Iconographic Analysis

Considering a work of art in terms of the life of the person who made it creates one kind of historical context.  There are many other ways to relate a work to history, though, involving different elements of the period from which it came.  One of them is an iconographic analysis, which establishes the meaning a work of art had at the time it was made.  This may or may not include what the maker of the work intended or, usually a more important factor, what the person who paid for the work wanted. Any particular time or place provides different possible audiences, each of which will demand specific kinds of information and make certain assumptions.  The iconographic argument always depends upon assembling historical evidence to reconstruct these things.

肖像的分析

从创作者的生活角度来考虑一件艺术品，创造了一种历史语境。然而，还有许多其他方法可以将一部作品与历史联系起来，包括它所来自的那个时代的不同元素。其中之一是图像分析，它确立了一件艺术品在创作时的意义。这可能包括也可能不包括作品的制作者想要什么，或者通常更重要的因素是，为作品付费的人想要什么。任何特定的时间或地点都会提供不同的可能受众，每个受众都需要特定类型的信息并做出特定的假设。图像的论证总是依赖于收集历史证据来重建这些东西。

Like all types of art historical analysis, an iconographic analysis must begin with what can be seen in the object or objects being considered.  On the basis of these observations, the objects are related to other visual images and, probably, texts.  This process may involve considerable historical research in primary sources and many languages, or a single reference to an authoritative secondary source.  The result may be more than one interpretation.  If they are mutually exclusive, the historian and the reader must decide which one seems most convincing.  More often, though, different interpretations address different aspects of the work, so all of them can be historically accurate.

就像所有类型的艺术历史分析一样，图像分析必须从对象或被考虑的对象所能看到的东西开始。在这些观察的基础上，这些物体与其他视觉图像，可能还有文字有关。这一过程可能涉及对主要来源和许多语言的大量历史研究，或对权威的次要来源的单一参考。结果可能不止一种解释。如果它们是相互排斥的，那么历史学家和读者必须决定哪一个看起来最有说服力。不过，更常见的情况是，不同的解释涉及到作品的不同方面，所以所有这些解释在历史上都是准确的。