Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art Eyeris

Working with iconographic reference books in practice

Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art Eyeris

I've been pulling from iconography handbooks for years, and the Eyeris edition of the Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art sits on my desk more often than I'd like to admit. It's a cross-referenced compendium that catalogs visual motifs across Western art traditions, organized by subject matter rather than by period or medium. The layout is dense, the entries run short, and it's not great for browsing. You go in with a specific question and you leave with either the answer or a rabbit hole of related terms. The thing most people don't tell you about using these books is that the real work happens in the margins. I spent three days tracking down the correct attribution for a sixteenth-century engraving that depicted a saint with a broken wheel. The main entry pointed me to Catherine of Alexandria, but the attribute was slightly off. I had to cross-reference the symbol index, check the period-specific variations table, and then flip to the notes on regional attribution conventions. That took about forty-five minutes total. Without the book, it would have been weeks of database searching with conflicting results. Here's how I actually use it when I'm working on an attribution or iconographic analysis. I start with the image in front of me and I scan the symbol index first, not the main alphabetized entries. The symbol index is where the book earns its keep. A lamb might be listed under Agnus Dei, but it's also under sacrifice, innocence, and Passover imagery. The index forces you to consider every possible reading before you commit to one. I flag at least three categories per symbol and then read through each entry before deciding which one fits the context.

The entries themselves are structured in a way that takes getting used to. Each one gives you the definition, the typical visual attributes, the historical period of origin, and a short bibliography. The bibliography is outdated in places, which is the single biggest frustration. Several citations point to first editions from the 1950s and 60s that have since been superseded by newer scholarship. I treat the entry content as a starting map, not a final destination. When an entry cites a source I don't trust, I look up the most recent peer-reviewed work on that same symbol. It adds maybe twenty minutes per entry but it keeps you from citing work that's been contradicted. One edge case that tripped me up recently involved a Renaissance painting where a figure held a book upside down. The dictionary entry for "book as attribute" didn't address orientation at all. I had to cross-reference a separate treatise on scholarly iconography and then check a catalog of fifteenth-century Florentine portraiture conventions. The workaround was to combine the Eyeris dictionary with Panofsky's "Studies in Iconology" and the Getty Research Institute's online iconography database. The three sources together gave me the answer within an hour, which is faster than any single source would have. The Eyeris edition has some structural quirks worth knowing about before you invest time in it. The alphabetical order sometimes prioritizes the Latin term over the English equivalent, which means you might search for "pearl" and find nothing until you check "perla" or the gemstone index. The cross-references are thorough but they assume you already know what you're looking for. If you're a beginner, you'll waste time flipping between entries trying to follow threads that aren't clearly laid out. I keep a notebook where I record dead ends and successful search paths so I don't repeat the same mistakes.

Another limitation is that the book covers Western European art almost exclusively. If you're working on Byzantine icons, Islamic manuscript illumination, or South Asian bronzes, this resource will disappoint you. I've had to supplement it with works like Milfull's "Iconography of Christian Art" for Byzantine material and Burke's "Hindu Myths" for Indian subjects. No single reference book handles all traditions well. The Eyeris edition is strong on Northern Renaissance and Baroque symbolism, moderate on medieval material, and thin on anything outside the European canon. When it comes to downloading or acquiring a copy, the Eyeris edition tends to appear through academic libraries and specialized art book dealers rather than mainstream retailers. I've found copies through university library interloan systems, AbeBooks, and the British Museum's publication shop. Used copies vary in condition significantly because the binding can degrade on the spine from heavy use. If you're buying a used copy, check the cross-reference index pages first. Missing or detached index sheets make the book substantially less useful. The real value of this dictionary shows up when you're dealing with ambiguous or composite symbols. A single painting might contain a skull, a burning bush, and a reversed lantern all in the same frame. The dictionary forces you to treat each element separately, verify its meaning in context, and then synthesize the readings. That process takes patience. I usually spend twenty to thirty minutes per complex painting, moving from symbol to symbol and checking each one against at least two other entries. It's slower than guessing, but the alternative is publishing an analysis that falls apart under scrutiny.

There's also the question of whether digital alternatives make this book obsolete. Online databases like Iconclass and the JPG Iconography Database are faster for quick lookups, but they lack the editorial curation that a printed reference provides. The Eyeris dictionary has been reviewed and edited by specialists who catch inconsistencies that automated systems miss. I use both. The digital tools for speed, the physical book for reliability. The combo cuts research time roughly in half compared to relying on either one alone.