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Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture
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kathryn brush
ernst gombrich
peg katritzky
kristen lippincott
dorothea mcewan
matthew rampley
charlotte schoell-
glass
aby warburg
art history
as cultural
history
warburg's projects
edited by
richard
woodfield
First Published 2001 by Gordon and Breach Publishers

Published 2014 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 USA
Routledge is an imprint o f the Taylor & Francis Group, an informabusiness
Copyright © 2001 Taylor & Francis

(Overseas PublCopyright © 2001 Taylor & Francis
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-9-057-01003-3 (softcover)
ISSN 1025-9325
ISBN 978-1-315-07857-1 (elSBN)

contents
Introduction to the Series IX

The Entry of the Idealizing 7 Aby Warburg

Classical Style in the Painting of
Early Renaissance
Warburg Centenary Lecture 33 Ernst H. Gombrich
The Nineteenth Century Notion 55 Ernst H. Gombrich

of a Pagan Revival
Aby Warburg and the 65 Kathryn Brush

Cultural Historian Karl Lamprecht
Making a Reception for Warburg: 93 Dorothea McEwan

Fritz Saxl and Warburg’s Book
Heidnisch-antike Weissagung in
Wort und Bild zu Luthers Zeiten
Mimesis and Allegory: On Aby 121 Matthew Rampley

Warburg and Walter Benjamin
Urania redux: A View of Aby 151 Kristen Lippincott

Warburg’s Writings on Astrology
and Art
“Serious Issues”: The Last Plates 183 Charlotte Schoell-Glass

of Warburg’s Picture Atlas
Mnemosyne
Aby Warburg and the Florentine 209 Peg Katritzky

Intermedi of 1859: Extending the
Boundaries of Art History
Warburg’s “Method” 259 Richard Woodfield

introduction
to the series
CRITICAL VOICES IN ART, THEORY A N D
Culture is a response to the changing

perspectives that have resulted from
the continuing application o f struc
tural and poststructural m ethodolo
gies and interpretations to the cultural sphere. From the ongoing processes
o f deconstruction and reorganization o f the traditional canon, new forms of
speculative, intellectual inquiry and academic practices have emerged which
are premised on the realization that insights into differing aspects o f the dis
ciplines that make up this realm are best provided by an interdisciplinary
approach that follows a discursive rather than a dialectic model.
In recognition o f these changes, and o f the view that the histories and
practices that form our present circumstances are in turn transformed by
the social, economic, and political requirements o f our lives, this series will
publish not only those authors who already are prominent in their field— or
those who are now emerging— but also those writers who had previously
been acknowledged, then passed over, only now to become relevant
once more. This m ultigenerational approach will give many writers an
{ix}
{X} INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES
opportunity to analyze and re-evaluate the position of those thinkers who

have influenced their own practices, or to present responses to the themes
and writings that are significant to their own research.
In emphasizing dialogue, self-reflective critiques, and exegesis, the
Critical Voices series not only acknowledges the deterritorialized nature of
our present intellectual environment, but also extends the challenge to the
traditional supremacy of the authorial voice by literally relocating it within a
discursive network. This approach to text breaks with the current practice of
speaking of multiplicity, while continuing to construct a singularly linear
vision of discourse that retains the characteristics of dialectics. In an age
when subjects are conceived of as acting upon one another, each within the
context of its own history and without contradiction, the ideal of a totalizing
system does not seem to suffice. I have come to realize that the near collapse
of the endeavor to produce homogeneous terms, practices, and histories—
once thought to be an essential aspect of defining the practices of art, theory,
and culture— reopened each of these subjects to new interpretations and
methods.
My intent as editor of Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture is to
make available to our readers heterogeneous texts that provide a view that
looks ahead to new and differing approaches, and back toward those views
that make the dialogues and debates developing w ithin the areas of cultural
studies, art history, and critical theory possible and necessary. In this manner
we hope to contribute to the expanding map not only of the borderlands of
modernism, but also of those newly opened territories now identified with
postmodernism.
Saul Ostrow
introduction
aby warburg:
culture's image
network—
aby warburg
ALONG W IT H CURRENT INTEREST IN

瓦尔堡复兴与人们
Walter Benjamin in the fields o f art 对本雅明兴趣增加
history and cultural studies there has 有关
emerged a renewed interest in the art
historians he him self admired: Alois
Riegl1 and Aby Warburg (1866-1929). Though as the founder o f the presti
gious Warburg Research Institute and creator o f the near mythic though
unfinished Picture Atlas (Mnemosyne) Warburg’s writings, like those o f
Riegl, have only recently been made available to the English reader.2 Best
known to usthrough his intellectual biography written by Ernst Gombrich3
is Warburg’s attempt at producing a cultural psychology. This approach to
边缘的
cultural history was made peripheral in the mid-20th century when m od
ernist thought came to be dominated by a positivist methodology. Another
reason for this state o f affairs is that Warburg has been dismissed as an
怪癖
eccentric who through his work and research was elaborating a personal
(therapeutic) vision. In making available this collection edited by Richard
Woodfield4 o f commentaries, exegesis and analyses focusing on Warburgs
work— I believe that Critical Voices Series once again finds itself in the posi
{ 1}
{2} ABY WARBURG
tion o f providing a significant contribution to the discourses that are

forming around the problem o f redefining the relationship between our cul
tural present and its historical past.
Although there exists no singular practice or discipline that governs art
history, it was the emergence o f the multi-disciplinary approach that has
背景：文化
come to be known as Visual and Cultural Studies that has lead to the recu
研究的兴
peration o f such marginalised and maligned figures as Warburg. These 起，方法的
先驱
revivals have been initiated with the intent o f establishing methodological as

well as a conceptual antecedents for these practices. Such models also appear
as if they might serve as correctives for the tendency towards subjectivism,
arbitrariness and abstraction that has resulted from the desire to blanketly
dismiss the modernist practices o f art history and criticism. This situation
has resulted the object or artist under analysis becoming little more than a
注释
sign o f its exegesis— and the diverse structure o f references and sources that
constitute its contents dissolving into rationalizations are determined either
by fashion or ideology.
Though Warburg had significant influence on art historians as different
as Edgar Wind and Ernst Gombrich, his own work is less concerned with
art as a subject than with culture’s psychological dimension. At the heart o f
探索文化深
his practice was the desire to reveal the deep seated polarities that order 处的极性
Western society’s cultural and social reality. Europe’s past was a matter o f
fact for Warburg, as was the idea that its artistic traditions constituted an 图像库作为超
image bank— a supra-personal m em ory and a language that could be 个人的记忆和
语言能被代代
drawn on by successive generations in accord with their expressive needs. 传递下去
Yet, unlike Carl Ju n gs collective unconscious, W arburgs image world does
not consist o f archetypes, but images whose meanings change, yet continue
to resonate with their original texts. It has been changes in experience and
belief that allow the accumulated “ knowledge” that the signs that make up
the image world represent to be ordered and re-ordered. Unlike the prac
tices o f iconography and iconology— which seek to construct the history o f 与试图建构
图像改变中
an im ages changing form, content and meaning— Warburg addressed 的形式、内
him self to the meaning o f the economy between a representation’s (the 容和意义的
历史的图像
image’s) lived past and its continued sign function. In the process o f con 志与图像学
不同，而瓦
structing his genealogy o f the image world o f the Renaissance, Warburg’s 尔堡的规划
approach to deciphering (unlocking) an image’s past content was that o f 包括更广阔
的层面。
culture's im ag e network {3}
the both the semiotician as well as etymologist, the historian as well as the
sociologist.
In his writings, Warburg attempts to reproduce the condensation of
染色，使根深蒂固
human experience that inform works o f art and in turn ingrain them with
the patterns o f reasoning (thought) by which their reality is constructed.
Interestingly, this led him to reject all claims to a Zeitgeist or other such gen
eralities concerning the psychological dimension o f our being. He viewed
such formulations as liquidating the complex and often contradictory forces

that are at play in life. What he had learned from his own work was that all 所有的总体概括在
试图探求文本揭示
such generalities made about time or place dissolve when one seeks to reveal 的意义时都会分解
掉
what meanings a given reading might conceal. Yet, what fills the absence
证实
created by such negation must itself find its substantiation in the original
reasoning that informed the making o f the artifact. Consequently, the task of
the researcher is not to seek explanations, fix meanings, or to set up the
terms for an artist’s development, but to seek the sources o f its particular
content within the lived texts o f their world. Respectively, what needed to be
resisted was turning these images into a mere lifeless illustration o f the
researchers text.
Trained as an art historian, Warburg, while doing research for his disser
tation on Botticelli, came to propose that the source for the depiction o f all
moving bodies in early Renaissance art had their source in pagan (classical)
works. Given the apparent conflict between the seemingly sacred content o f
Christian imagery and their profane pagan source, he set to the task o f
determining the reason for such adaptation. This lead him to research not
only the everyday lives o f Renaissance men and women, as well as that of
artists and patrons, but also the occurrence o f such images in all manner o f
图像记录了社会生
art, literature and craft. The conclusion he came to was that images within 活的心理层面直到
物质层面的变迁
their evolution recorded the inner (psychological) as well as the outer (mater
ial) movement o f life. He came to posit our image world is a consequence of
our innate human need to objectify and signify something beyond real pres
ences. Consequently Warburg became committed to searching in the space
between symbolic representation and actual event for the polarities and
ambiguities that exist between people and their world.
Warburg came to understand that an image’s semiotic and formal aspects
could not only displace its mimetic content but could also become a sign o f
{4} ABY WARBURG
the inverse o f what it actually portrayed.5 He realized the nature o f this com
merce between the symbolic and literal function o f an image while research
ing the sources and iconic content o f the fresco cycle at the Palazzo
Schifanoja. Here he traced the role that the residual re-enactment o f the
pagan belief in the power o f the mimetic as symbolized by astrology came to
be re-presented as an aspect o f the unifying body o f knowledge associated
with the rational humanist thought o f the Renaissance. In this transforma
tion and sublimation o f the Greek gods into the images o f the zodiac, he
came to recognize that during the Renaissance that the primitive (unrea
soned) fears o f “the mental life o f the individual as well as in the web o f
culture, threaten ... to disrupt the balance obtained through enlightened
humanism.” 6 Given that this fear resonated as a subtext within the secular
signs o f reflective thought, Warburg came to understand that a sign i& not
reducible to its synchronic, contemporary, state, but factually constitutes a
dialogue between its past and present symbolic content.
Warburg believed images preserved a remembrance o f our primitive or
primal reasoning, which could be puzzled out by means o f discovering the 通过探求图
relationships that comes to exist over time between an image and its cul 像与其文化
和社会功能
tural and social function. Yet neither methodologically, nor conceptually did 之间的关系
来发现原始
he intend to propose this as a universal subject or logic for historical account 文化中遗存
o f art or its development. The work o f the historian from his perspective 的记忆。
在文化再现
was to locate in human experience and psychology the sources o f a culture’s 的资源里定
representation. The information derived from the study o f images, along 位人类的经
验和心理。
with a knowledge o f their development, Warburg thought could inform us
about the connection that exists between our contemporary state o f our
consciousness (psychology) and its past. Because he conceived o f images as 他将图像视
作档案和心
documents and psychic records that portray culture’s conscious and uncon 理记录，他
scious accounts o f its collective psychological relationship to its world 们能提供有
意识和无意
(reality), consequently, it was not in Warburg’s interest to hierarchically dif 识的对文化
与其现实世
ferentiate between the high and low. All visual texts were viewed as annotat 界的集体性
ing and supplementing our reality and Art therefore was just another 心理关系的
描述。
manner o f image making and had no intrinsic worth or greater value due to
style or aesthetic.
It is important to reiterate, therefore, that the relevancy o f the content o f
an image was the manner in which it continued to enact, or reproduce (or
c u lt u r e 's im a g e network Í5>
reference) its earlier content (world view) via the complex network o f rela
tionships that over time had come to be encoded in its form. In other words,
the image world as formulated by Warburg consists o f rhetorical devices that
are combined and recombined in manners that both indicate changing
mindsets as well as passing fashions. Within this economy the meaning o f an
image is at once immanent and deferred— for it is not only made indetermi
nate because of its original symbolic function and meaning. Seemingly, in ？？？？
this, Warburg joins Hegel’s dialectic of historical change to Nietzsches “gay

science.” Such a model, obviously did not correspond to the positivist vision
o f a subject’s progressive development toward closure or specificity and in
part does explains the eclipse o f W arburgs work.
Ernst Gombrich pointed out Warburg s prim ary concern was the interac
tion o f form and content within the clash o f traditions. In the mid-twenties
he undertook his final project, a picture atlas intended to illustrate the
history o f human expression and incorporating all his findings and specula
tions concerning the function o f expressive value o f images. The pinboard
stands with their photographic displays that constitute the atlas, present ju x
taposed images from diverse sources. In these displays, Warburg attempted记忆女神图集，展
开不同时期、不同
to make explicit the powerful nature o f the dialogue that take place between社会文化源头的图
images originating at differing times and having diverse social and cultural像之间的对话。
origins. It is our present concern for the correspondence between images,
past and present, high and low that returns us to Warburg’s soon to be
valued contribution to the study o f the cultural field.
Saul Ostrow
Editor, Critical Voices in Art Theory and Culture
notes
1 O f the ten studies by Riegl that have been published between 1891 and 1966 only
four have been translated into English. O f these “The D utch G roup P ortrait”
(1992), “Late Roman Art Industry” (1985) and “The M odern Cult o f M onum ents”
(1982), are significant examples of his oeuvre while “Late Roman or Oriental?”
(1988) is a polemical piece in which Riegl re-asserts his position concerning the
nature o f late Roman art.
2 Until the recent publication of Images from the Region o f the Pueblo Indians o f
North America, Aby W arburg (trans. Michael R Steinberg) Cornell UP 1995, the
{6 } ABY WARBURG
two exceptions are “A Lecture on Serpent Ritual,” Journal o f The Warburg Institute,
i939> PP· 277-292 and “Italian Art and International Astrology in Palazzo
Schifanoia in Ferrara,” trans. by Peter W orstman, German Essays in A rt History,
edited by Gert Schiff, the Germ an Library, Vol. 79. C ontinuum , NY, 1988.
3 Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography, E. H. G om brich, Chicago University
Press.
4 Richard Woodfield is also the editor of Framing Formalism: Alois Riegl’s Work,
Critical Voices Series, G+B Arts In tern atio n al.
5 For example Goya’s portrayal o f the irrationality and cruelty o f war coming to be
read as a plea for peace and reason.
6 Gert Schiff, German Essays, 1988, p. lix.
the entry o f the
idealising classical
style in the
painting o f the
early renaissance
aby warburg1
THE THEM E I HAVE THE HONOR OF
presenting to you today, the Entry o f

the Idealising Classical Style in the
Painting o f the Early Renaissance,
demands such a broad treatment, that
an attempt to cover such a central question in the history o f style in the
space o f a single lecture can only be justified by imposing a strict limitation
on its intellectual, material and chronological scope.
For this reason two single monumental works o f art are to serve as the
basis o f our excursion through unexplored territory, the only points o f ori
entation being tracks that veer o ff in all directions. Since they treat the same
material, the one a classical sculpture, the other a fresco o f the High
Renaissance, these two works, when compared, can allow us to see the essen
tial nature o f the stylistic change we term the “ Renaissance.” The boundaries
o f the field o f investigation are set by the sculpture o f the triumphal arch in
Rome commemorating the victory o f the Emperor Constantine, together
with the Vatican fresco by Raphael, celebrating the same victory. For these
two works, though separated by 1200 years, belong together by virtue o f the
{7 }
{8} ABY WARBURG
fact that, as I shall argue, The Victory of Constantine at the Milvian Bridge by
the School o f Raphael owed its innovative heroic dynamism directly to the
relief sculpture o f the Arch o f Constantine.
The evidence for this connection does not, at first sight, seem to pose any
substantial difficulty. We are all too used to regarding the artists o f the High
Renaissance, well-versed in classical antiquity, as shrewd archaeologists, who
were simply concerned to represent the Emperor with archaeological and
historical precision, exactly as he is depicted on his own triumphal arch. For

at that time it was not known that part o f the relief does not even originate
from the time o f Constantine, but probably relates to Trajan’s wars.
M y task today is to demonstrate that the new style o f classicising pathos
did not arise simply as a result o f renewed classical learning, but rather that
it arose out o f a difficult conflict with the realism o f the Quattrocento, which
still appeared to offer stubborn resistance as late as Piero della Francesca’s
Victory o f Constantine over Maxentius.
In contrast, the ground was prepared for the entry o f the Roman style in
the sculpture o f the Cinquecento in two ways; first, Italian sculpture, above
all that o f Donatello, rediscovered the gestural language and formulae used
by the ancients for the expression o f tragic pathos. Second, the gods and
heroes o f classical antiquity could no longer be painted in the traditional
style o f Northern realism; indeed painting was forced to opt for the new
classicising style o f endowing them with heightened movement in the
manner o f the ancients. We shall see how this leads, in the case o f Antonio
Pollaiuolo, to a muscular rhetoric o f almost Baroque proportions.
As a lively sculptor, Antonio Pollaiuolo accommodated the extremes of
this new gestural language both in terms o f technique and also in terms of
emotional engagement. And yet there seems to be no bridge connecting it to
the monumental realistic painting, so concerned with the reproduction o f
pure motionless appearance, that was produced by the workshop o f
Domenico Ghirlandaio, and which exercised a dominant effect on Florentine
taste. However, it is precisely when attending to the problem o f the influence
o f classical antiquity that one can find evidence that ultimately not even
Domenico Ghirlandaio resisted the demands o f this heightened, idealised
form o f expression. He too began to make use o f motifs from classical sculp
ture in order to transform his figures with an intensified, dynamic style.
PAINTING OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE Í9)
In attempting a stylistic analysis o f this kind, we are fortunate that sketch

books have been preserved with drawings o f ancient works o f art, sketch
books which were one o f the tools o f Ghirlandaio’s workshop.2 Two books
are o f especial interest; one, in Madrid, because it is in the hand o f one o f
Ghirlandaio’s collaborators in the workshop, possibly Granacci; the second,
the sketchbook o f the classically educated architect Giuliano da Sangallo,
who had a close personal relationship with Domenico Ghirlandaio, having
worked with him in the decoration o f the Sassetti chapel.

If, with these sketchbooks in mind, we examine the generally tranquil and
noble world o f Ghirlandaio, we can observe that the anomalous figures
which, due to the quite unseemly agitation in their expressions and apparel,
do not fit into his oeuvre, are in fact, when their behaviour takes on this air
of pathos, actually obeying the authority of a rediscovered classical antiquity.
For as the individual examples from the sketchbooks demonstrate, they have
learnt their classical style o f heightened expression from classical sarcophagi
and triumphal sculpture, which gave sculptural form to the tragic pathos of
Greek myth and the pathos o f imperial heroism.
If it was therefore possible for the gestural formulae o f this language of
pathos to penetrate its opposite, the world o f non-narrative monumental
religious painting, then the stronghold o f realism was already being shaken
in the Quattrocento, after which the idealising classical style o f the High
Renaissance apparently won an easy victory and was sovereign in the artistic
world for a long time to come. Since this essay is restricted to the images
linked to Constantine from antiquity to the High Renaissance, I shall now
turn to the oldest o f them, the Triumphal Arch o f Constantine.
The Triumphal Arch stands near the Colosseum in Rome. According to
the inscription it celebrates the victory o f Constantine over Maxentius and
in terms o f its construction and decoration is completely indebted to the
forms o f pagan triumphal architecture. In by far the larger part of its relief
and sculptural decoration, it makes use o f older works o f art from pagan
imperial times, for it is possible that only the narrow reliefs underneath the
roundels are o f the same period as the arch itself. The most imposing reliefs
on the inner sides o f the central arch and on the narrow sides o f the attic
storey, which you will see in more detail later, consist o f miscellaneous pieces
from a monumental frieze o f some 20 metres that most probably celebrated
{10} ABY WARBURG
the victories o f the emperor Trajan over the Dacians, originally from a build
ing now lost.
In the Quattrocento these reliefs, even those up on the attic storey, could
be studied more easily than today, because the arch was still buried deep in
the earth, as this drawing from the Ghirlandaio sketchbook shows. I shall
concentrate on two o f the eight reliefs spread across the triumphal arch,
namely, the depictions o f battle and victory set in the wall o f the central
arch. One o f the reliefs shows the emperor in the midst o f the tumult o f
battle, jumping over a barbarian who has tumbled to the ground in front o f
him, while their leader is throwing himself towards the emperor, begging for
mercy. Another barbarian is desperately holding on to the neck o f his horse
which has collapsed; behind him, a second barbarian is trying to avoid the
fate o f his comrade, whose head has been taken hold o f by an armoured cav
alryman from the emperor’s retinue which is rushing into battle, in order to
give him the coup de grâce. His impending and inevitable fate is indicated by
the two decapitated barbarian heads which two legionaries are triumphantly
holding up to the emperor.
One can see another scene from a battle with the barbarians on the right
o f the other relief. One barbarian has already fallen, above him others are
begging for mercy, one o f them on their knees, another, vanquished by an
armored legionary, is standing. On the left the supreme moment o f triumph
is to be seen: the emperor, led by Roma in the guise o f an amazon, is being
crowned with the victor’s laurel wreath by the winged figure o f Victory. It is
known that to the early Christian church the winged Victory symbolised
paganism, with its idolatrous thirst for glory. It was because o f this that the
pioneers o f the early Christian church famously took issue with a statue o f
the selfsame Victoria that stood on the altar in the Roman senate, a quarrel
which eventually led to the banishing o f Victoria. Constantine was the first
to have it officially expelled, but it periodically returned. It was only towards
the end o f the fourth century that it disappeared as an official cult statue, yet
here, by a strange irony o f fate, Victory, who is actually crowning the truly
pagan emperor, Trajan, found asylum.
In order to demonstrate the continued influence o f triumphal sculpture
in the very early middle ages I have focused on one example, and I shall now
examine the legend o f Trajan in poetry and art in a little more detail. It addi
PAINTING OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE { π}
tionally anticipates and helps to clarify the problem o f the history o f style
with which our investigation began, for it signifies the conflict between the
Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Although they have not been preserved to the present day, there must
have been other triumphal arches with classical reliefs showing battles and
victories, which made an impression on the medieval imagination. An arch
o f this kind stood near the Pantheon, called by the medieval guide books
the “Arcus Pietatis,” the arch o f piety. Scholarly research has long perceived
in this the echo o f a triumphal arch that, just like the Trajanic relief, shows a
victorious rider jum ping over a fallen enemy, while another, begging for
mercy, throws himself towards him. For in the medieval interpretation o f
such a group there arose the legend o f the piety, in other words, the mercy,
o f Trajan. This example shows us how typically the church subsequently
transformed a brutal world conqueror, attacking in all pomp, into a devout
Christian worthy o f the intercession o f Saint Gregory.
Briefly, the legend runs as follows: the son o f the emperor Trajan rides
over and kills the son o f a widow. The mother throws herself at the feet o f
the Emperor, who is preparing to campaign, and demands justice. The
Emperor tells her she will receive justice once he has returned. She, however,
demands a verdict immediately. Her appeal to Trajan’s self-denying sense of
justice is not in vain; the Emperor stops and has to pronounce the death
sentence on his own son.
It is well known that Dante portrays this scene in the tenth canto o f
Purgatory and, significantly, in the form o f a sculptural relief. I shall show
you shortly Botticelli’s illustration from his famous series o f drawings o f the
Divine Comedy. In his illustration o f the legend it was the mass o f riders,
pushing forward, that interested Botticelli just as much as the pious and just
Emperor coming to a halt. Unlike Dante, Botticelli was sustained by the
direct m em ory o f the original dynamic Roman style, for he had already
studied the ancient triumphal arch.
The problem o f the opposition between the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance can be rendered transparent in one respect by the status o f
Botticelli as a transitional personality, and that is precisely why I chose an
earlier period. For the impulse to illustrate faithfully an old text handed
down from the Middle Ages meets the new artistic interest in the forms o f
{1 2 } ABY WARBURG
human expression for their own sake. The artist o f the Early Renaissance is
already attempting to reproduce the triumphant style which the medieval
conception o f the world had reworked into its opposite.
Botticelli thus demonstrates that there was a conflict between the illustra
tive realism o f the Middle Ages and the idealising classical style, which lasted
until his own time. Most immediately therefore, we must look for the
Constantine o f the medieval legend in monumental church painting, where
he is furthest removed from the Arch o f Constantine. The story o f the

victory o f Constantine under the sign o f the Cross was expanded in the
course o f the Middle Ages by the legend o f the Empress Helena s discovery
o f the true cross, and combined with the story o f the battles between the
Emperor Heraclius and Chosroes, the King o f the Persians. Here we are
essentially interested in looking just at the representation o f the battle with
Maxentius. At the end o f the fourteenth century Agnolo Gaddi, a pupil o f
Giotto, illustrated the legend o f the cross in a powerful fresco in the choir o f
Santa Croce. Three scenes have been condensed onto one wall; the Emperor,
who is asleep in a tent, is shown the cross, under which he will be victorious,
by an angel, while on the far right he can be seen unsaddling his opponent as
he fights him violently on a bridge.
Agnolo Gaddi was a gifted illustrator. He understood how to represent
individual natural phenomena, as in, for example, the m otif o f the sleeping
Emperor, which is told intuitively and naturally. Yet he lacked the ability to
do without the inessential, to subordinate the individual to the whole, in the
way that Piero della Francesca, the pupil o f Masaccio and the painter o f per
spective, uniquely demonstrated. In his fresco cycle at the church o f San
Francesco in Arezzo, painted around the middle o f the Quattrocento, Piero
della Francesca, the “ monarco dei pintori,” no longer treated the dream of
Constantine as one episode amongst many, in contrast to Gaddi. An entire
wall is devoted to the mysterious power that sent the vision o f the victorious
cross to the sleeping Constantine. Three guards protect their ruler whilst
asleep. They are on guard, but remain untouched by the light o f the angelic
apparition, which displays only to the dreaming Emperor, sleeping heavily,
the cross that will lead him to victory.
In the hands o f Piero della Francesca a study in light, which is executed
with almost scientific detachment, takes on at the same time the purely spir
PAI NTI NG OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE {■3}
itual capacity to symbolise a mental event mysteriously and convincingly.

One can see in Piero della Francesca’s use o f light and dark an indication o f
the power that in the later Rembrandt will one day take up the fight against
this Roman rhetoric and gestural language.
I recall that the forerunners o f these Northern painters, so concerned
with light, were delighting the artistic world of Italy even at that time with
their intimate and delicate painting. In Italy one o f their most influential
champions was the royal amateur, René o f Anjou. A miniature from his
“ Roman du Coeur d ”Am our Epris” shows how, unexpectedly, the same
problematic o f light and dream occupied the attention o f Northern and
Italian artists alike. Admittedly this miniature has none o f the spirit o f
Masaccio, which enabled Piero to accommodate and uniquely rework
outside stimuli, whether from the past or the North o f the present-day.
Moreover those Italians who failed to preserve the legacy o f Masaccio with
the infallibility o f Piero, a legacy consisting of a sensitivity to both the essen
tial and the simple, ran the danger of losing the sense o f the monumental
and becoming a banal descriptive painter. I shall continue this line o f
inquiry in more detail shortly.
When he wanted to, Piero could paint scenes o f great liveliness, as in, for
example, the fight o f Heracles and the King o f the Persians, where he extends
the range o f acts o f human violence and emotion. There combatants are
trampled under hoof, struck down, stabbed, but without any excessive man
nerism, even though classical depictions o f struggle very probably had an
influence, inasmuch as they gave the stimulus for Piero’s own version, even if
they did not offer the definitive model to be imitated.
Nevertheless, Piero’s strength is the individual form, and his Victory o f
Constantine , unfortunately now very damaged, gives an idea o f the way he
was able to conjure up the impression o f a mass o f individuals, when in
fact there are very few figures. As in The Dream o f Constantine, this image
also takes up an entire wall. However the rough collision o f bodies is no
longer to be seen here. Maxentius drowns in the Tiber, but not because he
has been cast down into it at the point o f a lance. The magical vision of
the small cross that, almost dispassionately, Constantine holds with his
almost straight, outstretched arm, has put Maxentius and his companions
into a panicked fright. Not even the few arm oured riders behind the
{'4} ABY WARBURG
Em peror need to engage in battle; the aura o f the magical sign suffices
alone.
Although the fresco is so damaged, it is possible to see in the facial
expressions something that has not been established until now, namely, a
contemporary figure who truly had every right to appear in this picture: the
Byzantine Emperor John Palaeologus. He had come to the West at that time,
bringing with him the dignitaries o f Eastern Christianity; they and the
Emperor were hoping, vainly, to heal the schism in the church at the concilia
o f Ferrara and Florence in 1438 and 1439 respectively, in order to persuade
the West to become an ally against the overpowerful Turks.
We only need to look closely at Pisanello’s medallion portrait o f John
Palaeologus in order to recognise in the dress and facial expressions o f
Piero’s image the tragic figure o f the Greek Emperor. It is possible that Piero
personally saw the Emperor when he stayed in Florence in 1439. This is also
suggested by the fact that in the other frescoes o f the legend of the cross one
can see men whose remarkable and painstakingly differentiated types o f
headgear are no mere matter of playful artistic fantasy, but rather represent
the marks o f rank o f the various Eastern bishops and clerics.
Vasari saw the fresco o f the Victory o f Constantine when it was still com
plete, and he writes specifically o f a wonderfully painted naked Saracen
archer, who is fleeing from battle: “ In the same scene he represented a man
half-clothed half-naked, like a Saracen, riding barebacked, very remarkable
for its display o f anatomy, a thing little known then.” 3 I can show you
a picture o f what he roughly looked like, since a German painter,
J. A. Ramboux, having made a pious and reverential pilgrimage through Italy
at the beginning o f the nineteenth century, left behind hundreds o f water
colours o f Italian frescoes and paintings. These images, which present an
untapped resource for scholarly research, include two scenes from Piero
della Francesca’s Legend o f the Cross. We can see here the naked Saracen
rider, together with the other figures, being chased off, in the way that Vasari
describes it. The fact that a Saracen has turned up in the Battle o f Ponte
Molle, when he has no reason to be here, confirms my theory that through
the symbolism o f the legend o f the cross, so closely bound up with the
Byzantine imperial family, one o f the last Byzantine Emperors was exhorting
Roman Christianity to stand by him as an ally. A style o f history painting has
PAINTING OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE {>5}
come into existence in Arezzo, whose monumental heroism, in its mingling

o f contemporary life with a sensitivity for the religious content o f the
medieval legend, and in its subordination o f the individual to the strict
demands for the unity o f the whole, serves not to do away with but rather to
transfigure illustrative realism.
Around the middle o f the fifteenth century the products o f realistic
painting in Florence seek to achieve a certain degree o f freedom from that
abstract spatial discipline. The city o f goldsmiths and cloth merchants takes
great pleasure above all in the faithful and detailed depiction o f individuals
appearing in contemporary dress, their calm facial expressions carefully
copied. This realistic portrayal o f dress and physiognomy was strengthened
by Burgundian tapestries and Flemish portraiture, which played such a sur
prisingly important role in the Florence o f the Medici. Admittedly, as an
expressive style, this realism was lacking when faced with the newly discov
ered figures o f classical myth and history; in order to capture their classical
character properly, the temperament o f those figures demanded a shift o f
emphasis in the language o f bodily gestures together with more animated
facial expressions. Although we now have to move beyond the sphere o f the
Arch o f Constantine in order to acquaint ourselves with the vocabulary of
this new gestural language, Benozzo Gozzoli is indirectly linked to the repre
sentations o f Constantine, since, as I guessed was the case with Piero della
Francesca, he too painted the Byzantine Emperor John Palaeologus on the
frescoes o f the Palazzo Medici. Admittedly this was some twenty years after
the concilium and it lacked the sense of a tragic mission; he only provided
one o f the magi with the physiognomy and the dress o f the Byzantine
Emperor because he came from the Orient and because, equally, all three
kings had travelled from the East.
If one compares the medallion by Pisanello, his facial features have
degenerated into being merely charming, but then the way his costume has
been depicted is the most appropriate one for a painted tapestry. For in their
orders for Flemish tapestries the Medici demanded “coxe allegre e piacevolè”
(“ cheerful and agreeable things” ) and expressly permitted the figures to
appear “ nella foggia di qua” (“ in the style o f the present day” ); in other
words, in contemporary Burgundian fashion, even if they were to illustrate
classical stories or Italian poems. If one takes into account that according to
{ι6} ABY WARBURG
one estimate, by no means excessive, it is possible to prove that the inventory

o f the Medici included some 80 arazzi, with a total length o f around
250 metres, o f which 44 were genuine illustrated tapestries, one can then
imagine how easily the pleasant and reassuring realism o f the arazzi com
bined with the intimate descriptive art o f Gozzoli.
Thus Gozzoli and Burgundian tapestries were natural and robust oppo
nents to the pathos o f the new style, and reinforcements came to their aid in
the form o f furniture painting, such as on wedding chests or on the bowls

given to the mothers of newly-born children which, between 1440 and 1470,
counted amongst the most active disseminators o f classical mythology. This
they illustrated in contemporary dress such that the stimulus o f the fashion
magazine and the cultivated pleasure in the reawakening o f antiquity could
be enjoyed together without contradiction.
Gozzoli also painted such a congratulatory dish (or lid) with a classical
theme, and he could undoubtedly be sure o f the praise o f his client when he
painted the rape o f Helen as if it was a racy affair drawn from the account o f
a contemporary scandal. Admittedly the architecture and the statues o f
Venus, together with the cherub racing away like a child o f Medea, make it
clear that this is a scene from antiquity. However Paris, who is carrying
Helen o ff in the manner o f a piggy-back, looks more like an ecstatic
postman than a passionate seducer. And Helen too, in her close-fitting
costume, her carefully coiffured head held upright, is perched on the back o f
her handsome Greek as if in a box in the theatre, without the slightest sense
o f her tragic situation.
We have to be wary of regarding such images as simply naive or as mere
parodies. To be sure, the contemporary dress was a pleasant addition, but the
educated spectator also saw in it an illustration o f the Iliad, which usually
keeps much closer to the text, even if not the Greek original, than it appears.
In keeping with the text, Paris carries Helen o ff just as she is saying her
prayers in the pagan temple. This was how it was told in medieval versions
o f the Iliad (such as the Histoire de Troie) and this was how the rape of Helen
by Paris was seen on stage in, for example, Jacques Milet’s first French play in
1472. In the Histoire de la Destruction de Troye la Grant Paris and Helen speak
to each other as follows;
PAI NTI NG OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE {1 7 }
Et Paris se lievera tout soudainm ent et And Paris suddenly rose and took
prândra Helene par la m ain et dit Helen by the hand and said
Paris: Sus damee sus venez avant Paris: Hush, my lady, hush, come
before me
Vous estez celle que iactens You are the w oman I have been
waiting for
Délivrez vous appertem ent Give yourself up appropriately
Hélène: Hélas menez moy doucem ent Helen: Alas, take me gently
Paris: Vous en vendrez avec moy Paris: You will come away with me
Se vous estez femme de roy If you are the wife of a king

Autant serez vous honnoree You will be suitably honoured
De moy et aussi bien paree By me and equally well adorned
Et si aurez autant donneur And since you will have as m uch
honour
Quaviez avec vostre seigneur As you did w ith your husband
Venez vous en sans resistance Come, w ithout resisting
Hélène: Je feray vostre plaisance Helen: I shall do what you desire
Car ie ny puis remedier.4 For my sickness has no cure.
In comparison with this woodcut5 one has to admit that even in Gozzoli
there is a tendency towards mimetic intensification. Evidently the courtly
流行
notion o f antiquity prevalent in late medieval France had a more powerful
and longer lasting effect on educated society in Quattrocento Florence than
is usually believed.
Amongst those goldsmiths o f Florence who came across the products of
the newly invented art o f printing from the North, one can notice a striking
meeting, hitherto underestimated, between a pleasure in ornamentation
“ alia franzese” and an impulse towards dynamic movement “ all’ antica.” The
entry o f Paris and Helen in Jacques Milet’s play, the words they use to engage
in conversation, are similar to the way they appear in the sketchbook o f a
Florentine goldsmith.6 The two figures, dressed fashionably and elegantly,
seem to be in no particular hurry to leave the temple o f Venus. However the
tumult on the frieze o f putti on the temple cornice makes up for the lack of
passion in the representation o f their external actions. Ultimately the
suppliers o f these costly items could not resist Donatello’s desire to set the
富裕的
human body free from this rigid and opulent façade in order to endow it
with the unhindered expressive rhythm o f classical form. Without worrying
{ι8} ABY WARBURG
about artistic consistency, they knew how to combine the two, as was the
case with the painters and goldsmiths, the Pollaiuolo brothers. Antonio used
to make belts with metal adornments o f the kind that Helen wears, and
painted subjects, landscapes, interiors which in their loving depiction o f
individual subjects bear comparison with any work from Flanders. And yet
this artistic skill at close observation was not his main strength, unlike his
brother Piero, whom some clients, with a taste for the good old times, cer
tainly preferred over the awkward, more innovative Antonio. The Medici
have to be credited with the fact that while this pleasant descriptive art pro
vided them with an agreeable and comforting atmosphere, they were never
theless also stirred by the demonic pathos o f Pollaiuolo. For from 1460
onwards, at approximately the same time that Gozzoli was painting in the
Medici palazzo, Antonio’s three great Deeds o f Heracles could be seen in the
Lower Hall on large canvases. They have been lost, but the two small pictures
in the Uffizi afford us an indication o f what they looked like (and here
enlargement with the Skioptikon comes into its own).
Heracles, who is strangling Antaeus and who has defeated the Hydra, has
taken on the stirring pathos o f the athletic ideal o f man from ancient sculp
ture. Indeed he is more classical than Antiquity itself. The plastic form of
Antonio’s Heracles and the Antaeus group is so saturated, as it were, with
pathos that the rhetoric o f his musculature is on the verge o f the baroque
gestural language o f Mannerism. Nevertheless, his energy enabled the gods
and heroes to shake off the ephemeral charm o f their costume, and to reflect
on their natural humanity. If his task is to depict a rape on a wedding chest,
he chooses a wild centaur, not the elegant Paris, as the seducer, and the
naked, furious Heracles opposes this elemental symbol o f animal violation,
as the counterpart to untrammelled passion.
Another Rape by Pollaiuolo has been preserved by means o f a copy by
Dürer. Two naked chaps drag o ff their booty similar to the way in which
Heracles carries o ff the bull in an antique gem in the possession o f the
Medici. Likewise antique battle reliefs (whose origin has yet to be ascer
tained individually) may have informed this copper engraving which, recall
ing a drawing by Pollaiuolo, proclaims a muscular battle, for which Heracles
is again responsible, since the inscription reads: “ Quomodo Hercules percus
sit et vicit duodecim Gigantes.” 7
PAINTING OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (19)
In this and similar engravings the newly invented art o f printing created a
host of easily circulated proclamations o f the new pathetic style, which now
placed artistic workshops far beyond Italy in a state o f ferment. Dürer is the
most interesting example o f this, which unfortunately I cannot follow any
further today. The most convincing example o f what Antonio Pollaiuolo was
looking for and found in Antiquity, and which has hitherto been overlooked,
is offered by the jousting shield in the National Gallery, Washington, on
which David is painted hurling a stone. The giant’s head already lies at his
feet; nevertheless the sight is full o f frightening tension; his garment flutters
as he walks, his hand is raised as if to ward something off, his face has a terri
ble look o f arousal. To me it seems undoubtedly8 the case that the figure of
the Niobids’ tutor (now in Florence in the Uffizi) served as the immediate
original. It has the same positioning o f the legs, the same hand movements,
the same individual folds o f the hood o f his flapping coat. Only the head of
the young David, more laden with pathos, differs from the original; his hair
flaps around his face as if it were formed o f snakes, his face is contorted like
the face o f Medusa. Keeping with the antique style, Pollaiuolo’s tempera
ment leads beyond Antiquity. I recall that the Niobids’ tutor was found
without a head.9 Antonio Pollaiuolo was the instructor in deportment, as it
were, for the modern culture o f expression amongst those educated in the
Classics. Using the sculptural representations o f myth from Antiquity as his
model, he taught the figures o f the art world classical comportment within
the whole sphere o f human experience.
Not only did he teach how to fight manfully and how to mourn tragi
cally; he also taught how to dance “ all’ antica.” On the frescoes o f Arcetri
naked men are dancing a Dionysian round, and even the dancing Salome he
drew for the Netherlandish embroiderers is forced to make the effort to
move with the flourish o f a nymph from Antiquity, despite her heavy
Burgundian garments.
In its manner and range, Pollaiuolo’s style o f representing three-
dimensional movement shows a close affinity with a greater figure, who only
sculpted: Donatello. Indeed, he not only gave the intensified sense o f life
expression in the form o f a harmless youthful joyousness, as on the putti
frieze in the organ chancellery in Florence. From the reliefs for the reliquary
o f St. Anthony onwards (circa 1445) he, and above all his pupils, were seized
{ 20} ABY WARBURG
by an intensely nervous, tragic sense o f pathos which, in the case o f individ

ual figures, leads to an orgy o f movement which seeks to excell the em o
tional ferocity o f the antique reliefs that served as the model.
By way o f example, I shall mention just one silver relief from the circle o f
Donatello, the mourning for the body o f Christ. Church discipline forbade
mourning devoid o f all composure: it demanded humility and self-control
in the heights and depths o f human existence. The uncontrolled gestures of
mourning, the crying out, the throwing-up o f hands and the self-mutilation
on this relief exactly matches the attitudes o f the gathering o f mourners o f
the kind we find preserved on relief representations o f the pagan conclama
tio. The most remarkable thing is that Christ, carried like Meleager, is being
laid to rest in a sarcophagus adorned with the image o f Persephone.
There is no question o f whether or not the artist knew the legend pre
cisely. He was sensitive to the essential thing, that ancient grief over a
person s death was wrestling to find expression here on this pagan sarcopha
gus, and that its expression in this moving form signified an invaluable gain
for the gestural vocabulary o f humanity.
It is this very formula for the pathos o f m ourning, from pagan sar
cophagi, that appears on the grave monument o f a Florentine citizen,
Francesco Sassetti, who had by way o f contrast commissioned Domenico
Ghirlandaio to decorate his burial place and to paint the altar-piece and the
walls. In the border to the grave niche, Giuliano da Sangallo modelled the
mourning o f the death o f Francesco Sassetti, lying on his deathbed and sur
rounded by mourning relatives, on a genuine antique pagan sarcophagus o f
Meleager. On the spandrels o f the wall o f the grave niche scenes from the life
o f an emperor are painted en grisaille, borrowed from ancient coins. Inspired
by Giuliano’s archaeological schooling, Ghirlandaio probably included these
as symbols o f the virtus o f Francesco. In other respects, however, especially
in the panel o f the chapel, Ghirlandaio still remains completely under the
influence o f Flemish portrait painting, such as that o f Hugo van der Goes,
who offered the most impressive support for the antirhetorical style o f
descriptive painting with his altar for the Portinari.
Even when an antique sarcophagus or ancient column are permitted to
appear in this still-life o f reverent busts and animal heads, they are only
granted legitimacy (I have discussed this elsewhere) as express evidence for
PAINTING OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE {21}
the triumph o f Christian faith. Only in the background does an antique

sense o f movement rush through the procession o f the three kings who,
rushing past, stream through an ancient triumphal arch. The figures rushing
by clearly repeat the m otif o f a running man displayed on the base o f the
column, and we shall see shortly how on the frescoes o f Sta. Maria Novella,
in a later period o f Domenico Ghirlandaio, roman triumphal sculpture will
intervene directly, bringing about a change o f style. With this we return to
the Arch o f Constantine, for the two grisaille reliefs on the final picture, the
Sacrifice o f Zacharias, o f the frescoes o f the Tornabuoni Chapel, which
adorn the altar wall o f the temple like a kind o f attica, are faithfully copied
reliefs on the Arch o f Constantine. The battle relief with the riders charging
forward is taken from the relief on the attica o f the narrow side o f the Arch
of Constantine, while the victory crowning exactly reproduces the relief on
the inner side already shown, which depicts the crowning o f the victory of
Trajan. What are these reliefs meant to signify? They are at least not stylised
representations o f the familial congress o f the Tornaquinci-Tornabuoni
faction. Perhaps in this concluding picture, which praises the fortunate
peace in Florence in 1490 in an inscription above the door, they are meant to
be appended as a kind o f festive seal, following the Roman style o f drawing a
list o f all those present at a family celebration.
However, the stone Victory from the Arch o f Constantine produces an
altogether different, lively and purely artistic effect. Immediately above the
Sacrifice o f Zacharias is a depiction o f a ceremonial visit to St. Elisabeth.
Splendid ladies from the Tornabuoni family offer congratulations in the
dignified manner o f noble society, but behind them a serving woman rushes
in at a hurried step carrying a flask with her hand and a fruit dish on her
head. Despite this prosaic task she is stylised and idealised: she wears a belt
around her gown, which flutters briskly, like that o f Victory, and even if the
sandals on her feet have to tarry on the ground, her robe, blown out from
her shoulders like a sail in the wind, provides her with at least an ornamen
tal, earthly, substitute for the olympian aerial paraphernalia o f the victory
goddess.
One difference between the Trajanic victory goddess and the Victoria in
the guise o f a Florentine housewife, consists in the fact that the latter
appears in profile. But even this positioning was first coined by an ancient
{ 22} ABY WARBURG
original, according to the sketchbook o f Ghirlandaio’s workshop. A woman

with fluttering robes, even carrying a bowl o f fruit, is to be found on page 51
with the comment: “ in sulla piazza di sancto pietro,” or “on the piazza o f
Saint Peter.”
The basket may be an addition; the figure as a whole appears exactly the
same in the guise o f a nymph on a Bacchic sarcophagus where she is holding
cymbals instead o f the basket. However, the archaeology o f the figure is only
o f secondary significance; we can think o f this nymph as a symbol o f the

affirmation o f life, as the Quattrocento understood it. The medal in the
courtyard o f the Palazzo Medici which, following an antique gem, has
Bacchus and Ariadne driving in triumph, marks the beginning o f the
dithyramb to life that culminated in the carnival song by Lorenzo. Today
this poem, written to accompany the lively reappearance o f the gods in the
carnival procession, is on everyone’s lips. An engraving based on a drawing
by Botticelli, who him self undoubtedly made use o f the m otif from a
Bacchic sarcophagus, illustrates the well-known verses;
Q u ant’ è bella giovinezza However beautiful youth is,

Che si fuggia tuttavia; It vanishes all the same;
Chi vuole esser lieto, sia, Whoever wishes to be merry, let them,
Di dom an non c’è certezza. For tom orrow nothing is certain.
Questo è Bacco e Arïanna, Here are Bacchus and Ariadne,
Belli, e Pun dell’altro ardenti; Beautiful, b urning for each other.
Perché ‘1 tem po fugge e inganna Though tim e flies and deceives us
Sempre insieme stan contenti. They are always content together.
Queste ninfe e altre genti These nymphs and others
Sono allegri tuttavia. Are happy all the same.
Chi vuole esser lieto, sia, Whoever wishes to be merry, let them,
Di dom an non c’è certezza.10 For tom orrow nothing is certain.
Ghirlandaio’s nymph has nothing orgiastic about her, but nevertheless

无礼的
even she typifies, in the world view o f Savonarola, that impudent pagan
布道
vanity, whose image was not to be tolerated in church. In his sermons that
shook Florence in 1496, he criticises in general, and most immediately,
church paintings o f fashionably clothed figures.11 In particular, in his
sermon on the cow o f Samaria, that was so dangerous for him, he foresaw it
in the fluttering veils o f the w om en.12 Ghirlandaio made far more pro
nounced use o f the pathos formula o f the Roman Triumphal Arch on his
fresco o f the slaughter o f the innocents in Bethlehem. Unfortunately the

fresco is very damaged, but the essential features can still be made out, with
some effort.
From the Triumphal Arch there is the violent fighting between the
mothers and the m ilitary executioners. Ghirlandaio is working here with
borrowed emotions; he is lending the men and women the pathos o f the
Triumphal Arch. Remarkably, this is not based the fictitious reliefs from the
Triumphal Arch in the background, but in the main on the victory o f Trajan
over the barbarians, which is the other relief on the inner side o f the Arch of
Constantine. Thus the bearded man embracing the neck o f his horse is
simply lifted from the composition, and likewise the positioning o f the sol
diers fighting the women is determined by the group consisting o f the
armored cavalryman about to decapitate the barbarian seen from behind.
The facial expressions of the two women in the foreground, o f whom one is
pulling the soldier by the hair and the other is running o ff with her child,
could be taken from a sarcophagus depicting the myth o f Medea. However,
establishing the individual archaeological details is not the main point; what
is essential is that the primitive Quattrocento, which we enjoy so much for
its “ naive” tranquillity, has here lapsed into an extremely baroque gestural
language. And this has occurred, moreover, precisely because o f the pagan
art o f his ancestors. One might say, “ colla licenza degli anteriori.” It is
significant that Vasari, a genuine Cinquecentist, was an enthusiastic admirer
of the “ baruffa bellissima” o f this Slaughter o f the Innocents. He praises in
particular one horrible motif: an infant that, while bleeding from a neck
wound, is still drinking milk and blood from the breast o f its fleeing mother.
We are not used to looking for such a bizarre sensationalism until the
Seicento, and a poem on the Slaughter o f the Innocents in Bethlehem by
Giovanni Battista Marino serves as an excellent example o f this bombastic
粗鲁的
baroque style, which expends its energies on the crassest o f painted depic
tions o f human violence and states o f arousal. Thus his imagination cannot
miss a similarly horrible motif. In the third book he sings;
Ecco un altro crudel, ch’al prim o figlio Look, another cruel m an casts
and hurls a spear
Che il sen le sugge un dardo aw enta At the eldest son feeding at her
e scocca, breast
{ 24} ABY WARBURG
E passa oltre le labbra, onde la poppa, And pierces his lips and her
breast, which
giá di latte, hor di sangue è fatta Once of milk, is now a vessel of
coppa.13 blood.
To be sure, in 1490 Ghirlandaio could still undertake his attempts at mixing

contem porary life and Antiquity without interference; Lorenzo the
Magnificent was still alive and Lorenzo Tornabuoni had not yet had to throw
in his lot with the party followers o f Savonarola.

The central painting o f the altarpiece that Ghirlandaio and his brothers
made for the Tornabuoni chapel shows Christ’s Resurrection on the reverse
side, and the exemplary pathos formula o f Antiquity penetrates here, even
informing the expression o f tragic horror. The Saviour, rising up from the
grave, has plunged the three pagan guards in fear and alarm. One o f them,
raising his shield over his bearded head as if to defend himself, is fleeing, his
robe fluttering in the wind.
Ghirlandaio’s sketchbook reveals the model: the fleeing barbarian from
Trajan’s Column who, just like the guard in terms o f his physiognomy, his
posture and the movement o f his robe, is rushing away from the troops o f
Trajan. In terms o f the momentary expression o f fear on his face, with its
有沟痕的
furrowed eyebrows and open mouth, and even in terms of the ornamental
wings on his helmet, the guard rushing off to the left points towards his
model, admittedly not quite attained, namely, the head o f the screaming
winged Medusa crying out, which he carries with supreme effort on his
shield as his coat o f arms.
And if one examines more carefully the position and the coarse, m ous
tachioed face o f the seated warrior with the raised hands, it seems to me that
his prototype may well also be found in the Attalid triumphal sculpture
celebrating victory over the Gauls.
From this perspective it would be possible to demonstrate many more
similar cases of emotional intensification through the use o f classical motifs,
and yet I think it is unnecessary to amass examples. So much has become
clear, that as in the case o f Pollaiuolo, so too in the workshop o f Ghirlandaio,
ancient sculpture worked like an illustrated academic textbook on the
expression o f intensified human pathos.
PAIN TING OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE {25}
At this time there was indeed an actual Director o f the Academy in

Florence, the sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni. He taught young artists by
acquainting them with the ancient treasures o f the Medici that he adminis
tered. Only a few o f his works have been preserved, but they prove that like
almost no other, Bertoldo, the pupil o f the late Donatello, subscribed to the
ancient formula o f pathos with body and soul. Just as a maenad tosses an
animal that has been torn apart, so too M ary Magdelene, mourning at the
base o f the cross, clenches the hair she has torn out in an orgy o f grief.
The extent o f his passionate feeling and imitation o f the warrior pathos
o f Roman depictions o f battle is indicated by the bronze relief o f the eques
trian battle in the Museo Nazionale, in which he adopted and exaggerated
motifs from a sarcophagus in Pisa.
A victorious triumph has also been preserved on the reverse o f a medallion
made by him. A man stands on a triumphal carriage, performing a victory
dance. Behind him he leads three naked women, bound up by a rope. They
are the provinces o f Trabizond, Greece and Asia and the man being fêted by
this medallion is the Turkish Sultan Mohammed II. The contrast between the
Early and High Renaissance is symbolised by the difference between Piero
della Francesca and this Florentine artist. In his fresco o f the Legend of
Constantine , Piero brought the Christian emperor o f the Greeks, then fleeing
the might o f the Turks, to the minds o f his contemporaries without any
rhetoric, using the symbolism o f the Christian legend. The latter even placed
his gestural eloquence, in the grand style of his ancestors, at the service o f a
Turk. The progress o f the culture of expression led to a cult o f form for form s
sake, and one can now understand how the problem o f the tumult o f battle
emerged from the academy o f Bertoldo as a kind of academic prize competi
tion. The individual motifs o f the intensified pathos o f life that piled up in his
own works and in the collections o f antiquities demanded some resolution.
This was where the young Michelangelo received the pedagogical stimu
lus for the modelling o f his Battle o f the Centaurs , and it is also where
Leonardo may have studied the horses on the Phaethon gem o f the Medici,
which influenced the composition o f his equestrian battle.
As we saw with Botticelli, around 1490 the impulse o f everything from
Florence was towards conceiving and reshaping living movement in terms of
{ 26} ABY WARBURG
the elevated style o f the great art o f the pagan ancestors. However it was
Rome that first harvested the end result o f these attempts, in the Battle of
Constantine in the Stanze o f the Vatican. It was not completed until after
Raphael’s death, by his pupils under the supervision o f Giulio Romano.
It gives the comforting impression o f a unified, controlled, mass. The
times o f oscillating between painting everything as if in the present and the
idealising classical style are past. The men on both sides follow all the evolu
tionary steps set out by the sarcophagus battle scenes, the victory columns
and Triumphal Arches. Nevertheless they come across as an anonymous
mass that leaves the field open to the actual leader to carry out his victorious
action. Mounted on a galloping horse, Constantine, his spear raised, leaps
towards the Tiber where Maxentius, clinging to the neck o f his horse, is
sinking before his eyes. The battle has been decided in Constantine’s favour.
Already, his faithful knights are holding out to him two human heads as
trophies o f victory.
There is no question; the main tragic scene is played out exactly by the
figures on the Trajan relief from the Arch o f Constantine, which we have fol
lowed this evening as it rose towards its climax as a determinant o f style.
The composition and the characters o f this battle drama owe the rhetorically
compelling grandeur o f their idealising style to the reactivation o f classical
antiquity, as the High Renaissance understood it.
To be sure, the Roman triumphal style precisely lacks what we are accus
tomed, since Winckelmann, to admire as the essential characteristic o f classi
cal art: the simplicity and still grandeur, which Winckelmann him self
recognised in Laocoon, writhing in the agony o f death. I can quote the
famous passage;
Finally, the universal and predom inant characteristic of the Greek m aster-
pieces is a noble simplicity and tranquil grandeur, both in posture and expres-
sion. Just as the depths of the sea rem ain forever calm, however m uch the
surface may rage, so does the expression of the Greek figures, however strong
their passions, reveal a great and dignified soul. Such a soul is depicted in the
face of Laocoon, and not only in his face, despite his m ost violent torm ents.
The pain which is evident in his every muscle and sinew, and which, disre-
garding his face and other parts of his body, we can almost feel ourselves
simply by looking at his painfully contracted abdom en-this pain, I maintain,
nevertheless causes no violent distortion either to his face or to his general

posture. He raises no terrible clamour, as in Virgil’s poetic account o f his fate.
His m o uth is n ot wide enough open to allow it, and he emits instead an
anxious and oppressed sigh, such as Sadoleto describes. The physical pain and
spiritual greatness are diffused w ith equal intensity th ro u g h o u t his entire
frame, and held, as it were, in balance. Laocoon suffers, but he suffers like the
Philoctetes of Sophocles: his misery touches us to the heart, bu t we envy the
fortitude with which this great m an endures it.14
You are aware how absolutely this doctrine influenced the eighteenth
century, especially our German classics. And Winckelmann’s doctrine still
continues to have an effect today. For if one were to attempt to conceive of
the influence o f antiquity as a unified current, it is undeniably a governing
element in the style o f Early Renaissance architecture.
One would necessarily have to base the search for the influence o f an
tiquity on the lawfulness o f the ideal human type. In other cases, however,
precisely because its rational character was held to be essential, antiquity
would not be recognised as making any active artistic contribution to the
shaping o f the Quattrocento. With the Quattrocento, so complex and his
torically oriented, artists and art lovers wish to enjoy, at any cost, the prim
itive and completely self-reliant individual o f modernity, for whom
nothing could be more distant than to repeat the ossified formal language
o f past ages.
The sculptures in my discussion, o f which I have been able to show you
all too sketchy a selection today, ought to have just proved to you how pow
erfully the artworks o f antiquity penetrated into the heart o f the Early
Renaissance on account o f their passionate, outer and inner dynamism. If I
have had to speak all too frequently o f “ pathos formulae,” you might cor
dially take into account that until now these have neither been collected
individually, nor seen in context.
However, as testimony to the fact that a conception o f antiquity sprang
完全地
from the spirit o f the Quattrocento, which stands precisely diametrically
opposite to that o f Winckelmann, let me cite the words o f Luigi Lotto, who
was tracking down antiquities for the Medici in Rome together with our
Giovanni Tornabuoni, and who was lucky enough to discover a small copy
o f the Laocoon group during night excavations in a vineyard o f Cardinal
{2 8 } ABY WARBURG
della Rovere in 1488. He was not clear about the mythical content, and was
indifferent to it. His enthusiastic admiration was exclusively for its formal
pathos:
We found three lovely little fauns on a marble base, all three of them entwined
by a large serpent. In my judgement they are most beautiful. All they lack is
their voice; they appear to breathe, to cry out and to defend themselves with
quite marvellous gestures. You see the one in the middle collapsing and
expiring.15
We hear nothing more o f this group, whose export from Florence was prob
ably prevented. The official rediscovery o f the larger Laocoon group, which
indeed excited all Rome, was not achieved until 1506. Nevertheless one
should not make the influence o f the Laocoon dependent on the fact o f its
chance re-appearance.
I am no longer afraid o f being misunderstood when I say: if it had not
discovered it, the Renaissance would have invented the Laocoon, just
because o f its moving and eloquent pathos.
We are now resolved to regard this classical disquiet as an essential char
acteristic o f ancient art and culture. Due to research into the religion o f the
ancient Greco-Roman world, we are learning more and more to see antiq
uity as symbolised, as it were, in the two-faced herm o f Apollo and
Dionysus. Apollinian ethos together with Dionysian pathos grow like a
double branch from one trunk, as it were, rooted in the mysterious depths o f
the Greek maternal earth.
The Quattrocento knew how to give artistic worth to the two-fold
content o f the ancient pagan world. The artists o f the Early Renaissance
revered antiquity, now restored, just as much for its lawful beauty as for the
mastery with which it lent expression to em otional pathos. The gestural
superlatives that had hitherto been scorned were thus the right aids in an age
wrestling for greater freedom o f expression, in the literal and figurative
sense.
We must first recreate this openness to the dual stylistic riches o f antiq
uity, which is just what I have sought to help to do in the course o f the years,
in this somewhat complicated and erudite manner.
In conclusion I might say, perhaps, that I was led by the words o f my

honoured teacher Carl Justi: Scholarship should be the rediscovery o f the
point o f view the work was once made for.” 16
Translated by Matthew Rampley
notes
1 Trans. Note. The translation is based on W arburg’s lecture “Der E intritt des
antikisierenden Idealstiles in die Malerei der Frührenaissance,” given at the
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence on 20 April 1914. The Archive o f the
W arburg Institute includes both m anuscript and typescript versions of the text,
num bered as 88.1 and 88.2 respectively. Thanks are due to Professor Sir Ernst
G ombrich for his clarification o f a num ber of queries. I would also like to thank
Philippe Solomons and Simone Conboy for their com ments on earlier versions
of the translation and to Professor Nicholas M ann for granting permission to
publish the text.
2 Codex Escurialensis. Ein Skizzenbuch aus der Werkstatt Dominico Ghirlandaios,
eds., H. Egger, C. Flülsen, A. Michaelis (Vienna, 1905).
3 Giorgio Vasari, The Lives o f the Artists, trans. William G aunt (London, 1963)
p. 334-
4 Jacques Milet, Histoire de la Destruction de Troye la Grant, ed. E. Stempel
(M arburg and Leipzig, 1883) p. 4 6 ,11. 2522-34.
5 Trans. Note. The 1883 edition to which W arburg refers is a facsimile of the m anu -
script text o f 1484, in which the passage cited is accom panied by a w ood cut
depicting the abduction of Helen.
6 Colvin, who published this book as a Florentine Picture Chronicle (London, 1898),
identifies him as Maso Finiguerra.
7 Trans. Note. “How Heracles beat and conquered twelve giants.”
8 Trans. Note. W arburg’s text reads “zweifelhaft,” i.e. “doubtfully.” This does not
make sense within the rest of the sentence, and I therefore have taken it to be
“unzweifelhaft.”
9 See Walter Amelung, Führer durch die Antiken in Florenz (Munich, 1897) p. 120.
10 Lorenzo de’ Medici, “Canzona di Bacco,” in Opere, ed. T. Zanato (Turin, 1992)
pp. 391-92.
11 “W hen the women o f Florence m arry off their young women they parade them
and dress them up to appear like nymphs, and first of all take them to Santa
{ 30} ABY WARBURG
Liberata. These are your idols, and you have introduced their kind into my
world. The images of your gods are the images and likenesses of the figures you
have had painted in the churches, so that young people can point and say of this
person or that— “look, she is M ary Magdelene,” and “he is John the Baptist”—
because you have had holy figures painted in the likeness o f some w om an or
other, which is a sinful act that shows contem pt for the holy and divine. You
painters are com mitting a sin. If you only knew what I know and saw the ensuing
evil you would not paint these likenesses. You fill the churches with these vani-
ties. Do you truly believe that the Virgin Mary went dressed in the m anner you
painted her ? I tell you she went clothed like a pauper, simply and covered so that
only her face could be seen. Saint Elizabeth dressed in this way. You would be
doing a great service by removing these figures so dishonestly painted.” Girolamo
Savonarola, Prediche italiane ai Fiorentini, ed. R. Palmarocchi (Florence, n.d.)
p. 391.
12 “Women, make sure your young wom en are not cows. Make sure that they go
with their chests covered, and that they do not carry their tails like cows; that
their horns do not join up like cows; make them keep quiet, these sailing ships. I
am not telling you to walk with a crooked and ill-suited veil, but make your-
selves orderly, like good and honest w omen.” Savonarola, Prediche italiane ai
Fiorentini, pp. 275-76.
13 Giovanbattista Marino, “La Strage degi’ Innocenti’ in Dicerie Sacre e La Strage
d eg r Innocenti (Turin, i960) p. 553. Senator Brockes from H am burg translated it
in the following way;
“Ein anderer Morder wirft von diesem “Another murderer cast a

kleinen Paar spear through the mouth of
Dem àltsten Sôhnchen gleich den Wurfspiess the eldest son o f this little
durch den Mund, couple such that the mother?s
So, dass der Mutter Brust zugleich mit breast was also wounded,
ward verwundt, while the infant rested gently
An welcher es annoch, sich trânkend, sanfte ruht; against it, still feeding. The
Wodurch die Brust, die ihm zuvor ein breast, which had previously
Milchkrug war, been a milk jug, thereby Ihm
nunmehr plôtzlich ward ein weisser suddenly became a white jug
Krug mit Blut ” with blood.”
Barthold Brockes, Verdeutschter Bethlehemitischer Kindermord [1715] (Hamburg,

1742) p. 187. If we take a look at the engraving by Picart th at accom panied
Brockes’s translation of 1715, we are faced w ith a bloodthirsty to do, which at
root only exceeds Ghirlandaio’s style in terms of quantity. It is no different. A
hundred years before M arini m annerism was already appearing in Ghirlandaio
under the sign of a resurrected Antiquity.
PAINTING OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (3 ·}
14 Johann W inckelm ann, “T houghts on the Im itation o f the Painting and

Sculpture o f the Greeks,” in H ugh Nisbet, ed., German Aesthetic and Literary
Criticism: Winckelmann, Lessing, Hamann, Herder, Schiller, Goethe (Cambridge,
1985) p. 42.
15 Giovanni Gaye, Carteggio Inedito d ’Artisti dei Secoli 14-16 (Florence, 1839-40)
Vol. I, p. 285, n. CXXIII, “Luigi di Andrea Lotti di Barberino a Lorenzo il
Magnifico, da Roma, 13 Febbraio 1488.”
16 Carl Justi, Michelangelo (Leipzig, 1902) p. 45.

