The role of pictorial expression in the modern culture has grew in an unprecedented way. This phenomenon is now very often described as the “iconic turn”. The contemporary philosophy is also increasingly focused on a detailed research on the issues of imagination, myth and image. The concepts of imagination, myth and image, however, have been addressed by the philosophical thought for ages. The discussion is devoted to the reconstruction of historical genesis of the concept of imagination. The reconstruction involves an interpretation of the conceptions of the Ancients Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, as well as medieval thinkers, focusing on the conceptions of imagination which are embedded in the philosophical thought of G. Bruno, R. Descartes, I. Kant, F.W.J. Schelling and German Romantics.