iconography
/ˌʌɪkəˈnɒɡrəfi
/noun (plural iconographies)
1 [mass noun] The visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these: the conventional iconography of Christian art...
- Some of the earliest forms of such art were in church iconography, paintings, mosaics, frescos, and stained glass windows which decorated and instructed at the same time: the Bible of the poor.
- But this belief, held by early military historians like Sir Charles Oman and J. E. Morris, was based on too literal and too limited an interpretation of medieval iconography such as the Bayeux Tapestry.
- Ever since, lions have been portrayed in art, myth and iconography as powerful symbols of solar strength, supremacy, glory, light and brilliance.
1.1The visual images, symbols, or modes of representation collectively associated with a person, cult, or movement: the iconography of pop culture...
- There's black and white pictures of presidential iconography: the oval office, motorcades, and the Presidential helicopter Marine One.
- Sentimental photographs of high quality continue the maudlin iconography of Indians as last representatives of a fine and more noble pristine past, oppressed by crude invaders.
- In Texas, the first thing to hit me was the iconography - of the cowboy, the Southwest, and the landscape, along with rich Tex-Mex culture represented by the Mariachi bands.
2A collection of illustrations or portraits.The great festivals celebrating the saving events in the life of Christ and the life of his Mother are represented both in mural iconography in the upper parts of the church and on the icon screen....
- With her designs for The Indians' Book of 1907, DeCora moved past a generic interest in Native symbols to create a pan-Indian iconography.
Derivatives
iconographer
/ noun ...- By the late mid-fifteenth century, the visual rhetoric of Western Catholicism could be said to reside firmly in the hands of private providers overseen by commissioning bishops and scholarly iconographers.
- She lives as a hermit in a cottage outside the village where she carries out her work as an iconographer.
- Few know that Edmonton is home to an iconographer with the talent of an old master.
iconographic
/ adjective ...- Attired in African garments and armed with carved walking sticks, LeRoy Clarke cuts an imposing figure; much like the price tag on one of his iconographic paintings.
- With the exception of the pieces in the Kinshasa museum, the attribution of these masks to the Luntu is based on the combination of stylistic and iconographic traits.
- Working in metals, resin, wood and paint, Bourgeois has developed a strict iconographic language in which for example sewing and its tools are specifically to do with repair and motherly love.
iconographical
- Or else, they may appear as a goon squad, gate-crashing an art gallery, seizing and burning contemporary paintings that they find contrary to their iconographical tastes.
- Twelve sets of drawings enhance our understanding of iconographical details and make the discussion easier to follow.
- The decorative, formal and iconographical nature of the artworks veil the confused personal tensions always present in relationships.
iconographically
- Everything sensual and earthy - the exquisite wall-garden, the flowering rose, the beauty of a woman - tilts upwards iconographically toward God.
- In this they are unlike iconographically similar photographs by recognised photographers.
- The subject matter of the easel paintings is either New York or Mexican scenes, a selection of which Anreus carefully analyzes formally and iconographically, pointing out their unique compositional qualities and grim content.
Origin
Early 17th century (denoting a drawing or plan): from Greek eikonographia 'sketch, description', from eikōn 'likeness' + -graphia 'writing'.