An Assessment of Panofsky’s Method as applied to Dutch Genre Painting

Oliver James Harris
Trinity College Dublin
Department of History of Art and Architecture
2013
BA

Subject: Painting
Country: Holland
Period: 17th Century

10,000 words

The iconographical method devised by the German art historian Erwin Panofsky, constitutes, alongside Formalism, one of the two great pillars of art historical interpretation of the twentieth century. Although originally developed as a means to interpret the art of the Italian Renaissance, iconology has proved just as fruitful when applied to the work Northern artists, in particular, the ‘scenes of everyday life’ or genre paintings of the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. This dissertation will discuss the iconographical method, tracing its progression from the work of Panofsky to its current form as applied in the interpretation of genre scenes. This will examine some of its crucial features before assessing its strength and weaknesses, in an attempt to evaluate its worth as an interpretative method in the study of genre method.

Irish Georgian Society

Education Theses Register

An Assessment of Panofsky’s Method as applied to Dutch Genre Painting