"Art can be defined as a symbolic language", which is the formal symbolic language of our thoughts and feelings. Every artistic image can be said to be a symbol or symbol system with a specific meaning. In order to understand artistic works, we must understand artistic images.
To understand the artistic image, we must understand that, in Cahill's view, symbols, as the reference form of objects, have the functions of generating human nature and shaping human culture.
Symbol is one of the basic concepts of semiotics. Symbols generally refer to words, languages, codes, mathematical symbols, chemical symbols, traffic signs, etc. However, the scope of symbols in semiotics is much wider. In social life, greetings, rituals, games, literature, art, myths and other elements are symbols.
In short, anything that can be used as a symbol of something can be called a symbol. Symbols accompany various human activities, and human society and culture can be formed by symbols. Among all kinds of symbol systems, language is the most important and complicated symbol system. Saussure, a linguist, believes that a symbol includes two inseparable components.