warburg centenary
lecture1
ernst ti. gotnbrich
IN SPEAKING ABOUT THE FOUNDER OF
this Institute on the occasion o f the

centenary o f his birth I am very much
aware o f an overriding disadvantage.
Unlike some members o f this audi
ence I never knew or even met Aby Warburg. He died in October 1929 in his
64th year, and so when I came to this Institute early in 1936 he had been
dead for more than six years. This is a short time, by normal standards, but
连根拔起
in this interval his foundation had to be uprooted and transplanted to
London, where its accommodation was provisional and its future uncertain.
All the more, I think, were Warburg’s successors and heirs determined that
no break must occur in the tradition. Two years after Warburg s death the
collected edition o f all his published works had been issued by Teubner in a
model edition with annotations and indices by Gertrud Bing;2 Fritz Saxl had
announced in the Preface that they were to be followed by the publication
from the manuscripts and drafts o f a projected work that had occupied him
at the time o f his death, and by further volumes containing lectures, apho
risms and correspondence. But however intensely both Saxl and Bing felt
(33}
Í34> ERNST H. GOMBRICH
that the thread must not be allowed to break after the move, the pressure o f
the crisis all around increasingly absorbed their energies. Saxl had to make
contact with the world o f learning in this country, Bing was immersed in the
work o f mercy for which she was so uniquely gifted, the work o f helping
and advising exiled scholars. And so Saxl, impatient o f delay, looked for
some young man who could assist Gertrud Bing with the edition o f
W arburgs Literary Remains. I am, or rather was that young man who had
been rashly recommended to Saxl when he had visited Vienna in 1935 . 1 was
initiated into Warburg’s ideas by Gertrud Bing and began to work among his
papers. Today, more than thirty years later the work is not yet completed.
Gertrud Bing who had been Aby W arburgs assistant, helpmate and com
panion during the last five years o f his life died over this work at the age o f
72 without completing that authoritative biography which she alone could
have given us. We hope that a selection o f Warburg’s letters will now be pub
lished by an editor uniquely qualified for this task, by Dr. M ax A dolf
Warburg.3 It remains my responsibility to complete a book I drafted 20 years
ago on Warburg’s ideas and on his place in the history o f scholarship.4 You
will not expect me to sum it up in a single lecture. But even less will you
want me to present the same material which Gertrud Bing discussed in her
lecture on Warburg which you can read in the current number o f our
Journal.5 M y approach must be different, and I think it inevitably will be.
For if I mentioned my disadvantage which I feel so keenly when I think of
those who knew Warburg, I must console myself with a compensating
可疑的
advantage which I may have as a historian. I do not mean here the dubious
advantage o f greater objectivity. Nobody can be really objective. But object
ivity is not quite the same thing as that detachment that comes from a sense
o f distance, and this distance is inevitably given to those o f us who did not
know a scholar in our field who was born a hundred years ago. It so happens
that this idea o f psychological distance and detachment was one o f
Warburg’s own central concerns. You remember the use which, following
him, Saxl and Panofsky made o f this notion in their discussion o f the
Renaissance, the age when antiquity could be viewed with a sense o f
distance and therefore revived.
We are undergoing a similar experience just now although on a much
smaller scale. The period o f Warburg’s formative years is just appearing over
WARBURG CENTENARY LECTURE (35>
the threshold of our historical awareness again. It is no longer old-fashioned,

it is history. I am, o f course, referring to the 1880s and 90s with its fashion of
art nouveau o f which we now witness a minor Renaissance. I can think o f no
better way therefore o f placing Warburg in his historical setting than by
showing you a slide o f his second publication,6 his first after his Ph.D. thesis.
It came out in the second year o f Pan, the German rival o f The Yellow Book ,
in April 1897.
For when Warburg at the age o f thirty had journeyed to America he had
brought back from this prolonged trip not only his memories and souvenirs
o f an excursion to the American Indians o f New Mexico, but also a small
collection o f little magazines which had sprung up in Chicago, Cleveland
and San Francisco. They are still in our library. In his unpretentious article
Warburg gave the readers o f Pan a few samples of the type o f fashionable
illustrations and literary exercises o f these periodicals. But he did not reveal
himself as an uncritical devotee o f the modern fashion. Six years older than
Beerbohm or Beardsley he kept his distance. In fact what he liked most in
what he read was to find that his American contemporaries did so, too, and
that they made fun o f the fin du siècle pose o f languid self-indulgence. “ I
英勇的
think,” he concludes, “ that we owe these gallant fighters in the Far West a
friendly cheer for their old fashioned idealism.” Warburg remained an old-
fashioned idealist all his life.
Yet I would not have ventured to begin with this marginal item in his
bibliography if I did not think that it illuminates W arburgs origins in more
than one way. It is not difficult to see at this distance o f time that the topic
Warburg had chosen for his Ph.D. thesis some eight years earlier in 1888 was
connected to the emergent style o f art nouveau by many subterranean pas
sages. The ostensible subject o f the published version were the two famous
mythologies by Botticelli, The Birth o f Venus and The Primavera >but the real
problem Warburg had set himself was the explanation o f Botticelli’s peculiar
鸣
drapery style, those fluttering garments and undulating locks which chimed
in so well with the aesthetic preoccupations o f the period, for instance the
fashionable art o f Burne Jones.
O f course, the choice o f a subject from the late Florentine quattrocento
altogether suggests the influence o f Ruskin and o f the Pre-Raphaelite vogue,
but here an important distinction o f generations emerges. Warburg s notes
{36} ERNST H. GOMBRICH
and his published writings leave no doubt that he found himself increas
ingly in violent contradiction to that fashionable interpretation which saw in
the so-called Italian primitives a paradise o f innocence and naivité. I say
increasingly, for we have Warburg’s own words for it that the greatest obsta
cle he had had to overcome was the conviction he had shared that these
painters had been naive.
Warburg never threw any o f his notes away, and so we are enabled to
watch this process o f emancipation that led to the formulation of his thesis
in his jottings that reach back to his student days when he attended a
Seminar given by Schmarsow in Florence in 1888. What had arrested the
student’s attention was that the artists o f the Florentine quattrocento were
not the faithful and dedicated imitators o f natural appearance he had been
led to expect. Led to expect by Vasari who represented the rise o f painting as
an increase in the skill o f copying nature, and equally so by the Pre-
Raphaelites who singled out this very intention as the quality they wanted to
imitate in the masters before Raphael. But if they wanted to be so faithful in
远离模仿现实的倾
their rendering o f nature, why did Filippino Lippi and Botticelli deviate 向
from realism by adding those flourishes o f fluttering folds and curls? What is
增加物
behind these accretions which tempt the artists increasingly away from
things and motifs they can have observed in tranquillity?
Warburg’s answer, which became famous, was that these forms or form u
汹涌
lae o f billowing drapery came from antiquity, from neo-Attic reliefs or sar
cophagi. But we are not doing justice to either the originality or to the
复杂
intricacy o f Warburg’s real hypothesis if we leave it at that. What he tried to
show was that antiquity was visualised in these terms not only because
artists had seen a few such monuments, but largely because the patrons and
poets derived their mental image o f the classical myths from Ovid and other
ancient writers who delighted in descriptions o f such graceful movement. It
was Poliziano who must have advised Botticelli that no representation o f an
ancient myth would look authentic to his patrons unless he added these tell
单调的
tale details which removed the image from humdrum context o f observed
reality and lifted it into that realm o f poetic fancy, where the ancient myths
had their being.
It is true that in attempting circumstantial proo f o f this hypothesis,
Warburg’s starting point, the origin o f the whole stylistic trend, was almost
WARBURG CENTENARY LECTURE {37}
lost sight of, in a welter o f texts and documents. He must have felt that
himself, for he appended to his paper what he called Four Theses o f a
general aesthetic nature which were to fit this special hypothesis into a wider
psychological framework.
What they say, if I understand them correctly, is that these fluttering gar
ments, these flourishes which Warburg here called dynamizing formal addi
tions, shapes in other words, which help to create the impression o f
movement, ultimately derive from the observation o f things in motion; but

that it is easier for the artist to apply them where he is not bound to realistic
subject matter, in other words where he must in any case draw on his
imagination and memory. Hence it is in the illustration o f such imaginary
themes, in allegories for instance, that artists found the language o f idealiza
tion, which was to become the stylistic idiom o f the High Renaissance. The
mem ory image can here prove superior to the immediate imitation o f
nature, for a reliance on memory images need not lead to empty manner
isms, it can lead to true idealization.
The careful reader of the paper itself will find a gloss on this theory on its
last page. The thoughtless repetition o f external signs o f movement— we
there read— should not be attributed to the example o f antiquity; for this
example, as we know from Winckelmann, can also be used to create an art of
quiet grandeur; it is simply due to the lack of restraint o f certain artists if
they were carried away, as it were, by this example. Botticelli himself, we
read, was one o f those who was too pliable, he yielded too much, he became
mannered.
It is easy, I think, to find back from here to the problem o f art nouveau , to
the artists who were too pliable, who yield too easily to the mannerisms o f
undulating lines.
What is more important for me now, however, is to draw your attention
to Warburg’s ambition to explain rather than to describe the process o f styl
istic change and that in strict psychological terms. This ambition and this
hope Warburg had derived from his teachers in Bonn and in Strassburg
during the late eighties. For Warburg’s formative years fall into that great
period towards the end o f the nineteenth century when hopes ran high, that
the riddles o f man and history would soon yield to the tools o f scientific
analysis. Darwinism or more generally evolutionism seemed to unlock the
全景
mysteries that had puzzled the past. The great panorama o f progress that
Hegel had seen in metaphysical terms and that Comte had presented but not
explained, now seemed to call for a theory o f mental mechanism that would
account for the rise o f man from animal status to the creator o f art and o f
science.
There can have been few lectures Warburg attended which did not share
this assumption and this hope. Hermann Usener, for instance, whose lec
tures on Greek m ythology Warburg heard, took it for granted that the
origins o f mythology must be explained through such simple psychological
mechanisms which all human beings share. Had it not been proved by Tylor
that the phenomenon o f animism is universal in primitive cultures and that
man has this tendency o f endowing the inanimate with life and with a will?
This tendency was due to a kind o f short circuit o f our mental apparatus.
Wherever the child or the primitive perceive an effect he posits a living
cause; when it thunders there must be a thunderer, and in fact the names of
divinities bear witness to this role o f mythology as a primitive form o f
explanation.
Useners lectures led Warburg to a book by the Italian evolutionist Tito
Vignoli who extended this kind o f explanation even to animal behaviour. If
a horse is seen to shy when a paper flutters across the road, this must be due
to an inborn tendency to react to every unexpected move in the environ
ment by fear, by the instinctive assumption, as it were, that such movement
might be due to a predator or pursuer. Man s own reactions derive from this
primitive layer, but he has learned to dominate them, by reflection. The dis
tinctive human achievement is m ans ability to interpose an interval between
the stimulus and the response, an interval in which the immediate phobic
reflex is replaced by the search for the cause. The first fruit o f this mental
tool is myth, the developed tool is science, for what else is science than the
systematic search for the causes o f the unknown, a search that can only
succeed by banishing the emotional reflex and replacing it by thought. It is
the fruit o f distancing, o f mental poise.
The more man is capable o f dominating impulses, the more he can also
dominate fear. Years later, if I may anticipate, when Warburg was deeply
impressed by the achievement o f Hugo Eckener in crossing the Atlantic in a
Zeppelin, he noted in his elliptic manner “ The mercury column as a weapon
晴雨表
against the Satan phobos,” Eckener had used barometer readings to circum
vent a storm, science had been triumphant in locating causes and making
the threat innocuous.
But it is not only science that can be seen from this angle but all manifes
tations o f culture including expression and art. In this quest a specific theory
o f Darwin s was particularly welcomed by Warburg, his book on the
Expression o f Emotions in Men and Animals on which he commented “At last
a book that helps me.” For in essence Darwin also sees human expression as
a residue o f animal reactions. What was once a purposeful movement
serving survival is toned down, as it were, in its human function. The
紧握的
clenched fist o f the angry man once struck a blow, the bared teeth once tore
into the flesh.
切割
It is again the severing o f the immediate link between impulse and action
that allows for the rise o f expression; just as, in one o f Warburg’s favourite
formulations, the grasping hand yields to the grasp o f the mind, vom Greifen
zum Begriff.]so the uncontrolled symptom o f emotion turns into the symbol
o f gesture and art. Both bear witness to man s triumph over his animal
nature, but both owe their dynamism, as it were, to these instinctual forces.
Even the visual arts are subsumed in this evolutionist scheme which some
顺便提到
of the best minds o f the period were trying to elaborate. I am alluding for
instance to Konrad Fiedler who saw in the clarification o f the visual image
another such creative act that helped man to achieve a sense o f distance and
of orientation in this world o f stress and o f chaos.
As a motto for a series o f meditations on what he called a monistic psy
chology o f art Warburg wrote : “You live and do not harm me,” “Du lebst und
tust mir nichts,” the image the artist creates is endowed with life, but it is
sufficiently distanced to be contemplated rather than feared. The preoccupa
tion with movement in the Botticelli paper is here given another dimension.
If evolutionism and a theory o f stimulus and response is one element in
this monistic psychology, associationism is the other; and that the particular
refinement o f associationism that goes back to the influential philosophy o f
Herbart, Kant’s successor on the chair o f Koenigsberg. Herbart’s model o f
the mind is ultimately derived from Locke’s associationism; consciousness is
a kind o f receptacle for sense impressions which are retained as mental
images, Vorstellungen. These mental images either move into the beam o f
{ 40} ERNST H. GOMBRICH
consciousness or are crowded out beyond its threshold by other and

stronger impressions. The strength o f a mental image therefore determines
冲撞
its fate. Our thoughts are really the result o f the mutual jostling o f these
images and the victory o f the stronger over the weaker ones which would
lead, as it were, to a fusion or agglomeration known as “Apperception.”
Herbart hoped that these mutual interactions would one day be described in
mathematical terms.
It was this system, which was by no means as crude as I had to present it

for brevity’s sake, which another o f Warburg’s teachers in Bonn, Karl
Lamprecht, hoped to utilise for the explanation o f the evolution o f culture.
Like the individual mind the collective mentality o f a society was deter
mined by the character and wealth o f Vorstellungen, mental images, it con
tained. Art, in particular, reflected these mental images with revealing clarity,
and thus the psychological changes o f German culture between the eighth
and twelfth century could be read off, as it were, from the changes o f orna
mented initials in German manuscripts o f that period, an attempt
Lamprecht made in a book published in 1884. An art that makes use o f types
and conventions testifies to a primitive state, for culture grows through an
enrichment o f mental images in number and complexity.
I hope that even this rapid sketch o f the promised land into which a
student o f art history hoped to enter in the eighteen-eighties will have
thrown some additional light on the true topic o f Warburg’s Botticelli paper.
Its subtitle reads Eine Untersuchung iiber die Vorstellungen von der Antike in
der italienischen Renaissance, an investigation o f the associations connected
with antiquity in the Italian Renaissance.
The originality o f Warburg’s approach lay precisely in the attempt to get
through art at the mental image behind it, to question not only paintings
but also literature, festivals, anything that might reflect the ideas these
people had in their minds. It is these mental images with which the artist
must wrestle, and the resultant style will be a product o f their strength and
姿势
his power o f self-assertion, his mental poise in either yielding or dom inat
ing the impulses with which they are connected. Looking at this interaction
thus in psychological terms there is no strict dividing line between aesthet
ics and ethics. To be carried away as Botticelli was is a sign o f weakness, it
betrays a slight lack o f moral fiber. It is a danger that always threatens
WARBURG CENTENARY LECTURE {4·}
human civilization which rests, as you remember, on the capacity o f

distancing impressions.
Relevant, as I think these considerations are for our understanding o f
Warburg’s paper, I would not have spent so much o f this hour on the exege
sis o f his first work, if I did not think that this approach had much more far
reaching consequences in W arburgs work and life. I am thinking first and
foremost o f the foundation o f this library. In many o f the volumes which
were brought over from Hamburg you will find the initials Κ. B. W.:
Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg. That untranslatable word
Kulturwissenschaft, the science o f culture, succinctly and clearly expresses the
hopes and ambitions with which Warburg approached the task of analysing
the psychological make-up o f a civilization or o f a milieu through any o f its
manifestations or what he was to call Auffangspiegel, reflecting mirrors. For
this function the decoration o f a marriage chest could be just as relevant as
the fresco cycles o f a palace, a temporary structure erected for a pageant as
revealing as a cathedral, popular broadsheets, ballads, customs, rituals,
amulets, games, anything and everything that formed part o f the life o f a
community also deserved to be considered by Kulturwissenschaft as a cue to
古文物研究者
the mental life o f a civilization. O f course antiquarians had always been
古怪的
interested in such evidence, but they were after the quaint and picturesque
curiosity. A science o f culture would have to assess the symptomatic value o f
each relic o f the past, and to do so it had to keep in touch with the emergent
disciplines o f psychology and anthropology.
I have said that in conveying this programme Warburg was certainly
influenced by historians such as Karl Lamprecht whose programme for an
Institute o f Cultural and Universal History which he founded in Leipzig in
1939 has much in common with ours. Yet if Lamprecht is today rarely
remembered while the name o f Warburg has even given rise to the adjective
Warburgian this is not only due to fortuitous circumstances. I believe that
the psychologists o f culture such as Wundt and Lamprecht extended them
selves too much. Their systems aimed at embracing the globe, and so they
compiled large works in many volumes which will certainly be rediscovered
one day, but which are hard to assimilate. Warburg concentrated his energies
for more than twenty years on the elucidation o f one particular civilization,
indeed on that o f one rather narrowly confined cultural circle, the circle of
{ 42 } ERNST H. GOMBRICH
Lorenzo il Magnifico and his business partners, the Portinaris, the Sassettis,
the Tornabuonis, all o f whom are famous for works they commissioned
during the last decades o f the fifteenth century. He moved to Florence to
work in the archives in order to bring these men and their concerns to life;
he collected books on their trade relations, on their philosophy and on their
religious outlook. He wanted to see them in the round in all their complexity
and all their humanity so as to understand their choices and the preferences
in life and in art. There is no doubt that when he settled down to this work
Warburg considered it a continuation o f Jacob Burckhardt’s researches. He
always admired Burckhardt’s masterpiece and never criticized it in public
but there are indications in his notes that he felt that the picture Burckhardt
had presented o f the man o f the Renaissance was by now a little dated. The
取代
new scientific approach to culture could supersede the impressionistic
picture Burckhardt had given. I have mentioned Lamprecht as a champion
o f this new approach, but, o f course, the European figure in this field was
主角
Hippolyte Taine, the protagonist o f the milieu theory. It was Taine who in
his Voyage en Italie had commented on the complexity o f the society for
which Ghirlandajo worked, a society “ demi-moderney demi-féodale ’ and it
暗示
was he, I believe, who gave Warburg the cue for the analysis o f these divided
loyalties in his description o f Ghirlandajo’s fresco o f The Birth o f St. John.
You remember from Gertrud Bing’s paper what fascination the m otif o f the
figure in movement exerted on Warburg which he called the nympha. It was
in these terms that Taine had described this figure. The Visitor looked to
him like a medieval duchess but “ the servant bringing food draped like a
statue, with the élan, the gaiety and the force o f a classical nymph brings it
about that the two ages and the two beauties join up and unite in this
picture.” Taine’s analysis remained crucial for Warburg’s whole approach.
丰富的
The nympha who seems to storm into the opulent interior o f a well-to-
do banker’s family seemed to him like a messenger from another planet
calling upon art to lift itself from the ground and enter into a higher sphere
o f existence. If the inmates o f the room found it difficult to respond to this
summons it was because they were too earthbound, too much weighed
down by their heavy brocade dresses that cramped their very movements.
And so, as you may remember, the coming o f the new style became for
Warburg in part a question o f costume, eine Kleiderfrage, as he said in allu
sion to Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus. While Paris and Helen could be represented
as they are in the Florentine Picture Chronicle, like fashion dummies, in the
manner Warburg called costume realism alia franzese the new idiom had no
妨碍
chance. Art had to learn from the ancients to throw o ff these encumbering
装饰
fineries in order to reveal the body and its language o f passion, as in the
print o f the Bacchantae dancing in front o f the chariot o f Bacchus.
It was to understand this decisive change o f attitude that Warburg was
probing into the mentality and the taste o f Lorenzo’s circle. I have called it
decisive, because without it the classic art o f the High Renaissance could
never have matured. After all it was in this milieu that Michelangelo formed
his style as an apprentice in Ghirlandajo’s workshop. That this style grew out
o f a renewed study o f antiquity needed no demonstration. It was an observ
ation that had been repeated since Vasari. What puzzled Warburg was rather
the evidence he found everywhere that the artistic loyalties o f Lorenzo’s
circle were by no means undivided. They collected not only classical gems
but also Flemish devotional pictures, their homes were decorated with tapes
tries from Flanders, and their villas with panni dipinti showing such unclas-
sical subjects as moresques dances. It was against this down to earth taste
and the outlook it represented that the classical ideal had to win through.
True to his Herbartian upbringing Warburg thought o f this clash o f styles
and attitudes in terms o f jostling mental images as a problem o f mutual
pressure. He even speaks in his notes o f the need for a manometer to assess
魅力
their relative strength. In fact, the assertiveness and strength o f the tri
umphant style all antica appeared to him explicable only as an outcome o f
this struggle against strong opposing forces. Without this victory art could
not have reached that perfection which Warburg no less than his contempo
raries saw embodied in Michelangelo and in Raphael.
But we have seen from his Botticelli paper that no loss o f balance
appeared to Warburg wholly good. Antiquity could be welcomed as an ally
where it helped to fight down the tendency towards unthinking shallow
realism but woe to the artist or the period who allowed themselves to be
carried away by these images o f passion and o f cruelty. Without a counter
poise, without a sense o f distance these images will swamp and lead to an
empty rhetoric more deadly to the poise o f art than the calm realism o f the
earlier masters had ever been. For Warburg this contrast was embodied in
(44) ERNST H. GOMBRICH
the confrontation o f Piero della Francesca s and Giulio’s paintings o f The

Battle o f Constantine. Here it is Piero who embodies the sense o f distance
and Giulio Romano the degradation o f art through the intoxicating
influence o f classical antiquity. You see that when Warburg came to form u
late his question “ was bedeutet das Nachleben der AntikeV\ what is the
significance o f the classical elements in Western culture, he wanted to
express a genuine doubt. I believe in fact that the original meaning o f this
question can only be understood against the background o f a debate that

also reaches back into Warburg’s formative years. For Ruskin o f course clas
sicism was a disaster and many nationalist critics north o f the Alps had
taken a similar line. Moreover the whole traditional interpretation o f the
Renaissance as a revival o f antiquity had been questioned by influential
scholars such as Henry Thode who, following Sabatier, stressed the im port
ance o f the Franciscan movement for the new sanctification o f nature and
the rise o f naturalism. Warburg, too, was ready to interpret, for instance,
Ghirlandajo’s realism in the light o f that religious fervour that led his
patrons to dedicate realistic life-size wax images o f their own persons to the
Church o f Santissima Annunziata. But this awareness o f these counterpres
sures, as we have seen, made it all the more meaningful to ask what it was
that secured such a continued vitality to the surviving pagan images— Was
bedeutet das Nachleben der Antike?
We can again hark back to the Botticelli paper to find a first adumbration
o f Warburg’s answer. Antiquity detached art from reality, it introduced that
sense o f distance that allowed a realist such as Ghirlandajo to learn the lan
guage o f its heightened movement and to use it with ease. In Warburg’s psy
chology o f art, you remember, the normal case for the artist is a surrender to
the sense impression, a copying o f reality. It is thus not the imitation o f
nature which presents the psychological problem to him, but the departure
from imitation.
Those o f you who may have looked into my book on Art and Illusion will
know why I consider this sense data approach o f the nineteenth century to
have been a dead alley. I believe indeed that it was this false start that
accounts for a feature in Warburg’s writings that has puzzled many o f his
admirers, the exclusion from his themes o f medieval or Byzantine art which
seems inexplicable in a historian devoted to the study o f the classical tradi
tion. We must remember, though, that Berenson was similarly placed, and
that Wôlfflin, too, only tackled a medieval subject very late in his life under
the mounting influence o f German expressionism.
Warburg was a child o f the era o f Impressionism and of its crisis and it is
clear once more that this made the approach much more plausible than it
seems to us. For it was indeed the problem o f how to get away from photo
graphic realism that engaged the minds o f artists and critics during this
酵母
period o f ferment that had thrown up art nouveau. There exists a little
sketch for amateur theatricals Warburg wrote in 1896 in which the hero is an
impressionist painter who woos the niece o f a typical philistine. The dia
logue turns on an exhibition o f the etchings by Anders Zorn who had pro
voked the philistine s wrath for their lack o f detail. The artist tries to explain
that the very abbreviations o f Zorn s line constitute the progress o f his style.
Finally to placate the uncle the painter gives him one o f his impressionist
landscapes but graced with a meticulously painted picnic party. The uncle
welcomes this concession to Fiamburg taste as a vast improvement while the
artist whispers to his fiancée that this disfigured daub is only a copy.
The MS bears a pencil note dedicated to W arburgs own fiancée, his
future wife, who was an artist— “ Justice, light and air for the modern move
ment, progress through abbreviation.”
Slight as is this little playlet it thus reminds us o f the issues which had
interested Warburg from the outset, the departure from realism in the inter
est o f rendering movement, the inhibiting character o f literalness which
characterised the taste o f the Salons. Indeed it is not hard to apply Warburgs
expression o f Trachtenrealismus, the realism o f costume he attributed to the
style alia franzese with equal justification to the sentimental history paint
ings he would have seen in any exhibition, such as the painting o f young
Tasso by A. Schroder exhibited in 1886. What is a little harder for us late
borns to realise is that the way o f liberation was not seen to lie solely along
the line we now draw conventionally towards the rise of modern art. For
Warburg and for many o f his contemporaries and compatriots one o f the
liberators was Boecklin whose uninhibited sensuality was condemned by the
butt o f Warburg’s play as indecent, and whose art came to stand for the
rights o f the imagination. Visiting Basle in 1897 Warburg noted in his diary
“ Boecklin s najades, like a refreshing bath,” and when Boecklin died in
Florence in 1901 Warburg who had attended the funeral drafted a moving
valedictory article which is also among his papers. If this bias for Boecklin
may put a strain on your sense o f detachment, I must beg you to brace your
self for an even greater effort at historical distance to appreciate W arburgs
championship o f another work o f his period, Hugo Lederer’s Bismarck
monument in Hamburg o f which the winning model was submitted in 1901.
Actually this highly stylised monument was considered a test case at that
time o f the artists right to deviate from literal representation. A dolf

Hildebrand had claimed this right in his book on The Problem o f Form by
once more appealing to the psychology o f sense impressions. There are two
ways o f seeing, the close view corresponding to literal realism and the dis
tanced view in which details are subordinated to the over all form, and it is
this view which leads to style. Thus Warburg could once more regard the
monument as a blow struck for a proper sense o f distance in every sense o f
the term. The public, he writes, must learn to do without the attractions of a
circus-pantomime, here the great man is not lowered to their own level o f
matiness, but only the lowest stage o f culture regards the work o f art as a
means o f gaining possession o f a lost object.
Clearly Warburg’s interpretation of the late quattrocento is inseparable
from his reading o f his own time and milieu. Coming, as he did, from a con
servative Jewish family o f bankers in the great merchant city o f Hamburg, he
could not but see the Florentine bankers o f Lorenzo’s period in the light of
his own experience. He was perfectly aware o f this. There is a b rief but
telling note in his hand in which he speaks o f his own efforts to emancipate
himself for what he calls the frenchified elegance and the pleasure in posses
sion on the Alster Embankment. Even Warburg’s emphasis on that question
o f costume, the need for the nymph to throw off the confining period dress
seems to me coloured by one o f the most debated issues o f the fin du siècle,
the need of reform of female dress, to abolish tight lacing and to enable the
new woman to move freely and to take part in sports and games unham
pered by stays and high collars. The reform dress spelt emancipation,
freedom, light and air.
All history is contemporary history, as Benedetto Croce said, who inci
dentally was Warburg’s exact contemporary. I am not sure that it is, but I
sometimes think it ought to be. Warburg’s sensitivity to the problems o f his
time may have sometimes led him to project attitudes and ideas into the
Renaissance which more properly belonged to the late nineteenth century.
He was neither the first nor the last to do so. Moreover, if he was to arrive at
a psychology o f culture, a Kulturpsychologie, he could not but use the
example he really knew, his own milieu and his own reactions. For I believe
that Warburg was right when he observed the inextricable interaction o f aes
thetics, social and moral issues that contribute to the adoption or rejection
o f a style, right also when he therefore stressed the complexity, the almost
万花筒似得
kaleidoscopic instability o f these symbols and configurations, and right once
more when he used his own reaction to probe into these elusive meanings.
Indeed, if I may so put it in this centenary lecture, Warburg’s interpretation
seems to me most challenging where it is least modern. Like Winckelmann
in the eighteenth century and Ruskin in the nineteenth, he held fast to the
experience that forms meant something and that they were charged with a
significance which was not only aesthetic. In a period where A dolf Loos
could preach that ornament is crime this was still understood by everyone. It
is only today that we have impoverished the history o f style to a succession
of neutral modes.
I am particularly anxious here not to be misunderstood. Warburg’s analy
sis must not be confused with that Geistesgeschichte that uses art as an index
of a collective attitude, be it o f a class, a race or an age. Indeed the Hegelian
标语
catchword of art being the expression o f the age is so nonsensical, it seems to
me, precisely because precisely because those who live at the time experi
ence their age as a range o f choices, a demand for decisions, a need for
taking sides. Warburg felt these tensions so intensely in his own life that he
was alerted to the existence o f similar fields o f forces in the past. Though his
individual interpretations may be in need o f revision, his effort to recon
struct such a map o f meanings for a given period may yet prove fruitful to a
future historian.
For in a sense this effort was obscured by the legend that sees in Warburg
the founder of iconography. It is a legend not only because few 19th century
art historians had not been interested in meanings but also because the
meanings for which Warburg searched were never simply texts that would
unriddle a particular symbol. Even where he used texts they only interested
him insofar as they helped to place the image within the coordinate system
{4 8 } ERNST H. GOMBRICH
o f the period, the physiognomic meaning which we should assign to a given

work as a reflecting mirror o f a mental image and attitude.
It is easy to see, though, how this misunderstanding arose. The example
o f such a tension that pre-occupied Warburg for so long, the physiognomic,
social and even moral contrast between the style o f allafranzese and that alV
antica could best be demonstrated by selecting one theme and showing its
transformation from one level to the other— for instance the illustration
from Ausonius o f the angry woman taking revenge on Cupid as it appears

on one o f the Otto prints and in Signorellis version.
I believe that it was in pursuing this line o f research that Warburg came
across the problem that almost dominated the second half o f his career since
about 1908 when he was forty-two, I mean o f course astrological imagery.
For the renderings o f the Planet deities undergo, o f course, the most dra
matic changes before they emerge from their medieval disguise and are
restored to their pristine Olympian form. Witness the Jupiter on the
Florentine Campanile and in Raphael’s frescoes. So Warburg came to
approach and to solve the riddle o f the quattrocento frescoes in the Palazzo
Schifanoja. Venus and Mars which look so much like figures from a medieval
Romance are here represented according to the medieval traditions o f
mythography. More surprising still, the enigmatic images in the centre zone
are literal illustrations o f fictitious constellations, the Decans, which are
described in lists that reach the Renaissance through Arabic sources. In dis
carding these accretions and returning to the ancient form the High
Renaissance removes these demons once more into the aesthetic sphere, they
are experienced as distanced and as beautiful.
You will appreciate why this example became so central to Warburg’s
thought. It enabled him to return to the psychological pre-occupations o f
his early days. For here was an instance where primitive anxieties were in
fact seen to influence man’s mental images. The constellations man projects
into the scatter o f stars and identifies with mythical beings may still serve the
business o f orientation when they are kept at a distance and left in the sky. In
护身符
astrology this function can be lost where they are used as amulets to serve
避免
man’s selfish aims o f averting danger and dominating fear. The loss o f dis
tance, o f detachment is the loss o f poise, o f the power o f reflection, and thus
the transformation, degradation and restoration o f these images becomes a

moving parable o f man s struggle for sanity.
I have spoken o f Warburgs involvement with the issues o f his time. I have
here to say a word about his involvement in his own psychological prob
lems. He had been suffering from attacks o f anxiety from his early youth,
and there is little doubt that the place he assigned to basic fears and impulses
in his philosophy o f culture was coloured by these experiences, and by his
struggle to keep them at bay. The anxieties o f the first world war added to
the strain and when Germany collapsed in 1918 Warburg’s own mental
balance gave way for a time though he still succeeded, with Saxl’s self-
denying assistance, in completing his paper on astrological prophesies in the
period o f the German Reformation. There is a brief account o f Warburg’s
illness and return in Saxl’s moving lecture entitled Three Florentines,7 but it
fails to mention Saxl’s own share in Warburg’s recovery while Bing in her
own memoir o f Saxl never revealed what her support and discipleship must
have meant to the convalescent scholar.
Saxl does mention, though, how Warburg struggled back to clarity by
giving that lecture on the Serpent Ritual o f the American Indians to his
fellow patients which strangely enough is the only one o f his papers you can
read in English in our journal. Saxl also mentions that as the state o f his
health improved a new and big project began to take shape which was to
gather up his life’s work on the problem o f the classical tradition in a book
which he entitled Mnemosyne and which should deal with the ancient
images and symbols preserved in the memory o f the European race.
For this notion o f a social m em ory which made him write the word
Mnemosyne over the door o f the newly built library in the Heilwigstrasse
and which you can also find over our new entrance was a new element in
Warburg’s system. At least it had only led an underground existence in his
earlier notes. Warburg’s source was a book by Richard Semon o f 1908, which
遗传
followed a tradition started by Hering that sees in heredity a form o f
memory. Remember that Warburg has always aimed at what he called a
monistic psychology. Semon had postulated that any experience leaves an
engram in the nervous system which acts like an energy store, to remember
means to tap these energies. Wedded to the ideas o f Herbart about the power
{5 0 } ERNST H. GOMBRICH
o f mental images and to the cultural psychology o f Lamprecht which tries to

trace their fate within the collective mind Semon s theory provided an extra
dimension for the description o f those historical processes that had always
pre-occupied Warburg. The greater strength o f the classical image that
取代淹没
ousted the impression o f reality in the Renaissance and finally swamped
European consciousness in the Baroque could now be attributed to its
greater energy charge which it owed to the original experience that gave rise
to the engram. This experience must have been closer to the original prim i
tive impulses that mark man s emotional life, impulses which had indeed
gained shape in dionysiac art o f Hellenistic sculpture with its frenzied
maenads, its furious struggles, its unforgettable expression o f suffering in
the Laokoon and o f brooding inactivity in the Rivergods. With his love for a
shorthand formula Warburg came to describe these images that turn up
again in the Renaissance to disrupt the calm o f Ghirlandajo s interior as
engrams or dynamograms. The contact with these energy charges which, as
you remember, could bring either liberation or enslavement he described as
polarization. He now had a model for the increase in expressive power that
marks the art o f the Renaissance, a model moreover that could even be inte
grated with Darwin’s theory, for Darwin, too, had equated our expressive
gesture with toned down residual impulses that come to us from our primitive
animal heritage. Admittedly, to sustain this equation Warburg had to telescope
the history o f mankind and to equate Dionysiac antiquity with those primitive
layers he thought to have encountered among the American Red Indians. This
was indeed his aim. When Warburg s friend Mesnil once described the pro
gramme o f the library as the study o f the classical tradition Warburg asked
him to amend this formulation to include the meaning o f paganism as such
for European civilisation. By paganism he meant the forces o f primitive
impulse that lay dormant in Western tradition, impulses which alone drive
man on to the creation o f art and the exploration o f the universe, but which
危及
must be tamed and sublimated if they are not to disrupt and imperil these
very creations. Once more the notion o f distance, the need o f keeping memo
ries at bay provided the key to man’s struggle for progress and sanity.
Saxl had welcomed Warburg on his return with a photographic exhibi
tion on screens displaying the material o f his past researches. It was these
screens which Warburg used in his last years to build up a sequence o f
WARBURG CENTENARY LECTURE Í5 '}
images which should tell this epic o f m ans mental pilgrimage almost
unaided. It was to be a kind o f symphony o f mental images reflected in art,
built round the two themes o f classical gesture, the dynamograms in their
clash with realism, and o f the star images, transformed and re-emergent. But
by now the theory had become so generalised that Warburg felt free to add
whatever engaged his interest at the time when Saxl made him see the fasci
nation o f Mithras or the significance o f Rembrandt’s so unrhetorical version
o f a classical story in the Claudius Civilis, or his friend Pauli rediscovered

Manet’s use o f a Raphael composition going back to an ancient engram in
his Déjeuner sur Vherbe, that challenge to the debasement o f Salon art. Even
pictures o f political events to which Warburg attributed symbolic
significance, or the triumph o f Eckener’s Zeppelin were at least provisionally
pinned to these screens.
I shall know better than to start explaining them now. Vestigia terrent.
When Warburg lectured about these ideas in the Hertziana in Rome having
the screens with him from Hamburg, the lecture lasted many hours and
Steinmann was never forgiven for having tried to cut it short. I do not
believe in long lectures any more than I believe in racial memory, but
though I know that my hour is up I beg to detain you for another few
minutes for its conclusion to link up with its beginning.
For, as you must have gathered, it was this very personal work I had been
asked to assist in making ready for publication. It may be a curious thing to
say in a centenary lecture, but I now think that it was a mistake ever to
announce its forthcoming publication, though this generous intention may
well have saved my life and certainly determined its course. It has taken me
all these thirty years to gain some distance from this extraordinary creation
which even Gertrud Bing found increasingly hard to confront. Not that
Mnemosyne is not intensely moving for those who can read its language and
expand its references. But it is moving like a poem, indeed, what it resembles
most is that kind o f poetry o f the twentieth century, o f Yeats, or Eliot, or
perhaps o f Ezra Pound, where every historical or literary allusion hides and
reveals a cluster o f private meanings reverberating through layers upon
layers. Even the language o f Warburg’s notes from these years fits in with
this interpretation. Charged, weighty, rhapsodic and cryptic like prophetic
utterances, these fragments have proved utterly untranslatable.
It was with some relief, but also with profound admiration that I discov
ered that Warburg was aware o f this private and personal character o f his
work on which he was engaged. In a note to his collaborators written in the
last year o f his life into the Journal o f the Library he says: “ Sometimes it
would seem to me as if I attempted, in my capacity as a psycho-historian, to
interpret schizophrenia o f Western Civilisation in an autobiographical
reflex; the ecstatic nympha (manic) on the one side, the mourning rivergod
(depressive) on the o th e r...”

The deeper Warburg had dug into the past in order to understand the
fate o f modern civilization, the deeper, he found, he had dug into himself.
There is a distych by Novalis that comes to mind here. It refers to the myth
o f the veiled statue o f Isis in Thais which nobody must lift for the Truth
would destroy him.
Einem gelang es, er hob den Schleier der Goettin zu Sais

Aber was sah er, er sah— W under der W under— sich selbst.
One m an succeeded in lifting the veil of the image o f Sais

Tell me then, w hat did he see? wonder o f wonders— himself.
I hope I do not shock you if I return to my conviction that to some extent

this will always be the fate o f the historian, the greater the more so. O f
course this intense subjectivity that is inseparable from his involvement,
from the impulse that drives him to engage with his material, in no way
搅拌
detracts from the possibility o f objective results. The facts he churns up, the
evidence he brings to life, the questions he asks remain when the springs
that set it all in motion are unwound and stilled. The intensity o f Warburg s
search, the passion behind his questioning have inspired others to follow
where he first hacked a way through the thick and thorny undergrowth. It
was he who first staked out the paths o f the mythographic traditions and o f
astrological imagery and thus initiated the iconography o f the Renaissance.
Above all it was he who had to ignore what he called the frontierguards o f
specialisms, o f departments and fields o f study. He knew that human culture
was one, and that to explore it, a specialised library confined to one aspect o f
冒失
civilisation is never enough. The boldness and vision, the hard work and cir
cumspection with which he set out to remedy this situation and to forge an
instrum ent for cultural research as he conceived it, is what I want you to
remember most at this centenary of his birth. Both in its arrangement and
in its holdings the library was to embody W arburgs faith in m ans need to
remember his origins and to come to terms with them. It was thus to be an
aid in m ans continuous search for enlightenment, reminding him of past
trium phs when astronomy emerged from the dark fears of astrology, chem -
istry from alchemy, or mathematics from num ber mysticism. But it is sym-
bolic that Warburg always separated the texts from comment in his library,
keeping the evidence from its interpretation. Those who reconsider it are
not bound by the reading of the past. Yet, if ever there was an institute that
bore the nam e of its founder with justification, it is ours, for what Aby
Warburg left us was not money but tools of research and the impulse to ask
questions to which the library may well hold the answer. If I may search the
collective m em ory for a formula which can be used rhetorically but can also
be charged with fresh meaning let me say with conviction: Si monumentum
requiris, circumspice ... Warburg s real m onum ent is this library.
notes
1 This text was delivered as a lecture at the Warburg Institute of the University of
London in 1966. 1 would like to thank Sir Ernst for allowing its publication in this
volume. It was referred to by Carlo Ginzburg in “From Aby W arburg to
E. H. Gombrich: A Problem of M ethod” in Myths, Emblems, Clues, London 1990,
p. 193: “Thanks to the great courtesy of the author, to w hom I express my heartfelt
thanks, I have been able to see the unpublished manuscript o f this talk, as well as
o f the other commemorative address and, in a slightly revised version, in London
on the centenary of W arburg’s birth. To this day [1966] the latter rem ains the
richest and m ost penetrating interpretation o f W arburg.” This and subsequent
footnotes are by the editor. I would like to thank Linda M archant for her assistance
in producing a word-processed docum ent from the original manuscript. RW.
2 Details along with a further Italian publication by Bing are given in G om brich’s
biography (see footnote 3) along with a bibliography of publications by and about
Warburg.
3 Dr. W arburg failed to complete this book.
4 Readers will know that this was finally published by the W arburg Institute, Aby
Warburg: An Intellectual Biography, with a memoir on the history o f the library by
F. Saxl, London 1970; reprinted with a preface to the second edition, London 1986.
{ 54} ERNST H. GOMBRICH
5 G ertrud Bing, “A. M. W arburg” Journal o f the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 28
(1965).
6 A ppropriate illustrations to this lecture, along with the sources for quotations,
may be found in Aby Warburg.
7 F. Saxl, “Three Florentines: H erbert H orne, A. W arburg, Jaques Mesnil,” published
in Lectures, W arburg Institute London, 1957.
the nineteenth
century notion of
a pagan revival
ernst h. gombrich
“w a s bedeutet das nachleben der
Antike?” This formulation o f the

problem to which Aby Warburg
intended to devote the researches o f
his Institute has proved difficult to
translate into English.1 It can be rendered approximately, “ How are we to
interpret the continued revivals o f elements o f ancient culture in Western
civilization?” But however we may wish to formulate his aims, it is clear
that the very form o f Warburg’s question implies a doubt. Thus it would
seem absurd, at the first glance, to link the name o f Warburg with that o f
A. -F. Rio. For Rio, themilitant Rom an Catholic2 never harboured any
doubt about the significance o f classical survivals into the Christian era.
He saw the resurrection o f “ Paganism” as a symptom o f decadence and
corruption, a negation o f all the values that made the Art o f the Middle
Ages so dear to him. Having first uttered this challenge in 1836 in a book
which bears the misleading title De la poésie Chrétienne , he elaborated his
views in the four (unillustrated) volumes De VArt Chrétien (1861),3 which
{55}
read like the report o f a stern school master rebuking every lapse from the
purity o f the école mystique into naturalism or classicism as a fall from
grace.
Rio thus represents the extreme “ right wing” o f 19th-century interpreters
of the Italian Renaissance that looked with nostalgia at the lost values o f the
Age o f Faith. The opposite line, o f course, was taken by the spokesmen o f the
left wing, the champions o f progress and o f emancipation. For them
the revival o f antiquity signalled the victory over the Dark Ages and the
birth o f Modern Man. What both schools o f historians had in common was
the conviction o f the antithetical nature o f the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance. The first was “ spiritual,” “ ascetic,” “ otherworldly,” the other sen
suous, libertine and realistic. A compromise between these contrasts
appeared to be impossible.
It is well known that Aby Warburg came to oppose these views that were so
obviously colored by the conflicts of 19th-century thought between the claims
o f religion and those of science. Yet, he too took as his initial starting point
this prevailing conviction o f the wholly antithetical character o f the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance, a conviction that was not even explicitly opposed in
Jacob Burckhardt’s masterpiece The Civilization o f the Renaissance.
Originally it was indeed this reading o f history that aroused Warburg’s
interest in the transition from the one extreme to the other which must have
occurred in the 15th-century, more specifically in Quattrocento Florence.
Devoting his researches to the age and milieu o f Lorenzo de’ Medici, he
came to the conclusion that that generation must have been able to embrace
these contradictions and to accept both systems o f values at the same time.
The typical representative o f that generation, Warburg wrote “verneint die
hemmende Pedanterie des ‘entweder oder’ auf alien Gebieten, nicht etwa,
weil er die Gegensàtze nicht in ihrer Schàrfe spiirt, sondern weil er sie fiir
vereinbar halt.” (“ Denies the inhibiting pedantry o f ‘either-or’ in all spheres
not, surely, because he does not feel these contrasts in all their acuteness, but
because he considers them to be capable o f reconciliation.” )4 Warburg had
come frequently to describe this capacity o f uniting opposites in the terms of
“ Schwingung” or “ Schwingungsweite” (the range o f oscillations).5
Strangely enough it is this diagnosis that appears to be anticipated in a
passage from Rio’s De L’A rt Chrétien , albeit with a very different bias. In the
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOTION OF A PAGAN REVIVAL { 57}
second o f his chapters on La Renaissance et les Médicis we read that the end
邪恶的
o f the 15th century witnessed a strong reaction against the nefarious
influence Rio attributes to Lorenzo de’ Medici aiming at the trium ph o f
paganism, o f naturalism and o f sensuality, combined with the excessive cult
o f antiquity. According to Rio, this revival o f Christian values began with
Perugino and culminated in the sermons o f Savonarola. It was this move
ment that gave rise to remarkable oscillations within the Florentine school:6
The outcome was a mixture, or in other words, works alternatively inspired by

the City of God and by the City of the World. The history of the artists who
found themselves pulled and buffeted by these two kinds o f inspiration p ro -
vides an almost dramatic interest and it needs a self-denying ordinance to pass
over the redundant details .7
Two painters are singled out by Rio as those whose art would pay more
attention in this respect than he was able to give them: Sandro Botticelli and
Domenico Ghirlandaio, the two painters, in fact, on whose œuvre Warburg
was to concentrate during the years o f his Florentine researches.
He had, o f course, chosen Botticellis mythologies The Birth o f Venus and
the Primavera as subject o f his doctoral thesis which aimed at analyzing the
way in which the age liked to visualize classical antiquity.8 Not that this early
thesis shows any indication that Warburg had read Rio at that time. It is
indeed noteworthy that the term and concept o f paganism (Heidentum)
does not occur in Warburg s paper which seeks to explain the style of
Botticelli’s mythologies by referring to the ideas (Vorstellungen) which the
age had formed o f the classical gods and their world. These ideas had
nothing to do with beliefs. Warburg rather sees them embodied in certain
flourishes, not to say mannerisms, which Polizianos poetry borrowed from
Ovid and other ancient writers and which he is assumed to have recom
mended to Botticelli in order to make his figures evoke the charm o f classical
Greece. The most characteristic embodiment o f this charm Warburg found
in the figures o f lightly-clad maidens whose garments and hair are seen
fluttering in the wind. While it is obvious that he responded to the sensuality
and erotic appeal o f this figure he calls the “ nympha,” he nowhere links it
with anti-Christian sentiments or beliefs. He would hardly have been able to
do so, since one o f the key passages justifying the designation o f this formula
as a nymph is a remark in Leonardo’s Trattato where the device o f clinging

garments is described as suitable for a nymph or an angel.9 Moreover, the
whole tendency of Warburgs paper conflicts with the interpretation o f the
Renaissance as a breakthrough o f pagan tendencies. After all, Botticelli is
柔韧，圆滑倾向于
here criticized in conclusion for having been too “pliable,” too prone to yield
流行的
to modish preferences and thereby compromising his artistic integrity.
When Warburg sent his printed thesis to Jacob Burckhardt, the great
scholar wished to encourage him to devote further study to “ Botticelli the

mystical theologian.” 10 No doubt, the advice went against the grain, but it
牵强的猜测
would not be farfetched to surmise that Warburg turned to the book in
which Botticelli is indeed identified with the “ école mystique” and treated
(against all historical evidence) among the disciples o f Savonarola.11 Yet,
even if Warburg read the uninviting pages o f Rio’s chapter, they are likely to
涌出的
have repelled him because o f their gushing sentimentality, singling out that
“ the expression o f a sweet and mysterious melancholy which no other
painter could render as well as Botticelli.” 12
In an article o f 1898 which reads like Warburg’s answer to Burckhardt
(who had meanwhile died), he speaks of the attraction which the “ dream
like sentimentality o f the M agnificat with its mysterious ... melancholy” 13
施加
exerts on those o f his contemporaries whom he describes as the modern
admirers o f Botticelli’s art and from whom he wishes to dissociate his own
approach. Maybe it was different with Ghirlandaio. Here the link may have
been formed by another French writer o f the 19th century, Hippolyte Taine,
whose Voyage en Italie o f 1866 Warburg certainly had read. In his descrip
tions o f Ghirlandaio’s frescoes of S. Maria Novella, Taine observes how the
artist dresses his figures in a fashion that “ unites opposites ... and harm o
nizes the antique and the modern.” He sees in them the reflection o f a
society “ demimoderne et demi-féodale.” In my book on Warburg14 I have
suggested that this passage may well contain the germ cell o f that aborted
book Warburg and his friend Jolies intended to write together on precisely
the figure in that fresco in which Warburg recognized the “ nympha” o f his
doctoral thesis. Taine describes her as
The servant who brings the fruits, draped like a statue, w ith the élan, the
gaiety and force of a classical nymph, brings it about that the two ages and the
two beauties unite in the naivety of the same genuine feeling.15
THE NI NETEENTH CENTURY NOTI ON OF A PAGAN REVIVAL {59}
It is more than likely that Taine saw the two ages through the spectacle of
Rio’s account, though in contrast to his reactionary contemporary his bias
was o f course all on the side o f the new beauty. Yet it turned out that
Warburg also had his reservations about Taine s one-sided interpretation. In
情感迸发
one o f his sallies against the current enthusiasms of his time Warburg shows
himself distinctly hostile to this kind o f oversimplification. Speaking o f the
secular appearance o f Ghirlandaio’s biblical scenes he remarks ironically that
“that would be the moment for the northern superman on his Easter holiday
to experience the divinely pagan freedom o f the Renaissance individual.” 16
(Das ware der Augenblick, wo der nordische Übermensch in den Osterferien
die heidnische gôttliche Freiheit des Renaissanceindividuums empfindet.)
And yet, Warburg himself was not able wholly to resist the identification
嘲笑
with paganism he had ridiculed. In his summing up he writes that the
nympha in her true essence is an elemental sprite, a pagan goddess in exile
(ihrem wirklichen Wesen nach, ist sie ein Elementargeist, eine heidnische
Gôttin im Exil).17
His meaning becomes clear in his discussion o f another formula, the
formula o f conclamatio , that Verrocchio adapted from an antique sarcopha
gus for the tomb o f a Florentine woman who had died in childbirth.18 Once
more Warburg is moved to identify these passions with pagan impulses
which remind him o f the ritual o f wailing women. “ Pagan” here assumes the
meaning it was to hold for Warburg throughout his life, the antithesis o f
that restraint which he associated both with Christian ethics and rational
sophrosyne.
Thus what Warburg came to mean by pagan has as little in common with
R io’s interpretation as it has with Taine’s. Rather one might think o f
Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy with its emphasis on the dionysiac element in
ancient religion. Critical as he was o f some aspect o f Nietzsche’s interpreta
tion,19 it was certainly this view o f paganism that had stimulated Warburg’s
interest in the rituals o f the American Indians. “ Pagan” meant less a set of
beliefs than the clusters o f primitive impulses and reactions that distin
野蛮人
guished the savage from the civilized man o f reason.
When Warburg came to concern himself with Ghirlandaio’s frescoes in
the Cappella Sassetti where he had identified portraits o f the members o f
the Medici family,20 he first speaks o f pagan tendencies not in relation to
{6 θ} ERNST H. GOMBRICH
classical antiquity but in connection with life-size ex-votos o f wax which

crowded the church o f SS. Annunziata, a form o f imagery that the church
permitted to the descendants o f the “ pagan-superstitious Etruscans” and
which Warburg approximates to Ghirlandaios naturalism.21
Needless to say this view somewhat complicated Warburg’s analysis o f
those oscillations Rio found in the œuvre o f Ghirlandaio and which he had
regretted not to be able to describe in greater detail. For now it is not so
much the dramatic tension between the “ city o f G od” and the “ city o f the
world” that Warburg seeks to uncover, but rather that between the city o f the
world, the self-satisfied burghers o f Florence, and the memories o f an unruly
dionysiac past that breaks through in the nympha and in the turm oil o f
Ghirlandaio’s Massacre of the Innocents.22
The originality o f Warburg’s analysis o f Ghirlandaio’s art here rests on
his rejection o f the conventional notions o f stylistic developments and his
adoption o f that linguistic or rhetorical conception that he had guided his
演说家
approach to Botticelli’s mythologies. Like the orator or the writer the artist is
endeavoring to extend his vocabulary in order to do justice to the subject he
is asked to express. It was this need that had lead Botticelli to widen his
储备
repertory by borrowing the formulas o f “ accessories in motion” from classi
cal texts and ancient monuments. Ghirlandaio went further; in his altar
painting for the Cappella Sassetti23 in S. Trinita he can be seen to take over
the formula for pious devotion which he had learnt from the Portinari altar-
piece o f Hugo van der Goes, but also to display his awareness o f classical art
in the shape o f the arches and the sarcophagus that served as the cradle o f
the Lord.
In Warburg’s view this extension o f the range o f expression finds his
precise analogy in the psychology o f Ghirlandaio’s patron, the banker
Francesco Sassetti. He had devoted an impressive passage to that psychology
in his paper o f 1902 from which I have quoted his account o f oscillations
above. Yet it was only five years later in his publication on Francesco
Sassetti’s last will and testament (1907)24 that he attempted to clinch the
equation, as it were. Once more he postulated that the text o f Francesco’s
testament can be seen to reflect the same oscillations between “ medieval”
trust in God and the self-reliance o f Renaissance m an ... equally removed
from monkish-ascetic flight from the world and a boastful affirmation o f
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOTION OF A PAGAN REVIVAL {6ι}
worldlines” (“ zwischen ‘mittelalterlichem’ Gottvertrauen und dem Selbst-

vertrauen des Renaissancemenschen... gleich weit entfernt von mônchisch-
weltfliichtiger Askese, wie von weltbejahender Renommage” ).25
The modern reader who tries to find his way through this densely argued
paper, may well ask himself in the end whether the evidence Warburg had
assembled from legal documents, philosophical texts, personal emblems
and, o f course, from works o f art with such patience and erudition, really
bears out his thesis? For though one may readily agree that Francesco
Sassetti in the document published by Warburg, shows himself a man o f
honor, eager to safeguard the reputation o f his family, are these really senti
ments that mark him as partly “ medieval?” And are his passing references to
the whims o f Fortuna really a symptom o f the emergent paganism o f the
Renaissance? Was not the wheel o f Fortune one o f the dominant symbols o f
the Middle Ages that occurred even on the façades o f Cathedrals?26 In any
case, is the capacity to “ oscillate” between apparently contradictory attitudes
really confined to representatives o f that particular age o f transition? Was
there ever an age that was wholly monolithic? Whether or not Warburg con
sciously asked himself these questions, he surely came to see increasingly
that what he was trying to analyze was not so much the psychology o f a
given historical period but rather that o f human civilization as such. In
developing this insight he, o f course, left the simplistic reading o f the
Renaissance represented by both Rio and Taine far behind. As he was to
write to his friend Mesnil in 1926, he wished him to add to the formula “Was
bedeutet das Nachleben der Antike?” the words “A problem that later, in the
course o f the years, was extended to the attempts to understand the meaning
o f the survival o f paganism for the whole o f European civilization” 27 (“ Ein
Problem, das sich spàter im Laufe der Jahre zu dem Versuch, die Bedeutung
des Nachlebens des Heidentums fiir die europàische Gesamtkultur zu
erfassen, erweiterte” ).
Dare one suggest in the light o f this remark that the title chosen by the
editors o f Warburg’s collected works Die Erneuerung der heidnischen Antike:
kulturwissenschaftliche Beitràge zur Geschichte der europâischen Renaissance
moves his oeuvre somewhat too close to the preoccupations o f his 19th
century predecessors such as Rio and Taine?28 For Warburg paganism, that is
to say the primitive impulses that threaten, sophrosyne had ceased to be a
特有
problem peculiar to the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
because paganism in that meaning o f the term was never asleep and could
therefore not awake. It was up to anyone o f us to come to terms with these
impulses as Francesco Sassetti and Ghirlandaio had so triumphantly
exemplified.
notes
1 See my Aby Warburg, An Intellectual Biography, London, 1970 (henceforward

abbreviated as Gombrich, Warburg), pp. 16,27, and 49.
2 See Sister Mary Camille Bowe, François Rio, sa place dans le renouveau catholique
en Europe, 1797-1874, Paris, 1938. Despite its som ewhat hagiographie tone the
book is rewarding because of Rio’s many contacts with leading figures in France,
Germany, Italy and England.
3 Henceforward quoted as L’A rt Chrétien.
4 Aby W arburg, Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin, 1932 (henceforward quoted as
Schriften), volume 1, p. 101.
5 Schriften, pp. 110,151,154,158,565.
6 UArt Chrétien, p. 379.
7 Ibid. [Il en résultat des produits mixtes, ou plutôt des produits alternativem ent
inspirés par la cité de Dieu et par la cité du m onde. L’histoire des artistes qui se
trouvaient ainsi tiraillés et ballottés par ces deux ordres d ’inspirations, offre un
intérêt presque dram atique, et il faut une sorte d ’abnégation pour en suprim er
même les détails superflus.]
8 “Sandro Botticelli’s G eburt der Venus und Frühling” (1893), Schriften, pp. 5-57.
9 Schriften, p. 52.
10 Schriften, p. 308.
11 UArt Chrétien, volume 2, pp. 466-480.
12 Ibid, pp. 474, 5. [expression de douce et mystérieuse mélancholie que nul autre
paintre n’a su rendre aussi bien que Botticelli]
13 Schriften, p. 64.
14 Gombrich, Warburg, p. 106.
15 [la servante qui apporte des fruits, en robe de statue, a l’élan, l’allégresse, la force
d ’une nymphe antique, en sorte que les deux âges et les deux beautés se rejoignent
et s’unissent dans la naïveté du même sentim ent vrai.]
16 Ibid, p. 118
17 Ibid, p. 124.
18 Ibid, p. 126.
19 Ibid, pp. 12,184/5,191·
20 “Bildniskunst u nd florentinisches B ürgertum ” (1902), Schriften, pp. 89-126.
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY NOTION OF A PAGAN REVIVAL {63}
21 Ibid, p. 99.
22 Schriften , p. 157.
23 Schriften , pp. 155-157, 205.
24 “Francesco Sassettis letzwillige Verfügung” (1907), Schriften, pp. 127-158.
25 Schriften , p. 151.
26 This is not the place to analyze in greater detail W arburg’s interpretation of the
changing images of Fortuna , replacing the vision o f Boethius with that of Occasio
derived from Ausonius, nor the significance he attributes to the crest of Giovanni
Rucellai’s coat of arms. Schriften , pp. 145-151.

27 Gombrich, Warburg , pp. 307.
28 The same applies to the title of the Italian selection o f W arburg’s work, La
rinascita del paganesimo antico , Florence, 1966.

aby warburg and
the cultural
historian karl
lamprecht
kathryn brush
IT HAS LONG BEEN RECOGNIZED THAT
Aby Warburg’s study o f Renaissance

art and society drew important stim
ulus from the branch o f historical
inquiry known in German-speaking
Europe as Kulturwissenschaft or Kulturgeschichte (the science or history of
culture). Those who have studied the cultural historical components o f
Warburg’s thought have traditionally pointed to the paradigmatic
significance o f the writings o f Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897), the celebrated
Swiss cultural historian for whom Warburg professed great adm iration.1
Burckhardt’s richly textured portrayals o f Italian Renaissance history and
culture in such books as Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien (The
种子的
Civilization o f the Renaissance in Italy, first published in i860)2 were seminal
in determining the focus o f Warburg’s research, and in encouraging his
exploration o f the broader cultural contexts o f art. It is less well known,
however, that another important cultural historian also provided Warburg
with decisive conceptual and methodological impetus— a cultural historian
whom, unlike Burckhardt, Warburg had experienced at first hand during his
{65}
{66} KATHRYN BRUSH
years o f intellectual formation. This was Karl Lamprecht (1856-1915), the

most prominent practitioner o f cultural history in late nineteenth-century
Germany, and the most imaginative and controversial thinker within the
German historical community during that era.
Lamprecht’s name is very familiar to historians. He is usually identified
with his twelve-volume Deutsche Geschichte (German History; 1891-1909)
and three-volume Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter (German
Economic Life in the Middle Ages; 1885-1886), as well as with a prolonged

methodological dispute his work provoked within the German historical
profession.3 He has rarely figured, however, within the historiography o f art
history. This is remarkable, for abundant evidence shows that Lamprecht’s
work had a formative impact on the development o f the art historical disci
pline during the 1880s and early 1890s— precisely those years when the
“ scientific” discipline o f art history was in the process o f being institutional
ized within German universities.4
Although Lamprecht was greatly influenced by the older generation of
cultural historians, including Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl (1823-1897), Anton
Springer (1825-1891) and Burckhardt in particular, he recognized that their
work was largely unsystematic, especially with regard to investigations o f
non-historical areas o f inquiry, and that it was aimed principally towards a
humanistic ideal o f education (Bildung ) rather than towards a formalized
“ science” ( Wissenschaft) o f culture. During the 1880s Lamprecht undertook
to forge an updated conceptual fram ework for cultural history, one that
integrated, for the first time, the scientific findings o f newly developed disci
plines such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, ethnology and art
history.5 In the process o f constructing the framework for his cultural his
torical program , Lamprecht came to assign a central role to art. His
modernized conception and practice of cultural history as a genuine inter
disciplinary enterprise was in the vanguard o f historical research during the
mid- and late 1880s. It was at this time that Warburg and other first-
generation art historians came into direct personal contact with Lamprecht.
This essay explores the intriguing issue o f the import o f Lamprecht for
W arburgs developing thought, acknowledging Lamprecht as one o f the
many critical factors that helped to inform Warburg’s approach to the analy
sis o f cultural phenomena.6 There are three parts to this discussion. First, it
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT {6 7 }
is necessary to portray the principal components o f Lamprecht’s method,

drawing special attention to his vision o f an interactive dynamics linking art
and other manifestations o f culture. This is followed by an examination o f
the evidence for W arburgs critical (and uncritical) grappling with
Lamprecht’s ideas both during and after his student years. The third section
positions Warburg’s individual responses to Lamprecht in relation to
broader intellectual currents within the developing field o f art history at the
end o f the nineteenth century.

