Emblem

An emblem is a conventional symbolic depiction of a certain concept, idea, or phenomenon, accompanied by a verbal text (a motto and an explanation). The classic Baroque emblem consisted of three parts: the motto (a short device, Latin lemma), the image (Latin pictura, icon), and the epigrammatic interpretive caption (Latin subscriptio). The emblem combined the visual and the verbal, the 'seen' and the 'read,' teaching through allegory. The art of emblematics flourished in European culture of the 16th–18th centuries (from Andrea Alciato's 'Book of Emblems,' 1531) and was an organic part of the Baroque worldview with its love of the symbol and 'wise play.' In Ukrainian culture, emblematics occupied an important place in Baroque literature, preaching, book engraving, and the school poetics of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Emblematic thinking appears vividly in the work of Hryhorii Skovoroda, notably in the collection 'The Garden of Divine Songs.' The emblem should be distinguished from the broader concept of the symbol.