Issue 28: ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CITIES | Call for papers | until 31 december 2026
Scientific coordination
Raquel Henriques da Silva (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
Hélia Silva (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal; Gabinete de Estudos Olisiponenses, Portugal)
Submission deadline
31 december 2026
Abstract
“The city is a fact in nature, like a cave, a run of mackerel or an ant-heap. But it is also a conscious work of art, and it holds within its communal framework many simpler and more personal forms of art. Mind takes form in the city; and in turn, urban forms condition mind. For space, no less than time, is artfully reorganized in cities: in boundary lines and silhouettes, in the fixing of horizontal planes and vertical peaks, in utilizing or denying the natural site, the city records the attitude of a culture and an epoch to the fundamental facts of its existence. The dome and the spire, the open avenue and the closed court, tell the story, not merely of different physical accommodations, but of essentially different conceptions of man’s destiny. The city is both a physical utility for collective living and a symbol of those collective purposes and unanimities that arise under such favoring circumstance. With language itself, it remains man’s greatest work of art.”
Lewis Mumford, The Culture Of Cities. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1938.
The understanding of the city as a “work of art” has been developed in Europe since the sixteenth century by historians and professionals in the fields of urbanism and architecture. Drawing on the concepts of “iconography” and “iconology” defined by Erwin Panofsky, it is possible to “decipher” the city and propose its cultural meanings. To this end, different forms of representation of urban space are mobilised, namely cartography, views and panoramas, as well as representations of monuments or specific sections of the urban fabric, among others. Taken together, these elements constitute the iconography of cities, recorded across a wide range of media, from graphic and artistic forms such as engraving, painting, and drawing, or, in certain contexts, tilework (azulejo), to technological media such as photography and video. More recent forms of urban appropriation, such as urban art, are also included. Contemporary in situ representation practices, such as those promoted by the Urban Sketchers collective, are likewise considered.
This dossier aims to enrich the body of work on the iconography of cities through new research, within a broad and interdisciplinary framework encompassing history, art history, architecture, geography, anthropology, and philosophy, expanding the concept and relating it to contemporary challenges.
Guidelines
This dossier seeks to bring together original studies that contribute to the development of the theme “iconography of cities” and to reflection on its relevance in contemporary contexts. Contributions combining methodological rigour with analytical breadth are particularly welcome, as are essays without an empirical dimension that explore, question, and reassess inherited frameworks while proposing new challenges. Submissions may address, among others, the following topics:
• Iconographic legacies and new iconographies
• Iconography in the context of expanding urban spaces
• Iconography and the “images” of cities
• Thematic diversity and forms of representation of urban iconography
• Urban iconographies: from massification to individual or collective resistance
• Symbolic and mythical dimensions of urban iconography