Warburg first became acquainted with Lamprecht’s work during his
student years (1886-1889) at the University o f Bonn.7 Lamprecht had been
appointed to the History Seminar at Bonn in 1880 after receiving his univer
sity education between 1874 and 1879 at the universities o f Gottingen, Leipzig
and Munich, where his work concentrated on political and economic
history. He taught in the History Seminar at Bonn until 1890, when he was
transferred to Marburg. The following year he moved to the University o f
Leipzig, where he later founded the Institut fur Kultur- und
Universalgeschichte (Institute for Cultural and Universal History). He
remained in Leipzig until his death in 1915.
From the outset, Lamprecht’s decision to focus his career on cultural
history was considered unorthodox by his colleagues. It did not conform to
the normative form o f political history, developed by Leopold von Ranke
(1795-1886) and his followers, which dominated the German historical pro
fession at the time.8 Instead of narrating the events o f political, military and
biographical history, Lamprecht aimed to formulate an histoire totale that
would result in a broader, more comprehensive understanding o f the collec
tive mentality (Mentalitàt , Seelenleben) o f a civilization— German civiliza
tion in particular— as it evolved and changed over time. His wide-ranging
approach and belief that the history o f a particular moment must be studied
in all o f its manifestations encouraged him to draw analogies between forms
o f material culture, such as political institutions and economic structures,
and the manifestions o f “ ideal” or intellectual culture, which in his view
embraced artistic and literary phenomena, music, philosophy, religious
拓荒突袭
beliefs and the like. During the 1880s Lamprecht made pathfinding forays
into art history and became increasingly convinced o f the symptomatic
value o f art as an index o f broader cultural behaviour. In his view, the visual
{68} KATHRYN BRUSH
arts provided the only clear manifestation, or objectification, o f intellectual

culture that could offer access to the mentality and collective psyche o f the
era in which the art forms were produced.
Lamprecht’s attempt to construct a picture o f a particular historical
period through its art was by no means without precedent. Carl Schnaase
(1798-1875), Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893) and Jacob Burckhardt had earlier
posited an essential unity between art and larger historical structures. Their
understanding o f how such relationships functioned had, however, rested on

generalities and was largely intuitive. Lamprecht, by contrast, set out to
provide specific demonstrations o f his hypotheses, introducing data bor
rowed from the latest scholarship in the social sciences (especially the fields
o f sociology, psychology, ethnology and anthropology) to help support his
claim that fundamental commonalities linked all dimensions o f human
experience at any given moment. According to his scheme, events in the
material realm (for example, economics, politics or demographics) provided
the catalyst for developments in the ideal or intellectual realm, where aes
thetic sensibilities, tastes and moral attitudes took shape. Drawing on a
system o f analogies, he proceeded to posit the mutual dependency o f the
清晰的
two realms. By virtue of this equation, works o f art were distinctly legible
barometers o f the central outlooks and sensibilities o f the society in which
they took shape.9
During his years in the Rhineland, Lamprecht attempted to contain the
grand scope o f his undertaking by developing a periodization scheme that
systematically divided German history into a succession o f cultural epochs
( Kulturzeitalter ) characterized by a stepwise advance o f differentiated
psychic states or mental attitudes ( Seelenzustande ) .10 At this time,
Lamprecht’s cultural historical work (in contrast to that o f Burckhardt)
focused on the Middle Ages. This was not due to a simple chronological
preference. In Lamprecht’s view, the Middle Ages was an era that offered
vital glimpses into the “youth” o f the collective life o f the German people
and nation.
Lamprecht’s unconventional intellectual program aroused suspicion
among academic historians, who considered cultural history as a field o f
endeavor best left to dilettantes rather than serious scholars.11 Because o f
根深蒂固的
deeply entrenched research biases within the German historical profession,
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT {69}
Lamprecht’s ambition to comprehend history in all o f its dimensions and his

公然的
flagrant transgression o f the established conceptual boundaries o f the disci
pline could only be regarded as disquieting. Nevertheless, during the 1880s,
his experimental work met with considerable success and he was widely
acknowledged as one o f the most promising figures within the German his
torical community. This situation changed for the worse, however, with the
appearance o f the first five volumes o f his Deutsche Geschichte (1891-1895).
Lamprecht’s depiction o f German civilization over the centuries as an

orderly progression through successive stages o f consciousness was vehe
mently attacked by his conservative colleagues, who viewed his bold, cross-
sectional visions o f history and culture as a direct challenge to their
venerable notions o f what “ meaningful” history should be about. Hostilities
升级羽毛丰满的
escalated into full-fledged academic warfare, and during the 1890s
Lamprecht’s cultural historical work served as the focus o f a bitter method
ological dispute ( Methodenstreit ) within the German historical
community.12
Much o f the criticism o f Lamprecht’s work was justified. The system of
analogies on which his intellectual edifice rested was flawed and bore little
demonstrable relationship to actual circumstances. As Roger Chickering has
相互的
recently observed, the historian’s assumptions about the reciprocal impact of
the material and ideal realms, as well as his tendency to abstract large visions
无畏的
from the study o f particulars, were grounded in “ audacious speculation.” 13
困扰
Lamprecht’s work was also plagued by a number of inconsistencies and doc
umentary errors, which arose from his tendency to work quickly and often
狼吞虎咽地
carelessly. Moreover, although he read voraciously, he never fully digested
what he read and sent his unedited manuscripts directly to the press. His
好战的
combative personality, limitless energy and lack o f capacity for self-criticism
论争
only contributed to a heightening o f the polemics during the 1890s and
beyond.
败坏
Although Lamprecht was ultimately discredited by his orthodox oppo
nents, he was undoubtedly the most imaginative thinker within the German
historical community during the late nineteenth century. Significantly, the
decade o f the 1880s, which he spent at the University o f Bonn, represents the
most fertile and creative period in the development of his thought, as well as
the period o f his greatest success. At that time, the controversies surrounding
{ 70} KATHRYN BRUSH
his work had scarcely begun. Lamprecht’s research and teaching activities in
Bonn coincided with the arrival, in the second half o f the decade, o f the first
group o f students to concentrate their study on art history at the Rhenish
好奇的
university. Among them were three inquisitive young men who were to go
on to important careers in the developing discipline, namely, Aby Warburg
(1866-1929), Wilhelm Vôge (1868-1952) and Paul Clemen (1866-1947).14 All
three students enrolled in Lamprecht’s courses. Documents from this era
demonstrate that Lamprecht’s comprehensive approach to the interpretation

of history and culture, which was then on the frontiers o f knowledge, made
a deep impression on his young listeners. Although Warburg is the figure of
prim ary concern in this essay, the later work o f these three individuals indi
cates that Lamprecht was instrumental in helping to shape their understand
ing o f the larger cultural resonances o f artistic creation, as well as o f the
scope, nature and purposes o f art historical inquiry.
During the late 1880s, when Warburg, Vôge and Clemen were attending
Lamprecht’s courses, the historian was putting the finishing touches on his
conceptual scheme. He had already completed a number o f weighty publica
tions and was in the process of launching several other major research initia
tives. Most o f these projects concentrated on the early Middle Ages, an era
for which consistent written documentation was often lacking. Thus, it is
not surprising that Lamprecht’s study o f the visual arts focused on illum i
nated manuscripts which he often encountered in the course o f his archival
work. His simultaneous contemplation o f historical and artistic documents
must have prompted him to consider how close comparative study o f the
individual characteristics o f illuminated manuscripts (e.g., scripts, painting
techniques, ornamental features, styles o f representation, the gestures and
costumes o f figurai elements), when examined in conjunction with the
specifics o f their historical and social contexts, could afford insights into the
developing national consciousness ( Volksseele) o f the German people.
Lamprecht’s belief that images embodied, and thus could reveal, the full
spectrum o f the expressive energies o f their day was already evident in his
important article o f 1881 on the Codex Egberti and the Golden Gospels
(Codex Aureus) o f Echternach.15 His comparative analysis o f these two
Ottonian manuscripts is noteworthy both for its exacting scrutiny o f indi
vidual elements and for its broad synthetic vision. This article also displayed
another distinguishing feature o f Lamprecht’s work during the 1880s: that

conceptually and procedurally, he drew no boundaries between his purely
historical and art historical practice. This tendency was even more apparent
in his book Initial-Ornamentik des VIII. bis XIII. Jahrhunderts (Decorated
Initials from the Eighth to Thirteenth Centuries), which appeared the
following year.16
In this ground-breaking publication o f 1882 Lamprecht endeavored,
through the comparative analysis o f decorated initials, to portray the evolu

tion o f a specifically Germanic ornamental sensibility from the period o f the
tribal wanderings to the era o f the Hohenstaufen. The conception o f this
remarkable project, in which he extracted large views o f important cultural,
historical and psychological shifts from the study o f seemingly insignificant
artistic details (i.e., the ornamentation o f initials in manuscripts o f various
eras), was without precedent in either historical or art historical circles of
the day.17 Several years later, when Warburg and his peers encountered
设计
Lamprecht, he was devising a related project o f even broader scope. This was
a collaborative investigation o f the so-called Ada Gospels, a manuscript con
nected with the court school o f Charlemagne in the years around 800. This
讯问
comprehensive interrogation o f the manuscript and its historical and intel
lectual milieu, which appeared in 1889 under the rubric Die Trierer Ada-
Handschrifty was intended to shed new light on a particularly crucial
moment in the genesis o f the German nation.18 The theses and results o f
these novel projects informed Lamprecht’s teaching at Bonn, as did the
research for his three-volume work Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter
(German Economic Life in the Middle Ages) o f 1885-1886.19 In this m onu
mental study, which appeared just before the young art history students
enrolled in his classes, Lamprecht sought to construct a “ total” view o f the
material culture o f the Mosel region by studying the interactive dynamics of
topography, demography and economic behaviour, and o f the religious and
legal structures in the region. Documents, rather than the deeds of individu
als, served as the focus o f this study, for which he examined some 30,000
records o f a legal and contractual sort.
By the summer o f 1887, when Warburg, Vôge and Clemen began to enroll
in Lamprecht’s lectures and tutorials, the historian had assembled a wide-
ranging collection o f interdisciplinary materials and exploratory ideas,
{ 72} KATHRYN BRUSH
which he eagerly shared with his students.20 Lamprecht was a gifted speaker
and engaging teacher. The memoirs, diaries and correspondence o f his art
history students reveal that they were captivated by the young and approach
able professor, who was at the time only about ten years older than they
were.21 We can still imagine what it must have been like to be in the seminar
room as he vividly portrayed the multifarious kinds o f historical documents,
including art works, that could enable the modern scholar to gain access to
the fundamental mind-sets and cultural behaviour o f past civilizations. Vôge

repeatedly declared that he found Lamprecht’s cross-sectional view o f
history “ fresh” and “ invigorating” for his own work in art history, while
Warburg registered his obvious enthusiasm for Lamprecht’s teachings in his
diaries.22 At this time, university enrollments were very small, a situation
which further encouraged lively intellectual and social exchanges between
professor and students. Clemen’s unpublished memoirs convey a sense of
the intimate atmosphere o f a tutorial on German economic history which
Lamprecht held at his home during the winter semester o f 1887-1888. All
four students were art historians, and Clemen reports that he, Vôge and
Warburg were fascinated by Lamprecht’s first-hand demonstrations o f how
the study o f everyday archival records could help provide a key to under
standing a society’s Seelenleben or Seelenzustànde (mental life or psychic
远足
conditions).23 His lectures and tutorials also included excursions on week
ends to museums in Cologne and Bonn and to other relevant historical and
artistic monuments in the region.
入学考试
Warburg’s matriculation records show that he took a total o f four courses
with Lamprecht during his stay in Bonn. His notebooks from three o f the
classes survive and offer valuable records o f the sorts o f ideas and method
ological perspectives Lamprecht imparted to his students.24 Warburg’s notes
from Lamprecht’s lectures on Rhenish art history (summer 1887) and the
development o f German culture in the Middle Ages (winter 1887-1888) are
particularly informative in this regard. The course on Rhenish art drew
largely on concepts explored in the historian’s studies o f medieval m anu
scripts, and emphasized the reciprocity between artistic expression and
broader historical and intellectual phenomena. These ideas were incorpo
rated into Lamprecht’s broader examination o f German cultural history, a
解释
lecture course in which he expounded his principal theses and which there
fore merits particularly close consideration.
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT { 73}
The 95 densely written pages o f W arburgs notebook indicate that the

young man followed his professor’s exposé o f the development o f German
medieval culture with great attentiveness. Warburg underlined a number o f
sections o f special interest to him and also made numerous annotations in
the margins, suggesting that he repeatedly re-read and contemplated his
lecture notes.25 Lamprecht began the course by surveying “ antiquarian”
understandings o f Kulturgeschichte formulated by figures such as Descartes,
Rousseau, Hegel, Taine, Buckle and Darwin, and then proceeded to elaborate
the theoretical foundations and methodological perspectives requisite for
the modern practice o f cultural history. Drawing on an extensive biblio
graphy, Lamprecht emphasized that it was only through the investigation of
all human action and thought that the cultural historian could comprehend
a past society’s accomplishments, beliefs and aspirations.26 To achieve this
goal, Lamprecht advocated the study o f the scientific findings o f comple
mentary disciplines (he termed them kulturgeschichtliche Hilfsdisziplinen ),
which in his view embraced such diverse fields as constitutional history, lin
guistics, philology, art history, economics, anthropology and social psycho
logy (Vôlkerpsychologié) ,27 The bibliography alone, which he communicated
to his students, was extraordinary. To Warburg and the other young art
history students, Lamprecht’s consideration o f the “ total” aspects o f the
social and cultural behaviour o f a given era— ranging from literature and
economics to religious beliefs and rituals— must have seemed to be not only
excitingly modern, but also to offer a rich and challenging interdisciplinary
framework for the study o f artistic monuments.
Warburg’s notes show that Lamprecht devoted the remainder o f the
course to exploring the various phases he perceived in the unfolding o f the
German national consciousness; they also demonstrate that the historian’s
morphological scheme for the Kulturzeitalter was well developed by this
time.28 According to Lamprecht, three principal phases could be distin
guished in German medieval civilization: “ Symbolism” (to ca. 350 A.D.),
“ Typism” (350-1050) and “ Conventionalism” (1050-1450).29 In characterizing
each o f these eras, he gave special priority to the visual arts as outward
expressions o f the dominant mentalities o f their day.
Lamprecht projected the “ Symbolic” period as representing the earliest
or “primitive” stage in the rise o f the German Volk.30 In view o f Warburg’s
growing concern with the diverse resonances o f classical antiquity in later
{ 74} KATHRYN BRUSH
eras (das Nachleben der Antike), it is understandable that he would have

副本配对物
taken considerable interest in this northern European counterpart (i.e.,
Germanic antiquity).31 His notes show that Lamprecht drew on the latest
archaeological and ethnological research in order to analyze the tribal
organization and social, legal and economic institutions o f the early
Germanic peoples.32 During this phase, when human beings were conscious
only o f belonging to a collective unit (the tribe or clan), the essential mental
ity behind legal procedures, religious rituals, artistic expression and social
customs, so argued Lamprecht, was “ sym bolic” in character. By this he
meant that such “primitive” societies processed and externalized experience
in abstract and immediate sensory terms (e.g., via magic, myth and simple
artistic ornamentation such as bands, dots, lines, spirals or zigzags) rather
than via concretely defined thoughts or “ realistic” portrayals o f the natural
world. It is highly interesting in this regard that Lamprecht’s evocation of
this early state o f Germanic civilization approximated that o f the Pueblo
Indian culture that Warburg was to witness at first hand in 1895-1896 during
his trip to New Mexico.33 Indeed it is clear that Lamprecht’s teachings and
publications ought to be factored into the intellectual background o f
Warburg’s engagement with the rituals and art forms o f this “primitive” New
World society.34
According to Warburg’s notes, Lamprecht proceeded from this discussion
o f “ Symbolism” to the “ Typism” o f the ensuing epoch, which saw the estab
lishment o f the tribal states ( Stammeszeit ).35 Lamprecht noted some
progress towards the emergence o f a conception o f individual personality,
but argued that all human actions, thought and artistic expression displayed
“ typical” or formulaic characteristics. Thus, although the portrayal o f
objects (animals in particular) was introduced into the Germanic artistic
vocabulary, such depictions o f the external world were chiefly limited to the
outlining o f the object’s contours and to the delineation o f other such essen
tial or typical features. Drawing on ideas explored in his earlier book on
Initial-Ornamentik , Lamprecht moved on to a consideration o f the wider
分支
ramifications of social and political change as reflected in the aesthetics o f
ornamentation during the latter part o f the “ Typical” period and the follow
ing “ Conventional” era. In brief, he depicted a myriad o f shifts and transfor
mations in Germanic political, economic and social structures in the years
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT { 75}
宗族
between ca. 900 and 1450 (e.g., the loosening o f clan and family ties, the
gradual growth o f urban culture and the emergence o f a money-based
平民
economy), which had profound and varied consequences for the populace’s
relation to and perception o f the external world. Maintaining that such shifts
were traceable in the pictorial arts, Lamprecht pointed to an increased
emphasis on organic or vegetable ornament ( Pflanzenornamentik ) and also
to certain changes in the rendition o f the human figure.36 He called for com
parative study o f differing modes o f figurai representation (e.g., adherence

to conventions versus more naturalistic renderings), emphasizing that close
差异
consideration o f variances in the details o f gesture, costume and movement
could help scholars comprehend the prevailing mental attitudes or
Anschauungen o f German civilization at particular moments in the later
Middle Ages.37
Although this is not the place to critique Lamprecht’s complex (and often
confused) analytical apparatus, it is important to remember that his com
prehensive psychologizing approach to cultural history was at the time inno
vative. His “ scientific” demonstration o f the interdependence o f all spheres
of activity during a given historical era appears to have greatly impressed
not only Warburg, but also his fellow students Vôge and Clemen. Their pro
fessor’s sweeping vistas o f German medieval culture must have prompted
them to reflect upon how art was permeated by the habits, social attitudes
and mentality o f its time. Most importantly, however, Lamprecht compelled
his students to confront and address foundational questions about the
methodology, scope and nature o f their own scholarly inquiries.
His particular Fragestellungy or formulation and foregrounding, o f the
problematics o f historical research during the 1880s had far-reaching impli
cations, especially for his three aspiring art history students. Indeed their
experience o f Lamprecht occurred at an important crossroads in the
definition o f art historical practice.38 During the late 1880s and 1890s, the
growing autonomy o f the discipline o f art history was accompanied by a
drawing o f territorial boundaries between art history and neighboring fields
o f inquiry, including cultural history. Heinrich Wôlfflin (1864-1945), for
instance, who had studied under Burckhardt in the early 1880s, consciously
turned away from the broad cultural perspectives o f his teacher in the years
around 1890, and focused instead on the study o f the internal dynamics of
{76} KATHRYN BRUSH
art, especially as they related to stylistic properties. This assumption of an

相伴的
autonomous visual tradition, and the concomitant belief that the special
ized study o f art works should be separated from the study of other cultural
phenomena, came to dominate the developing profession and contributed to
a narrowing o f art historical practice and methodology during the 1890s and
later. By contrast, Warburg, Vôge and Clemen were directly and forcefully
exposed to the opposite point o f view in Bonn during the late 1880s.
Lamprecht insisted that the study and interpretation o f art works should not
occur in isolation, but rather with acute regard for the diverse contexts in
which they took shape. This gave his three young scholars a broad frame in
which to embed their art historical investigations. In short, although the cul
tural historian Lamprecht was by no means the only influential figure in the
intellectual backgrounds o f these first-generation art historians, there is
ample evidence to suggest that he played a key role as provocateur during
their years o f university study and beyond.
In the case of Warburg, Lamprecht’s influence was exerted conceptually
and methodologically and not in terms o f subject matter.39 Given his
prim ary focus on the art and culture o f the Italian Renaissance, it is not sur
prising that the writings o f Burckhardt, more than those o f Lamprecht,
should have provided an enduring model for Warburg’s inquiries into that
era. Nevertheless, the impact o f his personal encounter with Lamprecht can
be detected in Warburg’s concern with the psychological dimensions o f art
and culture.40 His later investigations into artistic forms (e.g., changes in the
representation o f gestures, costume, drapery over time) as manifestations of
much deeper cultural and spiritual values owed a fundamental intellectual
debt to Lamprecht.41 Both men campaigned for a larger and differentiated
picture o f an epoch than could have been afforded by the conventional acad
emic methods o f their day (e.g., the linear narratives o f political history, and
connoisseurship or stylistic analysis in art history). They also shared a fasci
nation with periods o f transition when encounters between new or changed
political, economic and social forces generated fundamental cultural trans
formations and corresponding shifts in mental attitudes. Central to their
study was their conviction in the symptomatic value o f art.
Lamprecht also seems to have been largely responsible for stimulating
Warburg’s belief in the importance o f archival research and in the necessity
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT ( 77>
o f studying the most mundane and minute facets o f everyday conduct

( Detailforschung ).42 As Lamprecht attempted to demonstrate in his own
work, it was often unremarkable documents such as tax registers or notarial
records, or insignificant details like the decoration o f initials or the portrayal
o f gesture in the visual arts, that could yield the largest views o f the cultural
behaviour o f a given period. These and other components o f Lamprecht’s
approach continued to be present in the later work o f Warburg.
Warburg maintained contact with Lamprecht following his initial period

o f study at Bonn. After spending a semester at the University o f Munich and
another in Florence, Warburg returned to Bonn for the summer term of
1889.43 There he enrolled in another course with Lamprecht.44 Significantly,
it was Lamprecht who urged Warburg, as well as Voge and Clemen, to write
their dissertations under the supervision o f Hubert Janitschek (1846-1893),
professor o f art history at the University o f Strasbourg.45 Janitschek had
earlier produced studies o f Italian Renaissance art and culture in the
Burckhardtian mode, and during the 1880s became a close colleague o f
Lamprecht in medieval manuscript studies.46 In 1892 Warburg defended his
dissertation on Botticelli’s mythological paintings The Birth o f Venus and
Primavera.47 His inquiry was interdisciplinary and archivally based, and
explored the wide range o f historical forces that determined Botticelli’s cre
ative engagement with the forms and expression o f antiquity. This project
announced many o f the research themes Warburg was to address for the
remainder o f his career. As soon as the dissertation was printed, he sent
copies to both Burckhardt and Lamprecht. Although Burckhardt’s
favourable assessment has long been discussed in analyses o f Warburg’s cul
tural historical approach, Lamprecht’s equally positive response to
W arburg’s achievement appears to have gone unnoticed by scholars to
date.48 In his letter to his former student, the historian praised the “ excel
lence” of the thesis and commented in particular on aspects o f Warburg’ s
analyses o f proportions and bodily movement that he had found particu
刺激的
larly provocative. He also asked Warburg to keep in touch with him.49
Warburg’s papers show that he corresponded with Lamprecht on a
number o f matters until Lamprecht’s death in 1915. In August o f 1895, prior
请求
to his trip to the United States, for example, Warburg solicited the names o f
American scholarly contacts from Lamprecht.50 The two men shared a
{ 78 } KATHRYN BRUSH
common interest in the workings o f “ prim itive” mentalities, and in 1905

Warburg sent Lamprecht drawings made by the Moki Indians.51
Throughout the years the two men also exchanged their publications. But
most importantly, Warburg’s index cards, random notes and collection of
offprints demonstrate that he keenly followed the debate over Lamprecht’s
cultural historical method that arose, as discussed above, within the German
historical profession from the mid-i890s onwards.52 The Methodenstreit
clearly had considerable implications for Warburg’s contemplation of the

methods and theories that underlay his own practice o f Kulturwissenschaft.
At the same time, the highly divisive dispute among academic historians,
which ultimately ended in Lamprecht’s defeat, had far-reaching
ramifications for the development o f art historical discourse at large. Indeed
the refinement and championing of stylistic analysis as a neutral, scientific
method o f art history— one capable o f constructing autonomous and
object-centred art historical narratives comparable to those o f “mainstream”
political history— intensified from the mid-i890s onwards, suggesting that
the methodological conflict may have encouraged art historians to distance
themselves from history and cultural history in favour o f formalism. The
style history o f Wôlfflin, Riegl and their followers in fact gained the upper
hand in art historical inquiry during these years. Yet, the scholarship o f
Warburg, Vôge and others indicates that despite their agreement with many
o f the criticisms levelled at Lamprecht, they remained convinced o f the value
o f his broad vision o f the importance o f art.53
Warburg continued to engage with Lamprecht’s ideas. This is evident in
the fact that he took the Institute for Cultural and Universal History, which
Lamprecht established at the University o f Leipzig in 1909, as one o f the
p rim ary models for his own private research library, the celebrated
Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg.54 In 1915 Warburg described his
library as an “ Institute for the Crossing o f Methodological Frontiers” (in
his words, Institut fü r metho dologis che Grenziiberschreitung).55 Warburg’s
description o f his library not only pointed to the guiding philosophy
behind his study and practice o f Kulturwissenschaft, but also announced
his unmistakable debt to Lamprecht’s teachings. It is highly significant for
our understanding o f Warburg’s continuing interest in Lamprecht’s work
that he maintained a direct link to the historian and his Leipzig Institute
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HI STORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT {79}
via his close personal friend Alfred Doren (1869-1934), an economic histo
rian whose work focused on Renaissance Italy, and who was also a
colleague o f Lamprecht in Leipzig.56 Although Doren’s name has often
appeared in studies o f Warburg, the precise nature o f his relations with
both Warburg and Lamprecht has not yet been considered.57 In view o f
Doren’s many years o f interaction with both scholars and their intellectual
program s, however, it seems particularly im portant to note that in an
assessment o f Warburg’s achievement penned following his friend’s death,

he called attention to the fact that Lamprecht had served as a m ajor
stimulus.58
The material presented here contends that Warburg’s direct exposure to
Lamprecht was decisive and wide-ranging. Without diminishing the
significance o f Burckhardt’s writings as an ongoing model and source of
inspiration for Warburg’s work, particularly in terms o f subject matter and
research themes, it can be argued nonetheless that certain aspects o f
Lamprecht’s approach were perhaps more relevant methodologically and
conceptually. Although further investigation into this topic remains to be
undertaken, the notion that understanding Lamprecht is vital to under
standing Warburg can be illustrated by a single, trenchant example. In recent
years, scholars have drawn attention to the relationships between Warburg’s
thought and the concerns o f the Anuales school of history.59 What they have
apparently not realized, however, is that both shared a common stimulus in
the work o f Karl Lamprecht.60
notes
Research grants from the Social Sciences and H um anities Research Council of
Canada and the Alexander von H um boldt-Stiftung enabled me to write this article.
Professor Nicholas M ann and his colleagues at the Warburg Institute, University of
London, deserve special thanks for graciously facilitating my access to the archival
materials cited in this essay. I am also very grateful to Professors Roger Chickering,
Bryce Lyon, John Shearm an and Joanna Ziegler for serving as critical sounding
boards for my work on Lamprecht in recent years.
1 See, for example, D ieter W uttke, “Aby M. W arburgs Kulturwissenschaft,”

Historische Zeitschrift 256 (1993), pp. 1-30 (with references to the earlier biblio-
graphy); this article is reprinted in Dieter Wuttke, Dazwischen. Kulturwissenschaft
{8 θ} KATHRYN BRUSH
a u f Warburgs Spuren, Vol. 2 (Baden-Baden: Valentin Koerner, 1996), pp. 737-61.

My citations follow the 1996 reprint.
2 Jacob Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien. Ein Versuch (Basel:
Schweighauser), i860.
3 Karl Lamprecht, Deutsche Geschichte, 12 volumes (Berlin: R. G aertner), 1891-1909;
idem, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter. Untersuchungen iiber die
Entwicklung der materiellen Kultur des platten Landes a u f Grund der Quellen
zunachst des Mosellandes, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Alphons Diirr, 1885-86). For the m ost
im portant recent analysis of Lam precht’s life and career, see Roger Chickering,
Karl Lamprecht: A German Academic Life (1856- 1915) (Atlantic Highlands, N.J.:
H um anities Press International, 1993); Luise Schorn-Schütte, Karl Lamprecht.
Kulturgeschichtsschreibung zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik, Schriftenreihe der
Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 22
(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1984) is another m ajor historical study.
4 D uring the 1880s Lamprecht was actively involved in art historical research and
publication. For a critical assessment of his various contributions to the develop-
ing field of art history, see K athryn Brush, “The C ultural H istorian Karl
Lamprecht: Practitioner and Progenitor of Art History,” Central European History
26 (1993), pp. 139-64 [a G erm an version of this article has also appeared: “Der
Kulturhistoriker Karl Lamprecht: W irkungen und Einfliisse auf die Entwicklung
der Kunstgeschichte,” Rheinische Vierteljahrsblatter 60 (1996), pp. 205-32].
L am precht’s influence is also discussed in idem, The Shaping o f A rt History:
Wilhelm Vôge, Adolph Goldschmidt, and the Study of Medieval A rt (New York and
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), esp. pp. 35-45, 76-77,127-28.
5 For a comparative discussion o f the disciplines that Burckhardt and Lam precht’s
w ork embraced, see Schorn-Schütte, Karl Lamprecht, part A, sections 1-3, esp.
pp. 36-37. For the significant intellectual influence of Burckhardt on Lamprecht,
see Chickering, Karl Lamprecht, pp. 52-53.
6 To my knowledge, Sir Ernst Gombrich was the first interpreter of W arburg (i.e.,
Gombrich did not have personal knowledge of his subject) who raised the issue of
the im port of Lamprecht for W arburg’s work. See esp. Ernst H. Gombrich, Aby
Warburg: An Intellectual Biography (London: The W arburg Institute, 1970; rev. ed.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986 [same pagination]), pp. 30-37. Since
then, Lam precht has often been m entioned in studies of W arburg; see m ost
recently B ernd Roeck, Der junge Aby Warburg (M unich: C. H. Beck, 1997),
pp. 49-51. Dieter Wuttke, “Aby M. Warburgs Kulturwissenschaft,” esp. pp. 757-58,
has argued against the influence o f Lamprecht’s work on W arburg’s conception
and practice of Kulturwissenschaft. For W uttke’s argum ents (with my alternative
readings), see note 53 below.
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT {8ι }
7 W arburg enrolled at Bonn in the winter semester of 1886-1887; he rem ained there
through the winter semester of 1887-1888. After spending a semester in M unich
and one in Florence, he returned to Bonn for the sum m er semester of 1889. For
im portant discussions of W arburg’s student years in Bonn and his teachers there
(they included the archaeologist Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz, the philologist
and mythologist H erm ann Usener, the philosopher Theodor Lipps, and the art
historians Carl Justi and Henry Thode), see Gombrich, Aby Warburg, pp. 25-42;
Roeck, Der j unge Aby Warburg, pp. 25-53, 65-66. A detailed consideration of the
thought of these Bonn professors in relation to that of Lamprecht (and Warburg)

is beyond the scope of the present article.
8 For the paradigm s of historical research in nineteenth-century Germany, see
Georg Iggers, The German Conception o f History: The National Tradition o f
Historical Thought from Herder to the Present, rev. ed. (M iddletown, Conn.:
Wesleyan University Press, 1983); in relation to Lam precht’s work, Chickering,
Karl Lamprecht, pp. 27-44.
9 See Chickering, ibid., pp. 53-55, 79-80, 118-21, for a critical evaluation of the
assumptions underlying the historian’s use of analogies; esp. pp. 119-22 for the
diverse (and often conflicting) philosophical currents that inform ed Lamprecht’s
search for historical unities.
10 To summarize briefly, Lamprecht’s Kulturzeitalter scheme reflected his belief that
the German Volk had moved away from a prim ary identification with its found-
ing tribal groups (or Stamme) towards an ever-increasing individualism and “sub-
jectivism.” The historian modified this scheme several times in the course of
preparing his Deutsche Geschichte, but by the late 1880s it had more or less
acquired the following shape: the “Symbolic” era (to 350 A.D.), the “Typical”
(350-1050), the “Conventional” (1050-1450), the “Individualistic” (1450-ca. 1750),
and the “Subjectivistic” period (ca. 1750 to his own day).
11 Chickering, Karl Lamprecht, Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 22-105, assesses Lamprecht’s
intellectual positioning in relation to the reigning paradigm s of the historical
profession in nineteenth-century Germany.
12 See ibid., Part II, “The Destruction of the Historian,” pp. 108-283, for a critical
analysis of the methodological dispute within the historical discipline, as well as
its broader ramifications.
13 Ibid., p. 119; pp. 119-39, for an outline of some of the diverse philosophical cur-
rents that coexisted in Lamprecht’s Deutsche Geschichte. Chickering, pp. 109-11,
discusses ways in which the historian’s sloppy and imprecise language contributed
to the confusion generated by his work.
14 For Lamprecht’s teaching and its reception by history and art history students
during the 1880s, see Brush, “The Cultural Historian Karl Lamprecht,” pp. 153-62;
{82} KATHRYN BRUSH
idem, The Shaping o f A rt History (as in note 4). The latter discussion includes
photographs of Lamprecht and the three young art history students.
15 Karl Lamprecht, “Der Bilderschmuck des Cod. Egberti zu Trier und des Cod.
Epternacensis zu G o th a ” Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im
Rheinlande 70 (1881), pp. 56-112.
16 Karl Lamprecht, Initial-Ornamentik des VIH. bis XIII. lahrhunderts (Leipzig:
Alphons Diirr, 1882).
17 For the larger context of this book and its positive reception by leading art histo-
rians, see Brush, “The Cultural Historian Karl Lamprecht,” pp. 148-50.
18 Karl Lamprecht, ed., Die Trierer Ada-Handschrift, Publikationen der Gesellschaft
fiir Rheinische Geschichtskunde, 6 (Leipzig: Alphons Dürr, 1889). Lamprecht o u t-
lined the goals of the project in the introduction, pp. vii-viii. He collaborated
with five other art historians and historians in order to reach the most com pre-
hensive understanding of the m anuscript possible. For this large-scale, luxury
publication, which represented a new genre of m anuscript studies, see Brush,
“The Cultural Historian Karl Lamprecht,” pp. 152-53.
19 Karl Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben im Mittelalter (as in note 3). See
Chickering, Karl Lamprecht, pp. 80-83, for an account of the significance of this
book.
20 W arburg and Vôge first enrolled in courses with Lamprecht during the sum m er
semester of 1887; Clemen joined them during the winter semester of 1887-1888. In
addition to his own research, Lam precht had launched an interdisciplinary
journal of history and art, the Westdeutsche Zeitschrift fiir Geschichte und Kunst in
1882; he was responsible for coediting the first ten volumes during his years in the
Rhineland. Thus, he was very well inform ed about recent archaeological finds, art
exhibitions and m useum catalogues and frequently drew from this source for his
lectures and class excursions.
21 For Lamprecht’s teaching skills and docum entation concerning the enthusiastic
reaction of his students, see Brush (as in note 14).
22 For Vôge, see Brush, The Shaping o f Art History, pp. 174-75, n. 100; for Warburg,
Roeck, Der junge Aby Warburg, p. 48. Roeck cites W arburg’s entries in his diary
(Archives o f the W arburg Institute, 9) for 3 November 1887 [“Kolleg bei
Lamprecht ff!!”] and 29 February 1888 [“Lamprecht (sehr gut)”]. A comparison of
W arburg’s diary and his notebooks shows that the November entry referred to
Lamprecht’s first lecture in his course on the development of G erm an culture in
the Middle Ages (winter semester 1887-1888); the second entry appears to have
been made in reference to Lamprecht’s tutorial on German economic history held
during the same semester.
23 For Clem en’s report, see Brush, The Shaping o f A rt History, p. 175, n. 102. The
fourth art history student in the course was Ernst Burmeister (b. 1867), who later
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT { 83 }
wrote a dissertation under August Schmarsow (1853-1936) at the University of

Breslau. This student comrade of Warburg, Vôge and Clemen died, however, by
the mid-i890s. It is clear from the various accounts by L amprecht’s students that
the historian presented his broad ideas in his lectures and concentrated on indi-
vidual problems (for example, the first-hand study of docum ents) in his tutorials.
24 W arburgs lecture notes from Lamprecht’s courses on “Ausgewàhlte Kapitel aus
der rheinischen Kunstgeschichte” (13 pages, sum m er semester 1887), “Grundziige
der deutschen Kulturentwickelung im M ittelalter” (95 pages, w inter semester
1887-1888) and “Deutsche Geschichte vom Ausgang der Staufer bis auf Kaiser
Maximilian” (146 pages, sum m er semester 1889) are preserved in the Archives of
the Warburg Institute, University of London (32.1.1., 32.1.2. and 31.1.3., respectively;
the first two notebooks are bound together). W arburg does not appear to have
kept notes from the tutorial on econom ic history held at Lam precht’s hom e
during the winter semester of 1887-1888.
25 This pertains in particular to the notes from the early part of the course (though
underlining also occurs elsewhere). W arburg underlined the main points in red
and the subsections in blue (his notes are otherwise written in a dark brownish
ink). In the margins he com m ented on and made additions to the bibliography
which Lamprecht presented to his students.
26 W arburg’s notes show that Lamprecht’s introduction to the theme and contexts of
the course extended for five lectures from 3 to 11 November 1887 (PP· 1-13 in his
notebook).
27 Lectures of 4 and 5 November 1887 (pp. 4-7 in the notebook); p. 4 (4 November
1887) for “culturgeschichtliche Hilfsdisciplinen.”
28 Lecture of 16 December 1887 (pp. 42-43 of W arburg’s notebook display a chart of
the various Kulturzeitalter, he m ust have copied down the scheme as Lamprecht
presented it on a blackboard or by another means). There are slight deviations
from Lamprecht’s final scheme (see the following note).
29 Here I employ the “final” version of the scheme; W arburg’s notebooks show that
Lamprecht was still fine-tuning his term inology during December 1887 and
January 1888. For example, the “Typical” phase extending from 350-1050 was at
that tim e term ed the “O rnam ental” or “O rnam ental-Typical” era (chart of
16 D ecember 1887, as cited above, and lecture of 14 January 1888, p. 51 in the
notebook).
30 Lamprecht frequently jum ped from era to era in order to make specific points;
thus, references to das symbolische Zeitalter appear throughout W arburg’s note-
book. Lamprecht’s lectures of 14,19 and 20 January 1888 were largely dedicated to
this subject (pp. 52-55 in the notebook). In these lectures (as was also the case in
his descriptions of other Zeitalter)y Lamprecht drew attention to the survival and
transform ation of certain elements of symbolic form in later eras; for example, he
{ 84} KATHRYN BRUSH
saw the use of alliteration in the ninth-century Hildebrandslied as bearing certain

relationships with the earlier “Symbolic” era.
31 Lam precht’s discussions of Germania antiqua engaged with issues th at would
have been of particular interest to Warburg, for example, the confrontation o f the
Germanic Naturvôlker with classical culture (i.e., via the Roman empire) and the
various forms o f its reception. Indeed W arburg’s notebooks dem onstrate that
Lamprecht repeatedly addressed the topic of the continuity and transform ation of
classical culture during the Middle Ages (i.e., not only in relation to his considera-
tion o f the “Carolingian Renaissance”). Already in an introductory lecture of

11 November 1887, Lamprecht had raised the issue of “foreign influences,” posing
the following question: “Welcher C harakter hat die klassische Überlieferung?”
(pp. 11-12 o f the notebook).
32 Lamprecht gave his students supplem entary bibliography (i.e., in addition to the
works cited at the outset of the course) for the “Symbolic” era in his lecture of
14 January 1888 (p. 52 of the notebook). The titles listed in W arburg’s notebook
include Sophus Müller, Die Thier-Ornamentik im Norden. Ursprung, Entwicklung
und Verhâltniss derselben zu gleichzeitigen Stilarten , trans. J. M estorf (Hamburg:
O. Meissner, 1881); Lamprecht’s own Initial-Ornamentik of 1882; the latest edition
o f Jacob G rim m, Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer , 3 ed. (Gottingen: Dieterich, 1881);
the first volum e o f Andreas Heusler, Institutionen des deutschen Privatrechts.
Systematisches Handbuch der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft , 2 vols. (Leipzig:
D uncker un d H um blot, 1885-86), and works by the philologists Karl Viktor
M üllenhoff and Richard Heinzel (both were scholars o f Old G erm anic lan-
guages). For the anthropological scholarship, see note 34 below.
32 W arburg’s field trip to this “primitive” New World culture during the winter of
1895-1896 provided the material for a lecture he gave almost thirty years later (in
1923) on “serpent ritual” during his stay at the psychiatric clinic in Kreuzlingen.
The original German text of this lecture (which W arburg did not plan for public-
ation) has recently been made available, together with many photographs dating
from W arburg’s trip to New Mexico. See Aby W arburg, Schlangenritual. Ein
Reisebericht (Berlin: K. Wagenbach, 1988 & 1996). The im portant “Nachwort” by
Ulrich Raulff, pp. 59-95, examines the broader contexts of W arburg’s encounter
w ith the Pueblo Indians and his 1923 lecture with references to the earlier
literature.
34 Except for a passing reference to Lamprecht’s thought made by Gombrich in Aby
Warburg., pp. 91-92, Lamprecht has not figured to date within discussions of the
intellectual background o f W arburg’s encounter with the Pueblo Indians. Yet,
W arburg’s notes indicate that Lamprecht’s teachings on the “Symbolic” era and
early part o f the “Typical” era, especially w ith regard to the study o f artistic
expression (e.g., the abstract or “symbolic” ornam entation on pottery and other
everyday objects) as a way of com prehending the workings o f a “prim itive”

society’s mentality or “soul” (Seele), deeply inform ed W arburgs trip. Lamprecht
had already evoked the “primitive” im agination in his descriptions of Germanic
antiquity in Initial-Ornamentik; he elaborated these arguments in the first volume
of Deutsche Geschichte, which he was conceiving and writing during W arburg’s
stay in Bonn (this volume Urzeit und Mittelalter. Zeitalter des symholischen, typis-
chen und konventionellen Seelenlebens appeared in 1891). For a provocative recent
discussion of Warburg’s comparative study of the “primitive” m ind (i.e., that of
the Pueblo Indian society and that of ancient Greece), see Salvatore Settis,
“Kunstgeschichte als vergleichende Kulturwissenschaft: Aby Warburg, die Pueblo-
Indianer und das Nachleben der Antike,” Kiinstlerischer Austausch/Artistic
Exchange. Akten des XXVIII. Internationalen Kongresses fiir Kunstgeschichte Berlin,
15- 20. Juli 1992, 1, ed. Thom as W. Gaehtgens (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993),
pp. 139-53. This article also includes illustrations of some of the Indian pottery
W arburg took back to H am burg with him; the artistic ornam entation of the
pottery acquires great interest in relation to Lam precht’s 1880s work. Indeed
Lamprecht’s publications and W arburg’s notes from Lamprecht’s classes strongly
suggest that W arburg would have made cross-cultural comparisons between the
symbolic art, rituals and mentalities of “primitive” Indo-America, ancient Greece
and Germanic antiquity.
In the “N achw ort” to W arburg’s Schlangenritual (as in the preceding note),
PP· 74~75> Ulrich Raulff discusses some of the anthropological scholarship that
may have helped to inspire W arburg’s understanding of the genesis of “primitive”
thought, drawing particular attention to the work of Moritz Lazarus (1824-1903),
who edited the Zeitschrift fiir Volkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft between
i860 and 1890. Raulff points out, with reference to Hans Liebeschütz, “Aby
W arburg (1866-1929) as Interpreter of Civilization,” Year Book o f the Leo Baeck
Institute 16 (1971), p. 233, that W arburg owned three volumes of this journal
(1887-1889). W arburg’s notebook from Lamprecht’s course suggests that it was
likely Lamprecht who stimulated W arburg’s interest in Lazarus’ work. Indeed, at
the beginning o f his course, Lam precht exam ined Lazarus’ definition of the
Volksseele (lecture of 5 November 1887, p. 6-7 in the notebook). For a recent eval-
uation of the foundations for anthropological study laid by Lazarus and his col-
laborator, Heymann Steinthal, see Ivan Kalmar, “The Volkerpsychologie of Lazarus
and Steinthal and the M odern Concept of Culture,” Journal o f the History o f Ideas
47 (1987), pp. 671-90.
References to this era are scattered through out the notebook; Lamprecht pre-
sented his most concentrated discussion in his lectures of 20 and 21 January 1888
(pp. 56-60 in the notebook). I summarize some of Lamprecht’s main arguments
in the following paragraph. Although Lamprecht was by all accounts an exciting
{86} KATHRYN BRUSH
and engaging lecturer, W arburg’s notebook indicates that his professor did not
always follow a clear line of thought and often (and quickly) juxtaposed ideas and
evidence borrowed from diverse sources. This concurs with assessments of the
character of many of Lamprecht’s publications.
36 W arburg’s notes of 15 December 1887 are particularly interesting in relation to
Lamprecht’s theories concerning the sym ptom atic value of art. On this day the
professor explored how study of the differing representations of trees (and their
foliage) in medieval manuscripts and other works of art could help scholars to
com prehend a given era’s relationship to nature and to the external world at large.
Lamprecht evidently brought along illustrations (i.e., in books or tracings) to his
class, for W arburg sketched some of them in two pages of his notebook (both
pages are labelled p. 39).
37 For example, lecture of 9 D ecem ber 1887, pp. 34-36 in the notebook. Here
Lamprecht indicated some of broader conclusions to be drawn about a given era’s
social and psychic m ake-up through study of the representation of bodily move-
m ent, the clothed body, the naked body, facial expressions, gesture and so on.
Lamprecht reiterated this idea (and related themes) throughout his course.
38 For the major currents in art historical methodology during the late nineteenth
century, see Brush, The Shaping o f A rt History.
39 Both Vôge and Clemen concentrated their careers in art history on the Middle
Ages. The influence of Lamprecht was particularly strong in the case of Vôge, who
is best known today as the dissertation advisor o f Erwin Panofsky (Vôge founded
the art history institute at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau). Clemen
becam e Provincial C onservator for the Rhineland and also professor of art
history at the University o f Bonn. For Vôge’s career, see Brush, ibid. (the genesis
o f Vôge’s thought is a m ajor focus of the book); for Clemen’s professional activi-
ties, Brush, ibid., esp. pp. 170 n. 68,199 n. 24.
40 The philologist and mythologist H erm ann Usener (1834-1905), another teacher of
W arburg in Bonn (see note 7 above), also shared Lam precht’s interest in a
psychologizing approach to history. For Usener, see G om brich, Aby Warburgs
pp. 28-30; Roeck, Der junge Aby Warburg, pp. 51-53. Lam precht’s teachings m ust
also have been reinforced by those o f August Schmarsow, professor of art history
at Breslau, w hom W arburg encountered during the w inter semester of 1888-1889
in Florence. Like Lamprecht, Schmarsow’s study of art was influenced by the
experimental psychology of the day; see Gombrich, Aby Warburg, pp. 40-42.
41 C om pare G om brich, Aby Warburg, p. 36; his statem ents were also based on a
study o f W arburg’s notebooks from Lam precht’s courses.
42 Certainly B urckhardt was not the inspiration for W arburg’s archival work.
W arburg in fact pointed to certain differences between his approach and that of
Burckhardt (noting archival work and the use of photography in particular) in
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT { 87 }
the preface to his Bildniskunst und Florentinisches Bürgertum, 1. Domenico

Ghirlandajo in Santa Trinita. Die Bildnisse des Lorenzo de’Medici und seiner
Angehôrigen (Leipzig: H. Seemann, 1902), p. 5. The various reports of Lamprecht’s
lectures and tutorials by his students suggest that it was Lam precht who con-
vinced W arburg (and the other students) of the im portance of archival work in
constructing a picture o f an era. For related com m ents on W arburgs concern
w ith archival study, see W uttke, “Aby M. W arburgs Kulturwissenschaft,”
pp. 754- 55·
43 For W arburg’s activities during these semesters, see G om brich, Aby Warburg,
pp. 38-42; Roeck, Der junge Aby Warburg, 55-62.

44 It was a lecture course on G erm an history from the end of the H ohenstaufen to
Kaiser Maximilian. In his notebook for this course (see above note 24), Warburg
did two quick sketches of his teacher (Lamprecht), one in ink and the other in
pencil (both are located on p. 141 of his 146-page notebook). W arburg did not
涂鸦
norm ally doodle in his notebooks for Lamprecht’s courses (though he did in the
case of other professors), suggesting that he paid close attention to Lamprecht’s
teachings. It is interesting in this regard that the page with the sketches is located
close to the end of the notebook (and the end o f the semester; the accompanying
lecture notes are dated 25 July 1889).
45 Brush, “The C ultural H istorian Karl Lamprecht,” p. 156 n. 61, for the archival
evidence.
46 For Janitschek, see Brush, The Shaping o f Art History, pp. 45-49.
47 Aby W arburg, Sandro Botticellis “Geburt der Venus'’ und “F r ii h li n g E in e
Untersuchung über die Vorstellungen von der Antike in der italienischen
FriXhrenaissance (H am burg and Leipzig: L. Voss, 1893).
48 W uttke, “Aby M. W arburgs Kulturwissenschaft,” p. 752, gives the text of
Burckhardt’s letter of 27 December 1892, stating that the nature of Lamprecht’s
response to W arburg’s dissertation was unknow n (i.e., in 1993 at the time W uttke’s
article was published). In the m eantime, a systematic inventory of W arburg’s cor-
respondence in the Archives of the Warburg Institute has been undertaken under
the direction of Dr. D orothea McEwan. The inventory, which is currently un der-
way, is helping scholars to construct a more accurate picture of W arburg’s intel-
lectual and personal associations. A letter of 25 December 1892 from Lamprecht to
Warburg, which docum ents the historian’s response to the dissertation, is am ong
the materials which have been uncovered.
49 Archives of the W arburg Institute, letter of 25 December 1892 from Lamprecht to
Warburg. Lamprecht termed the dissertation “excellent” (“vortrefflich”), declaring
that W arburg’s study of proportions (“Proportionsuntersuchungen”) had made
him “curious for m ore” (“sehr wissbegierig”). He indicated his overall acceptance of
Warburg’s theses, noting in particular his agreement with W arburg’s interpretation
{88} KATHRYN BRUSH
of Primavera. Lamprecht then com m ented on W arburg’s treatm ent of the theme
o f bodily m ovem ent (“kôrperliche Bewegtheit”) in relation to W inckelm ann’s
interpretations.
50 Letter of 12 August 1895 from W arburg to Lamprecht. The end o f the letter is
missing, but its content is confirm ed by Lamprecht’s reply (letter to W arburg of
14 August 1895), in which Lamprecht stated that he would supply W arburg with
the names and addresses of American scholars in the coming weeks.
51 Letter o f 9 December 1905 from W arburg to Lamprecht.
52 C ompare Wuttke, “Aby M. Warburgs Kulturwissenschaft,” pp. 757-58. W arburg’s

papers, collection of offprints and celebrated Notizkasten show that he closely fol-
lowed not only the Methodenstreit, but also the discussions that led to the found-
ing o f Lamprecht’s Institute for Cultural and Universal H istory at Leipzig in 1909
(see below). W arburg devoted Box 2 of his Notizkasten (Archives of the W arburg
Institute, 1) to the subject o f “Geschichtsauffassung” (conceptions o f history); the
box contains num erous subsections, including ones devoted to such topics as
“Kulturgeschichte— Einzelne Zeitalter,” “Kulturgeschichtliche M ethode,” and
“Lamprecht.” The index cards in the section labelled “Lamprecht” contain refer-
ences to the historian’s writings as well as to various critical assessments o f his
cultural historical m ethod. The latter date from the Methodenstreit as well as from
the years following L am precht’s death in 1915; this event evidently prom pted
fu rther evaluations of the significance of Lam precht’s career and his Leipzig
Institute.
53 It is understandable, in the case of W arburg and the other art history students,
that their increasing scholarly m aturity and experience (and the events of the
Methodenstreit) would have encouraged them to adopt a m ore critical stance vis-
à-vis certain elements of Lam precht’s thought over the years. Wuttke, “Aby M.
Warburgs Kulturwissenschaft,” pp. 757-58, has concluded from two letters w ritten
by W arburg in 1915 (in which he stated that Lamprecht had become “degenerate”)
that W arburg always had great reservations about Lamprecht and was therefore
less influenced by Lamprecht than Burckhardt for the entirety of his career. As
further support for this position (“Die trotz aller Reserve Burckhardt entgegenge-
brachte Achtung konnte Karl Lamprecht im Leben W arburgs nie gewinnen, im
Gegenteil,” p. 757), Wuttke notes that W arburg m entioned Lamprecht in the cur-
riculum vitae he presented for his doctoral degree at the University o f Strasbourg
(there W arburg credited Lam precht w ith introducing him to the study o f
history), but not thereafter in his scholarship and autobiographical writings. In
my judgm ent, W uttke’s argum ent does not take account of the broader contexts.
First o f all, we cannot derive W arburg’s opinion o f Lamprecht during his years of
intellectual form ation from his descriptions o f the historian in 1915; by that time,
the em otional strains of the Methodenstreit had taken their toll on Lamprecht and
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT {8 g }
his judgm ent and behaviour displayed increasingly irrational elements. Moreover,
Lamprecht’s public endorsement o f the military and political objectives o f the
imperial government in 1914 (i.e., that Germany’s sacred mission of expanding
civilization justified the war effort) dissolved any sympathy he and his work still
had in intellectual circles in Germany and elsewhere. Indeed not just Warburg,
b u t many other prom inent intellectuals, including the Belgian historian Henri
Pirenne (1862-1935), who had supported Lamprecht’s cause from the early 1880s
onwards, altered their attitudes towards the historian at this time. For Pirenne’s
reassessment o f Lamprecht (with extended references), see Bryce Lyon, “H enri

Pirenne’s Réflexions d'un solitaire and his Re-evaluation of History,” Journal o f
Medieval History 23 (1997), pp. 285-99. The notion that Lamprecht’s influence on
young W arburg was m inim al because W arburg did not make specific reference
to him in later years is misleading; W arburg’s comrades Vôge and Clemen also
did n ot tend to cite Lamprecht in their later publications, especially during the
Methodenstreit. Owing to the gradual discrediting o f Lamprecht, there may even
have been certain professional risks involved in endorsing his work within art
historical publications (see Brush, The Shaping o f A rt History, pp. 127-28, for
related com ments). Furtherm ore, W arburg’s scholarship focused on the Italian
Renaissance, an area that would not have caused him to refer to Lamprecht. As
argued here, archival materials from the late 1880s and later indicate that
Lam precht exerted considerable influence on these three young m en during
their period of study in Bonn; it appears that they absorbed their professor’s
teachings in diverse (and n o t always clearly docum entable) ways into their
thought. It is also im portant to point out that these m en were already aware of
some o f the shortcomings of Lamprecht’s work (for example, mechanical errors)
during their student years. See Brush, “The Cultural Historian Karl Lamprecht,”
p. 162 n. 82, for criticisms concerning the historian’s w ork voiced by Vôge to
Clemen in 1889.
54 The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence also provided stim ulus for the
Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg, which now forms the nucleus o f the
Warburg Institute at the University o f London. For a discussion of Lamprecht’s
Institute and its influence on W arburg’s research library, see Dieter Wuttke, “Die
Emigration der Kulturwissenschaftlichen Bibliothek W arburg und die Anfange
des Universitàtsfaches Kunstgeschichte in Grofibritannien,” Aby Warburg. Akten
des internationalen Symposions Hamburg 1990, Schriften des Warburg-Archivs im
Kunstgeschichtlichen Seminar der Universitàt Hamburg, 1, ed. Horst Bredekamp,
Michael Diers and Charlotte Schoell-Glass (Weinheim: VCH, Acta H umaniora,
1991), pp. 141-63, esp. 145-49; this article has been reprinted with bibliographical
additions in Wuttke, Dazwischen (as in note 1), pp. 695-720. My citations follow
the 1996 reprint.
{90} KATHRYN BRUSH
55 Wuttke, “Aby M. Warburgs Kulturwissenschaft,” p. 759. W arburg also described

his library as an Institut fü r Ausdruckskunde, which might be inadequately tran s-
lated into English as “Institute for the Knowledge (or Study) of Expression.”
56 The close friendship between W arburg and Doren began during the 1890s when
b oth were conducting research in the Florentine archives (W arburg travelled
repeatedly to Florence in the 1890s and spent the large part o f the years 1898-1902
in that city; Doren was also in Florence for lengthy stays from 1894 onwards).
Doren dedicated his book Die Florentiner Wollentuchindustrie vom 14. bis zum 16.
Jahrhundert. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des modernen Kapitalismus, Studien aus
der Florentiner Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1 (Stuttgart: J.G. Cotta, 1901) to W arburg
(“Dr. Aby W arburg in Florenz, dem treuen Genossen meiner Florentiner Studien
in alter Freundschaft”) and also thanked his colleague in the in tro du ction to
his Habilitationsschrift, or post-doctoral thesis, Deutsche Handwerker und
Handwerkerbruderschaften im mittelalterlichen Italien (Berlin: R.L Prager, 1903). In
1903 Doren was appointed to a post in history at the University o f Leipzig; he was
prom oted to extraordinary professor ( ausserordentlicher Professor) in 1909 and
taught in Lam precht’s Institute for C ultural and Universal History. Lamprecht
and Doren had a great deal in com mon; both men, for example, had been sup-
ported by the influential economic historian Gustav Schmoller (1838-1917) during
the early years of their careers, and they also published simultaneously in the
fields o f history and art history [see, for example, D oren’s “Zum Bau der
Florentiner Domkuppel,” Repertorium fü r Kunstwissenschaft 21 (1898), pp. 249-62;
22 (1899), pp. 220-21, or his “Deutsche Kiinstler im mittelalterlichen Italien,” A tti
del X congresso internazionale di storia delVarte in Roma. Vitalia e Varte straniera
(Rome: Maglione and Strini, 1922), pp. 158-69; as W arburg’s correspondence with
鼓动
D oren shows (see the following note), the latter article was instigated by Warburg,
who had served as the unofficial head of the 1912 International Congress of the
History o f Art in Rome]. Following the death of Lamprecht in 1915, D oren p u b -
lished an assessment of his colleague’s cultural historical program , in which he
carefully weighed its structural and conceptual weaknesses against the value of
Lam precht’s attem pt to broaden the conceptual param eters o f historical study
[“Karl Lamprechts G eschichtstheorie un d die Kunstgeschichte,” Zeitschrift fü r
Asthetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft 11 (1916), pp. 353-89].
Like Warburg, D oren was Jewish, and thus in 1933 he was dismissed from the
University of Leipzig. Owing to the larger political context, his death the follow-
ing year was largely ignored in the G erm an historical periodicals; the only
im portant notice appeared in Italy [Armando Sapori, “Alfredo Doren,” Archivio
storico italiano, 7 ser., 22 (1934), pp. 333-46]. The fact that D oren and his work dis-
appeared from the G erm an academic landscape after 1933 may help to explain
why he has only been m entioned, rather than discussed, in studies of W arburg to
ABY WARBURG AND THE CULTURAL HISTORIAN KARL LAMPRECHT { 9 ·}
date. Similarly, historians have only recently begun to assess the im portance of
D oren’s research and teaching at Lam precht’s Leipzig Institute. See Gerald
Diesener and Jaroslav Kudrna, “Alfred D oren— ein H istoriker am Institut für
Kultur- u nd Universalgeschichte,” Karl Lamprecht weiterdenken. Universal- und
Kulturgeschichte heute, Beitráge zur Universalgeschichte u nd vergleichenden
Gesellschaftsforschung, 3 (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitàtsverlag, 1993), pp. 60-85.
57 W arburg’s correspondence in the Archives of the W arburg Institute, the inven-
tory of which is currently in progress (see note 48 above), indicates that Doren
并肩的
helped to keep Warburg abreast o f Lamprecht’s projects. In a letter of 6 December
1906, for example, D oren told his friend that Lamprecht had asked him to write a
volume on the Renaissance in a series that Lamprecht was editing on the history
of the European states [in the end the book did not come to fruition]; he also dis-
cussed Lam precht’s project for a Seminar (i.e., Institute) of world history. O n
10 February 1910 he reported that he was enjoying his work in Lamprecht’s new
Institute. Following L am precht’s death, D oren sent W arburg com m em orative
publications and articles in which the historian’s work was assessed (29 October
1915; 12 O ctober 1918). D oren also kept in touch with Fritz Saxl, the director of
W arburg’s library, during W arburg’s lengthy period of illness (1918-1924); Saxl’s
assistant, G ertrud Bing, was sent to Leipzig to study the library o f the Institute of
Cultural and Universal History (letter of 4 July 1923 to Saxl from Bing in Leipzig).
58 Alfred Doren, “Aby W arburg und sein Werk,” Archiv fü r Kulturgeschichte 21 (1931),
p. 3 (“zu Karl Lamprecht tritt er in Bonn in àufierlich nur lockere, innerlich für
seine weitere Entwicklung von der Kunst- zur Kulturgeschichte sehr bedeutsame
Beziehungen. D enn von Anfang an war ihm Kunstgeschichte nicht Stil- und
Formgeschichte an sich und dam it n ur Selbstzweck; die Probleme der Stilkritik
und der ásthetischen W ertung traten ihm vôllig zurück gegenüber der anderen
Auffassung, die in der Kunst einer Periode nur einen, w enn auch den sichtbarsten
und greifbarsten A usdruck ihres innersten geistigen Wesens erkennen will und so
das Kunstwerk symbolisch, nicht ásthetisch deutet”). G ombrich, Aby Warburg,
p. 37, suggested some o f the ways in which Lamprecht m ight be considered as
“W arburg’s real teacher.”
59 For example, Ulrich Raulff, “Parallel gelesen: Die Schriften von Aby W arburg und
Marc Bloch zwischen 1914 und 1924,” Aby Warburg. Akten des internationalen
Symposions Hamburg 1990 (as in note 54), pp. 167-78; Bernd Roeck, “Psychohistorie
im Zeichen Saturns. Aby W arburgs Denksystem und die m oderne Kulturge-
schichte,” Kulturgeschichte Heute, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, Sonderheft 16, ed.
Wolfgang Hardtwig and H ans-Ulrich Wehler (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und
Ruprecht, 1996), p. 248; Wuttke, “Aby M. Warburgs Kulturwissenschaft,” p. 761.
60 The Belgian historian H enri Pirenne, who was a great adm irer (and defender) of
Lamprecht’s approach from the early 1880s until the outbreak of the First World
{92} KATHRYN BRUSH
War (see above note 53), was an interm ediary between Lamprecht and the Annales
school. For Lamprecht’s influence on Pirenne and through him on Marc Bloch
and Lucien Febvre, see Bryce Lyon, “H enri Pirenne and the Origins o f Annales
History,” Annals o f Scholarship: Metastudies o f the Humanities and Social Sciences 1
(1980), pp. 69-84, and Bryce and M ary Lyon, The Birth o f Annales History: The
Letters o f Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch to Henri Pirenne (1921- 1935) (Brussels:
Académie Royale de Belgique, Comm ission Royale d ’Histoire, 1991). For further
references, see also Steffen Sammler, “ ‘H istoire nouvelle’ un d deutsche
Geschichtswissenschaft. Der Einfluss deutscher Historiker auf die H erausbildung

der Geschichtskonzeption von Marc Bloch,” Karl Lamprecht weiterdenken (as in
note 56), pp. 258-71.
making a reception
for warburg: fritz
saxl and warburg's
book heidnisch—
antike weissagung
in w ort und bild

zu luthers zeiten
dorothea mcewan
introduction
“n o w , t h a t t h e new book h a s been
published, which is in many respects

a synthesis o f the life’s work o f this
man, I am doing my best to interest
those, for whom it was written, in the
problem raised in it.” 1 The synthesis is the book “ Heidnisch-antike
Weissagungen in Wort und Bild zu Luthers Zeiten” which at long last was
published in M ay 1921 in the volumes o f the Academy o f Science o f
Heidelberg University.2 The writer, Fritz Saxl, was the Director o f the
Warburg library in Hamburg in Warburg’s absence. Aby Warburg, who
would spend the years from 1920 to 1924 in a sanatorium in Jena and then in
Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, had found in Saxl a devoted friend, collaborator
and assistant. The addressee was the young philosopher Ernst Cassirer, who
only some six months previously had visited the Warburg library for the first
time3 and had become a friend o f Saxl. The letter was one of many written
by Saxl with the aim o f arousing the interest o f Warburg’s friends and
(9 3 }
{9 4 } DOROTHEA MCEWAN
colleagues in this new publication: he hoped thereby to reach a wider reader

ship for the book by persuading them to review it, whether in academic
journals or daily papers. More than this, the response thus created would be
a “comfort” to Warburg, “ who is only half alive and already half dead, ... to
see that at least his work lives on.” 4
The help and support which Saxl gave to Warburg in these critically
important years o f Warburg’s illness have often been mentioned.5 The story
o f this help and support can be highlighted by an examination o f Saxl’s

endeavors to spread the news o f this new work by his employer among the
art-historical constituency o f Germany and abroad, among Warburg’s
friends and family, colleagues and users o f his library, the general public and
readers o f academic journals o f related disciplines. Saxe’s intention was that
by informing the world that Warburg, despite his illness, had produced an
eminently important piece o f research its reception would ultimately help
Warburg and bring him back to his home and his work.
The story o f Saxl’s concerted efforts is based on the correspondence in
the archive of The Warburg Institute. Saxl, who as a young art historian met
Aby Warburg in 1910, impressed Warburg with his enthusiasm for art-
historical problems, which, at this time, coincided with Warburg’s own
research into the survival o f astrology as a vehicle o f belief systems derived
from classical antiquity. A period o f close cooperation followed, only to be
brutally interrupted by World War I. Fritz Saxl had to serve on the Italian
校对
front, which nevertheless gave him time to proofread, to read and to con
tinue with his correspondence with Warburg.6 When, at the end o f the war,
Warburg broke down and needed hospitalization, the family rallied round
and ensured that the library would continue to exist by appointing Saxl
assistant to Warburg and acting director o f the library. Saxl started as librar
ian on April 1, 1920, replacing Wilhelm Printz, W arburg’s assistant since
before World War I. Printz took up a university post at Frankfurt University,
but both Printz and Saxl were asked by Μ. M. Warburg & Co, the family
bank in Hamburg, to assist Warburg with seeing the Luther book through
publication. Both would discharge their duty diligently and more— Saxl
created a response with friends and colleagues which went far beyond that of
previous publications o f Warburg’s.7
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {95}
"the fateful question"
What had started as a lecture in Hamburg in November 1917, expanded for

the lecture in Berlin in April 1918 and further developed for an article in a
learned journal, finished up as a book published by the Heidelberg Academy
o f Sciences in May 1921. The long genesis o f the book mirrors the time and
circumstances o f its creation, the political catastrophe o f World War I and
Warburg’s drive to contribute to an understanding o f its underlying causes.
In a letter to Friedrich von Bezold in Bonn in February 1918, Warburg wrote

that it was important to assess Melanchthon’s understanding o f classical
antiquity as this would “prepare the ground well to answer the fateful ques
tion how Germanism and Romanism reacted to each other and further, how
they will have to react in future.” 8
The reality o f wartime propaganda gave Warburg ample scope to explore
the role played by prophecies and other pagan religious practices which the
Christian church was supposed to have stamped out. Prophecies and belief
in the predictability o f a person’s fate as mirrored by movements o f the stars
were and still are means o f manipulation. A world in flux, the emergence of
new ways o f looking at life, discoveries in science, and above all the brutal
ities o f modern warfare: how did they impact on people’s beliefs? Warburg’s
lifelong interest in “ the journey o f the m ind” in the 15th and 16th centuries
in Northern and Southern Europe, and in the intellectual movements o f the
Renaissance and the Reformation, drew him to an investigation into pagan
superstitions juxtaposed to the power o f the individual. Living through a
cruel war, that is, a time replete with prophecies, the ability to read portents
and propaganda and the topic o f the heroic individual gripped his mind.
His work of creating a “ war archive,” a collection o f newspaper cuttings to
tell the truth o f the war after the war, led him to study political propaganda
in Luther’s day, a time equally riven by strife and war as Warburg’s own.9
the lectures in Hamburg in 1917

and in Berlin in 1918
Warburg had planned to lecture on “ Superstition and the Perception of

History at the End o f the Middle Ages” in the “ Kulturhistorische Institut” in
{96} DOROTHEA MCEWAN
Leipzig University, where his friends the art historians Alfred Doren and
Walter Gotz were working, in March 1917. But this project came, to nothing
for two reasons: Doren and Gotz had to join up and in the winter of 1917 lec
tures had to be cancelled due to the acute fuel shortage. Warburg, who had
started researching the topic, contacted Professor Franz Boll, the distin-
guised academic and author of books on belief in the stars, and requested
information on constellations and dates of eclipses of the sun as he was
trying to provide the evidence for his theory that illustrations accompanying
the signs of the zodiac went back to a family of twelve gods in Western
Asia.10 Warburg wanted to show an instance of survival of classical astrology
among Luther’s contemporaries which went so far as to change Luther’s date
of birth from 10th November 1483 to 22nd October 1484— an example of ret
rospective prophecy and the power of belief in stars.
After his lecture in Leipzig was cancelled, Warburg decided to present his
research in Hamburg and his many letters to friends and colleagues give us
an insight into his working method, his ideas, concerns, convictions.
Through the correspondence in preparation for his lecture, we know whom
he contacted and trusted. Thus, a study of these letters, which furnishes us
with the background to and genesis of the wartime lectures in Hamburg and
Berlin, also contributes to an understanding of Warburg’s book on Luther
published three years later.
We first read of Warburg’s research into the topic when he thanked Carl F.
Meinhof of the Kolonialinstitut in Hamburg for his observation, that
Luther’s beliefs should be positioned halfway between practical magic and
abstract symbolism.11 Warburg announced to Boll that he has found “ some
thing interesting” in connection with his Luther research;12 and with
Hermann Joachim of the Hamburg State Archive, to whom he wrote that he
used the word “ Reformation” in a context wider than just the Lutheran
movement, because he understood by that word a transformation having
originated from both Christian and non-Christian churches.13 In a letter to
Ernst Schwedeler-Meyer, his friend from student days in Strasbourg and
director of the Arts and Crafts Museum in Liberec (Reichenberg), Warburg
explained that he was researching the relationship between Lutherism and
classical cosmological beliefs,14 and he approached Paul Flemming in Pforta
with detailed questions on Johann Lichtenberger, Melanchthon and Luther,
and the relationship between German Reformation theology and supersti-
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG (9 7 )
tion in classical antiquity based on cosmology.15 Hubert Stierling o f the

Altona Museum offered a photograph o f a satirical illustration by Peter
Vischer the Younger for Warburg’s lecture on Luther and prophecies;16
Warburg requested from Karl Schaefer of the Museum o f Arts and Crafts in
Liibeck information on a Reformation woodcut in the collection o f the
M useum;17 and he discussed Luther’s view o f the date o f birth o f Christ with
Ernst Kroker o f the City Library in Leipzig.18
But already before his lecture in the Verein für hamburgische Geschichte
in Hamburg, on 12th November 1917, Warburg had started to explore various
publication avenues. He wrote to Karl Singer o f the Vossische Zeitung in
Berlin, asking whether it would be possible to publish an article on Luther
and cosmological superstition o f his time as a supplement to the Vossische
Zeitung}9 Immediately after Warburg’s Luther lecture in Hamburg, Arthur
Obst o f the Verein für hamburgische Geschichte requested from him a short
sum m ary for publication in the Zeitschrift des Vereins fü r hamburgische
Geschichte.20 Warburg, however, was not interested in a short note except to
announce that the lecture would be published in full in a future volume.21
The next day he approached his friend Hans Nirrnheim, who worked in the
Hamburg State Archive, to explore further the possibility o f publishing his
lecture in full in the Zeitschrift.22
He lost no time in reporting on his lecture to Wilhelm Printz23 and to
Anna Warburg, his cousin in Stockholm. He owed Luther a great debt, he
wrote, for his protest against Jewish orthodoxy which wanted to enslave
him with its “ silly notion” o f sanctification through works. Warburg
valued Luther’s fearlessness.24 Alfred “Alfresco” Doren was sent a copy o f a
newspaper cutting25 o f his lecture;26 so too were Ernst Schwedeler-
Meyer27 and finally Fritz Saxl, at that time in Hungary, to whom Warburg
wrote that his lecture on Luther was his “ most mature academic
achievement”.28
Warburg now offered to repeat his lecture in Berlin as guest o f the
Religionswissenschaftliche Vereinigung in the spring o f 1918.29 His proposal
was accepted,30 and he continued with his research, writing to ask Paul Kehr,
formerly o f the Prussian Historical Institute in Rome but since the outbreak
o f war employed in the City Archive in Berlin, whether there were letters by
Johannes Carion in the City Archive.31 He also asked Rudolf Hoecker, o f the
Royal Library in Berlin, for literature on the prophecy that Luther would be
{98} DOROTHEA MCEWAN
burnt at the stake.32 Ernst Schwedeler-Meyer drew his attention to H om ers

writings on planets33 and the classicist and orientalist Franz Dornseiff sup
plied him with bibliography on Luther and popular superstition.34 Warburg
turned again to Rudolf Hoecker; he asked him to check a letter by Luther,
offered for sale by the rare book dealer Carl Ernst Henrici,35 and explained
to Paul Flemming his lifelong research on the influence of the classical tradi
tion: Rousseau and Winckelmann had touched on the intellectual enlighten
ment, but not on the “demonic” influences, he wrote; these, however, were
present when astrology was invested with historical power, and one example
was the falsification o f Luther’s date o f birth, “ the collision o f a Christian
mythical and a Hellenistic scientific world view”.36
He invited Gustav Hellmann, director o f the Meteorological Institute in
Berlin, to his lecture, and requested permission for Rudolf Hoecker to look
through Hellmann s works on comets;37 he invited the archivist Hermann
Krabbo, and requested his assistance with locating Carion papers.38 After
the lecture on April 23, 1918, Warburg continued his extensive correspon
dence on this topic. Georg Stuhlfauth, curator o f Christian antiquities in
Berlin, requested replies to four questions arising out o f his lecture,39 equally
Warburg requested help from art historian Paul Clemen in Bonn on a
woodcut o f 1522, printed in Zwickau by Wolfgang Stôckel.40 Clemen thanked
him for his report on the lecture and forwarded the photograph requested.41
Warburg also asked the assistance o f the Germanist in Kiel, Eugen Wolff, to
document the 16th-century belief that Luther’s birth was the birth o f a
prophet, forecast by constellations o f the stars;42 Wolff confirmed Warburg’s
hypothesis that Luther’s date o f birth had been revised by protagonists of
this belief to coincide with that of the Great Conjunction. In order to verify
it Warburg should contact the planetarium in Pulkowa near Petersburg, as
the “ Juditium Astronomicum” by Johannes Copus was kept there 43 Three
days later Warburg replied that he had written to Pulkowa— something he
could not have done had the war in the East still continued.44
efforts to publicize the lectures
At the same time, Warburg was again engaged on the question o f seeing the
lecture in print. He discussed this in a letter to the classicist and historian o f
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {99}
religion Ernst Samter, in Berlin, stressing that he wanted to expand the text
and add many illustrations for a publication. This was necessary as Warburg
was convinced that without an investigation into beliefs in monsters, the role
o f horror stories vilifying the enemy in wartimes was incomprehensible.45
But before the full text was published, Paul Hildebrandt, the classicist, had
published an article about it in the Vossische Zeitung on June 18,19 18: “ Im
Zeichen des Saturn. Aberglaube im Zeitalter der Reformation” (In the Sign
o f Saturn. Superstition in the Age o f the Reformation).

