Iconography, as a branch of
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct from
artistic style
In the visual arts, style is a "...distinctive manner which permits the grouping of works into related categories" or "...any distinctive, and therefore recognizable, way in which an act is performed or an artifact made or ought to be performed a ...
. The word ''iconography'' comes from the
Greek ("image") and ("to write" or ''to draw'').
A secondary meaning (based on a non-standard translation of the Greek and Russian equivalent terms) is the production or study of the religious images, called "icons", in the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and
Orthodox Christian tradition (see
Icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The mos ...
). This usage is mostly found in works translated from languages such as Greek or Russian, with the correct term being "icon painting".
In
art history
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...
, "an iconography" may also mean a particular depiction of a subject in terms of the content of the image, such as the number of figures used, their placing and gestures. The term is also used in many academic fields other than art history, for example
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
and
media studies, and in general usage, for the content of images, the typical depiction in images of a subject, and related senses. Sometimes distinctions have been made between ''
iconology'' and ''iconography'', although the definitions, and so the distinction made, varies.
When referring to movies, genres are immediately recognizable through their iconography, motifs that become associated with a specific genre through repetition.
Iconography as a field of study
Foundations of iconography
Early Western writers who took special note of the content of images include
Giorgio Vasari, whose ''Ragionamenti'', interpreting the paintings in the
Palazzo Vecchio in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, reassuringly demonstrates that such works were difficult to understand even for well-informed contemporaries. Lesser known, though it had informed poets, painters and sculptors for over two centuries after its 1593 publication, was
Cesare Ripa's
emblem book ''Iconologia''.
Gian Pietro Bellori, a 17th-century biographer of artists of his own time, describes and analyses, not always correctly, many works.
Lessing's study (1796) of the classical figure
Amor with an inverted torch was an early attempt to use a study of a type of image to explain the culture it originated in, rather than the other way round.
[Białostocki:535]
Iconography as an academic art historical discipline developed in the nineteenth-century in the works of scholars such as
Adolphe Napoleon Didron
''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illicit ...
(1806–1867),
Anton Heinrich Springer (1825–1891), and
Émile Mâle (1862–1954)
[W. Eugene Kleinbauer and Thomas P. Slavens, ''Research Guide to the History of Western Art'', Sources of information in the humanities, no. 2. Chicago: ]American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...
(1982): 60-72. all specialists in Christian religious art, which was the main focus of study in this period, in which French scholars were especially prominent.
They looked back to earlier attempts to classify and organise subjects encyclopedically like Cesare Ripa and
Anne Claude Philippe de Caylus's ''Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grècques, romaines et gauloises'' as guides to understanding works of art, both religious and profane, in a more scientific manner than the popular
aesthetic
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...
approach of the time.
These early contributions paved the way for
encyclopedia
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
s, manuals, and other publications useful in identifying the content of art. Mâle's ''l'Art religieux du XIIIe siècle en France'' (originally 1899, with revised editions) translated into English as ''The Gothic Image, Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century'' has remained continuously in print.
Twentieth-century iconography
In the early-twentieth century
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
,
Aby Warburg (1866–1929) and his followers
Fritz Saxl (1890–1948) and
Erwin Panofsky (1892–1968) elaborated the practice of identification and classification of motifs in images to using iconography as a means to understanding meaning.
Panofsky codified an influential approach to iconography in his 1939 ''Studies in Iconology'', where he defined it as "the branch of the history of art which concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works of art, as opposed to form,"
although the distinction he and other scholars drew between particular definitions of "iconography" (put simply, the identification of visual content) and "iconology" (the analysis of the meaning of that content), has not been generally accepted, though it is still used by some writers.
In the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, to which Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as
Frederick Hartt, and
Meyer Schapiro continued under his influence in the discipline.
In an influential article of 1942, ''Introduction to an "Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture"'',
Richard Krautheimer
Richard Krautheimer (6 July 1897 in Fürth (Franconia), Germany – 1 November 1994 in Rome, Italy) was a 20th-century art historian, architectural historian, Baroque scholar, and Byzantinist.
Biography
Krautheimer was born in Germany in 1897 ...
, a specialist on early medieval churches and another German émigré, extended iconographical analysis to
architectural forms.
