Who the Hell is Erwin Panofsky?: And what are his theories on art history all about?

For students, teachers and curious minds, our carefully structured jargon-free series helps you really get to grips with brilliant intellectuals and their inherently complex theories. Written in an accessible and engaging way, each book takes you through the life and influences of these great thinkers, then takes a deep dive into three of their key theories in plain English.Smart thinking made easy!

Who the Hell is Erwin Panofsky? not only looks at Panofsky the person but also a defining moment in art history, where one man brought together several existing approaches to evaluating art and added some powerful new ones of his own. Beginning by tracing the life and influences of this great thinker we then take a deep dive into his theories on iconography and iconology. The final chapter studies Albrecht Durer’s Melencolia using Panofsky’s iconographical method. This book sets out to decipher Panofsky’s often complicated ideas and present them in such a way that they are easy to understand.