Warburg thanked Professor Paul and Else Hildebrandt for their “report” on
his Luther lecture. The article would assist him greatly when he had to write
to librarians with detailed questions relating to his further research.46
Warburg purchased some 200 copies o f this article and forwarded them to
friends and colleagues within the space o f a few weeks.47 He had received
dozens o f letters o f acknowledgement and appreciation, from amongst others
Hubert Stierling in Altona,48 Moritz Fiirst in Hamburg,49 his GP Dr. Heinrich
Embden in Hamburg,50 Paul Schuster in Berlin,51 Wilhelm Printz “ in the
field”,52 Carl Melchior in Hamburg,53 Erich Brandenburg in Leipzig,54 Robert
Davidsohn in Munich,55 the (unnamed) director o f the University Library in
Erlangen,56 P. J. Meier in Braunschweig,57 Carl Albrecht in Berlin,58 J. A. F.
Orbaan in Chateau d’Oex in Switzerland,59 Kurt Karl Eberlein in Baden
Baden,60 Conrad August Johann Carl Borchling in Hamburg,61 Paulus Ruben
in Hamburg,62 Lichtwitz in Altona,63 Ernst Kroker in Leizig,64 Robert
Kautzsch in Frankfurt am Main65 and Albert Kôster in Leipzig.66
All this correspondence, however, turned around the “ report” by Paul
Hildebrandt and still not around the whole text o f the lecture. In July,
Warburg had written to Professor Alfred Vierkandt in Berlin, enquiring
about the cost o f printing the whole text in the Deutsche Literaturzeitung.67
But Vierkandt did not reply, so on 11 September Warburg turned to Ernst
Samter in Berlin, proposing to co-finance the publication by paying for the
printing o f illustrations.68 By September 27, the arrangements were com
plete and Warburg wrote to Richard Bôhme o f the Deutsche Literaturzeitung
formally confirming that the entire Luther article would be published in the
journal, that he and the Religionswissenschaftliche Gesellschaft would
supply the photographic plates for the illustrations free o f charge, and that
单行本
he requested 250 offprints.69
{ 100} DOROTHEA MCEWAN
The publication date had been set for November 10, 1918 as Warburg
mentioned to Franz Boll in a letter o f 21 October.70 In a second letter to Boll
he provided a sum m ary o f his research on “ Luthers second astrological
birthday” and on the tension between creating space for thought, i.e. logic,
and destroying space for thought, i.e. magic.71 But by this time such a publi
cation date had become— even in Warburg’s own understanding— increas
ingly unlikely.
from article to book
By the winter o f 1918-1919 the whole project o f publishing the lecture had
停顿
come to a standstill. Warburg, severely depressed and agitated, was admitted
to a treatment centre where he stayed for months. There was no hope any
longer o f publishing the article in the Deutsche Literaturzeitung. But there
were moves to publish it in the series of the Heidelberg Academy o f Science.
Warburg formally agreed to a proposal, sent to him via Carl Bezold, orientalist
in Heidelberg, that the Luther article would be printed as a separate volume in
the Sitzungsberichte and that additional costs would be borne by the author.72
In January 1920, Warburg informed Franz Boll that Fritz Saxl would take
over the running o f the library from April 1920, as Wilhelm Printz had been
offered a university post in Frankfurt am Main. Saxl would therefore assist
Warburg with the publication o f the Luther book. He forwarded detailed
instructions on publishing the text and on the printing o f illustrations,
despite the fact that by this time he was severely ill.73
Saxl lost no time; in his first week in post he took up the correspondence
with Boll, supplying information on illustrations;74 in his second week he
informed Boll that Warburg s health had deteriorated and that he was pre
pared to pay for the entire printing costs, not just the printing o f the illustra
tions, if this would speed up the process.75
Three months later, in July, Saxl required a progress report on the print
ing o f plates from Carl Winters, the university publishers in Heidelberg.76 In
August Warburg him self wrote to Boll enquiring about the progress. He
asked him whether he would agree that even “ in Wittenberg, where
Christian paganism as practised in Rome was passionately opposed, the
Babylonian-Hellenistic astrologer and the Roman augur had gained admis-
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {iO l}
sion and strangely limited approval?.” 77 Warburg found the publishers Carl
Winter very slow. The following month he wrote twice to Boll, asking him to
come to Hamburg for a few days to work with him, as he had to be admitted
to another treatment centre shortly. Neither he nor Saxl, he wrote, could
finish the article without Boll. They needed Boll’s “competent astrological
view,” as Saxl wrote, in one very important aspect: “ the link o f Luther’s
nativity by Gauricus to the prophecy by Lichtenberger. Does Gauricus go
back directly to Lichtenberger?.” Saxl enclosed the copy o f the Gauricus

nativity, showing “ Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Sol all (in the ninth
house) together with Scorpion, Mars in the second house in Aries” and the
Lichtenberger text and raised the question o f the position o f Mars: “ He is in
a ruling house. Can this be Aries? But above all, can Mars be ruler of this
conjunction without even standing in a conjunction with Jupiter and Saturn
or to be on the ascendant (he is in the second house!)? The answer to these
questions is important for the whole history of the trajectory of astrological
ideas”.78
偿还
Warburg offered Boll hospitality in Mrs. Schramm’s house and offered to
兴奋的
reimburse him for travel expenses.79 However, these feverish letters in the
last few days before his departure to the sanatorium in Jena did not have
the required effect. It was left to Saxl to prepare the manuscript for publica
tion. In a letter to Warburg’s brother Paul, in New York, Saxl confirmed that
work on the Luther book was progressing and expressed his hope that the
book would be met with the high regard which was its due.80 By way o f sig
nalling to Warburg that his work was very much appreciated, he wrote to
him that his son, M ax Adolph, was reading the Luther manuscript and that
Ernst Cassirer had visited the library for the first time.81 At the same time,
Saxl was in close contact with the publishers in Heidelberg, admonishing
them at W arburg’s request, to pay more attention to the quality o f the
reproductions.82 At the end o f February 1921, Saxl returned the main part o f
the index o f Warburg’s book and hoped to receive Warburg’s permission to
print in the next few days— Saxl had to forward proofs and corrections after
corrections to Warburg in Jena and Kreuzlingen.83 A month earlier,
Warburg had already forwarded a list o f names o f people who were to
receive complimentary copies o f his book— he clearly found it very difficult
to wait.84
{ 102 } DOROTHEA MCEWAN
Saxl had objected to Warburg’s request for mentioning Erwin Panofsky’s

help with thanks in the introduction to the book, as Panofsky had not con
tributed extensively to the research.85 Warburg, however, advised that the
acknowledgement should remain86 and so the final preparations for printing
were cleared. “At last!” wrote Saxl to Boll, informing him that Warburg hacl·
passed the last set o f proofs for press.87
At the end o f March Saxl sent page proofs to Andrea Moschetti o f the
Museo Civico in Padua, making clear that he would be very pleased if

Moschetti would review the book in the periodical Arte.ss This was the first
o f many letters with the same request. When Saxl was able to report to
Warburg that the book had been printed, he asked him for a final list o f
names of people who should be sent a copy,89 no doubt with the intention o f
asking them the same question. In his letter to Robert C. Witt in London, he
hoped that the “extraordinary” insights in the book, based on solid scholar
ship, would be o f some interest to him.90 At this time numerous letters from
Warburg, Saxl and Printz mentioned names o f people, who have been or
ought to be sent copies o f the book, sometimes following recommendations
from other scholars. Printz, for example, suggested that Saxl add the names
o f theologians and church historians to the list o f people who should be sent
a copy.91 Warburg reminded Saxl to forward a copy to the Fremdenblatt in
Hamburg and told o f his joy on receiving a very complimentary letter from
Heinz Sieveking in Zurich.92 Sieveking was enthusiastic about the book: “A
whole life is in it! What a journey from the monstrous pig o f the Assyrian to
Dürer! And how large Luther stands again in front o f us.” 93
The letters o f thanks started to come in. Carl Georg Heise asked Saxl
whether he ought to thank Warburg directly;94 Paul Flemming thanked
Warburg for a copy with a kind dedication;95 Gustav Pauli sent a letter o f
thanks to Saxl and promised to write “ to my friend” in greater detail;96
Rudolf Tschudi apologized for not having thanked him earlier as he wanted
to have time for studying it in detail.97 Saxl forwarded a copy to Adolph
Goldschmidt in Berlin, remarking that the publication o f the book seemed
to have improved Warburg’s situation, and: “ I would have high hopes if the
book found approval with others.” He also invited Goldschmidt to give a
lecture in the library in the winter and stressed that the lectures together
with the publication o f the book might provide the necessary incentive for
MAKING A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {103}
Warburg “to return to life.”98 Professor Werner Weisbach suggested to Saxl

that he send a copy to Professor Eduard Wechfiler in Berlin. In a covering
letter Saxl explained that the focus of the book was the survival of “non-
W inckelm ann-ist” classical antiquity, the journey of images on the route
from Athens to Bagdad and Spain and the em inent im portance of South
West Europe for the tradition of cukure mediated by the Moors.99
making a reception for the

book
As Saxl sent out a num ber of books on behalf of Warburg, many letters of
appreciation were sent to him rather than to the author. Erwin Panofsky
expressed his thanks and m entioned that Professor Eugen Wolff had spoken
enthusiastically about the work;100 Professor Julius von Schlosser in Vienna
wrote that “W arburg’s book interests me as does everything he writes”.101
But Saxl had gone one step further than simply sending out books on behalf
of his employer. He entered into or followed up a correspondence with
requests for reviews. The first such after the publication of the book was his
letter to Ernst Cassirer, quoted at the beginning of this article. As this letter
demonstrates Saxl’s care and concern for Warburg, I wish to quote it in full:
“Dear Professor, The other day I neglected to ask you about something
which is dear to me. You m ight know that it is the destiny of W arburg’s
books to be only highly esteemed, but rarely read, let alone consulted. The
reason for this would not be difficult to establish, but this is not what I want
to write about. Now that the new book, which is in many respects a synthesis
of the life’s work of this man, has been published, I am doing my best to
interest those for whom it was written in the problem raised in it. I very
m uch want to ask you whether it would be possible for you to publish a
short note on the treatise from the standpoint of the philosopher, in Logos or
a similar journal. For Warburg, who is only half alive and already half dead,
it would be a comfort to see that at least his work lives on. Please forgive this
imposition”.102
This request to write a review was followed by many more. Wilhelm
Waetzoldt, W arburg’s trusted former library assistant, declared by return of
post that he could not write a review for some time as he was busy.103 Saxl
had no truck with such a reply. He took him up immediately, told him how
“ sad” (“ traurig” ) he was, because Waetzoldt, as the former librarian, who
still commanded W arburgs esteem, could have written something personal
and something showing more intensive understanding than could be
变宽厚
expected from a journalist o f the Frankfurter Zeitung.104 Waetzoldt relented,
热情洋溢地
and wrote a note for the Frankfurter Zeitung. Saxl thanked him effusively,
stressing that Warburg would be extraordinarily happy with it: “You see,
with the logical half Warburg has remained his old self, infinitely grateful if
somebody can use and value what he wrested from him self”.105 Meanwhile
Saxl wrote to Warburg that he was very happy that Waetzoldt had written a
short review, “ because the man is so incredibly busy in his post, but he is so
indebted to you that he made time to write a note during the night”.106
Saxl forwarded five copies to the Protestant theologian and editor o f the
Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengeschichte Leopold Zscharnack in Berlin, and asked
him to hand one to Karl Holl, as a review by Holl would be very welcome.107
He sent five copies to Rudolf Hoecker in Berlin and asked him to write a
review for the Münchener Neueste,>telling him that Waetzoldt would publish
something in the Frankfurter Zeitung and Rudolf Bernoulli in the Berliner
Tageblatt. If Hoecker could think o f other important papers, he urged him to
approach them him self and just drop him a line.108 Two days later he
returned Bernoulli’s draft with his corrections and urged him: “ Please try
everything to get the stuff accepted by the ‘Tage-Blatt’ [sic], and published in
the not-too-distant future.” Should there be any difficulties, he advised
Bernoulli to contact Hoecker, who “ then has to wangle the matter via his
Press Service.” 109 Rudolf Bernoulli ran into the same problem which
M einhof was later on to encounter: his draft review was too long when he
submitted it to the Berliner Tageblatt. He therefore shortened it and submit
ted it again to Saxl, suggesting the longer version might be published in Die
Psychischen Studien .110 Saxl agreed to both suggestions.111
He sent a copy to Walther Kohler in Zurich with the request to review
it,112 and one each to Bernhard Schmeidler in Leipzig and Hermann Gunkel
in Halle, with identical wording, “ perhaps it would even be possible for you
to review it in a suitable journal so that its extraordinary material is brought
to the attention also o f those circles o f the research community so far still
uninterested in it.” 113
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {IO5}
Percy Schramm, a young friend of Warburg’s, in the middle o f his final

抓壮丁
exams at university, was pressganged to write a review and to get Otto
Westphal to write one too.114 Aby Warburg’s wife, Mary, informed Saxl that
Peter Petersen was willing to write a review in the Fremdenblatt in July.115
But as Warburg’s brother Fritz had told Saxl that the Fremdenblatt had
already promised to publish a review, he wrote to Petersen asking him to
find another journal, “ something more pedagogical,” in which to place a
review.116
The book was four years in the making but once published Warburg was
very keen to receive many responses, be they letters or reviews. M ary
Warburg repeated to Saxl that Warburg was waiting impatiently for letters in
response to his book,117 but Saxl had already been doing his best to encour
age friends to respond and to review. It was hard work, as he wrote to a
number o f scholars trying to fit the book by Warburg into their specific
fields o f research, to give them a reason why they should want to write a
review. In his letter to Oskar Maurus Fontana he explained that Warburg’s
research, which “ at first glance must appear very alien to you,” was a discus
sion o f magic and logic— logic created a space for itself in astronomy and
magic destroyed this space by conceding that stars influenced human life.118
Saxl suggested to Georg Stuhlfauth in Berlin that he review the book in
the Zeitschrift fü r Bûcherfreunde119 and Stuhlfauth duly asked the editor,
Georg Witkowski in Leipzig, who agreed only to publish a short note.
Stuhlfauth found this “ a pity” as he would have liked to write a detailed
appraisal.120 This was not good enough for Saxl: “ it would be really a shame
if your note on Warburg’s book could not be published in extenso, as it
would be beneficial to all scholars.” He therefore suggested that it be sent to
Karl Koetschau, the editor o f the Repertorium fü r Kunstwissenschaft in
Düsseldorf, who would surely publish anything which came from
Stuhlfauth.121 Stuhlfauth agreed and promised to write a review for the
Repertorium , though he thought that “ in any case” a short note should be
published in the Zeitschrift fü r Bücherfreunde and offered to write one at a
later time.122
Two weeks later, Saxl forwarded a copy o f the book to Karl Koetschau
and asked him whether he would publish a review by Stuhlfauth in the
Repertorium. The next day, Koetschau replied in the affirmative.123
{I06} DOROTHEA MCEWAN
To Marc Rosenberg in Karlsruhe Saxl wrote that he should thank

Warburg for the copy o f the book and promise him to react to it in greater
detail at a later date: “ For he is excitedly waiting for comments on his
work.” 124 To Paul Flemming Saxl repeated that Warburg would be very
happy if he could write a review. Fie would not need to summarize the astro
logical contents, as Warburg used the astrological material only to explain
the psychology o f people in the Reformation. Saxl would be happy to receive
Flemming’s draft; he would then take it upon himself to find a journal in

which to publish it.125
Saxl’s approaches and requests for reviews were tailor-made in order to
suit the particular research interests o f the addressee. From daily newspapers
to academic journals in theology, literary criticism and art history, from local
Hamburg papers to papers abroad, Saxl did not leave a stone unturned to
have the book reviewed, or at the very least to have people send their appreci
ation of the book to Warburg. But then as now, the problem was one o f time:
before reviews appeared in print months and sometimes even years went by.
Saxl rightly believed that a large correspondence would cheer Warburg up and
that a large number o f reviews would lift him out o f his depression. The
whole summer o f 1921 was given over to encouraging friends and colleagues
to react in writing to the work. O f the dozens o f letters Saxl wrote from the
middle o f May to October 1921, nearly all contained mentions o f the Luther
book and requests for reviews. Although he had arrived in Hamburg only in
1920, by the summer o f 1921 Saxl was already very well known in academic
circles as Warburg’s assistant and director o f the library.
Saxl’s Viennese contacts paid o ff as well. He sent a copy to Hans Tietze in
Vienna, stressing that the book was not easily readable and “ at first glance, its
importance is difficult to appraise, because the material which he used and
his way o f thinking are very far removed from those o f the art historian”. It
was painful to Warburg that he was no longer able to involve himself in aca
demic work: except for checking the proofs o f his book, he had had no
further opportunity to produce a scholarly work. He would therefore be
immensely happy to see that his work was o f benefit to others: this above all,
might one day lead him back to his own research.126 Tietze found the book
“ extraordinarily interesting” and immediately agreed to review it in two
journals, in Kunstchronik und Kunstmarkt and Graphische KiXnste}27
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {IO 7}
Saxl used a variety o f methods to achieve results which were based on

critical comments and not flattery.128 He wrote polite letters to solicit
reviews, and he used emotional blackmail, by stressing that Warburg had
not heard for a long time from a particular colleague (for example Otto
Franke) and that he was very keen to have his reaction.129 To some people he
made requests for short notes in a newspaper (for example Paul Hiibner o f
the Prussian M inistry o f Finance, an erstwhile employee in the Warburg
library) with heavy hints that other scholars (in his case “ former librarians”
like W. Waetzoldt) were writing reviews.130 In the cases o f colleagues with
whom Warburg had corresponded on the Luther topic, Saxl asked them to
write scholarly articles from their particular angle, for example Karl Ludwig
Schmidt o f Giefien University who hoped to publish something in the
Theologische Blatter.131 He approached scholars for review articles, he
approached editors with the request to publish reviews which were already
written and above all, he had to keep Warburg informed o f who was writing
in which journal. In a five page letter he mentioned how disappointed he
was in Hoecker as he had promised to write a review but had not done so,
that Rudolf Bernoulli had published a review in the Berliner Tageblatt and a
note in Psychische Studien and that Robert Eisler wanted to review it in the
English journal The Quest.132 Saxl responded to requests by colleagues to
send a copy o f the book to other colleagues, something which Saxl always
took up with the by now familiar request, for example to Otto Eififeldt in
Berlin on Karl Ludwig Schmidt’s request, helpfully suggesting the Preufiische
Jahrbiicher as a suitable publication.133
Wilhelm Printz, who was still working in the library during university
holidays, urged Robert Kautzsch to send a letter to Warburg with an
评价
appraisal of his book. He mentioned that Saxl had asked many colleagues to
write reviews. The echo Warburg had received so far and the appointment as
Honorary Professor o f Hamburg University— Saxl sent him the good news
on 9.8.1921— had made him very happy.134 As late as October 1921 the
requests were still going out; Saxl asked Paul Tillich in Berlin135 and offers o f
reviews came in; in February 1922, Franz Kampers in Breslau/Wroclaw
informed Saxl that he had written a review as he found the book a most
valuable contribution to his fields o f research.136 Saxl acknowledged this
letter: “ Thank you very much for your kind letter, which I forwarded to
{I08} DOROTHEA MCEWAN
Professor Warburg right away; he is very ill and will be very happy indeed to
receive praise from you.” 137
private comments
The private comments emerging from the correspondence offer insights o f a

different kind. Julius Derenberg, Aby W arburgs brother-in-law, found the
book very interesting, a service to scholarship, a new way o f seeing “ men o f

action” and “ men o f art.” However, he found the review in the Vossische
Zeitung well intentioned, but “dull and colourless.” 138 His brother M ax
wrote that it was a great pleasure to read words o f appreciation on the
断言
Luther book “ everywhere.” He averred that Aby, the scholar, was more suc
cessful than Max, the banker.139 Saxl forwarded Waetzoldt’s review in the
Frankfurter Zeitung — which M ax Warburg was probably alluding to— to
another brother, Fritz Warburg, praising Waetzoldt’s devotion “ to our
library.” 140 Saxl himself wrote to Waetzoldt and told him that Warburg had
been very pleased with his review. He also informed him that Warburg had
been appointed Honorary Professor o f Hamburg University, “ in gratitude
for his support in establishing the university”. Whilst this appointment was a
rather “ unimportant” matter, it was important as it made Warburg happy for
a day - he was “ for a moment reconciled with life.” 141
Warburg was pleased that reactions to his book “ flowed surprisingly
strong.” He found Cassirer’s letter very “ interesting” and asked Saxl to tell
him that he was waiting excitedly for Cassirer’s book on symbolism. He also
enjoyed Tietze’s, W itkowski’s and Stuhlfauth’s letters and heard that
Schmeidler and Gunkel wanted to write reviews. He wondered why Saxl had
asked them as there were “enough other” art historians and Reformation his
torians. He was agitated that his brother M ax has not reacted so far,
G. Thilenius and O. J. Franke likewise.142
In many letters Warburg expressed his total satisfaction with Saxl’s work,
how well he carried on the work in the library etc. What is almost impossible
to assess is whether he really understood how much work it meant for Saxl
to send out the books, to enclose individual letters, to follow them up with
requests for reviews, to enter into correspondence with editors o f news
papers and journals, to send reminders to authors and editors. Sometimes
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {IO 9}
Saxl had to write again to those he had approached initially with a review
request, saying that he had heard from third parties, that a review had been
published but he had not received a copy yet, e.g. to Rudolf Hoecker in
Berlin, whose review was published in the Münchener Neueste.U3
There was one comment which was not favorable. It came from Ludwig
Rudolph in Osterode, who disagreed with the main direction o f Warburg’s
thoughts, as reported in Paul Hildebrandt’s review under the title “ Die
Weisheit der Sterne.” 144 In his letter to Warburg he confessed that he had
not yet read the book, but understood from the review that Warburg saw
“ astrology as nothing else but the totally unsuccessful attempt for creating
an attitude to life.” He conceded that Warburg could probably deduce such a
view from sources available to him but he wanted to point to facts which can
only be ascertained by practice: “ He who thinks that astrology preaches
fatalism, errs. It will supply practical wisdom to him who understands it
well. I am prepared to prove this at any time.” 145 He hoped for a reply, but
there is no mention o f him later on.
Heinz Sieveking forwarded his review in the Neue ZiXrcher Zeitung and
thanked Warburg for a book by Franz Boll with a personal dedication by
Warburg.146 Saxl thanked Hans Tietze for his announcement o f Warburg’s
book in the Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft fü r Vervielfâltigende Kunst, which he
forwarded to Warburg right away: “ I am sure that such an announcement
will please him despite and precisely because o f his desperate mood.” 147
As the months wore on, the reviews no longer “ flowed.” Warburg
inquired why Paul Tillich had not written a review,148 Saxl inquired whether
Leopold Zscharnack had published a review149 and Saxl reminded Paul
Hinneberg that Professor Dibelius had promised a review in the Deutsche
Literaturzeitung. “ May I ask whether it will be published soon? Professor
Warburg, whose condition has unfortunately not improved, has asked me
about it.” 150
Saxl also engaged in a discussion o f the Luther book with various schol
ars. He agreed with Kurt Rathe in Vienna that the Madonna o f the Ear o f
Corn derived from astrology and encouraged him to send his article to
Warburg.151 He informed Warburg that Rathe had referred to his book in
his book on the Madonna o f the Ear o f C orn.152 In another instance, Saxl
commented on and corrected a draft o f a review by Carl Fr. Meinhof,
{1 1 0 } DOROTHEA M CEW AN
professor for African languages at Hamburg University. M einhof’s main crit

icism turned on Warburg’s description o f Babylon as the cradle o f astrology.
Whilst this was surely the case for the classical world, it was not the case for
the other continents, as exemplified by the system o f astrology in Mexico.
Saxl retorted that Warburg had not researched Babylonian astrology as such,
he had only been interested in the “Wanderung,” the journey o f oriental
astrology, o f the processes o f being adapted to and adopted by new circum
stances encountered. Whether or not Luther believed in astrology and div

ination was “ very difficult” to ascertain. “ In order to characterize Luther
fully, one would really have to say that it was not simply that he did not
believe in all these things.” 153
Once, we read o f a request to be released from the promise to write a
review. Saxl was asked by Professor Karl Ludwig Schmidt in Berlin to send
Otto Hermann Eififeldt, professor o f Old Testament Studies in Berlin, a copy
o f W arburg’s book and to ask him to review it in the “ Preufiische
Jahrbiicher” in July 1921. Whilst he thanked him for the book, he had not
time to write a review. He quoted first holidays, then the aftermath o f inten
sive work on publications o f his own, then his appointment in Jena
University as reasons why he was unable to write an appreciation o f
W arburg’s research and form ally requested Saxl to release him from the
moral duty laid on him .154
Undaunted, Saxl kept up his work on both fronts, on his correspondence
with Warburg and on his correspondence with colleagues near and far. A
note on the Luther book had appeared in the Hamburg Fremdenblatt,
written by A. Malte Wagner, which Saxl called “certainly bad, but not as bad
as it might have been.” Zscharnack’s review he found “ meagre.” 155 Warburg
requested to see these reviews as he took a lively interest not only in the
reception o f his book, but in every aspect o f Saxl’s work for the library.156
To place the Carl Fr. M einhof review in a journal proved quite a difficult
task for Saxl. M einhof forwarded it adding that Saxl should send it to “ any”
newspaper since the Hamburg Fremdenblatt had published a review by Malte
Wagner.157 Saxl therefore discussed with M ax Warburg whether to approach
the Hamburg Correspondent and suggested that it would be better to send it
to the Berliner Tageblatt which had not reviewed the book so far.158 Three
days earlier Saxl had sent the review to Fritz Warburg, asking him to forward
it to the Hamburg Correspondent.159 M ax W arburg for his part wanted it
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {ill}
published in the Hamburg Fremdenblatt and not in the Hamburg

Correspondent.160 However, in the meantime, M ax Warburg was sent a reply
from the Berliner Tageblatt. The editors had agreed to publish an short note,
but not more than ten lines o f print. Max Warburg thought that the book by
his brother merited more than ten lines and asked Saxl whether he should
forward the review to the Hamburg Correspondent ,161 This letter crossed
with one to him from Saxl: Mr. Engel o f the Berliner Tageblatt wished to
print a review o f forty lines o f print, not just ten lines and recommended to
Saxl that M einhof abbreviated his review accordingly.162 M ax Warburg
agreed163 and it was left to Saxl to go back to M einhof and explain the twists
and turns on the way to get a declaration o f intent from the editors o f the
Berliner Tageblatt to print a review, but not more than forty lines o f print.
Saxl actually asked him to abridge his review to “ forty printed pages” -a very
telling mistake. He apologized for requesting this work but did so knowing
full well “that it was in the interest o f the one man who should be helped
with this essay.” 164 It was a full year after the publication o f the Luther book
that M einhof’s review was published, which Saxl found “ more well meaning
than less well written.” 165
Reviews o f the book by Warburg, with a genesis o f more than four years,
spanning the most difficult years in the political situation o f Germany as
much as in the health situation of Aby Warburg, were published in sixteen
newspapers and journals. We know from the correspondence that Carl F.
M einhof had confirmed that his review had appeared in the Reichsbote in
July 1922. Nothing is known about it as well as Bruno Adler’s in the
Monatshefte für Kunstwissenschaft and Franz Boll’s in the Neue Jahrbücher.166
Since the Monatshefte fü r Kunstwissenschaft stopped publication in 1922 and
started up again under the title Jahrbuch fü r Kunstwissenschaft in 1923, it is
conceivable that copy left over from the Monatshefte was not published in
the Jahrbuch. A similar fate might have been the reason why the review is not
featured when the Neue Jahrbücher started up only in 1925. The approaches
by Saxl to Ernst Cassirer, Bernhard Schmeidler, Hermann Gunkel, Percy
Schramm, Otto Westphal, Oskar Maurus Fontana, Paul Hiibner, Karl
Ludwig Schmidt, Paul Tillich and Wilhelm Dibelius did not come to
fruition. Even so, the task undertaken by Saxl was impressive. The largest
part in the review process was due to Saxl’s unstinting efforts, coaxing, invit
ing, reminding friends and colleagues to write reviews, not just to bring
Warburg’s research to a wider audience, but much more to help Warburg on

his way to recovery. In the summer o f 1921, when the book appeared, this
was far from certain, but Saxl believed in it. In 1923, after the pivotal lecture
by Warburg on the Serpent Ritual on 21 April in Kreuzlingen, Saxl put it
simply in a letter to Dagobert Frey, a friend and colleague in Vienna: “You
can imagine how important it would be on a personal and academic level, if
we succeeded in helping him to take up his scholarly work again.” 167
Warburg knew what he had in Saxl. He finished a letter full o f business

questions and answers with “ the main thing: my most heartfelt thanks for
your friendship and congratulations [on W arburgs birthday June on 13]. I
can do with congratulations. I am in the most dreadful m ood”. He sent
greetings to Mrs. Saxl and the children “ from the unknown, miserable, sick
uncle in Switzerland, who has many books and who reads so little.” 168 His
brothers M ax in Hamburg and Felix and Paul in New York also knew and
valued Saxl’s commitment. When M ax acknowledged receipt o f a copy of
Warburg’s book, he added: “ I am happy that you have executed the work in
such a respectful way and that you put the research o f my brother into the
right light.” 169 And when years afterwards Felix Warburg acknowledged
Saxl’s long report on the development o f the library, “during the years when
my brother’s health did not permit him to be personally at your side,” he
stressed that they all had reason “ to be most happy with what has been
achieved, and a great deal o f credit is due to you who in those terrible years
kept the affairs o f the library in such shape that it was both tempting and
possible for brother Aby to take up the building-up o f his beloved institution
as soon as his health improved. How much patience and tact your position
at the library required during that time, we are well aware of, and I appreci
ate the more what you have been able to do.” 170
list of reviews:
1 A nonymous: A nnouncem ent of the Aby W arburg lecture in the “Verein für
H amburgische Geschichte,” 12.11.1917, in: Hamburgischer Correspondent, 11.11.1917,
M orning edition, p. 2.
2 Anonymous: Report on the Aby Warburg lecture in the “Verein für Hamburgische
Geschichte,” 12.11.1917, in: Hamburgischer Correspondent, no. 582, 15.11.1917,
M orning edition, p. 3.
MAKI NG A RECEPTION FOR WARBURG {II3}
3 Paul H ildebrandt “Im Zeichen des Saturn. Aberglaube im Zeitalter der

Reformation,” in: Vossische Zeitung, no. 167,18.6.1918, M orning Edition A.
4 A rnold E. Berger discussed the book in his review article “Deutsche
Kulturgeschichte,” in: Zeitschrift fü r Deutschkunde, 48, (1921), 487-488.
5 Rudolf Bernoulli “Heidnisch-antike Wahrsagung zu Luthers Zeiten,” in: Psychische
Studien, 48 (1921), 518-521.
6 Hugo Gressmann “W arburg, A.: Heidnisch-antike Weissagung in W ort und Bild
zu Luthers Zeiten,” in: Theologische Literaturzeitung, 46 (1921), 234.
7 Paul Hildebrandt “Die Weisheit der Sterne,” in: Literarische Umschau, Supplement
4 to Vossische Zeitung, no. 260,5.6.1921.
8 R udolf Hoecker discussed the book in the review of Flugblatt und Zeitung by
Karl Schottenloher, Berlin 1922, in Deutsche Literaturzeitung, 44 (1923), 236 and
Miinchner Neue Nachrichten, 6./7.8.1921.
9 H einrich Sieveking “Sternen- u nd W underglaube,” in Neue Ziircher Zeitung,
no. 1597,9.11.1921, First M orning Edition.
10 Hans Tietze, in Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft fiir vervielfàltigende Kunst, 1921,51.
11 Erica Tietze-Conrat “A.Warburg, Heidnisch-antike Weissagung in W ort u nd Bild
zu Luthers Zeiten,” in Kunstchronik, N.F. 31 (1920-21), 843-844.
12 W ilhelm W aetzoldt “Kunstwissenschaftliche Sterndeutung,” in Frankfurter
Zeitung, no. 504,10.7.1921.
13 Franz Kampers “W arburg, A., Heidnisch-antike Weissagung in W ort und Bild zu
Luthers Zeiten,” in Historisches Jahrbuch der Gorres-Gesellschaft, 42 (1922), 355.
14 Walter Kohler “Heidnisch-antike Weissagung zu Luthers Zeiten,” in Sonntagsblatt
der Easier Nachrichten, 15.10.1922.
15 O tto Scheel “A. W arburg, H eidnisch-antike Weissagung in W ort u nd Bild zu
Luthers Zeiten,” in Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengeschichte, 40 (1922), 261-262.
16 Malte Wagner “Der Glaube an die Sterne,” in Hamburger Fremdenblatt, no. 116,
9.3.1922, Evening edition, title page.
17 Leopold Zscharnack, in Volkskirche, 4 (1922), no. 1,1.1.1922, p. 10.
18 Georg Stuhlfauth “A. W arburg, Heidnisch-antike Weissaung in W ort und Bild zu
Luthers Zeiten,” in Zeitschrift der Biicherfreunde, N.F. 15 (1923), 34-35.
19 Robert Eisler discussed the book in a review article “New Books on the History of
Astrology,” in Quest, July 1925, 553-555.
notes
1 W arburg Institute Archive, General Correspondence, abbr. to WIA, GC, F. Saxl

to E. Cassirer, 25.5.1921.
2 Aby W arburg Gesammelte Schriften, //, Leipzig/Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1932,
pp. 487-558 and notes pp. 647-656. The book was published as a separate volume
in Sitzungesberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-hist.

Klasse, dated 1920, 26. Abhandlung, Heidelberg 1920, but, in fact, was published
only in May of the following year.
3 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. W arburg, 28.11.1920, m entioning that Cassirer had visited
the library and was impressed by the collection, the arrangem ent and the spirit
behind it.
4 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to E. Cassirer, 25.5.1921.
5 His “devoted” (“au fo pfern d”) care and concern for the fatherly friend and
scholar, was to help W arburg to such a degree that he could leave the sanato-
rium and return to H am burg and his beloved library in 1924. Cf. E. H.
Gom brich “Festvortrag”, in: Aby Warburg zum Gedachtnis, Gedenkfeier anlafilich
der 100. Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages, K arl-Heinz Schafer, Ernst H.
Gom brich, Carl Georg Heise (eds). Ham burg: Im Selbstverlag der Universitàt,
1966, p. 29.
6 For this correspondence see Dorothea McEwan Das Ausreiten der Ecken. Die Aby
Warburg—Fritz Saxl Korrespondenz von 1910 bis 1919, Hamburg: Dolling und
Galitz Verlag, 1998.
7 WIA, GC, Μ. M. W arburg & Co. to W. Printz, 30.1.1920.
8 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 359, A. W arburg to F. von Bezold, 23.2.1918.
9 For further reading consult E. Gombrich Aby Warburg. An Intellectual Biography,
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986, esp. C hapter X, “The H aunted
Reformation.”
10 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to F. Boll, 8.3.1917.
11 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 264, A. W arburg to C. F. Meinhof, 13.11.1916.
12 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 300,301, A. W arburg to F. Boll, 24.4.1917.
13 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 303, A. W arburg to H. Joachim, 14.6.1917.
14 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E. Schwedeler-Meyer, 29.6.1917.
15 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 307, A. W arburg to P. Flemming, 7.7.1917.
16 WIA, GC, H. Stierling to A. Warburg, 9.10.1917.
17 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to K. Schaefer, 12.10.1917.
18 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E. Kroker, 31.10.1917.
19 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to K. Singer, 26.8.1917.
20 WIA, GC, A. Obst to A. W arburg, 15.11.1917.
21 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to A. Obst, 18.11.1917.
22 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to H. N irrnheim , 19.11.1917.
23 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to W. Printz, 17.11.1917.
24 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 336, 337, A. W arburg to Anna Warburg, 18.11.1917. “Meine
Beziehungen zu Luther sind ja nicht von heute: so wenig ich als buchstabenglàu-
biger Lutheraner zu brauchen bin, als Protest gegen die jiidische O rthodoxie,
die mich m it ihrer dum m en Werkheiligkeit versklaven wollte, verdanke ich ihm
unendlich viel”. Anna Beata W arburg was m arried to Aby’s brother Fritz, her
second cousin.
25 There were two notes on W arburg’s lecture published in the Hamburger
Correspondent, an announcem ent on 11 November 1917 and a short sum m ary on
15 November 1917.
26 WIA, GC, A. Warburg to A. Doren, 4.1.1918.
27 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E. Schwedeler-Meyer, 11.1.1918.
28 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to F. Saxl, 11.1.1918. W arburg requested him to bring
“Hungarian flour,” as Saxl had planned a visit to Hamburg.
29 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to A. Vierkandt, 9.12.1917.

30 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to A. Vierkandt, 17.12.1917.
31 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 343, A. W arburg to E. Kehr, 3.12.1917. Johannes Carion,
1499-1537?, historian, m athem atician, court astrologer to Joachim I, Elector of
Brandenburg.
32 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to R. Hoecker, 5.12.1917.
33 WIA, GC, E. Schwedeler-Meyer to A. W arburg, 2.1.1918.
34 WIA, GC, F. D ornseiff to A. Warburg, 11.1.1918.
35 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to R. Hoecker, 22.2.1918.
36 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 360, 361, A. W arburg to R Flemming, 24.2.1918. He urged
Flem ming to publish a second edition of his book Geschichte der deutschen
Reformation, but this tim e with full bibliographical indices. Already before the
war W arburg had wanted to write a book Index der indexlosen Bûcher because
“the lack of indices impedes the way to the hearts of books.”
37 WIA, GC, A. Warburg to G. Hellmann, 15.3.1918.
38 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to H. Krabbo, 5.4.1918.
39 WIA, GC, G. Stuhlfauth to A. W arburg, 30.4.1918.
40 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 367, A. W arburg to R Clemen, 13.5.1918.
41 WIA, GC, R Clemen to A. W arburg, 22.5.1918.
42 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E. Wolff, 14.6.1918.
43 WIA, GC, E. Wolff to A. Warburg, 10.7.1918.
44 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 377, A. W arburg to E. Wolff, 13.7.1918.
45 WIA, Kopierbuch VI, 369, A. W arburg to E. Samter, 19.5.1918.
46 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to Paul and Else Hildebrandt, 22.6.1918.
47 WIA, Merkbuch W 25, lists 178 names of people who were sent the H ildebrandt
“Report” in June and July 1918.
48 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to H. Stierling, 18.6.1918.
49 WIA, GC, A. Warburg to M. Fürst, 20.6.1918.
50 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to H. Embden, 20.6.1918.
51 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to P. Schuster, 21.6.1918.
52 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to W. Printz, 22.6.1918.
{Il6 } DOROTHEA MCEWAN
53 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to C. Melchior, 23.6.1918. Carl M elchior’s brother Georges

m arried Elsa Warburg, a cousin of Aby Warburg.
54 WIA, GC, E. Brandenburg to A. W arburg, 25.6.1918.
55 WIA, GC, R. Davidsohn to A. W arburg, 27.6.1918.
56 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to the University Library, Erlangen, 29.6.1918.
57 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to P. J. Meier, 2.7.1918.
58 WIA, GC, C. Albrecht to A. Warburg, 4.7.1918.
59 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to J. A. E O rbaan, 7.7.1918.
60 WIA, GC, Κ. K. Eberlein to A. Warburg, 8.7.1918.

61 WIA, GC, C. A. J. C. Borchling to A. W arburg, 14.7.1918.
62 WIA, GC, P. Ruben to A. W arburg, 17.7.1918.
63 WIA, GC, Lichtwitz to A. W arburg, 19.7.1918.
64 WIA, GC, E. Kroker to A. Warburg, 24.7.1918.
65 WIA, GC, R. Kautzsch to A. W arburg, 3.8.1918.
66 WIA, GC, A. Kôster to A. Warburg, 14.9.1918.
67 WIA, GC, A. Vierkandt to A. W arburg, 5.7.1918.
68 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E. Samter, 11.09.1918.
69 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to R. Bohrne, 27.9.1918; see also WIA, GC, A. W arburg to
Albert Kôster, 16.09.1918, that he will send him the published text of the Luther
lecture shortly.
70 WIA, GC, A. Warburg to E Boll, 21.10.1918.
71 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E Boll, n ot dated, possibly enclosed w ith letter of
21.10.1918.
72 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to W. Bezold, 4.11.1919.
73 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E Boll, 27.1.1920.
74 WIA, GC, E Saxl to E Boll, 8.4.1920.
75 WIA, GC, E Saxl to E Boll, 16.4.1920.
76 WIA, GC, E Saxl to C. Winter, 6.7.1920.
77 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E Boll, 5.8.1920.
78 UB Heidelberg, Heid.Hs. 2109, E Saxl to E Boll, 13.09.1920.
79 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to E Boll, 12.9.1920 and 24.9.1920.
80 WIA, GC, E Saxl to P. W arburg, 1.10.1920.
81 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. Warburg, 28.11.1920.
82 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to C. Winter, 6.1.1921.
83 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to C. Winter, 24.2.1921.
84 WIA, GC, A. Warburg to F. Saxl, 24.1.1921.
85 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. Warburg, 28.2.1921.
86 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to F. Saxl, 2.3.1921.
87 UB Heidelberg, Heid.Hs. 2109, F. Saxl to F. Boll, 21.3.1921.
88 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. Moschetti, 28.3.1921.
89 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. W arburg, 18.5.1921.

90 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to R. C. W itt, 18.5.1921. O ther recipients were H. Embden,
25.5.1921; Fritz W arburg, 6.6.1921; Max W arburg, 6.6.1921; H. Gressm ann,
6.6.1921; R. Reitzenstein, 6.6.1921; Marc Rosenberg, 23.6.1921.
91 WIA, GC, W. Printz to F. Saxl, 7.6.1921. Printz added helpfully, that Saxl needed
only to position him self in front of the bookshelf with books on Luther. He then
could simply read off the names of those authors who should be sent a free
copy.
93 WIA, GC, H. Sieveking to A. Warburg, 5.6.1921.

94 WIA, GC, C. G. Heise to F. Saxl, 9.6.1921.
95 WIA, GC, P. Flemming to A. W arburg 12.6.1921.
96 WIA, GC, G. Pauli to F. Saxl, 15.6.1921.
97 WIA, GC, R. Tschudi to A. W arburg, 24.6.1921.
98 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. Goldschmidt, 16.6.1921. . .ins Leben zurückzukehren...”
99 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to E. WechEler, 6.6.1921.
100 WIA, GC, E. Panofsky and F. Saxl to A. Warburg, 30.6.1921.
101 WIA, GC, J.v. Schlosser to F. Saxl, 3.7.1921. “W arburgs Schrift interessiert mich,
wie alies von ihm !”.
102 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to E. Cassirer, 25.5.1921.
103 WIA, GC, W. Waetzoldt to F. Saxl, 5.6.1921.
104 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to W. Waetzoldt, 7.6.1921.
105 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to W. Waetzoldt, 13.6.1921. cf. Review no. 12.
106 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. W arburg, 13.6.1921.
107 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to L. Zscharnack, 6.6.1921. cf. Review no. 17.
108 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to R. Hoecker, 6.6.1921. cf. Review no. 8.
109 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to R. Bernoulli, 8.6.1921.
110 WIA, GC, R. Bernoulli to F. Saxl, 12.7.1921. cf. Review, no. 5.
111 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to R. Bernoulli, 15.7.1921. It is noteworthy that Saxl agreed to a
review in a journal called “Theosophische Studien” and not “Die psychischen
Studien”.
112 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to W. Kohler, 7.6.1921. cf. Review no. 14.
113 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to B. Schmeidler, 7.6.1921 and F. Saxl to H. Gunkel, 7.6.1921.
114 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to P. Schramm, 13.6.1921.
115 WIA, GC, M ary W arburg to F. Saxl, 14.6.1921.
116 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to P. Petersen, 20.6.1921.
117 WIA, GC, Mary W arburg to F. Saxl, 17.6.1921.
118 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to O. M. Fontana, 14.6.1921.
119 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to G. Stuhlfauth, 20.6.1921.
120 WIA, GC, G. Stuhlfauth to F. Saxl, 27.6.1921. cf. Review no. 18.
{Il8 } DOROTHEA MCEWAN
121 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to G. Stuhlfauth, 29.6.1921.

122 WIA, GC, G. Stuhlfauth to F. Saxl, 1.7.1921.
123 WIA, GC, K. Koetschau to F. Saxl, 14.7.1921.
124 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to M. Rosenberg, 29.6.1921.
125 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to R Flemming, 21.6.1921.
126 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to H. Tietze, not dated, before 22.6.1921.
127 WIA, GC, H. Tietze to F. Saxl, 22.6.1921. cf. Reviews no. 10 and 11.
128 WIA, GC. It is interesting here to compare a run of correspondence in a differ-
ent context, when Saxl found him self asked to w rite a review. Saxl w rote to
Dr. Raim ond van Marie on 13 November 1923that he had heard of M aries m o n -
um ental work on the history of Italian painting, The Development o f the Italian
Schools o f Painting, 1923-1938, 18 volumes. As the exchange rate between the
D eutschm ark and the D utch Guilder was very unfavourable, Saxl requested
either to be allowed to borrow a set o f proofs for a short time or to purchase a
copy at a reduced price.
Marie replied on 23 November 1923 that Saxl should either write to the p u b -
lishers directly for a copy at a reduced price or, if he was prepared to write a
review “in a pre-em inent journal,” to request a review copy for free.
Saxl’s reply is not extant, b u t M arie’s reply on 3 D ecem ber 1923 m ade Saxl’s
objections to such a scenario transparent: “I really find no reason to ask my
publishers to sell you a copy of my work at a reduced price; if you think so,
you can ask them yourself. I see that you have n ot understood that the only
reason for me to suggest a review copy was to m eet w ith your request. I am
completely unclear why you cannot square it with your academ ic conscience
to prom ise to write a review o f my work, especially since it is the m ost com -
prehensive in its field and I did n o t make the condition, that your review had
to be favourable.”
The correspondence ended there, the accession books of the library listed the
purchase of the first volume on 17 January 1924.
129 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to O. Franke, 14.7.1921.
130 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to R Hübner, 15.7.1921.
131 WIA, GC, K. L. Schmidt to F. Saxl, 19.7.1921. In his letter of 22.10.1921, ibid., Saxl
sent him an invitation for a lecture in the W arburg library and at the same time
asked him to write a review of the Luther book.
132 WIA, GC, F. Saxl, C. H ertz and M. W arburg to A. W arburg, 21.7.1921. cf. Reviews
no. 5 and 19.
133 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to O. Eififeldt, 22.7.1921.
134 WIA, GC, W. Printz to R. Kautzsch, 7.9.1921.
135 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to P. Tillich, 12.10.1921.
136 WIA, GC, F. Kampers to F. Saxl, dated “middle of February 1922.”
137 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to F. Kampers, 17.2.1922. However, in November 1922, Franz
Kampers wrote to Saxl that he had sent the review a long tim e ago, but the m is-
erable situation in the publishing world might prevent a publication. F. Kampers
to F. Saxl, 8.11.1922, cf. Review no. 13.
138 WIA, GC, J. Derenberg to A. Warburg, 27.6.1921. cf. Review no. 7.
139 WIA, GC, M. W arburg to A. Warburg, 12.7.1921.
140 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to F. W arburg, 13.7.1921.
141 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to W. Waetzoldt, 9.8.1921. In the letter he also inform ed him
that Paul Tillich had offered to write a review in the Internationale Monatshefte.
142 WIA, GC, A. W arburg to F. Saxl, 1.7.1921. E. Cassirer w rote w arm ly to

A. W arburg, WIA, Zettelkasten 71, 071/041616, 26.6.1921. He avowed that reading
his book was a pleasure, which opened his eyes to the general problem of the
intellectual structure of astrology, som ething which he had been researching for
some time in his pursuit of cognitive questions.
143 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to R. Hoecker, 13.8.1921.
144 In: Literarische Umschau, 4. Beilage zur Vossischen Zeitung, No. 260 v, 5.6.1921.
145 WIA, GC, L. Rudolph to A. Warburg, 28.6.1921.
146 WIA, GC, H. Sieveking to A. W arburg, 9.11.1921. cf. Review no. 9.
147 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to H. Tietze, 10.12.1921.
149 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to L. Zscharnack, 13.1.1922.
150 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to P. Hinneberg, 13.1.1922.
151 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to K. Rathe, 10.7.1922.
152 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. Warburg, 28.7.1922. Ein unbeschriebener Einblattdruck und
das Thema der “Àhrenmadonna”. O ffprint from Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft fü r
vervielfaltigende Kunst, 1922.
153 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to C. Fr. Meinhof, 18.2.1922.
154 WIA, GC, Ο. H. Eififeldt to F. Saxl, 4.1.1922.
155 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to A. Warburg, 10.3.1922. cf. Review no. 16.
156 WIA, GC, A.Warburg to F. Saxl, 20.3.1922. To show the breadth and detail of
W arburg’s interest in w hat was going on in his library, I sum marize the topics:
he com m ented on the lecture series in the library, newly established by Saxl; he
found the program m e very interesting, asked Saxl to invite Boll to givelectures
and asked him about the budget for the series; he wrote about illustrations in his
article “Italienische Kunst und Internationale Astrologie im Palazzo Schifanoja
zu Ferrara,” published later in the year in the “Atti del X. Congresso inter-
nazionale di Storia dell’Arte”— it was the text of his lecture at the art historical
congress in Rome in 1912-, and ordered five copies from the editor of the “Atti,”
Moschini, in Rome; he discussed library administrative matters, requested a list
of books by Pfleiderer in his library and a publication featuring lists o f lectures
in G erm an universities; he inquired about work on the Arabic publication of

Picatrix; he asked about his son Max Adolph and requested a photograph of
him , as “mulus,” in front of his library. “Mulus,” “donkey,” was the term used for
young people who experienced the longest holiday of their life, who were in the
enviable in-between stage of their career just having passed their school leaving
exam inations and waiting to start university.
157 WIA, GC, C. F. M einhof to F. Saxl, 5.4.1922.
158 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to M. Warburg, dated 26.4.1922, should be 26.5.1922.
159 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to F. Warburg, 22.5.1922.
160 WIA, GC, M. W arburg to F. Saxl, 24.5.1922.

162 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to M. W arburg, 2.6.1922.
164 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to C. F. Meinhof, 12.6.1922.
165 WIA, GC, F. Saxl· to A. Warburg, 22.7.1922.
166 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to B. Adler, 24.5.1921 and F. Saxl to F. Boll, 8.6.1921.
167 WIA, GC, F. Saxl to D. Frey, 2.5.1923.
170 WIA, GC, Felix W arburg to F. Saxl, 30.8.1926, in the original English. Similarly
Paul W arburg to F. Saxl, 9.9.1926: “It m ust be a great satisfaction to you that you
have been able in contributing to the dual task of building the library and to the
recovery of its creator so successfully and so faithfully!”
mimesis and
allegory* on aby
warburg and
waiter benjamin
matthew rampley
IT IS WIDELY R ECO G N IZ ED THAT A
number o f affinities exist between the

thought o f Aby Warburg and Walter
Benjamin. Not only are they both
interested in cultural memory, in
addition, parallels can also be drawn between Benjamin’s dialectical method
and Warburg’s dialectical iconology, which he referred to as the “ iconology
o f the interval.” 1 Indeed, in many respects the reactivation o f interest in
Warburg owes much to the ever increasing importance o f Benjamin as a cul
tural critic. This stands in inverse relation to the situation o f some 70 years
ago, when Benjamin, having realised the impossibility o f an orthodox acade
mic career, sought access to the well-established circle o f scholars associated
with the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg. Benjamin’s unsuccess
ful attempt was not only motivated by the potential opportunities o f a
private institution, but also because o f a sense o f certain shared aims. There
are many ways in which parallels between the two scholars can be drawn,
and consequently I intend to focus on one particular aspect o f their thought,
namely, their analysis o f modernity, and in particular the role o f the concept
{ 121}
{ 122} MATTHEW RAMPLEY
o f the mimetic in their accounts. As I shall demonstrate, their accounts of

modernity throw up important similarities, not least in their considerable
ambivalence towards the putative “progress” achieved in the modern era. For
both authors the source o f the parallels can be traced back to the nine
teenth-century interest in empathy and in mimeticism. It is to this topic,
therefore, that I shall first turn, before then analysing its role in Warburg
and Benjamin.
mimicry and empathy,

anthropology and aesthetics
Although the concept o f mimesis can be traced back to Plato’s Republic and
earlier, it is only in the emerging discourse o f anthropology in the nine
teenth century that it takes on a wider meaning as a category o f experience.2
In particular the idea o f mimesis which, for Plato, had described assimila
tion to another in dramatic performance and later in all art, becomes, in the
nineteenth century, a central structuring principle for describing the prim i
tive mind. Most immediately one might think o f Edward Tylor’s Primitive
Culture or Fierbert Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, both o f which were
widely read in Britain and in Germany.3 Spencer remarks, for example, that
“Among the partially civilised races we find imitativeness a marked trait ...
according to Mouat the Andamanese show high imitative powers.” 4 For
Tylor, primitive magic is sustained by the belief that “association o f thought
must involve a similar connexion in reality,” 5 a conflation that mirrors the
lack o f reflective distance characteristic o f the more obvious imitativeness
observed by Spencer. As Tylor argues, “ Man, in a low stage o f culture, very
commonly believes that between the object and the image o f it there is a real
connexion, which does not arise from a mere subjective process in the mind
o f the observer, and that it is accordingly possible to communicate an
impression to the original through the copy.” 6 From this stems the magical
神秘的
logic o f occult sympathies that survives into the “old medical theory known
as the ‘Doctrine o f Signatures,’ which supposed that plants and minerals
indicated by their external characters the diseases for which nature has
intended them as remedies.” 7
For Spencer, too, magic derives its legitimacy from the belief in occult
affinities. In particular he notes that even in his own time there are those for
MIMESIS AND ALLEGORY. ON ABY WARBURG AND WALTER BENJAMIN { 123}
whom “ some intrinsic connexion exists between word and thing.” 8 This
primitive belief is a projection o f the notion o f the proximity o f self and
other onto the world o f objects. Hence a name is held to be more than an
arbitrary linguistic designation. Instead it is a part o f the person, and
because it is inseparable from its owner great weight is frequently given to
keeping it secret. Spells, therefore, which use the person s name are held to
function even in the physical absence o f the persons, since they “ originate in
the belief that a representation is physically connected with the thing con
nected.” 9 Evidence o f this can be seen, too, in the frequent reliance o f sorcer
ers and magicians on possession o f a part o f the victim’s body (e.g. hair or
nails) or o f an object closely associated with them. In both such cases there is
an evident inability to conceive o f relations between objects and persons as
anything but immediate, concrete and particular.
Such a theory o f primitive thought persisted until well into the twentieth
century. For example, Frazer’s magnum opus The Golden Bough interprets
magic according to precisely the same schema. Although it is analysed using
分类法感染性的
a taxonomy that distinguishes between, for example, contagious and homeo
pathic magic, and between practical and theoretical magic, all classes o f
magic are still governed by the same mimetic logic, represented either by the
“ Law o f Similarity” or the “ Law of Contact.” 10 And a similar interpretation
underpins the work both o f Frazer’s younger contemporary Lucien Lévy-
Bruhl and also a more recent writer such as M ary Douglas. Primitive think
ing is governed by the “prelogical,” as Lévy-Bruhl terms it, which follows the
“ rule o f participation.” 11 Accordingly, logical division is replaced with prel
ogical integration, which underpins the law o f participation. “ For example,
why are an image or a portrait a completely different thing for primitives
than they are for u s ... Evidently from the fact that every image, every repro
duction participates’ in the nature, the properties and the life o f whatever it
is an image o f . .. .The primitive mentality has no difficulty with the idea that
this life, these properties are at the same time in the model and the image.” 12
Similarly M ary Douglas, writing in 1966, argues that “ ... a primitive world
view looks out on a universe which is personal in several different senses.
Physical forces are thought o f as interwoven with the lives o f persons. Things
are not completely distinguished from persons and persons are not com
pletely distinguished from their external environment.” 13
{124} MATTHEW RAMPLEY
The prominence o f the mimetic in anthropological discourse can be

placed alongside the growth o f interest in empathy in late nineteenth-
century aesthetic theory. In particular, Robert Vischer’s essay on “ The
Optical Sense o f Form” was to prove highly influential on contemporary aes
thetic thinking.14 The argument o f Vischer’s essay rests on the basic distinc
tion between “ seeing” and “ looking.” This distinction draws on an
opposition between simple passive “ seeing” as a physiological process o f
stimulus reception, where the “ impression received is still undifferent

iated” 15 and “ looking,” which, Vischer argues, “ sets out to analyze the forms
dialectically ... and to bring them into a mechanical relationship ... the
impression o f seeing is repeated on a higher level.” 16 However, “ looking”
involves more than simply giving the phenomenon greater conceptual deter-
minacy, which the above description might suggest; the dialectical analysis
to which Vischer refers is an active engagement with the experiential world,
involving both tactile and visual perception. As a consequence the world
becomes invested with value. As Vischer notes, “ I have an enclosed, complete
image, but one developed and filled with emotion.” 17 Significantly, too, the
basis o f this “penetrating into the phenomenon” 18 is a mimetic impulse, for
“ the criterion o f sensation lies ... in the concept o f similarity ... not so
much a harmony within the object as a harmony between the object and the
subject.” 19
The influence o f Vischer’s essay on contemporary art historical discourse
can be felt most immediately in Heinrich W ôlfflin’s doctoral thesis,
绪论
“ Prolegomena to a Psychology o f Architecture,” 20 which uses empathy
theory to account for the experience o f architectural space and mass.
Underpinning this experience is the analogy with the body. Drawing on the
general assumption that “ Forms become meaningful to us only because we
recognise in them the expression o f a sentient soul. Instinctively we animate
each object,” 21 Wolfflin proceeds to argue that the human body gives the
measure to architectural design o f all periods. In short, he concludes that
“ any architectural style reflects the attitude and movement o f people in the
period concerned. How people like to move and carry themselves ... ” 22
The empathy theory o f Vischer and Wolfflin stands in close proximity to
the mimetic discourse o f anthropology; specifically, the notion o f a tactile
物质的
engagement with the world, in which certain corporeal experiences are given
objective form, invites comparison with the anthropological notion o f the

primitive inability to disengage from immersion in immediate sense experi
ence. Consequently the mimetic, from being a stage in human development,
永久的
becomes a perpetual psychological disposition that plays a constant role in
determining the form o f cultural activities. The idea o f empathy is first sys
tematically historicised by Alois Riegl, who regards the history o f the visual
arts as the expression o f the varying configurations o f tactile and optical
engagement with the world. However it is only Riegl’s student Willhelm

Worringer that makes the connection between empathy theory and anthro
pology explicit. In his discussion o f Abstraction and Empathy Worringer
aligns the definition o f modernity and, more specifically, modern art, along
two axes, the first measuring the relative distance or proximity to the phe
nomenal world, and the second the state o f (cultural and mental) progres
sion and regression.23 This joining o f anthropological and psychological
themes forms the background to the thought o f both Warburg and
Benjamin, and inasmuch as empathy theory presents the perpetual possibil
ity o f a “ regression” to a primitive mimetic state, so too Warburg and
Benjamin display a considerable ambivalence towards the apparent progress
o f modernity.24
pueblo indians and

quattrocento Florence
Warburg explores anthropological and psychological themes explicitly in two

texts. The first is his notes on a visit to the Pueblo Indians o f 1896, later given
as a lecture on the “ Serpent Ritual,” 25 and the second is the collection of
notes and aphorisms with the alternative titles o f “ Basic Fragments towards
a (monistic) Psychology o f Art” or “ Basic Fragments towards a Pragmatic
Science o f Expression.” 26 His interest in the Pueblo Indians, no doubt partly
affected by the widespread interest in the indigenous peoples o f the New
飞地
World, focuses on their status as “ an enclave o f primitive pagan humanity ...
with an unshakeable adherence to magical practices that we are accustomed
to condemning as a mere symptom o f a completely backward humanity.” 27
The object o f enquiry is the principle marker o f the Indians’ primitive state,
namely, their animistic religion. A crucial part o f Warburg’s reading o f the
{ 126 } MATTHEW RAMPLEY
Pueblo Indians is to see in them a prior stage in the genesis o f human

culture, and to establish the extent to which their religious beliefs and prac
尺码
tices “give us a yardstick for the development from primitive paganism
through the paganism o f classical antiquity to modern man.” 28 Two specific
features attract Warburg’s attention. The first is the prevalence o f animal
dances, in which the dancers don masks and imitate the appearance o f what
羚羊
ever the dance is intended to obtain, for example, antelopes or corn. The
meaning o f this imitation is quite clear: “When the hunter or tiller o f the soil
masks himself, transforms himself into an imitation of his booty— be that
animal or corn— he believes that through mysterious mimic transformation
he will be able to procure in advance what he coterminously strives to
achieve through his sober vigilant work as tiller and hunter.” 29 This interpre
tation quite clearly draws on anthropological accounts o f magic, and one is
tempted to draw parallels with Spencer and Tylor accounts o f sympathetic
magic. Underlying this mimetic practice, argues Warburg, is a “ culture o f
symbolic connection,” 30 whereby objects are connected through intrinsic
affinities, to be awakened by imitative ritual. The use o f masks is also note
worthy in this regard, for it signifies the erasure o f the dancer’s subjectivity,
and invites comparison with Benjamin’s insistence on the intentionless basis
o f mimetic truth. Warburg makes the necessity o f this loss of self explicit
when he notes that “When the Indian in his mimetic costume imitates, for
暗示
instance, the expressions and movements o f an animal, he insinuates himself
into an animal form ... to wrest something magical from nature through
the transformation o f his person, something he cannot attain by means o f
his unextended and unchanged personality.” 31 Another dance Warburg wit
nesses, the humiskachina dance, is a weather magic dance, intended to bring
the rains and thus ensure the corn harvest. Again the mask is o f central
importance; Warburg notes there is a taboo on seeing the dancers who, while
resting, may have taken o ff their mask. The focus o f this dance is a temple,
actually a tree, which serves as the symbolic mediator between the Indians
and nature. Here Warburg sees one more example o f the mimetic impulse,
though this time it is founded on the impulse to assimilate inanimate rather
than animate nature. It is instructive to compare one o f Warburg’s notes in
the Fragments , made during his visit to America, which repeats this fascina-
tion with the impulse towards assimilation characteristic o f the Pueblo

culture. Warburg writes:
The essential character of the causal relation of the “primitive” (i.e. incapable
of subjective differentiation) hum an to the external world is revealed in the
religious acts of the Pueblo Indians.
The incorporation o f sense impressions
II Corporeal introjection (Animal imitation)
III Corporeal annexation (Symbolism o f tools)
I Incorporation (Medical magic)

