Metaphors

Paedagogica Historica, Volume 36, No. 1, 2000

Iconology and Education: Notes on the Iconographic

Representation of Education and Related Terms

Antonio Viao
University of Murcia

In spite of the educational importance of the history of imagery, the range of available
images and that of ways of seeing, historians of education have not troubled themselves about the
uses of imagery and the attempts to impose one image or representation rather than another upon
any given area. In this paper I first comment on those characters and objects most frequently put
forward by iconographic conventions and employed to represent concepts and ideas connected to
education, as well as those used to standfor the word education itself. Thereby, I try to draw
attention not only to the various iconographie conventions, but also to their sources, to the concepts
and ideas underlying given representations and to the general use of afeminine personification in
order to represent education and other related terms.
This preference for a feminine personification in different modes is analyzed starting
principally from the famous Iconologia (1603) of Ripa and the Iconologia cnstiana y
gentflica (1850) by Castellanos de Losada, with the Dictionnaire iconologique (1779) by
Lacombe de Prezel and the Iconologie (1791) by Gravelot and Cochin as intermediary
influences. Also examined are the network of interrelated terms symbolically linked to the
feminine which have educational connotations and some examples taken from the imagery of
different artistic periods of the Western World. At the same time, this analysis shows how these
representations of education (personifications, objects, mottoes, scenes, etc.) reflect different
conceptions and ideas of it.

The history of imagery is closely linked to that of ways of seeing. The

former includes at least two inter-related aspects: that of means of production and
preservation of images and that of modes of transmission. The history of ways of
seeing is determined by both aspects, plus another two, likewise connected: visual
education and "the imagery of every age", that is to say, the way in which human
beings have been mentally trained to recognize and read images and graphics and
the range of images and signs available to them at any specific moment.1 Given
that thought is always to a large extent visual thought (there is no way of thinking
without the mind at some stage calling up some kind of image), this range of

1
Italo Calvino, Seis propuestas para el nuevomilenio(Madrid, Siruela, 1989), p. 101.
76 Antonio Viao

available images makes up the repertoire of those that will inevitably be thought
of. Hence the image, its power to shape the mind, has major educational
importance.
In spite of this, historians of education, with few exceptions, have not
troubled with the educational uses of imagery in non-literate, restricted literate or
widely literate societies that is to say, with the interaction between orality,
literacy and imagery, nor indeed with the "image war",2 i.e. attempts to impose
one image or representation rather than another upon a given area, the resultant
conflicts, syncretisms or the propaganda or colonizing uses of said images. This
two-fold power of imagery both to signify (communicate messages) and to shape
the minds, explains attempts to regulate and impose certain criteria in relation to
iconographie representations of specific objects, people or ideas. These rules and
restrictions can be produced de facto: the constant repetition of an image leads to
its widespread acceptance as the most suitable representation of a thing, or texts
lay down norms of correctness to which those who produce images must submit.
Either way, the outcome is the same: the establishment of iconographie, allegoric
or symbolic conventions whose shared significance is disseminated and enforced
at the expense of other possibilities. These iconographie norms establish not only
how certain characters and scenes from their lives are to be represented for
instance, the education of the Virgin whose iconographie representation,
popularized from the XVIth century onwards, is based on Santiago of Voragine's
Legenda aurea, who for his part was inspired by the apocryphal Gospels3 but also
which objects, people or symbols should be employed to represent given feelings,
virtues, vices, sins, liberal arts or academic disciplines, to cite the most common
or significant aspects in the context of education.
In this paper I shall first outline those characters and objects most
frequently put forward and employed to represent concepts and ideas connected
to education and then those likewise used to stand for the word education itself.
Thereby, I will try to draw attention not only to the various iconographie norms
but also to the concepts underlying given representations.

Characters and objects

Which figures and objects have been suggested and used by painters,
sculptors and illustrators to represent wisdom, science and, by extension, other
skills and fields of learning?
During the Renaissance, for example, two figures from classical
mythology stand out Mercury and Minerva. Mercury, "the most resourceful of
gods", in Renaissance iconography on occasion represents skillfulness, at times

