Allegory

Allegory is a trope and a mode of artistic representation in which an abstract concept or idea is embodied in a concrete image that has a fixed, generally understood figurative meaning: the fox embodies cunning, the lion strength, the scales justice. Unlike the polysemous symbol, allegory has an unambiguous, rationally "decipherable" interpretation fixed by cultural tradition. Allegory underlies the fable, the parable, the morality play and many emblematic genres of the Baroque. Extended allegory may organise an entire work in which each image corresponds to a particular idea. As a means of indirect expression, allegory allows abstract moral, philosophical or political concepts to be visualised, making them graphic and didactically expressive for the reader.