Panofsky's Three Artistic Devices

The following example shows all three artistic devices combined in the form of an early American political caricature published in New York in 1860 (Graph.01). Following the basic form of artistic interpretation as developed by Erwin Panofsky, the first step will be a description of what can be seen inside the image, followed by the examination of their iconographical meaning, and finally, the iconological interpretation will be brought to the light (Panofsky ???). Once these steps are done, the artistic devices will be named and emphasized to make their recognition in further examples easier.

Figure 1: Progressive Democracy_Prospect of A Smash Up New York, 1860.

On first observation the image is separated in a scene in background and
While Lincoln and Hamlin seem united in their campaign effort and gain momentum on their locomotive, fittingly named "EQUAL RIGHTS", the Democratic party seems paralyzed by their internal struggles for leadership and direction (Libary of congress summary ???). The horses, each having the head of one Democratic member of leadership, pull the wagon, or the "Democratic Platform", in two directions at the same time, not getting them anywhere at all (LOCS ???). Their drivers seem powerless to get off of the tracks and the impact of the locomotive and the impact's destructive result seem imminent (LOCS ??). The caricature shows how the Democratic party seems to block their own progress during the political campaign by it's divided agenda, and their internal struggles for leadership. Lincoln and Hamlin, on the other hand, seem in the superior position.

The three primary artistic devices can be identified clearly. Lincoln, and Hamlin's head are emphasized in size to make identification easier, but the two characters are also labeled with their names. They ride on the locomotive which embodies their political agenda, but in compare to the figures in the forefront, their size is clearly exaggerated (Graph