GREEK ICONOGRAPHY - Introduction

What is the iconography?

Iconography is a study of the subjects represented in art, such as painting and sculpture. In this study, we can recognize what is the subject and who is the figure. Iconography, however, sometimes deals with the difference or development of the representation by the difference of the time or place, as well as social background.

In Greek art, wall painting hardly is survived except for bronze age examples. Most sculpture are single figures and group composition was only applied to the sculpture belonging to architectures. Therefore, vase-painging plays the most important part of the studies on Greek iconography.

Karl Schefold, "Myth and Legend in Early Greek Art " (1967)
Warren G. Moon, "Ancient Greek Art and Iconography" (1983)
Maria Pipili , "Laconian Iconography of the Sixth Century BC" (1987)
Thomas H. Carpenter, "Art and Myth in Ancient Greece: A Handbook" (1991)
H. A. Shapiro , "Myth Into Art: Poet and Painter in Classical Greece" (1994)
Kirsty Shipton and Andrew Meadows (eds.), "Money and Its Uses in the Ancient Greek World " (2002)