Editing Iconography

{{about|iconography in art history|religious painting in Eastern Christianity|Icon}}
{{distinguish|Iconograph|Iconology}}
{{short description|Branch of art history}}
[[File:Hans Holbein the Younger - The Ambassadors - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Hans Holbein the Younger|Holbein]]'s ''[[The Ambassadors (Holbein)|The Ambassadors]]'' (1533) is a complex work whose iconography remains the subject of debate.]]

'''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 [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] {{lang|grc|εἰκών}} ("image") and {{lang|grc|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 "[[Icon|icons]]", in the [[Byzantine art|Byzantine]] and [[Eastern Orthodox Churches|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,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eiland |first=Murray |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.30861/9781407360713 |title=Picturing Roman Belief Systems: The iconography of coins in the Republic and Empire |date=2023-04-30 |publisher=British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Ltd |doi=10.30861/9781407360713 |isbn=978-1-4073-6071-3}}</ref> 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'',<ref>[http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399301/obo-9780195399301-0161.xml Oxford Bibliographies: Paul Taylor, "Iconology and Iconography"]</ref><ref>[http://tems.umn.edu/pdf/Panofsky_iconology2.pdf Erwin Panofsky, ''Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance''. Oxford 1939.]</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last= Giannetti|first= Louis|title= Understanding Movies|year= 2008|publisher= Person Prentice Hall|location= Toronto|page= 52}}
</ref>

==Scholarship==

=== Foundations ===
Early Western writers who took special note of the content of images include [[Giorgio Vasari]], whose ''Ragionamenti'' interpreted the paintings in the [[Palazzo Vecchio]] in [[Florence]]. ''Ragionamenti'' 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''.<ref>Ripa's full title, rarely used, was ''Iconologia overo Descrittione Dell’imagini Universali cavate dall’Antichità et da altri luoghi''; [http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_zev001199501_01/_zev001199501_01_0003.php English Translations and Adaptations of Cesare Ripa's ''Iconologia'': From the 17th to the 19th Century by Hans-Joachim Zimmermann]</ref> [[Gian Pietro Bellori]], a 17th-century biographer of artists of his own time, describes and analyses, not always correctly, many works. [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing|Lessing]]'s study (1796) of the classical figure [[Cupid|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.<ref name="Białostocki:535">Białostocki:535</ref>  
[[File:Hans Memling 056.jpg|thumb|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.  Altogether 25 scenes, not all involving the Virgin, are depicted. 1480, [[Alte Pinakothek]], Munich.<ref>Alte Pinakotek, Munich; (Summary Catalogue – various authors), pp. 348-51, 1986, Edition Lipp, {{ISBN|3-87490-701-5}}</ref>]]
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)<ref name="kleinbauer">[[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]] (1982): 60-72.</ref> all specialists in Christian religious art, which was the main focus of study in this period, in which French scholars were especially prominent.<ref name="Białostocki:535"/>  They looked back to earlier attempts to classify and organise subjects encyclopedically like Cesare Ripa and [[Anne Claude Philippe de Tubieres de Grimoard de Pestels de Levis, Comte de Caylus|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.<ref name="kleinbauer" /> These early contributions paved the way for [[encyclopedia]]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 ===
In early twentieth-century [[Germany]], [[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.<ref name="kleinbauer" /> 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,"<ref name="kleinbauer" /> 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.<ref>For example by [[Anne D'Alleva]] in her ''Methods and Theories of Art History'', pp. 20-28, 2005, Laurence King Publishing, {{ISBN|1-85669-417-8}}</ref>

In the [[United States]], to which Panofsky immigrated in 1931, students such as [[Frederick Hartt]], and [[Meyer Schapiro]] continued under his influence in the discipline.<ref name="kleinbauer" />  In an influential article of 1942, ''Introduction to an "Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture"'',<ref>Richard Krautheimer, Introduction to an "Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 5. (1942), pp. 1-33.[http://aar.iec.cat/institucio/societats/AmicsArtRomanic/activitats/textosesp/espanol04.pdf Online text] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408194332/http://aar.iec.cat/institucio/societats/AmicsArtRomanic/activitats/textosesp/espanol04.pdf |date=April 8, 2008 }}</ref> [[Richard Krautheimer]], a specialist on early medieval churches and another German émigré, extended iconographical analysis to [[architecture|architectural forms]].

