Which of the Following Terms Relates to a Study of the Symbols and Story in a Work of Art?

Iconography

Iconography was adult by fine art historian Erwin Panofsky, as a ways of expanding beyond formal analysis, and focusing on analyzing subject matter in artwork, specifically symbols whose pregnant is understood by a people or culture in that specific time (Rose 202, Sayre 32). For example, in the Western world nosotros are familiar with what a Buddha statue looks similar, merely most Western people probable have no idea that the position of the hands in the statue carries symbolic meaning (Sayre 33). If you are a Buddhist however, yous would read a specific pregnant into the hand gesture and position. Symbolic meanings in artwork may as well be lost over fourth dimension even within the culture that created them (Sayre 35).

Jan van Eyck, Arnolfini Portrait, 1434, oil on canvas. Piece of work is in the public domain.

Jan van Eyck's painting, Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife Giovanna Cenami, from 1434, is ofttimes used equally a prototype example for iconographic analysis, and the conflicts that arise inside information technology. Every bit a painter, Van Eyck was revered for his incredible ability to mimic realism and the effects of light. The painting's many symbols, some of Christian origin, have been a source of some contend. Information technology was widely accepted as a painting representing a matrimony, but contempo controversy suggests it is more a tape of appointment than a nuptials portrait. In van Eyck'due south time, a adult female laying her hands in the palm of a male, as she and so conspicuously does in the painting, was understood to be an agreement to wed (Sayre 35). Above the mirror in the center of the groundwork are the words "January van Eyck has been here, 1434." To contemporary ears this almost sounds like a bit of playful graffiti, but it likewise clearly establishes the painter equally a witness to the event being painted (Sayre 35).

Additional resources:

• More than on Jan van Eyck
• 
Image of Giovanni Arnolfini and his married woman Giovanna Cenami
• A recent article on the Arnolfini wedding ceremony portrait

Iconography shares similarities to semiotics in interpreting signs (in semiotics signs can exist symbols) on both a denotive and connotative level. Iconography is typically used in analyzing works from the by, as Gillian Rose notes, typically Western figurative images from the 16th through 18th centuries (202). While semiotics is more ofttimes used to analyze more gimmicky visual culture, similar advertising.

Artists continue to use symbolic visual language. Though creative person Jean-Michele Basquiat'south life and career were tragically cut short by a drug overdose, he adult a rich vocabulary of symbolism that mixed individual and public meanings. Using his neo-expressionist style he drew inspiration from prominent African Americans, such every bit Light-headed Gillespie, Muhammad Ali, and Sugar Ray Robinson (Rosenberg). Every bit Sayre points out, central to his personal iconography was a iii pointed crown, a symbol he related to himself, just likewise his African American heroes (37). He was familiar with the Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, by Henry Dreyfuss, and was fatigued to the section on "hobo signs," in particular the "10" which within the hobo culture was a signal that a place was okay (Sayre 37). Of course, the 'X' is a common symbol with multiple meanings. An "X" could exist used to mark a spot and constitute its importance, or in essence, to eliminate something by crossing it out. And, according to Sayre, this is oft the difficult and ambiguous position Basquiat's African American heroes plant themselves in, in 20th century America (37). In his 1982 painting Charles the First, Charles is a reference to both Charlie Parker and Charles I of England, who was beheaded past Protestants (Sayre 37). Included in the painting is the text, "Most kings become their head cut off."

Additional resources:

• Read more than on Jean-Michele Basquiat
• Examples of his use of symbolism
• A more than in-depth reading "Iconographic Analysis" by Marjorie Munsterberg

Semiotics

The formalism you expert in module two is focused on compositional analysis by existence descriptive. Semiotics offers some other way of analyzing images, be they constitute in artwork or another blazon of visual culture, like advertizement. Semiotics is the written report of signs. In semiotics the basic unit of measurement is the sign. Signs are representations that have meanings across what they literally represent. Signs tin can come up in visual or auditory grade- as in linguistic communication or sounds. Signs are everywhere, not just in art. Semiotics offers a mode to break an image into its constituent parts- its signs, and trace how they relate to each other, and other systems of meaning (Rose 105).

Signified and Signifier

In semiotics the epitome itself is the focus and the most important site of pregnant (Rose 108). The signs in an paradigm are analyzed into ii parts, the signified and signifier. The signified is the concept or affair the representation stands in for. The signifier is the representation. For example, in a photograph with a infant in it— the baby is the signifier, and the signified could be youth, or the future, or some other association that we make with the representation of a babe.

Icon, alphabetize, symbol

There are three basic types of signs: icon, alphabetize, and symbol. Icons deport a very close visual human relationship to the matter they stand for. An icon of a adult female might exist a photo of an actual woman. An indexical sign points to the thing it represents or bears some relationship to the thing it represents, just is one step removed. An case of an indexical sign of a woman is the simple analogy of a woman that y'all find on restrooms designated for women. A symbol is capricious, and bears no relation to the thing it represents. An case of a symbol for women is the circle/cross shape that signifies the female gender.

Female person gender symbol

A short video on Semiotics and the Icon/Index/Symbol distinctions:

Some other case of a symbol is the American flag. If you were raised in America, yous are taught that it stands for the country America and national pride, and perhaps other meanings like freedom, only how the flag looks is arbitrary. It could simply as easily have taken on some other graphic representation, and still have been coded with those meanings, just like the flags of other countries share a similar national significance in those other cultures.

Denotative and Connotative meanings

Signs can have denotative, or literal significant, and connotative meanings that are in add-on to their literal pregnant. Signs exist in human relationship to other signs. Signs too connect to wider systems of meaning that are conventionalized meanings shared by particular groups of people or cultures (Rose 128). This is referred to as codes. Because signs can oftentimes be polysemic, or take multiples meanings, unpacking their meanings fully can be very circuitous. It is accepted, nevertheless, that within specific groups/cultures, and particular times, in that location are frequently preferred or dominant readings of signs that are interpreted in means intended to retain the institutional/political/idealogical social club imprinted on them for that fourth dimension (Rose 133).

Advertisers make design choices with transference in heed. They intend for specific meanings to exist transferred from one sign to some other. Call up of how often y'all have seen a new car ad where the auto and some kind sexualized representation of a woman are paired together. What is the intended transference of meaning betwixt these ii signs, the automobile and the woman? Consider how focus groups are used to figure out what will be the most effective tactic to use in selling a production to the target consumer. Focus groups are a manner of researching the target consumer'south codes. What signs will they pay attention to and interpret in such a manner that volition ultimately industry desire for that production?

Steps in Conducting a Basic Semiotic Analysis:

• Determine what the signs are.
• Decide what they signify 'in themselves'.
• Consider how they relate to other signs.
• Explore their connections to wider systems of meaning, from codes to ideologies.

Consider these questions in relation to this 2009 Levis Ad for their "Go Forth" entrada directed by Cary Fukunaga for Portland'south Weiden+Kennedy Advertising Agency.

Styles of dress are kinds of signs. In Western culture we consider the suit to exist a visual betoken for concern. In connection, people who work in white collar jobs are sometimes referred to informally as "suits." In the ad at that place is a man in a suit, presumably a white neckband worker. We might infer by other signs like the limousine that he is wealthy or powerful. How does the handling of the man in the suit compare with the other figures who appear in the ad? The neon sign of the word "America" is partially submerged. What does this signify? Through out the advertizing their are loud banging sounds. What do these auditory signs signify? Considering the signs in this advertisement, what do you recall Levi'south wants yous to associate with their make and products?

Works Cited

Rose, Gillian. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching Visual Materials. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2012. Print.

Rosenberg, Bonnie. Jean-Michele Basquiat, American Painter. The Fine art Story. Web. 18 August 2015.

Sayre, Henry. A Earth of Fine art, 6th edition. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2010. Impress.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/masteryart1/chapter/reading-the-fourth-level-of-meaning-iconography/

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