Early Netherlandish Painting (Panofsky book)

Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character is a 1953 book on art history by Erwin Panofsky, derived from the 1947–48 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures. The book had a wide impact^[2] on studies of Renaissance art and Early Netherlandish painting in particular, but also studies in iconography, art history, and intellectual history in general. The book is particularly well-known for its iconographic treatment of Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait as a kind of marriage contract, a hypothesis advanced by Panofsky as early as 1934. The book remains influential despite its reliance on black-and-white reproductions of paintings, which led to some errors of analysis.^[3]

Early Netherlandish Painting

First edition, Volume one: Text, Volume two: Plates
Author	Erwin Panofsky
Cover artist	Volume one: Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, c. 1435 by Jan van Eyck Volume two: The Virgin of the Annunciation, from the Portinari Triptych, c. 1479 by Hugo van der Goes[1]
Language	English
Genre	Art history
Publisher	Harvard University Press
Publication date	1953
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardback (1953) and paperback (1971))
Pages	358 pages of text, 150 pages of notes, 496 illustrations
ISBN	978-0-06-436683-0

Early Netherlandish Painting shares its title with the comprehensive, 14-volume survey by Max J. Friedländer, a fact obliquely acknowledged at the beginning of the preface.^[4]