The period from 1940 can be seen as one where iconography was especially prominent in art history.<ref>Białostocki:537</ref>  Whereas most iconographical scholarship remains highly dense and specialized, some analyses began to attract a much wider audience, for example [[Erwin Panofsky|Panofsky]]'s theory (now generally out of favour with specialists of that picture) 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.  [[Hans Holbein the Younger|Holbein]]'s ''[[The Ambassadors (Holbein)|The Ambassadors]]'' has been the subject of books for a general market with new theories as to its iconography,<ref>Most recently: North, John (September, 2004). The Ambassador's Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance. Orion Books</ref> and the [[best-seller]]s of [[Dan Brown]] include theories, disowned by most art historians, on the iconography of works by [[Leonardo da Vinci]].

The method of [[iconology]], which had developed following the publications of Erwin Panofsky, has been critically discussed since the mid-1950s, in part also strongly ([[Otto Pächt]], [[Svetlana Alpers]]). However, among the critics, no one has found a model of interpretation that could completely replace that of Panofsky. <ref>Dieter Wuttke (2017), "Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968)", in: The Routledge Companion to Medieval Iconography, ed. by Colum Hourihane, London and New York, pp. 105-122, here p. 119).</ref>  

As regards the interpretation of [[Christian art]], that Panofsky researched throughout his life, the iconographic interest in texts as possible sources remains important, because the meaning of [[Catholic_art|Christian images]] and [[Church architecture|architecture]] is closely linked to the content of [[Bible|biblical]], [[Liturgical book|liturgical]] and [[Christian theology|theological]] texts, which were usually considered authoritative by most patrons, artists and viewers.<ref>[[Ralf van Bühren]] and Maciej Jan Jasiński (2024), [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23753234.2024.2322546 The invisible divine in the history of art. Is Erwin Panofsky (1892–1968) still relevant for decoding Christian iconography?], in ''Church, Communication and Culture'' 9, pp. 1-36, here pp. 1-4, 9, 23, 28.</ref>

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<ref>[https://ima.princeton.edu/ Index of Medieval Art] website</ref> (formerly Index of Christian Art) at [[Princeton University|Princeton]] (which has made a specialism of iconography since its early days in America).<ref>Białostocki:538-39</ref> 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 system for the classification of the content of images, with 40,000+ classification types, and 84,000 (14,000 unique) 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]] (alone) with David's letter", whereas "71" is the whole "[[Old Testament]]" and "71H" the "story of [[David]]".   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]].  These are available, usually on-line or on [[DVD]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iconclass.nl/ |title=Iconclass website |publisher=Iconclass.nl |access-date=2014-03-31}}</ref><ref>[http://www.kb.nl/manuscripts/browser/index.html Illuminated manuscripts from the Dutch royal Library, browsable by ICONCLASS classification] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080220200839/http://www.kb.nl/manuscripts/browser/index.html |date=2008-02-20 }} and [http://www.rosspub.com/iconclass.htm Ross Publishing - examples of databases for sale]</ref>  The system can also be used outside pure art history, for example on sites like [[Flickr]].<ref>[http://www.iconclass.org/flickr website Iconclass for Flickr]</ref>

==Brief survey==
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[[File:17th century Central Tibeten thanka of Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra, Rubin Museum of Art.jpg|right|thumb|A 17th century Central [[Tibet]]an [[thanka]] of [[Guhyasamāja tantra|Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra]].]]

[[Religious images]] are used to some extent by all major religions, including both [[Indian religions|Indian]] and [[Abrahamic religion|Abrahamic]] faiths, and often contain highly complex iconography, which reflects centuries of accumulated tradition. Secular Western iconography later drew upon these themes.

