Tradition
Iconography
Overview
Iconography, as a branch of art history, 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. The word iconography comes from the Greek εἰκών ("image") and γράφειν ("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 and Orthodox Christian tradition. 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, "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, media studies, and archaeology, 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.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
For these too I call for, and forthwith they appear. And though my tongue be still, and my throat mute, so can I sing as much as I will; nor do those images of colors, which notwithstanding be there, intrude themselves and interrupt, when another store is called for, which flowed in by the ears. So the other things, piled in and up by the other senses, I recall at my pleasure.
of Hippo Augustine, Confessions of St. Augustine
States what Iconography is; the author is tied to Iconography in the knowledge graph.
For we do not say, hark how it flashes, or smell how it glows, or taste how it shines, or feel how it gleams; for all these are said to be seen. And yet we say not only, see how it shineth, which the eyes alone can perceive; but also, see how it soundeth, see how it smelleth, see how it tasteth, see how hard it is. And so the general experience of the senses, as was said, is called The lust of the eyes, because the…
of Hippo Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine
States what Iconography is; the author is tied to Iconography in the knowledge graph.
MYLONAS closed by looking at one of the pictures and noting again that one can do a great deal of research using the iconography as well as the texts. For instance, students in a core course at Harvard this year were highly interested in Greek concepts of foreigners and representations of non-Greeks. So they performed a great deal of research, both with texts (e.g., Herodotus) and with iconography on vases and…
Library of Congress, Workshop on Electronic Texts
Names Iconography several times.
Related ideas
- Giorgio Vasari
- Francisco Goya
- Jesus
- Fresco
- Florence
- Germany
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
- Hindus
- Abrahamic religions
- History painting
- Indian religions
- Platonism in the Renaissance
- Ancient Greek
- Hagiography
- Springer Publishing
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Sociology
- Middle Ages
- Vishnu
- Rama
- Augustine of Hippo
- Art history
- Architecture
- Aesthetics
Place in the tradition
Part of Indian philosophy.