Value

Johann Andreas Benjamin Nothnagel
Angel appearing to Rabbi
ca. 1770-80
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Nosadella (Giovanni Francesco Bezzi)
Pluto
ca. 1530
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Nosadella (Giovanni Francesco Bezzi)
The Annunciation
ca. 1560-70
oil on panel
Princeton University Art Museum

Pietro Antonio Novelli
Worshippers before Shrine with Colossal Head of Deity
ca. 1770
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Severin Nilson
Untitled
(tumbledown wall in the country)
ca. 1880
albumen silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Colin Nouailher
Casket decorated with Heads of the Caesars
ca. 1545
enamel on copper, partly gilt
Frick Collection, New York

Carlo Francesco Nuvolone
Portrait of Giulia Bonfanti
(member of the Farnese court)
ca. 1630-40
oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

attributed to Donat Nonotte
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1770
oil on canvas
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Narbonne

Franz Nölken
Self Portrait
1915
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Gillis Neyts
Arches of the Colosseum, Rome
ca. 1650
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Niccolò da Foligno
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1480-85
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Caspar Netscher
Self Portrait with Wine Glass
1667
oil on panel
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Caspar Netscher
Portrait of Cecilia de Jonge van Ellemeet
1679
oil on canvas
Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp

Elias Nessenthaler
Tritons carrying Gifts to the Sea
ca. 1695
etching and engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig 

Endre Nemes
Seated Figure
1935
watercolor on paper
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Bjarne Ness
Studies of Standing Models
ca. 1925
drawing
Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø

The "naive" beholder differs from the art historian in that the latter is conscious of the situation.  He knows that his cultural equipment, such as it is, would not be in harmony with that of people in another land and of a different period.  He tries, therefore, to make adjustments by learning as much as he possibly can of the circumstances under which the objects of his studies were created.  Not only will he collect and verify all the available factual information as to medium, condition, age, authorship, destination, etc., but he will also compare the work with others of its class, and will examine such writings as reflect the aesthetic standards of its country and age, in order to achieve a more "objective" appraisal of its quality.  He will read old books on theology or mythology in order to identify its subject-matter, and he will further try to determine its historical locus, and to separate the individual contribution of its maker from that of forerunners and contemporaries.  He will study the formal principles which control the rendering of the visible world, or, in architecture, the handling of what may be called the structural features, and thus build up a history of "motifs."  He will observe the interplay between the influences of literary sources and the effect of self-dependent representational traditions, in order to establish a history of iconographic formulae or "types."  And he will do his best to familiarize himself with the social, religious and philosophical attitudes of other periods and countries, in order to correct his own subjective feeling for content.  But when he does all this, his aesthetic perception as such will change accordingly, and will more and more adapt itself to the original "intention" of the works.  Thus what the art historian, as opposed to the "naive" art lover, does, is not to erect a rational superstructure on an irrational foundation, but to develop his re-creative experiences so as to conform with the results of his archaeological research, while continually checking the results of his archaeological research against the evidence of his re-creative experiences.

– Erwin Panofsky, from The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline (1940)