The Iconclass System (II)

*Search results are now subdivided in pages with the Options menu to select the page-length you prefer: 20, 50 or 100 notations on a page.

*Search results are also subdivided according to the Main Sections (also called divisions) of Iconclas, i.e. the system's categories 0 through to 9. 

The query example  'Venus'  in 'The Iconclass System (I)' yields now1868 notationsfor all sections 1, 2 and 9, subdivided in 30 for section 1 Religion and Magic, 1054 for section 2 Nature and 742 for section 9 Classical Mythology and Ancient History. Try it out here.

This is a major improvement and one can now better judge the importance or 'relevance' of the notations. For instance, the large number of notations for section 2 is well understood if you switch to 'Sort by Relevance': the list starts with'Venus' as astrological symbol and continues with endless notations about  season- or month-allegories including Venus.

*KEYS are introduced and can be switched 'on' or 'off' with the new Include/Exclude Keys command.

What does that mean?  The query example  'Venus'  in my post 'The Iconclass System (I)' yielded ONLY 156 notations WITHOUT  KEY, i.e. auxiliary Keys from the Iconclass Key lists were excluded. My experience: Exclude Keys to keep the list of notations simple.

* AND you can register (for free) to become a co-editor of Iconclass: every user can now leave comments, edit concept definitions and keywords, and add new (candidate) concepts to the Iconclass system. You can even start a translation of the system in your own language.

Topical catalogues are compilations of the endless information available about a theme, motif or subject (in case 'Aphrodite/Venus') through categorization of the artworks into 'topics' which are mutually exclusive: each artwork belongs to only one topic. Furthermore, the catalogues give details about the compiled artworks. 

While the notation 92C4 (story of) Venus (Aphrodite) is of course predominant for the majority of the topics, there are some exceptions: 11. Venus and Mars and 15. Venus and Vulcan have both the notation 92B the great gods of Heaven, and their train. This notation, together with notation 92C the great goddesses of Heaven, and their train and many other notations under section 9, could be added to topic 12. Venus and other Gods, Deities and Heroes. Another exception is for topic 7. Venus and Aeneas. The query does not distinguish between Cupid and cupids(topics 8 and 9), although this is an important iconographic distinction. It is surprising that the query satyr yields 408 notations and also refers to Seleni and faun, but none in combination with Venus. Equally, no Iconclass notation corresponds to Topics 17.Venus Statues and 18.Venus Unaccompanied (or alone).

The 18 main topics are identical in the three catalogues ( 'The Italian Venus', 'The French Venus' and 'The Venus of the Low Countries') published so far, but they can be subdivided into subtopics which may slightly differ in each catalogue, depending on the popularity of motifs. The next two tables show the Iconclass Notations found for two quite different main topics: notations for the sub-topics in topic 1. Allegories with Venus are understandably very diverse, but the notations for sub-topics in  6. Venus and Adonis follow mainly the basic notation 92C4 (story of) Venus (Aphrodite) with one exception: 97B metamorphoses of male persons into plants and flowers.