The purpose of this study is to apply iconology to discover the symbolic system of imaginary animals focused on four representative auspicious animals in Korean folk paintings. Study methods included literature review of folk paintings, iconological analytics books, and articles. A total of 16 folk paintings of four auspicious animals in the Joseon Dynasty were analyzed using Panofsky's iconology. The four auspicious animals were Yong(dragon), Bonghwang(the eastern version of the phoenix), Shingoo (divine turtle), and Kirin(one-horned combination of a dragon and horse). According to iconological analysis, Yong is a typical symbol of royal authority, a deity of water as an object of respect with a remarkable talent of transformation, and in iconographical interpretation, represents reverence for transcendent power. Bonhwang is the symbol of a king, sun worship, the emblem of nobility and integrity, and in iconographical interpretation, the psychic bing in the sky. Shingoo is fortune prophecy, longevity and immortality, an envoy of deity, and according to iconographical interpretation, the organic view of the world. Kirin is a divine benign creature, a symbol of talent and honor, mediator between sky and earth, and in iconographical interpretation, an expression of Confucian ideology. This study produced three results. First, the four auspicious animals projected the human hope to overcome human limitations through divine creatures with mythical abilities. Second, they reflected everyday common hopes and values of pursuing fortunes and happiness. Third, the four auspicious animals' iconology was not independent of each other; it seemed to be common to and combined with each other.

Since the publication of Erwin Panofsky's Studies in Iconology in 1939, the controversial term 'iconology' has replaced the conventional term iconography as a new art historical methodology. However, Panofsky's real legacy lies not in the invention of a new methodology, but in the popularization of art history by applying simple terms and a synoptical table of 'iconological interpretation.' Panofsky's concept of iconology was inherited from that of Aby Warburg who extended the methodological boundary of the study of art while focusing on the complexities of social context in the 1910s. By adopting the old term 'iconology' used in a study of artistic symbolism, Warburg coined the term 'ikonologische Analyse,' to explain his method of analyzing visual motifs in connection with social life outside art. Panofsky contributed to popularizing an art historical methodology, with which to interpret visual motifs through a systematic strategy of relating images to concepts, which follows a simple process from 'pre-iconographical description' through 'iconographical analysis' to 'iconological interpretation'. While adapting himself as an immigrant art historian to the unfamiliar academic atmosphere in the Unites States, Panofsky endeavored to make his theory of iconology more lucid and accessible to a general audience. By using major technical terms in English instead of German that conveys a multitude of meanings, Panofsky was able to popularize his art historical methodology. Panofsky's writings made a significant contribution to a shift in art history from an academic discipline to a new object of public interest in the 20th century.