Aims

By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- use the main tools of bibliographic reference, iconographic classification and electronic referencing
- analyse the message behind the composition and the relation between the forms (syntax) and the colours and materials selected by the artist
- operationalise the notion of the function of an image
- recognise the characters and the scenes portrayed in the iconographic collections of Greek and Roman mythology and the Bible.

Main themes

This course introduces students to methods of analysing images as a source of information, as a means of communication and mode of expression and as an object to be interpreted by the archaeologist and art historian.

Content and teaching methods

Definitions. History of Iconology as a science of man-made images. Principles of methodology and keys for reading and interpreting images. Fundamental issues related to the analysis of images as part of an independant language (lexicon, grammar, particularities). Identitying the sources of image creation. The changing identity of the image (isolated, in composition, in cycles etc). Main iconographic programmes and genres. The functions and functioning of images. Repertory of the iconography of mythological and biblical inspiration.

Other credits in programs