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IT IS MY PURPOSE TO EXPLORE THE CONTRIBUTION THAT PSYCHOanalysis can offer to the understanding of the meaning of an artistic image. We have the conviction that our theory is a natural complement to the art historian's scholarship. Beginning with Freud's study of Leonardo, there has been a small but consistent number of applications of psychoanalysis in this area. Yet, when psychoanalysts have ventured into the arena of art history, their reception has often been less than congenial. The differences between the two disciplines have largely revolved around the issue of what are to be considered the relevant evidence and methods for interpreting images.1
For several decades, the principal model in the field of Renaissance art history has been iconography. In this model, interpretation