The period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was especially prominent in art history. Whereas most iconographical scholarship remains highly dense and specialized, some analyses began to attract a much wider audience, for example
Panofsky's theory (now generally out of favour with specialists) that the writing on the rear wall in the ''
Arnolfini Portrait
''The Arnolfini Portrait'' (or ''The Arnolfini Wedding'', ''The Arnolfini Marriage'', the ''Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife'', or other titles) is a 1434 oil painting on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It for ...
'' by
Jan van Eyck turned the painting into the record of a marriage contract.
Holbein's ''
The Ambassadors'' has been the subject of books for a general market with new theories as to its iconography, and the
best-sellers of
Dan Brown include theories, disowned by most art historians, on the iconography of works by
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
.
Technological advances allowed the building-up of huge collections of photographs, with an iconographic arrangement or index, which include those of the
Warburg Institute and the Index of Medieval Art (formerly Index of Christian Art) at
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
(which has made a specialism of iconography since its early days in America). These are now being digitised and made available online, usually on a restricted basis.
With the arrival of computing, the
Iconclass
Iconclass is a specialized library classification designed for art and iconography. It was originally conceived by Henri van de Waal, and was further developed by a group of scholars after his death.
Development based on Dewey Decimal system
The ...
system, a highly complex way of classifying the content of images, with 28,000 classification types, and 14,000 keywords, was developed in the Netherlands as a standard classification for recording collections, with the idea of assembling huge databases that will allow the retrieval of images featuring particular details, subjects or other common factors. For example, the Iconclass code "71H7131" is for the subject of "
Bathsheba
Bathsheba ( or ; he, בַּת־שֶׁבַע, ''Baṯ-šeḇaʿ'', Bat-Sheva or Batsheva, "daughter of Sheba" or "daughter of the oath") was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, according to the Hebrew Bible. She was the mother of ...
(alone) with David's letter", whereas "71" is the whole "
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
" and "71H" the "story of
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
". A number of collections of different types have been classified using Iconclass, notably many types of
old master print
An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition. The term remains current in the art trade, and there is no easy alternative in English to distinguish the works of "fine art" produced in printmak ...
, the collections of the
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin and the German
Marburger Index. These are available, usually on-line or on
DVD. The system can also be used outside pure art history, for example on sites like
Flickr.
Brief survey of iconography
Religious images
A religious image is a work of visual art that is representational and has a religious purpose, subject or connection. All major historical religions have made some use of religious images, although their use is strictly controlled and often contr ...
are used to some extent by all major religions, including both
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
and
Abrahamic
The Abrahamic religions are a group of religions centered around worship of the God of Abraham. Abraham, a Hebrew patriarch, is extensively mentioned throughout Abrahamic religious scriptures such as the Bible and the Quran.
Jewish traditi ...
faiths, and often contain highly complex iconography, which reflects centuries of accumulated tradition. Secular Western iconography later drew upon these themes.
Indian religious iconography
Central to the iconography and
hagiography of
Indian religions
Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism,Adams, C. J."Classification of ...
are
mudra or gestures with specific meanings. Other features include the
aureola and
halo, also found in Christian and Islamic art, and divine qualities and attributes represented by
asana and ritual tools such as the
dharmachakra,
vajra,
chhatra
The ''chhatra'' (from sa, छत्र, meaning "umbrella") "jewelled/precious parasol" is an auspicious symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.
The ''chhatra'' in various traditions
According to Hindu mythology, it is the emblem of Varuna, ...
,
sauwastika,
phurba
The ''phurba'' (; alternate transliterations: ''phurpa'', ''phurbu'', ''purbha'', or ''phurpu'') or ''kīla'' ( Sanskrit Devanagari: कील; IAST: kīla) is a three-sided peg, stake, knife, or nail-like ritual implement traditionally associ ...
and
danda. The symbolic use of colour to denote the
Classical Elements or
Mahabhuta and letters and
bija syllables from sacred alphabetic scripts are other features. Under the influence of
tantra
Tantra (; sa, तन्त्र, lit=loom, weave, warp) are the esoteric traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism that developed on the Indian subcontinent from the middle of the 1st millennium CE onwards. The term ''tantra'', in the India ...
art developed esoteric meanings, accessible only to initiates; this is an especially strong feature of
Tibetan art. The art of Indian Religions esp. Hindus in its numerous sectoral divisions is governed by sacred texts called the
Aagama which describes the ratio and proportion of the icon, called ''taalmaana'' as well as mood of the central figure in a context. For example,
Narasimha
Narasimha ( sa, नरसिंह, lit=man-lion, ), sometimes rendered Narasingha, is the fourth avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is regarded to have incarnated in the form of a part-lion, part-man being to slay Hiranyakashipu, to end rel ...
an incarnation of
Vishnu
Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism.
Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" withi ...
though considered a wrathful deity but in few contexts is depicted in pacified mood.
Although iconic depictions of, or concentrating on, a single figure are the dominant type of
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
image, large stone
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
or
fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...
narrative cycles of the ''Life of the Buddha'', or tales of his previous lives, are found at major sites like
Sarnath,
Ajanta, and
Borobudor, especially in earlier periods. Conversely, in
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
art, narrative scenes have become rather more common in recent centuries, especially in
miniature paintings of the lives of
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...
and
Rama
Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular '' avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Bei ...
.
Christian iconography
Christian art features Christian iconography, prominently developed in the
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
era and
renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...
, and is a prominent aspect of
Christian media
Christian media, sometimes referred to as inspirational, faith and family, or simply Christian, is a cross-media genre that features a Christian message or moral. Several creative studios and mass media formats are considered to be aspects of ...
.
Aniconism was rejected within
Christian theology
Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exeg ...
from the outset, and the development of
early Christian art and architecture occurred within the first two centuries after
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
.
Small images in the
Catacombs of Rome
The Catacombs of Rome ( it, Catacombe di Roma) are ancient catacombs, underground burial places in and around Rome, of which there are at least forty, some rediscovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian burials, either ...
show
orans figures, portraits of Christ and some saints, and a limited number of "abbreviated representations" of biblical episodes emphasizing deliverance. From the Constantinian period monumental art borrowed motifs from Roman Imperial imagery, classical Greek and Roman religion and popular art – the motif of
Christ in Majesty
Christ in Majesty or Christ in Glory ( la, Maiestas Domini) is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world, always seen frontally in the centre of the composition, and often flanked by other sacred figures, whos ...
owes something to both Imperial portraits and depictions of
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...
. In the
Late Antique period iconography began to be standardized, and to relate more closely to
Biblical
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of ...
texts, although many gaps in the
canonical Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
narratives were plugged with matter from the
apocryphal gospels. Eventually, the Church would succeed in weeding most of these out, but some remain, like the ox and ass in the
Nativity of Christ.
After the
period of Byzantine iconoclasm iconographical innovation was regarded as unhealthy, if not heretical, in the Eastern Church, though it still continued at a glacial pace. More than in the West, traditional depictions were often considered to have authentic or
miraculous origins, and the job of the artist was to copy them with as little deviation as possible. The Eastern church also never accepted the use of monumental
high relief or free-standing sculpture, which it found too reminiscent of paganism. Most modern
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canonical ...
icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The mos ...
s are very close to their predecessors of a thousand years ago, though development, and some shifts in meaning, have occurred – for example, the old man wearing a fleece in conversation with
Saint Joseph
Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...
usually seen in Orthodox Nativities seems to have begun as one of the shepherds, or the prophet
Isaiah
Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...
, but is now usually understood as the "Tempter" (
Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...
).
In both East and West, numerous iconic types of
Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
,
Mary and saints and other subjects were developed; the number of named types of icons of Mary, with or without the infant Christ, was especially large in the East, whereas
Christ Pantocrator was much the commonest image of Christ. Especially important depictions of Mary include the
Hodegetria
A Hodegetria , ; russian: Одиги́трия, Odigítria ; Romanian: Hodighitria, or Virgin Hodegetria, is an iconographic depiction of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) holding the Child Jesus at her side while pointing to him as the source of s ...
and
Panagia
Panagia ( el, Παναγία, fem. of , + , the ''All-Holy'', or the ''Most Holy''; pronounced ) (also transliterated Panaghia or Panajia), in Medieval and Modern Greek, is one of the titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern ...
types. Traditional models evolved for narrative paintings, including large cycles covering the events of the Life of Christ, the
Life of the Virgin
The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ. In both cases the ...