2
Serge Gruzinski, La guerre des images de Christophe Colomb Blade Runner (1492-
2019) (Paris, CNRS, 1982).
3
James Hall, Diccionario de temas y simbolosartistkos (Madrid, Alianza, 1987), p.
124.
 Iconology and Education 11

eloquence, the god of the word, at other times reason, and finally the guide of
souls. The reason for these last two attributes can be traced to his position in
classical antiquity as educator and law-maker ("Mercury, thou who tames the wild
ways of men and brings them our civilization": Horace, Odes, 1, 10, verses 2-3).
Likewise, Minerva represents prudence and wisdom and, by extension, virtue and
philosophy, either in herself or through the medium of one of her attributes:
spear, shield, olive branch, chariot drawn by unicorns, qwl or serpent4
The objects came from classical literature, mythology or the Bible. Those
mentioned above (spear, shield, etc.) acquired their symbolic meaning not for
themselves but for their relation to Minerva, goddess of wisdom. Others, e.g. the
crown of laurel, take significance from Apollo and thence poets and virtue.5 The
sun and with it, daylight, are linked to truth, clarity and wisdom in classical
literature (Ovid), hence their use, with this symbolism, by Renaissance artists.6
The recourse to a man's head with four ears to represent wisdom also comes
from the classical world. Its origin is to be found in a Greek proverb "Listen to
he who has four ears" - taken up by Erasmus in his Adagia, which indicates the
desirability of listening to the voice of experience, particularly the elderly.7 Other
symbolic representations of the same concept are a good example of religious
syncretism between the classical and Christian worlds. Minerva's chariot of
wisdom might become the chariot of the Church, keeper of the same, simply by
putting into the driver's hand the keys of Saint Peter. The broken stump from
which a branch sprouts green again, the distant source of which can be found in
the parable of the barren fig tree (Matthew 21,19), in the Renaissance becomes "a
constant feature in the allegories praising virtue, wisdom and spiritual fulfillment
as opposed to vulgar pleasures", having been utilized, along with the figure of
Minerva, to symbolize justice which in mediaeval iconography had been
represented by a female figure between a flourishing tree and a withered one.8
Nevertheless the object that above all represents science and learning, as
much in sacred as in profane art, is the book.9 However, the book, whether as an
attribute or as a symbol, has various uses and meanings. Sometimes in Christian
art it is an attribute given to God the Father or God the Son (a book with the
Greek letters alpha and omega), to the figure of Christ the teacher, to the
Evangelists, to certain Apostles, Paul of Tarsus, Fathers and Doctors of the
Church and figures outstanding for their learning and writings.10 In profane art,
the book is sometimes also used as a reference object featured in portraits of men

4
Guy Tervarent, Attributs et symboles dans l'art profane, 1450-1600. Dictionnaire
d'un langage perdu (Genve, Librairie E. Droz, 1958), pp. 96,268-271, 290, 342.
5
Ibid., pp. 128-129.
6
Ibid, p. 356.
7
Ibid, pp. 372-373.
8
Ibid, pp. 1958,84-85,389-391.
9
Jean Chevalier & Alain Gheerbrant, Diccionario de simbolos (Barcelona, Herder,
1986), p. 644.
. l0 Louis Reau, Iconographie de l'art chrtien (Paris, PUF, 1959), pp. III-1517.
78 Antonio Viao

of science, writers, teachers, lawyers, high-ranking civil servants, clergymen or

others professionally linked to written culture and in other cases as an object of
ostentation, showing a certain social status or wealth.11 The book or books,
source of wisdom, symbol of the universe and of the revelation or the message of
God, can also be, along with the skull and the dock, a symbol of vanity, the past
and death, as is to be found, for example, in almost all the paintings entided
"Vanitas" from the seventeenth century.
The book itself offers a range of possibilities and meanings. The dosed
book that "keeps its secret" indicates "virgin matter", yet when "open,
fecundated matter", it is available to all who "pore over" it 1 2 Two books in
opposition, one against the odier, can represent opposing worlds. In the dispute
between Jesus and the scribes in the temple, the latter had a scroll whereas the
twelve-year-old adolescent had a codex or manuscript book. The scroll signifies
the old order and learning, the Old Testament and the manuscript book the new
order, the GospeL Likewise, in the van Gogh painting entitled "The Bible" (van
Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), the apparent theme is that of two books on a table.
The large folio sized one is the Bible open at Isaiah 59 and occupies the center
and most of the picture, representing his father's world, that of a Protestant
minister; the other, on the edge of the table, quarto sized and worn out with use is
"La joie de vivre" by Emile Zola, the painter's own world.
Lastly, the book, ever since the Middle Ages and certainly from the
Renaissance, is an attribute and symbol used as representation of certain virtues
(wisdom, prudence, justice, truth), learning in general, a good many academic
disciplines and liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, eloquence, philosophy, music,
history), muses such as Calliope of epic poetry or Clio of history, and even certain
feelings such as melancholy.13 Thus, for instance, in the edition of Ripa's Iconologa
undertaken by Hertel in 1758-1760 in Augsburg, with illustrations by the painter
Gottfried Eichler junior, the book appears, along with other objects, in allegoric
representations of the Academy, Doctrine, Faith, History, Memory, Logic,
Reflection, Invention, Knowledge, Imitation, Grammar, Music, Medicine,
Geometry, Mechanics, Astrology, Painting and Philosophy.14

