Noorul Ain Khawajja   -   Erwin Pan Panofsky was a German art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the US Panofsky's work represents a high point in the modern academic study of iconography, which he used in hugely influentialMany of his works are still in print, including Studies in Iconology: Humanist Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (1939). Panofsky's ideas were also highly influential in intellectual history in generaland particularly in his use of historical ideas to interpret artworks.

An Understanding Of Art History

Historical ideas to interpret art works from the Author's and Artist's point of view.

Author Erwin Panofsky started by giving his readers an understanding of iconography which is concerned with the study of subject matter or meaning or massages of art work as opposed to their form. Which he further elaborate by using or introducing three levels of Primary or natural subject matter: The most basic level of understanding, this level which consists of perception of the work's pure form for example, a painting of the Last Supper. If we stopped at this first level such a picture could only be perceived as a painting of 13 men seated at a table. This first level is the most basic understanding of a work, devoid of any added cultural knowledge.

Secondary or conventional subject matter (iconography): This stratum goes a step further and brings to the equation cultural and iconographic knowledge. For example, a Western viewer would understand that the painting of 13 men around a table would represent the Last Supper.

Intrinsic meaning or content (iconology): This level takes into account personal, technical, and cultural history into the understanding of a work. It looks at art not as an isolated incident, but as the product of a historical environment. Working in this level the art historian can ask questions like "why did the artist choose to represent The Last Supper in this way?"

From the artist point of view it helps us to understands (these three levels of understanding) a differences between subject matter and meaning and a form. This discussion is further supported by a simple example: if any of our college greets us by removing his hat while walking on a road so the thing we will be looking at will be from a formal aspect .This perception of (formal aspect) is nothing but the change of certain details like color, lines, volume, shape which makes our world of vision. But when we will be looking at him as a person removing his hat for greeting salute as an object and removing of hat as an event , so that means he is being looked as a subject matter or meaning which will be clarifying the difference between formal viewing of things and their subjectivity.

This writing helps an artist in realizing that how these primary and secondary aspects of understanding can affect our psychological expressions and how we as humans categorize factual meanings by simply identifying certain visible forms with known objects from our practical experiences or from a society and every day familiarity with objects and events.

So, both the (factual and expressional) meanings may be categorized together which makes the class of primary or natural meanings. Further-more  for understanding the significance of iconography an artist should not only be familiar with practical world of objects and events but it's essential for an artist make himself familiar with the practical world of customs and cultures, and traditions of certain civilizations.

And with the combination of these two levels of understandings primary or natural and secondary or conventional and by unifying them it will make a sense of iconography clearer 

Which will explain both the visible event and its intelligible significance and further gives rise to the intrinsic meaning or content of an artwork?

Noorul Ain Khawajja