ABSTRACT
Edwin Panofsky is widely regarded as the most universalist and all-embracing of art-historical theorists. Edwin Panofsky's Meaning in the Visual Arts contains some of the most influential and pioneering ideas in art-historical scholarship, particularly in the systematic interpretation of the visual arts since the 1920s. Therefore, the nine essays can still be of use to anyone concerned with the theoretical developments of the discipline and of Renaissance art, as well as with the concepts of iconology, iconography, content, meaning, and human proportions. The broad display of scholarly interests contained in Meaning in the Visual Arts—as in Panofsky's wider work—makes it difficult to define Panofsky's text, but for students of art history and visual studies, this opens up the possibility of thinking of him as a universal scholar, relevant to all ages, places, and cultures.
