly influential in the modern academic study of iconography. Many of his works remain in print, including Studies in Iconology: Humanist Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (1939), and his eponymous 1943 study of Albrecht Dürer. His work has greatly influenced the theory of taste developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, in books such as The Rules of Art or Distinction. In particular, Bourdieu first adapted his notion of habitus from Panofsky's Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism.

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely thorough and erudite, this definitive text covering Flemish (currently Belgium and the Netherlands) primitifs (painters from the 15th century so the 1400s) is excellent but exhausting. Panofsky covers the origins in illuminated manuscripts through the incredible talent of Van Eyck and Van Der Weyden on through their successors leading into the next century. I learned a lot but as the author talked about use of color and all the included art was in black and white, I had to do a lot of Googling. Also, a table or chart showing the cities, dates, artists and works would have been helpful. I plan to make one myself if any read of this review is interested.

[Israel Montoya Baquero · Rating 5 out of 5]

La cantidad de informacion, basada en los inmensos conocimientos que posee,que suelta Panofsky en cada pagina es (o puede llegar a ser) apabullante. Lo que no quita que estemos ante una obra basica y fundamental para entender la pintura flamenca de los siglos XIV-XVII.

[Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué maravilla.