visual symbolism
Images conveying ideas
Visual symbolism is the use of images, colors, objects, or compositional elements to represent abstract ideas or deeper meanings.
A filmmaker might use a caged bird to represent entrapment, or a painter might employ dark shadows to suggest moral ambiguity.
The term appears frequently in art criticism, film analysis, and literary studies: The visual symbolism in the scene—broken mirrors, wilting flowers—telegraphed the character's fractured psyche.
- iconPictorial screen symbol
- signifiedExpressed meaning symbolically
- emblemRepresentational sign or device
- coat of armsHereditary symbolic emblem
- insigniaDistinguishing mark of rank
national flag · skull and crossbones · motif · ideogram · religious iconography · totem · hieroglyph · crest · denotation · mandala · allegory · iconography · color theory · flag · metaphor · hidden meaning · coded · color coding
visual symbolismliterary symbolism
Objects conveying abstract meaning