ABSTRACT
Because of the diversity of themes and ideas in Edwin Panofsky's Meaning in the Visual Arts, it is difficult to ascertain whether the author has been successful in realizing his intention. However, the huge impact of his work, both in the form of individual texts and completed books, indicates that whatever his aims had been, he was successful in making various original contributions to the fields of art history and visual studies. Although European scholars had already been in the forefront of the study of art history, the notion that art history in America before Panofsky's arrival was a dry archeological discipline awaiting the life-giving touch of a German tradition of art historical scholarship, is historically uncertain and quite debatable. By illustrating the remarkable breadth of the author's interests as well as the wide span of his cross-disciplinary pursuits, Panofsky's essays vividly show that he refused to confine his thought within certain disciplinary boundaries.
