Subjects and Symbols in Art
How the language of iconography became established
Artworks are nothing without an audience, and for every single viewer that stands in front of a painting or sculpture there is bound to be a different response. We each have our own tastes and preferences. But do works of art have meaning above and beyond a viewer’s personal reaction?
For many centuries, artists have drawn on a common language of images and symbols to represent something greater than the specific object or person depicted. Known in art history as “iconography”, artists have developed a means of presenting more complex ideas in simple representations.
Take this image as an example. It’s an engraving made in Germany in the 15th century. It shows a young man tied to a tree, his body pierced with arrows shot from a bow. Before I tell you what it’s about, try just looking at the image first to see what you see. Don’t worry about getting it right or wrong, just let yourself see what’s going on in the image.
We see a man tied to a tree with about ten or so arrows sticking out of him. See how his body twists with angles, mirroring the twists in the tree trunk…
