Erwin Panofsky, arguably one of the most influential thinkers of the modern era, is most commonly associated with his "Studies in Iconology,” a series of lectures published in English in 1955. In these lectures, he describes a theoretical system that allows for interpretations of Renaissance paintings in light of philosophy, classical mythology, and general humanistic knowledge. What was particularly distinctive about this methodology was his claim that it held the key to the history of artistic styles as an expression or manifestation of changing worldviews, or Weltanschauung.
This approach, which had a basis in the philosophical system of Georg Fredrich Hegel, essentially says that the course of human history "resembles a clockwork of wheels within wheels activated by the unfolding spirit of mankind, a spirit that animates art, no less than science, law, or religion, in a precise and determined way" (Gombrich, 1996). Because of this intermingling of fields within the scope of human endeavor, a successful art historian would have to be familiar with most of the other historical disciplines to produce the parallels from philosophy, poetry, and all the other aspects of the past. This interpretative method guaranteed art historians a place in the nexus of the humanities, and allowed Panofsky to find ingenious parallels between art and contemporary (meaning contemporary to the painting) culture.
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