There are no prerequisites for this course.

The competences of the art history 1, 2, 3 and 4 courses are acquired.

The student has acquainted the iconographic terminology and basic method. The student knows some important subjects of Western profane and Christian iconography through the ages. The student has acquired insight in the relationship between cultural phases, art and iconography. The student knows the sources, manuals and websites that are useful to do iconographic research. The student is able to use these sources. The student has acquired insight in the iconographic method by applying it himself under the guidance of the professor . The student is able to bring an elementary iconographic research to a successful conclusion.

This is a specialised course that is closely related to an important aspect of art history: the analysis of the content of a representation by observation, identification and explanation of a subject in the context wherein it has been visually represented. The links between written sources of inspiration and visual respresentations are clarified by an introduction to specialised professional literature. Each academic year the entire class works on a different subject so that the student has the opportunity to apply his knowledge and execute some original iconographic research himself.

Iconography is about meaning of an image, about watching carefully and describing what you see. It’s about identification who you see, which story has been depicted and about recognizing the underlying symbolic meaning. It’s about texts that have inspired artists to depict images during centuries and that might help us today to understand those images.
Firstly, the iconographic method is learned during six theory classes on antique mythology, Christian iconography and symbols. Next, each student gets instructions for an individual assignment. The subject varies each year and will be the mythology of the Jews or Old Testament during the academic year 2017-2018. After, each student has to participate at one group meeting where problems on the assignment as well as solutions are discussed.
Evaluation is based on 1. a written exam in January (or August) where an iconographic analysis of one image in the course has to be made; 2. the paper on the individual assignment and 3. participation in the group meeting.

PowerPoint Presentations with images, text and specific terminology to each class are available on the electronic learning platform. An extensive reference list with specialised literature is also available. It is partially focused on the subject of the current academic year so that it can be applied to perform the practical assignments. Each student gets a detailed description of the assignments on paper.

1st term:

active participation at the group session: 5 exam points

paper: 10 exam points

written exam: 5 exam points

2nd exam period:
active participation at the group session: 5 exam points
paper: 10 exam points
written exam: 5 exam points