11
Roger Charrier, "Las pricticas de lo escrito", in: Roger Chattier (dir.), Historia de
la vida privada. Tomo 5. El proaso de cambio en la sodedad el sigh XVI al XVI (Madrid,
Altea/Taurus/Alfeguara, 1987), pp. 110-161.
12
Chevalier & Gheerbrant, Diccionario de stmbolos, p. 645.
13
Tervarent, Attributs et symboles dans l'art profane^ pp. 248-252.
14
Edward A. Maser (Ed.), Cesare Ripa. Baroque and Rococo Pictorial Imagery. The
1758-1760 Hertel Edition of Ripa's Iconologia with 200 Engraved Illustrations (New York,
Publications Inc., 1971).
 Iconobgy and Education 79
Representations of the word education and related terms

"When (the Egyptians) wanted to write education, they painted dew

descending from the sky to indicate that just as dew comes down and spreads
over all plants softening those that can be softened while having no effect on
those that by nature remain hard, likewise education is a common good among
men, but those of a receptive disposition drink it up avidly, like dew, while those
who are not similarly gifted are incapable of so doing"15 (figure 1).
The origin of Horapolo's HiemgJhphica, from which this text is taken, is
unknown. The author and date of composition of the Greek version, discovered
in 1419, have also been debated, although it is most probable that its author was
Horapolo, the philosopher, who lived in Zeno's lifetime, that is to say in the
second half of the Vth century A.D.10 Its first print edition, by Aldo Manucio in
Venice in 1505, was followed by others 18 editions and reprints are known with
translations into French, German, and Italian during the XVIth century, another
three ethtions from the XVIIth century, one from the XVIIIth century, and two
from the XlXth century17 among which stand out those from Basle by J.
Frobenius in 1518, with illustrations in the style of Holbein, and the Greek-Latin
one from Paris in 1551, with engravings in the manner of Drer. Manucio's work,
short and elementary, which "explains the hidden meaning" of 189 Egyptian
hieroglyphics (at that time considered to be "the hidden wisdom of the Pharaos"
and therefore open to "esoteric interpretations"), "was greeted with enthusiasm in
Florence, then Italy and finally throughout Europe" and influenced, among other
texts, the Emblemata of Alciato (1531), and the Hieroglypbica of Pierio Valeriano
(1556), two of the best known and widely consulted books in symbolic-
emblematic art and literature.18
It is of no importance that the meaning that ancient Egyptians gave to
dew according to Horapolo was historically incorrect What matters is the
symbolic meaning he gave to it and the later use of dais symbolism, for example
in the Drer engraving "The triumphal arch of Maximilian I",19 in which dew
descends on the emperor; in the representation of the Doctrine in the first
illustrated edition of Ripa's Iconokga'in. 1603 (figure 2); and in Hertel's edition of
1758-1760 (figure 3), with an expressed reference, in both cases, to Horapolo as
the inspiration of this interpretation of the iconographie use of dew among
Egyptians;20 or in the comparison between dew and education in the classical

15
Horapolo, Hierogyphica (Madrid, Akal, 1991), p. 114.
16
Jesus M* Gonzalez de Zrate, "Introduccion", in: Horapolo, Hierog/ypbica
(Madrid, Akal, 1991), pp. 7-8.
"Ibid., pp. 30-34.
18
Julian Gallego, Vision j simbolos en h pintura espanola del Siglo de On (Madrid,
Aguilar, 1972), pp. 37-42.
19
Tervarent, Attributs et symboles dans l'art profane, p . 325.
20
Cesare Ripa, Iconologa (Milano, T E A (reprint undertaken by Piero Buscaroli
reproducing the 1603 edition), 1992), pp. 109-110; Maser, GsanRipa, plate 83.
 80 Antonio Viao

