Abstract:

Hugo van der Goes “The Fall of Man” painting, which is dated to 1479 and exhibited at the Vienna Art History Museum, was analyzed based on the “Method of Iconographic and Iconological Art Criticism” which was developed by German Art Historian Erwin Panofsky.In the analysis of “The Fall of Man” one of the limited extant original works by Hugo van der Goes, who is considered among the most important representatives of Flemish Renaissance, the way artists from different periods approached “The First Sin and Fall” iconography and the characteristics of their style were compared and evaluated by determining the aspects that are both consistent with and not between the work and “The First Sin and Fall” iconography, which appears in the first section of the Torah titled “Creation” and revealing how various factors, primarily the period during which the artist lived, individuality, religious belief, and the philosophy of the era are reflected on the work. This was achieved by employing the “Method of Iconographic and Iconological Art Criticism”, it is based on determining the meanings that appear in three separate stages, “Natural Meaning (Factual and Expressional Meaning)”, “Compromised Meaning”, and the “Actual Meaning or Content”.

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