Overview

Iconography (literally “image writing”) is the science of identifying and interpreting the subject matter in art. While formal analysis focuses on how a painting is made (brushstrokes, color, composition), iconography focuses on what it means. It involves decoding the symbols, attributes, and stories that would have been familiar to the original audience but may be obscure to us today.

Core Idea

The core idea is that images are a language. Just as you need to know vocabulary to read a text, you need to know visual conventions to “read” an image. A woman holding a palm branch isn’t just a woman with a plant; in Christian art, she is a martyr. A dog isn’t just a pet; it is a symbol of fidelity (fido).

Formal Definition

Erwin Panofsky, the father of modern iconography, distinguished three levels of analysis:

  1. Pre-iconographic description: Identifying pure forms (e.g., “a man on a cross”).
  2. Iconography (proper): Connecting forms to themes and concepts (e.g., “The Crucifixion of Jesus”).
  3. Iconology: Interpreting the intrinsic meaning or cultural symptom of the work (e.g., what this specific Crucifixion tells us about 15th-century Italian theology).

Intuition

Imagine looking at a meme from 10 years ago. You might see the image (a cat), but if you don’t know the “iconography” of internet culture, you won’t understand the joke. Similarly, looking at a Renaissance painting without knowing the Bible or Greek mythology is like looking at a meme without knowing the context. Iconography provides that context.

Examples

  • Saint Attributes: St. Peter is identified by keys (keys to heaven). St. Catherine is identified by a wheel (the instrument of her torture). St. Jerome is identified by a lion and a cardinal’s hat.
  • Vanitas: A skull in a 17th-century Dutch still life is not just a spooky object; it is a memento mori, a symbol of the inevitability of death and the vanity of worldly goods.
  • The Arnolfini Portrait: The dog represents loyalty, the single candle represents the presence of God, and the shoes removed represent holy ground. Iconography decodes these details to understand the painting as a marriage contract or sacred ceremony.

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s just “symbol hunting”: While identifying symbols is part of it, true iconography is about understanding the system of meaning and how it changes over time.
  • It ignores style: Iconography focuses on content, but content and style are often linked. The way a symbol is depicted affects its meaning.
  • Semiotics: The study of signs and symbols in general (linguistic and visual). Iconography is essentially the semiotics of art history.
  • Iconoclasm: The destruction of icons/images. Understanding why images were destroyed requires understanding their iconographic power.
  • Visual Culture: A broader field that includes advertising, film, and digital media, often using iconographic methods to analyze modern images.

Applications

  • Art Conservation: Identifying the subject matter can help conservators understand what a damaged section of a painting should look like.
  • Cultural History: Images often preserve cultural beliefs and practices that are not recorded in texts. Iconography helps historians reconstruct the mental world of the past.
  • Film Studies: Analyzing the “iconography” of genres (e.g., the cowboy hat and revolver in Westerns) helps understand narrative conventions.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Over-interpretation: There is a risk of “reading into” every detail, assuming everything is a symbol when sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
  • Text-centrism: Traditional iconography often treats images as puzzles to be solved by finding the right text (Bible, Ovid), potentially ignoring the purely visual or emotional power of the art.

Further Reading

  • Panofsky, Erwin. Studies in Iconology. 1939.
  • Hall, James. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. 1974.
  • Mitchell, W.J.T. Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology. 1986.