An
emblem is a pictorial
image,
abstract or representational, that epitomizes a
concept — e.g., a
moral truth, or an
allegory — or that represents a person, such as a
king or
saint.
Distinction: emblem and symbol
The words
emblem and
symbol often appear interchangeably in day-to-day conversation without causing undue confusion. A distinction between the two may seem unnecessarily fastidious. Nevertheless, an
emblem is a pattern that is used to represent an
idea, or an individual. An emblem crystallizes in concrete, visual terms some abstraction: a deity, a tribe or nation, a virtue or a vice. An emblem is an object or a representation of an object.
An emblem may be worn or otherwise used as an identifying
badge. A real or metal cockle shell, the emblem of
St James the Apostle, sewn onto the hat or clothes identified a medieval pilgrim to his shrine at
Santiago de Compostela. In the Middle Ages, many saints were given emblems, which served to identify them in paintings and other images:
St Catherine had a wheel, or a sword,
St Anthony Abbot a pig and a small bell. These are also called
attributes, especially when shown carried by or in close proximity to the saint in art. Kings and other grand persons increasingly adopted
personal devices or emblems that were distinct from their family
heraldry. The most famous include
Louis XIV of France's sun, the
salamander of
Francis I of France, the
boar of
Richard III of England and the
armillary sphere of
Manuel I of Portugal. In the fifteenth and sixteenth century there was a fashion, started in Italy, for making large
medals with a portrait head on the obverse and the emblem on the reverse; these would be given to friends and as diplomatic gifts.
Pisanello produced many of the earliest and finest of these.
"The big eat the small": a political emblem from an
emblem book of 1617
In current American usage, police officers'
badges refer specifically to their personal metal emblem — sometimes with a uniquely identifying number or name on it — while the woven
emblems sewn on their uniforms identify all the members of a particular unit.
A
symbol substitutes one thing for another, in a more concrete fashion
:
- The crescent shape is a symbol of the moon; it is an emblem of Islam.
Other terminology
A
totem is specifically an animal emblem that expresses the spirit of a
clan.
Heraldry knows its emblems as
charges. The
lion passant serves as the emblem of England, the
lion rampant as the emblem of
Scotland.
An
icon consists of an image (originally a religious image), that has become standardized by convention. A
logo is an impersonal, secular icon, usually of a
corporate entity.
Emblems in history
Since the 15th century the terms of emblem (
emblema) and
emblematura belong to the
termini technici of
architecture. They mean an
iconic painted, drawn, or sculptural representation of a concept affixed to houses and belong — like the inscriptions — to the
architectural ornaments (ornamenta). Since the publication of
De architectura libri decem by
Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472)
emblema are related to Egyptian hieroglyphics and are considered as being the lost universal language.
Therefore the emblems belong to the Renaissance knowledge of antiquity which comprises not only Greek and Roman antiquity but also Egyptian antiquity as proven by the numerous obelisks built in 16th and 17th century Rome.
The 1531 publication in Augsburg of the first
emblem book, the
Emblemata of the Italian jurist
Andrea Alciato launched a fascination with emblems that lasted two centuries and touched most of the countries of western Europe. "Emblem" in this sense refers to a didactic or moralizing combination of picture and text intended to draw the reader into a self-reflective examination of his or her own
life. Complicated associations of emblems could transmit information to the culturally-informed viewer, a characteristic of the 16th century artistic movement called
Mannerism.
See also
