Iconographic programmes on built heritage, such as heraldic murals spread across the walls, ceilings, and beams of a room, derive much of their meaning from where their elements are placed relative to one another. Existing cultural heritage ontologies describe either the objects themselves (e.g. CIDOC CRM) or what individual images depict (e.g. Iconclass, VIR, ICON), but not the spatial configuration of visual elements within and across the surfaces of a single three-dimensional object.
SICON (Spatial ICONography) is an ontology design pattern that addresses this gap. It rests on two design decisions:
sicon:PaintedDecoration) is
distinguished from the visual composition it bears
(sicon:ConceptualVisualRepresentation). Spatial
statements thus remain possible for murals that survive only in
fragments or through written and drawn sources.The pattern was developed for heraldic murals of medieval and early modern Europe, but is designed to apply to other decorated three-dimensional objects as well. It does not model iconographic meaning itself; iconographic vocabularies and ontologies can be attached to its classes. The alignment to CIDOC CRM (v7.1.3) is published as a separate module, so the pattern can be reused without committing to a particular upper model.
For diagrams and the competency questions the pattern is derived from, see the Description. SICON is presented in detail in: TODO: add CEUR citation.
| dcterms | <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> |
| foaf | <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> |
| opla | <https://w3id.org/opla-core#> |
| owl | <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> |
| rdf | <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> |
| rdfs | <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> |
| schema | <http://schema.org/> |
| sicon | <https://w3id.org/sicon#> |
| skos | <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> |
| vann | <http://purl.org/vocab/vann/> |
| xml | <http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace> |
| xsd | <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> |
SICON models where visual elements sit in relation to one another within an iconographic programme, rather than what those elements depict. It is built on two aspects. First, the material stratum of a mural (sicon:PaintedDecoration) is kept apart from the visual composition it bears (sicon:ConceptualVisualRepresentation), so that configurational assertions remain available, attested only through written or drawn sources. Second, spatial relations are expressed mereotopologically rather than through absolute coordinates, so that incomplete and fragmentary evidence can be recorded without silently supplying a plausible reconstruction.
The pattern is derived from the following competency questions:
SICON separates the material carrier of a visual element from the visual item it bears, so that spatial relations between visual items remain representable even after partial or total material loss.
Alignment to CIDOC CRM is published as a separate alignment file, so that the pattern can be reused without committing an adopter to a particular upper model.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#ConceptualVisualRepresentation
The heraldic programme of the Great Hall at the castle of Goldegg, comprising the arms on the walls together with the Imperial Quaternions on the painted ceiling, treated as one composition.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#ConditionStateType
The type assigned to the state of a painted beam that was detached from its original town house and is now held by a museum.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#IconographicRepresentation
A single coat of arms in one of the ranked groups of the Imperial Quaternions on the Goldegg ceiling, such as one of the arms of the prince-bishoprics.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#InscriptionRepresentation
A banderole naming a territory placed directly beneath the coat of arms it identifies.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#MuralConditionState
The condition of the fourteenth-century beam ceiling from a town house in Metz after its removal to the Musée de la cour d'or.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#MuralSegment
One painted side of a single beam of painted ceiling in the Salle d'apparat of the Maison the chevalier in Pont-Saint-Esprit, France (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Maison_des_chevaliers_Salle_d%27apparat_rdc.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original&uselang=fr). The individual field on that beam bearing one coat of arms, and the ceiling as a whole are three instances standing in part-whole relations.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#PaintedDecoration
The paint layer on the beams of the fourteenth-century ceiling from a town house in Metz, now in the Musée de la cour d'or.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#aboveOf
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#behindOf
A decorated screen or partition standing between a viewer at the entrance of a hall and the painted end wall.
has characteristics: asymmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#belowOf
An inscription placed beneath the coat of arms it names stands below that coat of arms.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#depictsMural
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#externallyConnectedWith
Two adjacent fields on the same beam of the Metz ceiling, separated by a painted dividing line but sharing that border.