=== Indian religion ===
Central to the iconography and [[hagiography]] of [[Indian religions]] are [[mudra]] or gestures with specific meanings.  Other features include the [[aureola]] and [[halo (religious iconography)|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]], [[sauwastika]], [[phurba]] and [[danda]].  The symbolic use of colour to denote the [[Classical Elements]] or [[Mahabhuta]] and letters and [[Bīja|bija]] syllables from sacred alphabetic scripts are other features.  Under the influence of [[tantra]] 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]] an incarnation of [[Vishnu]] 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]] image, large stone [[bas-relief|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 Caves|Ajanta]], and [[Borobudor]], especially in earlier periods.  Conversely, in [[Hindu]] art, narrative scenes have become rather more common in recent centuries, especially in [[Indian miniature painting|miniature paintings]] of the lives of [[Krishna]] and [[Rama]].

=== Christian ===
{{main|Christian symbolism}} {{further|Christian art| Eastern Orthodox iconography|Marian art in the Catholic Church}}
[[Christian art]] features Christian iconography, prominently developed in the [[medieval art|medieval]] era and [[renaissance art|renaissance]], and is a prominent aspect of [[Christian media]].<ref name="Freeman">{{cite web | last=Freeman | first=Evan | title=The life of Christ in medieval and Renaissance art – Smarthistory | website=Smarthistory – art history | url=https://smarthistory.org/standard-scenes-from-the-life-of-christ-in-art/ | access-date=March 2, 2022}}</ref><ref name="Taylor 2013">{{cite web | last=Taylor | first=Justin | title=All the Known Audio of C.S. Lewis Speaking | website=The Gospel Coalition | date=July 18, 2013 | url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/all-the-known-audio-of-c-s-lewis-speaking/ | access-date=March 2, 2022}}</ref> [[Aniconism in Christianity|Aniconism was rejected]] within [[Christian theology]] from the outset, and the development of [[early Christian art and architecture]] occurred within the first seven centuries after [[Jesus]].<ref>[[Ernst Kitzinger|Kitzinger, Ernst]], "The Cult of Images in the Age before Iconoclasm", ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'', Vol. 8, (1954), pp.&nbsp;83–150, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291064 JSTOR]</ref><ref name="The Westminster theological journal pp. 35–47">{{cite journal | title=The Early Church on the Aniconic Spectrum | journal=The Westminster Theological Journal | volume=83 | issue=1 | issn=0043-4388 | pages=35–47 | url=https://ixtheo.de/Record/1765247462 | access-date=March 2, 2022}}</ref> Small images in the [[Catacombs of Rome]] 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]] owes something to both Imperial portraits and depictions of [[Zeus]]. In the [[Late Antique]] period iconography began to be standardized, and to relate more closely to [[Biblical]] texts, although many gaps in the [[canonical Gospel]] narratives were plugged with matter from the [[apocrypha|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 Jesus in art|Nativity of Christ]].
[[File:Tikhvinskaya.jpg|thumb|The Theotokos of [[Tikhvin]] of {{Circa|1300}}, an example of the [[Hodegetria]] type of [[Madonna and Child]].]]
After the [[Iconoclasm (Byzantine)|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 [[Acheiropoieta|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]] [[icon]]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]] 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]]).<ref>Schiller:66</ref>

In both East and West, numerous iconic types of [[Christ]], [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|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]] and  [[Panagia]] types.  Traditional models evolved for narrative paintings, including large cycles covering the [[Life of Christ in art|events of the Life of Christ]], the [[Life of the Virgin]], parts of the Old Testament, and, increasingly, the lives of popular [[saint]]s.  Especially in the West, a system of [[emblem|attributes]] developed for [[Saint symbology|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 art|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.  Developments in theology and devotional practice produced innovations like the subject of the [[Coronation of the Virgin]] and the [[Assumption of Mary|Assumption]], Both associated with the [[Franciscan]]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 (theology)|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.
[[File:Robert Campin - L' Annonciation - 1425.jpg|thumb|[[Robert Campin]]'s [[Mérode Altarpiece]] of 1425-28 has a highly complex iconography that is still debated.  Is [[Saint Joseph|Joseph]] making a mousetrap, reflecting a remark of Saint [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] that Christ's Incarnation was a trap to catch men's souls?]] 
Whereas in the Romanesque and [[Gothic art|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. 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 [[Annunciation (van Eyck, Washington)|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 [[Platonism in the Renaissance|Renaissance Neo-Platonism]].

