Since the earliest times of human evolution, we have communicated with each other by visual means as well as verbal. In semiotics, which is the study of signs and their meanings, the term icon refers to any kind of visual sign. Thus, in a religious context, iconography is the study of the spiritual or religious significance of visual signs or symbols. These can be concrete objects in three dimensions (statues, even buildings) or pictorial representations of symbols in two dimensions or even gestures by live actors used in religious settings. Iconography is often seen as a subdiscipline of art history.
Religions differ with regard to the status of visual representations of the person of God or significant religious figures. In the Western monotheisms, there is a prohibition of the use of idols to represent the divine. In Christianity this has been relaxed somewhat with regard to portrayals of religious persons, especially in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican traditions....
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Bibliography
Cirlot, J. E. (1962). A dictionary of symbols (trans: Sage, J.). New York: Philosophical Library.
Didron, A. N. (1965). Christian iconography: The history of Christian art in the middle ages (trans: Millington, E.J.). New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing. (Original work published 1851).
Getty, A. (1988). The Gods of Northern Buddhism: Their history and iconography. New York: Dover. (Original work published 1914).
Grabar, A. (1968). Christian iconography: A study of its origins (2 Vols.). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lewis-Williams, J. D., & Dowson, T. A. (1988). Entoptic phenomena and upper Paleolithic art. Current Anthropology, 29, 201–245.
Thurman, R. A. (1995). Inside Tibetan Buddhism: Rituals and symbols revealed. San Francisco: Collins Publishers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Larson, P. (2020). Iconography. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_318
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_318
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24347-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24348-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences