Introduction to Iconography

After the introduction with the overwiew of the history of iconography and its role in modern art history, the iconography as the method is presented through selected case-studies. Terminology (definition of the symbol, the atribute, the Renaissance emblem, the imprese and the Renaissance hieroglyphs) and iconographic classification are presented in both theory of art history and historcal context. The key motives of profane iconography: the portrait, the nude, the landscape, the genre, the still-life, the greco-roman mythology, the themes of European literature and history in visual arts, are discussed. The same goes for the motives of christian iconography with the wide span of its iconographic categories.
The part consecrated to iconography is supplemented with introduction to iconology as the method in its traditional sense and role in the framework of art history as well as in modern art where the iconology is used as an interdisciplinary metod.