The discussion or description of portraiture or of representative images. Cf. Iconography.

Interpreting the meaning of a work of art through combining iconography with the full historical context.

The study of symbolic representations.

The study of the significance and interpretation of the subject matter of art. Iconology often incorporates contextual evidence regarding traditions of representation of specific subjects to aid in understanding.

Study of the symbolic, emblematic, allegorical, metaphorical, and ideological meanings of images or of the theme, subject, composition and content of a work of art.

the branch of art history that studies visual images and their symbolic meaning (especially in social or political terms)

the branch of iconography that deals with icons - the pictorial representations of ideas or beliefs.