IV Corporeal addition (ornamental pottery, actually belongs to III ).32
Warburg is here outlining a primitive physics familiar from theories we have

seen elsewhere. As in Spencer or Tylor, the principle form o f causal connec
tion is one o f touch and direct corporeal contact, and this informs all con
ceptions o f causal relations, even between physically distant objects.
The greater part o f Warburg’s interest is directed towards the snake
dance, and here we come to the second feature o f the Indian cultures that
the lecture focuses on: their symbolic cosmology and its means o f expres
sion. Early in the lecture Warburg observes the prevalence o f the serpent
m otif as a symbol o f lightning, an indication that their cosmology remains
tied to mythic forms o f expression, rather than conceptual abstraction.
Famously, he states that the Indians “ stand on the middle ground between
magic and logos ... Between a culture o f touch and a culture o f thought.” 33
气象学的
In other words, complex meteorological phenomena such as lightning are
still expressed in the form o f concrete symbols. In the m ythology o f the
Walpi, one o f the Pueblo tribes, the snake, and specifically the rattle-snake, is
神
regarded as a weather deity, and the function o f the snake dance, argues
Warburg, is to force the snake to invoke lightning and to induce rain. Again
the snake dance involves imitation; the dancers wear rattles and stone-filled
shells on their knees. At the end o f the dance the snake is despatched into the
desert so that its soul will return in the form o f lightning. Warburg devotes
considerable attention to the serpent ritual for two reasons. First, he detects
in it an indication that the Pueblo Indians have passed beyond mere imita
tion, hitherto regarded as the sign o f the most primitive stage o f human
development. He argues, “ The serpent ceremony at Walpi thus stands
between simulated, mimic empathy and bloody sacrifice. It involves not the
imitation o f the animal— but the bluntest engagement with it as a ritual par
ticipant.” 34 In other words the Indians no longer seek merely to assimilate
themselves to the serpent, in an act o f sympathetic magic, but rather make
use o f the serpent, which introduces a relation closer to the instrumental
reason o f modernity. Second, Warburg is struck by the prevalence o f the
serpent m otif in other cultures, for example, in the Greek myth o f Laocoon
or the cult o f Dionysus, or in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. At the same

time, however, he notes that it undergoes various transformations in
meaning, which themselves signify a functional shift. It is the symbol o f
Satanic evil in the Genesis story, or the figure o f idolatry in the Old
Testament story o f the brazen serpent cast down by King Hezekiah.
However, when used as the emblem o f Asclepius it is drained o f its demo
niac power and instead transformed into a hieroglyph to be interpreted
allegorically. Warburg states;
“If religion signifies bonding, then the sym ptom o f evolution away from this
prim al state is the spiritualization o f the b on d between hum ans and alien
beings, so that m an no longer identifies directly with the masked symbol but,
rather, generates that bond through thought alone ... In the process we call
cultural progress, the being exacting this devotion gradually loses its m o n -
strous concreteness and, in the end, becomes a spiritualized, invisible
symbol.”35
Hence cultural evolution consists o f a shift away from direct mimetic

identification with the symbol towards a mediated relation, whereby the
symbol becomes a spiritualised allegory a theme that recurs in the
Fragments. In one from July 1896 he writes, “ The acquisition o f a sense o f
distance between subject and object the task o f so-called cultivation and the
criterion o f the development o f the human species. The proper object o f
cultural history would be to describe the prevalent state o f reflectivity.” 36
This view is spelled out most forcefully in the introduction to Mnemosyne
that I cited earlier, and it is amplified slightly later with the assertion that
“ this awareness o f distance can become a lasting social function which,
through the rhythmical change between identification with the object and
return to detachment signifies the oscillation between a cosmology o f
images and one o f signs.” 37
MIMESIS AND ALLEGORY. ON ABY WARBURG AND WALTER BENJAMIN {' 29}
It has sometimes been assumed that Warburg subscribed unquestioningly

to a form o f Darwinism, in which the process towards ever greater rational
ity was welcomed as an unambiguously progressive evolution.38 This view
has to be qualified by recognition that Warburg expresses reservations about
the extent to which the process o f modernisation could be regarded as
“progress.” It is notable that he detaches himself from any judgement regard
ing the primitive status o f the Indians; it is introduced as the judgement of
others, as the general consensus, an indication that Warburg himself only

partially subscribes to such views. More striking still is Warburg’s response
to modernity when he argues that “ The evolution o f culture toward the age
o f reason occurs in the same measure as the tangible, coarse texture o f life
fades into mathematical abstraction.” 39 Here one finds no triumphalist belief
in progress; instead the achievements o f Enlightenment are accompanied by
a sense o f loss. In a similar manner, the lecture concludes with an unremit
tingly pessimistic account o f modernity. While civilisation is based on the
creation o f a space between the self and the world, Warburg foresees that
modern technologies such as the aeroplane, the telephone and electricity
threaten to reintroduce barbarism by the destruction o f the sense o f space;
“the culture o f the machine age destroys what the natural sciences, born of
myth, so arduously achieved: the space for devotion, which evolved in tu rn
into the space required for reflection. The m odern Prom etheus and the
m odern Icarus, Franklin and the W right brothers, who invented the dirigible
airplane, are precisely those om inous destroyers of the sense of distance, who
threaten to lead the planet back into chaos.”40
Warburg’s analysis o f modernity indicates, too, the connection to his studies

o f the otherwise unrelated field of the Florentine Renaissance. For if it is the
case that the technologies o f modernity have destroyed the sense o f space,
thus heralding a new barbarism, so the Renaissance stands at the origin of
the process. With the Renaissance one witnesses the emergence o f a culture
o f self-reflective distance, but one where the distance created is in constant
conflict with mimetic impulses which attempt to negate it. This concern can
be seen to underpin W arburg’s doctoral thesis on Botticelli, completed
shortly before his excursion to America. The focus o f the study is the inter
pretation o f classical antiquity presented in Birth o f Venus and Primavera.
Although it had been challenged by authors such as Friedrich Nietzsche, the
dominant notion o f ancient Greece in late nineteenth and early twentieth-

century Germany was still largely informed by W inckelmann’s famous
description o f its “ noble simplicity and tranquil grandeur.” 41 Against this
Warburg detects in Botticelli’s paintings a considerable stress on movement,
agitation and dynamism, elements which are alien to the idea o f tranquillity
fostered by Winckelmann. In consciously distancing him self from
Winckelmann, Warburg is partly influenced by Nietzsche’s Birth o f Tragedy,
with its stress on the Dionysian current o f classical Greek culture. Given my
earlier remarks, it should be clear that for Warburg the representation o f
intense bodily movement constitutes a primitive impulse where the painter
(and the spectator) are empathically drawn into the narrative event. O f par
ticular interest was the cult o f Dionysus, as an exemplar o f such ecstatic self
不受限制的
negation. As Warburg writes considerably later, “ The untrammelled release
o f expressive bodily gestures, especially as it occurred amongst the adherents
令人陶醉的限制
o f the intoxicating gods o f Asia Minor, circumscribes the entire range o f
dynamic expression o f the life o f a humanity shaken by fear, from helpless
absorption to murderous frenzy, and all mimetic actions lie between these
two.” 42 Warburg is thus not interested in the archaeological correctness o f
Botticelli’s reference to the Dionysian, but rather in the significance o f its
presence in the Quattrocento. For while in both Primavera and in The Birth
of Venus one can detect the tranquil grace of which Winckelmann wrote, the
agitation o f the clothes and hair o f the figures in both paintings signifies the
presence o f a more primitive impulse, indeed Warburg argues that one o f
the sources for Botticelli’s work was a sarcophagus portraying Achilles in the
same agitated, emotionally intensified manner. Warburg is not necessarily
stating that Botticelli was a more attentive observer o f antiquity than
Winckelmann, but rather that his paintings form a locus for the expression
o f those same mimetic impulses exemplified by the Dionysian ecstasy o f
antiquity. These impulses have admittedly been sublimated into the graceful
elegance o f the two paintings in question, but they are nevertheless still
there, and as Warburg stresses, Botticelli’s contemporaries, especially Angelo
Poliziano, were also open to the Dionysian current o f Greek culture. Hence,
Warburg is emphasizing the heterogeneous nature o f early Renaissance
culture, the Renaissance as a locus o f conflict. The recovery o f Classical
Antiquity is not an event signifying uninterrupted cultural progress, but
MIMESIS AND ALLEGORY. ON ABY WARBURG AND WALTER BENJAMI N { 131}
rather a struggle, in which residues o f more primitive behavioral experience

constantly reassert themselves.
A more explicit formulation occurs in his lecture on “ The Entry o f the
Idealising Classical Style into the Painting o f the Early Renaissance.” 43 O f
the various works discussed, one in particular merits attention. It
concerns the discovery in 1488 o f a copy o f the Laocoon group in Rome,
18 years before the discovery o f the original. Again W arburg’s object o f
criticism is W inckelmann, and the choice o f this example is highly

significant, for W inckelmann had based his famous form ulation o f the
classical aesthetic on a reading o f the Laocoon. Drawing on the account o f
Luigi Lotti who actually dug up the copy, Warburg points towards a
completely different understanding o f the meaning o f the group in the
Renaissance:
In order to prove that a conception o f antiquity diametrically opposed to that

of W inckelmann actually originated in the spirit of the Quattrocento, let me
cite the words of Luigi Lotti who, together with our Giovanni Tornabuoni,
sought antiquities for the Medici in Rome and who, in 1488, was lucky enough
to uncover a small copy of the Laocoon group during night excavations in a
vineyard of Cardinal della Rovere. Its mythical content was unclear to him
and of no great interest; his enthusiastic adm iration was exclusively reserved
for its formal pathos:
“D uring excavations at night we found three lovely small fauns on a marble
base, all three encircled by a large serpent. To my m ind they are quite beauti-
ful. All they are lacking is a voice; they appear to be breathing, shouting out
and defending themselves with quite extraordinary gestures. The one in the
middle has evidently collapsed and is expiring.”
We hear nothing more of this group, whose export to Florence was almost
certainly prevented; the official discovery of the full-scale Laocoon group,
which caused a stir throughout Rome, didn’t occur until 1506. Nevertheless
one should not make the influence of the Laocoon dependent merely on the
fact of its chance re-emergence. I am no longer in fear o f being m isunder-
stood if I say: even if the sorrowful Laocoon group had not been discovered,
the Renaissance would have had to invent it, precisely because of its moving
rhetoric and pathos.44
In the Renaissance, therefore, the response to the group focused on and

specifically admired the sense o f struggle in the Laocoon group, and this
pathos was only perceived, according to Warburg, because o f an existing pre

disposition to the representation o f dynamic conflict. Again the aim is not to
4correct” Winckelmann’s reading o f the Laocoon group, but to argue that
the Renaissance responded in a completely different way, and to investigate
the meaning o f that difference. Warburg observes this elsewhere. In his essay
on “ Dürer and Italian Antiquity” o f 1906, he argues that “ already in the
second half of the fifteenth century Italian artists looked in the rediscovered
treasury o f forms from antiquity just as eagerly for models o f intensified

mimetic pathos as they did for models o f idealising classical tranquillity,” 45
and the specific example he chooses is the reappearance o f the classical m otif
o f Orpheus being beaten to death by maenads in, for example, a drawing by
Dürer or a contemporary engraving from Northern Italy.
Warburg’s interest in mimeticism also underpins his study o f astrology
and astrological allegory. In an early draft for the Mnemosyne introduction,
Warburg speaks o f his project as an “ Iconology o f the Interval. Art historical
material for a developmental psychology o f the oscillation between a theory
o f causation based on images and one based on signs.” 46 The basis o f the
shift from image to sign is thus a change in the metaphysical picture o f the
world, in which relations between phenomena are constructed according to
ever more abstract formulae. In Warburg’s analysis o f this cognitive shift,
astrology becomes an important object o f inquiry. The cosmological and
astrological orientation o f classical and pre-classical culture form the topic
o f the first three plates o f the Mnemosyne , suggesting its pivotal role in his
thought. As he notes in an unpublished fragment for the project, “ I shall
begin with astrology because nowhere does the problem o f the cycle o f con
敏捷
crete fantasy and mathematical abstraction reveal its fatal agility in moving
from one pole to the other more convincingly than in the metaphor o f the
heavenly bodies. It effects both a quite unreflective and self-negating subjec
tive confusion with the monstrous apparatus o f the astrological bodies, and
also an assured subjective certitude which, oriented toward the future, calcu
lates from a distance and with mathematical precision the rising and the
setting o f the phenomena o f the skies.”47 In astrology, therefore, Warburg
sees both mimeticism and also its opposite, scientific objectivism, at work,
and between these two extremes, the reduction o f astral deities to mere
allegories.
M IM E SIS AND ALLEGO RY. ON ABY W A R BU R G AND W A LTER BE N JA M IN {13 3}
The process of allegorisation occurs, for Warburg, in the wall paintings in

the Palazzo Schifanoja in Ferrara. Uncovered in 1840, there were originally
twelve, depicting the months of the year. Each depiction consists of three
planes, the lowest depicts mundane events at the court of the Duke Borso,
星际的
the uppermost represents Olympian gods and the middle includes the astral
gods, in the form of the relevant zodiacal signs. The parallel between the
astral signs and seasonal activities on earth indicate the persistence of astro
logical practices in Quattrocento Ferrara, but at the same time the meaning
of the zodiacal figures is mediated by the presence of equivalent Olympian
deities. Their origin is the same, namely classical antiquity, but they repre
sent two different conceptions of the pagan world. The first, the Apollonian
realm of the Olympian deities, contrasts with the world of astral demons, or
decans, whose nature has been informed by their passage through
Hellenistic, Indian, Arabic, then finally European medieval astrology. The
fresco therefore presents the contradiction between two types of antiquity.
Warburg was himself clear as to the central question guiding his inquiry;
“ To what extent are we to view the onset of stylistic shift in the representa
tion of the human figure in Italian art as an internationally conditioned
process of disengagement from the surviving pictorial conceptions of pagan
culture of the eastern Mediterranean peoples?”48
The historical detail of Warburg’s interpretation is open to question.
However, this is less important than the general direction of his investiga
tion. As Warburg himself noted, the provision of a neat solution, the decod
ing of the symbolism of the frescoes, was less important than the underlying
method, in which the frescoes are examined as an example of the loss of
mimeticism in astrological imagery. He states, “Astrology is in essence
nothing more than a name fetishism projected on to the future,”49 and the
allegorization of astral figures drains the fetish of its power.
benjamin: allegory and

modernity
Benjamin refers to the concept of mimesis in a number of texts, most obvi

ously in his essay “On the Mimetic Faculty” (later reworked as “ Doctrine of
the Similar” ).50 Here Benjamin interprets the prominence of imitative
{1 3 4 } MATTHEW RAMPLEY
Figure 6.1 Albrecht D ürer— The Death of Orpheus. Ham burger Kunsthalle (Photo:
W arburg Institute).
Figure 6.2 Anonymous North Italian Engraving—The Death of Orpheus (Photo: Warburg Institute).
{135}
behavior in children s play as the reflection o f a much more general impulse

not only to mimic, as children do, but to conceive the entire world as gov
erned by a system o f similarities and correspondences, o f which astrology is
an important survival. Language plays a central role in this primitive meta
physics; the system o f correspondences consists o f non-sensuous similari
ties rooted in the primal form o f language: the name. Benjamin is relying
on a theory o f language first explored in his early essay “ On Language as
such on Human Language,” 51 which sees language as originally o no

matopoeic. This conception o f language has been linked with Jewish mysti
cism, and Benjam in’s early writings seen in the light o f Kabbalistic
doctrine. However, it can also be fitted into what Gérard Genette has
referred to as the “ m im ological” tradition o f language philosophy which,
stemming from Plato’s Cratylus, traces the basis o f linguistic signification
to m im etic roots.52 Thus, for Benjam in, “ language can be seen as the
highest level o f mimetic behaviour and the most complete archive o f non-
sensuous similarity.” 53 Significantly, modernity disrupts this primitive state
o f affairs. Benjamin notes that “clearly the observable world o f modern
man contains only minimal residues o f the magical correspondences and
analogies that were fam iliar to ancient peoples.” 54 While the mimetic
impulse has nearly vanished, its residue can be traced in language and in
writing, both o f which function as its archives. The precedent o f anthro
pology is relevant here, inasmuch as Tylor was the first to introduce the
notion of residues or primitive survivals. Consequently, while the mimetic
代替
basis o f language has been supplanted by language as a system o f signs, it
has left its traces and hence, too, the traces o f the vanished faculty o f which
it was the medium. In the “ Doctrine o f the Similar” the anthropological
perspective is made more explicit, with a corresponding diminution o f ref
erence to the mystical language o f his earliest language theory. Using the
example o f astrology, Benjamin argues that the “ possibility o f human im i
tation, that is, the mimetic faculty which human beings possess, may have
to be regarded, for the time being, as the sole basis for astrology’s experien
tial character.” 55 Astrology appears as an outmoded superstition because
“ in our perception we no longer possess what once made it possible to
speak o f a similarity which might exist between a constellation o f stars and
a human being.” 56
MIMESIS AND ALLEGORY. ON ABY WARBURG AND WALTER BENJAMI N {137}
The idea o f mimesis is also central to Benjamin’s study o f the Baroque

tragedy, or Trauerspiel, which predates these essays by several years.57 It
informs both his method and also his interpretation o f the meaning o f
Baroque allegory. In the prologue to his study Benjamin asserts that “mathe
matics demonstrate that the total elimination o f the problem o f representa
tion ... is the sign o f genuine knowledge,” 58 adding later that the “proper”
approach to truth consists o f “ a total immersion and absorption in it.” 59
Conceptual mediation is an obstruction to “ true” knowledge, and conse

quently Benjamin’s method o f historical investigation is founded on an
intentionless laying out o f opposites alongside each other, since “ ideas are
not represented in themselves but solely and exclusively in an arrangement
o f concrete elements in the concept: as the configuration o f these ele
ments.” 60 This idea is repeated in The Arcades Project , o f which Benjamin
notes, “ Method o f this work: literary montage. I have nothing to say, only to
show.” 61 Benjamin’s insistence on lack o f intention is central to his concep
tion o f the dialectical method, for in contrast to Hegel, it implies the lack of
消除
governing conscious movement which would sublate all oppositions. Instead
Benjamin insists on the importance o f allowing contradictions to remain
unresolved, and a reason for this is his continued use o f the idea o f the
residue. Specifically drawing on Leibniz’s idea of the monad, Benjamin con
tinues the anthropological interest in resemblance and correspondence as
the basic principle o f primitive metaphysics. Ideas are monads, they contain
“an indistinct abbreviation o f the rest o f the world o f ideas ... every single
monad contains, in an indistinct way, all the others.” 62 Although not explicit,
one can detect in this the idea, explored more fully in his essay on language,
that although the growth o f abstraction and logic has alienated humanity
from the world, language has retained a residue o f its former state. While
language has become prim arily a vehicle o f semiotic communication and
conceptual judgement, it has a symbolic core that preserves the “ non-
communicable.” 63 This dialectic o f symbol and sign, o f mimeticism and
alienation recurs most forcefully in Benjamin’s account o f allegory and its
difference from the classical sign, pivotal to which is the role o f Baroque
“arbitrariness.” 64
Benjamin’s study is perhaps best known for its rehabilitation o f allegory
and its repudiation o f Romantic theories o f symbolism, most notably that o f
Friedrich Creuzer, which denigrate allegory in favour the symbol. Benjamin

criticises the traditional opposition between the symbol, where there exists a
一致
congruence o f meaning and form, and the allegory which, through its tem
poral basis, purportedly lacks the totality integral to the symbol. Instead of
regarding the allegory as a debased form o f symbolism Benjamin stresses
that allegory has a separate internal logic grounded in the alienation o f lan
guage from nature. Consequently, the sense both that language has lost that
intimate bond with nature still present in the symbol and also that the alle
gory is founded on the m ourning o f historical time become central.
Regarding the first, Benjamin notes that in allegory “Any person, any object,
any relationship can mean absolutely anything else” ;65 amongst the authors
o f the Baroque Trauerspiel, “ word, syllable, and sound are emancipated from
any context o f traditional meaning and are flaunted as objects which can be
exploited for allegorical purposes.” 66 Allegory brings to an extreme the
recognition o f the arbitrary nature o f language and o f linguistic reference,
and this arbitrariness is linked to fragmentation. As Benjamin argues, in the
蒸发
allegory “ the image is a fragment, a rune. Its beauty as a symbol evaporates
when the light o f divine learning falls upon it. The false appearance of total
ity is extinguished.” 67 In allegory the mystical instant o f the symbol has
given way to the immersion in historical time, in which everything bears the
短暂的
mark o f the transitory. Hence the ruin takes on a double meaning, both as a
fragmentary emblem o f the gulf between language and nature and as the
most visible indication o f the effects o f historical time. However, just as lan
guage bears the traces of its primordial onomatopoeism, so allegory, through
the topoi o f mourning and melancholy, preserves the memory o f symbolic
totality, and the Trauerspiel gains its dramatic force from the tension
between these two.
The tension between mimeticism and allegory underpins Benjam in’s
reading o f Baudelaire and nineteenth-century Paris in several ways. First, in
his reading, Baudelaire is the last (isolated) allegorical poet; second,
Benjamin sees close parallels between allegory and com modity fetishism,
and, third, he argues that underlying both is a destructive transformation o f
experience. There is an intimate connection with the Trauerspiel, indicated
by various comments by Benjamin about Baudelaire. In “ Central Park”
Benjamin argues that “ Melanchthon s term Melencholia illa heroica charac-
terises Baudelaire’s gift most perfectly,” 68 having earlier spoken o f “ shock as

poetic principle in Baudelaire,” 69 a comment that echoes his recognition
o f the central role o f shock in the Baroque allegory. With regard to
mimesis, a point o f central focus is Benjam in’s interest in aura and the
m otif o f the correspondances in Baudelaire. For Baudelaire the correspond
ances, a notion drawn from mystics such as Swedenborg, “ record a concept
o f experience which includes ritual elements ... something irretrievably
lost.” 70 Nature is more than a mute object o f scientific curiosity, as

exemplified in Baudelaire’s poem “ Correspondances,” in which it is con
ceived as reciprocating the human glance.71 Nature thus take on a specific
aura, and in “ Central Park” Benjamin writes o f “ Derivation o f the aura as a
projection o f a social experience o f people onto nature: the gaze is
returned.” 72 In this he detects a residue o f the doctrine o f occult sympa
thies and hidden affinities, where symbols bind Man and nature together.
Hence “ The correspondances are the data o f remembrance— not historical
data, but data o f prehistory,” 73 a prehistory which recalls the notion o f
primitive origins. As in allegory, the correspondances are inscribed with the
trace o f the past, though rather than m ourning the loss o f affinity, the
correspondances are reinstating it.
Benjamin’s essay on “ Some Motifs in Baudelaire” analyses the decline of
pre-modern experience, Erfahrung , into the ErlebniSy or lived experience, o f
the modern metropolis, and the analysis draws on three principal intellec
tual sources, M arx and Engels, Freud, and Bergson. Following Freud,
Benjamin sees consciousness as a defence formation against the shock o f
outer stimuli. All experience is mediated, but Benjamin argues that the
shock o f modern life, in particular the experience o f the metropolitan
crowd, has intensified this process o f screening. “ The greater the share o f the
shock factor, the more constantly consciousness has to be alert as a screen
against stimuli; the more efficiently it functions, the less do these impres
sions enter Erfahrungy remaining rather in the sphere o f Erlebnis .” 74
Baudelaire’s poetry becomes significant as an articulation o f this modern
condition o f shock. Benjamin regards the conscious mediation o f stimuli as
a necessary condition for their being appropriated as elements o f poetic
experience, and hence Baudelairean allegory represents a poetic reworking
o f the Erlebnis o f modernity.
A central element in Benjamin s reading o f Baudelaire and in his use o f

mimesis is the idea o f aura. Benjamin’s first definition o f aura appears in his
essay “A Small History o f Photography,” where it is defined as “A strange
weave o f space and time: the unique appearance or semblance o f distance,
no matter how close the object may be.” 75 This definition occurs within a
discussion o f Eugène Atget, and it is important to note that for Benjamin
photographs serve to dispel aura. To repeat his now famous phrase, they
“ pump aura out o f reality like water out o f a sinking ship.” 76 Much attention
is devoted to the relation o f photography and aura, which is developed at
length in the essay on reproductive technologies, but Benjamin attributes
the loss o f aura to other circumstances too, including the shock effect o f
modernity. Writing o f Baudelaire’s prose piece entitled “ Loss o f Halo”
(“ Perte d’Auréole” ) he notes that Baudelaire ‘indicated the price for which
the sensation o f the modern age may be had: the disintegration of aura in
the experience o f shock.” 77 And rather than attempting to reinstate aura,
which, Benjamin argues, is the task for “ fifth-rate poets” 78 Baudelaire’s
poetry consists o f the registering o f the loss o f aura primarily through the
allegorical form .79 As Benjamin notes, “ The absence o f illusory appearance
and the decline o f aura are identical phenomena. Baudelaire places the artis
tic means o f allegory at their service,” 80 and in this the com modity form
occupies a prominent place as the “ social content o f the allegorical form of
vision.” 81 Elsewhere in the Arcades Project Benjamin argues that “ Mass pro
duction is the economic cause and the class struggle the social cause for the
decline o f aura.” 82 Much o f this is familiar from M arx and Engels. In partic
ular one can compare Benjamin’s comments on the destruction of aura with
their claim in The Communist Manifesto that
The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has pu t an end to all
feudal, patriarchal idyllic relations ... and has left rem aining no other nexus
between m an and m an than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment.”
It has drow ned the m ost heavenly ecstasies o f religious fervour, of chivalrous
enthusiasm , o f philistine sentim entalism , in the icy w ater o f egotistical
calculation.83
Benjamin differs from M arx and Engels, however, and from other well-
known theorists o f modernity such as M ax Weber or Georg Simmel, in his
MIMESIS AND ALLEGORY. ON ABY WARBURG AND WALTER BENJAMI N { 14 1 }
contention that the disintegration o f aura through the rationalisation o f

modernity and the development o f the commodity form is accompanied by
a simultaneous reactivation o f a “ false” aura, indeed is dependent on it,
through the process o f commodity fetishism. This is largely generated by the
apparatus of commodity culture. The mass-produced good, which Benjamin
使恢复
had seen as antithetical to auratic experience, reinstates aura in the magic of
the reified commodity. It was the promotion o f com m odity fetishism to
which the Parisian arcades, the subject o f the Arcades Project, were originally
devoted. Benjamin notes, “ Trade and traffic are the two elements o f the
street. In the arcades the latter has become extinct; traffic in them is rudi
买卖
mentary. It is just a fertile street o f merchandise, merely set up to awaken
ones desires.” 84 Central to fetishisms awakening o f desire is the reawakening
o f primal impulses. Benjamin refers to the arcades as the “primal landscape
o f consumption.” 85 This same process o f re-enchantment, o f the ré
inscription o f aura is central to advertising, too, which, Benjamin sets
against allegory. “ The purpose o f the advertisement is to blur over the com
modity character o f things. Allegory struggles against this deceptive
transfiguring o f the commodity world by disfiguring it.” 86 While the com
modity undergoes the same logic as allegory, namely the surrender o f any
notion o f intrinsic or use value and its replacement with the infinite
exchangeability o f meaning and value, commodity fetishism masks this, and
grants to the commodity the illusory aura o f uniqueness.
This essential ambiguity of modernity recalls the concluding remarks of
Warburg in his lecture on the serpent ritual o f the Pueblo Indians. The
processes o f modernisation, which for Warburg were visible in the evolution
o f rational and abstract thought, coupled with overwhelming technological
“ progress,” threatened to collapse back into the most terrifying form o f bar
barism. It is this parallel between Warburg and Benjamin which I shall
explore in my concluding remarks.
conclusion
The thought o f both Warburg and Benjamin is underpinned by the dis

course o f a primitive mimetic origin which has gradually been supplanted
by an anti-mimetic, allegorical experience. This model, which bears so much
likeness to other late nineteenth and early twentieth-century theories o f

modernity, such as those o f Karl M arx, Georg Simmel, M ax Weber or
Ferdinand Tônnies, is qualified by the notion that the process o f rationaliza
复发
tion bears with it the potential relapse into the “ enchanted” and mimetic
world o f the primitive. In the writing o f Benjamin, this sense o f the ambiva
lence o f modernity is most apparent in the analysis o f nineteenth-century
Paris. Following Marx, Benjamin explores the reduction o f auratic quality to
the quantitative rationality o f capitalism. However, capitalism has to be fed

by the production o f commodities, and the success o f commodity culture is
dependent on the possibility o f their re-enchantment, the recreation o f a
fetishised commodity aura. For Warburg, the “civilizing” process which first
creates a reflective mental distance can again collapse in on itself through its
technological creations. Further, the establishing o f a distance between sign
前提
and referent, although a precondition to the overcoming o f representational
mimeticism, can also lead to a complete disconnection between the two, a
hyper-inflation o f allegorical semiosis, which Warburg believed could be
detected emerging in Baroque art. Warburg writes o f the formal excess o f the
Baroque as a “ cutting o ff o f expressive value from the mint o f actual
dynamic life” 87 in which “ the superlative dynamogram becomes the official
currency.” 88 This absolute autonomy o f allegory leads to the collapse o f any
meaningful distinctions between rationality and its opposite, between
culture and nature. One can perhaps recall in this context Benjam in’s
comment in his study of the Trauerspiel, that in Baroque allegory anything
can represent anything else, and hence the very meaning o f representation
becomes unstable through a process o f infinite substitutions. It is, o f course,
highly significant that Warburg and Benjamin both choose the Baroque as
marking a turning point in the history of European culture. It is no doubt
due to his reading o f M arx that Benjamin subsequently turned to the more
recent history o f the nineteenth century in his archaeology o f modernity.
And yet the idea o f allegory remains pivotal even here.
There is a further way in which the relapse into the primitive remains a
permanent possibility for both Benjamin and Warburg, and this focuses on
the critical role o f memory. A recurrent aspect o f Benjamin’s discussion o f
the mimetic is his attention to the existence o f residues o f primal experi
ence, as in the example o f astrology. He is here drawing on the notion o f
primitive survivals first explored by Tylor. This idea informs his account of
the re-enchantment of the commodity aura. A predominant trope is that o f
the dream, o f awakening, which reinforces the connection between modern
Paris and an unspecified primal twilight o f consciousness. Benjamin refers
to the nineteenth-century as a “ time-space (a time-dream) in which ... the
collective consciousness sinks into ever deeper sleep,” 89 and shortly after
adds that “ Capitalism was a phenomenon o f nature with which a new dream
came over Europe and, with it a reactivation of mythic powers.” 90 In con

trast, knowledge is characterised as awakening; as Benjamin notes, “ The now
o f recognition is the moment o f awakening.” 91
Capitalism, therefore, reactivates primal memories. This idea is already
prefigured in an early fragment entitled “ Capitalism as Religion” in which
Benjamin, through a reading o f Weber and Ernst Troeltsch, notes the
numerous parallels between capitalism and religion, concluding with the
recommendation that “one should begin by investigating the links between
myth and money throughout the course o f history, to the point where
money had drawn so many elements from Christianity that it could establish
its own myth.” 92 Capitalism is thus marked by a regression back into myth,
rather than necessarily a continuation o f the process o f rationalization.
Parallel to Benjamin, Warburg accords a central place to memory as an
active determinant o f cultural practices. At the heart o f Warburg’s ideas o f
memory is Richard Semon’s book on Die Mneme , which describes memory
with the metaphor of writing.93 Stimuli, for Semon, inscribe themselves on
the memory, and remain as traces, or “ engrams,” that can be reactivated
under certain circumstances. Warburg’s specific adaptation o f Semon is to
equate the engram with the visual symbol which, in keeping with his contin
uing interest in empathy theory and bodily movement, he terms the
“dynamogram.” The dynamogram is a visual inscription o f primal experi
ences; in keeping with nineteenth-century discourses o f the primitive, par
ticularly Tito V ignoli’s M yth and Science,94 Warburg regards these as
装满
essentially traumatic and laden with fear. The symbol constitutes a visual
imprint o f these primal trauma, and as such also preserves the experience
which gave rise to them. Warburg notes in the Introduction to Mnemosyne
狂欢的
that “ It is in the area o f orgiastic mass seizure that one should look for the
mint that stamps the expression o f extreme emotional seizure on the
{ 144} MATTHEW RAMPLEY
memory with such intensity that the engrams of the experience o f suffering
live on, an inheritance preserved in the memory.” 95 It is notable that
Warburg uses economic metaphors; the prim ary experience is the “ m int”
(“ Pràgewerk” ), and the experiences imprinted on the memory are described
狂欢的
as an “ inheritance.” Second, Warburg regards the primal orgiastic experience
as essentially a collective experience.96 An interesting parallel can be found
中毒，陶醉
with Benjamin s description of primal intoxication as a collective experience,
in contrast to the isolation o f the modern subject; “ Nothing distinguishes

the ancient from the modern man so much as the former’s absorption in a
cosmic experience scarcely known to later periods ... The ancients’ inter
恍惚
course with the cosmos had been different: the ecstatic trance [Rausch ] ...
This means, however, that man can be in ecstatic contact with the cosmos
only communally. It is the dangerous error o f modern men to regard this
交付
experience as unimportant ... and to consign it to the individual . . . ” 97
Warburg’s notion o f the possible reactivation o f primitive memories has also
to be linked with his employment o f empathy theory which, to recall,
permits mimeticism to be regarded as an atemporal aspect human subjectiv
ity, and not merely a feature belonging to the distant past o f humanity.
It is undoubtedly the case that Benjam ins and Warburg’s use o f anthro
pological concepts is open to a series o f criticisms. In particular, as
可行性
G. E. R. Lloyd has recently argued, the very viability o f a mimetic “mentality”
is problematic, even though the idea was common currency throughout the
nineteenth century and for much o f the twentieth.98 Further, the question
has to be raised as to the precise mechanism whereby primitive mimetic
residues are reactivated. Benjamin’s and Warburg’s use o f empathy theory
and anthropology results in an oscillation between viewing the mimetic as a
half-submerged memory and seeing it as a perpetual feature o f human psy
chology. In this regard recent work by Jan Assmann, drawing partly on
Warburg’s contemporary Maurice Halbwachs, has indicated the necessity o f
exploring the social institutions that provide the mechanisms for the
preservation o f collective memory.99
Although such questions thus remain to be explored further, I believe the
comparison o f Warburg and Benjamin has achieved two goals. The first is to
have laid out an intellectual framework that encompasses the thought o f
both. It is common for Benjamin to be placed in this framework, but less so

for Warburg. I hope to have indicated that for all his celebrated love o f eso
teric subjects, Warburg’s intellectual interests occupy an important place in
contemporary philosophical and cultural-theoretical analyses o f modernity.
The second is to have suggested that the legacy o f W arburgs work does not
merely consist in the introduction o f a particular method, namely, icono-
logy, which was then taken up by students and followers such as Erwin
Panofsky or William Heckscher.100 Undoubtedly there are important

methodological similarities between Warburg and Benjamin, but these are
eclipsed in importance by the greater affinities in the substance o f their
research, which focus on modernity, disenchantment, re-enchantment and
the critical role o f memory. It is through attention to these wider substantive
issues that Warburg’s oeuvre still merits critical engagement, rather than as
the first stage in the development o f an iconological method systematised by
a subsequent generation o f scholars. The current essay outlines some o f the
ways in which such an engagement can be undertaken.101
notes
1 Aby W arburg, “Introduction to Mnemosyne ’ (draft), W arburg Archive, W arburg

Institute, No. 102.1.2, p. 6
2 See Plato, The Republic, trans. D. Lee (H arm ondsw orth, 1955) 393c.
3 Edward Tylor, Primitive Culture (London, 1871); H erbert Spencer, Principles o f
Sociology, [1876], (London, 3rd.ed. 1904). The latter was translated as Die
Prinzipien der Sociologie (Stuttgart, 1897).
4 Spencer, Principles o f Sociology, Vol. I, p. 81.
5 Tylor, Primitive Culture, Vol. I, p. 116.
6 Sir Edward Tylor, Researches into the Early History o f Mankind, [1865], 3 ed.
(London, 1878), p. 117.
7 Ibid., p. 123.
8 Spencer, Principles o f Sociology, Vol. I, p. 242.
9 Ibid., p. 243.
10 Sir James Frazer, The Golden Bough [1922], (London, 1993), p. 11.
11 Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, Les Fonctions mentales dans les Sociétés inférieures (Paris,
1910), p. 76.
12 Ibid., p. 80.
13 M ary Douglas, Purity and Danger (London, 1966), p. 88.
14 Robert Vischer, “The Optical Sense of Form,” in H arry Mallgrave & Eleftherios
Ikonom ou, eds., Empathy, Form and Space. Problems in German Aesthetics,
1873-1893 (Santa Monica, 1994), p. 89-123.
15 Ibid., p. 93.
16 Ibid., p. 94.
17 Ibid.
18 Vischer, “The Optical Sense of Form,” p. 101.
19 Ibid.
20 H einrich Wôlfflin, “Prolegomena to a Psychology of Architecture,” in Mallgrave

& Ikonom ou, pp. 149-190.
21 Ibid., p. 152.
22 Ibid., p. 182.
23 Willhelm Worringer, Abstraktion und Einfühlung (Munich, 1908).
24 The anthropological background to both Benjamin and W arburg has been rec-
ognized before; however, these discussions have tended to be very general in
nature, in contrast to my own, which focuses on a specific anthropological
them e. See Peter Burke, “Aby W arburg as H istorical A nthropologist,” in Aby
Warburg. Akten des Internationalen Symposions Hamburg 1990, ed. H orst
Bredekamp et al. (Weinheim, 1991), pp. 39-44; Axel H onneth, “A Communicative
Disclosure o f the Past: O n the Relation between A nthropology and Philosophy
o f H istory in Walter Benjamin,” in New Formations, Vol. 20 (1993) pp. 83-94. See
too Jan Kraniauskas, “Beware Mexican Ruins ! O n e Way Street’ and the Colonial
Unconscious,” in Walter Benjam ins Philosophy. Destruction and Experience, ed.
Andrew Benjamin and Peter Osborne (London, 1994), pp. 139-154.
25 Aby W arburg, Schlangenritual. Ein Reisebericht, ed. Ulrich Raulff (Berlin, 1988);
W arburg, Images from the Region o f the Pueblo Indians o f North America , trans.
Michael Steinberg (Ithaca, 1995). Both editions replace an earlier, incomplete,
version of the lecture, “A Lecture on Serpent Ritual,” in Journal o f the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. II (1938/39), pp. 277-92.
26 Aby W arburg, “G rundlegende Bruchstücke zu einer (m onistischen)
Kunstpsychologie” or “G rundlegende Bruchstücke zu einer pragm atischen
Ausdruckskunde.” The collection consists of two notebooks, num bered 43.1 and
43.2 of the W arburg Archive in the W arburg Institute.
27 Warburg, Images, p. 2.
28 Ibid., p. 4.
29 Ibid., p. 16-17.
30 Ibid., p. 17.
31 Ibid., p. 18-19.
32 W arburg, Bruchstücke, § 299.
33 Warburg, Images, p. 17.
34 Ibid., p. 36.
35 Ibid., p. 48-49.
36 Bruchstücke, § 328.
37 Ibid.
38 The m ost prom inent advocate of this reading is Gombrich. See Gombrich, Aby
Warburg. An Intellectual Biography (Oxford, 1986), 214-15, and Gombrich, “Aby
W arburg und der Evolutionismus des 19. Jahrhunderts,” in Robert Gallitz and
Brita Reimers, eds., Aby M. Warburg. “Ekstatische N ym phe ... trauernder
Flufigott.” Portràt eines Gelehrten (H am burg, 1995), pp. 52-73.

39 Warburg, Images, p. 44, translation slightly modified.
40 Ibid., p. 54.
41 Johann W inckelm ann, “T houghts on the Im itation o f the Painting and
Sculpture o f the Greeks,” in Hugh Nisbet, ed., German Aesthetic and Literary
Criticism: Winckelmann., Lessing, Hamann, Herder, Schiller, Goethe (Cambridge,
1985), p. 42.
42 Warburg, “Introduction to Mnemosyne,” W arburg Archive, No. 102.1.1, pp. 9-10.
43 W arburg, “Der Eintritt des antikisierenden Idealstils in die Malerei der
Frührenaissance,” in W arburg Archive, No. 88.1. Translated in this volume,
PP· 7-31.
44 Ibid., p. 28.
45 W arburg, “D ürer u nd die italienische A ntike,” in Ausgewâhlte Schriften und
W ürdigungen, ed. D. Wuttke (Baden-Baden, 1992), p. 125.
46 W arburg Archive, No. 102.1.2, p. 6.
47 Ibid., p. 5.
48 Aby Warburg, “Italian Art and International Astrology in the Palazzo Schifanoja
in Ferrara,” trans. Peter W ortsm an, in Gert Schiff, ed., German Essays on A rt
History (New York, 1988), p. 252.
49 Warburg, “Italian Art and International Astrology,” p. 238.
50 Walter Benjamin, “O n the M im etic Faculty,” in One Way Street and Other
Writings, trans. E. Jephcott and K. Shorter (London, Ï979), pp. 160-163;
“D octrine of the Similar,” in New German Critique, Vol. 17 (1979) pp. 65-69.
51 Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, ed. M. Bullock and M. Jennings (Cambridge,
MA and London, 1996), Vol. 1: 1913-1926, pp. 62-74.
52 Gérard Genette, Mimologics, trans. T. M organ (Lincoln, 1995).
53 One Way Street, p. 163.
54 Ibid., p. 161.
55 Benjamin, “Doctrine of the Similar,” p. 66.
56 Ibid., p. 66.
57 Walter Benjamin, The Origin o f the German Tragic Drama, trans. J. O sborne
(London, 1977).
58 Ibid., p. 27.
59 Ibid., p. 36.
60 Ibid., p. 34.
61 Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften , ed. R. Tiedem ann and H. Schweppenhàuser
(Frankfurt a.M., 1972-1989), Vol. V, p. 574.
62 Benjamin, The Origin o f the German Tragic Drama, p. 47.
63 Benjamin, Selected Writings, Vol. I, p. 74.
64 Benjamin, The Origin o f the German Tragic Drama, 55.
65 Ibid., p. 175.
66 Ibid., p. 207.
67 Ibid., p. 177.
68 Benjamin, “C entral Park,” trans. L. Spencer in New German Critique, Vol. 34
(1985) p. 54.
69 Ibid., p. 42.
70 Benjamin, Charles Baudelaire. A Lyric Poet in the era o f High Capitalism, trans.
H. Zohn (London, 1983), 139.
71 Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal (Paris, 1972), p. 38.
72 “Central Park,” p. 41.
73 Benjamin, Charles Baudelaiue, p. 141.
74 Ibid., p. 117 (translation slightly altered).
75 Benjamin, One Way Street, p. 250.
76 Ibid.
77 Benjamin, Charles Baudelaire, p. 154. Cf. Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. V, pp. 474-5.
78 Benjamin, Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. V, p. 475.
79 “Baudelaire’s spleen is the decline o f aura. ‘Le Printem ps adorable a perdu son
odeur’.” Gesammelte Schriften, V 61. V, p. 433.
80 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 670.
81 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 422.
82 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 433.
83 Karl M arx and Friedrich Engels, “The C om m unist Manifesto,” in Jon Elster, Karl
Marx. A Reader (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 226-27.
85 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 993.
86 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 670.
87 Warburg, “Valois Tapestries,” in the W arburg Archive, No. 96.3, “Conclusion,”
p. 2.
88 Warburg, “Notes,” W arburg Archive, No. 102.1.4, p. 23.
90 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 494.
91 Ibid., Vol. V, p. 608.
92 Benjamin, Selected Writings, Vol. I, p. 290.

93 Richard Semon, Die M neme als erhaltendes Prinzip im Wechsel des organischen
Geschehens (Leipzig, 1904).
94 Tito Vignoli, Mythus und Wissenschaft, eine Studie (Leipzig, 1880).
95 W arburg Archive, No. 102.1.1, 6.
96 D orothée Bauerle, Gespenstergeschichten fü r ganz Erwachsene (M ünster, 1988)
p. 38.
97 Benjamin, Selected W r itin g s^ ol. I, p. 486.
98 G. E. R. Lloyd, Demystifying Mentalities (Cambridge, 1990). A concise survey of
debates concerning primitive mentalities, particularly with regard to the issue of

primitive magic, can be found in Stanley Tambiah, Magic, Science, Religion and
the Scope o f Rationality (Cambridge, 1990).
99 Jan Assmann, “Collective M em ory and C ultural Identity,” in New German
Critique, Vol. 65 (1995) pp. 125-133; Jan Assmann, Das kulturelle Gedachtnis.
Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identitat in friihen Hochkulturen, 2nd. ed.
(Munich, 1997). See, too, Aleida Assmann and Dietrich H arth, ed., Mnemosyne.
Formen und Funktionen der kulturellen Erinnerung (Frankfurt a. M., 1991).
100 This of course contradicts the position of Dieter Wuttke, for w hom W arburg’s
m ain achievement was his contribution to art historical m ethod. See Wuttke,
Aby Warburgs Methode als Anregung und Aufgabe, [1977] (Wiesbaden, 1990).
101 My thanks are due to D orothea McEwan for her kind com ments on ^n earlier
draft of this paper.

回来的
urania redux: a
view of aby
warburg's writings
on astrology and
art1
kristen lippincott
“A then will eben im m er wieder neu aus A lexandrien

zuruckerobert sein
— Aby Warburg
AS DAUNTING AS AN Y ATTEMPT TO
summarize Warburg’s thoughts and

writings on astrological iconography
might seem, the preliminary chal
lenge lies in trying to disentangle
Warburg’s own ideas, motivations and conclusions from those scholars
whom, if not following in his footsteps exactly, were led towards their own
explorations o f astrological images by Warburg’s example. For better or
worse, our understanding o f Warburg’s oeuvre has been highly coloured by
the interests and research methods o f later art historians who were inspired
by Warburg’s vision. Scholars such as Saxl, Panofsky, Seznec, Wittkower and
Wind all owe an enormous debt to Warburg, but what is was— exactly—
about Warburg or his work that led these men into a particular line o f
academic inquiry is hard to uncover.
{ 151}
{152} KRISTEN LI PPI NCOTT
As early as 1957, Gertrud Bing pointed out that the term “Warburgian
studies” was being used as “ a descriptive label” for the “the achievements of a
group o f scholars, rather than those o f the person whose name served
them.” 2 In Bings mind, then, it seemed that there was already a general m is
understanding about who Aby Warburg was, what he had achieved person
ally and what was his connection to the group o f iconographers who were
being described as practising the “ Warburgian method.” Indeed, today—
perhaps even more so than in Bing’s time— there is a general tendency

amongst art historians to label any aspect o f academic writing on the
iconography o f works o f art as “Warburgian” art history. It is a concept
which is misleading on three counts. First, there was never a Warburg
school. There were those young scholars who availed themselves o f the
resources o f Warburg’s library: an act which, in itself, probably influenced
the manner in which they tended to address art historical problems, but it
falls quite short o f any claim that Warburg’s ideas had permeated their
thinking or beliefs. Second, although Warburg’s writings cover many topics,
he could never, strictly speaking, be considered an iconographer. Third, the
一伙
brood o f iconographers who did and do attach themselves to the Warburg
Institute tend not to have been influenced by Warburg’s own writings, but by
those o f the second generation o f scholars, such as Saxl, Panofsky or Wind.
By a curious series o f circumstances, Warburg seems to have entered that
no-man’s land o f the celebrity academic with its concomitant curse o f his
persona being so “ well-known” that most art historians feel no need to read
his work.
To expand a bit, among the most common errors made by those less
familiar with Warburg’s published and unpublished work is the assumption
that he was primarily an iconographer or a decipherer o f the significance or
textual genealogy of specific details portrayed within a work o f art. Whereas,
in fact, Warburg him self was probably less interested in the specific
significance o f images within a painting or manuscript than in how those
details might be interpreted if set within the context o f the larger philosoph
ical and sociological issues that he him self was attempting to address.
Warburg likened the purely scholarly pursuit o f tracing the textual and pic
torial histories o f iconographic details to being similar to “ the services o f a
pig in rooting up truffles.” 3 He was primarily interested in ideas; facts were
A VI EW OF ABY WARBURG’ S WRI TI NGS ON ASTROLOGY AND ART {153}
merely a means by which one proved ideas. O f his many followers, the only
scholar to have attempted to recreate this pursuit— the searching out o f
details to prove a larger, sociological point— was Panofsky, with his writings
on ideas and aesthetics.4 But even here, the distance between mentor and
pupil widened as the years passed.
When dealing with Warburg’s writings on astrological iconography,
however, the scholar with whom one finds the closest link is Fritz Saxl. If one
considers, for example, the collection o f Warburg’s photographs that was

displayed as part o f the Bildersammlung zur Geschichte von Sternglaube und
Sternkunde in the Fiamburg Planetarium a year after his death, one can
easily recognise Warburg’s own intelligence and personality behind the col
lecting and grouping o f these images.5 In particular, one finds the familiar
grouping o f the first decan-god o f Aries from the Palazzo Schifanoia in
Ferrara with images from the Tabula Bianchini and the Picatrix ;6 the com
parison between the so-called “ Finiguerra planet-gods” and the planet-gods
taken from the set o f Netherlandish Hausbuch woodcuts;7 and between the
so-called “ Tarocchi” o f Mantegna and Arndes’s Nyge Kalender.s All o f these
are topics upon which Warburg lectured and published.9 But, with the
exception o f the figure of the Schifanoia decan-god (to which we shall return
later), these are also all images and topics upon which Saxl published,
丰富地
repeatedly and copiously. If one compares the content o f Warburg’s
Bildersammlung with the illustrations one finds accompanying Saxl’s col
lected works, such as in the volume o f his Lectures, orginally published by
Bing in 1957, or in the Italian selection o f Saxl’s writings published in 1985,
the level o f coincidence is extremely high.10 From the visual evidence, it
would seem that both men shared not only a common, but similar, interest
in and outlook on astrological iconography. Indeed, as Bing herself claimed,
it was a common interest in astrology “ that sealed the synastria' between
Warburg and Saxl.11 Nevertheless, if one examines the writings o f each
scholar a bit more closely, it does seem that there might be more to this
“sy n a stria than meets the eye.
First and foremost, it must be recognized that for a scholar who seems to
have made such an impact on succeeding generations o f scholars and who,
today, is apparently enjoying a resurgence in popularity, Warburg actually
published very little. As Gombrich relates, Warburg had great difficulty in
{ 154} KRISTEN LI PPI NCOTT
writing— an inference with which one immediately sympathises when trying

to wade through (let alone translate into English) Warburg’s renowned
“ Aalsuppenstil”12 It is quite clear from W arburgs notes, however, that he
possessed a tremendous visual memory. Moreover, as he was looking
specifically for recurring patterns and pointers, it is not surprising to note
that he seems to have viewed art with two different sorts o f lenses: one
which saw the larger, formal structures o f a work o f art and the second
which zoomed past .the surface aesthetics to focus on the minutiae o f a

specific figure or detail. If one were looking for a word to describe this
process or its intent, it would not be “ iconography.” Warburg was only fleet-
ingly interested in the “ graphos” or “ written marks” o f painting, sculpture
and manuscript illumination. Instead, if one were to attach a term to it, one
might borrow Panofsky’s own “ iconology.” Scholars have described
W arburgs attention to detail as related to the age-old adage that “Der liebe
Gott steckt im D e t a i l It is a telling phrase that Warburg used once himself as
the preface to his first public lecture.13 But, whereas it is true that Warburg
was obsessive in his combing o f sources, it is easy to forget that, in these
details, he was always searching for something larger. One might go so far as
to suggest that he was, as the saying tells us, looking for “ God.” Warburg used
the stuff o f art historical detail to weave his larger vision, his “logos,” o f the
im agery o f mankind as it relates to the verities o f the human condition.
Warburg was a visionary. Moreover, he was an intellectual evangelist. Art
history was the means towards realizing and communicating that vision to
others.14
Saxl, on the other hand, demonstrates a different temperament alto
沉浸
gether. In Bing’s words, Saxl was happiest when he was steeped in “ the
massive, anonymous record o f material on which others might afterwards
exercise their wits ... the small precise detail which is not open to doubt.” 15
He was a man who mistrusted the philosophical and recoiled from the well-
informed guess.16 To make a comparison o f the effect that the two men had
on their pupils and followers, Saxl says o f Warburg: “Warburg educated his
pupils and successors to an absolute and unconditional submission o f their
whole existence to the demands o f scholarship.” 17 Bing says o f Saxl: “ the
result [of Saxl’s attention] was a positive gain to those who submitted them
selves to his influence.” 18 The sentiments are similar, but the differences o f
A VI EW OF ABY WARBURG' S WRI TI NGS ON ASTROLOGY AND ART {155}
emphasis are important to remember and may provide one small clue as to
why there was no “Warburg school,” but why there is still a small, yet thriv
ing, Warburg Institute.19
When considering the work and working methods o f the two men, one
only needs to compare W arburgs rapid-fire citations and broad, sweeping
conclusions in his works, such as the well-known paper on the Palazzo
Schifanoia, with SaxPs careful discussion o f the changing form o f the con
stellations o f Hercules, Perseus and Eridanus in his articles on Diirer’s stellar

maps o f 1515, in the essays which formed the introductions to the first and
second volumes o f his Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer
Handschrifien ... , or in the article published jointly with Panofsky in 1933 on
“ Classical M ythology in Medieval Art,” to see that each scholar approaches
the topic with a very different intent.20 Moreover, one could cite similar
differences between W arburgs work on the so-called “planet-children” and
Saxl s later work on the same topic.21 The former burbles with big thoughts
and phrases like “ m it ihrem ... olympischen Pathos,” “in diesem gravitâtischen
Gewande\ or “ unter der Schwelle naiver autochthoner Heiterkeit?22 The latter
notes “philological evidence to support this thesis,” “ systematic information”
and “ unsystematic scraps o f information.” 23
Warburg apparently referred to Saxl as “ Saxl à vapeur.” One recent bio
grapher of Warburg has translated this phrase as “ the Saxl steam-engine.” A
closer approximation might be “ Saxl, Full-Steam Ahead,” with both assum
ing that it was meant to characterise Saxl’s restless energy.24 Perhaps the
nickname was meant to be appreciative, but one cannot help but sense traces
o f a certain categorization o f Saxl as somewhat insubstantial and too rest
less, perhaps, to be a thinker of any great depth— which, one suspects, from
W arburgs point o f view, he may well have seemed.25 At the same time, Saxl
seems to have been intoxicated by W arburgs grander vision, but it was not a
state o f mind that comforted him or a state which he was able to sustain. To
make a perhaps unfair analogy, it does seem that Saxl’s first encounter was a
消散
coup de foudre., but that this intensity was dissipated— perhaps owing to the
stress which W arburgs illness placed on both of them or, possibly, due to
something else— but, as even the ever-faithful Bing relates, very early in his
career, Saxl described his work with Warburg as sharing “ the burden which
he imposed”.26
It is somewhere within this apparent paradox that one begins to under

stand the difficulties surrounding any study o f Warburg’s writings and, in
particular, his writings on astrological iconography. On the one hand, there
惊人的
is Warburg— a man with prodigious talents— mining for all sorts o f material
which he tries to model into a coherent world-view. The material he uncov
ers, however, is mere fodder for a larger beast and as ultimately unservice
able to him as the truffle is to the “ Trüffelschwein” On the other hand, there
is Saxl, who is amazed and delighted by the material Warburg discards—

indeed, he and at least two generations o f scholars built their careers on the
material Warburg unearthed and failed to pursue27. But, even though both
men were committed to academic research, it would seem that neither
understood (or, perhaps, accepted) the underlying motives o f the other.
Such situations are not uncommon, but this apparent disjunction between
Warburg’s purpose and Saxl’s scholarship takes on new significance when
one considers the fact that it was Saxl who was left to carry on W arburgs
mission; Saxl who saved Warburg s precious library for future generations of
scholars; and Saxl who, along with Bing, devoted his life to sustaining the
Warburg heritage— that “ burden which he imposed.”
It is not difficult for those aware o f the financial problems facing many
academic institutions in the late twentieth century to empathise with Saxl s
task o f securing a future for the Warburg Institute in London; but what one
might overlook is the extent to which the transplantation from Germany to
England demanded a huge cultural adjustment as well. For whereas the
principles according to which the Library was structured might have seemed
slightly unusual to German-speaking academics, they would have recognized
these ideas as pertaining to one o f the intellectual currents circulating
through a number o f related disciplines on the Continent during the late
nineteenth century. In Germany, Austria or, for that matter, in Italy, an
inspired lecturer, such as Warburg, could be understood and appreciated
both for the traditional and the innovative manner in which he approached
his subject. In England, however, with its great traditions o f pragmatism and
positivism, such Germanic weavings would have seemed distinctly romantic
and symptomatic o f a way o f thinking with which most English were decid
edly uneasy.28 In this context, then, one o f Saxl’s first tasks was to find a
means by which he could demystify the workings o f the Warburg Institute—
by helping to train young English scholars to widen their perspectives on

art, but also in finding a way in which the Institute could prove useful to the
sorts o f research in which the English themselves were engaged.29 Oddly,
even though Saxl and his colleagues originally explored several areas in
which they thought the Institute might prove useful— offering lectures and
seminars on the history o f religion and so on— it was only in the area o f art
history and, in particular, the iconography o f artistic images where they met
with immediate success. Here was an area in which the English felt com fort
able and even though this had not been Saxl’s original intention, the early
slant o f the Institute towards art history was made as a specific response to
the demands o f its new home.30
In addition to this clash o f cultures, however, Saxl faced the very real
challenge o f trying to find a way to make the work and thought o f Warburg
himself more accessible. Saxl saw this task very clearly. He felt he needed to
simplify what now existed as the “ Warburg Institute”— in the sense that
both W arburg-the-M an and W arburg-the-Library had become encapsu
lated within a single persona.31 Bing and Wind had begun this process in
Hamburg, when they established a permanent cataloguing system for the
Library. Up until that point, Warburg had constantly shifted books
between loosely-organized sets o f topics as his perspective on the topics
upon which he was working changed. In the same way he constantly re
organized his notes and his filing systems, Warburg had no concept o f a
library as a static structure to which one might add new books.32 Bing,
Wind and Saxl brought structure to the Library and Saxl did his best to
bring order to the persona o f Warburg himself.33 The problem with all this,
however, is that one begins to question whether it is at all possible to
uncover “ the real Warburg” or if, perhaps, the image we have come to re
cognize as Warburg was put together in such a way that it completely
obscures the original.
As far as Warburg’s vision is concerned, the best study remains
Gom brich’s study, Aby Warburg. An Intellectual Biography , published in
1970.34 In particular, Gombrich’s chapter on “ The Stars (1908-1914)” helps to
set Warburg’s writings on astrological iconography into a convincing intel
lectual framework.35 Nevertheless Gombrich’s own work was the product o f
a specific time and a quite specific set o f circumstances. In particular, a deep
and abiding respect for Gertrud Bing no doubt inflected, if not influenced,
some o f the decisions he must have made about the manner in which he
chose to portray “ the Great Man.” As he relates in the introduction,
混合物
Gombrich had first been asked to London to edit Warburg's great miscellany
or “Atlas,” entitled “ M n e m o s y n e During the next decade, however, it became
increasingly clear that any distillation o f Warburg’s thought from the
massive jumble o f notes and jottings he had left behind was impossible. He
proposed, instead, to use the prim ary material in the Warburg Archive as
the basis o f a more distanced “ intellectual biography.” In one telling passage,
Gom brich records that Bing “ was not always happy to notice the critical
detachment” in his early drafts. “ It was in the nature o f things that I could
not share the identification with Warburg’s outlook and research which for
her was a matter o f course.” 36 In fairness, could it have been any different?
Gombrich himself had never met Warburg. He did, however, work alongside
Saxl for several years. Is it possible that Gom brich’s “detachment” was
heightened by his sensitivity to what must have been at least one o f the
underlying moods o f the Warburg Institute at the time? Namely, that in the
ongoing contest between a need to sustain the notion o f Warburg’s intellec
tual supremacy and the obvious and tangible merit o f Saxl’s solid scholar
ship, the former was showing signs o f coming close to exhaustion. Perhaps
Warburg’s great vision was not sufficiently strong or its message was not
sufficiently clear; or perhaps Warburg’s vision no longer seemed relevant or
convincing to a younger generation o f scholars. Or, perhaps, Saxl had felt
that it was essential to the success o f the newly transplanted Warburg
Institute that its foundations were set upon something more solid than
“unsystematic scraps o f information.”
In this context, it might be telling to re-examine two examples o f
Warburg’s writings about astrological iconography with the benefit, as it
were, o f academic hindsight. What were the issues? What insights are sus
tainable and which aspects o f Warburg’s work leave him most open to criti
cism? Is it really Warburg’s work that endows him with the stature o f a great
cultural historian? Or does Warburg’s greatness lie in the pointers he left for
successive generations to follow and in the richness o f the Library he assem
bled to enable them to carry out that process?
The first example is taken from Aby Warburg s paper delivered in 1912 on
the fifteenth-century frescoes of the Salone dei Mesi in the Palazzo Schifanoia
in Ferrara.37 As Gombrich describes the event:
By all accounts, W arburg’s appearance at the Rome Congress, where he pre-

sented his interpretation of the mysterious frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoja
[sic], was the climax of that meeting and of W arburgs public career. For these
frescoes suited his purpose of driving hom e once more his view of the true
meaning of the Italian Renaissance.38
Arguing that the reintegration o f classical form and content was a defining
feature o f the Renaissance, Warburg championed the appearance o f the
Olympian gods in the upper zone o f the frescoes as a signal o f coming
enlightenment. In the middle zone o f the frescoes, Warburg focused his
attention on the first decan-god in the panel devoted to the month o f March
and the sign o f Aries.39 Warburg argued that, despite a few minor formal
differences, there was a direct link between the Schifanoia decan-god and—
working backwards in time— the representation o f the first decan o f Aries in
the Astrolabium Planum o f Johannes Angelus;40 the talisman for the first
decan o f Aries in the Alfonsine Primer lapidario ;41 and the decan-god
depicted on the second-century Tabula Bianchini.42 According to Warburg,
all o f these images were distorted copies o f a Hellenistic prototype depicting
the constellation of Perseus, better preserved in a the ninth-century manu
script o f Germ anicuss translation o f the Phaenomena o f Aratus.43 This
image, he argued, had been contaminated at an early stage by the Egyptian
constellations— the so-called sphaera barbarica— recorded by Teukros and
illustrated in the “ round zodiac” taken from the Temple o f Hathor at
Dendera;44 and it is only with the Schifanoia frescoes that one sees the classi
cal Perseus beginning to re-emerge from its “ medieval” deformation.
Were this true, the Schifanoia decan-god would possess a remarkable
pedigree. Unfortunately, it is not. W arburgs assumptions reflect three errors
in judgement. The first error is the most minor o f the three. For, whereas
there is a traceable iconographic lineage between the striding man with a
hatchet in the Tabula Bianchini , (Fig. 7.1) the angry man with the sword in
the Astrolabium planum (Fig. 7.2) and the Schifanoia decan, none o f these,
[6o} KRISTEN LIPPINCOTT
Figure 7.1 Reproduction of the Tabula Bianchini. Taken from Franz Boll, Sphaera.
Neue griechische Texte und Untersuchunger zur Geschichte der Sternbilder, (Leipzig
1903) (Photo: Courtesy of The W arburg Institute)
A VI EW OF ABY WARBURG' S WRI TI NGS ON ASTROLOGY AND ART {l6 l}
Figure 7.2 The three decans of Aries. From Johannes Angeles, Astrolabium planum
in tabulis ascendens, (Angsburg: Ratdolt, 1488) (Photo: Courtesy of The W arburg
Institute)
{ 102 } KRISTEN LI PPI NCOTT
strictly speaking, is a decan-god. The figure in the Astrolabium planum , for

example, represents an aspect— a “ prosopon ” or a “ mask”— o f the planetary
ruler o f the first ten days o f the month, Mars. This fact is made clear by the
text which accompanies the image: “Prima facies arietis est martis et est
facies audaciey fortitudinis , altitudinis et inverecundia ” (“ The first face of
Aries is Mars, and it is a face which is bold, strong, tall and imm odest” ).
The association here between planet-god and facies is quite clear: the facies
is a mask behind which the planet acts. This figure is not a decan-god in its
own right.45 This point is made clearer, perhaps, when one is reminded
that the fact that the Primer lapidario o f Alfonso X el Sabio is a textbook
for magicians. The dark man with an axe is an image that is to be carved
on a specific stone in order to bring the powers o f the planet M ars to
bear.46
Warburgs second error is more major and lies in his interpretation o f the
Schifanoia decan as the iconographic remnant o f the constellation o f
Perseus. This idea appears to be derived from a misreading or misunder
standing o f Boll’s study o f the Greek texts o f the sphaera barbarica, a book
which Warburg repeatedly cited in his lecture. Boll had noted one or two
isolated incidents in the Dendera “ round zodiac” where the Egyptian con
stellations seem to have been affected or contaminated by the more familiar
Graeco-Roman ones. The fact that the Dendera zodiac is bordered by depic
tions o f the thirty-six Egyptian decan-gods led Warburg to believe that there
was a connection between Greek constellations and Egyptian decan-
imagery. But, rather than being an attempt to show a continuity o f tradition,
Boll’s express purpose in this study was to show how little the two systems
had in common. For example, if one considers those Egyptian constellations
that are the astronomical equivalents to the classical constellations o f
Perseus, Andromeda and Cassiopeia, one finds the distinctly non-classical
depictions o f an eye set within a disc and a squatting ape with a sparrow-
hawk on his head seated back to back with a dog-like creature.47 In addition,
had Warburg read the text more closely, he would have noticed that the
Graeco-Rom an or Ptolemaic constellations rising with the first decan o f
Aries are Cepheus and Eridanus , and not Perseus. There is no classical or
medieval source which associates the constellation o f Perseus with the first
degrees o f Aries.
Third, Warburg cited the Latin translations o f the Arabic astrologer, Abû
节略
M achar, and the illustrated abridgements o f these translations attributed to
Georgius Zotori Zapari Fenduli to claim yet another link in the chain o f
decan-images from antiquity to Ferrara.48 Whereas it is true that the
Schifanoia decan-gods are based on a variant o f the Abû M achar tradition,
可疑的
the classical heritage o f these figures is dubious. In Abû M a‘shar’s text, the
decans are described according to three different cultural traditions: the
Greek, the Persian and the Indian. The iconography o f the so-called “ Greek”
编译
tradition (“post Graecos” ) is clearly compiled o f bits and pieces o f the well-
known Ptolemaic extra-zodiacal constellations which are known to rise
alongside the first io° o f the sign o f Aries. Amongst the so-called Persian
decans, one sees similar parts o f constellations that appear to have become
一团糟
slightly muddled owing to their contamination by the mythologies o f
Persian astrology. The images described “iuxta Indos,” however, have
absolutely no connection to a classical antecedent. They are a wholly Indian
invention, developed from strictly local astro-mythological traditions. The
phrase from Abû M a‘shar s text, that Warburg so cleverly uncovered, actually
describes one o f these Indian astral-deities. In one way, then, Warburg was
correct: the Latin translations o f Abû M a‘shar do form the textual source for
the representation o f the first decan-god in the Schifanoia frescoes. At a
more fundamental level, however, Warburg was mistaken: this figure bears
absolutely no claim to an exalted classical past.
There is no doubt that Warburg s research skills led him to the right book,
磨光
if not the right passage. His intuition was well-honed. His general ideas
about the heritage o f these Schifanoia images were not far wrong. The
弯曲的
iconography o f the Schifanoia decan-god does have a long and tortuous
iconographie history. It can be traced through an astro-mythological chain
back to a classical appearance in the Tabula Bianchini; but when one tries to
break through the barrier between astro-magical mythology to astronomy
磨损争论
proper, the arguments begin to fray. The appearance o f a decan-god in the
Schifanoia frescoes is a miracle o f sorts— but it is not the sort which Warburg
described. Warburg considered the decan-god to be a much-mutilated but
triumphant recollection (an “engram,” as he would later call it) o f the classi
cal hero Perseus. He presented the figure as an emblem o f science and
enlightenment, on the very verge o f casting o ff its medieval garb and the
remnants o f magic and superstition. The ultimate sadness o f Warburg’s con

viction in the classical heritage o f this figure, though, lies in the fact that, in
later years, it took on additional personal connotations. It symbolized the
potential for triumph over dehumanization by irrational fears; and we know,
for example, that when Warburg was recovering from his first serious illness,
he kept a large photograph o f the decan-god on his desk— almost like a talis
man that might help him to regain his strength and his sanity.
Very early on, it seems, Saxl recognised that Warburg’s analysis o f the
Schifanoia decan-god was seriously flawed. In his published writings, he
only mentions the Schifanoia decan-god twice: once, somewhat critically, in
an early article in the Repertorium fü r Kunstwissenschaft o f 1922 and then in a
lecture delivered in 1936, which, one supposes, he never intended to publish,
where he merely repeats the standard Warburgian description o f its icono
graphie descent from the sphaera barbarica.49 Gombrich, in his biography o f
Warburg, remains somewhat oblique in his narration o f this episode, stating
simply that “the ingenious arguments that [Warburg] used in support o f this
theory have not convinced specialists.” 50 But, in a more recent essay, his por
trayal o f the Nachleben o f this figure is very different. In describing
Warburg’s belief that the Schifanoia decan-god was Perseus-reborn, he says:
“ In that theory, the wish was father to the thought; but Saxl told me that he
found it impossible to convince Warburg o f his error.” 51 Saxl may well have
不可靠的
recognised that Warburg was fallible, but it still remains unclear to what
extent or in what manner this knowledge might have coloured his apprecia
严厉的
tion o f or belief in Warburg’s talents and skills. One who possessed a harsh
disposition might see Warburg’s failings as unforgiveable. The circumspect,
however, might be able to turn a blind eye towards the error in both method
and conclusion and see it as a freak misadventure. One suspects that, as far
as Warburg was concerned, Saxl was probabaly a bit harsh and that Bing
慎重的
remained forever circumspect.
It was into this arena that a young Gombrich came into the Warburg
Institute. How could he not have inherited a certain “critical detachment”
about aspects o f Warburg’s published work when it must have been clear
that something as fundamental to Warburg’s vision as the iconology o f the
Schifanoia decan-god was based on flawed research and misguided aspira
tions? As Gombrich him self recently remarked in conversation “ ... my
position at the Warburg was not to be envied because I was between the
devil and the deep sea.”
去皮的
With the case o f the Schifanoia decan-god, Warburg is shown to be the
weaker vessel, but in a second case where Saxl’s research skills met Warburg’s
innate talents, it is Warburg who comes out having demonstrated a clearer
understanding o f how works o f art are formed. During a period o f research
on Peruzzi’s astrological frescoes in the Sala di Galatea in the Villa Farnesina,
I discovered some notes written in Aby Warburgs hand in the margins o f his
copy o f a book rarely cited in the critical literature on the Villa Farnesina:
Ernst Maass’s Aus der Farnesina , published in 1902.52 What makes these
notes particularly interesting is that they demonstrate how Warburg had
successfully recognized the major structural premise o f Peruzzi’s ceiling and
how Saxl, so convinced o f his own abilities in this arena, failed to appreciate
the true importance o f the lead that Warburg had offered him.
The ceiling o f the Sala di Galatea presents one o f the most intriguing
iconographic problems o f Renaissance art. Painted by Baldassare Peruzzi
around 1511, it is composed o f twenty-six frescoed compartments, each o f
which contains one or more mythologized representations o f the planet-
gods, zodiacal signs or extra-zodiacal constellations. The least problematic
aspect o f the ceiling is the identification o f the subject matter o f the ten
spandrels or peducci containing the zodiacal signs and planet-gods.53 As
early as 1912, Warburg had realized that the relationship between planet-
gods and zodiacal signs was neither uniform nor haphazard;54 and several
years later, in publications from 1920 and 1927, Warburg suggested that the
organization o f the Sala di Galatea ceiling reflected the natal chart o f the
building’s patron, the wealthy Sienese banker, Agostino Chigi, who, he
thought, may have been born in December 1465 while the Sun was
transiting Sagittarius.55
In 1932— three years after W arburg’s death— Fritz Saxl delivered a
lecture in Rome which contained his own findings on the Sala di Galatea
vault.56 Saxl proposed that the arrangement o f the planets in the ceiling
demonstrated that Agostino Chigi had been born in 1466 between 8 a m on
30 Novem ber and 11 am on 11 December. A birth-tim e o f 7 PM on
December 1,14 6 6 was offered as an acceptable mean. Saxl’s only allusion
to W arburg’s previous study was to dismiss the way in which the
{l6 6 } KRISTEN LI PPI NCOTT
astronom er whom Warburg had consulted had calculated the breadth o f

each zodiacal sign.57
Subsequent research on the Sala di Galatea vault has shown that the cal
culations Saxl had used were also inaccurate and that Chigi most probably
had been born on 29 or 30 November.58 This suggestion has been confirmed
recently by the discovery o f C higi’s baptismal record which states that:
“Agostino Andrea son o f Mariano Chigi was baptized on the thirtieth day o f
November 1466 and was born on the twenty-ninth day o f the said month at
the hour 21 1/2 and Giovanni Salvani was godfather.” 59 The discovery o f
Agostino Chigi’s baptismal record should have answered most questions con
cerning the astrological iconography o f Peruzzi’s ceiling. If the vault records
Chigi’s birthdate in a summary way— indicating his birth by means o f the
洗礼的
location o f the planets alone— the baptismal record merely confirms
what had already been deduced. But the presence o f the extra-zodiacal
constellations in the central compartment o f the vault and in the fourteen tri
angular vele, suggests that Peruzzi intended his vault to convey more than just
the zodiacal coordinates o f the planets on November 29, 1466. As a proper
natal chart records a rather specific picture o f the relationship between the
celestial sphere and a given point on the surface o f the earth, it seemed likely
that it was this aim that lies behind the overall plan o f the ceiling. Indeed,
among his jottings in the back o f his copy o f Maass’s Aus der Farnesina,
Warburg reconstructed his impression o f the Galatea vault as a natal chart
with Taurus at the Ascendant and Aquarius at Mid-heaven (Figs 7.3 and 7.4).
To all intents and purposes, Warburg’s sketch coincides with the information
contained in baptismal records, matching Chigi’s natal chart exactly.60
Warburg made another note which escaped his followers. One astrolo-
gically important point in a Renaissance horoscopic chart is the Pars
fortunae , or the Part o f Fortune. This point is used by astrologers as an indi
cation o f beneficent power. Ptolemy states that, along with the Sun, Moon,
and Ascendant, the Part o f Fortune is one o f the four “great authorities” o f
the natal chart.61 It was generally associated with inherited wealth and good
fortune. Chigi’s Part o f Fortune falls within the zodiacal sign o f Aquarius. As
we have seen, Warburg had noted that the goddess “ Fortuna” was placed
next to Aquarius in Peruzzi’s vault. It seems likely, then, that “ Fortuna”
appears here as an indication o f Chigi’s own Pars fortunae.
Figure 7.3 W a rb u rg ’s notes in his copy o f E. Maass, A us der Farnesina ... (M arburg.
i.H, 1902) (Photo: C ou rtesy o f T he W arb u rg Institue)
{l6 8 } KRISTEN LI PPI NCOTT
Figure 7.4 W arb u rg ’s notes in his copy o f E. Maass, A us der Farnesina ... (M arburg.
i.H, 1902) (Photo: C ou rtesy o f T he W arburg Institue)
At this point, one may return to the issue o f Warburg’s notes on the Sala
di Galatea. From the annotations on the frontispiece, we know that Warburg
bought Maass’s book in 1908.62 He did not read it, however, until
8 September 1912.63 This information not only coincides with Saxl s charac
terization o f Warburg when the two first met in the late autumn o f 1911 as
“ hardly familiar” with the content o f the numerous astrology books in his
possession;64 it also tells us within which context Warburg read Maass’s
book.
As we know, Warburg had been working on a number o f problems gener
ated by the iconography o f the Palazzo Schifanoia since 1909.65 It seems that
he may even have read Maass’s book as he was travelling on the train down
to Rome to deliver his lecture on the Salone dei Mesi before the Tenth
Annual Congress o f Art Historians in October o f that year.66 As his later
allusions to the Sala di Galatea suggest, the decoration o f the room inter
ested Warburg primarily for three reasons. First, the ceiling provided him
with another example o f “ Perseus-regained,” which, as we have seen, formed
an integral part o f Warburg’s lecture on the Ferrarese frescoes centred on
the figure o f the first decan o f Aries. Second, the presence o f pagan deities—
astral demons— in a cycle connected with the circle o f Raphael provided
Warburg with a perfect example with which to argue his thesis o f concilia
tion: his belief that it was the “ state o f balance itself that represents the
highest human value” and that a “psychology o f compromise” underlies the
greatest moments o f civilization.67 Finally, Warburg spotted the figure o f
Fortuna in the Sala di Galatea. She, too, symbolized a conciliation o f oppo
sites; a key by which the modern scholar might better understand how
Renaissance man could reconcile in his own mind the apparent conflict
渴望
between Christian belief and intellectual yearnings toward the art, literature
and ideals o f pagan antiquity. As a result o f his previous research on the late
fifteenth-century Florentine merchants, Sassetti and Rucellai, Warburg saw
良性的
this figure o f Fortuna as a kind o f benign totem— a sort o f talisman that
helped Renaissance man to bridge the uncertain gap between predetermina
tion and free will.68
It is surprising that Warburg never published his findings on the Sala di
Galatea; particularly since, in many ways, it could have served to support his
theories with much greater force than, say, his work on the Palazzo
{ 170 } KRISTEN LI PPI NCOTT
Schifanoia proved to be able to do. But Warburg seems to have been most
tantalised by the intellectual half-light o f the Quattrocento rather than by
the full glare o f the High Renaissance. To find the gods having regained their
glory was, it seems, not as interesting as seeing them emerge newly-born and
partially deformed.69
For Saxl, however, it was not the compositional premise o f the painting
that was paramount. To him, the exact time o f Chigi’s birth was all that mat
tered. As far as Saxl was concerned, the fact that Warburg had got the date
wrong nullified his insights. With damning precision, he records: “ma il
calcolo ... non condusse alla conferma che il Warburg aveva intuito .” 70
There is a certain sadness in all this. Warburg’s talent in uncovering the
central premise o f a work o f art from its structure was a rare gift. Had
anyone been listening, it would have been noted that he pointed the way
towards an understanding o f the iconographical premise o f the Sala di
Galatea. Gombrich has suggested that Warburg’s discovery o f the icono
graphic source for the Schifanoia decan-god came from a similar impulse.
While reading Boll’s Sphaera , Warburg noticed the tripartite structure o f
many o f Boll’s descriptions.71 This led him to see the tripartite structure in
the title-page o f each month o f the Astrolabium planum , and, perhaps, in
the layered structure o f the outer zones o f the Tabula Bianchini itself. For
someone as visually conscious o f patterns as Warburg seems to have been,
such similarities in structure would have rung all the right bells. That is not
to say, however, that such an approach was not without its pitfalls. Indeed,
诀窍
this knack for recognizing patterns ran awry when Warburg made the next
step and tried to tie this specific tradition to that recorded in the illustrated
Latin translations o f Abû M a‘shar and when he saw further associations in
the imagery o f the Denderah zodiac.
One has lingered with these examples longer than, perhaps, either war
rants. Similarly, one has focused attention on an intellectual relationship
between two highly intelligent men with a more glaring light than even the
抵挡
best friendships would be able to withstand. Furthermore, the alleged
purpose o f this paper— to summarise Warburg’s thoughts and writings on
astrological iconography— has only fleetingly been addressed. What one
hopes has been clarified, however, is that if one is looking for an excellent
summary, one need look no further than Gombrich’s study which is and,
one sees no reason to doubt, should remain the definitive work on the
subject. I f one is looking for a deeper understanding o f Warburg’s own
thought processes, there are two alternatives. One avenue is to consult the
Warburg Archive— the “drafts, jottings, formulations, and fragments aban
doned on the way to the finished work” 72— although it would seem an
enterprise into which any sane angel would hesitate to tread. The second
alternative, however, is equally filled with the potential for misadventure.
The clearest reflections o f Warburg’s influence remain the work o f his disci
ples. But, as with all reflections, the wary reader should be conscious o f both
the inherent distortions and the reversals characteristic o f any mirror. A
fuller appreciation o f Saxl and his contribution to the scholarly literature on
astrological iconography may be an essential first step towards an under
standing o f Warburg’s own work; but, then, one should hasten to add that it
would be impossible to say if this would be a step in the right direction ... or
not.
notes
1 This paper has benefited enorm ously from the inform ation and advice I have
received from a num ber o f scholars who know and understand the history of the
Warburg Institute and its personalities m uch better than I. In particular, I would
like to thank P rof Sir Ernst G om brich for all his tim e and patience spent on
behalf of my text and ideas. Also, I would like to thank Miss Anne Marie Meyer
and Prof Nicolai and Mrs Ruth Rubinstein for their insights and b oth Prof J. B.
Trapp and M r John Perkins for their help in searching out particularly vexing
references.
2 See G. Bing, “Fritz Saxl (1890-1948): A M em oir” in Fritz Saxl 1890-1948. A Volume
o f Memorial Essays from his Friends in England, ed. D. J. Gordon, London 1957, pp.
1-46, esp. p. 28.
3 Q uoted from W arburgs diary, 8 April 1907: “ ... zum Herausbuddeln der bisher
unbekannten Einzeltatsachen ... Triijfelschw eindienstePassage and translation
taken from E. Gombrich, Aby Warburg. An Intellectual Biography (with a Memoir
on the History o f the Library by F. Saxl), London 1970, p. 140. See also G ombrich’s
suggestion that this m isunderstanding of W arburg as an iconographer may have
dated as far back as the delivery of his lecture on the Palazzo Schifanoia in 1912:
“But in certain respects W arburg’s trium phal dem onstration of these connections
at the Art Historical Congress in Rome of 1912 has actually obscured his principal
concerns. He was now considered the learned iconographer, the polym ath who
had succeeded in discovering an out-of-the-w ay source.” Cited from