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 [[The Reformation and art|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.

[[File:Inspiration Chretienne, ca. 1887-1888.jpg|thumb|Roman Catholic [[monk]]s painting icons on the wall of an Abbey in France.]]

=== Secular Western ===
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 [[mythology|mythologies]], [[portrait painting|portraits]], [[genre painting|genre scenes]], and even [[landscape painting|landscapes]], not to mention modern media and genres like [[photography]], [[Film|cinema]], [[political cartoon]]s, [[comic book]]s.

Renaissance mythological painting was in theory reviving the iconography of its [[Classical Antiquity]], but in practice themes like [[Leda and the Swan]] 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 [[Francisco Goya|Goya]], [[William Blake]], [[Paul Gauguin|Gauguin]], [[Picasso]], [[Frida Kahlo]], and [[Joseph Beuys]].

== In disciplines other than art history{{anchor|iconography and popular culture}} ==
Iconography, often of aspects of [[popular culture]], is a concern of other [[academic disciplines]] including [[Semiotics]], [[Anthropology]], [[Sociology]], [[Media Studies]], [[Communication studies|Communication Studies]], and [[Cultural Studies]].  These analyses in turn have affected conventional art history, especially concepts such as [[sign (semiotics)|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 theory|film studies]] to describe the [[visual language]] of cinema, particularly within the field of [[Film genre|genre criticism]].<ref name="film">Cook and Bernink (1999, 138-140).</ref> In the age of Internet, the new global history of the visual production of Humanity (Histiconologia<ref>The first World Dictionary of Images: Laurent Gervereau (ed.), "Dictionnaire mondial des images", Paris, Nouveau monde, 2006, 1120p, {{ISBN|978-2-84736-185-8}}. (with 275 specialists from all continents, all specialities, all periods from Prehistory to nowadays); Laurent Gervereau, "Images, une histoire mondiale", Paris, Nouveau monde, 2008, 272p., {{ISBN|978-2-84736-362-3}}</ref>) 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,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wozniak|first=Antal|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1226584969|title=Research Handbook on Communicating Climate Change|publisher=[[Edward Elgar Publishing]]|year=2020|isbn=978-1-78990-040-8|editor-last=Holmes|editor-first=David C.|location=Cheltenham, Gloucestershire|pages=131–143|chapter=Stakeholders Visual Representations of Climate Change|oclc=1226584969|editor-last2=Richardson|editor-first2=Lucy M.}}</ref> the iconography that international organizations create about natural disasters,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Revet|first=Sandrine|title=Disasterland |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1153066230|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|year=2020|isbn=978-3-030-41581-5|location=Cham|pages=53–80|chapter=Disaster Iconography: Victims, Rescue Workers, and Hazards|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-41582-2_3|s2cid=219010604|oclc=1153066230}}</ref> the iconography of epidemics disseminated in the press,<ref>{{Cite book|last=King|first=Nicholas B.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/904372902|title=Empires of Panic: Epidemics and Colonial Anxieties|publisher=[[Hong Kong University Press]]|year=2015|isbn=978-988-8208-44-9|editor-last=Peckham|editor-first=Robert|location=Hong Kong|pages=181–203|chapter=Mediating Panic: The Iconography of New Infectious Threats, 1936-2009|oclc=904372902}}</ref> and the iconography of suffering found in social media.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Johansson|first1=Anna|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/902846595|title=World Suffering and Quality of Life|last2=Sternudd|first2=Hans T.|publisher=[[Springer Publishing|Springer]]|year=2015|isbn=978-94-017-9670-5|editor-last=Anderson|editor-first=R.|series=Social Indicators Research Series|volume=56|location=Dordrecht|pages=341–355|chapter=Iconography of Suffering in Social Media: Images of Sitting Girls|doi=10.1007/978-94-017-9670-5_26|oclc=902846595}}</ref>

