The word iconography comes from the Greek word
εἰκονογραφία,; in modern usage iconography is a de-
scription and/or interpretation of the content of works
of art and therefore its history belongs to the history
of human ideas. We propose, however, to distinguish
between what one could call “the intended (or implied)
iconography” and “interpretative iconography.” By the
first we understand the attitude of the artist, the patron,
or the contemporary observer toward the function and
the meaning of visual symbols and images. Sometimes
it was formulated in writing in documents like con-
tracts (for example, “Contract for Painting an Altar-
piece of the Coronation of the Virgin for Dominus Jean
de Montagnac by Enguerrand Quarton,” 1453); in
programs (known for several late-baroque ceiling
paintings); in iconographical treatises (for example,
Joannes Molanus, De picturis et imaginibus sacris,
1570); in utterances of the artists (for example, Giorgio
Vasari's Ragionamenti, written 1567, published 1588),
or of the patrons (for example, Abbot Suger's De con-
secratione ecclesiae S. Dionysii). Sometimes we can
reconstruct it only by historical methods, by adducing
philosophical, theological, or literary ideas contem-
porary with or current at the time. By “interpretative
iconography” may be understood precisely that branch
of historical study of art which aims at the identifica-
tion and description of representations, and at the
interpretation of the content of the works of art (this
last function now preferably called “iconology”).
Whereas “interpretative iconography” is a historical
discipline of the study of art, the “intended or implied
iconography” is an element of the general outlook and
aesthetic attitude of the period. The degree of conscious-
ness in approaching the problem of content in art
varied at different times and places.
In order to outline the changing relations of images
and ideas, we shall in the present article discuss first
the development of “intended iconography,” i.e., the
attitude toward images and visual symbols as mani-
fested in art and art literature in western Europe; the
formation of what may be called “systems of iconogra-
phy”: the medieval religious system, the Renaissance,
and baroque humanistic system; the dissolution of
systems around 1800, and finally, the new develop-
ments in the last hundred and fifty years. In the second
part of the article we shall be discussing the develop-
ment of “interpretative iconography,” i.e., of art his-
torical studies concerning problems of iconography,
with a special stress on recent developments in that
field.