, parts of the Old Testament, and, increasingly, the lives of popular
saint
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...
s. Especially in the West, a system of
attributes developed for
identifying individual figures of saints by a standard appearance and symbolic objects held by them; in the East they were more likely to identified by text labels.
From the
Romanesque period sculpture on churches became increasingly important in Western art, and probably partly because of the lack of Byzantine models, became the location of much iconographic innovation, along with the
illuminated manuscript
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, th ...
, which had already taken a decisively different direction from Byzantine equivalents, under the influence of
Insular art and other factors. Developments in theology and devotional practice produced innovations like the subject of the
Coronation of the Virgin and the
Assumption
Assumption, in Christianity, refers to the Assumption of Mary, a belief in the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven.
Assumption may also refer to:
Places
* Assumption, Alberta, Canada
* Assumption, Illinois, United States
** Assumption Town ...
, Both associated with the
Franciscan
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
s, as were many other developments. Most painters remained content to copy and slightly modify the works of others, and it is clear that the clergy, by whom or for whose churches most art was commissioned, often specified what they wanted shown in great detail.
The theory of
typology, by which the meaning of most events of the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
was understood as a "type" or pre-figuring of an event in the life of, or aspect of, Christ or Mary was often reflected in art, and in the later
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
came to dominate the choice of Old Testament scenes in Western Christian art.
Whereas in the Romanesque and
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
periods the great majority of religious art was intended to convey often complex religious messages as clearly as possible, with the arrival of
Early Netherlandish painting iconography became highly sophisticated, and in many cases appears to be deliberately enigmatic, even for a well-educated contemporary. The subtle layers of meaning uncovered by modern iconographical research in works of
Robert Campin such as the
Mérode Altarpiece
The Mérode Altarpiece (or ''Annunciation Triptych'') is an oil on oak panel triptych, now in The Cloisters, in New York City. It is unsigned and undated, but attributed to Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin and an assistant. The three ...
, and of Jan van Eyck such as the
Madonna of Chancellor Rolin and the
Washington Annunciation lie in small details of what are on first viewing very conventional representations. When Italian painting developed a taste for enigma, considerably later, it most often showed in secular compositions influenced by
Renaissance Neo-Platonism
Platonism, especially in its Neoplatonist form, underwent a revival in the Renaissance as part of a general revival of interest in classical antiquity. Interest in Platonism was especially strong in Florence under the Medici.
History
During the ...
.
From the 15th century religious painting gradually freed itself from the habit of following earlier compositional models, and by the 16th century ambitious artists were expected to find novel compositions for each subject, and direct borrowings from earlier artists are more often of the poses of individual figures than of whole compositions. The
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
soon restricted most
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
religious painting to Biblical scenes conceived along the lines of
history painting, and after some decades the Catholic
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described a ...
reined in somewhat the freedom of Catholic artists.
Secular Western iconography
Secular painting became far more common in the West from the Renaissance, and developed its own traditions and conventions of iconography, in
history painting, which includes
mythologies,
portraits
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For thi ...
,
genre scenes, and even
landscapes, not to mention modern media and genres like
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is emplo ...
,
cinema,
political cartoon
A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combin ...
s,
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s and
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
.
Renaissance mythological painting was in theory reviving the iconography of its
Classical Antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
, but in practice themes like
Leda and the Swan
Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the ...
developed on largely original lines, and for different purposes. Personal iconographies, where works appear to have significant meanings individual to, and perhaps only accessible by, the artist, go back at least as far as
Hieronymous Bosch, but have become increasingly significant with artists like
Goya,
William Blake,
Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fro ...
,
Picasso,
Frida Kahlo
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self-portraits, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by the country's popular culture, ...
and
Joseph Beuys.
Iconography in disciplines other than art history
Iconography, often of aspects of
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
, is a concern of other
academic disciplines including
Semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
,
Anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
,
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
,
Media Studies,
Communication Studies, and
Cultural Studies
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
. These analyses in turn have affected conventional art history, especially concepts such as
signs in semiotics. Discussing imagery as iconography in this way implies a critical "reading" of imagery that often attempts to explore social and cultural values. Iconography is also used within
film studies to describe the
visual language of cinema, particularly within the field of
genre criticism.