has characteristics: symmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#formsDirectionalRelationWith
The arrangement of the Imperial Quaternions at Goldegg into ranked rows and groups is expressed entirely through sub-properties of this property.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#formsSpatialRelationWith
The relation between a heraldic frieze and the wall surface that carries it, and the relation between two neighbouring fields within that frieze, are both expressed through sub-properties of this property.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#hasConditionState
The paint on one field of a Metz beam is recorded with a state typed as fragmentary, while the neighbouring field is recorded as undamaged.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#hasConditionStateType
The state of a detached and subsequently repaired beam carries both the relocated and the restored type.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#hasNonTangentialProperSpatialPart
A field on a Metz beam contains a coat of arms placed centrally within it, clear of the painted border.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#hasProperSpatialPart
The Goldegg ceiling contains the group of arms of the imperial cities, which in turn contains each individual coat of arms in that group.
has characteristics: asymmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#hasTangentialProperSpatialPart
A frieze running along the upper edge of a wall occupies a part of that wall which touches its boundary.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#inFrontOf
A painted partition stands in front of the end wall of a hall as seen from the entrance.
has characteristics: asymmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#isPartOfDecoration
The composition showing a white horse and an emblem is realised on the seventeenth-century paint layer of the Metz beam that bears it.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#isPartOfMural
A painted wall of a room is part of the decoration of that room taken as a single composition.
has characteristics: transitive
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#isPartOfMuralSegment
Each coat of arms of the Imperial Quaternions is part of the ceiling composition of the Great Hall at Goldegg.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#isPartOfPaintedDecoration
The paint on one beam is part of the paint layer of the Metz ceiling as a whole.
has characteristics: transitive
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#leftOf
Within a row of the Imperial Quaternions at Goldegg, each shield stands to the left of the next shield in that row.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#nextTo
Two coats of arms placed side by side in a heraldic frieze.
has characteristics: symmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#nonTangentialProperSpatialPartOf
A coat of arms placed centrally within a field, clear of its painted border, lies non-tangentially within that field.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#oppositeOfAverted
The two opposite painted faces of a single ceiling beam, which no observer in the room can take in at once.
has characteristics: symmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#oppositeOfFaced
Coats of arms on the two facing long walls of a fully painted room, arranged so that each faces its counterpart across the space.
has characteristics: symmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#partiallyOverlapsWith
On a painted ceiling in the Musée de la Cour d'Or in Metz, France, the seventeenth-century overpainting occupies an area that only partly coincides with the fourteenth-century field beneath it.
has characteristics: symmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#perpendicularTo
Coats of arms on a wall and on the beam ceiling above it lie on surfaces that are not coplanar.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#properSpatialPartOf
A heraldic frieze occupies an area that is a proper part of the wall surface carrying it.
has characteristics: asymmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#rightOf
Within a row of the Imperial Quaternions at Goldegg, each shield stands to the right of the shield preceding it.
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#spatiallyDisconnectedFrom
Two coats of arms of the same heraldic programme placed on opposite walls of a painted room.
has characteristics: symmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#spatiallyDiscreteFrom
A written source records two coats of arms as separate elements of one programme without indicating whether their fields adjoined.
has characteristics: symmetric
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#tangentialProperSpatialPartOf
A frieze running along the upper edge of a wall lies within that wall and touches its boundary.
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/abstract
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/bibliographicCitation
IRI: https://schema.org/codeRepository
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/created
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
IRI: http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#example
IRI: https://w3id.org/opla-core#isNativeTo
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/license
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/modified
IRI: http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name
IRI: http://purl.org/vocab/vann/preferredNamespacePrefix
IRI: http://purl.org/vocab/vann/preferredNamespaceUri
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/publisher
IRI: http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#scopeNote
IRI: http://purl.org/dc/terms/title
IRI: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6743-8600
IRI: https://www.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/en/bereiche-und-lehrstuehle-en/digital-history-en
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#Fragment
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#Moved
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#Restored
IRI: https://w3id.org/sicon#Undamaged
The authors would like to thank Silvio Peroni for developing LODE, a Live OWL Documentation Environment, which is used for representing the Cross Referencing Section of this document and Daniel Garijo for developing Widoco, the program used to create the template used in this documentation.