視覺藝術之研究方法學包括傳統之精神分析、完形心理學與形式主義美學、脈絡探討途徑、傳記與自傳、圖像誌、符號學、與後佛洛依德之精神分析等。對於强調內容及社會文化議題之前現代或後現代藝術作品、以及視覺文化中之視覺符號而言，圖像誌、符號學、以及Lacan 之後佛洛依德精神分析與符號學之創新理論等較能提供適切之解讀與研究方法。本文旨在探析此三種方法之理論要義，主要涉及（一）圖像誌方法中三層面的意義，與其在傳統藝術及視覺文化解讀之應用；（二）符號學之意義，其在藝術史之應用基礎，以及其在多元文化作品、當代藝術、與文化意象之分析；（三）Lacan對符號學與精神分析之新觀點，如三位一體之心靈結構要素，由此引申的關於符徵與符旨之新闡釋，以及「凝視」在作品解讀之意義等。

The methodologies of visual arts include traditional psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology and formalism, contextual approaches (Marxism, Feminism), biography and autobiography, iconography, semiotics, post-Freudian psychoanalysis (Lacanian psychoanalysis), etc. For pre-modern or postmodern artworks that emphasize content and socio-cultural issues, the theories of iconography, semiotics, and Lacan's post-Freudian psychoanalysis and innovation of semiotics can provide more suitable conceptions concerning methods of reading and researching. This article focuses on the theories of the three, which involve: (a) three levels of meaning in the method of iconography, and their applications into reading traditional artworks and visual culture; (b) the meaning of semiotics, the basics of its application to art history, and its application to works of art in multicultural context, contemporary art, and cultural images; (c) Lacan's new perspectives on semiotics and psychoanalysis, his trinity of the elements of the psychic structure, his new interpretation of the signified and signifier, and his conception of ”gaze” in reading artworks.