Abstract

ACOSTA LOPEZ, María del Rosario. The spell of the images: Aby Warburg and the historiography of human soul. Estud.filos [online]. 2011, n.44, pp.7-7. ISSN 0121-3628.

This paper adresses Aby Warburg’s reflections on the relationship between image, history and historiography. The point of departure and main point of analysis is his text on Luther and Pagan Prophecy (published as part of the volume on The Renewal of Pagan Antiquity) [Die Erneuerung der heidnischen Antike] (1932)). The main objective of the paper is to show all the layers and "polarities" put into play in Warburg’s analysis of the image as symbol. It will be shown how all this layers coincide, at the same time, with the movement of history as described by Warburg, and even with the movement of certain "atemporal" human condition present in Warburg’s thinking. Therefore, the paper is interested in showing the complexities involved in Warburg’s project of a "new science" of the history of the images; a project that Warburg would have simultaneously projected and practiced, not only in his earlier theoretical essays, but also in his more empirical later texts such as The Serpent Ritual and the Mnemosyne project.

Keywords : Warburg; symbol; polarity; art historiography.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )