Holbein's The Ambassadors is a complex work whose iconography remains the subject of debate

This article is concerned with the methodology of iconography, principally in art history; for other uses of the term, primarily in Eastern Christianity, see Icon. The Ambassadors ( 1533) is a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger in the National Gallery London. Art history is the Academic study of objects of Art in their Historical development and stylistic contexts i Families of churches Eastern Christians have a shared tradition but they became divided ( Schism) during the early centuries of Christianity in disputes about An icon (from Greek εἰκών eikōn, "image" is a religious work of art most commonly a painting from Eastern Christianity.

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. Art history is the Academic study of objects of Art in their Historical development and stylistic contexts i The word iconography literally means "image writing", or painting, and comes from the Greek εικον (image) and γραφειν (to write). The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the Byzantine and Orthodox Christian tradition. An icon (from Greek εἰκών eikōn, "image" is a religious work of art most commonly a painting from Eastern Christianity. Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 4th century until the Fall of Constantinople The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world The term is also used in many academic fields other than art history, for example semiotics and media studies, and in general usage, for the content of images, the typical depiction in images of a subject, and related senses. Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Media studies is a collection of academic programs regarding the content history meaning and effects of various media. Sometimes distinctions have been made between Iconology and Iconography, although the definitions and so the distinction made varies.

Iconography as a field of study

Foundations of iconography

Early Western writers who took especial note of the content of images include Giorgio Vasari, whose Ragionamenti, interpreting the paintings in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, reassuringly demonstrates that such works were difficult to understand even for well-informed contemporaries. Giorgio Vasari ( 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian painter and Architect, who is today famous The Palazzo Vecchio (IPA pronunciation vɛkio (Italian for Old Palace is the town hall of Florence, Italy Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Gian Pietro Bellori, a 17th century biographer of artists of his own time, describes and analyses, not always correctly, many works. Gian Pietro Bellori (also known as Giovanni Pietro Bellori or Giovan Pietro Bellori, 1613 - 1696 was a prominent biographer of the Italian Baroque 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. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ( 22 January, 1729 15 February, 1781) was a German Writer, Philosopher, Dramatist In Roman mythology, Cupid (Latin cupido) is the god of Erotic Love and Beauty. ^[1]

A painting with complex iconography: Hans Memling's so-called Seven Joys of the Virgin - in fact this is a later title for a Life of the Virgin cycle on a single panel. Hans Memling (Memlinc (c 1430 &ndash 11 August, 1494) was an Early Netherlandish painter, born in Seligenstadt / Germany, who The Seven Joys of the Virgin (or of Mary the Mother of Jesus) is a popular devotion to events of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary arising from a trope of 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 Altogether 25 scenes, not all involving the Virgin, are depicted. 1480, Alte Pinakothek, Munich. The Alte Pinakothek (Old Pinakothek is an Art museum situated in the Kunstareal in Munich, Germany. ^[2]

Iconography as an academic art historical discipline developed in the nineteenth-century in the works of scholars such as Adolphe Napoleon Didron (1806–1867), Anton Heinrich Springer (1825–1891), and Émile Mâle (1862–1954)^[3] all specialists in Christian religious art, which was the main focus of study in this period, in which French scholars were especially prominent. Adolphe Napoleon Didron ( 13 March, 1806 &ndash 13 November, 1867) was a French Archaeologist. Anton Heinrich Springer ( July 13, 1825, Prague - May 31, 1891, Leipzig) was a German Art historian Émile Mâle ( June 2, 1862 - October 6, 1954) was a French Art historian, one of the first to study Medieval, mostly ^[4] They looked back to earlier attempts to classify and organise subjects encyclopedically like Cesare Ripa's Iconologia 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 approach of the time. Cesare Ripa (died 1622 was an Italian aesthetician and author of the Iconologia (or in full Iconologia overo Descrittione Dell’imagini Universali Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubières-Grimoard de Pestels Levieux de Lévis comte de Caylus marquis d'Esternay baron de Bransac ( October 31, 1692 &ndash September Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called ^[3] These early contributions paved the way for encyclopedias, manuals, and other publications useful in identifying the content of art. An encyclopedia (or '''encyclopædia''') is a comprehensive written Compendium that contains Information on either all branches of Knowledge 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, Aby Warburg (1866–1929) and his followers Fritz Saxl (1890–1948) and Erwin Panofsky (1862–1968) elaborated the practice of identification and classification of motifs in images to using iconography as a means to understanding meaning. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Abraham Moritz Warburg, known as Aby Warburg, ( Hamburg, June 13, 1866 – Hamburg October 26, 1929) was an Erwin Panofsky (also spelled Irwin Panofsky) ( 30 March 1892 - 14 March 1968) was a German Jewish Art historian who emigrated ^[3] 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,"^[3] 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, where Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as Frederick Hartt, and Meyer Schapiro continued under his influence in the discipline. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Frederick Hartt (1914-1991 was a professor of History of Art at the University of Virginia. Meyer Schapiro (born September 23, 1904, in Shavel / Šiauliai, Lithuania; died March 3, 1996 in New York ^[3] In an influential article of 1942, Introduction to an "Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture", ^[5] Richard Krautheimer, a specialist on early medieval churches and another German emigré, extended iconographical analysis to architectural forms. Richard Krautheimer ( Fürth (Franconia Germany, 1897 – Rome, Italy, 1994 was a 20th century art historian architectural historian The term architecture (from Greek αρχιτεκτονικήarchitektoniki) can be used to mean a process a profession or documentation

The period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was especially prominent in art history. ^[6] Whereas most icongraphical 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 by Jan van Eyck turned the painting into the record of a marriage contract. The Arnolfini Portrait is a Painting in oils on Oak Panel executed by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Jan van Eyck or Johannes de Eyck (jɑn vɑn ɛik (before c 1395 &ndash before July 9, 1441) was an Early Netherlandish painter active Holbein's The Ambassadors has been the subject of books for a general market with new theories as to its iconography,^[7] and the best-sellers of Dan Brown include theories, disowned by most art historians, on the iconography of works by Leonardo da Vinci. The Ambassadors ( 1533) is a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger in the National Gallery London. A bestseller is a Book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade Dan Brown (born June 22 1964 is an American Author of Thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer

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 Christian Art at Princeton (which has made a specialism of iconography since its early days in America). The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ^[8] These are now being digitised and made available online, usually on a restricted basis.

With the arrival of computing, the Iconclass 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. Iconclass is a specialized Library classification designed for Art and Iconography. For example, the Iconclass code "71H7131" is for the subject of "Bathsheba (alone) with David's letter", whereas "71" is the whole "Old Testament" and "71H" the "story of David". According to the Hebrew Bible, Bathsheba (בת שבע Bat Sheva) was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, king of the In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. David, Arabic: داوود or داود dawud, "beloved" was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible A number of collections of different types have been classified using Iconclass, notably many types of old master print, the collections of the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin and the German Marburger Index. An old master print is a work of art produced by a Printing process within the Western tradition (European or New World The collection The Gemäldegalerie prides itself on its scientific methodology in collecting and displaying art These are available, usually on-line or on DVD. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is ^[9][10] The system can also be used outside pure art history, for example on sites like Flickr. Flickr is an image and video hosting Website, Web services suite and Online community platform ^[11]

Brief survey of iconography

17th century Central Tibetan thanka of Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra

Iconography in religious art

Religious images are used to some extent by all major religions, including both Indian and Abrahamic faiths, and often contain highly complex iconography, which reflects centuries of accumulated tradition. Definitions of Tibet See also Definitions of Tibet Name In English The English word Tibet, like the word for Tibet in most European Guhyasamaja Tantra, or Esoteric Community Tantra, (tib gSang ba 'dus pa'i rgyud) (Sanskrit "Treatise on the Sum Total of Mysteries" A religious image is a work of Visual art that is representational and has a religious purpose subject or connection Indian religions, also called Dharmic religions, are the related religious traditions that originated in the Indian subcontinent, namely Hinduism,

