iconology

[ahy-kuh-nol-uh-jee]

noun

1. the historical analysis and interpretive study of symbols or images and their contextual significance; iconography.

2. the study of icons or symbolic representations.

iconology

/ aɪˌkɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkəl, ˌaɪkɒˈnɒlədʒɪ /

noun

1. the study or field of art history concerning icons

2. icons collectively

3. the symbolic representation or symbolism of icons

Other Word Forms

• iconological adjective
• iconologist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of iconology¹

First recorded in 1720–30; icono- + -logy

Example Sentences

Adam calls it “a collection of Cajun-ized nursery rhymes with a lot of the local iconology mixed in with the old familiar poems you grew up with.”

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"We uphold this legacy which merges art, political theatre, religious iconology and socio-political resistance."

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Winnicott that made Phillips want to become a psychoanalyst, and it occurs to me that Jung’s collective unconsciousness and Warburg’s study of cultural memory, archetype and iconology overlap in their ideas of nonverbal transmission.

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In 1912, he dubbed this new “science” of art history “iconology.”

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For the most part, no great persuasion was needed to turn a simple, imaginative, fatalistic people from a few vague animistic deities to the systematic iconology and the elaborate ritual of the Spanish Church.

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