视觉艺术的意义（英文版）

This excerpt comes from Erwin Panofsky’s seminal work, Meaning in the Visual Arts: Papers in and on Art History, a collection of essays ranging over three decades and dealing with diverse topics such as iconography, style, and art theory. The text explores the deep historical transformations of intellectual concepts, most notably the evolution of the term humanitas from a classical virtue to a Renaissance synthesis of earthly and divine concerns. A major focus is the methodological distinction between "iconography" (the descriptive classification of images) and "iconology" (the interpretive study of a work's intrinsic meaning, derived from logos or reason). Panofsky uses detailed case studies—from Abbot Suger's philosophy of material light in Gothic architecture to the shifting interpretations of the "Et in Arcadia ego" inscription—to demonstrate how cultural symptoms and historical styles inform artistic representation and demand a rigorous, interpretative approach to art history.