works of emblematic literature such as those by Horozco (1589), Covarrubias

(1610), Saavedra Fajardo (1642) or Camerario (1668).21 Still more important was
the conception or idea of education that it reflected. This conception, under the
cloak of formal equality (dew descends on all plants indiscriminately), assigns
responsibility for the effects to the different human talents or natural
characteristics, in some cases malleable or capable of being educated and in others
hard and inflexible, by their nature incapable of benefiting from education or, if
preferred, uneducable.
However, the symbolic use of dew to represent education did not need
such precursors of the ideology of natural gifts or talents. Dew, indeed like
"everything from heaven", has in the culture of symbols a "sacred character", as
well as being associated as "forerunner of dawn and day", to the "idea of light",
and "spiritual illumination".22 Dew is also water and in different cultures water is
"source of life, means of purification and center of regeneration", symbol of
"fruitfulness and fertility", "sign and symbol of blessing", as well as "spiritual life
and the Holy Spirit". Dew, as water, also has a different quality from rain. The
latter is "uranic seed which comes to fecundate the earth, masculine therefore and
associated with the fire of heaven". Dew, the "first water", "which is born of the
earth and white dawn, is feminine: earth is here associated with the moon as a
symbol of consummated fertility, pregnant earth from which comes water so that
once fertilization is under way, germination will take place".2-1
This reference to the female nature of dew is not accidental. On the
contrary, there is a very close link to the iconographic representation of
education, and other related terms, by means of its personification in human
form. Indeed, education and the mentioned terms are almost always represented
by a female figure, a woman. This general pattern nevertheless has exceptions in
both senses. Thus, for example, Ignorance by Ripa is also represented by "a quite
old and ugly woman with a fat and deformed face, dressed in cloth of gold and
gems, and wearing a wreath of poppies in her hair", and Instruction, not exactly
education, "is a man of venerable and grave aspect dressed in long, fur-trimmed
academic robes: a scholar who teaches the wise things which lead to virtue. The
mirror he holds means that a man should observe his own actions so that they are
in accord with those of his fellows. The motto above reads 'Look in (the mirror),
and you will be wise' - in other words: Know thyself' (figure 4).
The event "fatto" taken from Diogenes Laercio and set out in the
background of the picture, behind the figure representing Instruction, shows
Antigonus II of Macedonia "in a princely library, wearing crown and turban, ...,
seated at a table, deep in discussion with two robed sages. The one crowned with
laurel is undoubtedly the great Stoic philosopher Zeno of Citium". The scene
includes a text in its upper part "Inspice cautus eris": "Observe, you will be
wary", and another two outside it. One is in Latin: 'Tarn rerum causas quam quid

21
Gonzalez de Zrate, "Introduccin", pp. 114-116.
22
Juan E . Cirlot, Diaionmh de simbobs (Barcelona, Labor, 1969), pp. 401-402.
23
Chevalier & Gheerbrant, Diconario de simbolos, pp. 52-60.
 lconology and 'Education 81
natura docebat, instructus Musis percipit Antigonus": "Antigonus, taught by the
Muses, studies not only the causes of things, but also that which Nature teaches",
and another, in German in the lower part "Antigonus aus lehr begier, Zenonis
Unterrich sucht fr": "Antigonus for wise Zeno sought, to learn from him all that
he taught".24
The same thing happens with Intelligence or Intellect, represented by "a
handsome youth with blonde curly hair, dressed in cloth of gold", behind whom,
on high pedestals, can be found die busts of Apollo and Minerva. The event here
shows Democritus talking with Protagoras.25
Therefore the female form was not always resorted to when representing
education and related terms. In Alciato's emblems given over to science
(emblems 179 to 186), eloquence is represented by masculine figures taken from
classical mythology Hercules, Mercury.26 In those by Solrzano Pereira (1653),
linked to the education of the prince, the personages used or alluded to through
objects, likewise taken from the classical world and mythology are, excepting
Minerva, masculine - Lycurgus, Jupiter, Hercules, Mercury, Apollo.27 We cannot
claim in these cases that these figures represent education, only that they are those
used to speak through allegorical and visual language about education.
Bearing in mind these exceptions and others that may be found, it might
be said that education and odier related terms or ideas are generally represented
through female figures. Various are die sources and influences that may explain
diis feminine personification of a social area, education, which has been
exclusively masculine oriented until our century (as likewise occurs in other areas
such as politics or justice). One source, previously mentioned, is that of Athena-
Minerva, sister of Apollo and goddess of fruitfulness, wisdom, fertility,
inventiveness, truth, active and industrious intelligence, and inspiration of civil,
agricultural, domestic and military arts.28 Another, general in character, is
associated with the chain or network of interrelated terms which according to the
Diccionario de simbolos by Chevalier and Gheerbrant (1986), maintain, in their
interpretation or symbolic use, in different cultures, a more or less close link to
the feminine (breath, dew, dove, earth, fount or source, honey, light, milk, milk
cow, moon, mother, olive, owl, pearl, placenta, rain, sea, shell, silver, tree,
virginity, water, wheat, wings, wombs), which represent or are linked to the ideas
of light, illumination, transparency, purification, regeneration, healing,
transformation, growth, initiation, birth, parturition, fecundity, fertility, spiritual
food, spirit and purity, all having educational connotations. These resonances
reflect a spiritual, transforming and regenerative concept of education, and which

