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Definition: iconography from The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide

In art history, a way to classify works of art with reference to its subject matter, themes, and symbolism, rather than style. Iconographic study can also be used when analysing the style of a work. Attaching significance to symbols can help to identify subject matter (for example, a saint holding keys usually represents St Peter) and makes it possible to place a work of art in its historical context. The pioneer of this approach was the German art historian Erwin Panofsky.

iconography

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(ī´´kŏnŏg'rӘfē) [Gr.,=image-drawing] or iconology [Gr.,=image-study], in art history, the study and interpretation of figural representations, either individual or symbolic, religious or secular; more broadly, the art of representation by pictures or images, which may or may not have a symbolic as well as an apparent or superficial meaning. When first used in the 18th cent. the term was confined to the study of engravings, which were then the standard mode of illustrating books on art and on antiquities in general. But it came shortly to be applied more specifically to the history and classification of Christian images and symbols of all sorts, in whatever medium they happened to be rendered originally or in whatever way they were reproduced for study. With the rise of the systematic investigation of art from prehistoric ages to modern times, it became apparent that each major phase or epoch in which figural representations occur had created and developed in varying degrees of richness…
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Full text Article iconography

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(ī´´kŏnŏg'rӘfē) [Gr.,=image-drawing] or iconology [Gr.,=image-study], in art history, the study and interpretation of figural representations, either individual or symbolic, religious or secular; more broadly, the art of representation by pictures or images, which may or may not have a symbolic as…
| 861 words
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Full text Article ICONOGRAPHY

From Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions
Burial society's beaker for the annual banquet,...
In the history of art, iconography refers to the content of the work of art, its meaning and its sources, either visual or textual, rather than its technique, composition, and style. The definition of Jewish iconography is somewhat complicated, for Jewish artists also employed non-Jewish themes. …
| 865 words , 1 image
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Full text Article iconography

From Encyclopedia of Renaissance Literature
Iconography is the representation in the graphic arts of an image that is regularly associated with an abstract idea or concept or with powerful persons or families. In contemporary Western society, a blindfolded woman with a scale in one hand and a sword in the other is the icon of justice. The…
| 219 words
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Full text Article SOLOMON (iconography)

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
The figure of Solomon is connected to a double * symbolism . The most wellknown is that which sees Solomon as the supreme judge and wise man (a symbol, therefore, of wisdom); the second, and less known, connects him to the figure of the victorious one in the fight against wicked forces. The most…
| 433 words
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Full text Article DROPSY (iconography)

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
The only example in iconography in Christian antiquity which in all probability refers to the episode in the gospel of the man suffering dropsy (Lk 14:2-5 … Et ecce homo quidam hydropicus erat ante illum … sanavit eum ac dimisit ) is documented on the ivory diptych of Erevan, datable to the 6th c. …
| 190 words
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Full text Article COMBAT (iconography)

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
Depictions of combat in Christian iconography can be divided into three groups: (1) combat between two people, (2) combat between a person and an animal, and (3) combat between animals. The first group contains a single example: a late 3rd-c. painting in a cubicle in the catacomb of SS. Pietro e…
| 352 words
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Full text Article ICONOGRAPHY

From Dictionary of Visual Discourse: A Dialectical Lexicon of Terms
A term used in art history to describe the approach to the symbolic content of images and symbols in artworks associated with the writings of the art historian Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968). Derivatively the study of the meaning of icons, images or symbolic attributes in their context within paintings…
| 407 words
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Full text Article Landscape Iconography

From International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
(A, B) Thomas Cole, The Course of...
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Glossary Iconography The description and interpretation of images or symbols in an attempt to explore social relations, cultural meaning, and political-economic power. Image A two- or three-dimensional artifact that depicts or refers to something by having a…
| 4,662 words , 4 images
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Full text Article HEROD (iconography)

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
Depiction of Herod is rare in Christian iconography of the first centuries because of the unpopularity of episodes relating to the period before and after Jesus’ death and to the tendency not to reproduce scenes linked in any way to the Passion. Thus Herod and the slaughter of the innocents are…
| 306 words
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Full text Article ANNUNCIATION (iconography)

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
Scenes of the annunciation appeared in the Christian iconographical repertoire in the mid-3rd c. at a time when theological reflection on the mystery of the * incarnation was particularly active in the church of * Rome (E. Dal Covolo, Tematiche cristologiche nell'età dei Severi : Bessarione 6 [1988] …
| 1,679 words
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