E. H. G om brich, “The Ambivalence o f the Classical Tradition. The C ultural
Psychology of Aby W arburg” (an address given at H am burg University on 13 June
1966 on the centenary of Aby W arburg’s birth), in Tributes. Interpreters o f our
Cultural Tradition, Oxford 1984, pp. 117-37, esp. Ρ· 131.
4 See, for example, E. Panofsky, Idea. Ein Beitrag zur Begriffsgeschichte der alteren
Kunsttheorie [Studien der Bibliothek W arburg, V], Leipzig 1924 (English transla-
tion by J. J. S. Peake as Idea. A Concept in A rt Theory, New York 1968); E. Panofsky,
Studies in Iconology. Humanistic Themes in the A rt o f the Renaissance, New York
1939; and E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western A rt, Stockholm

i960.
5 For an excellent study of the project and a full set of photographs of the installa-
tion, see Aby M. Warburg. Bildersammlung zur Geschichte von Sternglaube und
Sternkunde im Hamburger Planetarium, eds. U. Fleckner, R. Galitz, C. Naber and
H. Nôldeke, H am burg 1993.
6 See Bildersammlung ..., as in n. 5 above, pp. 272-75 and pl. XI. For additional
discussion of these images w ith bibliography.
7 See Bildersammlung ..., as in n. 5 above, pp. 280-83 and pl. XIII.
8 See Bildersam mlung..., as in n. 5 above, pp. 290-95 and pl. XV.
9 For complete references and bibliography on W arburg’s writings and lectures on
astrology, see Gombrich, Aby W arburg...., as in n. 3 above, pp. 186-205.
10 See F. Saxl, Lectures, ed. G. Bing [2 vols., W arburg Institute], London 1957 and
F. Saxl, La Fede negli astri. DalVantichità al Rinascimento, ed. S. Settis, Turin 1985.
Eight o f the lectures edited by Bing were republished as A Heritage o f Images. A
Selection o f Lectures by Fritz Saxl, edited by H. H onour and J. Fleming, London
1970. An Italian selection, La Storia delle immagine, w ith an in trod uctio n by
E. Garin, was published by Laterza (Bari 1965).
11 See Bing, “Fritz Saxl...,” as in n. 2 above, p. 6.
12 See G om brich, Aby Warburg..., as in n. 3 above, passim. For the reference to
W arburg s w riting style, see pp. 14-18.
13 For a discussion of this formula, see Gombrich, Aby Warburg..., as in n. 3 above,
p. 13. Professor Gombrich, who notes the reappearance of the phrase in French,
once offered me five pence if I could trace its origin. I can only report that I have
heard it rum ored that the phrase can be found in Augustine, but have no t yet
found the opportunity to track it down. More recently, G om brich has m entioned
that he now believes that the phrase might be an inversion of of another popular
saying, “Der Teufel steckt im Detail”, and that the inversion is W arburg’s own
invention. A. M Sassi has suggested that the phrase can be more closely tied to
W arburg’s contem porary intellectual milieu and cites parallel evocations of the
idea, if not the form ula, in the writings of both Usener and Dilthey. See
A. M. Sassi, “Dalla Scienza delle religioni di Usener ad Aby Warburg,” in Aspetti di

H ermann Usener filologo della religione, eds. G. Arrighetti, et. al., Pisa 1982,
pp. 65-91, esp. pp. 86-91.
14 See Gombrich, “The Ambivalence to the Classical T r a d i ti o n ...a s in n. 3 above,
p. 135: “Like W inckelmann in the eighteenth century and Ruskin in the nineteenth
he impressed his contemporaries not only as a scholar bu t above all as a prophetic
figure.”
15 See Bing, “Fritz Saxl.. as in n. 2 above, p. 14.
16 See Bing, “Fritz S axl...,” as in n. 2 above, pp. 39-40. In the opening lines of a
lecture that Saxl delivered in Reading in 1947, he stated: “I am not a philosopher,
n or am I able to talk about the philosophy of history. It is concrete historical
material that has always attracted me in the field of literature, o f art, or of reli-
gion” (see Saxl, Lectures ..., as in n. 10 above, p. 1). It is interesting that Saxl felt
that he had to proclaim himself in such a m anner at the outset of a public lecture.
O ne cannot help b ut feel that w hat he was really saying was: “If you have come
expecting a lecture by Aby W arburg, you might as well leave now.” Nevertheless,
that Saxl began his lecture thus— m ore than fifteen years after W arburg’s death—
is telling.
17 See Saxl,”The H istory of W arburg’s Library” in Gombrich, Aby W arburg...., as in
n. 3 above, p. 335. The sentim ent is echoed in G om brich’s description of the
m ann er in which both Bing and Saxl devoted themselves to W arburg and his
library: "... I had the opportunity to get to know the guardians o f his heritage
during the hardest times of its [the Library’s] crisis and to witness how Fritz Saxl,
the D irector of the exiled library, and G ertrud Bing, his faithful helpmate,
rem ained determ ined to accomplish the founder’s mission regardless o f w hat
might happen to their personal lives. For Fritz Saxl and G ertrud Bing, W arburg
was in no way part of history, he was their mentor, their colleague, the exacting
and caring head of a private institute of research to whom, they had surrendered
body and soul.” Cited from “The Ambivalence of the Classical Tradition . . . ” as in
n. 3 above, esp. pp. 117-18.
18 Bing, “Fritz Saxl . . . ” as in n. 2 above, p. 43. In a recent conversation, G ombrich
pointed ou t how Saxl’s influence was particularly keenly felt by a num b er of
scholars with w hom one m ight not, today, first associate Saxl. He stressed the
extent to which art history, as a university subject, did not really exist in England
during the years when the Institute was first finding its feet here; and how, for
many, Saxl seems to have been a means towards the establishment of a m ethod by
which a num ber of bright young m en were able to structure their thinking and
research methods. See, in particular, Pope-Hennessy’s descriptions of the debt
b oth he and Blunt owed Saxl in J. Pope-Hennessy, Learning to Look. An
Autobiography, London 1991, esp. pp. 71-72 and 138. For example: “The arrival in
London of the W arburg Institute in the 1930s had been a turning point in the
development of art history in England. That this was so was due not so m uch to
the W arburg library, fine as that was, as to the personality of its director, Saxl”
(ibid., p. 71).
19 The debt which the W arburg Institute owes to Saxl for its survival during the
1930s and 1940s has been well-documented; b ut few seem to appreciate the fact
that it was Saxl who conceived the idea of turning W arburg’s more or less private
library into a scholarly institution. The point is well-made by Gombrich, in “The
Ambivalence to the Classical Tradition . . . ” (as in n. 3 above, p. 133), where he

points out the extent to which the “W arburg Institute” is, in fact, the brain-child
of Saxl: “The actual foundation of the “W arburg library on the Science of
Culture” as a research institute, with its series of public lectures and studies, is the
work of Fritz Saxl, w hom Aby W arburg’s brothers provided with funds.” The idea
to open the Library to scholars seems to have m atured during the years when
W arburg was confined in Kreuzlingen: “Thus when W arburg had recovered, he
found him self in a wholly changed environm ent ... [and] was now the adm ired
creator o f a respected research institute, which bore his name.”
20 For W arburg’s w riting on the first decan-god, see A. W arburg, “Italienische Kunst
u nd internationale Astrologie im Palazzo Schifanoja zu Ferrara,” Vitalia e VArte
Straniera. A tti del X Congresso Internazionale di Storia dell’Arte in Roma, 1912,
Rome 1922, pp. 180-93. Repr. in A. W arburg, Gesammelte Schriften. [Die
Erneuerung der heidnischen Antike. Kulturwissenschaftliche Beitrage zur
Geschichte der europâishen Renaissance], ed. G. Bing, Leipzig-Berlin 1932,
PP· 459-81 and 627-44. See also the Italian translations of this essay, by
E. C antim ori in A. W arburg, La Rinascità del paganesimo antico. Contributi alla
storia della cultura, ed. G. Bing, Florence 1966, pp. 249-72; and M. Bertozzi, in La
Tirannia degli astri. Aby Warburg e Vastrologia di Palazzo Schifanoia, Bologna
1985, pp. 81-112.
For Saxl’s articles, see F. Saxl, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer
illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters in rômischen Bibliotheken,
H eidelberg 1915, pp. v-xvii (see also the Italian translation by
F. Cuniberto, “Im m agini degli astri dal Medioevo al Q uattrocento,” in Saxl, La
Fede negli astri ...., as in n. 10 above, pp. 155-61 and 467); F. Saxl, Verzeichnis
astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen
Mittelalters der National-Bibliothek in Wien, Heidelberg 1927, pp. 7-53, esp.
pp. 19-40 (see also the Italian translation by F. Cuniberto in F. Saxl, “La carta del
cielo: Dürer, gli arabi e la tradizione classica,” in Saxl, La Fede negli astri ...
(op. cit.), pp. 413-20 and 483-85); and E. Panosksy and F. Saxl, “Classical
M ythology in Medieval Art,” Metropolitan M useum Studies, IV, 1932-33,
pp. 228-80, esp. p. 237-41.
21 The content of W arburg’s lecture is sum m arised in A. W arburg, “Die antike

Gôtterwelt und die Friihrenaissance im Süden u n d im Norden,” Verein fü r
Hamburgische Geschichte, XIV, December 1908 and “Über Planetengôtterbilder im
niederdeutschen Kalender von 1519,” in Erster Bericht der Gesellschaft der
Bücherfreunde zu Hamburg, Hamburg 1910 (both reprinted in Gesammelte Schriften
..., II, pp. 451-54 and 626; and pp. 483-86 and 645-46). The focus of both lectures
is discussed in Gombrich, Aby Warburg ..., as in n. 3 above, pp. 186-91.
For Saxl’s argum ents, see F. Saxl, “Beitráge zu einer Geschichte der
Planetendarstellungen im O rient un d im Occident,” Islam. Zeitschrift fü r

Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Orients, III, 1912, pp. 151-77 (Italian transi,
by F. C uniberto, “La raffigurazione dei pianeti in O riente e in Occidente,” in
F. Saxl, La Fede negli a s tr i... (as in n. 10 above), pp. 63-146 and 455-66); F. Saxl,
“Probleme der Planetenkinderbilder,” Kunstchronik und Kunstmarkt, LIV (N.F.
XXX), 1919, pp. 1013-21 (Italian transi, by F. Cuniberto, “I figli dei pianeti,” in
F. Saxl, La Fede negli astri ... (as in n. 10 above), pp. 274-79 and 473-74); and
F. Saxl, “The Literary Sources of the ‘Finiguerra Planets’,” Journal o f the Warburg
Institute, II, 1938, pp. 72-74.
22 Passages taken from “Die antike Gôtterwelt u nd die Friihrenaissance . . . ” as in
n. 21 above, as cited by Gombrich, Aby W arburg..., as in n. 3 above, pp. 188-89.
23 See Saxl, “Finiguerra Planets.. . as in n. 21 above, pp. 73-4.
24 The translation comes from R. Chernow, The Warburgs. A 20th-century Odyssey o f
a Remarkable Family, New York 1993, p. 246, citing from Max Adolf W arburg’s
“Speech at the W arburg Institute after the death of G ertrud Bing.” Gombrich,
however, feels that the “à vapeur” m oniker might be tied more closely to the m er-
curial nature o f Saxl’s actions and the fact that he, often to the desperation of his
friends and colleagues, could never be pinned down, never be made to stand still
and always seemed to be slipping round corners and out o f rooms.
25 Related to this, in a recent conversation, Gombrich echoed Bing’s view, suggesting
that there was no real ideological th ru st to Saxl’s researches, “Saxl just found
things interesting.” W hen asked if he thought that W arburg m ight have been dis-
appointed in Saxl, G ombrich related a story told to him about W arburg by Bing.
W hen Bing asked him why he had not yet finished a paper for the Schmarsow
festscrift, W arburg replied that “the level of the underground water has not yet
risen sufficiently.” The idea was (quoting G om brich) th at “ [Warburg] sort of
drilled a hole and the water— which carried the relevant facts— had, in the end, to
come out of this particular font. He wanted all the facts ( wasser) to come out of
one font or, to point to one result naturally.” Saxl, on the other hand, was not a
single hole-driller. He, according to Gombrich, “drilled everywhere.”
26 See Bing, “ Fritz S a x l. . . ” as in n. 2 above, p. 6. Both G ombrich and Meyer relate
num erous instances of how W arburg entranced the scholars with w hom he came
into contact. His eyes, in particular, seemed to possess a mesmeric effect. In a

recent conversation, G om brich recalled how Bing had described her first meeting
w ith Warburg: “Bing said that meeting him the first tim e she felt that his eyes
looked straight through her ... he had a sort o f hypnotic look.”
27 Panofsky has been quoted, more than once, as having claimed that he owed every-
thing to W arburg and that he, Panofsky, was famous in the United States only
because people did n o t know about W arburg whose works had not yet been
translated into English.
28 I thank Professor Nicolai Rubinstein, in particular, for discussing this issue with
me.
29 See the com ments of Pope-Hennessy cited in n. 18 above. See also the perceptive
com m ents in R. Hinks’s unsigned review of Saxl’s Lectures in The Times Literary
Supplement, for 23 May 1958, pp. 1-2, where he states: “It was perhaps a devotion
to the concrete instance, a respect for the unalienable individuality of facts and
events, that Saxl found reassuring in the best English scholarship; just as Saxl’s
English friends often found their hesitancies and inhibitions thawing and yielding
顽抗的
to the genial w arm th of his intuitive sympathy, and saw the recalcitrant atoms of
their learning com bine and transform themselves u nd er the pressure o f his
creative im agination” (p. 2).
30 These insights have been gained thanks to Professor G om brich’s conversations
w ith me on the topic.
31 In a recent conversation, Gombrich m entioned that Saxl constantly used the word
“norm alise” when it came to describing the task he faced when he first came to
London: “In order for this not all to go to waste, he had to simplify the Institute.
He didn’t want all these intellectual knots to be tied and felt he had to iron out
some o f the quirkiness in order to make the Institute intelligible to the average
academic or scholar.”
32 In Saxl’s “H istory o f W arburg’s Library” (as in n. 3 above, pp. 325-38), he presents
a glimpse into how W arburg’s cataloguing system worked: “O ften one saw
W arburg standing tired and distressed bent over his boxes with a packet o f index
cards, trying to find for each one the best place w ithin the system; it looked like a
waste o f energy and one felt sorry ... It took some time to realize that his aim was
not bibliographical. This was his m ethod of defining the limits and contents of
his scholarly world and the experience gained here became decisive in selecting
books for the Library” (p. 329). It m ight be m entioned that Saxl’s quotation is
presented out of context in Chernow ’s biography on the Warburgs, which makes
this exercise sound pathetic, rather than inspired. See Chernow, The Warburgs...,
as in n. 24 above, p. 124 (where the note to this passage is also incorrectly cited).
33 O f all W arburg’s disciples, it was probably Bing who was closest to him and who,
m ost likely, felt that she understood— and perhaps m ore im portantly, believed
in— the greatness of his thought. It had been the plan originally that G ombrich
would edit the Nachlass and that Bing and Saxl would write W arburgs biography.
This then developed into a scheme whereby G om brich would write about
W arburg’s ideas based on the material preserved in his notes and Bing would
write a study of W arburg’s use of language, which, both as a close colleague and as
a philosopher by training, she was perfectly placed to do. For reasons that are not
altogether clear, Bing destroyed m ost of w hat she had w ritten on the subject
shortly before she died. The tem ptation is to suggest that she felt that she could
not do it justice and that she would prefer not to continue, rather than mislead
future generations due to her own perceived inadequacies.
34 See G om brich, Aby Warburg ..., as in n. 3 above. It m ight be m entioned that
appreciation o f G om brich’s volum e is n ot universal and, in particular, Edgar
W ind wrote a biting review of the book when it first came out. The review was
first published in The Times Literary Supplement, 25 June 1971, pp. 735-6 and was
republished as “O n a recent biography of Warburg,” in E. W ind, The Eloquence of
Symbols. Studies in H um anist A rt, ed. J. Anderson, Oxford 1983, pp. 21-35. The
num erous instances o f unhappiness, which grew up between W ind and several of
the scholars associated with the W arburg Institute, need not unduly concern us
here, save to m ention that there was sufficient venom packed into this review to
suggest that W ind had his arrows aimed at m ore than one target. Nevertheless,
having read W arburg’s and Saxl’s work myself, I would still advocate G om brich’s
study as the best way into a study of the topic.
35 See Gombrich, Aby Warburg..., as in n. 3 above, pp. 186-205.
36 See Gombrich, Aby Warburg..., as in n. 3 above, p. 4.
37 See Warburg, “Italienische Kunst und internationale Astrologie ....,” as in n. 20
above.
38 See Gombrich, Aby Warburg..., as in n. 3 above, p. 192.
39 M uch of this m aterial is draw n from my doctoral thesis, “The Frescoes of the
Salone dei Mesi in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara: Style, Iconography and
C ultural Context,” University o f Chicago 1987, esp. pp. 138-95. See also,
K. Lippincott, “Gli dei-decani del Salone dei Mesi di Palazzo Schifanoia,” Alla corte
degli Estensi. Filosofía, arte e cultura a Ferrara nei secoli X V e X V I [Atti del
Convegno internazionale di Studi, Ferrara, 5-7 m arzo 1992], ed. M. Bertozzi,
Ferrara 1994, pp. 181-97.
40 Johannes Angelus, Astrolabium planum in tabulis ascendens, Augsburg: Ratdolt,
1488. An illustrated version of the Astrolabium planum also exists in a G erman
translation of ca. 1490 in Heidelberg, UniversitatsbibL, cod. pal. germ. 832,
ff. 36r-83v. See H. Wegener, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der deutschen Bilder-
Handschriften des spâten Mittelalters in der Heidelberger Universitàtsbibliothek,
Leipzig 1927, pp. 102-06 and B. Haage, “Das Astrolabium planum des Codex
palatinus germanicus 832. Ein Forschungsbericht,” Heidelberger Jahrbücher, XXIX,

1985, pp. 87-105.
41 M adrid, Biblioteca Escuralensis, Ms h.1.15, ff. i2r-i2v. See Alfonso el Sabio:
Lapidario and Libro de las formas & ymagenes, eds. R.C. D im an and
L.W. Winget, Madison W I 1980, pp. 165-71 and the facsimile edition of the m an u-
script, Lapidario del Rey D. Alfonso X. Códice original, ed. J. Fernández M ontaña,
M adrid 1881.
42 As Gom brich has pointed out, W arburg’s awareness of the Tabula Bianchini was
gained via F. Boll, Sphaera. Neue griechische Texte und Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der Sternbilder, Leipzig 1903, pp. 299-305 and 433 ff. A record of the
top right corner o f the Tabula is preserved in drawings made during the seven-
teenth century by Nicolaus-Claude Fabri de Peiresc and the whole, therefore, is
often referred to as the “Fragmentum Peiresc.” See B. de M ontfaucon, L’antiquité
expliquée et représentée en figures, Paris 1719, I, 2, pl. CCXXIV. See also.
W. Gundel, Dekane und Dekansternbilder. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der
Sternbilder der Kulturvôlker, Glückstadt and H am burg 1936, pp. 184-87.
43 Leiden, Universiteitsbibl., Ms Voss. lat. 4 /, 179, fol. 4 0 V.
44 See Boll, Sphaera ..., as in η. 42 above, pp. 159 ff. W arburg expanded this thesis in
an unpublished lecture “W anderungen der antiken Gôtterwelt vor ihrem Eintritt
in die Hoch-italienische Renaissance,” delivered in Gottingen on 29 November
1913.
45 The history of the decans and its various images is by no means clear, having been
subjected to the sorts o f mistakes, m isunderstandings, conflations and approxi-
m ations com m on to m uch of the astro-mythological lore that was passed around
and around the M editerranean. In the Tabula Bianchini, for example, this rela-
tionship between the planet-god ruling each decan and the prosopa is made clear
by their relative placements on the disc. The prosopa are placed between the
planet gods and the zodiacal signs. W hat is unclear, however, is whether this inter-
m ediary b and of images represents “masks” of the planet-gods or a subsidary set
of decanal demi-gods or messengers. Bouché-LeClercq, for example, argues that
“L’important, si quelque chose importe ici, c’est que, sans nul doute, les π ρ ό σ ω π α
portent les noms des planètes: ce sont les décans déguisés en planètes” (see
A. Bouché-LeClercq, L’Astrologie grecque, Paris 1899), pp. 225-26 (note). And Aulus
Gellius quite specifically limits the meaning imposed on the Greek term: “Sicuti
quidam faciem esse hominis p utant os tantum et oculos et genas, quod Graeci
π ρ ό σ ω π ο α dicunt, quando facies sit forma omnis et modus et factura quaedam cor
poris totius a faciendo dicta, ut ab aspectu species et a fingendo figura” (see Noctes
Atticae, XII, 30 (29), ed. C. Hosius, Stuttgart 1959, II, p. 98). By the fifteenth century,
however, as seems clear from the text o f the Tabula ascendens, the figures illustrated
represent ‘faces’ o f the planet-gods and are not demi-gods in their own right.
46 M adrid, Bibl. Escurialensis, Ms H. I. 15, fol. 9 4 η The text reads: “De la piedra
que a nombre sanguina. DEla [sic] primera fa z del signo de aries es la piedra aque
llaman sanguina. Esta a tal vertud que, el que la trae consigo, fazel seer atreu-
undo & orgulloso; vencedor de batíalas & de lides. Et esto se faze mas complida
miente seyendo mars en esta faz. & en su ascendente & en su hora & en su bon
catamiento del sol. Et que descenda sobrestá piedra la vertud de la figura de un
onme negro que a los oios salidos afuera. & tiene un cinto alquice. & in su mano
un açadori' Cited from El Primer Lapidario de Alfonso X el Sabio. Ms h. 1. 15 de
la Biblioteca de El Escorial, eds. M. Brey M ariño, J.L. A rnoros Portolès and

A. D om inquez Rodriquez, M adrid 1982, p. 118.
47 Boli, Sphaera..., as in η. 42 above, p. 237. One of the im portant distinctions to
rem em ber is that the Egyptian system o f decan-stars was based on an equatorial
system of measurements. The Greeks always measured their stellar co-ordinates
relative to the ecliptic. As soon as the Greeks adopted— or rather, adapted— the
Egyptian system o f decans to their own ecliptical system, the astronom ical and
time-keeping significance of these star-groupings vanished. All that was left were
the astrological characteristics that may have been associated with each grouping.
And, it would seem, even these astrological associations were doom ed to a short-
ened life, since the Greeks very soon supplanted any native Egyptian myths with
their own zodiacal and planetary astro-mythology.
48 The so-called “Fenduli A bridgem ent” is actually a com pilation of extracts taken
from the H erm annus o f C arinthia (also som etimes know n as H erm annus
Dalmata) translation o f the Introductoriam of Abû M acshar composed somewhat
prior to 1200. The Fenduli text is unedited, but it exists in a num ber of sum ptu-
ously illustrated m anuscripts. For a resumé, see V.A. Clark, “The Abridged
Astrological Treatise ofAlbumasar. Astrological Imagery in the West,” PhD thesis,
University of Michigan 1979.
49 See F. Saxl, “Rinascimento dell’antichità. Studien zu den Arbeiten A. Warburgs,”
Repertorium fü r Kunstwissenschaft, XLIII, 1922, pp. 220-72, esp. pp. 235-36 and
F. Saxl, “The Revival of Late Antique Astrology,” in Lectures ..., as in n. 10 above,
pp. 80-1. The description reads: “In the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, we find the
members of the family of the sphaera barbarica again; accompanying the Ram, there
is a strangely attired dark man, a seated woman with one of her legs showing and a
man holding an arrow with a ring, who are all figures with an Oriental pedigree.”
50 See Gombrich, Aby W arburg..., as in n. 3 above, p. 194.
51 See E.H. Gombrich, “Relativism in the Humanities: The Debate about H um an
Nature,” in Topics o f our Time. Twentieth-century Issues in Learning and in Art,
London 1991, p. 52.
52 E. Maass, Aus der Farnesina. Hellenismus und Renaissance, M arburg i.H. 1902.
W arburg’s copy is still held by the W arburg Institute at shelfmark FAF 880. For a
{ΐ8 θ} KRISTEN LI PPI NCOTT
fuller version of the material presented in this article, see K. Lippincott, “Aby
W arburg, Fritz Saxl and the Astrological Ceiling o f the Sala di Galatea,” in
Aby Warburg. Akten des internationalen Symposions, Hamburg 1990, eds.
H. Bredekamp, M. Diers and C. Schoell-Glass, H am burg 1991, pp. 213-32.
53 They are arranged in a clockwise fashion around the ceiling in the following
m anner: 1. Aries, Jupiter and Taurus with Europa; 2. Leda and the Swan and the
Gemini; 3. Hercules w ith the Lernean H ydra and Cancer; 4.Hercules w ith the
N emean Lion (Leo); 5. Virgo and Diana (Luna); 6. Libra and Scorpio with Mars
and Mercury; 7. Apollo (Sol) w ith Sagittarius; 8. Venus and C apricorn; 9.

Ganymede (Aquarius) and 10. Venus and C upid (Pisces) and Saturn.
54 A m ongst the notes he w rote in his copy o f M aass’s Aus der Farnesina, W arburg
observed that Saturn was conjunct w ith Venus; Luna was in Virgo; Venus was in
C apricorn or, possibly, in Pisces; Apollo was in Sagittarius; and Jupiter was
either in Aries or in Taurus (both signs are shown flanking the god). Mars and
M ercury were in conjunction w ith the form er in Libra and the latter in Scorpio;
the zodiacal panel for Cancer contained a depiction of Engonasin (the constel-
lation Ophiuchus) and A quarius was near F ortuna and Phoenike (or ursa
minor).
55 See A. W arburg, “H eidnisch-antike Weissagung in W ort u n d Bild zu Luthers
Zeiten,” Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Philos.-hist. Klasse, XXVI [A bhandlung], 1920 (repr. in W arburg, Gesammelte
Schriften ..., as in n. 20 above, II, pp. 489-558, esp. p. 511) and A. W arburg,
“O rientalisierende Astrologie,” Wissenschaftlicher Bericht über den Deutschen
Orientalistentag in Hamburg, 1926. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlàndischen
Gesellschaft, NF VI, 1927 (repr. in Warburg, Gesammelte Schriften ..., as in n. 20
above, II, pp. 561-65, esp. p. 563).
56 See F. Saxl, “La fede astrológica di Agostino Chigi,” La Farnesina [Collezione.
Reale Accademia d ’ltalia, 1], Rome 1934. A. Beer’s calculations appear on
pp. 61-67. Note esp. the conclusions on p. 65 and 67. Beer republished his findings
in A. Beer, “Astronomical Dating o f Works o f Art,” Vistas in Astronomy, IX, 1967,
pp. 177-223, esp. pp. 189-99.
57 Saxl, “La fede di Agostino C h ig i. . . ” as in n. 56 above, p. 29. In the 1934 version of
his Farnesina lecture, Saxl did n ot m ention W arburg’s work at all. See Saxl,
Lectures. .., as in n. 10 above, p. 197.
58 See W. H artner, “Qusayr cAmra, Farnesina, Luther, Hesiod. Some Supplem entary
Notes to A. Beer’s Contribution,” Vistas in Astronomy, IX, 1967, pp. 225-228, esp.
pp. 226-27.
59 Siena, Archivio di Stato, Pieve di San G iovanni 2, fol 69r: “Agostino Andrea di
Mariano Chigi si batezô a di 30 di novembre 1466 e naque a di 29 di deto messe a ore
21 1/2 e fu conpare Giovani S a l v a n i See I. D. Rowland, “The Birth Date of
A VI EW OF ABY WARBURG' S WRI TI NGS ON ASTROLOGY AND ART {l8 l}
Agostino Chigi: D ocum entary Proof,” Journal o f the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, XLVII, 1984, pp. 192-93.
60 It should be m entioned that the exact details of Chigi’s natal chart rem ain the
subject of debate. Rather than rehearse the argum ents here, the reader is directed
to the following articles (with the, perhaps, obvious caveat that the author of the
present essay rem ains unconvinced by the argum ents presented in the m ost
recent contribution to the literature). See M. Quinlan-M cGrath, “The Astrological
Vault of the Villa Farnesina. Agostino Chigi’s Rising Sign,” Journal o f the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes, XLVII, 1984, pp. 91-105; K. Lippincott, “Two Astrological
Ceilings Reconsidered: The Sala di Galatea in the Villa Farnesina and the Sala del
Mappamondo at Caprarola,” Journal o f the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, LIII,
1990, pp. 185-207; and M. Q uinlan-M cG rath, “Time-Telling, Conventions and
Renaissance Astrological Practice,” Journal o f the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes, LVIII, 1995, pp. 53-71.
In a private com m unication, Quinlan-M cG rath has pointed out a num ber of
m isprints and m inor errors in my 1990 text (such as the appearance of
“Alessandro” for “A gostino” in m ore than one instance and o f an inadvertent
conflation of two parts of her argum ent) for which I apologise and thank her.
61 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, III, 128-29. See also Bouché-LeClercq, L’Astrologie grecque, as
in n. 45 above, pp. 289-96.
62 The note reads: “08/214,” indicating th at it was the 214th book that W arburg
bought in 1908. The corresponding entry in W arburgs ledger informs us that he
paid DM 1.20 for it. I thank John Perkins for his assistance in tracing this
inform ation.
63 Note the heading of W arburg’s annotations: “8/IX.[i]9i2 im C o u p é”
64 See F. Saxl, “The H istory of W arburg’s Library” in Gombrich, Aby Warburg ..., as
in n. 20 above, p. 327.
65 See Gombrich, Aby W arburg..., as in n. 3 above, pp. 191-99.
66 This possibility was suggested to me by Anne Marie Meyer.
67 See Gombrich, Aby W arburg..., as in n. 3 above, pp. 177 and 170 (for the formula
“psychology of com prom ise”).
68 A. W arburg,“Francesco Sassettis letztwillige Verfügung,” Kunstwissenschaftliche
Beitràge August Schmarsow gewidmet, Leipzig 1907, pp. 129-52 (repr. Gesammelte
Schriften ..., as in n. 20 above, I, pp. 127-58. See also Gombrich, Aby Warburg ...,
as in n. 3 above, p. 173.
69 G om brich makes a similar p oin t in another context, stating: “W hat attracted
W arburg to this period of transition was precisely its divided self, which was any-
thing but naïve.” See Gombrich, “The Ambivalence of the Classical T radition..
as in n. 3 above, p. 126.
70 See Saxl, “La fede di Agostino C higi.. as in n. 56 above, p. 29.
{ i82} KRISTEN LI PPI NCOTT
71 In a recent conversation, G om brich m entioned that he had once told Saxl of his
suspicions tha t W arburg had discovered the source o f the Schifanoia decan
through musing on the textual layout of Boll’s Sphaera, and that Saxl had agreed
that it was probably true. If true, which there seems no reason not to believe, it is
am using to note that such a m ethod happily coincides w ith the fact that
W arburg’s own m otto was “Das Wort zum Bild” (see G om brich, “The
Ambivalence o f the Classical Tradition ...,” as in n. 3 above, p. 123).
72 For the phrase, see Gombrich, Aby Warburg..., as in n. 3 above, p. 3.
"serious issues":
the last plates of
warburg's picture
atlas mnemosyne1
charlotte schoell-glass
aby w a r b u r g ’s l a st p r o je c t , the
picture atlas “Mnemosyne,” unfinished

at Warburg’s death in 1929, is still not
available today2 and, dealing as it
does mainly with mythological
imagery, has itself now attained the status o f a myth. Much has been written
about the picture-atlas, and much o f it in metaphors: It was described as a
symphony,3 as a collection o f loci classici, as an assemblage o f constellations,
as a laboratory o f the history o f images— this last metaphor has at least the
merit o f being Warburg’s own— and in similar comparative ways. Often,
scholars have analysed the Bilderatlas in terms o f aesthetics, that is, as if it
were an art-work rather than a scholarly endeavor. Attention was drawn to
the fact that Warburg’s plates are close in time to the invention o f collage
and may be inspired by similar intentions;4 it was also suggested that the
plates o f the atlas may have been intended as a purely visual text.5 These
observations would seem to have to be qualified by what we know today
about Warburg’s last project.
{183}
{184} CHARLOTTE SCHOELL-GLASS
There is much scholarly and not-so-scholarly interest lately in the atlas,

but so far, we do not have the foundation o f an historically reliable publica
tion which would enable us to attempt a coherent interpretation o f the
whole. This foundation is currently being layed by Kurt Forster and Martin
Warnke as part o f the new edition o f Warburg s Collected Works, which will
include a large body o f unpublished texts. Among them is also the Tagebuch
der Κ . B. W. covering the years from 1926 until W arburgs death in October
1929, and containing a wealth o f information about the formation o f the

“ Bilderatlas.” 6 The unpublished diary was used by Pieter van Huisstede7 to
reconstruct the origins and metamorphoses o f the atlas. A final assessment
o f what the picture atlas can reasonably be said to be about and its place in
the history o f ideas o f its time (“ heutige Erkenntnistheorie” 8) will, however,
have to wait for the publication o f this and other material.
Now already, the completed transcription o f the entire Tagebuch der
K.B.W. allows a more detailed view o f the circumstances surrounding the
creation o f the picture atlas. It now appears in a new light— as the daily prac
tice o f the cultural science that Aby Warburg fought for on the levels o f art-
historical scholarship itself, o f its institutionalization and o f the formation
o f a theory o f the human memory for images. These questions o f discipli
nary practice (and, not rarely, ritual) have been addressed for the sciences,
whereas the humanities have yet to be scrutinized in this manner.9 Here, I
am not referring to the critique o f the ideological background o f the work
being done (or having been done) in Warburg’s Art History. In what ways, it
is asked here, can the plates be read? How were they put together? What is
the function o f contemporary visual material at the end o f the predom
inantly historical atlas? The analysis o f the last plates o f the picture atlas may
help to answer these questions and may contribute to its understanding on
three levels: the “ theoretical,” the “ iconological,” and the practical.
praxis
In his Intellectual Biography , Ernst Gombrich relates how the idea o f an

“atlas” evolved from the pratice at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek
Warburg (K.B.W.) in Ham burg.10 It is thought to have been Fritz Saxl, who,
not long after Warburg had returned in 1923 from Kreuzlingen to Hamburg
THE LAST PLATES OF WARBURG' S PICTURE ATLAS MNEMOSYNE {185}
after his confinement to this and other mental institutions for several years,
had introduced Warburg to a new technique for mounting multiple pictures
for comparison. Early in 1924, Warburg had begun to work with screens o f
the dimensions o f roughly 150 cm by 200 cm. They consisted o f a light metal
frame on which a dark cloth was tightly fixed. On the cloth, reproductions o f
artworks could just as easily be attached with metal clasps as they could be
rearranged, or removed.
At a time when double-projection in art-historical lecturing was still

uncom m on— the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek still worked with a
rather monstrous and sometimes unruly single projector— the possibility o f
multiple comparison made an enormous difference in the visualization o f
any given art historical problem.11 Warburg took to this new tool and used it
to prepare his Rembrandt-lecture o f 1924,12 then for exhibitions in the
library and elsewhere. From these projects, the plan for an atlas emerged.
Over the years, the Tagebuch also mentions dozens o f Warburg’s ad hoc lec
tures (FiXhrungen) for visitors o f the library. These talks had the function to
propagate the aims and methodology o f the K.B.W. but it comes across
emphatically from Warburg’s notes that they served just as much as a way of
clarifying and testing the complicated thought processes that went into the
construction o f the atlas. Often, both his listeners’ reactions and his own
success or failure to reach or convince them are recorded.13
While M nemosyne , “ remembrance,” remained the chosen main title,
Warburg tried out a considerable number o f subtitles over the years, among
them “ Primeval Language o f Gesture,” “ Critique o f Pure Unreason” and
others.14 For each plate there was to be a commentary, but most o f them
were never written. All plates-to-be were assembled on the large frames
mentioned, numbered and then photographed. In all, we have three series o f
photographs o f about 60 plates in different stages and an “ Introduction” ; it
is quite clear that the project remained a fragment.
In the context o f practice at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek one
should consider once again what the name o f the enterprise can tell us. Here
I am not referring to Mnemosyne , Greek for remembrance and memory. To
think about memory and its function in Warburg’s work was and still is a
major focus o f scholarship. The choice o f the tool o f the atlas (“our atlas” 15),
tells us just as much, as an atlas is an instrument with a long and dignified
{l8 6 } CHARLOTTE SCHOELL-GLASS
history in European culture. Bilderatlasse abound in the 19th and early twen
tieth centuries, predominantly in medicine (dermatology), in geography for
city-views, and in other areas where a comparative approach to objects had
its place within different methodologies.16 The introduction o f the tool to
Art History today seems to be an easy move; however, it may not have been
so obvious a choice then. And rather than connecting it by way o f analogy
with Cubist collages, I suggest seeking an analogy for Warburg’s “ invention”
in the realm o f science. After all, he saw his research institute (and the atlas)
as a laboratory; where information was assembled and then processed and
worked with just as in a chemistry or a physics lab, as well as a seismograph
to register underground movements that would not be noticed otherwise.
An atlas, o f course, is an instrument to reduce the world and information
about it to the size o f a book, “ the plates o f which may be flattened, com
bined, reshuffled, superimposed, redrawn at will,” as Bruno Latour put it.17
And to use his words in a slightly modified way: Now the art historian dom
inates what had dominated him before. W arburgs problems and questions
tied to the artistic heritage o f Europe not only could now be visualized, they
had become an “ immutable and combinable mobile.” 18 The relationship o f
the atlas to its contents and function, mnemosyne , could be said to be one o f
transformation from fluid to fixed. The process o f “depoisoning” o f violent
gestures in a new context— sport for example— which Warburg had
observed in the wanderings o f Pathosformeln into the modern world19 may
also be a process which is represented in the picture atlas itself.
theory
In a letter to Karl Vossler, written by Warburg only a few days before his
death, the different goals o f the atlas are succinctly set out:
“ Because o f the very precarious state o f my health I could not ignore the
fact any more that now or never there was an opportunity to unite my dif
ferent and specialized studies into a unified work, which would demonstrate
the common goal o f all o f my diverse endeavors (Bemühungen). To this end
a journey had to be undertaken to collect and sort pertinent materials: from
Bologna to Rimini, Perugia, Rome and Naples. Only thus I could hope to
integrate important and powerful artistic figures as links o f proo f in the
chain o f my deductions which aim at a new science o f artistic formation

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itself. With the help o f the self-effacing zeal o f Dr Bing, I was able to bring
together the material for a picture atlas. Its series o f images will unfold the
function o f the prefigured classicizing nuances o f expression which were
used to represent the inner and outward movements o f life. It will at the
same time also be the foundation o f a new theory o f the function o f the
human memory o f images.” 20
From this, the built-in difficulties o f the picture atlas plainly emerge: All
o f W arburgs previous work was to be included in order to demonstrate its
unified purpose; both the new art history and the new theory as well as their
application were to unfold in its plates and commentaries. The new
theory— I doubt whether the characterization “ theory without a theory” 21
will hold— rests on a number o f terms, all o f which have been discussed in
previous scholarship but are difficult to organize into a coherent whole. It is
no coincidence that Martin Warnke’s seminal studies o f 1980 approach the
question under the title “ Four Keywords,” thus implying that fragmentation
has to be accepted as a necessary condition if one wants to do justice to
W arburgs work. Gombrich’s reconstruction o f W arburgs intellectual biog
raphy explained his terminology and thought processes genetically with
respect to their origin in 19th century science and scholarship. It is equally
important, however, to explore the links that connect Warburg’s thought
with our own methodological problems.
These central terms structuring Warburg’s plates would have to find their
places in the theory that he attempted to illustrate in the Bilderatlas: orienta
tion, polarity, Pathosformel,22 engramme,23 symbol,24 inversion o f energy
(“ energetische Inversion” ). As will be seen, these terms have their visual
counterparts in plate 79. Fiere, there can only be the merest hints at their
possible meaning in a “ kulturwissenschaftliche Kunstgeschichte” :
Orientation represents the basic human need which triggers all attempts to
interpret signs and to see signs in the world. An equally basic assumption
attributes to any given psychological state and its corporeal expression the
potential to contain extreme opposites: polarity. The repertory o f
Pathosformeln in European art are ways o f representing moments o f high
passion— life in movement— in art (and life) as recognizable signs for these
passions and emotions through the centuries. The engramme is the trace in
{l8 8 } CHARLOTTE SCHOELL-GLASS
the mind and brain o f everything seen and committed to memory. The
symbol can have different functions in different cultures. Three possible ways
o f using and understanding symbols are discerned in Warburg’s theory: it
can have the character o f a trope or o f a metaphor and both these states can
be present at once. Warburg’s theory o f the symbol is based on Friedrich
Theodor Vischer’s symbol theory, and for both, Vischer and Warburg, the
theological debates about the Eucharist provide the central metaphors with
which they explain the function of symbols.25 The term energetic inversion
refers to the dynamic process o f transformation through symbolization.
But clearly, Warburg found it dauntingly difficult to conceptualize and
systematize his findings and documents. The last two volumes o f the
Tagebuch frequently mention Edgar Wind26 and his first wife Ruth, Gertrud
Bing, Walter Solmitz and others as important partners in clarifying
Warburg’s thoughts and perceptions in discussions and in formulating the
principles that govern the groupings o f more than a thousand reproduc
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tions. The many versions o f the subtitle— some poignantly aphoristic—
testify to these difficulties. The main problem— to this day— could be
described as the mixing o f subject matter and what it was thought to exem
plify, or, in other words, o f signifiers and signifieds. While Warburg was
trying to put together nothing less than a “ Psychology o f Human
Orientation on the Foundation of a History o f Pictorial Universals” 27 he was
at the same time and in one move trying to devise a theory o f signs. This is
expressed in another, “esoteric,” as he says, subtitle: “ Transformatio Energética
“ as the Subject o f Research as well as the Function o f a Library o f the
Comparative History o f Symbols (the symbol as catalytic quintessence).” 28
contemporary images
Among the many important aspects o f the atlas one will be singled out here
for closer scrutiny: Warburg’s inclusion o f contemporary, non-art visual
material in his last plates. Both these choices, it should be noted, would have
been unprecedented in art historical scholarship at the time, had the atlas
been published. He seems to have arrived at this decision only in 1929; until
then a purely historical perspective prevailed with regard to the material to
be included. However, such a decision seems entirely justified if the theoret-
ical aspect o f the atlas is borne in mind. If a unified theory o f the “ human
memory o f images” was to be devised, it could hardly be restricted to the art
and culture o f the Renaissance. Contemporary material, then, had the func
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tion o f a touchstone for the viability o f the whole endeavor. Within the
structure of the atlas as described by Warburg to Vossler, these plates have
more than one layer o f meaning: they have an iconography or can be read as
a visual text which can be reconstructed with the help o f the Tagebuch
as historical and, at the same time, symbolic. That very structure, meant to
represent a life’s work, is in itself a message.
Although photographs o f golf players, advertisements for cosmetics and
press-cuttings o f different events are assembled in the last three plates
(77-79>) the Tagebuch of 1929 (vols. 7, 8 and 9) seems to indicate that one
event in particular suggested to Warburg the inclusion o f its documentation:
the signing o f the Lateran Treaties on 11 February 1929 by Mussolini and
Pope Pius XI. Warburg was staying in Rome that winter, together with
Gertrud Bing, and both gave accounts o f the different events they witnessed
which were connected to the signing ceremonies— among them a papal pro
cession in front o f and inside St. Peter’s as well as Warburg’s visit to a cinema
to see a film about the signing ceremony itself.29 On the whole, Warburg
found it difficult to convince others that his visualized “ art historical cul
tural history” could indeed also be used to understand contemporary visual
izations: one such discussion is mentioned in the diary o f 1929.30 Gertrud
Bing once said o f Warburg that he often felt not wholly understood by his
contemporaries and that he had hoped to entrust his concerns to the future
by means o f his vast archive and library.31 The last plates o f the atlas could
be seen as an instance o f this strategy.
Plates 78 and 79 are not only o f a nature other than the main body o f the
plates, but are also obviously interconnected. Together with reproductions o f
works o f art, they display contemporary press photographs, several o f which
invoke two different important political incidents: One— already m en
tioned— is the signing o f the Lateran treaties between the Holy See and the
Italian state by Pope Pius XI. and Mussolini on 11 February 1929: Plate 78 is
solely given to illustrate this event. The Church resigned all worldly power
and claims to the Italian state; the Italian state in turn instituted the
Catholic faith as a State religion; the Vatican State was founded in its
{IÇO} CHARLOTTE SCHOELL-GLASS
Figure 8.1 M nem osyne. Bilderatlas, plate 77. (T he W arbu rg Institute, Archive).
Figure 8.2 Mnemosyne. Bilderatlas, plate 78. (T h e W arburg Institute, Archive).

Figure 8.3 M nem osyne. Bilderatlas, plate 79. (T he W arb u rg Institute, Archive).
present boundaries; compensatory payments to the Vatican were agreed on.

Warburg was present at St. Peter s square when the Pope blessed the crowd
gathered there after the ceremony, while Gertrud Bing, his work and travel
companion, was in St. Peter during the entry o f the pope, o f which she gives
a vivid and detailed description in the diary.32 For Warburg, this act o f resig
nation from real, physical power on the part o f the Church took on a special
meaning which, as we have to see it today, he much overestimated in its
importance as a turning point in European history.33

The second contemporary event o f some political importance is illus
trated on plate 79 in the upper right corner. It is a photograph o f the signing
o f the Treaty o f Locarno on 1 December 1925 in London by Aristide Briand,
Hugh Chamberlain and Gustav Stresemann for France, Britain and
Germany respectively. The highest hopes had been invested— not only by
Warburg— in this first European treaty after Versailles, finally to open up a
path to an order o f international co-operation and peace in Europe. The
importance attributed to it by those connected to the Kulturwissenschaftliche
Bibliothek and particularly by Warburg is testified to in the Tagebuch o f 1926,
where, on the occasion o f the awarding o f the Nobel Prize to the three
signers, Warburg had an air mail stamp designed which showed a plane
thrusting upward and bearing the inscription “ Idea Vincit.” The aircraft was
to symbolize the victorious idea o f Europe which Warburg hoped would
emerge as a new reality from the horrors o f the Great War in a new era of
peace. It is the function o f the press photograph in plate 79 to represent this
trust in the power o f idealism.
the last plate
Whereas plate 78 (Fig. 8.2) is fairly straightforward in its contents and

meaning— although it is not at all clear why it should be in a picture-atlas
devoted to the after-life o f Classical Antiquity— plate 79 (Fig. 8.3) has not yet
been understood as a coherent message. Ernst Gombrich certainly failed to
see much point in it in his last chapter o f Warburg s Intellectual Biography,
which is devoted to the atlas. What he has to say about the two last plates is
very little. He explains W arburgs use o f contemporary photographs side by
side with historical material as an attempt “to remind viewers o f the serious
{ 194 } CHARLOTTE SCHOELL-GLASS
ness o f the issues involved.” Gombrich finds it hard to understand why

Warburg would have felt that the signing o f the Lateran treaties between the
Pope and Mussolini were such importance.34
In order to understand the plate’s meaning, it is necessary to take stock o f
what is there, and how the reproductions relate to each other. The question
o f the arrangement o f the reproductions in Warburg’s atlas has not been
addressed yet— it is not made clear by numbers or other indications in
which sequence we are to “ read” the images. I propose to look at the plate as
a composite which does not necessarily have to be read from top left to
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bottom right. It is then easy to see that we are impelled by the size and com
position of the reproduction in the second row down to see it as the center
o f the plate, to which all other reproductions refer concentrically in a rela
tion o f commentary. At the center o f the plate, then, is Raphael’s fresco o f
1511 in the Stanza d ’Eliodoro in the Vatican showing the Mass of Bolsena (the
miracle o f the bleeding host that was supposed to have taken place in 1263 in
Bolsena). We should, I suggest, read the plate like a page o f a medieval
glossed text in which Raphael’s fresco is the text while other reproductions
constitute a multiple commentary.
After the Lateran Council o f 1215 when the transsubstantiation o f the host
was made a dogma, reports about miraculously bleeding hosts multiplied.
One such miracle occurred in Bolsena in the presence o f Pope Urban IV.
who subsequently introduced the feast o f Corpus Christi into the Church
calendar. During the Mass o f Bolsena, the host began to bleed into the cor
porale because the priest, while performing the rite, had doubts about the
reality o f the transsubstantiation o f the host into the flesh o f Christ. Above
the reproduction of the Mass of Bolsena there are three reproductions o f the
Cathedra Petri, a reference to the symbolical center o f power o f the Church
and its venerable tradition.35 At the same time, this reference is to the hidden
presence o f ancient myth and pagan imagery at the very center o f the
church’s symbolism, as the Cathedra Petri is covered with ivory tablets the
carvings o f which show scenes from the Hercules myth and the signs o f
Zodiac. At the time when Warburg was in Rome and until the early 1960s,
the throne had never been allowed to be studied by art historians.36 It there
fore was still mysterious in a very real sense. In August 1929 Warburg notes
in the Tagebuch: “ I notice the opposition between Larsson’s service to the

moloch with the flesh o f the king and Rembrandts Last Supper which has
come into its own truth. And then, how in Bernini’s throne at St. Peters all
the pagan monsters are inscribed in the old Byzantine throne which is inside
(Heracles and the signs o f the Zodiac).” 37
Underneath the reproduction o f the fresco the figure o f Speranza (Hope)
from Giotto’s cycle o f grisailles in the Arena Chapel echoes in its gestures and
posture a female figure to the left o f Raphael’s fresco— both echoing the pas
sionate nympha purified into spiritual fervor.38 Next to Speranza, Botticelli’s
rendering o f St. Jerome’s last Holy Communion echoes another moment o f
the Eucharist, the sharing o f the sacrament by the believers. To the right of
the fresco, which shows the papal court o f Raphael’s time (1511) as taking part
in the mass of 1263 (thus emphasizing the timelessness o f the ritual) are
reproductions of the Eucharistie Procession in Rome in 1929. In Warburg’s
interpretation, the demonstration o f the host in a public procession had to be
seen as the reenactment o f the “ tragic ‘Hoc est corpus meum’”, a reference to
the Canon Missae, and, through it, to its institution during the Last Supper. If
we move on to the more peripheral pictures of the plate, two images refer to
the culture o f the Japanese Empire, the one on the left to “ harakiri,” or ritual
suicide; the other picture shows parts o f the body— hands, legs, a head—
referring to bodily punishment as practiced in Japan. To the right o f these,
the press photograph o f the signing o f the Locarno Treaty is placed. The pres
ence o f the Japanese “ sacrificial images” is explained by a newspaper-clipping
in the archive, written by the German historian Ludwig RieE39 about
Imperial Japan’s use o f earlier religious rituals around the turn o f the century
that had already been superceded by the Buddhist— “ more spiritual”— reli
gion for the purpose o f forming a modern nation state. Beneath these is a
whole page from a Hamburg daily newspaper showing a motley array of
pictures. We know why it is there— Warburg had used this page for a
half-humorous, half-serious speech he gave to graduates (Doktorfeier) on
30 July 1929.40 Among other points he made in this speech, he bemoans the
insensitivity o f those who had done the lay-out o f that page. The photograph
o f a successful swimmer intrudes upon the image o f the Eucharistic
Procession (the same procession as on the left) and Warburg comments:
I ask myself: does this sw im m er know w hat a m onstrance is? Does this
braw nist— I do n o t refer to his person b u t to the type— need to know the
meaning of that symbolism which is rooted in paganism and which provoked
such strong resistance in the N orth th at Europe was split in half? [...] The
brutal juxtaposition shows that the cheerful hoc meum corpus est can be set
beside the tragic hoc est corpus meum w ithout this discrepancy leading to an
outcry against such barbarous breach o f decorum .41
Here, as always, Warburg, the art historian and historian o f culture takes
very seriously the role o f the media in transmitting (and failing to transmit)
accurate facts, or in reenforcing trends. The hum orous twist o f Christ’s
“ tragic” words o f self-sacrifice to the narcissistic phrase o f self-admiration is
heavy with connotations o f a polarity that was at the center o f Warburg s
anxieties over intellectual and political developments. He was deeply suspi
cious o f what he called “ redemption through muscles” 42 and all such body
worship was for him tainted with notions of racialism and ideas about the
“ Herrenrasse.” 43
The remaining images in the right-hand corner seem to be connected to
the lower right side o f the fresco. They juxtapose parading papal and
Italian m ilitary and the photograph o f the opening pages o f a book on
papal m ilitary supplies with two views o f the façade o f St.Peter’s in July
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1929. Divided by the parading troops, at the very periphery o f the plate,
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two 15th century woodcuts showing Jews desecrating the host are repro
duced, one from an Italian, Florentine source, the other printed in Lübeck,
the Hanseatic sister city o f Hamburg, depicting a scene that was thought to
have taken place in Sternberg. This last reproduction, the Lübeck woodcut
o f 1492, was taken from the Jüdisches Lexikon , published in 1927, from the
entry on “ Hostienfrevel” (the desecration o f the host), so we can be certain
that W arburg was fully aware o f the historical background o f these
images. 44
The legends accusing Jews o f attacking and desecrating the host had orig
inated in Paris shortly after the Fourth Lateran Council o f 1215, and from
there spread all over Europe.45 The host, said to bleed or show a cross or
turn into pieces o f flesh when attacked by Jews, would invariably in some
way betray their blasphemous act, upon which the hunt was open on the
Jewish community o f the town where the rumor had been spread. It has
been shown that these tales— like other miracles o f the bleeding host such as
the one in Bolsena— are in some way connected to the council o f 1215, when
the question o f the real presence o f Christ in the host was “ settled” as a
dogma (other constitutiones dealt with the usery o f the Jews, their heresy,
and issued dress-rules for the Jewish and Muslim communities).
The real presence, invisible, yet to be believed as dogma: The reality o f the
sacrificial body in the sacrament is the scandalous center o f the Christian
belief in redemption. Its reenactment fed on the blood o f the Jewish sceptics
who refused to believe in redemption accomplished. It was their role within
this act o f reconstitution o f the Christian community to feed real flesh and
real blood into an otherwise tamed sacrificial ritual.46 The aspect o f ritual is
also emphasized in the last press photograph in the lower right corner o f
the plate: It shows a priest performing the Extreme Unction on the dying
victim o f a train crash. So death has the last word in this “ visual text,” but it
is death incorporated as much as it can be into the social fabric o f life.
iconology
The message on the level o f iconology o f the two plates, then, may be para
phrased in this way: As the Church, ecclesia militans , renounces power and
脱落流下
violence, there is hope ( speranza ) for an end o f the shedding o f blood for
religious causes. A new order o f international peace, already underway,
could replace the old order centered around sacrifice. To be sure, such
achievements cannot be had and could then be thought o f as settled, as the
pictures o f the return o f sacrifice in Japanese society remind the viewer. The
struggle for this kind o f progress is never won for good. Again, the Tagebuch
records Warburg’s thoughts on the Eucharist and its meaning, particularly
with regard to the Catholic Church’s role in the contemporary world.
Warburg describes a “ riveting” discussion with a Dutch visitor in August
1929, in which he held that “ I am neither anti-Catholic nor Protestant but I
could imagine (and wish for) a Christian religion o f the future which is
aware o f the function o f the metaphorical “as” as a problem to struggle with.
What with all the active “ hoc meum corpus est” the North fails to notice
how the Catholic Church since the time o f the Mass o f Bolsena is about to
rid itself o f primitive magic.” 47
The coherent message underlying this plate can thus be said to be its
“ iconology”— yet it is also an illustration o f what “ iconology” is in a “ new”
相关的
Art History. The work o f the art historian must include all pertinent mater
起源
ial, regardless o f its provenance from the spheres o f “ high” or “ low.”
Iconology is only one o f several means to an end which lies outside o f the
boundaries o f the discipline. For Warburg, this end was enlightenment in
an emphatically political sense.48
a theory of signs?
Neither Raphaels fresco, centering the host so convincingly in a scene o f

timeless presence, nor Warburg s plate is exhausted by this message. Its sym
bolism can also be said to be a visualization o f W arburgs theory o f signs
and symbols, or, as Nietzsche put it, its metaphorical structure could be said
to be the “ vicarious image which actually hovers before him in place o f a
concept.” 49 Gombrich’s summary o f the nature o f the Bilderatlas as main
taining “ a balance between a poetic metaphor and a theory o f reality” 50
seems derived from this perception. There is the double aspect o f the
Eucharist as sacrificial killing and redemptive death; the double function o f
symbolizing/distancing and realizing/re-enacting that sacrifice. In the
twofold nature o f the Eucharist as retelling a myth and re-enacting a ritual
the tension o f polarity is present in every Mass that is ever read. And yet: The
images seem to point to a modification o f W arburgs documented termino
logy: it is not polarity (and consequently, an attempt to “ harmonize oppo
sites” )51 but ambivalence and ambiguity which emerge from the model of
transsubstantiation and its visual commentaries. The term ambivalence was
only introduced in 1911 by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler to describe
the simultaneous presence o f conflicting impulses as well as contradictory
evaluations o f a drive by the same individual. In developing a model which
is centered on an unresolvable ambiguity, Warburg begins a move from the
19th century Nietzschean concept to one which becomes immensely
influential in 20th century thought.
The symbol o f the host stands to its signified, Christ’s flesh, in an iconic
relation o f inversion: its whiteness and cleanness is the opposite o f the
bloody death on the cross.52 The function o f the symbol, described by
Warburg as an “energetic switch” (meaning a switch from positive to nega

tive energy in the polar setup o f a Pathosformel), the very concept o f
transsubstantiation, is, in W arburgs interpretation o f the function o f
symbols, a literal translation o f this function, but surely one could also say:
its préfiguration, its Vorpragung.
The last plate thus illustrates— visualizes— all the constitutive terms o f
Warburg’s theory. What we have not been able to account for in this reading
is the “ engram me”— a 19th century term o f the physiology o f the act o f
m em ory on the level o f the individual and on that o f the species. These
theories were first sketched out by Ewald Hering and later elaborated by
Richard Semon. One point o f departure for the kind o f questions they asked
is the nature o f the human capacity to learn a language: the fact that a child
must learn to speak and communicate but learns it at a pace which points to
the existence o f “ brain-matter which reproduces the thousands o f years of
work o f his forebears.” 53 Apart from the fact that the time-span involved can
be said to be thoroughly underestimated, these questions are still being
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asked today and with even more fervor and high hopes to unravel the
mystery o f consciousness and the working o f the mind than a hundred years
ago. The role o f art in these processes, as they probably predate all making o f
art, may be discarded with, as Gombrich pointed out. The metaphorical use
Warburg puts the term to, however, is extremely interesting. The engramme
accounts for our capability to represent a sign in our minds, it fills a space
that is neither the sign nor the signified. Structurally, it is the equivalent of
the elusive and all-important “ interpretant” in Peircean semiotics. The
impossibility to settle the question o f the physiology o f our capacity to
transmit “ meaning” from one person to another and down the generations
does not, in my view, render the model obsolete.
a need for ritual?
The overwhelming emphasis o f the last two plates, however, lies on the
enactment or ritual surrounding the central symbol. We have reason to
believe that Warburg began to abandon his earlier belief in the banning
power o f images.54 The last plate o f the Bilderatlas seems to me to point to a
move toward an understanding o f the need for rituals o f “ metaphorical
{ 200} CHARLOTTE SCHOELL-GLASS
Figure 8.4 Raphael, The Mass o f Bohena, detail: T h e b leed in g h ost, Vatikan, Stanza
d ’ Eliodoro.
THE LAST PLATES OF WARBURG' S PICTURE ATLAS MNEMOSYNE { 201 }
distancing” and of, as he put it, “ a religious concretion.” This is not to say
that he began to consider conversion to Catholicism for himself. But he
thought and talked about the role o f the Catholic Church in modern society.
The all-important difference between the Protestant and Catholic under
standing o f the Eucharist: the question o f whether the host is or signifies
Christ’s body, was thought o f by Warburg in terms o f a symbolism that far
transcended the sphere o f religion. The problem is mentioned a number o f
times in the Tagebuch, where past and present, theology and anthropology
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are present side by side. In August 1929 he notes an anecdote gleaned from
David Hume: “ On the day after his first Communion, the missionary asked a
savage whether there be a God, who answers, no, he ate him yesterday.”
Among other comments Warburg notes: “ The Eucharist as ‘dance’ in prim i
tive culture (Cassirer).“ 55 In September, the Eucharist is again the topic o f
one o f Warburgs entries: “ In front of the altar in St. Peter’s a transparency of
Leonardo’s Last Supper was hung!! The representation o f the redeemer
breaking the bread while on his way to death, and in front o f him the [repre
sentative] on earth, who eats His heavenly body and through this shares it
with thousands as a sacrificial animal (hostia).” 56
It is possible, then, that the rites o f the Eucharist also came to stand for,
symbolically, what is needed to hold at bay social and individual disintegra
tion: “ In whatever way, [scientific abstraction or religious concretion ]— so
oder so— , the chaos o f unreason needs to be confronted with a system
o f filters of reflective thought (Besonnenheit) T h e Tagebuch abounds with
hints at the worries with which Warburg saw the political developments of
his time, and there is reason to believe that he took anti-Semitism to be one
o f the most serious symptoms o f what he called the “ spiritual crisis” o f
Germany and Europe as a whole.57 He may, like the Lübeck protestant
Thomas Mann, have hoped that the Catholic Church could provide a
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bulwark— or at least a paradigm o f a bulwark— against the chaos threaten
ing from Nazism and racism. These hopes, o f course, were misguided.
合并的
However, the move to incorporate considerations o f the human need for
visualization and the “ real presence” into his unwavering concept o f enlight
enment seems to me to be a legacy that deserves to be studied seriously. We
have to ask whether this attempt to use the specific visual quality o f works o f
art to develop a tool which brings together history and the needs o f the
present, the practice o f the comparative gaze and its linguistic translation
could not— even today— be seen as exemplary. The formation o f theory— o f
Theory, capitalized— still seems to be a predominantly linguistic pursuit.
Theoretical terms transform their represented in ways that cut off the speak
ing about art and its history from its subject entirely. The way we see a visual
metaphor put to heuristic use in the Bilderatlas was then beyond the borders
o f “ Wissenschaftlichkeit” : today this cannot be said to be the case. And
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finally, its use in a climate o f erudition and passion for historical truth
(“ Truth” )— Warburg’s and his collaborators’ deep respect for the correct
detail— did keep their theory-building within the bounds o f reasoning. The
two traditions have since parted ways but are seen here as not being m utu
ally exclusive.
books and articles cited
Aby Warburg. Akten des internationalen Symposions Hamburg 1990, Horst

Bredekamp, Michael Diers und Charlotte Schoell-Glass (eds), Weinheim:
VCH, 1991
Backhaus, Fritz, “ Die Hostienschàndungsprozesse zu Sternberg (1492) und

Berlin (1510) und die Ausweiseung der Juden aus Mecklenburg und der
M ark Brandenburg,” in: Jahrbuch fiir brandenburgische Landesgeschichte 39
(1988), pp. 7-26
Barta Fliedl, Ilsebill und Christoph Geissmar (eds), Die Beredsamkeit des
Leibes. Zur Kôrpersprache in der Kunst, Salzburg/Wien: Residenz, 1992
Bôhm e, H artm ut, “Aby M. W arburg (186 6-19 29)”, in: Klassiker der
Religionswissenschaft. Von Friedrich Schleiermacher bis Mircea Eliade , ed.
Axel Michaels, M ünchen: Beck, 1997, pp. 133-156
Buschendorf, Bernhard, “ War ein sehr tüchtiges gegenseitiges Fôrdern:

Edgar W ind und Aby Warburg,” in: Idea. Jahrbuch der Hamburger
Kunsthalle4 (1985), pp. 165-209
Dilly, Heinrich, “ Lichtbildprojektion— Prothese der Kunstbetrachtung,” in:

Kunstwissenschaft und Kunstvermittlung (ed. Irene Below), Giessen: Anabas,
1975, pp. 153-172
Dundes, Alan (ed.), The Blood Libel Legend. A Casebook in A nti-Sem itic
Folklore, London/Madison: The University o f Wisconsin Press, 1991
Erb, Rainer (ed.), Die Legende vom Ritualmord. Z ur Geschichte der

Blutbeschuldigung gegen Juden (Dokumente, Texte, Materialien. Verôffentlicht

vom Zentrum fü r Antisemitismusforschung der TU Berlin , Bd. 6), Berlin:
Metropol, 1993
Hering, Ewald, Über das Gedachtnis als eine allgemeine Funktion der organ-
isierten Materie. Vortrag gehalten in der feierlichen Sitzung der Kaiserlichen
Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien , am 30. M ai 1870, third ed. Leipzig:
Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1921
Gombrich, Ernst H., Aby Warburg. An Intellectual Biography. With a memoir

on the history o f the library by F. Saxl, (The Warburg Institute, University o f
London), London 1970
Gombrich, Ernst, “Aby Warburg und der Evolutionismus des 19.