Iconography in Indian religions

Central to the iconography and hagiography of Indian religions are mudra or gestures with specific meanings. Hagiography ( is the study of Saints. A hagiography, from Greek (hağios (ἅγιος "holy" or "saint" and graphē (γραφή Indian religions, also called Dharmic religions, are the related religious traditions that originated in the Indian subcontinent, namely Hinduism, A mudrā ( Sanskrit: मुद्रा lit "seal" is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. 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, dadar, phurba, sauwastika. An aureola or aureole (diminutive of Latin aurea, "golden" is the radiance of luminous cloud which in Paintings of sacred personages A halo (ἅλως also known as a nimbus, Aureole, glory, or gloriole) is a ring of light that surrounds a person in art Asana ( Sanskrit आसन sitting down < आस to sit down) is a body position typically associated with the practice of Yoga, intended The Dharmachakra ( Sanskrit) or Dhammachakka ( Pāli) Tibetan chos kyi 'khor lo, Chinese fălún 法輪 Vajra ( Devanagari: वज्र Tibetan: dorje ( is a Sanskrit word meaning both Thunderbolt and Diamond Dadar (दादर is a Place in Mumbai, and has a Railway station on the Mumbai Suburban Railway on both the Western Railway The Phurba ( Tib, pronunciation between 'pur-ba' & 'fur-pu' alt The term sauwastika or sauvastika is a term sometimes used to distinguish the "left-facing" from the "right-facing" form of the The symbolic use of colour to denote the Classical Elements or Mahabhuta and letters and bija syllables from sacred alphabetic scripts are other features. Many ancient philosophies used a set of archetypal classical "elements" to explain patterns in Nature. Definitions In the Pali canon, the most basic elements are usually identified as four in number but on occasion a fifth and to an even lesser extent a sixth element In Hinduism and Buddhism, the Sanskrit term bīja ( Jp. 種子 shuji literally Seed, is used as a metaphor for the origin or cause Under the influence of tantra art developed esoteric meanings, accessible only to initiates; this is an especially strong feature of Tibetan art. Tantra ( Sanskrit: तन्त्र; " Weave " denoting continuity) tantricism or tantrism is any of several esoteric Tibetan art refers to the art of Tibet and other present and former Himalayan kingdoms ( Bhutan, Ladakh, Nepal, and Sikkim

Although iconic depictions of, or concentrating on, a single figure are the dominant type of Buddhist image, large stone relief or fresco 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 earler periods. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices A bas-relief (baʁəljɛf in French; French for "low relief" derived from the Italian basso rilievo) or low relief is a Sculpture Fresco (plural either frescos or frescoes) is any of several related Painting types done on Plaster on walls or This article is about a place in India For H P Lovecraft 's fictitious city see The Doom That Came to Sarnath. Borobudur is a ninth-century Mahayana Buddhist monument in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. Conversely, in Hindu art, narrative scenes have become rather more common in recent centuries, especially in miniature paintings of the lives of Krishna and Rama. A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical Indian painting is a form of Indian art. Prelude The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of Pre-historic times the Petroglyphs Krishna (कृष्ण in Devanagari kṛṣṇa in IAST, ˈkr̩ʂɳə in classical Sanskrit is a deity worshiped across many traditions of Hinduism Rama ( IAST: rāma Devanāgarī: राम Khmer: Phreah Ream Thai: Phra Ram Lao: Phra Lam Tagalog:

Christian iconography

Christian art began, about two centuries after Christ, by borrowing motifs from Roman Imperial imagery, classical Greek and Roman religion and popular art - the motif of Christ in Majesty owes something to both Imperial portraits and depictions of Zeus. Christ in Majesty, or Christ in Glory, in Latin Majestas Domini, is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world always Zeus (zjuːs in Greek: nominative: Zeús /zdeús/ genitive: Diós; Modern Greek /'zefs/ in Greek mythology In the Late Antique period iconography began to be standardised, and to relate more closely to Biblical texts, although many gaps in the canonical Gospel narratives were plugged with matter from the apocryphal gospels. Late Antiquity (c 300-600 is a Periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament Eventually the Church would succeed in weeding most of these out, but some remain, like the ox and ass in the Nativity of Christ. The Nativity of Jesus has been a major subject of Christian art since the 4th century

The Theotokos of Tikhvin of ca. Tikhvin (Ти́хвин is a town in the northeast of Leningrad Oblast of Russia, 200 km east of St 1300, an example of the Hodegetria type of Madonna and Child. The Hodegetria ( Οδηγήτρια, literally "She who shows the way" Russian Одигитрия is the Iconography depicting the Theotokos

