Iconography becomes even more revealing when processes or concepts, rather than objects, must be depicted—for the constraint of a definite “thing†cedes directly to the imagination. How can we draw “evolution†or “social organization,†not to mention the more mundane “digestion†or “self-interest,†without portraying more of a mental structure than a physical reality? If we wish to trace the history of ideas, iconography becomes a candid camera trained upon the scholar's mind.
Stephen Jay Gould