Jahrhunderts,” in: Aby M. Warburg. “Ekstatische N ym phe ... trauernder
Flufigott.” Portrait eines Gelehrten, Robert Galitz und Brita Reimers (eds),
Hamburg: Dolling und Galitz, 1995, pp. 52-73
Heckscher, William S., “ The Genesis o f Iconology,” in: Stil und Überlieferung
in der Kunst des Abendlandes. Akten des XXL Internationalen Kongresses fü r
Kunstgeschichte in Bonn 1964, Bd.3, Berlin: Mann, 1967, pp. 339-262
Huisstede, Peter van, De Mnemosyne Beeldatlas van Aby M. Warburg een lab
oratorium voor beeldgeschiedenis, Phil. Diss. Leiden 1992 (Typescript)
Huisstede, Peter van, “ Der Mnemosyne-Atlas. Ein Laboratorium der

Bildgeschichte,” in: Aby M. Warburg. “Ekstatische Nym phe ... trauernder
Flufigott.” Portrait eines Gelehrten , Robert Galitz und Brita Reimers (eds),
Hamburg: Dolling und Galitz, 1995, pp. 130-171
Jacobson, Jon, Locarno Diplomacy. Germany and the West, 1925- 1929,
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972
Jildisches Lexikon. Ein enzyklopàdisches Handbuch des jüdischen Wissens in

vier Bànden , Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag, 1927 (Reprint: Franfurt a.M.:
Athenàum, second ed. 1987)
Kany, Roland, Die religionsgeschichtliche Forschung an der Kulturwissen-

schaftlichen Bibliothek Warburg, Bamberg: Stefan Wendeln Verlag, 1989
Kemp, Wolfgang, “Walter Benjamin und Aby Warburg,” in: Kritische Berichte
3 (1975), PP. 5-25
Kônigseder, Karl, “Aby Warburg im ‘Bellevue’,” in: Aby M. Warburg.

“Ekstatische Nymphe ... trauernder Flufigott” Portrait eines Gelehrten, Robert
Galitz und Brita Reimers (eds), Hamburg: Dolling und Galitz, 1995,
pp. 74-98
Latour, Bruno, “ Visualization and Cognition: Thinking with Eyes and

Hands” in: Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology o f Culture Past and
Present. A Research Annual 6 (1986), pp. 1-39
Latour, Bruno, Science in Action. How to follow scientists and engineers

through society, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987
Mehl, Margaret, Eine Vergangenheit fü r die japanische Nation. Die Entstehung

des historischen Forschungsinstituts Tokyo daigaku Shiryo hensanjo
( 1869- 1885). Europàische Hochschulschriften, Reihe 3: Geschichte und ihre
Hilfswissenschaften, vol. 528, Frankfurt a.M., Berlin, Bern: Peter Lang, 1992
Nirenberg, David, Communities o f Violence. Persecution o f Minorities in the

Middle Ages, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996
Preziosi, Donald, “ The Question o f Art History,” in: Critical Inquiry 18

(1992), pp. 363-386
Schramm, Percy Ernst, Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik. Beitrâge zu

ihrer Geschichte vom dritten bis zum sechzehnten Jahrhundert , vol. 3,
Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1956
Semon, Richard, Die Mneme als erhaltendes Prinzip im Wechsel des organi-
schen Geschehens, second improved ed. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1908
Settis, Salvatore, “Pathos u nd Ethos, M orphologie u nd Funktion,” in:

Vortràge aus dem Warburg-Haus 1 (1997), pp. 31-73
W arburg, Aby M., Ausgewahlte Schriften und WiXrdigungen, ed. Dieter

Wuttke with Carl Georg Heise (Saecula Spiritalia 1), Baden-Baden: Valentin
Kórner, 1980 (Warburg ASW)
Warnke, M artin, “Der Leidschatz der Menschheit wird hum aner Besitz,” in:
Werner Hofm ann, Georg Syamken, M artin Warnke, Die Menschenrechte des
Auges. Über Aby Warburg, Frankfurt a.M.: Europàische Verlagsanstalt, 1980,
pp. 113-186
Warnke, M artin, “Vier Stichworte. Ikonologie— Pathosform el— Polaritàt

und Ausgleich— Schlagbilder und Bilderfahrzeuge,” in: W erner Hofm ann,
Georg Syamken, M artin Warnke, Die Menschenrechte des Auges. Über Aby
Warburg, Frankfurt a.M.: Europàische Verlagsanstalt, 1980, Bd. 1, pp. 61-68
Wind, Edgar, “ Warburgs Begriff der Kulturwissenschaft und seine

Bedeutung für die Asthetik,” in: Vierter Kongrefi fü r Asthetik und Allgemeine
Kulturwissenschaft, Beilageheft der Zeitschrift fü r Asthetik und Allgemeine
Kulturwissenschaft 25 (1931), pp. 163-179 (Reprinted in: Warburg ASW (1980),
pp. 401-417)
notes
1 This essay is a revised version of a paper given at the Getty Research Institute,
then still in Santa Monica, California, and at the Institute for Advanced Study,
Princeton, N.J in 1996/7. 1 should like to thank my colleagues in the United States
for their critical and helpful comments. I should also like to thank my colleague
Karen Michels of the University of H am burg and David Scott of Trinity College
Dublin for reading this version and for their helpful suggestions.
2 The individual plates were published in loose-leaf form as Begleitmaterial zur
Ausstellung “Aby M. Warburg. Mnemosyne ’ (1994).
3 G om brich 1970, p. 282.
4 Heckscher 1967.
5 Kemp 1975.
6 The edition o f the Tagebuch is being prepared by the present author and Karen
Michels for Akademie Verlag, Berlin.
7 Pieter van Huisstede 1992 and 1995.
8 Tagebuch 9, p.6 9 ,11 September 1929.
9 Bruno Latour 1987, pp. 215-257. For Art History the consideration of practice has
been included by Preziosi 1992.
10 G om brich 1970, pp. 283f.
11 It seems that H einrich Wôlfflin was the first to use double projection in his art
history classes and lectures in Berlin since around 1900. O n the use o f slides in
teaching art history: Dilly 1975.
12 The first m entioning of the budding project can be found in Tagebuch 1, p. 7, 26.
August 1926: “Prepared picture atlas for Claudius Civilis.” Claudius Civilis refers
to R em brandt’s painting.
13 One entry from Tagebuch 8, p. 27 of 14 June 1927 is exemplary for a great many
others: “A fternoon guided tou r for M r Ignacio Bauer and his wife (daughter of
my very dear late cousin Rosa von Günzburg) and M r and Mrs Lachmann from
the Hague. M r Bauer hides a judeo-bibliophile heart under the belly-balcony of
the Spanish grande.— For Rothacker I need to have prepared a picture wall
[Bilderwand] (world view in the slide [W eltanschauung im Lichtbild]). Q uos
Ego— Barbados— Fasces of the lictors and Mussolini. This would also entail a
general contem plation on the preconditions for the perception of images w ithin
the cult— loss o f the consciousness of the limits of the self through instrum ental
objects and through carrying and being carried.”
14 Huisstede 1995, pp. i5if.
15 Tagebuch 1, p. 47, 26 O ctober 1926: com m ent on an entry by Saxl who
returned from Berlin, where he had given a lecture on Elsheimer.
16 For the relevant years, only two art historical publications will have to exemplify
the vogue: Das Bild. Atlanten zur Kunst (ed. W ilhelm H ausenstein). Vol. 1:
Tafelmalerei der deutschen Gotik (75 plates) Munich: Piper, 1922: this publication
does nothing more than give a series of reproductions, one per plate. Bilder zur
Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, 4 fasc.(ed. Andreas R um pf (1), Guido Schoenberger
(2 and 3) and Richard G raul (4)), Leipzig and Berlin: Teubner, 1928-1931.
Teubner’s “atlas” deals w ith the entirety of European art from A ntiquity until the
early 20th century. The plates are them atic and include commentaries. It seems
possible that the W arburg project influenced this collection through the publisher
Teubner. The intro du ction to the second fascicle states that the work has a
twofold aim: to give a history o f forms through the ages (Stilgeschichte) and to
exemplify “the great events of the spiritual, religious and historical life [... ] It was
intended to let both parts, the history of styles and the cultural history elucidate
each other.” (Second fascicle, unnum bered page at the beginning). It is precisely
this traditional rift between the “cultural” and the “form al” which W arburg’s atlas
at that very m om ent was being designed to bridge with its new approach of a
theory of culture as a theory of signs. Bilder zur Kunst is particularly interesting in
its choice o f contem porary material, including photographs of technical objects
such as aircrafts, posters, and the m ost avantgarde architecture o f the time.
17 Latour 1987, pp. 226-228; Latour 1986, pp. 1-20.
18 Latour 1987, p. 227.
19 Tagebuch 8, p. 211 on the gesture of a Japanese golf player as a “depoisoning of the
gesture o f the executioner.”

20 W arburg Institute, London, Archive, Correspondence W arburg, 1929, V, Letter to
Karl Vossler, dated 12 October 1929.
21 Bôhme 1997, p. 138.
22 Warnke 1980, “Vier Stichworte,” pp. 61-68; Settis 1997,38-42.
23 Warnke 1980, “Leidschatz der Menschheit,” pp. 116-118; G ombrich 1970, pp. 242f.
24 W ind 1931 (also in W arburg ASW, pp. 401-417); Buschendorf 1985.
25 W ind 1931, p. 171.
26 Buschendorf 1985.
27 Tagebuch 9, p. 69.
28 Tagebuch 8, p. 225.
29 Tagebuch 7, pp. 143-159.
30 See below, p. 197.
31 Letter by G ertrud Bing to Senator Bierm ann-Ratjen in H am burg: W arburg
Institute, London, Archive, dated 10 July 1967; I owe this transcription to Silvia
Baumgarten and Bettina Gôtz.
32 Tagebuch 7, pp. 145-153·
33 G ombrich 1970, 279.
34 G om brich 1970, p. 301.
35 At that time it had not yet been possible to examine the Cathedra Petri archaeo-
logically. It was still impossible by 1956: see Percy Ernst Schramm, p. 694.
36 Schramm 1956, pp. 694-707.
37 Tagebuch 8,1929, p. 233.
38 O n W arburg’s interpretation of the nym pha as a figure to carry the expression of
passion into early Renaissance art see G om brich 1970, pp. 105-127.
39 Ludwig Riefi (1861-1928), a student of Hans Delbriick, taught at the Todai in
Tokyo for 15 years. He had been called by the Japanese governm ent to reform
Japanese historiography after the G erm an example: see Mehl 1992.
40 G ombrich 1970, p. 281.
41 G ombrich 1970, p. 280 f.
42 Tagebuch 8, p. 273, in a discussion with Kurt Hahn, the founder of the schools in
Salem and later G ordonstoun in Scotland: “Muskelerlôserei.”
43 See my article in Jewish Identity in Modern A rt History (ed. Catherine Soussloff),

Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1999, pp. 218-230.
44 Tagebuch 8, p. 189,10 August 1929: “Searching for examples of the desecration of
the host.”
45 Erb 1993; D undes 1991.
46 N irenberg 1996, who em phasizes the ritual character o f violence against the
Jewish and Muslim communities.
47 Tagebuch 8, p. 199,4 August 1929.
48 Warnke 1980, “Vier Stichworte,” pp. 55-61.

49 See W ind 1931. This translation quoted from: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of
Tragedy or Hellenism and Pessimism, translated by William A. H aussm ann. The
Complete Works o f Friedrich Nietzsche. The First Complete and Authorized English
Translation, ed. Oscar Levy, vol. 3, Edinburgh and London: Foulis, 1909, p. 66. I
am using this quote here because it is heavily marked in W arburgs own copy of
“Die G eburt der Tragôdie,” still in the library o f the W arburg Institute. Nietzsche
of course refers to the poet, and the pre-Classical poet at that.
50 G om brich 1995, p. 70.
51 Gom brich 1970,168-177; Warnke 1980, “Vier Stichworte,” pp. 68-74.
52 This perception is Stephen Greenblatt’s.
53 H ering 1921, p. 20
54 H orst Bredekamp, “D u lebst und thust m ir nichts,” in: Aby Warburg. Akten 1991,
p.3; see also Kany 1989, p. 13L
55 Tagebuch 8, pp. 259 and 261,31 August 1929.
56 Tagebuch 9, p. 37, 26 September 1929.
57 See Aby Warburg und der Antisemitismus. Kulturwissenschaft als Geistespolitik.
Frankfurt/M .: S. Fischer, 1998 by the present author for a detailed account.
aby warburg and
the florentine
interm edi o f 1589:
extending the
boundaries of art
history1
m. a. katritzky
i introduction
THE BREADTH OF V ISION AND INTENSELY
personal originality which Aby

Warburg brought to his study o f art
history was firmly based on a thor
ough understanding o f the standard
techniques and skills o f his discipline. In this, Warburg was a worthy succes
sor to Burckhardt, whose writings on renaissance art and culture were such
an inspiration to him. But unlike the great art historians o f Ruskin and
Burckhardt’s generations, Warburg relinquished the opportunity to forge a
synthetic interpretative framework for a broad spectrum o f art. With the
exception o f his largely pictorial Mnemosyne Atlas, Warburg chose instead to
focus his activities on detailed examination o f a limited selection o f very
specific examples, often discovered through his own researches. The examples
which Warburg selected, and the range o f methodological practice and criti
cal perspectives which he demonstrated in their analysis, have been o f such
suggestivity that not all their implications are yet generally acknowledged.
{209}
{ 210 } M. A. KATRI TZKY
One such area which received W arburgs particular attention was that o f
Italian renaissance festival. Here, his innovation did not lie in his recognition
o f these festivals as offering insights into the realities o f the age and its
society as a whole. Burckhardt s grand unifying vision had already made the
connection between festivals and everyday life, and his definition o f Italian
festival, in its higher form, as “ a true transition from life into art” became a
中心主旨
leitmotiv for Warburg, and an inspiration for his own investigations into
intermedi.1 In “ I costumi teatrali per gli intermezzi del 1589,” the article in
which he summarized his major research in this field, Warburg linked inter
medi with “transitional types between real life and dramatic art.” This Italian
language article, written for a publication o f 1895 celebrating the tercente
nary o f the riforma melodrammatica , and Warburgs previously unpublished
German language original (from which it was translated) were included,
with numerous additional footnotes researched by Gertrud Bing, in
Gesammelte Schriften? One o f W arburgs “ lesser known papers,” it has not
yet achieved translation into English, and was excluded from Ausgewâhlte
Schriften , although the Italian text had been republished in 1966.4
Art historical methods are increasingly applied to the study o f images as
the documents o f other academic disciplines, as well as for the sake o f their
own inherent aesthetic, or (non art-historical) cultural worth. Perhaps the
most far-reaching contribution to scholarship arising out o f cCostumi
teatral’i was Warburg’s realization that visual images could function not only
as aesthetically valuable work o f art (monument), or as passive witness, or as
illustration, but also as specific historical document; the implications o f
which he grasped with a clarity which has rarely been matched. His explana
tion o f his approach to the study o f court festival, by combining the stan
dard techniques o f the art historian with the more traditionally accepted
textual-based skills o f the historian, in a subtle counterpointing o f evidence
drawn from written and illustrative sources, is a succinct manifesto for pre
photographic theatre-iconographical methodology. It was many decades
before comparative analysis o f visual and written evidence of this type began
to register in the considerable post-Burckhardtian literature on Medici festi
vals. The widespread systematic study o f images as theatre-historical docu
ments and full acceptance o f the legitimacy o f theatre iconography as a
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTINE IN TERM ED l OF 1589 {211}
valid research procedure for theatre scholars, are comparatively recent

developments.5
It was in Florence that Warburg discovered the court festival documents
he published in Costumi teatrali. His first opportunity to visit Florence had
come in October 1888, when he arrived in the city as one of a group of eight
students invited there by the art historian August Schmarsow (in connec
tion with Schmarsow s campaign for the setting up of a German institute for
art history in Florence), returning to Bonn for the start of the summer
semester 1889.6 These were particularly productive months for Warburg,
who, within weeks of arriving, had both met his future wife, the painter
Mary Hertz, and started engaging with the central issues of his intellectual
career. To a greater or lesser extent, Warburg shared these with many fin de
siecle writers and creative artists, albeit at a profounder level, not least
because of his interest in collective psychology, and his recognition that “the
tragedy of costume and implement is ultimately the history of human
tragedy.”7
Contemporary art historians variously define the essence of Warburg s
contribution as his investigation into “the continued vitality of the classical
heritage in Western civilization,” the development of iconological analysis as
a major art-historical methodology, and an engagement with renaissance
images “as a pivotal point in the transition from the symbol to the allegory.”8
It is far from certain whether it is valid to regard these as separate, perhaps
even mutually exclusive, issues, or whether they may more usefully be con
sidered aspects of the same issue. Closely related to this group of issues, and
of perhaps equal importance, was Warburg’s drive to investigate the full
potential of his chosen discipline, art history. He returned to Florence only
after successful completion of his doctoral thesis and a year’s military
service, which finished in October 1893.9 This second visit started badly. But
缓解发作
Warburg received a temporary respite from recurring bouts of depression
through, by his own account, chancing upon a series of archival documents.
Their significance was greatly magnified by his ability to associate them with
the Medici wedding festivities of 1589, and to recognize the relevance of this
court festival to his joint quests for the continuing significance of the classi
cal heritage, and of the proper study of images.
ii intermedi
Intermedi were spectacular dramatic entertainments performed between the

acts o f plays, and considered an essential part o f the presentation o f come
dies at court in the mid-sixteenth century.10 Typically, they had high musical
content, and were based on legend or myth, with topical allusions to the
设计
occasion in question. For this reason, they were generally specifically devised
for unique state festivals such as particular weddings and christenings, and,
unlike their accompanying plays, performed only on that one occasion. Like
Greek chorus and Roman Mimi, on which they were to some extent m od
elled,11 they were not necessarily related to the plot o f the play.
Intermedi became associated with tragedies, sacra rappresentazione, and
pastoral plays as well as with comedies, and were popular in late
Renaissance Florence, where they developed into elaborate spectacles
fusing many arts.12 They are thought to have arisen from the morescha ,
盛会娱乐活动
pageants, and other short diversions and entertainments presented
宴会
between the courses o f medieval and renaissance banquets, and from the
late fifteenth century onwards provided a substitute for the chorus o f the
classical Greek theatre, between the acts o f humanist revivals o f classical
plays. Courtly intermedi were taken up outside Italy, influencing the French
intermèdes , Spanish entremés , English “ dum b-shows” and German
Zwischenspiele . Some identify them as ‘the raw material from which opera
emerged’, or as ballet-opera,13 although others more cautiously prefer to
define them as a type o f pantomime or tableau vivant.14 Pirrotta goes so
far as to suggest that
the old identification of the intermedi with “madrigals” or choruses is giving

way to a new situation, in which music, no m atter how rich and varied in its
vocal and instrum ental com binations, or even impassioned and moving as in
Psyche’s lam ent, represents only one of m any elements contributing to the
奇妙的
“w ondrous show o f the intermedi”15
Crescimbeni, writing in 1702, notes that in contrast to his own times, in the
sixteenth century, “ tutte le Commedie furono sempre recitate, e non mai
cantate, fuorché i cori, o gTintermedj, fino a tempi dO ttavio Rinuccini.” 16
The way in which the 1589 Florentine intermedi overshadowed the three
plays they accompanied, La Pellegrina, La Zingana and the Pazzia o f
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTI NE I NTE RME DI OF 15 8 9 {213}
Isabella,17 confirmed apprehensions which critics and playwrights such as

Trissino, Ingegni and Grazzini had been voicing for some tim e.18 Produced
as just one o f numerous festivities in celebration o f the wedding o f
Ferdinando I de’Medici (1549-1609) to Christine de Lorraine (1565-1636),
the intermedi stole the show in their own day to the extent that, four cen
turies later, they can still be characterized as “probably the most described
theatrical production in history.” 19
iii documentary sources for the

intermedi of 1589
Warburg’s substantial documentary discoveries were made in Florence,

during the course o f what he later refers to as archival “ truffle-pig duties.” 20
In the Biblioteca Nazionale, he found forty-three annotated colored draw
ings which he recognized as the work o f Bernardo Buontalenti and his
assistants.21 Elsewhere in Florence, he identified a manuscript volume
including correspondence and tailors’ accounts for the costumes depicted in
these same drawings, and four prints (two by Agostino Carracci and two by
Epifanio d’Alfiano) which depict the costumes in a stage context. He was
able to identify all this material as visual and textual documents connected
with the Florentine intermedi o f 1589.
Unlike many types o f court festival, on which scholars from predom i
nantly one discipline (for example in the case o f entrata , art history), have
co-operated to analyze and enlarge one shared pool o f documentary
evidence, intermedi have attracted scholars researching relatively indepen
dently in many separate disciplines.22 The lack o f a systematic interdiscipli
nary overview has resulted in a fragmentation both o f research and o f
knowledge of the available prim ary and secondary evidence. However, since
Warburg’s researches, enough visual and written documentation for the 1589
intermedi has been identified to have allowed a recording o f the music,23 a
film reconstruction of five o f the six intermedi themselves, using digital post
production techniques,24 several monographs (including one focusing on
the music, another on Seriacopi’s Memoriale , and an appraisal o f the inter
medi within the context o f an interdisciplinary chronological reconstruction
o f the 1589 Medici wedding festivities as a whole25), and numerous specialist
studies which consider specific aspects o f the intermedi.26
{ 214 } M· A. KATRI TZKY
Related Italian texts which achieved contemporary publication, most

already known by 1895, include printed music, a 1589 edition o f Girolamo
Bargagli’s play La pellegrina , and accounts and descriptions o f the intermedi
in numerous printed festival books, “ diaries” and later compilations, o f
which the most significant include those by the Florentine Bastiano de Rossi
(Florence, 14 May 1589), the Bolognese Giuseppe Pavoni (Bologna, June
1589) and the Roman Simone Cavallino (Rome, 1589).27 At a further remove
is, for example, the poem o f Gabriello Chiabrera based on Isabella

A ndreinis “ madness” scene.28
Saslow s admirable “ illustrated Catalogue o f all the known materials—
drawings, prints and paintings— that record the wedding events, either from
the design phase or retrospectively,” 29 reproduces sixty-one pictures relating
to the intermedi, including the forty-seven discovered by Warburg and noted
in the original edition o f his article, as well as six o f the ten illustrations
added by Bing (namely those she reproduces as figs. 93 and 94, and four
Buontalenti drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum first published by
Laver, who acknowledges his debt to W arburgs article for this
identification),30 but not those she reproduces as figs. 91 and 95, or the two
paintings by Pellegrino Tibaldi which she notes. Eight o f Saslow’s sixty-one
illustrations are noted neither by Warburg nor by Bing, namely two further
engravings by d’Alfiano, five drawings (in the Uffizi, Victoria and Albert
Museum and the Louvre), and a print by Orazio Scarabelli.31 The prints by
Carracci, d’Alfiano and Scarabelli (unknown before four o f them were dis
covered by Warburg), all issued in 1592, are o f central significance to a study
o f Italian theatre history. The earliest surviving illustrations to intermedi
stage settings, they are also, by virtue o f being among the earliest prints o f
the proscenium arch stage with receding side wings and a back-shutter, a
“ fount o f Italian baroque scenography”.32 Recent research suggests that these
prints are not based directly on Buontalenti’s drawings, but on drawings
after them by Andrea Boscoli, o f which only two have been located (those
for intermedi 1 and 5), which are more horizontal in format, with more ani
mated and feminine figures.33 More distantly related iconographic material
includes a number o f drawings, jewelled pendants and pieces o f porcelain
with dragon motifs, associated by Hackenbroch with Buontalenti, and
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTINE INTE RME DI OF 15 8 9 {215}
specifically with his dragon design for the third intermedio o f 1589,34 and
portraits o f stock characters o f the Gelosi troupe, which provided two o f the
comedies associated with the 1589 intermedi, on a signed and dated print of
1589 by Ambrogio Brambilla.35
The most informative o f the numerous further manuscript texts relating
to the 1589 intermedi identified in the Florentine archives since Warburg’s
discoveries is the notebook o f Girolamo Seriacopi, the quartermaster o f the
1589 wedding festivities, transcribed in part by Getrud Bing, and in full by

Testaverdi M atteini.36 The “ diary” o f Settimani has to be treated with
extreme caution, as it is an eighteenth century amalgamation o f earlier doc
uments, many o f them now lost. Further music includes that to the fourth
intermedio , identified by Ghisi, who pays tribute to Warburg’s musicological
contribution.37 Non-Florentine manuscript sources include a letter now in
the Vatican Archives, written on 22 May 1589 by the Papal Nuntius in
Florence, Monsignore di Vicenza, contrasting the intermedi with the come
dies, and referring to a description o f the intermedi “ nel foglio qui incluso,”
which has not been traced.38 Also in this category is a surprisingly fruitful
source of evidence entirely unreflected by Warburg, Testaverde Matteini or
Saslow, namely foreign-language manuscript descriptions o f the intermedi.
Two such (diary entries by the German Barthold von Gadenstedt and an
anonymous Frenchman) were published in 1970 and 1994, and a third, a
Bavarian report, is here published for the first time.39
The Frenchman and Gadenstedt both describe the intermedi o f 2 May
1589, the first official performance, staged in conjunction with La Pellegrina,
in the context o f accounts o f various selected highlights o f the wedding fes
tivities as a whole. Both were clearly eye-witnesses, recording many details
specific to this particular performance; although the Frenchman indicates
that he also saw a later performance o f the intermedi, and the possibility that
his account was influenced by publicity information, by printed accounts
published at the time of the wedding, or by information obtained informally
from others cannot be ruled out. This certainly seems to have been the case
地方的
with Gadenstedt. His seventeen page vernacular account o f the wedding fes
tivities is actually preceded by an eight page account in Italian, which
includes a much briefer and less personal account of the intermedi than his
{2 ι6} m . a . katritzky
German one. Kümmel notes that the two accounts have numerous differ
ences, and that the German account has certain similarities to Bastiano
de’Rossi’s account, whose publication, however, postdates Gadenstedt’s
departure from Florence, while his shorter Italian account is very similar to
that in an anonymous festival book published in Florence, Ferrara and
Venice.40
The Bavarian report o f the wedding festivities describes Christine’s entry
o f 30 April 1589 in the past tense, but describes the intermedi (and very
briefly, other highlights) as if they have not yet taken place, in an account
which has certain similarities to the Italian account o f Gadenstedt. Careful
analysis of these accounts in the light o f the eyewitness accounts and pub
lished festival books could prove significant in determining the content o f
any standardized “ hand-out” or information pack which may have been
made available to foreign visitors for publicity purposes. Gadenstedt’s
account o f the intermedi explicates a serious problem confronting outside
chroniclers o f such events. Efforts made by himself and his compatriots to
investigate Florentine production techniques and stage machinery were
strenuously resisted. Küm m el’s comparison o f Gadenstedt’s German-
language description o f the 1589 intermedi with those o f the Italian publica
tions highlights some problems o f trying to reconcile different accounts o f a
theatrical event. He concluded that differences are inevitable, because while
Gadenstedt’s description is based on eyewitness experience o f one particular
performance, that o f 2 May 1589, the official Italian accounts evidently reflect
an amalgamation o f more than one performance, or perhaps even o f several
stages in the planning o f this event.41
The intermedi attracted numerous foreign spectators (Gadenstedt notes
over 100 Germans alone at the performance o f 2 May), and further accounts
and shorter notices surely still await discovery. Because the researches o f
Warburg and his followers have ensured that the 1589 intermedi are known
through a large quantity o f visual and textual documentation, the
significance o f foreign accounts is primarily interpretative. There are numer
ous expressions o f misgivings concerning the interpretation o f visual and
written festival descriptions. Warburg is aware o f the potentially powerful
effects o f authorial bias, and Dotzauer comments on the negative effect o f
this, and the wish to overwhelm and amaze the reader, on the objectivity o f
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTI NE INTE RME DI OF 15 8 9 {217}
such accounts, while Fruth emphasizes their lack o f objectivity as historical

records (surprisingly making an exception for texts and images produced by
those connected with the actual planning o f the festival, whose reasonable
accuracy she accepts).42 Later studies, alerted by the findings o f scholars
such as Tintelnot, Jacquot and Strong,43 suggest that the relationship o f such
evidence to historical reality is far less uncomplicated than even such
authors suggest.44
Although theatre historians are becoming increasingly concerned with

methodological implications o f evaluating large masses o f conflicting docu
mentary evidence, attempts to draw on the findings o f related investigations
in other fields, notably legal studies, the psychology o f memory, and cultural
anthropology, have been relatively restricted.45 The problems associated with
assessing eye-witness testimony and standpoint have received detailed atten
tion from legal scholars. They recognize the importance o f measuring the
many variables affecting the relevance, credibility and inferential force o f
evidence (for which they identify three significant factors, namely judge
ments concerning the witness’s veracity, objectivity and observational sensi
tivity), and draw on a number o f analytic and synthetic techniques, both
holistic (narrative) and atomistic (chart-based), to organize evidence, in
order to decompose arguments into complex interrelated chains and reach a
defensible conclusion concerning a hypothesis. These approaches, which
draw on decision theory, the philosophy o f probabilistic reasoning, and the
emerging science o f complexity, have profound implications for the assess
ment o f the authorial and artistic standpoints and reliability o f different his
torical representations and accounts concerned with the same event. Cultural
anthropologists have long been aware of the significance o f perceptual dis
tance: the gap between the cultural norms, behavior and expectations o f the
observer and those o f the observed. Only very recently have psychologists
concerned with the study o f human memory begun to pay close attention to
issues such as detailed comparative analysis o f differing versions o f word-of-
mouth material o f the type o f folk-tales and popular songs o f oral cultures.
Primarily, foreign reports o f the 1589 intermedi should be appreciated not
for a certain naive freshness,46 or even for the chance to check specific facts
against the “ inside” accounts,47 but for the valuable opportunity they offer to
achieve perceptual distance, by comparing locally-produced material with
{ 2I8 } m. a. katritzky
documentation written or depicted from a contrasting authorial standpoint.

A broadly-based comparative approach which is able to draw on visual as
well as textual material, preferably from outside as well as local sources,
reduces the inevitable bias o f conclusions reached from working with a
limited quantity o f documents or o f documentary sources. To take just one
example, there has been considerable speculation concerning the way in
which scene changes were effected. Gascoigne, working from the Italian
accounts only, suggested “a very early foretaste o f the sliding flat wings o f the
future,” a hypothesis also favoured by Saslow, who considers the use o f rotat
ing prisms “ unlikely,” and offers a detailed schematic stage plan o f the Uffizi
theatre based on sliding shutters in grooves.48 Nagler cautiously suggested
the possibility o f a turning mechanism.49 This hypothesis is strongly sup
ported by the foreign reports, all o f which make some reference to rapid
stage turns. The French diarist, for example, notes that at the end o f the first
intermedio : “ le theatre e tourna en ung instant: la prospective changea et
parust ung autre theatre qui representoit la ville de Pise.” 50
Subsequent archival discoveries contribute towards rounding out and
supplementing the impression o f the intermedi that Warburg was able to
give. But even such basic information as the sequence o f events, exact
number o f performances o f the intermedi, and the dates on which they were
held, remains uncertain.51 Warburg’s account remains valid, not least
because points made in Costumi teatrali have a significance beyond inter
pretation o f the 1589 intermedi themselves. Warburg consolidated
Burkhardt’s insight that festivals such as these intermedi cannot be studied in
isolation. They contribute not only to a complete theatrical performance, o f
which the accompanying comedies formed an integral part, but to a festa , an
elaborate series o f public and private court festivals staged in celebration o f a
specific event. This approach has been refined in many later publications,
but still has a great deal o f potential for further investigation, for example
concerning explication of the relationship between the intermedi and each of
the three comedies which they framed.52 Warburg also pioneered the com
parative use o f theatrical images as extra-textual documentation, a break
through which is examined in greater detail below, and laid the groundwork
for scholars such as Nagler and Kiimmel to initiate the comparative use o f
local and foreign documentation. This latter, by opening up a perceptual
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTI NE INTE RME DI OF I 5 8 9 { 2IÇ}
distance and creating the opportunity to compare authorial standpoints

and evidential redundancies and dissonances, offers an interdisciplinary
approach to festival research which merits detailed investigation.
iv warburg's account of the

intermedi of 1589
In letters o f M ay and June 1894, Warburg informed his parents o f his

archival findings concerning the 1589 intermedi, and his intention to publish
them. The invitation to publish Costumi teatrali came from a group o f
Italian scholars, led by Riccardo Gandolfi, collaborating on a volume in
commemoration o f the tercentenary o f Ottavio Rinuccini’s Dafne (which
they identified as marking the start o f the riforma melodrammatica). They
invited Warburg to join them on the planning committee, and he raised
money from his own family to pay the production costs for the reproduc
tions which accompanied Costumi teatrali, and, between February and April
1895, translated his original German account into Italian for publication,
with the help o f Alceste Giorgetti.53
The letter o f 24 March 1895 to his mother in which he requests financial
help for the cost o f the reproductions notes that
for the past year, I have concentrated myself, and all my efforts, financial not
excluded, on the intention of rescuing from obscurity a significant bu t com -
pletely ignored turning point in Florentine culture. Once I have finished this, I
will at some point tell you all about the highly interesting prelim inary stages,
in which, I may safely say, my own role has been by no means discreditable.
But I am aware of how m uch effort it has taken.54
Warburg was alone in his awareness o f the full significance o f his findings
and methods. Italian reviewers praised the importance and originality o f
Costumi teatrali in fairly bland terms (Rodolfo Renier even characterized it
as a model for the study o f “ all the bizarre, even absurd, classisizing symbol
ism which predominates in innumerable court festivals o f our renais
sance” ),55 and Warburg received not ungenerous acknowledgements from
some o f the German scholars with whom he was in touch, such as Karl
Lamprecht, Wilhelm Creizenach and Karl Schmetterer. But their comments
revealed no recognition o f the originality o f his approach, and Warburg was
{ 220} M. A. KATRI TZKY
deeply hurt by the dismissive and patronizing attitude o f German reviewers.

He was also disappointed that Angelo Solerti, a scholar to whom he had
given exceptionally generous access to his archival findings, should, in a
footnote which praises W arburgs achievement in Costumi teatrali, take him
to task for overlooking Girolamo Seriacopis manuscript notes on the festivi
ties o f 1589.56 He noted on the flyleaf o f his working copy o f Costumi teatrali
that discussion o f this document would have to be incorporated into any
future German version. In the event, Warburg did not publish an expanded
version o f the article. This had to wait for Getrud Bings posthumous edition
o f 1932, in which she added twenty-nine pages o f notes, including lengthy
extracts from Seriacopis manuscript,57 as well as the complete script o f
Warburg’s original German language account. This differs in many minor
respects from the Italian publication o f 1895 for which it formed the basis,
and contains two significant passages it excludes, one speculating on the
extent o f the Accademia della Crusca’s influence on the intermedi, the other
a considerably longer formulation o f the concluding paragraphs.58
Warburg introduces Costumi teatrali by informing the reader that he is
bringing not only newly-discovered documents to his study o f the 1589 inter
medi, but also a new methodology, and by directly relating this investigation
to his academic concern with the impact o f antiquity upon later culture. He
reviews the major known sources relating to the Florentine wedding festivi
ties o f 1589 (namely the diaries o f Pavoni, Cavallino and Benacci,
Gualterotti’s description o f the entrata, and Bastiano de’Rossi’s account o f
the intermedi);59 then introduces the new documentary sources which he
has discovered, which are both visual (forty-three costume sketches by
Bernardo Buontalenti and four engravings) and textual (Cavalieri’s accounts
and note-book for the intermedi costumes). The innovative approach he
outlines, based on his recognition o f the importance o f images in animating
these dry accounts, involves a comparative investigation o f the visual and
textual documentation, making full use o f art historical methods. In this
way, Warburg is able to identify the engravings as stage designs for the inter
medi by Agostino Carracci (I & III) and Epifanio d’Alfiano (II & IV), by
comparing them with Rossi’s description; and to identify the characters,
their intermedi (I, II, III and V only) and, in some cases, named actors,
depicted in the costume sketches, by using written documentation, includ
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTI NE INTE RME DI OF 15 8 9 { 221}
ing notations on the drawings themselves, identifications later confirmed by

comparison with lists in Seriacopi’s note-book.60
The four main personalities concerned with the creation o f these inter
medi are identified as Giovanni de’Bardi (1534-1612), Emilio de’Cavalieri
(d.1602), Bernardo Buontalenti (c.1531-1608) and de’Rossi. Following earlier
writers, notably Stefano Arteaga,61 the most important o f these is singled
out not as the artist, Buontalenti, but the director, Bardi. Warburg criticizes
intermedi as a musical genre, but praises Bardi’s attempts to counteract

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their “ pom pous baroque” nature, and his strenuous attempts to forge a
certain unity. He is less concerned with detailed historical reconstruction o f
the event than with understanding its imagery, and offers an interpretation
o f the symbolism o f the six intermedi , which he sees as falling into two
groups (I, IV and VI symbolising heavenly music; II, III and V human
music), and as reflecting Bardi’s attempt to provide “ antikisierende
Pantomime iiber die Bedeutung der Musik,” based to the minutest detail on
precedents set by classical writers.62 Bardi s concern for the classical cul
tural heritage gives investigation o f these intermedi particular appeal for
Warburg. Warburg notes parallels between the third intermedi and
Rinuccinis Dafne , the first product o f the riforma melodrammatica. His fas
cination for the markedly contrasting artistic interpretation o f the ideas
and myths o f antiquity by these two works, separated by only a few years,
and involving some o f the same artists, gives him the motivating question
for his investigation, namely: “ What is the source for this change in the
influence o f antiquity?” 63
His question prompts him to a consideration o f mythological representa
tions o f the musical harmony o f the spheres. Some early renaissance exam
ples are presented,64 and the most effective ways o f representing it on stage
are discussed. For the intermedia Warburg identifies these not as the written
medium o f script or plot, but as the visual characterization o f mythological
attributes through costume details and props, a method which, however, led
the over-enthusiasm, and “ baroque taste” o f the intermedi designers into
“capricious and unnatural combinations,” further obscured when translated
into the “ raw reality o f actual costumes.” Detailed discussion o f the first
intermedio leads Warburg to conclude that “ the profound allegories through
which the great classical philosophers and poets attempted to symbolize the
enigmas o f human existence became, for the learned academics o f the six
teenth-century, data for the characterization o f personifications, who trans
formed their obscure symbols into explicit costumes and props.” 65 Warburg
turns to the written documentation to discover whether the visual symbol
ism with which Bardi “tortured classical writers” was successfully com muni
cated to spectators o f the intermedi. He concludes from the accounts o f
Pavoni and Cavallino that it was not, and that this was only to be expected
considering the circumstances under which the public saw these

personifications, in the context o f scriptless “ pantomimes” in which large
numbers o f characters were paraded in quick succession before an audience
unfamiliar with the symbolism o f their costume and props because they had
no other means o f access to such figures.66
But Warburg makes an important distinction between the three intermedi
which represented worldly music, which he links closely to festival proces
sions and other non-verbal pantomimic “ transitional types between real life
and dramatic art,” and what he sees as the three more genuinely dramatic
intermedi which represent the music of the spheres. O f this second group, he
singles out the third intermedio for particular attention. With the help o f the
visual documentation, which confirms that there was a conscious effort to
subdivide the chorus into small autonomous groups, he identifies in it a
genuine attempt on the part o f Bardi to enlist all possible aids: the aural ones
of plot and script as well as the visual ones o f costume and props, in trying
to communicate his symbolism to the spectators. For Warburg, the result o f
this creditable experiment (which he examines in some detail, quoting the
whole o f Rossi’s description), was a “ singular hybrid between academic
mythological festival procession and sentimental pastoral drama,” which
marked a significant step towards the replacement o f the baroque excesses o f
the madrigals and costumes o f the intermedi by the stile recitativo and less
overblown classicism o f musical melodrama, which made its first fully-
formed appearance in the Dafne o f 1594.67 It was not in their sources, but in
the way in which they presented those sources, that intermedi differed from
musical melodrama, in which the unsubtle, almost brutal quarrying o f clas
sical mythology in the intermedi gave way to an altogether lighter touch.
Warburg sees this as being symbolized by the metamorphosis o f Apollo,
from the venerable cosmic symbol o f the 1565 intermedi, to the youthful
sentimental God o f the operatic stage, a transformation in which the inter

medi o f 1589 marked a crucial turning point.68
V extending the boundaries of

art history: theatre iconogra-
phy
Warburg did not research the drawings he found for the sake o f their own
aesthetic worth, or primarily to gain information about the personality of

their artist, Buontalenti, or his workshop, either o f which would have been
standard art-historical approaches. The main focus of his investigations was
the theatrical event itself, recognized by both contemporaries and historians
as the greatest attraction o f the 1589 wedding celebration, and a highpoint of
European court festival. Warburg studied these drawings as historical
images, and recognized that, in conjunction with the written documenta
tion, they enabled him to attempt a historical investigation into the inter
medi o f 1589 based on art-historical methods. The sentence in which he
outlines his approach, at the very beginning o f his article, is a succinct mani
festo o f theatre iconography:
At first glance, [festival] accounts now strike us as dry or curious reports, and
there exists only one way to transform them into genuinely vital evocations of
the past. That is by attem pting to examine them in conjunction with contem -
porary works of art which depict such festivals. To date, such an attem pt has
been made neither with respect to a specific area of research nor on a more
有名望的
general scale. [... ] I gladly grasped the prestigious opportunity [which these
newly-discovered docum ents] offered me to attem pt an art historical investi-
gation into the historical significance of the intermedi of 1589 for the develop-
m ent of theatrical taste.69
Observations such as this reflect an important preoccupation o f his

approach to his discipline, summarized towards the end o f his life, in his
remark (in a letter to the Belgian art historian Jacques Mesnil), that “only
when art history can demonstrate that it sees works o f art from a few more
perspectives than it has done so far, will our activity again attract greater
scholarly and general interest.” 70 Warburg’s stance is relevant to the current
debate on art history as an academic discipline as a whole, and Costumi
teatrali is significant for the emergence o f a small and specialized subsection
{ 2 24 } Μ · Α · KATRI TZKY
o f the study o f visual images as historical documents, namely theatre

iconography.
The debate on art history is throwing into sharp relief attitudes which
continue to be com monly accepted as underpinning the formal study o f
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visual images. It remains a central tenet o f art history that the images which
form the subject o f its study are monuments which “earn” the right to be
studied through their inherent cultural and/or aesthetic worth, and that this
is a hierarchical system, with the greatest masterpieces deserving the most

attention. Taken for granted by the majority,71 this tenet is stoutly defended
by our most sophisticated art historians, scholars who have themselves made
major contributions to the study o f visual images both as documents and as
monuments. For Gombrich, for example, “ the history o f art is rightly con
sidered to be the history o f masterpieces and o f the ‘old masters’ ”, and
Haskell takes the position that “ aesthetic discrimination must always lie at
the heart o f any serious discussion involving the arts, even in an inquiry that
is not intended to make a contribution to art history.” 72 In this respect,
Gom brich’s own distinction between the needs o f teaching and those o f
中肯的
research is pertinent.73 Although the establishment o f aesthetic worth
belongs by definition squarely in the realm o f philosophy, as far as the teach
ing o f art history is concerned, the traditional stance o f art historians is fully
justified. The basic techniques o f the discipline need to be learnt with
respect to the great masters and their masterpieces. These are embedded in a
cultural continuum, and successful theoretical interpretations are grounded
in a firm grasp o f the subject’s history, genres and techniques. Concerning
research, the position seems much less clear cut.74
The nineteen senior academics who responded to a recent questionnaire
formulated by the editors o f the journal October 75 have evidently thought
deeply about such issues. Many appear to agree with Gombrich that if the
academic study o f images were to be re-organized on anthropological rather
than art historical lines, the discipline would be “ swamped with material.” 76
Their replies are symptomatic o f a widespread suspicion o f interdisciplinar
ity, and a continuing fear that if art history were to relax its adherence to its
traditional standpoint o f artistic quality as a measure o f academic interest, it
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would be engulfed by conflicting methodological demands, o f which those
proceeding from the anthropological approach to cultural studies pose the
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTINE INTERM EDI OF 15 8 9 { 225}
most consistent challenge.77 The October questionnaire specifically invoked

Warburg’s name, and due respect is paid by respondents to his intellectual
stature, his interdisciplinarity and his “ audacity and disrespect for discipli
nary boundaries.” 78 However, the October respondents largely remain
silent regarding an area o f enquiry o f considerable academic potential,
pioneered by Warburg’s Costumi teatrali, and as dependent on the applica
tion o f art historical techniques to the study o f visual images as traditional
art history, namely the study o f images as historical documents. Images are
not only the monuments o f art history. They can also be the documents o f
other academic disciplines, to be studied not for their own sake, but in
order to illuminate, for example, other cultural m onum ents.79 Viewed
from this perspective, there is little correlation between the aesthetic value
o f a visual source as art historical m onument, and its historical
significance as cultural, economic or political document.80 For many cul
tural historians o f Warburg’s time, not least Burckhardt, great works o f art
were surviving witnesses to the spirit o f bygone ages. As reprographic tech
niques advanced, images were increasingly used as an illustrative resource.
But as late as 1966, John Hale felt it necessary to draw attention to the lack
o f cooperation between historians and art historians.81 Theodore Rabb, an
active participant in the debate concerning the interpretation and use o f
images by historians, o f visual “ art as a special class o f evidence, shaped by
im agination as well as tradition and purpose,” keep alive, has noted a
recent decrease in interdisciplinary activity in this area with respect to sub
sequently developed interactive areas o f historical research.82
One area in which interdisciplinary collaboration is, however, playing an
increasingly significant role, is that o f theatre iconography. The theatrical
arts, whether manifested as drama, music, court festival, or in some other
form o f performance, are characterized by their ephemeral nature.
Theatrical events, the cultural monuments the theatre historian’s enquiry,
only exist as long as the performance lasts. In retrospect, they can no longer
be studied directly, but only through secondary documentation. But it was
Warburg, in Costumi teatrali, who first fully realized the significance o f a
comparative approach to studying a theatrical event, which embraced visual
as well as textual material as historical documents worthy o f study in their
own right, and independently o f any aesthetic merits, and the value o f art-
historical methods for gaining the maximum theatre-historical information

from them.
It is a phenom enological fallacy to assume there is such a thing as immediate,

intuitive evidence of works of art of the past; they need to be secured, authen-
ticated, even reconstructed in their original state and their historical context,
before we can begin to interpret them , to retrieve their meaning. This is the
hard core of art history as a discipline.83
Theatre iconography systematically attem pts to integrate the pictorial repre-

sentation o f theatre as a vital source of inform ation in researching the history
of theatre [...it] involves the search for a new dialectical relationship between
the w ritten word and the theatre illustration, one in which the illustration is
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n o t im m ediately interpreted as an appendage to a text. It involves an
autonom ous “reading” o f the image in which the use of other docum ents,
preferably from other sign systems, cannot and may not be discounted.84
Given these definitions, and in the light o f Zorzi’s eminently quotable state
ment that “ senza la storia dell’arte, la storia dello spettacolo rischierebbe di
rimanere una disciplina senz oggetto,” 85 can theatre iconography be
regarded as requiring a firm art historical methodological base? And can
Warburg’s pioneering work on the intermedi o f 1589 be regarded as the first
significant exercise in theatre iconography?
Gombrich repeatedly warns against identifying Warburg’s method with
“ iconography,” but he is referring to Warburg’s work as a whole, and to the
approach o f art historians such as Emile Mâle, which has little to do with
the study o f “ theatre iconography” (which might in any case have been
more accurately called “ theatre iconology” ).86 The contribution made by
Costumi teatrali has neither been analyzed or acknowledged by mainstream
theatre iconographers. Unlike his follower Panofsky,87 Warburg hardly fea
tures in theoretical writings concerned with this methodological approach
to the study o f theatrical events. Costumi teatrali considerably predates the
earliest formal recognition o f the self-conscious development and applica
tion o f theatre-iconographical methods, whose beginnings are generally
pinpointed to the 1960s.88 The article was apparently unknown even to
Germ an academics o f Warburg’s time concerned with theatrical images,
such as the founding father o f German theatre history, M ax Herrmann,
whose “ Dramenillustrationen des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts” o f 1914, perhaps
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTINE INTE RME DI OF I 5 8 9 {227}
the earliest monograph-length treatment o f this subject to apply art histori

cal methods in the service o f theatre-historical concerns, does not acknowl
edge Warburg, and has itself been identified as the earliest serious exercise in
theatre iconography.89
A number o f contemporary theatre historians do refer to Warburg. Lecoq
(but not Rodini), does so in the context o f a review o f contemporary festival
research, and numerous references to him in Zorzi’s writings testify that he
read Warburg’s work with attention.90 Clifford Davidson makes a direct

association between what he refers to as “ stage iconography” and Warburg’s
methodology. But he is acknowledging Warburg’s importance not in the
context o f images o f the stage, but in the very different context o f imagery
on the stage.91 There are no direct references to Warburg in the 1997 Theatre
Research International “ theatre iconography” special issue, but in the 1996
“ theatrical images” double-issue o f Biblioteca teatrale, Guardenti mentions
Warburg in passing, M olinari’s reference to the Uffizi’s Buontalenti draw
ings is surely paying him silent homage, and Botti’s short introduction to the
issue emphasizes the significance o f “Warburghian iconology.” 92 Gabriele
Brandstetter’s comparative analytical study o f recurring gestures, postures
and configurations in early twentieth-century avant-garde dance, and related
visual depictions and literary descriptions, explicitly draws on the substance
and methodologies o f Warburg’s work, as presented in Gom brich’s
influential biography, in a fundamental way unique to contemporary theatre
history. Brandstetter is directly concerned with Warburg’s research into
iconographie conventions, which drew on psychology and anthropology, as
well as more conventional art historical methods, to develop the “ pathos
formula,” and her monograph does not refer to Costumi teatrali.93
Daniela Zampino recognized that Warburg’s article o f 1895 anticipated
certain key elements o f methodological approaches suggested by modern
theatre historians.94 Her article o f 1977 traces the development o f Warburg
and Panofsky’s iconographical and iconological methods, and analyses
Costumi teatrali, and its contribution to theatre history, in considerable
detail.95 She suggests that the theatre-historical articles o f the Journal o f the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (whose abstracts are appended to her
article), are representative o f a distinct approach to theatre historical
research, whose origins can be traced back to Warburg’s article, and which
maintains a clear distinction between the problems presented by the analysis

o f documents, and those o f reconstructing the history of stage spectacle. The
1970s saw intensive investigations into the relationship between renaissance
theatre and the festivals o f which they were often an integral part. Zampino
identifies the central problem o f the study o f theatrical events as their
dependence on their cultural and historical context and sees Warburg’s
awareness o f this as demonstrating an astounding modernity. She is aware o f
Warburg’s achievement in being the first to investigate a theatrical event by

integrating an analysis o f visual and textual documents, and o f the im port
ance o f a critical consideration o f the visual arts to what she identifies as the
“Warburghian approach” to theatre studies. But, for Zampino, at least as
essential to this approach are an interest in diverse aspects of the purely the
atrical event and a broadly-based, as opposed to purely art-historical, analy
sis o f these aspects in the context o f the culture and historical period which
produced that theatrical event.
Zampino concludes that Costumi teatrali “ inaugurates a methodological
approach which indicates, already in 1895, the path which modern theatre
history will take [... ] in its attempt to reconstruct a reality which extin
guishes itself in the moment in which it is attained,” 96 as much because it
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augments purely theatrical with extra-theatrical documentary sources, as
through its comparative study o f textual and extra-textual (i.e. visual),
sources.97 This emphasis on the extraordinary range o f Warburg’s vision,
even in the limited context o f his contribution to theatre studies, and even
given that more credit for some o f these advances is actually due to
Burckhardt, has the paradoxical effect o f underplaying his pioneering essay
in theatre iconography, an essay which effects a fruitful extension o f the
boundaries o f art history, and whose fundamental importance in laying the
foundations for an effective new theatre historical approach deserves full
recognition.
vi conclusion
In Costumi teatrali, Warburg mobilized new archival discoveries and form u

lated new comparative methodologies in the service o f his efforts to address
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTI NE INTERMEDI OF 15 8 9 {229 }
the central questions which motivated his academic research, including the
proper study o f his discipline, which he saw as embracing all visual images,
not just “works o f art.” Almost incidentally, his article also threw new light
on one o f the most influential court festivals o f all time, and re-wrote an
important chapter in the history o f early musical drama, two achievements
which have received due acclaim, as well as defining and founding the new
discipline o f theatre-iconography, a breakthrough whose significance has
remained largely unrecognized. All too often, tensions between conflicting

research criteria prevented Warburg’s work from reaching publication. But
in Costumi teatrali, he brilliantly managed the feat o f co-ordinating the
output o f concentrated research on several fronts simultaneously, in order to
produce interdisciplinary work which serves as an elegant demonstration of
perhaps his most far-reaching contribution to scholarship, his recognition of
pictures as historical documents.
Warburg’s archival discoveries relating to court festival could have pro
vided him with rich source material for theatre-iconographical publications
o f a similar nature on many other festivals and performances, based on the
approach developed in Costumi teatrali. In this, he indicates that he planned
a publication on sixteen costume studies by Allori and textual documents
relating to the 1590 performance o f Disperazione di Fileno, another on the
two volumes o f 260 sixteenth and seventeenth-century festival drawings in
which he discovered Buontalenti’s forty-four 1589 costume sketches as a
whole, and an extended, German-language, publication o f Costumi teatrali
itself.98 All these remained unwritten. He retained a life-long interest in fest
ivals which is reflected in his notes and in numerous o f his publications, but
published no further significant theatre-iconographical studies. Evidence
such as a note in a letter o f 16 July 1895 to the German art historian
Hermann Grimm, to the effect that he did not know how soon he would be
publishing a more thorough German version o f Costumi teatrali, and his
generosity in drawing the Allori material and other festival documents to
the attention o f theatre historians such as Angelo S o le rti," suggests that by
1895 Warburg himself was keen to move on from his study o f Florentine
court festivals, in order to address new challenges, and to explore new ways
of extending the boundaries of art history.
{230} M. A. KATR1TZKY
APPENDICES: non-italian reports of the medici wedding

festivities of 1589
APPENDIX la: Bavarian report (transcription)100
[f.2451·] Dem 30. Aprilis A[nno] [15]89 ist die Princesin aus Lottringen zu
Florenz ankhom[m]en, und ir der GroPherzog mit unzellich vilen auf die
Hochzeit geladnen und berueffnen herrn in schonen Liureen entgegen
zogen. Und alls man alia porta del prato zuesamen khom [m ]en, ist die
Princesin von irer Gutschen, so schon vergoldt gewesen, abgestanden, und
hat Ir der Bischove di Fiesole ein Creiz zekhussen geben. Nach solchem hat
der Erzbischove von Pisa dem GroPherzog[en] in einer grossen silberen
schissl ein Cron gegeben, die haben Ir Allta. der Braut auf ir haubt gesezt.
Und alls solches beschechen, und sie gegen der Statt zu einer khirchen
gezogen, alda die Cardl. Gioiosa, Gonzaga, Colonna, und del Monte gewartet.
Da ist der Gropherzog auf seiner Gutschen in das Palaz gefahren, und
daselbs auf die Braut gewartet, welche man unnder einem khostbarlichen
himl, und auf einem weissen Zelter, so mit einer gar statlichen deckhen
bedeckht gewesen, in das Palaz geftiert.
[f.245v] Haben solchen himl 60. fiirneme Florentinische gentilhuomini ,
so all in weip, wie auch Braut und Preitigam, gar herrlich bekhlaidt gewesen,
getragen. 1st Hochgemelter Braut der Herzog von M antua auf der rechten,
und der Don Pietro de M edici au f der linckhen seiten neben dem himl
geriten. Und nach Inen die Herzoginn von Braunschweig. Allpdann der
S[ignore] Don Virginio Ursino Duca di Bracciano , und sonst ein fiirneme
Person. Denselben send 3. frauen sambt 12. Junckhfrauen, so der Braut
zugehôrt, zwischen zwen allten Florentinischen herrn, Jede a u f einem
zellter gevolgt. Nach denen 1st der Márchese Gio. Vincentio Vitelli mit einer
compagnia Reitter mit weissen harrnischen und feichlfarben rôckhln, mit
silber und gold verbrembt, auch sameten binden, geritten. A u f die send
lestlich 4. haubtleiith mit 4. compagnie caualli legieri auf schenen Pferden,
und mit weissen harrnisch, geritten. [f.246r BLANK] [f.246v: like all these
folios , this one had been folded into quarters before being bound into this
volume. This side bears a heading at the top o f the bottom right-hand quarter]
Florentinischer Einritt. [ff.247r-v BLANK]
[f.248r] Von den stattlichen sachen, so zu Florentz auf der Herzogin

von Lottringen, alls Hochzeiterin, einzug, und dann zur Hochzeit,
zugericht werden.
Erstlich ist beim ersten Thor al prato genannt, ein Thor wie ein theatrum ,
daran aile des GranDuca aus Toscana Statt beschriben und abgemalen, sambt
10. von den fürnemsten Malern gemachten tafeln von ôlfarben, darauf her-
rliche sachen, alls wie Florenz mit Fiesole, der ersten Statt, ain ding worden,
wie darnach auch Pisa, Arezzo , und anndere Statt darzue khom[m]en.
Am Eckh der grossen Borgo ogni Santi genannt, ist ein sehr khostlicher
triumphpogen, oder arcus triumphalis , mit des GranDuca und dem
Lottringischen wappen, sambt 9. taflen von ôlfarben, aida des Khonigs aus
Franckhreich ganze, wie auch das Lottringisch, und weilund des GranDuca
Cosimo geschlecht abgemalen. A u f der bruggen Sta. Trinita genannt, da
stehn auf ainer seiten der GranDuca Cosimo der Junger, und Cosimo de
Medici, der aliter. A u f [f.248v] der anndern seiten Carolus Magnus und
Carolus Quintus , so all von stuccho gemacht, und ist schôn zusechen.
Al Canto à Carnesecchi ist widerumb ein herrlicher arcus triumphalis mit
10. gar schonen taflen von ôlfarben, daran Khonig Gottfrids thaten gemalen
wie Er Hierusalem erledigt, sambt anndern sachen von den Khonigen aus
Franckhreich.
An der Thombkhirchen ist aupwendig ein fürnem und khunstlich hilzen
ding aufgemacht, so schôn gemalen, und ist sonnderlich das General
Concilium daran, wie sich die Griechen mit den Catholischen verglichen und
verainigt. Item wie Sixtus zu Papst gekhrônt, und dann, wie dieselb khirchen
gereicht worden, sambt anndern Catholischen sachen, von unnseren Papsten
und Florentinischen heiligen beschechen, die dann all von gebrentem stain-
werch, und daneben das Florentinisch wappen, herrlich gemacht.
Inwendig in der khirchen ist ein gewaltige Pin, mit treffenlichem
auβwendigem zier. Und auf dem Hochalltar ein ding zugericht, wie ein wol-
ckhen, darinn [f.249r] miiessen 16. Musici stehn, und sich solche wolckhen
aufthuen, und ein Engl aufs zierlichst daraus heerausgehn, so die Fiirstlich
Braut khrônnen solle. Da wiirdet ein uberaus schene Musickh stim, mit 2.
orglen, 2. Pulten, und 5. Chôr. Soil solche zuberaitung, wie man sagt, uber
5000. A.gestehn.
Al Canto de Bischeri ist ein arcus triumphalis von Khonig Philips zug
wider den Türckhen, wie Don Giovan dA ustria die schlacht auf dem Meer
gethan. Item wie Khayser Carl Quienton der Tiirckhischen belegerung
erledigt. 1st gar ein schôn ding.
Al Canto delle farine ist abermaln ein arcus triumphalis mit 4. taflen.
Darin sind alle die herrn de Medici abgemaln, mit herrlichen reymen von
iren thaten.
Bey des GranDuca Palaz ist ein gar khunstreiche Porten von goldwerch
aufgemacht, alda auf einer tafl gar herrlich gemalen, wie der GranDuca
Cosimo Toscana khrônet. Dann so ist noch au f 2. anndern taflen, wie
Pius V. den Duca Cosimo zu Rom khrônet, und auf der anndern, wie nach
deβ- [f.249v] selben absterben der nechstverstorben Duca Fran.co von
denen von Florenz confirm irt und zu GranDuca gekhronnt worden.
Inwendig im Palaz ist ailes mit samet und seiden von allerley farben aufs
khostlichst zuberait.
So werden Senesische Comici, Li intronati genannt ein Comedj, la peleg
rina , halten. Dabey werden volgende Intermedia sein.
1. Erstlich ist ein herrlich groβ zimer mit gold und allerley farben gar
lustig auβgemalen, da lasst man ein rote leinwat herab, [und wiirdt] das die
prospettiva mit einer anndern blauen leinwadt bedeckhet [wiirdet]. In deren
mitte steht ein sessl, darin singt ein Idea, so also allain herrlich singt, und all-
gemach allgemach, das mans gleichsam nit merckhen khan, verleurt sie sich
in etliche velsen, so darzue gemacht, und in einem augenblickh verschwindet
die leinwat. Thuet sich der himel schnell auf, und ist die prospettiua offen.
Da sicht man auf 3. seiten in das Paradeiphinein, und erheben sich 4. wolck-
hen gar maisterlich vom erdboden, gehn mit schonem gesang uber sich
gegen [f.25or] dem himl, und verschwinden darnach. Da wiirdt man aber
herrliche M adrigal und Musickh hôren, dann bey disem intermedio 44.
singer, und allerley Instrumenten. Bald das aus, so khôrt sich die prospettiua
umb, und man sicht die ganz statt abgemalen.
2. Man verkhôrt die prospettiua widerumb, und erscheinen lautter berg,
velsen und briinnen, und wachst aus dem erdtreich ein berg heraus, darin 18.
Musici so treffenlich singen. Und so bald ein Madrigal aus, khôrt sich der
berg geschwind gegen der prospettiua , und werden 2. hole oder grosse lôcher
wie in den bergen send, daraus in deren jeder 12. Musici sich abermaln
uberaus wol hôren lassen.
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTINE I NTE RME DI OF 15 8 9 {2 3 3 }
3. Man verkhôrt die prospettiua aber einmal, und gehn 36. Musici heraus,
mit selzamen Inuentionen und mit 4. tanzern. Und weil sie nur singen,
wechst aus einer hole, oder antro , ein greilichs monstrum. Das bringen die
tanzer und Musici mit irem gesang umb. Darnach thuet man ein herrlichen
tanz in Musica. Soil gar ein schon intermedium sein.
[f.250v] 4. Man verkhôrt die prospettiua mehr ein mal. Und erscheint in
dem lufft Juno in einem Triumphwagen dene 2. thüer ziechen. Und ist so
selzam angemacht, das mans nit merckhen oder sechen khan, wo und an
weme es seye. Wann nun solche Juno in mitten des theatri khombt, da singt
ein ainigs weib gar herrlich, darnach zeuchts widerumb darvon, und
erscheint auf der anndern seiten ein grosser nebl, der sich, so bald er in die
mitl khombt, aufthuet. Und da sind 22. Musici darinen, die singen und
musicirn. Solcher nebl vergeht aber bald, und vonstundan darauf sicht man
die hôll. Khombt der Lucifer, ein greilich monstrum , mit einem grossen hôl-
lischen hauffen, und dem Vulcano, und ist alda ein recht gemachtes feur.
Werden auch schene, aber melancholische Madrigal gesungen.
5. Widerumb verkhôrt sich die prospettiua , und wiirdet ein gar Natürlichs
Meer, darauf erscheinen auf einer nicchia die Meergôttine, und singen ein
schenes Madrigal; bald nach demselben khombt ein ganz ubergolte naue mit
20. personen, das wiirdt [f.25ir] von dem ungestiiemen Meer so geschwind
hin und heer geworffen, das sich zum hôchsten zuverwundern. A uf derselben
Naue ist der Turrenioy und singt allain, da springt ein Delphin hinauf, so Ime
zuhôrt, und tregt Ine hin, geht auch also die Naue welch soil gar schen sein.
6. Die prospettiua verkhôrt sich noch einmal, und scheint alls wanns
lautter guldene gerôr weren. Darnach thuet sich das Paradeyβ auf 3. seiten
auf, und man sicht den Iouem in einer wolckhen, wie Er sich dann darin,
sambt noch 2. anndern wolckhen, herab auf die erden lasset, und sich in ein
gulden rôgen verendert, damit verzeren sich die nebl, doch khomen anndere,
darin 50. Musici. So sind unden auf dem boden 40. anndere Musici, mit
mancherley Inuentionen, die singen, schlagen und Musicirn all zusamen,
tanzen auch daneben, und fiirwent 4. vortanzer. Zu disem Intermedio singt
man 7. Madrigal. Und ist nit zubeschreiben, was es für ein gewaltig ding. Es
khans auch khainer glauben, alls ders sicht.
[f.25iv] Es werden 50. Florentinisch Junge vom Adi geladen und all in
weiβ seiden, mit gulden schnieren gekhlaidt, deren khlaider jedes uber 200.
Δ. gesteht, das sie den Himl oder baldacchino tragen.
{234} M. A. KATRI TZKY
Der GranDucchessa copertina würdt von weip tilleta sein, und mit berlen
auch Edlstain verstegt werden. Welches man auf 150. A.schezt.
Man hellt bey den Pitti ein torneo. Alda sich die Florentinischen vom Adi
mit mancherley Inuentionen sehen lassen. Wann Harnach das banchett
fiiryber, so zeucht man gleich wider an dasselb ordt. Und würdet schon einer
braccio oder Florentiner elln und 2/3 wasser angeloffen und vol sein. Da
haltet man ein schlacht zu wasser: würdt herrlich und verwunderlich
zesechen sein.
Verrer würdet man an Santa Croce ein Calcio di Pallone auf Florentinisch
halten, daryber wol was geht. Gleichsfahls helt man ein Jaid von
manch[er]lay thüeren.
Es send schon 4. Cardinal, und der Herzog von Mantua hie.
[f.252r] Es macht ein Theütscher auf den Abent am Einritt aufm thurn
feurwerch, so ein schon und wunderbarlich ding werden soil.
APPENDIX lb: Bavarian report (translation)
On 30 April 1589, the princess from Lorraine arrived in Florence, and the
grand-duke rode out to meet her with countless gentlemen invited and sum
moned to the wedding, in beautiful liveries. And when they met at the Porta
al Prato, the princess stepped down from her beautifully gilded carriage, and
the Bishop o f Fiesole gave her a cross to kiss. After this, the Archbishop o f
Pisa101 gave the grand-duke102 a crown in a large silver dish, which his
Highness placed on the bride’s head. And when this had taken place, and
they had ridden towards the city to a church, where the Cardinals Gioiosa,
Gonzaga, Colonna and del. Monte waited, then the grand-duke rode in his
coach to the palace,103 and waited there for the bride, who was led to the
palace under a precious canopy, and mounted on a white palfrey which was
covered with an imposing cloth.
[f.245v] This canopy was carried by 60 noble Florentine gentilhuomini,
most magnificently dressed, all in white, as were the bride and groom. The
Duke o f M antua104 rode to the right, and Don Pietro de Medici to the left
side o f the highborn bride, next to the canopy. And behind them the
Duchess o f Brunsw ick.105 Thereafter Don Virginio Ursino Duke o f
Bracciano, and another aristocrat.106 And the same were followed by three
ladies, together with twelve ladies-in-waiting o f the bride, between two old
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTI NE INTERMEDI OF 15 8 9 { 235}
Florentine gentlemen, each on a palfrey. Behind them rode the Márchese

