Lotte Brand Philip

During her long career, Brand wrote highly regarded books and monographs on artists such as Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer and Hieronymus Bosch, and in 1980 became emeritus at Queens.

William S. Heckscher, who had studied under Panofsky with her and now taught at the Institute of Art History at Utrecht, arranged for Brand Philip to tour the Netherlands as a guest lecturer in 1957.

[4] Brand Philip was selected to give the 1967–1968 Benjamin West Memorial Lecture on art history at Swarthmore College, on the topic "The Ghent Altarpiece: A New Solution to an Old Problem".

Panofsky, an acknowledged expert in early Netherlandish art and symbolism, addressed several uncertainties including the curious variations in scale of the figures, the lack of a unified religious message and the unclear attribution of the work between the van Eyck brothers.

[a 1] Panofsky was of the opinion that the panels had originally been intended for three separate works of art, and that after Hubert's death, they were hastily finished by Jan and combined into a single piece.

[6] She came to believe that all of the major issues with the Ghent work—scale, unification of message, and attribution—could be explained by the presence of a surrounding framework, elaborately sculpted in the manner of a reliquary or church tabernacle.

Brand Philip believed that the stone canopy was a remnant which had survived to de Noter's time, and felt this supported her theory of a grand, unifying framework.

[11] Brand Philip's identification was confirmed in 1977 by Dürer scholar Fedja Anzelewsky, who found that the reverse side of both the Nuremberg and Florence portraits showed patterns of dark clouds and the faded mark "No.

[12] Brand Philip's findings were published in the 1978–1979 issue of Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art in a paper titled "The Portrait Diptych of Dürer's Parents."

[2] On the occasion of her 75th birthday, her colleagues celebrated her life and work with a traditional festschrift: the publication of Tribute to Lotte Brand Philip: Art Historian and Detective.