24
Maser, Cesarc 'Ripa. Baroque and Rococo, plates 142 and 22.
25
Ibid., plate 182.
26
Alciato, Emblemas (Madrid, Akal, 1985), pp. 220-230.
27
Jesus M* Gonzalez de Zirate (Ed.), Emblemas rego-politicos de Juan de Solrano
(Madrid, Ediciones Tuero, 1987), pp. 72-84.
28
Chevalier & Gheerbrant, Diccionario de simbolos, p p . 148-149.
82 Antonio Viao

likewise go far to explain, for instance, that the Church, "Mater et magistra" and
"bride of Christ", was represented or seen as a woman.21'
This preference for a feminine personification in different modes can be
fully appreciated in the mentioned edition of 1758-1760 of Ripa's Iconaloga,
particularly in its references to academic disciplines.-1" The clothing, ornaments
and objects accompanying each figure are appropriate to the idea they represent
and at times show the web or chain of predominantly feminine symbols listed
above. For instance, Water is personified as "a beautiful woman wearing
transparent blue draperies which fall in wavelike folds, with pearls in her hair and
on her wrists, and a necklace of shells and coral around her neck".31
The references to suitable clothing are proof of the predominance and
generalization in educational iconography of die figure of a young woman dressed
in a long, loose, luminous robe, of classical cut, preferably white, a colour linked
to enlightenment and initiation:-12
- Academy is represented as "a young, richly dressed woman wearing a crown and
seated on a throne raised on a dais; several books lie near her feet". In this case
"her multicoloured robe represents die various sciences and branches of learning
studied in an academy" (figure 5).
- Doctrine is personified by "a seated woman of mature age, dressed in iridescent
purple (like die peacock), with an open book in her lap" (figure 3).
- Faith "is a woman dressed in white and wearing a helmet, who stands on a low
pedestal and reads a book held in one hand".
- History "is a woman robed in white, who stands widi one foot resting on a
square block of stone and looks backward".
- Wisdom "is a beautiful woman dressed in robes of white and turquoise, widi a
sun symbol on her breast" (figure 6).
- Poetry is represented by "a full-bosomed female figure" seated "on an elaborate
Rococo throne" and "robed in classical draperies whose fabric is blue covered
with stars".
- Logic is "a female figure... dressed in white with a cloak of many colours".
- Imagination is "a handsome female, richly dressed, with wings and wearing a
feather in her hair".
-Reflection or Meditation "is a woman of mature and sober appearance, somberly
and simply dressed in a long robe, who sits pensively on a heap of books".
- Invention "is a handsome woman dressed in white, with wings growing from
her temples, who is seated holding a pencil in one hand and pointing to thefatto
with die odier".
- Knowledge or Science "is a serious-looking woman wearing stately robes and a
diadem, with wings on her head, who sits holding a mirror".

