Emblems are compact yet compelling combinations of texts and images that invite and require interpreting on the part of the viewer/reader.
They were popular from 1550-1750 in continental Europe.

Typically an emblem consists of a brief motto [called an inscriptio],  an often puzzling or enigmatic image [called a pictura], and a subtext [called a subscriptio], that when read combination, reveal a philosophical, moral or spiritual insight. The emblem involves a process of reciprocal reading of texts and images, in which the back and forth between the words and the pictures creates meaning.

The picture presents the reader with a recognizable scene or collage of symbolic elements, and the text then reorients the reader’s understanding of that scene to present a new and unexpected message. More than the sum of their parts, emblems involved innovative reading practices combining words and images. Their intention is to redirect readers’ thinking, and were intended to change their perspective; for example, to produce new insights, to make political, social, ethical, and religious commentary, and to juxtapose visual and textual meanings, thereby creating new knowledge.

Emblems, usually one to a page, and were gathered into emblem books. There are some seven thousand documented titles and editions in the genre published from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. Emblem books exercised an enormous influence on literature and the visual arts.