Interpretation and the Artist's Intention

Abstract

What sort of interpretation can be called a good and correct one? E. Panofsky has once distinguished the three strata of the subject matter or meaning of a work of art, and it is worth notice that he presents the corrective principle of interpretation to each these three levels of meaning. Recently E. H. Gombrich has also expounded a method of iconology in the Introduction of his Symbolic Images, but which is somewhat different from Panofsky's approximation to meaning. According to his view, interpreter must establish the intended meaning of a work, and, therefore, the iconology is regarded as the reconstruction of a programme of an artist and a patron. In the literary interpretation, however, so many essays have been devoted to the role of an author's intention that we must examine their issues, especially, the anti-intentionalists' contentions. After all we like to insist that Panofsky's method indicates a legitimate direction to search for a correct interpretation.