29
Chevalier & Gheerbrant, Diccionario de simbolos, p. 589
30
Maser, Cesare Ripa. Baroque and Rococo Pictorial Imagery.
31
Ibid., plate 7 .
32
Chevalier & Gheerbrant, Diccionario de simbolos, p p . 192.
 Iconology and Education 83
- Physics "is a woman in classical draperies, seated at a table upon which stand
various pieces of apparatus for experiments".
- Imitation "is a young woman in classical draperies, wearing a pointed diadem,
who stands holding a mask and a paintbrush in one hand and pointing back into
the life class with the other".
- Grammar "is a barefoot woman in long draperies" who "holds a spur and an
iron file in one hand, and waters some plants from a pitcher held in her other
hand".
- Music "is a beautiful young woman, richly dressed, reading a sheet of music
which she has been writing with the quill pen in her hand".
- Medicine "is a handsome woman in a green classical garb, with a laurel wreath
on her head".
- Geometry "is a seated female in flowing robes, wearing a container of pencils
hanging from her belt, who looks at a surveying plan held up for her by a small
boy".
- Mechanics "is a tall woman of mature years dressed in long flowing garments,
who leans on some building blocks and rests her elbow on a book lying on
them".
- Astrology "is a winged woman dressed in blue, with a crown of stars on her
head, who sits at a table on a dais".
- Painting "is a very beautiful woman dressed in multicoloured garments".
- Lasdy, Philosophy "is a woman of noble and venerable aspect, who stands on a
globe of the world and bears on her head wings and a globe of the universe".-13
This feminine personification of education and other related terms was
eventually imposed either through the treatises or manuals of iconology or
through precedent as a generally accepted convention. In this sense Ripa's work
had a remarkable influence on paintings, sculptures and medals throughout the
XVIIm and XVIIIth centuries, as well as in the world of ephemeral festivities
political, religious, popular - and the theatre.34 It was amply edited and reprinted
during these two centuries in its original language, Italian, and also in French,
German, English and Dutch, although with additions or variants.35 It also
influenced other later books likewise written to guide artists and writers in their
allegorical representations, such as, in the XVIIth century, the JerogHficos Morales
(1626) by Father Vicenzo Ricci, or the Bibliothecae Alexandrinae Icnes Simbolicae
(1626-1628) by Cristforo Giardi,315 or even, in the XVIIIth century, in the
Dictionnaire iconohgique (1779) by Honor Lacombe de Prezel or Gravelot and
Cochin's Iconologie (1791). It is precisely through these latter two books, produced
in a different context, that of the Age of Reason and Enlightenment, that it is
possible to trace the influence of Ripa's lamologia until at least the XDCth century.

33
Maser, Cesan Ripa, plates 23, 83, 84,122,136 and 182-198.
34
Adira AHo Manero, "Introduccin" in: Cesare Ripa. Iconologa (Madrid, Akal,
1996) 1.1, pp. 17-19.
3i
Ibid, pp. 24-34.
36
Ibid, p. 19.
 84 Antonio Vinao

The publishing, in 1791, of Gravelot and Cochin's Iconobgte par Figures ou

Trait complet des Allgories, Emblemes &c. Ouvrage utile aux Artistes aux Amateurs, et
pouvant servir l'ducation des jeunes personnes, fostered, indeed, the prevalence of
moralizing and educational intentions in the allegorical reprsentations - formally
expressed through the title - as well as the dsire for clarity as opposed to the
"mysterious images" of unfathomable meaning. It suggests the prevalence of the
"easy to understand" reprsentations which turned "allegory ... into a strotype
iconography in the shape of insipid women dressed in white displaying some
conventional attribute".37 This moralizing intention was already prsent, however,
in some o Ripa's translations or versions. In one of them, undertaken by Jean
Baudoin, printed in Paris in 1644, a spcific reprsentation of Education was
added which did not appear in Ripa's first ditions, and which would also not
appear in other later versions such as the one already mentioned by Hertel As
opposed to the reprsentations of Instruction and Intellect in Ripa's fashion, by a
wise old man with the well known motto "Inspice cautus eris", and a young man,
respectively, "the strength of Education", according to Baudoin, "is represented
by a lady of noble birth and mature age. l i t by a heavenly ray, with her breast
uncovered, she is teaching a child and holding in one hand some canes and in the
other a young plant. Her maturity signifies the need for time in order to acquire
education; de ray coming from above, that for this same goal the grce of God is
necessary; the uncovered breast, that the person educating a child should not hide
the truth; the canes, mat ducation needs to start from childhood; thus evoking
the proverb that says that it is necessary to bend the wicker while it is tender".-18
This allegorical reprsentation would be maintained, with slight variants,
both in the Dictionnaire iconologique by Lacombe de Prezel, published in 1779, and
in Gravelot and Cochin's Iconologie, edited in 1791, which would doubdessly be
one of the most used and influential of later books on iconology. Thus, while for
Lacombe de Prezel39 and Gravelot and Cochin,1"1 Study was represented by a
young man (figure 7), Education (figure 8) was personified as a mature woman,

