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Images portraying the teacher and its classroom have played an essential role in the development of educational systems. This paper constitutes a research on the iconographic origin of the representations that were mainly used in Spain between 1876 and 1931. In order to do that european cards from the 16th to the 19th centuries, made using a variety of engraving techniques, that show teachers and pupils, are analyzed. The continuity of some of these characterizations and their Spanish update, identifying the teacher with the traditional Latin dómine, it's revealing. Its presence, both in the satirical press aimed at adults and in illustrated books for children, reflects it. This image directed towards criticism and entertainment has its compensation, also starring teachers and schoolchildren, representing rewards and penalties in children's reading books in that same period of time. Contextual factors allow us to position this variety of pictures -- the development of schooling and its protagonists, the editors' intentions in the media in which they appear -- but they can not compose a sufficient interpretation without paying attention to the role of the illustrator. The artistic education that he posseses and the resources he manages in his profesión or the influence from other artists are conclusive aspects in order to decide the final meaning, the whole visuality of his images establishing the potencial of their meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]