iconograph

noun, plural i·co·nog·ra·phies.

1. symbolic representation, especially the conventional meanings attached to an image or images.
2. subject matter in the visual arts, especially with reference to the conventions regarding the treatment of a subject in artistic representation.
3. the study or analysis of subject matter and its meaning in the visual arts; iconology.
4. a representation or a group of representations of a person, place, or thing, as a portrait or a collection of portraits.

noun plural -phies

1. 1. the symbols used in a work of art or art movement
   2. the conventional significance attached to such symbols
2. a collection of pictures of a particular subject, such as Christ
3. the representation of the subjects of icons or portraits, esp on coins

n.

1620s, from Medieval Latin iconographia, from Greek eikonographia “sketch, description,” from eikon (see icon) + -graphia (see -graphy). Related: Iconographic.