i7
All Manero, "Introduccin", p. 21.
38
Jean Baudoin, Iconologie, ou, explication nouvelle des plusieurs images, emblmes et
autres figures hjerogliphiqttes des Vertus, des Vices, des Arts, des Sciences, des causes naturelles, des
humeurs diffrents, <r des passions humaines. Oeuvre augmente dune second partie ncessaire a tout
sorte a"esprits, et partiadierment a ceux qui aspirent a estrt, ou qui sont en effet orateurs, potes,
sculpteurs, peintres, ingnieurs, autbeurs de mdailles, de devises, de ballets, e r de pomes dramatiques.
Tir des recherches et dfigures de Cesare Ripa, moralistes par J. Baudoin (Paris, Chez Mathieu
Guillemot, 1644), T . II, p p . 120-121,128-129.
39
Honor Lacombe de Przel, Dictionnaire /'nologique, ou Introduction n la
connaissance des peintures, sculptures, estampes, mdailles, pierres graves, emblmes, devises er. Avec
des descriptions tires des potes anciens & modernes (Paris, Chez Hardouin, 1779), T . I, pp. 199,
223-224.
40
Gravelot & Cochin, Iconologje par des Figures ou Trait complet des Allgories,
Emblmes &c Ouvrage utile aux Artistes aux Amateurs, et pouvant servir l'ducation des jeunes
personnes (Paris, Chez Le Pan, 1791), T. IL, pp. 7, 27.
 Icottology and Education 85
from whose uncovered breast there flowed milk - "emblem of spiritual food",
according to Gravelot and Cochin, accompanied by a little boy whom she is
teaching to read. She is holding or embracing a young tree propped up by a stake
or guide in order to straighten it. Her attribute is a cane held in her hand upon
which, according to Lacombe de Prezel, can be read "this proverb of Solomon's:
Virga atque correctio tribuit sapientiam" ("The cane and correction grant
wisdom").
Two further examples, one from the mid-nineteenth century and the
other from the end of that century or at the most the early years of the twentieth
century, illustrate, in the first case, the influence of the two afore mentioned
books, and, in both cases, the generalization of the representation of Education
through a feminine character. At the same time they show the continuity of some
established allegorical patterns or conventions, as well as the changes produced in
them according to their contexts of production and intention.
In 1850, Castellanos de Losada, an antiquarian, librarian and
archaeologist, published in Madrid his lamologa cristianaj gentilica, a book directed
to writers and artists, painters and sculptors. In its first chapter, iconology was
defined as "the art of personifying passions, virtues, vices and the different states
of life", as well as "making images, so to say, speak".41 In later chapters attention
was drawn not only to which figure were most suitable for "scientific and literary
institutions", and "schools, studios and universities",42 but also how a series of
characters or terms should be represented, 58 of which correspond to the world
of education or bear a close relationship with it. On reading, it reveals the
influence of previous treatises, that of Ripa for example, Le. the existence of
established iconographie guidelines, and the attempt on the part of the author, in
some cases, to moralise them.
In the field of education masculine personifications were once again
restricted to that of Instruction, following Ripa, as "a venerable old man, dressed
in purple, symbol of gravity, holding in one hand the mirror of prudence and a
paper on which the following words are to be read: Inspice, caucus eris"
("Observe, you will be wary")43. Study, following Lacombe de Prezel and
Gravelot and Cochin, is shown as: "a seated youth reading a book which is open
upon a table and holding a feather indicating that the advantage of science is its
ability to communicate with others. A lamp and a cockerel are emblems of the
vigil and vigilance that the thirst for knowledge requires. In the background there

41
Basilio S. Castellanos d e Losada, lconohgia cristiana y gentilica. Compendio del
sistema aliglricoy dicdonario manual de la iconologa universal En el que se da ra^n de aianto puede
intertsar al literato y al artista para desaibir, pintar o esculpir las imgncs del adto cristiano y las
principales delgntiEco; exprtsar simbUcamente las ideas antigtasy modemas, personificar artisticamentt
las virtudes, los viciosy las pasiones, y designar todo lo pertenedente a la formation de embltmas, divisas,
emprtsas, atributos, simbolosy alegprias engneral (Madrid, Imprenta d e D . B . Gonzalez, 1850), p .
19.
42
Ibid., p p . 251-252,259.
43
Ibid., p p . 399-400.
86 Antonio Viao

