nordic review of iconography 5 5 Avbildade tecken & avbildningar som tecken Ikonologins och semiotikens delade skäl Fred Andersson Title Depicted Signs and Depictions as Signs – Common Reasons for Iconology and Semiotics Abstract he aim of this article is to describe some common reasons and origins of modern Icono- logy and Semiotics, and to question the dichotomy which is sometimes made between these disci- plines. When emblematics and iconology were established in the Sixteenth Century, irst with An- dreas Alciatus’ Emblemata and later with Cæsare Ripa’s Iconologia, poetic imagery and rhetorical igures were primary points of reference. Rather than separating visual and verbal capacities, these authors merely airmed that both visible pictures and spoken or written words could communicate the same images. An antagonism between iconology and semiotics was hardly possible until mod- ern linguistics separated the study of language systems from the study of symbolic systems. he de- notation and the connotation, as deined in studies of language systems, have however been com- pared to Erwin Panofsky’s primary and secondary levels of subject matter, respectively. his study rather concludes that the place of denotation in iconological analysis would be the secondary or iconographic level. Diferently put, the depiction of signs in iconography could structurally be com- pared to the depiction or visual denotation as sign. In this manner, common reasons for a systemat- ic approach can be found both in the early beginnings and in recent developments of iconology and semiotics. he reasons may however be diferent than previously conceived. Keywords Iconology, Semiotics, Iconography, Andreas Alciatus, Cæsare Ripa, W. J. T. Mitchell, Erwin Panofsky, Roland Barthes, Peter Larsen, Göran Sonesson Author Ph. D. in Art History, Adjunct professor (docent), Åbo Akademi Email franders@abo.i Iconographisk Post Nordisk tidskrift för bildtolkning • Nordic Review of Iconography Nr 1, 2016, pp. 4–33. issn 2323-5586 Den dominerande uppfattningen om ett forskningsområdes särart framträder som en välkänd och upprepad doxa i kommu- nikationen mellan forskare och allmänhet. Ikonograisk forskning framställs då gärna som en gammal och gedigen disciplin för studium av gamla bilder, medan bildsemio- tik hellre förknippas med nya medier och ett trendkänsligt “teoretiserande”. Varje ve- tenskap börjar dock som spekulation och Fig. 1. Emblemet för “god spådom” eller Zuvor-Verkündigung deß Guten i den första tyska utgåvan av Cæsare Ripas Iconologia (Ripa 1669, 97). The emblem of “good prophecy” or Zuvor-Verkündigung deß Guten in the first German edition of Cæsare Ripa’s Iconologia (Ripa 1669, 97).