Visual codes in art from the historical point of view. Assist. Prof. Mehmet Kahyaoğlu Yaşar University

The Venus of Willendorf 28,000-25,000 BC Limestone, painted in red 11.1 cm Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna

Perforated relief of King Ur-Nanshe Ur, 3 rd Dynasty ( BC) Limestone, 39 x 46 cm Louvre Museum, Paris

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin 2,254-2,218 BC Limestone h. 2 mt. Louvre Museum, Paris

Law Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon (detail) ca. 1,780 BC Bazalt h mt. Louvre Museum, Paris

Panofsky vs. Mannheim Sociology of culture that Mannheim was to develop during the same period as Panofsky codified the methodology of iconography and iconology. Both Panofsky and Mannheim start from, but seek to go beyond, Riegl’s concept of Kunstwollen in developing a theoretically coherent account of the relationship between cultural objects and their larger contexts.

The incipient sociological elements in Mannheim’s ‘Interpretation of Weltanschaung’ afforded Panofsky a more practical interpretative schema than that developed in his earlier account of the concept of Kunstwollen, but the social elements theoretically essential to Mannheim’s conceptualization remain a residual category in Panofsky’s interpretive framework. Mannheim was able to characterize ‘worldview’ in more systematically historical and sociological terms, largely by building on precisely the psychological and collective dimensions of the concept of Kunstwollen that Panofsky had rejected.

In his essay on ‘The concept of artistic volition’, Panofsky sought to establish an ‘Archimedean point’ for the interpretation of individual works of art in intrinsic terms, rather than by reference to such extrinsic phenomena as developmental stylistic or typological series.

Images are made to communicate.

Leonardo da Vinci. Last Supper. 1495–1498. Tempera on gesso, pitch and mastic. 460 cm × 880 cm. Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

What does an Aborigine think of that painting?

Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights or Oil-on-wood triptych. 220 cm × 389 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid

Robert Capa ( ). Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936

Timothy O'Sullivan, Harvest of Death (4th July, 1863)

Margeret Bourke-White ( ), Gandi. 1946

Bryan Organ Diana, Princess of Wales 1981 Acrylic on canvas x 127 cm. National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir Joshua Reynolds. George Augustus Eliott, Lord Heathfield Oil on canvas. 142 x cm. National Gallery, London, UK.

Hyacinthe Rigaud. Louis XIV Oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre, Paris J-S. Duplessis. Louis XVI. c Oil on canvas. Musée Carbavalet, Paris

Fyodor Shurpin. The Morning of Our Native Land Oil on canvas. State Gallery of Tretyakov, Moscow.

Hunting scene from the tomb of Nebamun. c British Museum, London Art gives clues …

Robert Capa ( ). Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936 But it may not be real as it may seen…

Eugène Delacroix Paganini 1831, Karton üzerine ya ğ lıboya Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Paganini 1819, Karakalem

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Turkish Bath 1862, Tuval üzerine ya ğ lıboya, Museé du Louvre, Paris

OBJECT OF INTERPRETATIONACT OF INTERPRETATION EQUIPMENT FOR INTERPRETATION CORRECTIVE PRINCIPLE OF INTERPRETATION (Hist. of Tradition)

OBJECT OF INTERPRETATIONACT OF INTERPRETATION EQUIPMENT FOR INTERPRETATION CORRECTIVE PRINCIPLE OF INTERPRETATION (Hist. of Tradition) I Primary or natural subject matter (A)factual, (B) expressional - constituting the world of artistic motifs Pre-iconographical description Practical experience (familiarity with objects and events). History of style (insight into the manner in which, under varying historical conditions, objects and events were expressed by forms).

OBJECT OF INTERPRETATIONACT OF INTERPRETATIONEQUIPMENT FOR INTERPRETATION CORRECTIVE PRINCIPLE OF INTERPRETATION (Hist. of Tradition) I Primary or natural subject matter – (A) factual, (B) expressional - constituting the world of artistic motifs Pre-iconographical description Practical experience (familiarity with objects and events). History of style (insight into the manner in which, under varying historical conditions, objects and events were expressed by forms). II Secondary or conventional subject matter, constituting the world of images, stories and allegories. Iconographical analysis Knowledge of literary sources (familiarity with specific themes and concepts). History of types (insight into the manner in which, under varying historical conditions specific themes or concepts were expressed by objects and events).

OBJECT OF INTERPRETATION ACT OF INTERPRETATION EQUIPMENT FOR INTERPRETATION CORRECTIVE PRINCIPLE OF INTERPRETATION (Hist. of Tradition) I Primary or natural subject matter – (A)factual, (B)expressional - constituting the world of artistic motifs Pre-iconographical description Practical experience (familiarity with objects and events). History of style (insight into the manner in which, under varying historical conditions, objects and events were expressed by forms). II Secondary or conventional subject matter, constituting the world of images, stories and allegories. Iconographical analysis Knowledge of literary sources (familiarity with specific themes and concepts). History of types (insight into the manner in which, under varying historical conditions specific themes or concepts were expressed by objects and events). III Intrinsic meaning or content, constituting the world of "symbolical" values. Iconological interpretation Synthetic intuition (familiarity with the essential tendencies of the human mind), conditioned by personal psychology and "Weltanschauung" History of cultural symptoms or "symbols" in general (insight into the manner in which, under varying historical conditions, essential tendencies of the human mind were expressed by specific themes

Caravaggio, The Crucifixion of St. Peter, 1601 Oil on canvas Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome