Iconography: An Irreverent Introduction

by Angel Rafael Colon, Patricia Ann Colon

A fascinating aspect of art history is the way artists imbued their canvasses with symbols. To the modern art goer, the symbols often appear unrelated to the theme depicted, but, with the study of the iconography, it becomes evident they are essential elements for a full appreciation of the art work. At the time this art was created, the symbols – the iconography – would have been universally recognized and comprehensible, but in time, their meanings became obscure, arcane. The goal of An Irreverent Introduction is to make sense of what are now unclear, even indecipherable symbols in celebrated paintings and sculptures, and enable contemporary art lovers to completely understand all facets of these masterworks. To ensure that objective, the authors have in depth explanations of symbols that are found in a number of great art works throughout Europe, and have provided informative tables and footnotes as well as illustrations of the paintings and sculptures discussed. The book begins with religious art that produced a vast number of paintings from the 10 th through the 17 th centuries. It continues with an examination of Renaissance art that experienced a shift in artists’ interest and resulted in monumental mythological paintings. Myths, classical allegory and mythological sagas are examined as a guide to understanding who was who on Mount Olympus and in tales told by great authors whose works continue to be venerated. Dutch paintings of The Golden Age, rich in iconography are crowd pleasing domestic social scenes, still lifes, portraits and landscapes. They reflected the mores and preoccupations of 17 th century Netherlands and illustrate how emblems and symbols changed with the subject matter. The authors consider illustrious works that defy traditional categorization and range from the mystical, social-political, war-political to the psychological. The iconography of Death explores a topic that was painted for millennia and only lost favor with the advent of impressionistic and abstract art that began in the 19 th century. An Irreverent Introduction is a vademecum for any museum visit.

Genres: Nonfiction

260 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2017

Reviews

[Ploni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not much of an art person. More of an irreverent person. Enjoyed this book very much.

[Alessandro · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let's get this out of the way: this book is terrible. I treasure it because a dear friend gave it to me for my birthday, but that's where my appreciation ends. This most-likely self-published collection of dinner party conversation starters for rich boomers has no real purpose. It's not much of an introduction, but rather a catalogue of factoids. There is no real thread, and no real discussion. No sources for the claims either, and it all sounds like a bunch of hearsay gathered by the two authors, whose qualifications are unknown. I hardly get worked up over a book that is not about politics, but the more I was reading it, the angrier at the uselessness and sloppiness of it I became. One is supposed to look at the pictures while reading about iconographic elements, but these are often poor quality images downloaded from Wikipedia and printed so poorly that nothing is really visible. Also, the humour: my god, it's so soul-crushingly lame. The review (not signed, so I guess the authors themselves wrote it) on the back states "The flawlessly clear writing is often charmingly light-hearted though just as consistently characterized by scholarly scrupulousness". Sure, and pigs fly. The writing is garbled, a lot of fancy-sounding words are used out of context to give it an appearance of importance - but, Mr and Mrs Colón, nobody worth their salt talks like that. Go back to look at art in museums, you clearly love that. But leave writing books to people who know what they're doing.