The first English translation of Erwin Panofsky's long-lost work on
Michelangelo
In 2012, a manuscript by renowned art historian Erwin Panofsky was
rediscovered in a safe in Munich, in the basement of the Central
Institute for Art History. Hidden for decades among folders and
administrative files was Panofsky's thesis on Michelangelo--originally
submitted to Hamburg University in March of 1920, abandoned when
Panofsky fled Hitler's Germany in 1934, and thought to have been
destroyed in the Allied bombings. A century on, Michelangelo's Design
Principles makes this remarkable work available for the first time in
English.
Casting Panofsky's thought in an entirely new light, Michelangelo's
Design Principles is the legendary scholar's only book-length
examination of the art of the Italian Renaissance. He provides a
compelling analysis of Michelangelo's artistic style and deftly compares
it with that of Raphael, situating both Renaissance masters in the
broader context of Western art. This illuminating book offers unique
perspectives on Panofsky's early intellectual development and the state
of research on Michelangelo and the High Renaissance at a period of
transition in art history, when formalist readings of artworks began to
take precedence over a biographical approach.
Featuring an introduction by Gerda Panofsky that discusses the history
of the manuscript and the significance of its rediscovery,
Michelangelo's Design Principles is a crucial link between Panofsky's
formalist training as a young art historian and his later work in
iconology.
