Michelangelo´s Desing Principles

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.