Christian iconography

In art history, iconography means the images found inside a work, and also the repertoire of image types that artists use to carry particular meanings. Tate’s examples from Christian painting are the lamb, which stands for Christ, and the dove, which stands for the Holy Spirit. The word “icon” goes back to the Greek ikon, “image”; it first meant a panel painting of Christ used in devotion in the Greek Orthodox Church. Saints are often identified by an attribute, which the National Gallery describes as an object normally tied to a saint’s life. Saint Peter holds keys; Saint Catherine leans on the wheel she was bound to; Mary Magdalene is often shown with an ointment jar because she anointed Christ’s feet. Painted on an altarpiece, these objects helped viewers tell the saints apart. Scenes have typical features too. The Annunciation, told in the Gospel of Luke, normally shows just the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, and the Holy Spirit may be shown as a dove coming down along a ray of light. The page of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum for its 2027 exhibition of Lithuanian handicrafts lists crosses and holy images among the works on view, and its list of works includes a piece titled “聖母” (Virgin).

Look at what the figures hold or stand beside: a key, a wheel, a jar, a bird. Ask who it could identify, then check that against the scene.