The etymology of the word Image comes from the Latin imago , with the same meaning. An image is the figure and visual or mental representation of some thing or situation.
The image can be divided into two domains. The first is the immaterial domain of images in our mind, they appear as visions, fantasies, imaginations, schemes or models; they are the result, in imagination and memory, of external, subjective perceptions by the individual.
The second is the domain of images as visual representation: design, paintings, prints, photographs, cinematographic and television images and computer graphics. These images are those perceived by the senses in the outside world. They are forms with a high degree of evocation of the real; that is, they are material because they exist in the physical world of objects. Within types of images are visual, sound and audiovisual.
Both domains of the image are linked at their origin. There are no mental images that do not have some origin in the world of representations and visual objects, and vice versa. The visual image created and the visible form that are built with the hands and the eyes at the same time, is the product of the union of the external vision and the internal vision.
The images that are created through drawing, painting, sculpture and constructions are basic for meaningful communication; they transform an individual experience into a shared one. In this way, they constitute a platform for the arts and sciences and make possible the social and intellectual development of the individual.
The concept of image also refers to a statue, effigy, or painting that represents a deity or other object of worship or religion, also considered by the name of icon. For example; an image of Jesus Christ, the Virgin or a saint.
On the other hand, an image is the moral and physical appearance that a person or institution projects on others and that characterizes it. It can be said that the image is a rhetorical figure used to visualize and name a set of attitudes that people have, and with which they evaluate things, people or organizations.
