Korrespondenz 1950 bis 1956 (review)

In spite of the cool, scholarly detachment that one is supposed to have when writing a review, I admit to the almost voyeuristic pleasure I took in peering once again into the professional and private life of Erwin Panofsky (1892–1968). During his long career, the famed art historian was a prolific correspondent. About 27,000 letters to and from Panofsky survive in public and private archives. Seeking to rival the labors of Hercules, the frequent subject of his own longterm research, Dieter Wuttke (University of Bamberg) has hunted down this vast correspondence, selected a representative sample, and then painstakingly edited these letters. My review of the first two volumes and of Wuttke's editorial method is in Renaissance Quarterly 58, no. 2 (2005): 605–09.

Although the focus is obviously on Panofsky, this third volume provides fascinating glimpses of American intellectual life in the 1950s. McCarthyism directly impacted his family and the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton where he worked. The regents of the University of California required loyalty oaths by faculty at Berkeley, where Wolfgang, Panofsky's son was a young nuclear physicist. At Panofsky's initiative, the College Art Association sent a resolution condemning this threat to American education. Panofsky, Einstein, and others at the Institute of Advanced Study defended J. Robert Oppenheimer, their director (1947–66) and the former director of the Manhattan Project (1943–45), against political attacks. Other letters championed the relevance of the humanities, once the core of a liberal education, against postwar challenges.

By the early 1950s scholarly transatlantic communication and travel flourished. Panofsky invited numerous European scholars as guests to his institute. This resulted in close friendships with Carl Nordenfalk (Stockholm), Jan G. van Gelder (Utrecht), and Louis Grodecki (Paris). Particularly striking is the renewal of contacts with German scholars of varying generations. He generously commented on their writings and sent them his own publications. When, after much persuasion, he wrote an introduction to the collected essays of his Doktorvater, Wilhelm Vöge (1888–1952), which appeared in 1958, it was the first time that he had published in German since 1933. On the other hand, he remarked that Pandora's Box (1956), coauthored with his wife Dora, could be translated into any language except German. He retained a lingering resentment toward certain German scholars (such as Friedrich Winkler) and institutions. He declined a 1952 invitation to speak on the occasion of the centenary of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg even though "Herr Bundespräsident" assured him that "I should not meet characters I should not like to meet even if they had been appointed full professors in the meantime" (nos. 1540, 1563). Back in New York, Panofsky protested the Frick Library's policy barring German-born scholars.

Panofsky finally returned to Europe in 1952 and 1954. He wrote glowingly about his 1952 trip to Sweden, where he delivered the Gottesman Lectures at Gripsholm Castle. Even though he often bemoaned the troubles that he had transforming these talks into a book (Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, 1960), he relished the adulation and new friendships. After spending several stimulating weeks in Paul Coremans's restoration lab in Brussels studying Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece, Panofsky recognized the tremendous value that technical studies brought to his own work. He quickly made last-minute corrections to his Early Netherlandish Painting (1953). Two years later, Panofsky was back in Brussels co-teaching a highly specialized seminar on early Netherlandish art.

He closely followed the malicious lawsuit that Daniel George van Beuningen, the wealthy Dutch collector, brought against Coremans for testifying that his Last Supper was painted by Hans van Meegeren, the notorious forger, not Jan Vermeer. Indignant that his friend was being sued for voicing his professional opinion, Panofsky rallied scholars and the College Art Association to write letters on Coremans's behalf. Ultimately, Coremans was vindicated.

Panofsky's letters are filled with references to the...