The Importance of Iconographical Exactitude

Abstract

Although the place of iconography in the discovery and elucidation of artistic and cultural connections is universally recognized, we have to admit with regret that this important study auxiliary to the history of art is still an unequally explored domain. The great imaginative range of Greek and Roman art, and the intricate iconographic system of mediaeval Christian have been reconstructed on the whole with sufficient clarity. Emile Mâle's standard works have clarified the ideas and sources underlying the religious art of the twelfth to fifteenth centuries, while Raimond van Marie has endeavored to systematize the profane subject matter of the art of the same period. Doubtful points, of which many still remain, are being gradually cleared up by various scholars, of whom Guy de Tervarent may be mentioned as one recently active, who occupy themselves with detailed questions. Meanwhile, too little attention has been paid to the study of the iconography of modern art. Here, again, Mâle was the pioneer, in hi...