[Cook and Bernink (1999, 138-140).] In the age of Internet, the new global history of the visual production of Humanity (Histiconologia) includes History of Art and history of all kind of images or medias.
Contemporary iconography research often draws on theories of visual framing to address such diverse issues as the iconography of climate change created by different stakeholders, the iconography that international organizations create about natural disasters, the iconography of epidemics disseminated in the press, and the iconography of suffering found in social media.
An iconography study in
communication science analyzed stock photos used in press reporting to depict the social issue of child sexual abuse.
Based on a sample of N=1,437 child sexual abuse (CSA) online press articles that included 419 stock photos, a CSA iconography (i.e. a set of typical image motifs for a topic) was revealed that relate to criminal reporting: The CSA iconography visualizes 1. crime contexts, 2. course of the crime and people involved, and 3. consequences of the crime for the people involved (e.g., image motif: perpetrator in handcuffs).
Articles with iconographical analysis of individual works
A non-exhaustive list:
*
Castelseprio frescoes
*
''The Flagellation'' by
Piero della Francesca
*The
Wilton Diptych
*The
Mérode Altarpiece
The Mérode Altarpiece (or ''Annunciation Triptych'') is an oil on oak panel triptych, now in The Cloisters, in New York City. It is unsigned and undated, but attributed to Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin and an assistant. The three ...
by
Robert Campin
*''
Madonna of Chancellor Rolin'', ''
Arnolfini Portrait
''The Arnolfini Portrait'' (or ''The Arnolfini Wedding'', ''The Arnolfini Marriage'', the ''Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife'', or other titles) is a 1434 oil painting on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. It for ...
'',
''Annunciation'', all by
Jan van Eyck
*''
Virgin and Child Enthroned'' by
Rogier van der Weyden
*''
The Magdalen Reading
''The Magdalen Reading'' is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid-15th-century oil-on-panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The panel, originally oak, was completed some time between 1435 and 143 ...
'' by Rogier van der Weyden
*''
St. Jerome in His Study'' by
Antonello da Messina
*''
Two Venetian Ladies
''Two Venetian Ladies'' is an oil on panel painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio.
The painting, believed to be a quarter of the original work, was executed around 1490 and shows two unknown Venetian ladies. The top porti ...
'' and ''
St. Augustine in His Study'' by
Vittore Carpaccio
*''
Melencolia I'' by
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer (; ; hu, Ajtósi Adalbert; 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528),Müller, Peter O. (1993) ''Substantiv-Derivation in Den Schriften Albrecht Dürers'', Walter de Gruyter. . sometimes spelled in English as Durer (without an umlaut) or Due ...
*
Marie de' Medici cycle
The Marie de' Medici Cycle is a series of twenty-four paintings by Peter Paul Rubens commissioned by Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV of France, for the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. Rubens received the commission in the autumn of 1621. After neg ...
by
Rubens
*
William Hogarth paintings and prints
*
Ivan Rutkovych
See also
*
Manga iconography
*
Saint symbolism
References
Citations
Sources
* Alunno, Marco
''Iconography and Gesamtkunstwerk in Parsifal’s Two Cinematic Settings''in ESM Mediamusic. No. 2 (2013).
* Białostocki, Jan
''Iconography'' ''Dictionary of The History of Ideas'', Online version, University of Virginia Library, Gale Group, 2003
* Cook, Pam and Mieke Bernink, eds. 1999. ''The Cinema Book''. 2nd ed. London: BFI Publishing. .
*
Schiller, Gertrud. ''Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I'',1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London,
* ''
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae'' (''LIMC''), Artemis Verlag, 1981-2009
conography of ancient mythology
External links
Warburg Institute Iconographic DatabaseIconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East (Project of the Swiss National Science Foundation at the Universities of Zurich and Fribourg)Web site for European Sacred Mountains, Calvaries and Devotional Complexeshttp://www.sacredvulva.com/SV_Project.html about the Cult of Great Mother]
LIMC-France��iconography of ancient mythology.
Christian IconographyWhat iconographers do - case study"Semiotics and Iconography" from the Handbook of Visual Analysis
{{Authority control
Iconography,
Art history