Signed ‘PAN’: Erwin Panofsky’s (1892-1968) The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline (Princeton, 1938)

In 1935 Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) was appointed the first

‘permanent member’ of the School of Humanistic Studies (now the School

of Historical Studies) at the Institute for Advanced Study in

Princeton. The famous institute was founded by the American educator

Abraham Flexner (1866-1959). This essay contributes to the

content and context of Panofsky’s important lecture
The History of

Art as a Humanistic Discipline from1938. The publication of that

lecture functioned as a manifesto written by an intellectual

emigre in a new American context. It is thanks to Panofsky

that the locus classicus of iconography, as Irving Lavin

(1927-2019) described the Institute for Advanced Study, received the

compelling arguments for an art history that deserves to be counted

among the humanities. A close reading of the text and an analysis of

its impact can still teach us something about the origins

and development of the Art Historical field and Iconological Studies

today.