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"Only connect! . . .Live in fragments no longer.” E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910), ch. 22

‘One day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are half-asleep, ‘Hammer your thoughts into unity’. For days I could think of nothing else and for years I tested all I did by that sentence [...]” William Butler Yeats (cited in Frank Tuohy, Yeats, 1976, p.51 )

ICONOGRAPHY in various disciplines

ARCHITECTURE iconography. Branch of knowledge dealing with representations of people or objects in art and design, hence the symbolism in a design. Christian iconography, for example, is immense and complex, and informed virtually every aspect of Western art and architecture until comparatively recently.

A Dictionary of Architecture. James Stevens Curl. Oxford University Press 1999. Oxford Reference Online.

ART HISTORY iconography. The aspect of art history dealing with the identification, description, classification, and interpretation of the subject matter of the figurative arts. In his book Studies in Iconology (1939) Erwin Panofsky proposed that the term ‘iconology’ should be used to distinguish a broader approach towards subject matter in which the scholar attempts to understand the total meaning of the work of art in its historical context. However, in practice an exact distinction between the two terms is rarely made, and ‘iconography’ is much the more commonly used of the two. The term ‘iconography’ can also be applied to collections (or the classification) of portraits. Van Dyck, for example, made a series of etchings of famous contemporaries entitled Iconography, and the detailed catalogues of the National Portrait Gallery in London have a section called ‘iconography’ in the entry for each sitter, in which other portraits of the person represented are listed and discussed. Thus it is possible to speak of ‘the iconography of Shakespeare’ or ‘the iconography of Queen Victoria’.

The Oxford Dictionary of Art. Ed. Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online

GEOGRAPHY iconography In geography, the study of the way in which images of the landscape reveal symbolic meaning. A human landscape is not only shaped by a society and its culture, it also helps to shape that society; think for example, of the image of the thatched English village, or the whitewashed crofter's cottage in Scotland, both of which are often used in British party political broadcasts to promote patriotic feeling. The meanings of landscapes such as these are not fixed—to eighteenth-century Britons, the Lake District appeared as a bleak and desolate area, to be avoided—and they may also be highly political—the sight of pithead buildings can be highly charged politically.

A Dictionary of Geography. Susan Mayhew. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online.

COMPARATIVE RELIGION. Iconography (Gk., eikon, ‘image’, + graphe, ‘writing’). The study of the representation of otherwise unseen realities through coded means: such realities may include anything from God or gods to ideas; and the means may include statues, pictures, buildings, charms, or indeed anything which can hold the ‘charge’ of such representation. Since religions have differing attitudes to the representation of the holy or the divine, each religion has a different iconographical style and content. See further ART.

Judaism

Jewish iconography is dominated by the prohibition on idols. While recurrent symbols occur in Torah and synagogue decoration, they are mainly to be found in manuscripts.

Christianity

The earliest Christian art was influenced by late Hellenistic realism, while in theme it was largely symbolic: Christ represented by a fish (see ICHTHUS), or a young shepherd, etc. From the 4th cent., Christian art was influenced by Neoplatonic aesthetics which saw art as disclosing a higher, spiritual realm, and the highly conscious symbolism characteristic of icons developed. Already one can detect a difference of emphasis between East and West, the E. stressing the liturgical function of the icon, while the W. saw images as pictorial illustrations of biblical events and religious doctrines. This came to a head in the 8th and 9th cents. with the Iconoclastic Controversy. In the W., partly under the influence of a growing devotion to Christ's sacred humanity, a more realistic, less symbolic style of painting developed from the 12th cent., about the same time as the symbolic use of form and colour reached its apogee in the stained glass of, e.g., Chartres Cathedral. The development of art in the W. has broken any tradition of Christian iconography: W. religious artists combine an arbitrary dependence on current artistic techniques with personally adopted symbolic schemes. As with other religions, Christianity also developed elaborate codes associated with events (e.g. baptism, crucifixion, resurrection, etc.) and people, esp. saints.

iconography, Christian. The earliest Christian art was mainly symbolical: Christ was represented by a fish or as a young shepherd, the Church by a ship. It was soon possible to detect a difference of emphasis in the E. and W., the E. stressing the liturgical function of art, whereas the W. regarded art as providing pictorial illustrations of biblical events and religious doctrines. Byzantine churches often exhibit a planned system of stylized and didactic decoration covering the whole interior. In the W., partly under the influence of the growing devotion to Christ's humanity, a new realistic, less symbolic style of art began to develop from the 12th cent. While individualism had some play, art commonly conformed to a pattern determined by the Church. In the 14th cent. religious art grew less intellectual and more emotional; in the 15th cent. it became frankly realistic and picturesque. See also ICON.

Islam

See CALLIGRAPHY.

Hinduism

Of all religions, Hinduism is the richest and most complex in its iconographical materials. Its strong sense of Brahman, not simply underlying and guaranteeing all appearance, but actually pervading, and able to become focally manifest, in all appearance, means that any object can be charged with the divine. To make an image, therefore, is to bring the divine into that image—equally, the image may become ‘dead’ when the particular concentration of the divine is withdrawn from it at the end of the act of pj (worship). Iconography is therefore a matter of interaction and of the means to its achievement. The most important locus of the interaction is the mrti (lit., ‘embodiment’, hence ‘image’).

Buddhism

Early Buddhist icons are by no means as prolific as those of Hindus: the Buddha had pointed away from relying on outside help (e.g. gods). Nevertheless, the centrality of the Buddha in leaving guidance evoked icons of recognition (e.g. images of the Buddha in the attainment of enlightenment). Stpas are iconographic representations of Buddhist truth in this way. However, in Mahyna Buddhism, the strong sense of the buddha-nature being present in all things (indeed, being all that there is of all things) led to developments comparable to those in Hinduism. In Mahyna, one is surrounded by a vast host of buddhas and bodhisattvas, who are, so to speak, ‘here’ in order to assist those who reverence them. Each of these has an elaborate set of images and symbols, which reach a supreme height in Tibet.

Sikhism

Although Sikh gurdwrs are much plainer than most Hindu mandirs, pictures of Gurs Nnak and Gobind Sigh feature prominently. Gur Nnak is typically depicted as radiant, white-bearded, and turbaned, gazing in benediction. Sometimes all ten Gurs are portrayed in a single picture, illustrating their essential unity. A picture of Harimandir Shib, Amritsar, is popular and to be seen in many Sikh houses, as are paper calendar pictures of the Gurs.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Ed. John Bowker. Oxford University Press, 2000. Oxford Reference Online.

ISLAM Islamic forms of iconography include calligraphy, geometry, arabesques, domes, minarets, arches, and mihrabs. They serve as visual manifestations of the universal spirit of the Muslim community. Calligraphy originated with copying of the Quran and has become the highest art form in the Islamic world. Quranic verses, geometric patterns, and arabesques are typically used in decorative arts.