could be placed a shelf of books to indicate the base on which science leans and a
closed door to indicate the quietness and seclusion study demands".44
Finally, the Mechanical Arts are represented, unlike the others, by "a
strong man leaning on a capstan with a lever in one hand and a flame in the
other, meaning mat dexterity should be matched with intelligence.45 The
remaining figures from the 58 terms should be given female form, as should the
term education, which is at the center of the semantic field under analysis.
Education, indeed, as was said by Lacombe de Prezel and Gravelot and Cochin,
is: "a matron from whose uncovered breasts spurts milk, emblem of spiritual
food; in one hand she holds a rod to punish and with the other she supports a
sapling surrounded by sticks so that it may grow straight. At her side is a boy
learning to read from a book. A heavenly light should fall on her, and the breasts
spurting milk could well be suppressed".'46
Concomitant with the iconographic representation of Education,
Castellanos de Losada drew attention to the motto ("Naturam Minerva perficit":
"Minerva perfects Nature"), as well as six other possible mottoes alongside, in the
majority of cases, Minerva "showing a youth the temple of Wisdom" ("Accipe
quae peragenda prius": "Learn what is necessary to reach there"), teaching a
youth ("Tali se Dea jactat alumno": "This goddess glories in such a pupil"),
"taking a boy up to the temple of Fame" ("Mea mecum ascendes in altum": "You
will rise with me to the summit"), or "leading a boy to the temple of Science,
Letters and Arts" ('Tria limina pandit": "The three doors are open").
It can be observed mat in these iconographic representations devised by
men, woman nowhere appears as a being to be educated. Minerva leads boys, not
girls. In the two illustrations to which I shall later refer, boys and men appear as
the recipients of spiritual food, of education, alongside feminine representations
of education and the virtues. In order to represent instruction or study masculine
figures are used, but when academic disciplines, certain mental faculties or
education itself are to be represented recourse is taken to a feminine figure,
whether under the influence of the classical tradition or because of a spiritual
enlightening, regenerative conception of it.
The second example two colour pictures from the end of the
nineteenth or the early years of the twentiedi century likewise show the general
acceptance of the iconographie patterns previously described and explain or
highlight the difference between the masculine representation of instruction and
the feminine one of education.
The first (figure 9) features a young woman, Education, with a halo of
sanctity and dressed in a long red robe in classical style who places a boy "under
the direction and tutelage" of two other female figures, Virtues, dressed in red
and white classical robes. One of them carries a compass in one hand and in the
odier a rod ending in two linked hands.

44
Ibid., p p . 357-358.
45
Ibid., p . 296.
46
Ibid, p. 344.
Iconology and Education 87
As is indicated by the text which accompanies the illustration "education
symbolized here is not simple instruction", because in that case a grave-looking,
venerable old man would have been used, but rather "the art of making an
individual habitually good and fair to others and to himself, that is to say the
procedures by which character and spirit are formed, so that in life's batde he will
always take the path of virtue".
Education, interpreted thus, is not academic instruction or scholarship in
a given area, but rather the "formation of character and spirit", a spiritual
operation or activity, linked to goodness and fairness which make up "the mother
of all virtues", thereby feminine in character.
In the second illustration (figure 10), Education is not depicted. What is
shown are the Virtues, just as they appeared in the previous picture with the
addition of a plaque with the motto: "Love and you will be loved". Education is,
however, present through the Virtues as the "mother" of them all and in the
explanatory text
This text comments on and explains what is shown in the images: the
reconciliation between the rich and the working class, the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat, represented on both sides by two pairs of men, one of each social
class. In one case they approach each other to embrace and in the other to
exchange, as sign of understanding, the fruits and flowers carried by one of the
Virtues in the former scene. These, it is said, "make men brethren". And "by
virtue of the better childhood education they will one day receive, they will be
moved to mutually love and protect one anodier". It is Education, only seemingly
absent in the composition, which will bring "harmony", "peace", "brotherhood",
"mutual support", and "the increase of other benefits and material goods", as well
as "order and happiness within and outside the home". It is Education through
the schools which will make children understand "ALL the reasons why the rich
should take the poor as their brediren and ALT, the circumstances which make
for true happiness of the individual, lying more in the advantages of love, kindness
and help of dieir fellow men than in money or riches" which only bring
"malevolence", "hatred", and "envy" or else "bitter disputes, sorrows,
disappointments, dangers, worries and so on which money generally cannot
solve..., education will completely do away with the very harmful battles between capital and
labour1', battles between men and on behalf of men in which only a haloed,
idealized woman can intercede.
88 Antonio Viao

Figure 1: Horapolo, Hiervglyphica (Madrid, Akal, 1991), p. 114.

Figure 2: Cesare Ripa, Iconologa (Milano, Tea, 1992), p. 110.

Iconology and Education 89

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Flures 3, 4, 5 and 6: E. A. Maser (Ed.), Cesare Ripa. Baroque and Rococo

Pictorial Imagery. The 1758-1760 Hertel Edition of Ripa's Iconologia with 200
Engraved Illustrations (New York, Publications Inc., 1971), plates 83 22 23
and 136.
90 Antonio Viao

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Figures 7 and 8: Gravelot & Cochin, Iconologie par des Figures ou Trait complet
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servir al ducation des jeunes personnes (Paris, chez Le Pan, 1791), t. II, pp. 7
and 27.
Iconology and Education 91

Figure 9: Illustration of the author's private property.

Figure 10: Illustration of the author's private property.