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. Iconoclasm, Greek for "image-breaking" is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious Icons and other symbols or monuments 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. Acheiropoieta (Greek) literally "not-handmade" or Icons Not Made by Hand (and variants are a particular kind of Icon, ones that are alleged to have The Eastern church also never accepted the use of monumental high relief or free-standing sculpture, which it found too reminiscent of paganism. Alto-relievo is translated from Italian as high-relief, a technique in Classical antiquity sculpture to reveal human or animal figures that project out from a Most modern Eastern Orthodox icons 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 usually seen in Orthodox Nativities seems to have begun as one of the shepherds, or the prophet Isaiah, but is now usually understood as the "Tempter" (Satan). The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world An icon (from Greek εἰκών eikōn, "image" is a religious work of art most commonly a painting from Eastern Christianity. Joseph "of the House of David " ( Hebrew יוֹסֵף also known as Saint Joseph, Joseph the Betrothed, Joseph of Nazareth Isaiah (; Greek:, Ēsaiās; Arabic: اشعیاء, Ash-ee-yaa; "Salvation of/is YHWH " is Satan, ( Standard Hebrew Satan'el, English accuser) is a term that originates from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally ^[12]

In both East and West, numerous iconic types of Christ, 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. Christ is the English term for the Greek ( Khristós) meaning "the anointed " Meaning The most common translation of Pantocrator is "Almighty" or "All-powerful Especially important depictions of Mary include the Hodegetria and Panagia types. The Hodegetria ( Οδηγήτρια, literally "She who shows the way" Russian Одигитрия is the Iconography depicting the Theotokos Panagia ( Greek: Παναγία All-holy) also transliterated Panayia or Panaghia, is one of the titles of Mary the mother of Jesus Traditional models evolved for for narrative paintings, including large cycles covering the events of the Life of Christ, the Life of the Virgin, parts of the Old Testament, and, increasingly, the lives of popular saints. 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 A saint (from the Latin sanctus) is a human being to whom has been attributed (and who has generally demonstrated a high level of Holiness and Sanctity 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. An emblem is a pictorial Image, abstract or representational that epitomizes a Concept — e Christianity has used symbols from its very beginnings Each Saint has a story and a reason why he or she led an exemplary life

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, which had already taken a decisively different direction from Byzantine equivalents, under the influence of Insular art and other factors. Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th century or later depending on region An illuminated manuscript is a Manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration such as decorated Initials borders and Insular art, also known as the Hiberno-Saxon style is the style of art produced in the post-Roman history of the British Isles and the term is also used in Developments in theology and devotional practice produced innovations like the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin and the Assumption, both associated with the Franciscans, as were many other developments. The Coronation of the Virgin or Coronation of Mary is a subject in Christian art, especially popular in Italy in the 13th to 15th centuries but continuing in popularity The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic 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 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 came to dominate the choice of Old Testament scenes in Western Christian art. Typology is a theological doctrine of theory of types and their antitypes found in Scripture. In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon.

Robert Campin's Mérode Altarpiece of 1425-28 has a highly complex iconography that is still debated. Robert Campin (c 1375 &ndash 26 April 1444) now usually identified with the artist known as the Master of Flémalle, is usually considered the first For the Brussels metro station see Mérode station. The Mérode Altarpiece is a three- Panel painting by the Early Is Joseph making a mousetrap, reflecting a remark of Saint Augustine that Christ's Incarnation was a trap to catch men's souls?

Whereas in the Romanesque and Gothic 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. This article is about Gothic art See also Gothic architecture Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that lasted about 200 Early Netherlandish painting is the work of those painters who were active in the Low Countries during the 15th and early 16th century Northern renaissance The subtle layers of meaning uncovered by modern iconographical research in works of Robert Campin such as the Mérode Altarpiece, 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. Robert Campin (c 1375 &ndash 26 April 1444) now usually identified with the artist known as the Master of Flémalle, is usually considered the first For the Brussels metro station see Mérode station. The Mérode Altarpiece is a three- Panel painting by the Early The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin is an Oil painting by the Early Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck, dating from around 1435 The Annunciation is an Oil painting by the Early Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck, from around 1434-1436 When Italian painting developed a taste for enigma, considerably later, it most often showed in secular compositions influenced by Renaissance Neo-Platonism. Platonism underwent a revival in the Renaissance, as part of a general revival of interest in Classical antiquity.

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 soon restricted most Protestant religious painting to Biblical scenes conceived along the lines of history painting, and after some decades the Catholic Council of Trent reined in somewhat the freedom of Catholic artists. The Protestant Reformation during the 16th century in Europe ushered in a new artistic tradition that embraced the Protestant agenda and diverged drastically from the southern European Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. History painting, as formulated in 1667 by André Félibien, a historiographer architect and theoretician of French Classicism, was in the Hierarchy The Council of Trent was the 19th Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church.

