Question

Both Lam and Bosch employed symbolic elements in their work. What role do you think symbols can play in helping to visualize imaginative worlds? How can one read the symbolism (iconography)?

Answer 1

The correct answer to this open question is the following.

The role I think symbols can play in helping to visualize imaginative worlds is very important. Indeed, I think many times a symbol can substitute many words that should be carefully chosen to explain something.

A symbol, on the other hand, can sum up many words in one image, and that is the power of symbols.

Talking about Jeronimous B*sch, the famous Renaissance painter from the Netherlands, we can appreciate the use of symbols he used in great paintings such as the "Cr*cifixion of St. J*lia."

Using iconography, we should be able to read symbols. This concept of iconography was created by Erwin Panofsky to deeply analyze artworks focusing basically on important symbols that had meaning for the people of the time when the work was created.

Through analyzing symbols, we can understand the meaning and the emotions projected in the artwork.