Iconography is a feminine noun of the Portuguese language and defines the study of subjects represented by artistic images, works of art, relating to their sources and meanings.
The origin of the word iconography arose from the joining of two Greek terms, "eikon" = "image" and "graphics" = "writing", literally meaning "the writing of the image".
THE iconography it encompasses the study of imagistic works such as statues, paintings, engravings, portraits, and so on.
Until the 16th century, iconography referred only to imagery works linked to religion or inserted in a religious context.
Iconography and Iconology
Iconography is concerned with studying and analyzing the aesthetic characteristics of images, limiting itself to not following their historical significance.
In turn, the iconology is an iconography with a deeper interpretation of objects and works of art, analyzing through a way interpretative, the historical and sociological context of the image, and not just a preliminary examination linked to aesthetics.
Religious Iconography
Until the mid-sixteenth century, iconography was a restricted study to religious symbols and images.
Sculptures and paintings of saints, angels and the life of Jesus Christ were the main themes of the studies of the religious iconography, that is, it was strongly related to Christian/Catholic doctrine.
The origin of the word "icon", for example, arose from the implicit association between the image and the sacred.
Brazilian Iconography
THE Brazilian iconography helps to understand the social and historical construction of Brazil, since before the Portuguese discovery and colonization.
The Indians produced artifacts, such as paintings and sculptures, which are also studied through indigenous iconography and iconology, retracing the customs and traditions of the tribes that lived in the country.
In the 18th and 19th century, Brazilian iconographic analyzes sought caricatures in newspapers or paintings from famous artists of the time, remnants that help to reconstruct the social and economic reality of that time in the parents.
Iconography of Cangaço
Within the enormous cultural and ethnic diversity that prevails in Brazil, cangaço is one of the most expressive characteristics of a Brazilian lifestyle.
THE cangaço iconography, recorded through photography and engravings on cordéis, won the national imagination with the figure of Lampião and his companions, called "cangaceiros".