An iconography study in [[Communication studies|communication science]] analyzed stock photos used in press reporting to depict the social issue of child sexual abuse.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Döring|first1=Nicola|last2=Walter|first2=Roberto|date=2021|title=Ikonografien des sexuellen Kindesmissbrauchs: Symbolbilder in Presseartikeln und Präventionsmaterialien|journal=Studies in Communication and Media|volume=10|issue=3|pages=362–405|doi=10.5771/2192-4007-2021-3-362|s2cid=242216019|issn=2192-4007|doi-access=free}}</ref> 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==
*[[Castelseprio (archaeological park)|Castelseprio]] frescoes
*[[The Flagellation (Piero della Francesca)|''The Flagellation'']] by [[Piero della Francesca]]
*The [[Wilton Diptych]]
*The [[Mérode Altarpiece]] by [[Robert Campin]]
*''[[Madonna of Chancellor Rolin]]'', ''[[Arnolfini Portrait]]'', [[Annunciation (van Eyck, Washington)|''Annunciation'']], all by [[Jan van Eyck]] 
*''[[Virgin and Child Enthroned (van der Weyden)|Virgin and Child Enthroned]]'' by [[Rogier van der Weyden]]
*''[[The Magdalen Reading]]'' by Rogier van der Weyden
*''[[Saint Jerome in His Study (Antonello da Messina)|Saint Jerome in His Study]]'' by [[Antonello da Messina]]
*''[[Two Venetian Ladies]]'' and ''[[Saint Augustine in His Study (Carpaccio)|Saint Augustine in His Study]]'' by [[Vittore Carpaccio]]
*''[[Melencolia I]]'' by [[Albrecht Dürer]]
*[[Marie de' Medici cycle]] by [[Rubens]]
*[[Ivan Rutkovych]]

==Examples==
* [[Hindu iconography]]
* [[Urban iconography]]

==See also==
* [[Saint symbolism]]
* [[Metanarrative]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|32em}}

=== Sources ===
* Alunno, Marco. [http://mediamusic-journal.com/Issues/2_2.html ''Iconography and Gesamtkunstwerk in Parsifal's Two Cinematic Settings''] in ESM Mediamusic. No. 2 (2013)
* Białostocki, Jan, [https://web.archive.org/web/20070314231458/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv2-57 ''Iconography''],  ''Dictionary of The History of Ideas'', Online version, University of Virginia Library, Gale Group, 2003 
* [[Ralf van Bühren|Bühren, Ralf van]] and Maciej Jan Jasiński, ''[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23753234.2024.2322546 The invisible divine in the history of art. Is Erwin Panofsky (1892–1968) still relevant for decoding Christian iconography?]'', in ''Church, Communication and Culture'' 9 (2024), pp.&nbsp;1–36. DOI: 10.1080/23753234.2024.2322546
* Cook, Pam and Mieke Bernink, eds. 1999. ''The Cinema Book''. 2nd ed. London: BFI Publishing. {{ISBN|0-85170-726-2}}.
* [[Gertrud Schiller|Schiller, Gertrud]]. ''Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I'',1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, {{ISBN|0-85331-270-2}}
* ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae]]'' (''LIMC''), Artemis Verlag, 1981-2009 [iconography of ancient mythology]

==External links==
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*[https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/home/ The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070530201114/http://www.religionswissenschaft.unizh.ch/idd/ Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East (Project of the Swiss National Science Foundation at the Universities of Zurich and Fribourg)]
*[http://www.sacrimonti.net/User/index.php?PAGE=Sito_en/app_storia_1 Web site for European Sacred Mountains, Calvaries and Devotional Complexes]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110715222433/http://www.sacredvulva.com/order.html Sacred Icons in Modern Era ][http://www.sacredvulva.com/SV_Project.html about the Cult of Great Mother]
*[http://www.limc-france.fr/ LIMC-France]—iconography of ancient mythology.
*[http://www.christianiconography.info/ Christian Iconography]
*[http://mnemosyne.org/iconography/practice/apollo/#top What iconographers do - case study] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050827162949/http://www.mnemosyne.org/iconography/practice/apollo#top |date=2005-08-27 }}
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=DkqW4aAnl8AC "Semiotics and Iconography" from the Handbook of Visual Analysis]

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[[Category:Iconography| ]]
[[Category:Art history]]