The rank that images always had for political life causes special problems for art historical research. Traditional iconographic interpretation reads political messages as artistic products that depend on a single and absolute source of power. The patrons of pictures are imagined as omnipotent instances that can prompt their ideas to the artist and dictate their work.

A political iconography that believes in the active role of images within a political space has to keep in mind that every "sender" trying to communicate with a "receiver" must know the mental disposition and the lingual facilities of the people receiving a message that wants to influence their opinion. This basic premise of human communication has also its consequences for any kind of official picture production, e.g. when the regent's image - meant to reach the people "below" - has to contain their demands, needs and expectations, which is sometimes realized only by the participation of an artist speaking for them.

The new visual mass media have taken over the functions of mechanical picture production within modern democracies; they use various motives, recipes, and techniques that the old arts had been successful with as well. Seen from the point of educational work or of political enlightenment it may be regrettable that public opinion is less and less dominated by discoursive argumentation but by a visual mise en scène. On the other hand researchers will be closer to the people's needs when they take into consideration why these visual arguments have for a long time been much easier accessible than any abstract reasoning.