Studies in Iconology 4

This essay, a meditation on the butterfly and its resonance in art history,
Nymph

Nymph Motif, Phantom, Affect  Part II  Barbara Baert

is organized in three parts. I begin with Aby Warburg’s fascination
with moths and butterflies as documented by (1) his letters to André Jolles
(e.g.: the letter from 1900 known as ‘But such high-flown movements are
not for me’), (2) the Kreuzlingen pathological report and archives by
Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966) preserved in Tübingen, and (3) the
Motif, Phantom, Affect
Ninfa f iorentina file in the Warburg Institute. As Seelentierchen
- soul animals, psyché - butterflies are archetypically connected to deep Part II
­cultural affects regarding the soul, resurrection and immortality. Part 2 of
the paper considers the butterfly as paradigm for the visual medium and Aby Warburg’s (1866-1929) Butterflies
the oculocentric paradigms in art history. Indeed, the butterfly has a
specific visual (and sensory) impact on humankind with its flashy, quick, as Art Historical Paradigms
vibrant and hypnotic wings, its medusian eyes and its capability to
camouflage itself (cf. “Sciences diagonales” by Roger Caillois (1913-1978)).
Hypnosis, Medusa and camouflage are three important paradigms with
which to consider the essence of the image as a dis/appearing, enchanting,
Barbara Baert
and deceiving medium. In Part 3, the three paradigms become the basis for
new reflections about art history (and the history of art history) as a study
of the butterfly, in short, as ‘lepidopterology’.

Barbara Baert is Professor in Art History at the University of Leuven

PEETERS–LEUVEN P EE T ER S

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