Secular Western painting

Secular painting became far more common from the Renaissance, and developed its own traditions and conventions of iconography, in history painting, which includes mythologies, portraits, genre scenes, and even landscapes, not to mention modern media and genres like photography, cinema, political cartoons, comic books and anime. History painting, as formulated in 1667 by André Félibien, a historiographer architect and theoretician of French Classicism, was in the Hierarchy The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" See Portrait for more about the general topic of portraits Portrait painting is a genre in Painting, where the intent is to Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life For the art of designing external spaces see Landscape architecture. Photography (fә'tɒgrәfi or fә'tɑːgrәfi (from Greek φωτο and γραφία is the process and Art of recording pictures by means of capturing An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is an illustration or Comic strip containing a political or Social message that usually A comic book (often shortened to simply comic and sometimes called a comic paper or comic magazine) is a Magazine or Book of narrative (anime in Japanese,

Renaissance mythological painting was in theory reviving the iconography of the ancient world, but in practice themes like Leda and the Swan developed on largely original lines, and for different purposes. Leda and the Swan is a motif from Greek mythology, in which Zeus came to Leda in the form of a Swan. 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, Gaugin, Picasso and Joseph Beuys. Hieronymus Bosch ( Dutch, born Jeroen Anthonissen van Aken c 1450 &ndash August 9, 1516) was an Early Netherlandish William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827 was an English poet, painter, and Printmaker. Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903 was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso (October 25 1881 &ndash April 8 1973 Joseph Beuys (ˈjoːzɛf ˈbɔʏs May 12, 1921 – January 23,

Iconography in disciplines other than art history

Iconography, often of aspects of popular culture, is a concern of other academic disciplines including Semiotics, Anthropology, Sociology, Media Studies and Cultural Studies. Popular culture (or pop culture) is the Culture — patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance — An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of Knowledge which is taught or Researched at the college or university level Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Media studies is a collection of academic programs regarding the content history meaning and effects of various media. Cultural studies is an academic discipline which combines Political economy, Communication, Sociology, Social theory, Literary theory 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. In Semiotics, a sign is "something that stands for something else to someone in some capacity" Iconography is also used within film studies to describe the visual language of cinema, particularly within the field of genre criticism. Film theory debates the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to Reality, the other Arts individual A visual language is a set of practices by which Images can be used to communicate Concepts Overview Creation of an image to communicate In Film theory, genre refers to the primary method of film categorization based on similarities in the narrative elements from which films are constructed ^[13]

Iconographic analysis in articles on individual works

• Castelseprio frescoes
• The Flagellation (Piero della Francesca)
• Two Venetian Ladies by Vittore Carpaccio. Castelseprio was the site of a Roman fort in antiquity and a significant Lombard town in the early Middle Ages before being destroyed and abandoned in 1287 Two Venetian Ladies is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Vittore Carpaccio. Vittore Carpaccio (c 1460 &ndash 1525/1526 was an Italian painter of the Venetian school, who studied under Gentile Bellini.
• Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer
• Marie de' Medici cycle by Rubens
• Category:William Hogarth paintings and prints

Works cited

• Białostocki, Jan, Iconography, Dictionary of The History of Ideas, Online version, University of Virginia Library, Gale Group, 2003 [1]
• Cook, Pam and Mieke Bernink, eds. Melencolia I, sometimes known as Melancholia I (using the modern spelling is an Engraving by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Albrecht Dürer (ˈalbʀɛçt ˈdyʀɐ ( May 21, 1471 &ndash April 6, 1528) was a German painter, Printmaker The Marie de' Medici Cycle is a series of twenty-four paintings by Peter Paul Rubens commissioned by Marie de' Medici, wife of Henry IV of France, for the 1999. The Cinema Book. 2nd ed. London: BFI Publishing. ISBN 0851707262.
• G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I,1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, ISBN 853312702

Notes

See also

• Halo (religious iconography)
• Logo
• National emblem
• Symbolic anthropology
• Symbology
• Symbolism
  • Specific religions:
    • Early Christian art
    • Images of Jesus
    • Saint symbology
  • Buddhist art
    • Ashtamangala
    • Greco-Buddhist art
    • Iconography of the Buddha (Thailand and Laos)
    • Korean Buddhist sculpture
    • Thangka

External links

• What iconographers do - case study
• Iconography 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 Complexes