Gianvincenzo Vitelli with a company o f cavalrymen with white armour and
brightly-colored uniforms, trimmed with silver and gold, and with velvet
fastenings. After these rode lastly four captains with four compagnie cavalli
legieri on beautiful horses, and with white armour.
[f.246v] Florentine Entry

[f.248r] Concerning the impressive events, which were arranged in
Florence for the Duchess of Lorraine’s Entry as bride, and then for the
Wedding.
Firstly, at the first gate, called the al Prato, there is a gate like a theatrum,107
on which all o f the grand-Duke’s cities in Tuscany were described and
painted, together with ten panels painted in oils by the most eminent artists,
on which were marvelous things, such as when Florence, the foremost city,
became united with Fiesole, as thereafter also Pisa, Arezzo and other cities
joined them. On the corner called the large Borgo ogni Santi is a very sump
tuous triumphal arch, or arcus triumphalis ,108 with the coats o f arms o f the
grand-Duke and the House o f Lorraine, together with nine oil panels, on
which are painted the complete family trees of the Kings o f France, as also of
the House of Lorraine and the late Grand-Duke Cosimo. On the bridge called
Sta. Trinita there stand on one side Grand-Duke Cosimo the younger and
Cosimo de Medici the elder, on [L 2 4 8 V ] the other side Charles the Great and
Charles V, all made o f stucco, and beautiful to behold. At the Canto de
Carnesecchi is another wonderful arcus triumphalis 109 with ten really lovely
panels in oil, on which are painted King Godfrey’s deeds, during his conquest
of Jerusalem, together with other things concerning the Kings o f France.
At the Cathedral, outside an elegant and ornate wooden monument has
been erected,110 so beautifully painted, and noteworthy on it is the General
Council, at the time when the [Orthodox] Greeks and the Catholics made
their agreement and united. Also o f Sixtus being crowned as Pope, and fur
thermore how the same church was handed over, together with other
catholic property, as ordained by our Popes and Florentine saints. All these
then were o f terra-cotta, and beside them the Florentine coat-of-arms, beau
tifully made. Inside the church is a monumental column,111 with admirable
relief. And on the high altar, a monument has been prepared like a cloud, in
which [f.249r] sixteen musicians have to stand, and the said cloud opens,
{236} M. A. KATRITZKY
and an angel most gracefully comes out from it, in order to crown the ducal
bride. Exceptionally good music was heard throughout, with 2 organs, 2
music stands and 5 choirs. Such provisions are said to have cost over 5000
D[ucats]. At the Canto de’Bischeri is an arcus triumphalis 112 o f King Philip’s
campaigns against the Turks, and Don Giovan o f Austria’s sea battle. Also o f
Emperor Charles V ’s defeat o f the Turkish siege. Is a very fine thing. At the
Canto delle farine is another arcus triumphalis ,113 with four panels. On them
all the Medici noblemen are painted, with wonderful rhymes o f their deeds.
At the grand-ducal palace,114 a very ornate gold-work gate115 has been
erected, on which is a panel on which [an allegory of] Grand-Duke Cosimo
crowning Tuscany has been wonderfully painted. And here also are on two
other panels, how Pius V crowned Duke Cosimo in Rome, and on the
second, how, after the death of the [f.249v] same, the next-deceased Duke
Francesco was the Florentine nominated, and crowned as grand-duke. Inside
the palace everything is prepared in the most expensive way, with velvets and
silks o f many colors.
Thus Siennese actors, called Li intronati, will stage a comedy, La
Pellegrina,, at which there will be the following intermedi:
1. Firstly a magnificent large room has been very divertingly decorated
with gold and diverse colours. There, a red curtain is lowered, and the scene
will be covered with another, blue, curtain. In the middle o f this stands an
armchair, in which an Idea sings, splendidly singing solo, and gradually,
gradually, so that one does not immediately notice it, she disappears into a
group o f rocks made for this purpose, and in an instant the curtain disap
pears. The heavens quickly open up, and the scene is open. Then one can see
into the paradise on three sides, and four clouds rise in very impressive
fashion from the ground, rise with beautiful singing up towards [f.25or] the
heaven, and thereafter disappear. Additionally, one hears splendid madrigals
and music, as there are forty-four singers in this intermedio , and all manner
of instruments. As soon as it is finished, the scene turns around, and one
sees the whole city painted.
2. The scene is turned again, and nothing but mountains, cliffs and foun
tains appear, and a hill grows up out o f the earth in which 18 musicians sing
most excellently. And as soon as one madrigal is finished, the hill quickly
turns toward the scene, and turns into two caves or large hollows, such as
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTINE INTERMEDI OF 15 8 9 {237}
there are in the hills, out o f each o f which twelve musicians are once again
splendidly heard.
3. The scene is turned once again, and thirty-six musicians come out,
with unusual inventions ,116 and with four dancers. And while they are just
singing, out o f a cave, or antro , emerges a gruesome monster, which the
dancers and musicians dispatch with their singing. After this a magnificent
dance is held, to music. Is said to be a very lovely intermedium.
[f.250v] 4. The scene is turned again once more, and Juno appears in the
air, in a triumphal cart being drawn by two animals. And it is so exceptionally
attached that one cannot notice or see where, or onto what. When the afore
mentioned Juno gets to the middle of the stage, one solitary woman sings
most wonderfully, after which she goes away again, and on the other side a
great fog appears which, as soon as it reaches the middle, opens up. And there
are twenty-two musicians inside it, who sing and play. But the fog soon disap
pears, and from this time on one sees hell. Lucifer comes, a gruesome
monster with a large hellish band, and Vulcan, and there is a convincingly
constructed fire there. Beautiful but melancholy madrigals are also sung.
5. Again the scene turns, to become an entirely realistic sea, on which the
sea-goddesses appear out o f a niche, and sing a lovely madrigal. Soon after
this comes a completely gilded ship with twenty people. That is [f.25ir]
thrown hither and thither so quickly by the stormy sea, that it is most aston
ishing. On this same ship is Turrenio, and he sings solo, then a dolphin
which is listening to him jumps up, and carries him hence, and then the
ship, which is said to be most beautiful, also goes.
6. The scene turns once again, and seems to be nothing but golden tubes.
Thereupon, the paradise opens on three sides, and one sees Jove in a cloud,
in which he is coming down to the ground, together with two other clouds,
and changes himself into a golden shower. With this, the fog disappears, but
others come, in them fifty musicians. There are forty other musicians down
on the ground, with various inventions , who sing, play and make music
together, to which they also dance, and in front go four dance-masters. Seven
madrigals are sung to this intermedio , and it is indescribable, what a power
ful thing it is. No one can believe it, either, except he who sees it.
[f.25iv] Fifty young Florentine noblemen are to be invited to carry the
canopy or baldacchino, and all dressed in white silk, with golden fastenings,
whose outfits will cost over 200 D. each. The decorative cloth for the Grand
Duchess’s horse is to be o f white “ tilletta,” and to be embroidered with
pearls, also jewels, which is estimated at 150 D.
By the Pitti Palace a torneo is to be held, at which the Florentine nobility
will display various “ inventions.” When afterwards the banquet is finished,
one will immediately go back to the same place again and already one and
two-thirds braccios or Florentine yards o f water will have poured in and it
will be full. There a battle will take place in the water: it will be magnificent
and astounding to watch.
Furthermore, a Calcio di pallone in the Florentine manner is planned at
Santa Croce, which is not to be outdone. Similarly a hunt o f various animals
is to be held.
Four cardinals and the Duke o f Mantua are already here.
[f.252r] A German is to make fireworks on the tower on the evening of
the entry, which is to be a beautiful and astonishing event.
APPENDIX II: Diary of Gadenstedt117
On 2 M ay or Tuesday, the comedy was played. Is said to have cost over

80,000 crowns, which is easily believed by those who saw it, including the
Germans who, at the grand-dukes command, had been freely allowed into
the hall, where the comedy was held and where other tournaments were to
take place, on showing a token which each o f them had to demand from the
commanding officer of the German auxiliaries, a nobleman o f the house of
Trautmansdorff. This comedy was played by the Siennese actors called Gli
Intronati. The comedy was called La pellegrina , and was itself rather poor.
But the intermedi between the acts, when an act was finished, were exceed
ingly splendid, and, to those who have not see the like, almost unbelievable. I
would like [p. 671] to mention the comedy, and especially the intermedi, even
though they cannot be described as they ought to be.
Originally, a great hall under the Galleria in Florence was assigned to this
comedy by the grand-duke. In this hall, many thousands o f people could be
accommodated, and everyone was able to watch the comedy properly. This
hall is quite exceptional. The ceiling above was painted with gold, silver and
many colors. From this hung twelve large, beautiful crowns, on which an
abundance o f wax candles were mounted, and right around great candelabra
on all sides, on which thick lights like torches were mounted and thereafter
lit, in order that one could see that much better, because as soon as the
comedy was to begin, all the lights, o f which there were many thousands in
the hall (because it was as high as a vaulted church), were lit, the windows
having been closed, so that daylight could not shine in. The site or stage118
on which the comedy was played was also six ells higher than the hall in
which the spectators were, so that one could see it that much better. In front
of this raised site, a red silk cloth had been pulled right across, so that one
should not see onto the stage on which the comedy was played, before it
began. As soon as a sign was given to start the comedy, the red cloth was
quickly drawn aside, and a blue silk cloth stayed, in which cloth, up in the
middle, a woman playing a lute sat in a splendid gilt chair, decently clad in a
silk dress like a goddess, surrounded by a white cloud, who started singing so
delightfully, at the same time plucking her lute, that everyone said it would
be impossible that a human voice could be so delightful. Furthermore, she
so moved the feelings o f all the spectators with her singing that it is inde
scribable. During this singing she was let down so gradually from up above
that one could hardly notice it, so that no one knew how it took place, as
then throughout in the intermedi o f this comedy such letting down and
pulling up took place very skillfully, at which everyone was amazed. After
this woman or goddess had come right down to the ground with the cloud,
during which she sung to the end a well-composed piece or madrigal, she
disappeared, and the blue cloth was also pulled away in an instant, so that
one looked onto the stage o f the comedians, on which the comedy was to be
played, [p. 672] as if one was looking into the clouds. Thus the scene up
above, and to half-height, was surrounded by very realistically made and
painted clouds. Then the clouds up in the heights moved apart, as if the
heavens were opening, in which many musicians were sitting, dressed like
angels, surrounded by lights (for lights splendidly decorated this scene).
They played, struck and blew very delightfully on harps, lutes, violas, trum
pets and all sorts o f instruments, to which they also sang delightfully (such
that Gotfriedt von Berbsdorff, who sat next to me, said that in his opinion it
would be like this in heaven too, and was, as it were, a fore-taste o f the
joyous music which the holy angels make in heaven) so that it was to be
wondered at, and an unheard o f production. Down on the ground were two
blue clouds mixed with white, in which musicians also sat, who harmonized
with those at the top in the heavens. They separated, and all played beautiful
madrigals with many voices set to separate parts, composed for these nup
tials in homage o f the grand-duke. The above-mentioned two clouds were
pulled into the heights from the ground, also so gradually that one could
hardly notice it, up to the top cloud, into which they disappeared, and then
the heavens immediately closed. But the vault up above the actors’ stage
remained covered with blue clouds throughout the whole comedy. Also
remarkable was the skill with which it was arranged that the clouds which
were up in the vault moved like real clouds. It also looked as though the real
moon and many stars hung in the clouds, which rotated and moved. In this
intermedia there were around 100 musicians, who made music very harm o
niously together, also very skillfully, because the Grand-duke had contracted
the most distinguished musicians in Italy to participate in this performance.
When the heaven, as noted, had closed, the scene made a half-turn, and
quickly changed into the shape and form o f how one commonly paints the
city o f [SPACE],119 on which the comedians then started to act the first act,
and they came in and out, out o f the doors in the scene, as though out o f
houses.
II. When the first act was finished, the scene again changed on all [p. 673]
three sides, as if into a pleasure garden which one could see to be decorated
with many and different flowers. On which, from below, out o f the ground, a
considerable hill very gradually grew out and up, green, and with flowers
growing all over it. On the peak o f the hill sat one who represented the
person Parnassus (de quo poetce), playing a harp, right around whom
twenty-four goddesses sat in nice orderly fashion on the hill, playing all sorts
o f instruments. Soon the scene opened at the sides, next to this hill, in the
shape o f two small hills, so that the highest hill, which came up from below,
stood in the middle. On each o f these two hills sat twelve musicians in very
orderly fashion with all sorts of instruments, and accompanied the twenty-
four musicians on the high hill, so that there were forty-eight o f them in
total, pleasing and delightful to hear. After this music was performed, the
high hill subsided again, and the two little hills also turned round again, the
scene changed as if into houses again, and they played the second act.
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTINE INTERMEDI OF 15 8 9 {24I}
III. When the second act was finished, the scene changed into the shape of
an attractive wood, most skilfully and delicately painted with various shady
trees and bushes. Thirty-six musicians came onto the stage, dressed in a
variety o f ways, with all sorts o f instruments, and on them played several
dances o f unusual types, composed to grace the comedy. O f these thirty-six
musicians, eighteen were divided off on each side, who danced facing each
other, and on each side two exceptionally famous dance-masters were
appointed to them, who led the dance, because they danced the best. From
below, from out o f the ground, came out a horrible, gruesome, large
monster or animal in the shape of a great dragon, spewed out fire, had large
wings, with which it made a loud clamor, ugly claws on its feet, and proved
to be very frightening. It rushed towards the musicians and dancers, just as if
it wanted to swallow them with opened jaws, because o f which they play a
piece shaking as if with fear. Meanwhile the dancers approached the animal,
jumped around this animal with great agility, fought with the same, finally
pierced the same, so that it fell to the ground, twisting this way and that,
and fell dead with a great cla-[p. 674] -tter, again into the hole out of which it
had emerged. After this, out o f happiness, the dancers additionally per
formed a joyful dance, they exited from the stage again. This was one o f the
most beautiful intermedi, and the third act started.
IV. When they wanted to start the third act, the scene was again trans
formed into the city o f Pisa, where they then completed the third act. Up in
the air, one saw the goddess Juno drawn nearer in a splendid gilded chariot
constructed like a triumphal cart, the chariot was drawn by three dragons.
When the chariot was in the middle o f the stage, up under the clouds, it
came to a standstill, and the goddess Juno (who, in my opinion, was the
woman who had sung in the blue clouds at the beginning o f the comedy)
sang a lovely delightful piece. When this was finished, the chariot was pulled
further by the dragons, right to the other side, and there disappeared in the
clouds. Soon after, from the same side and place out o f which the chariot
came, the chariot was followed by a large closed cloud, in which music was
made. When the same also arrived in the middle of the stage, it stood still,
both sides divided apart, inside sat twenty-four musicians making music.
When this had taken place, the cloud closed up again, the musicians contin
ued to make music, very softly, as if it came from afar in the clouds, it was
delightful to hear. Meanwhile it gradually went away, right up to the other

side, and disappeared there like the chariot. These two pieces were very skil
fully done, so that no one could recognize how it could ever be possible that
something like this could be staged, or how something like this could have
taken place so publicly in the open air. After this cloud disappeared, the
scene changed again, and appeared gruesome, like fiery flames. Furthermore,
soon the ground also opened below, out o f which blazed a mass of flames,
and one could see into it, as if into a glowing furnace, or into Hell, as it was
intended to represent Hell. Out o f this, the devil soon came out, made horri
bly large and frightening, with open jaws, monstrous body and ugly hands.
In whose bosom sat many small devils, dressed like him, who sprang from
his bosom, danced around him. These same caught numerous small boys
and girls, as naked as they came from their mothers’ wombs, who had been
ordered to do this, and ran around on the stage, [p. 675] and pushed some o f
them between the devil’s jaws, who swallowed them, threw some o f them
into Hell. Meanwhile, thirty-six musicians come forth from one half o f the
scene, horribly dressed, how one paints the Furias infernales, the hellish god
desses, sit down on chairs which rose up from the ground in a ring around
the devil, and played two pieces. But these pieces were composed very dole
fully, pitiably and melancholically, as if they were half crying. They were
doleful to hear. After the same were finished, the devil went down into hell
again, as did the chairs on which the musicians sat, hell closed again, the
musicians went away again, the scene was transformed again into houses
and the fourth act started. This was certainly an ingenious intermedi, but
moreover very frightening to watch.
V. After the fourth act had been completed, the scene turned, so that it
looked like a m ountain range with rock cliffs, moss and brooks (like cliffs by
the sea generally are, in some places). The ground everywhere was tran s-
formed into a sea, moving as if it were swayed by wind. O ut of this sea, in
the middle, lifted up fairly high, one saw the aforesaid woman, who could
sing so well, clad like a siren, below like a fish, above like a beautiful maiden
with long delicate blond hair, towards whom came twelve sirens out of each
half of the sea. They sat somewhat lower, also in similar dress, sung together
very delightfully, after which they sank into the sea. Immediately a gilded
and ingeniously constructed ship came halfway out of the scenery onto the
ABY WARBURG AND THE FLORENTINE INTERMEDI OF 15 8 9 {2 4 3 }
sea, fitted out with masts, sails, rigging and other things which belong to
ships. The ship was tossed to and fro by the sea, to the astonishment o f the
spectators. On this ship sat twenty-four musicians, who played and sang to
this. After this had finished, the sailor up on the mast, who sang a wonderful
tenor, started to sing a solo, he had mastered the art o f knowing the right
time for coloratura, was also diverting to listen to. After he had finished
singing the piece, a large dolphin or porpoise came out o f the sea, which lis
tened to the music. The said sailor jumped onto this porpoise, and lowered
himself into the sea on the dolphin, [p. 676] The musicians in the ship made
music delightfully, rode around the sea three times in the ship, after which
they sailed back again to the place from whence they had come, the ground
closed again, the scene was transformed into the form o f the city again, and
the fifth act started. Intermedium Miraculosipimum.
VI. After the fifth and last act had been completed, the scene was finally
transformed into clouds again. They shone splendidly, as if the clouds were
raining gold. And the clouds up in the heights again separated out, as at the
beginning o f the comedy, so that one could see into the heaven or paradise,
where then again numerous musicians in angelic clothing sat making music
with all manner of instruments, and singing delightfully to it. Three other
clouds came down next to each other out of the paradise (up in which nev
ertheless many musicians stayed). In the middle cloud sat the god Jupiter
with eighteen people dressed like gods, somewhat higher than the rest. At his
right hand one cloud, and at his left hand the other cloud, in each o f which
also sat eighteen people, all with their instruments, and dressed in a variety
o f Inventions o f the gods. These three clouds descended very slowly and
gradually, although the middle one always remained slightly higher then the
two others, it was fine to behold. And meanwhile a lovely madrigal was per
formed, until at last fifty other musicians came onto the stage down below,
also dressed in several fashions and inventions. At the same time the four
previously-noted dance-masters also came onto the stage, the musicians
played several galliards and Italian dance-tunes, whereupon these four
dance-masters, the best in all Italy, gave a demonstration of their mastery
and skill in dancing, so that everyone had to recognize them as accom
plished dancers. When the dance was over, all o f the musicians, those up in
the heaven, as also those in the three clouds, likewise the fifty, all
commenced to perform together, three pieces or madrigals divided into

several parts, so delightful and wonderful that the same cannot be described.
Likewise should someone who otherwise has neither much to do with, nor
much interest in, music, travel many miles for it (if he could hear or see the
like), [p. 678] he would not regret it, as it was almost more an angelic (in a
manner o f speaking [>] than a human performance to see, and to hear.
There were said to have been around 150 musicians altogether, whose several
and different instruments were all simultaneously and perfectly harm o

niously in tune with each other, including the singing voices used at the
same time. As already partially indicated, these musicians were appointed by
the duke o f Florence as the most renowned in Italy, and ordered to Florence
at great expense. Because Italian music is certainly very celebrated, all who
understand and appreciate music can judge for themselves and reflect on
what sort o f music this was. When these musicians had thus concluded all
three madrigals, the heaven closed again, the three clouds disappeared into
the ground, and the red cloth was instantaneously pulled forward again, so
that one could no longer see onto the stage, and with this the comedy was
concluded and completed. The splendour and great ingenuity o f these inter
medi cannot be fittingly described, and those who have not seen this super
human performance cannot imagine how it could be possible. But there
were over a hundred Germans there who watched this, quite apart from
other nations, as witness I have from this place Anthonies von der
Streithorst, at present Brunswick ducal privy councillor in Wolfenbüttel.
Over 300 people were ordered by the grand-duke to help with this perfor
mance (because it is said to have been controlled with screws and ropes).
The acting o f this comedy started at around 22 hours, lasted into the night
until 5 hours, seven long hours. We would have appreciated the opportunity
[to see] how this could have been produced, but it was strictly forbidden to
grant anyone permission to see this. This then is the description o f the
comedy, or rather, the intermedi o f the comedy.
APPENDIX III: Diary of anonymous Frenchman120
On Tuesday 2 May, 1589 the Duchess o f Tuscany stopped wearing her French
clothes and there was sent to her by the Grand Duke an [f.65r] Italian outfit
ABY W A R B U R G A N D THE FLOREN TINE INTE RME DI OF 1589 { 245}
which she wore that same day to the comedy which was played. The dress
was nevertheless according to the Florentine fashion, and was o f cloth o f
silver. Since this day she has always worn her clothes according to the
Florentine fashion, as have also all those ladies-in-waiting who have been
given to her to stay with her, all Italian.
On the said 2 M ay the comedy was played, which was considered the
most beautiful which had ever been presented. The expenditure for it was
huge, because it cost the Duke more than sixty million ducats. There were
more than two hundred people, musicians as well as others, who took part
in the comedy. It was played in a large hall expressly adapted for this
purpose. Although the windows were closed, it was as bright as outside,
because on two sides o f the hall there were two rows o f torches, twelve in
each, which gave out a great light. It started at around 12 o’clock French
time, and finished at around eight o’clock in the evening. The ladies were on
two sides o f the hall on scaffolding in the form o f a theatre which had been
specially constructed. In the middle o f the hall were the men. The comedy
was titled La pellegrina and was played by Siennese noblemen. For every act
o f the comedy there was an intermedio which was admirable.
The first. In the front o f the stage, which is very big and high, there were
two curtains which concealed the whole stage. When they wanted to start,
immediately [f.65v] the first, which was red, fell to the floor. The second,
which was sky blue, stayed. Right in the middle o f this one appeared a donne
who was seated on a cloud holding a lute in her hand, who sang and little by
little descended down to the stage, where she disappeared forthwith. She
played and sang so well that everyone admired her, and at the end o f her
song there appeared an echo which accompanied her, who seemed to be very
far from the stage, a mile or so. When she had disappeared, the second
curtain rose to the rafters, and revealed the open paradise with its clouds in
the air, one in the middle and two others on the two sides, all full o f musi
cians and players o f instruments, totalling more than fifty in number, who
played and made music so well that everyone admired it. After they had
played for a long time, little by little the clouds returned and rose again into
the sky and disappeared in an instant, and then the sky appeared in some
places to be very foggy because o f the clouds and in others light and shining,
and stars appeared. This was all done with such artifice that there did not
seem to be anything anywhere. The stage turned in an instant: the scene

changed and another stage appeared, which represented the city o f Pisa.
At the 2nd act the scene o f the stage changed again, and seemed to be
high mountains and gardens and fountains, and little by little appeared
[f.66r] sixteen seated nymphs holding lutes and violas in their hands. There
appeared on the other side a cavern from which came out nine nymphs who
discussed amongst themselves who could sing the best. They sang several
different songs. In an instant most o f these nymphs were transformed into

magpies, who traversed the stage singing and looking for places to hide
themselves and keep away from the presence o f men; wells, gardens and
fountains so cleverly made that one more-or-less could not notice anything.
At the 3rd act the stage changed and there appeared on it as many men as
women, to the number o f thirty-six, with lutes and other types o f instru
ment, who sang various very sad songs and related the problems, and even
deaths, which had come their way through a serpent which plagued the
whole country, and even their dwellings. And while they sang this song, this
serpent came out o f a cave, who, with very frightening roars blew fire from
his jaws, nose and ears onto the stage. Then a man descended from the sky,
armed with a bow and arrows so artfully that he could not be seen until he
was on the stage, where he fought the serpent for a long time with his
arrows, with one o f which he brought the serpent to the ground. After the
death o f the serpent everyone returned together, and sang songs as a sign of
their happiness, which were pleasant to hear. And thus singing and playing
their instruments they returned from where they had come, and imm edi
ately the stage changed its shape.
The fourth act. Before the stage changed, there appeared a chariot with
four wheels drawn by two dragons. [f.66v] And in the chariot sat a done ,
holding in her right hand a globe, and in the other hand the reins o f the
dragons’ bridles. The dragons pulled the chariot to around half-way down
the stage, and there she stopped them and dropped the reins, placed her
globe down, and took a lute which she had in her chariot, sang and played
on the same for a considerable time, and an infinity o f other voices and
instruments answered her. Others say that by her singing she called forth
the demons who were in the air, and after putting down the lute, took her
globe again, and the reins o f the dragons’ bridles and continued on her path
ABY W A R B U R G A N D THE FLOR ENTINE INTERMEDI OF 1589 { 247}
until she had disappeared. It is notable that during all o f this the work o f no
stagehands could be seen, or any machinery, and the chariot and dragons
appeared to move as if they were on the ground. After they had disappeared,
a large cloud appeared in the air, o f a round shape, which went as far as the
middle o f the stage, where it stopped, divided into two, and in the inside o f it
could be seen more than fifty demons, singing and playing their instru
ments. It had inside it such an intense light and such a large number o f
people that everyone marvelled at how it could have been possible for all
this to be suspended in the air without seeing ropes, or any people to control
them. Most o f the spectators thought that they were angels, especially since
their clothes and ornaments appeared [f.67r] as if they were meant to repre
sent them, but they were wrong, because I was assured that they were
intended as demons, which this woman had earlier called forth. The inside
o f the cloud was so gilded and shining and beautiful to see that most said
that it was a representation o f paradise, and after the cloud re-closed, and
continued on its way, as had the chariot, and disappeared, the stage immedi
ately changed its shape, and mountains, caverns, fires and flames appeared,
and represented hell with two groups o f devils, each o f whom had his face
and hands stained with blood, and snakes around his head and arms. Hell
was represented completely on fire, which lasted for a considerable time on
the stage, and in hell several souls who were being tortured, for whose repre
sentation there were thirty-five or forty completely nude children, aged nine,
ten and twelve. Lucifer was at the centre o f Hell, who half showed himself,
with a large head with three faces, holding souls in the mouth o f each o f
these. The devils took souls from both sides, and carried them to Lucifer.
While he devoured one o f them, two others escaped from him, who were
caught again by the devils and carried to Lucifer, who devoured them imme
diately. Charon in his boat ferried and re-ferried the souls across, and the
whole thing was represented so well that it horrified the audience. There
were also some rocks on which were the devils who sang and howled and
moaned [f.67r] which were very plaintive, and little by little the whole hell
disappeared, as if everything had withdrawn into the ground, because after
wards the stage changed to another form.
At the fifth act the stage was changed to rock, mountains, and a sea with
waves which bore a strong resemblance to reality, a little later there appeared
in the middle, among the waves, a large niche in the shape o f a mother-of-
pearl shell, which gradually rose until it had reached the height o f at least
four “ braces,” and three in breadth, in which was a sea goddess completely
covered in pearls and an infinity o f jewels, with several branches o f coral
and a crown on her head. When she had emerged from the sea, there also
gradually emerged some tritons and nymphs to the number o f twenty-eight,
in two groups. When they had all risen from the sea, the goddess com
menced to play her lute and sing, and the others accompanied her with all
sorts o f instruments, which were pleasant to hear. After having sung and
played their instruments for a long time, they returned into the waves o f the
sea, such that one gradually lost sight o f them. The sea seemed to be without
anything except the waves, which appeared to come and go as on the open
sea, and soon thereafter a galley came on the sea, fifteen paces in length, with
a mast and sails; inside it were more than twenty-five people. The galley
made four or five circuits in the sea without anyone being visible to work
machines for it. When it arrived in front o f the duke and duchess, the sailors
lowered [f.68r] down the sails, climbed and descended the rigging, as they
do on the open sea in great ships. When they had stopped, the captain of the
galley started to play a harp and sing, and two echoes accompanied him, one
after the other, in such a way that one could have said that the echo was over
two miles away, it seemed to be so far from the stage and from the sea, as if it
had come come from a cave or a cavern. While he sang, the sailors plotted
against him in order to kill him, and when he realized this, he threw himself
into the sea and was taken by a dolphin which had been close to the galley in
order to hear the music, and carried him up to the shore on his back. The
sailors, thinking that he had drowned, started to sing as a sign o f their rejoic
ing, blew trumpets and bugles, set the sails, made three or four circuits on
the stage, then they went by the same path by which they had come, and
immediately the sea and the waves disappeared and the scene changed.
At the sixth and last act the stage changed and seemed to be completely
covered with sheets and strips o f gold, with a music so lovely that everyone
admired it, because o f the great number o f people who made it, and because
o f the harmony which was between them, the diversity o f the instruments.
During this music, above the stage at a height o f about one and a half lances,
the paradise opened, in which there were a great number o f people who
ABY W A R B U R G A N D THE FLO RENTINE INTERM EDI OF 1589 { 249 }
represented the gods of [f.68v] the pagans with seven clouds which
descended onto the stage, in each of which was a great num ber of musicians
and instrumentalists. They all came out of the said clouds. After having sung
and danced, they all went back into their clouds, and gradually re-ascended
up to the sky, and so skillfully that one lost sight of them, without anyone at
all appearing for any of the ropes or other things necessary for this ascent.
In order to make this music, the grand-duke had searched out all the
cleverest men of Italy, and so the comedy was completed. And it was staged
five times: the first time as a rehearsal, the second, at which I was, for the
arrival of the grand-duchess. On this day the done of Florence were very
strongly represented there, with an infinity of jewelry. The third time for the
Florentine and foreign gentlemen who had come for the wedding, the fourth
for the common people and the courtiers of Florence. On that day with the
Venetian and Genoese ambassadors who had come to congratulate the
grand-duke on his marriage (I went there with them); and the fifth time on
the arrival of the ambassador of Spain, who arrived after the wedding for the
same reason as the other ambassadors.
notes
1 My thanks to the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (Fellowship 1996,1997,

1998, 1999); the H arold Hyam W ingate Foundation (W ingate Scholarship
1996-7,1998-99); and Alexander von H umboldt Foundation (Fellowship 1997-98,
Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Universitàt M ünchen, hosts: Professors
Christopher Balme and Hans-Peter Bayerdórfer) for supporting this research;
to Jill Bepler, Julian Brooks, Philippe Büttgen, Eva Engel-Holland, Marie-Laure
Lartigue, Elizabeth M cGrath, O uti Merisalo, W illiam Twining and Richard
Woodfield; and to Dr. C ram er-Fürtig (Bayerisches H auptstaatsarchiv,
M ünchen); the DAAD and Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation (Fellowships to
G erm any and Venice: 1996, 1997); and the British Academy (Research,
Conference and Travel Grants: 1995,1996,1997). Otherwise unattributed transla-
tions are mine, and are intended only as a guide to the originals.
2 Jacob Burckhardt, Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien , Berlin, n.d. (1st ed.
i860), 263: “Das italienische Festwesen in seiner h ôhern Form ist ein w ahrer
Übergang aus dem Leben in die Kunst”
3 Aby W arburg, “I C ostum i teatrali per gli interm ezzi del 1589. I disegni di
Bernardo B uontalenti e il Libro di C onti di Emilio de’ Cavalieri,” A tti
dell'Accademia del Regio Istituto Musicale di Firenze, 1895: Commemorazione
della Riforma Melodrammatica, 23,1895,133-46; Warburg, “I C ostum i teatrali per

gli interm ezzi del 1589,” in: Gesammelte Schriften, I (Die Erneuerung der
Heidnischen Antike: Kulturwissenschaftliche Beitrage zur Geschichte der
Europâischen Renaissance), 2 vols, ed. F. R ougem ont and G. Bing (Leipzig and
Berlin 1932), 259-300 & 394-438 [281]: “Zwischenformen zwischen dem wirk-
lichen Leben und dram atischer Kunst”
4 M atthew Rampley, “From symbol to allegory: Aby W arburgs theory of art,” A rt
Bulletin, 79, 1997, 41-55 [46]; Aby W arburg, Ausgewahlte Schriften und
Würdigungen, ed. D. Wuttke, (Baden-Baden 1992); La rinascita del paganesimo

antico, (La nuova Italia 1966), 59-107
5 Theatre Iconography issues of Biblioteca Teatrale (19/20,1990 & 36/37,1996, ed.
Cesare Molinari) and Theatre Research International (22,1997, eds R. L. Erenstein
and Laurence Senelick); Thom as F. Heck (ed.), Picturing Performance. The
Iconography o f the Performing Arts in Concept and Practice, (Rochester 1999)
6 E. H. Gombrich, Aby Warburg, an intellectual biography, (Oxford 1986 [1st ed.
1970]) 40,50
7 Gombrich, Warburg, 221
8 Gombrich, Warburg, 16, 27,43-4,87, 270-1,307; Johann Konrad Eberlein, “Inhalt
u nd Gehalt: Die ikonographisch-ikonologische Methode,” in: Hans Belting et al
(eds) Kunstgeschichte, eine Einführung, (Berlin 1988 [1st ed. 1985]), 169-190
[178-183]; Rampley 1997,52
9 Gombrich, Warburg, 85; in early 1894, according to A. M. Meyer, “Concerning
W arburg’ s “Costum i Teatrali” and Angelo Solerti,” Journal o f the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes, 50,1987,171-188 and plates [173]
10 Iain Fenlon, Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua, 2 vols
(Cambridge 1980), I, p. 37; Gunhild Niggestich-Kretzmann, Die Intermezzi des
italienischen Renaissancetheaters (G ottingen 1968); Elena Povoledo,
“Intermezzo,” Enciclopedia dello spettacolo, 9 vols (Rome 1954-62), VI, columns
572-581.
11 Lodovico Dolce, Le Troiane, 1566 (as noted by Helen Purkis, “II rapporto tra gli
interludi e Topera teatrale nell’Italia del sedicesimo secolo,” Letterature moderne,
10 (i960), 802-815 (p. 812 n.2); Lionardo Salviati, II Granchio, 1566, introduction
(as noted by Cornelia Baehrens, The origin o f the masque (G roningen 1929),
p. 124); Alessandro Ceccherelli, preface to d ’A m bras La Cofanaria (as noted in
N ino P irrotta and Elena Povoledo, Li due Orfei. Da Poliziano a Monteverdi
(Torino 1975), p. 203; and ibid., Music and Theatre from Poliziano to Monteverdi
(C am bridge, 1982), p. 176); G iovanni M aria de’ Crescimbeni, D e’ Comentarj
intorno alVistoria della volgar Poesía, I (Rome 1702), p. 210.
12 G. Giannini, “O rigini del dram m a musicale,” II Propugnatore, 1 (1893), 209-61,
391-424 (pp. 239-40); Baehrens, 1929, chapter IV; Helen Purkis, “Le origini dell’-
intermezzo in Italia,” Convivium, n.s.25 (1957), 479-83; Purkis, i960; Niggestich-

Kretzmann, 1968, p. 2.
13 Denis Arnold, “Con ogni sorte di stromenti,” Early Music, 4 (1976), 167-171 (p.
168); Balthasar Stumfall, Das Marchen von Amor und Psyche in seinem fortleben
in der franzosischen, italienischen und spanischen Literatur bis zum
18.Jahrhundert (Leipzig 1907), p. 44.
14 O.G. Sonneck, “A description of Alessandro Striggio and Francesco Corteccia’s
interm edi ‘Psyche and A m or’, 1565” [first published 1911], in: Miscellaneous
studies in the history o f music (New York, 1921), 269-286 (p. 271); E. D ent and
F. Sternfeld, “Music and Drama,” in New Oxford History o f Music, IV (The Age o f
H um anism 1540-1630), ed. G. Abraham , (Oxford 1968), 784-820 (p. 787);
Pirrotta and Povoledo, 1982, p. 182.
15 Pirrotta and Povoledo, 1982, p. 182.
16 Crescimbeni, 1702, p. 212.
17 W arburg/Bing, GS, p. 423.
18 Angelo Solerti, Gli albori del melodramma, 3 vols (M ilan, Palermo, Naples,
[1904-5]), I, p. 5; John Cunliffe, “Italian prototypes of the masque and dum b
show,” Publications o f the Modern Language Association, 22 (1907), 140-156
(p. 153); M argherita Sergardi, Lingua scenica e terminología teatrale nel
Cinquecento, s.l. [Edizioni internazionali la nuova Europa], 1988,77
19 Paul Kafno, quoted by Peter Freedm an, “At last the 1589 show,” The Evening
Standard (14 December 1990), p. 47.
20 Gombrich, Warburg, 140 (“Trtiffelschweindienste”).
21 Volume C.B.3.53, vol. 2
22 An overview to festival research is being actively consolidated by reference works,
notably Helen W atanabe-O ’Kelly and Anne Simon (eds.), Festivals and
Ceremonies. A bibliography o f works relating to court, civic and religious festivals in
Europe 1500-1800 (London, 2000), and by international research groups such as
Europa Triumphans , a multidisciplinary enquiry into renaissance court festivals
led by Helen W atanabe-O’Kelly, Ronnie Mulryne and Margaret Shewring
23 Una “stravaganza” dei Medici, London, EMI, 1988, with notes by Hugh Keyte,
“Intermedi for La Pellegrina.”
24 Freedm an, 1990; Ian Stones, “Electronic Renaissance,” Opera Now, 14 (May
1990), 36-39
25 G ertrud Bing’s additions to W arburg’s article (in W arburg/Bing, GS), some
based on W arburg’s notes, m any the result of independent research, constitute a
m ajor contribution to the field. Annam aria Testaverde Matteini, “L’officina delle
nuvole. II Teatro Mediceo nel 1589 e gli Intermedi del Buontalenti nel Memoriale
di G irolamo Seriacopi,” Musica e Teatro (Quaderni degli amici della Scala),
vols.11/12,1991 (this publication, not referenced by Saslow, appends a complete
{ 252} M. A. KATRITZKY
transcription of Seriacopi’s Memoriale); James Saslow, The Medici wedding o f

1589, Florentine festival as “theatrum m undi”y New Haven & London 1996. Jean
Jacquot (“C urrent projects,” Research opportunities in Renaissance Drama, 3,
1957, pp. 11-14; “Les fêtes de Florence [1589]. Quelques aspects de leur mise en
scèn e” Theatre Research / Recherches Theatrales, 3, 1961, 157-176, p. 174 n.3),
paying tribute to W arburg’s “now classic study on the subject,” announced
several forthcom ing volumes on the 1589 Medici wedding festivities in the series
“Le C h œ ur des Muses,” in preparation by himself, in collaboration w ith
Roselyne Bacou, Sylvie Beguin, Ida Maier and D. R Walker, in which “special
emphasis will be placed on the dram atic productions.” Only the first of these
planned volumes appeared (Daniel Pickering Walker (éd.), Les Fêtes du mariage
de Ferdinand de Médicis et de Christine de Lorrains, Florence, 1589. Vol. I,
Musique des Intermèdes deuLa Pellegrina,” Paris, 1963).
26 The literature is vast, and only references specifically used here are noted. Agne
Beijer, “Visions célestes et infernales dans le théâtre du moyen-age et de la
renaissance” in: ed. Jean Jacquot, Les fêtes de la renaissance (Paris 1956), 405-417;
G ünter Berghaus, “Theatre perform ance at Italian renaissance festivals: m ulti-
média spectacles or Gesamtkunstwerke?,” in Italian Renaissance Festivals and their
European Influence, ed. J. R. M ulryne and M. Shewring (Lewiston/ Q ueenston/
Lampeter, 1992), 3-50; Hans Engel, “N ochmals die Interm edien von Florenz
1589,” in Festschrift M ax Schneider (Leipzig 1955), 71-86; Iain Fenlon,
“Preparations for a Princess: Florence 1588-89,” In cantu et in sermone: For Nino
Pirrotta on his 80th Birthday, ed Fabrizio Della Seta and Franco Piperno,
Florence 1989; Federico Ghisi, “Un aspect inédit des interm èdes de 1589 a la cour
médicéenne,” in Jacquot (éd.), 1956, 145-52; Yvonne Hackenbroch, “Some
Florentine jewels: Buontalenti and the dragon theme,” Connoisseur, November
1968, 137-143; Jacquot, 1961; M. A. Katritzky, “A G erm an description of the
Florentine intermedi of 1565,” Italian Studies, 52,1997, 63-93 & “Eight portraits of
Gelosi actors in 1589?,” Theatre Research International, 21,1996,108-120 8c ‘Aby
W arburg’s “C ostum i teatrali” (1895) and the A rt H istorical F oundations o f
Theatre Iconography’, Theatre Research International 24, 1999, 160-167 &
‘Perform ing-A rts Iconography: Traditions, Techniques, and Trends’, in Heck
(ed.) 1999, 68-90; Warren Kirkendale, The Court Musicians in Florence during
the principate o f the Medici (Florence 1993); W erner Friedrich Kümmel, “Ein
deutscher Bericht über die florentinischen Interm edien des Jahres 1589,” Analecta
Musicologica, 9 (Studien zur italienisch-deutschen Musikgeschichte, 7, Kôln/W ien
1970), 1-19; James Laver, “Stage designs for the Florentine intermezzi of 1589,”
Burlington Magazine, 60,1932, 294, 299-300, and 8 plates; Anne MacNeil, “The
divine madness o f Isabella Andreini,” Journal o f the Royal Musical Association,
120,1995,195-215; Meyer, 1987; Cesare M olinari, “Delle nozze medicee e dei loro
cronisti,” Quaderni di teatro, 2 (1980), 23-30; Luigi Monga, Voyage de Provence et

d ’Italie, Biblioteca del Viaggio in Italia, 49 (Geneva, 1994); Philippe Morel,
“Sirene e dem oni celesti. Fonti filosofiche e precedenti iconografici degli inter-
mezzi fiorentini del 1589,” Biblioteca teatrale, 19-20, 1990, 75-90 and 2 plates;
A. M. Nagler, “Theater der Medici,” Maske und Kothurn, 4, 1958, 178-198 &
Theatre Festivals o f the Medici 1539-1637, New Haven & London, 1964; Helen
Purkis, “La décoration de la salle et les rapports entre la scène et le public dans
les mascarades et les intermèdes florentins, 1539-1608,” in Jean Jacquot (éd.), Les
fêtes de la Renaissance III (Paris 1975), 239-251; Roger Savage, “Staging an inter
medio: practical advice from Florence circa 1630,” in: M ulryne and Shewring
(eds), 1992, 51-71; Roy Strong, A rt and power, renaissance festivals 1450- 1650,
W oodbridge 1984 (1st ed. 1973); Hans Tintelnot, “Die Bedeutung der ‘festa
teatrale’ für das dynastische u nd künstlerische Leben im Barock,” Archiv fu r
Kulturgeschichte, 37, 1955, 336-51; D. P. Walker, “La m usique des interm èdes
Florentins de 1589 et l’hum anism e,”in Jacquot (éd.), 1956, 133-144; Robert
Weaver, “Sixteenth-Century Instrum ent-ation,” Musical Quarterly, 47 (1961),
363-378; M. Daniela Zampino, “Gli studi teatrali e il ‘Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institute’”, Biblioteca teatrale, 18,1977,1-44; Ludovico Zorzi, II teatro e
la città. Saggi sulla scena italiana, Turin 1977.
27 See Testaverde Matteini, 1991 (7-22); Saslow, 1996 (4,178-181,310-11).
28 Ferdinando Taviani, “Un vivo contrasto. Seminario su attrici e attori della com-
media dell’arte,” Teatro e storia, 1,1986,25-75, p. 71
29 Saslow, 1996, p. 8. Although, for example (pp. 278, n. 20 and 283, n. 10), he notes
tha t later models and diagram s o f the Medici theatre, and various drawings
“tentatively identified as preparatory sketches by B uontalenti” have been
excluded from the catalogue “for reasons of space and focus.”
30 Warburg/Bing, GS, notes to p. 266; Laver 1932.
31 Saslow, 1996, cat.nos. 55, 64, 9, 53,32, 51, 54, 68.
32 Strong, 1984,136,140; see also Bamber Gascoigne, World Theatre, an illustrated
history, L ondon 1968, 145; Sara M am one, “L’œil théâtral di Jacques Callot,”
Artista critica, ΐ993> 138-149 (the two plate captions are reversed); Harald Zielske,
“Inszenierung ais mediale Transposition. Zu Jacques Callots Radierungen fur
Prospero Bonarellis Tragôdie II Solimano (1620),” in: Andreas Kotte
(ed.), Theater der Region— Theater Europas. Kongress der Gesellschaft fü r
Theaterwissenschaft, Basel 1995, 95-108. O pinion is divided concerning the exact
nature of the influence from Scarabelli’s p rint to those of Callot for the first
edition of II Solimano, 1620. Gascoigne and Zielske favour the suggestion that it
was purely artistic, and that Callot copied Scarabelli’s etching; M am one that the
set used for the performance of 1619 was the same, or similar to, the actual set of
1589.
33 Saslow, 1996, cat.nos. 9, 54. Julian Brooks reported on this aspect of his ongoing
Oxford University doctoral research on Boscoli in a talk “Agostino Carracci and
prints of the 1589 wedding intermezzi” at the Ashmolean Museum, 18 March 1997.
34 Hackenbroch 1968
35 Katritzky, 1996, plate 17
36 W arburg/Bing, GS, 1932,397-410; Testaverde M atteini, 1991,176 et. ff.
37 Ghisi 1956,146
38 Engel, 1955, 79 & n. 19 (“senza gusto per la com peratione degli intermedij, che
erano in essa Reali veram ente et meravigliosi, che furono tutti modestissim i
into rn o più tosto di rappresentatione che di atto comico, con concerti m olti
belli et gravi, et per la quantité de musici et strom enti non s’intendono ne ancor
le parole délia musica”).
39 See appendices, above
40 Kümmel, 1970 p. 4
41 Kümmel, 1970 pp. 5,19.
42 W. Dotzauer, “Die A nkunft des Herrschers. Der fürstliche ‘Einzug’ in die Stadt,”
Archiv fü r Kulturgeschichte, 55, 1973, 245-288 (258, 280); M ary A nn Fruth,
“Research w ith French festival books: an introduction,” Theatre studies, ι8,
1971-2, 7-12 (8)
43 Tintelnot 1955,347; Jacquot (ed.) 1956 & 1975; Strong, 1984
44 John Shearman, “The Florentine Entrata of Leo X, 1515,” Journal o f the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes, 38, 1975 [146]; C hristian W agenknecht, “Die
Beschreibung hôfischer Feste. Merkmale einer Gattung,” in: Buck et al (eds),
Europàische Hofkultur im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert, H am burg 1981, 75-80 [79];
Helen W atanabe-O ’Kelly, “Festival books in Europe from Renaissance to
Rococo,” The seventeenth century, 3,1988,181-201 [181].
45 Christopher Balme, “C ultural anthropology and theatre historiography: notes
on a m ethodological rapprochem ent,” Theatre Survey, 35, 1994, 33-53;
M. A. Katritzky, “The m ountebank: a case-study in early m odern theatre icono-
graphy,” in W illiam Twining (ed), Evidence and Inference in History and Law:
Interdisciplinary dialogues (forthcom ing)
46 Kümmel, 1970, 6; Sibylle Dahms, “Italienische Tanzkunst nôrdlich der Alpen”,
in: M arkus Engelhardt (ed.), In Teutschland noch gantz ohnbekandt. Monteverdi-
Rezeption undfrühes Musiktheater im deutschsprachigen Raum , 1996,63-76 (69)
47 Nagler, 1964,74 n.11,75
48 Gascoigne, 1968,145; Saslow, 1996, 82-3 & fig. 7
49 Nagler, 1964,75 (whose careful reading o f Gadenstedt, which precedes K üm m els
publication o f 1970, was evidently m ade only after N agler’s own G erm an-
language article of 1958, and is, in his m onograph-length English edition, only
acknowledged in a series of com ments awkwardly grafted onto his 1958 interpre-
tation of the festival, made solely from Italian sources)
ABY W A R B U R G A N D THE FLORENTINE INTERMEDI OF 1589 { 255}
50 Monga, 1994,113
51 Although, on this particular point, the French account appears to offer the
fullest inform ation, nam ely that, discounting rehearsals, o f which there are
known to have been several, including at least one full dress rehearsal, there were
four performances of the intermedi, of which the first was that o f 2 May in celeb-
ration of Christine’s royal entry into Florence on 30 April, held for the noble-
women o f Florence, the second and third performances were held, respectively,
for the noblem en and com m on people of Florence, with the ambassadors of
Venice and Genoa attending the third (which Gadenstedt dates to 10 May), and
the last was specially held for the ambassador o f Spain, who arrived after the
planned festivities were over (f.68v, see appendix III, above).
52 Zorzi, 1977; Robert Rodini, “The festa and theater: a decade of research,” Forum
italicum, 14, 1980, 476-84; Cesare M olinari, “L’altra faccia del 1589: Isabella
Andreini e la sua ‘pazzia’,” in: Garfagnini (ed.), Firenze e la Toscana dei Medici
nelVEuropa del '500. A tti del Convegno Internazionale di Studio tenutosi a Firenze
1980, (Florence 1983), 565-573 [573]. Richard Andrews (Scripts and Scenarios,
Cambridge 1993, 235), describes Isabella A ndreini’s performance as “gloriously
over the top,” a fundam entally different assessment from that o f MacNeil (1995),
who seeks to dem onstrate its close links w ith the hum anist approach of the
intermedi themselves.
53 Meyer, 1987,173-5
54 Meyer, 1987,185
55 Meyer, 1987,176
56 Solerti, 1904-05,1, 44
57 For complete transcription, see Matteini, 1991, pp. 176 et ff.
58 23 lines om itted on p. 269 (would have been between “con poca diligentia di
risparm io” and “sino dai prim i giorni dell’ottobre”); p. 296
59 W arburg quotes long extracts from Rossi’s account; and summarizes the textual
and visual sources (including further examples), in appendices I & II (297-9)
60 Warburg/Bing, GS, [267, n. to 273]
61 Le rivoluzione del teatro musicale italiano, 1785 (cited in Berghaus, 1992, 6-8)
62 Morel (1990) points out difficulties with integrating the fourth intermedio into
W arburg’s complex schema
63 W arburg/Bing, GS, [265]
64 W arburg/Bing, GS, [270-1]
65 W arburg/Bing, GS, [277, 280]
66 See also E. H. Gombrich, Symbolic Images, studies in the art o f the renaissance II,
Oxford 1972, 176-7, with reference to “C ostum i teatrali,” for discussion of this
point
67 Warburg/Bing, GS, 281-4,294-5; Walker (Jacquot 1956), 144, apparently disagrees
w ith this conclusion
68 Warburg/Bing, GS, 296

69 W arburg/Bing, GS, 423-4
70 Gombrich, Warburg, 322, extract from letter of 18 August 1927
71 Pace Keith Moxey, in a contribution to “Visual culture questionnaire,” October,
77,1996,25-70 [56].
72 E. H. Gombrich, Jdea/s and Idols, essays on va/i/es ¿rc history and in art, Oxford
1979,150-2; Francis Haskell, History and its images, arf ¿md t/ze interpretation o f
the past. New Haven 1993,6.
73 Gombrich, 1979,57-8,118-120
74 Gom brich’s distinction between the role o f research in the sciences and in the
hum anities (1967) appears to have undergone revision by 1973, when he pleas for
more innovative research in the humanities, while w arning against the accum u-
lation of data for its own sake. While it seems em inently reasonable to agree
with G ombrich that a visual corpus of, for example, all doorknockers, has no
place in the study o f art-history (1979, 116), it is w orth bearing in m ind that
m uch scientific research is speculative. Just as practical applications of scientific
research often only suggest themselves after data has been collected, so availabil-
ity of, for example, a representative corpus o f doorknockers m ight stim ulate
worthwhile further research in previously unpredictable directions.
75 Rosalind Krauss and Hal Foster (eds) “Visual culture questionnaire,” October,
77,1996, 3-4 & 25-70; all bu t two based in the art history (7), art and archaeol-
ogy (1), architecture (1), film (1), visual and cultural studies (1), history/ govern-
m ent (2) and english and/ or foreign language and literature (4) departm ents of
N orth American universities
76 Gombrich, 1979,151
77 As Caroline Elam (Editorial: “Art history or Kunstgeschichte?,” The Burlington
Magazine, 129,1987, 643-4) points out, in Germany, the quest for new m eth od -
ologies does no t challenge the com m on ground o f the discipline, which contin-
ues to be accepted as its professional foundation.
78 Michael Ann Holly, Thom as Dacosta Kaufmann, C hristopher Wood, October,
77> 1996, pp. 39-41, 45-8, 68-70
79 A point in fact discussed by Kurt Forster (“Aby Warburg: his study o f ritua
art on two continents,” 5-24 [16]), in the same issue o f October.
80 Pace Moxey, who suggests that the way forward is to make aesthetics the “key-
stone of disciplinary focus” o f visual studies: October, 77,1996,58.
81 “W hat help from art?,” TLS, 7 April 1966
82 Theodore K. Rabb, “The historian and the A rt H istorian,” Journal o f
Interdisciplinary History, 4, 1973, 107-17; “The H istorian and the Art Historian
Revisited,” JIH, 14, 1984, 647-55; “Historians and Art Historians: a lowering of
sights?,” JIH, 27,1996, 87-94, p. 88; Rabb and Jonathan Brown, “The evidence of
art: images and meaning in history,” JIH, 1986,17,1-6, p. 5.
83 Elam 1987,643
84 R. L. Erenstein, “Theatre Iconography: An Introduction,” Theatre research inter
national 22,1997,185-9 [185]
85 Ludovico Zorzi, “Figurazione pittorica e figurazione te a tr a l e in : Storia delVarte
italiana, Torino 1979, I, 419-462; quoted by Cesare M olinari, ‘Sull’iconografia
come fonte della storia del teatro’ and Renzo Guardenti, “II quadro e la cornice:
iconografía e storia dello spettacolo,” Biblioteca teatrale, 36/37,1996,19-40 [20]
and 61-74 [65]
86 Gombrich, Warburg, 144,269,312.

87 Tadeusz Kowzan, “Iconographie-iconologie théâtrale: le signe iconique et son
référent,” Diogenes, 130,1985, 51-68, [67-8]; Guardenti 1996, 66; Molinari 1996, 26;
Christopher Balme, “Interpreting the pictorial record: theatre iconography and the
referential dilemma,” Theatre research international 22,1997,190-201 [193]; Lyckle
de Vries, “Iconography and iconology in art history: Panofsky’s prescriptive
definitions, and some art-historical responses to them,” in: T. F. Heck (ed.), 1999,
42-67
88 Molinari (1996,19)
89 Max H errm ann, Forschungen zur deutschen Theatergeschichte des Mittelalters und
der Renaissance, Berlin 1914, p art II, 273-500; Stefan Corssen, “Das erste
Standardwerk der Theaterwissenschaft: Max H errm ann und die Forschungen zur
deutschen Theatergeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance,” in: Kotte
(ed.) 1995, 201-9 [206]; Corssen, M ax Herrmann und die Anfange der
Theaterwissenschaft, Tübingen 1998,129-134
90 Anne-M arie Lecoq, “La ‘Città festeggiante.’ Les fêtes publiques au XVe et XVIe
siècles,” Revue de lart, 33,1976, 83-100, p. 91; Rodini, 1980
91 Clifford Davidson, “Iconography and some problem s of term inology in the
study of the dram a and theater o f the renaissance,” Research opportunities in
renaissance drama, 29,1986-87,7-14 [12]
92 G uardenti 1996, 66; M olinari 1996, 25; G iovanna Botti, “Presentazione,”
Biblioteca teatrale, 36/37,1996,13-17
93 Gabriele Brandstetter, Tanz-Lektüren. Kôrperbilder und Raumfiguren der
Avantgarde, Frankfurt am Main 1995; see especially pp. 28-30, 43-8,104-110,151,
178
94 Zam pino 1977, 2
95 Zam pino 1977,1-14
96 Zam pino 1977,14
97 Zam pino 1977,22
98 W arburg, 1895, 296 n. 1; [267]; Warburg/Bing, GS, Bing’ s 2nd note to p. 262
99 W arburg/Bing, GS, Bing’ s note to p. 296; Meyer, 1987,172-3,178
100 Transcription from: MüBHStA Kurbayern Αη β ε ^ Archiv 4576, ff.245r-252v;
here italics indicate the use of Latin script (as opposed to gothic) in the original.
101 Carlo Antonio Puteo

102 Ferdinando de’ Medici
103 Palazzo Pitti
104 Vincenzo Gonzaga
105 Aunt o f the bride
106 Cesare d’ Este
107 First of the seven triumphal arches: representing the military history of France
108 2nd arch, at the Ponte alia Carraia: Medici and Lorraine dynasties
109 3rd arch: military history of House o f Lorraine

110 4th arch: history of the Church in Florence
111 Antonine Column (see also: M. A. Katritzky, “The Florentineentrata of Joanna
of Austria and other entrate described in a German diary”,Journal o f the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 59,1996,148-173 [159])
112 5th arch: House o f Habsburg
113 6th arch, at the Canto degli Antellesi: history of the Medici
114 Palazzo Vecchio
115 7th and last arch: Apotheosis o f Tuscany
116 The word is taken directly from the Italian “Invention”
117 Translation from the German: WobüHAB, Cod.Guelf.67.6 Extrav.,pp. 670-6,
678 (Due to an error in pagination, there is no page 677. See also Nagler, 1964,71,
74-6, 81; transcribed in: Kiimmel, 1970). Italics indicate foreign terms used in
the original. Gadenstedt gives two accounts (pp. 658-66 = Italian, pp. 666-83 =
Germ an), both of which include descriptions o f the intermedi in the context of
selected highlights of the wedding festivities.
118 “Platz”: literally “place”
119 Pisa
120 Translation from the French: Bibliothèque N ationale, Paris, ms.fr.5550,
ff.64v-68v (transcribed in: Monga, 1994). The full account describes the inter
medi in the context of selected highlights of the wedding festivities.
warburg's
"method"
richard woodfteld
“N ot until art history can show...
that it sees the work o f art in a few
more dimensions than it has done so
far will our activity again attract the
interest o f scholars and o f the general public.”
Warburg to Mesnil, 18 August 19291
ABY WARBURG IS ONE OF THE LEGENDARY
figures o f early twentieth century art

history; he is also one o f the least
read. His works have been gradually
migrating westwards in translations
into Italian and then French; the Getty Foundations English translation is
due to appear in the summer o f 1999. At that point the Anglophone reader
may well discover a disjuncture between the legend and the reality available
from the published works. There are two reasons for this. The first is that
rumor has spread a notion o f the Warburg method which is actually at odds
with Warburg’s work. The second is that readers familiar with Ernst
Gombrich’s Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography will discover that they
{2 5 9 }
{ 200 } RICHARD WOODFIELD
do actually need the supplement o f W arburg’s notes and unpublished

writing to make sense o f what he has had to say.
Warburg’s work includes his library Die Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek
Warburg (the K.B.W.) which is, as the title states, a library for the study o f
the cultural sciences. This should give warning to anyone who wants to
claim Warburg for Art History in any simple-minded way. In the English
language the expression “Art History” carries equal weight with “ The History
o f A rt” and the latter is as much a resource as a discipline. Thus Warburg

was an art historian in the sense that he used the resources o f the visual
imagery o f the past in a search for answers to certain problems revolving
around a central question. In a letter to his friend Mesnil (1926), Warburg
wrote that his question “ what in reality did antiquity mean for the men of
the Renaissance?” might be amended to “A problem that later, in the course
o f years, was extended to the attempts to understand the meaning o f the sur
vival o f paganism for the whole o f European civilization.” 2 And the key
terms o f this reformulation are “paganism” and “ European civilization,”
which both refer to what is now called mentalités. The study o f the image
was simply a means to an end: an understanding of the tensions between the
pagan and the civilized in concrete historical situations.
Both Gertrud Bing, Warburg’s assistant, and Ernst Gombrich, his biogra
pher, have objected to the use of the term “Warburg method.” Questions and
a preparedness to step out o f the disciplinary boundaries o f Art History
hardly constitute a method. And serendipity does not constitute a method
either. The fact is that a great deal o f luck is needed, both in science and in
history. As Gombrich once remarked:
The past survives only in shattered fragm ents and in the accidental traces
which were left by the events which we w ant to reconstruct as best we can.
Like any other historian, and like his colleagues the archaeologists, the histo-
rian of the arts is engaged in putting together a gigantic jigsaw puzzle from
these stray fragments.3
Sometimes, the historian may manage to achieve a perfect fit between the
pieces o f evidence, like an archaeologist might with the fragments o f a
papyrus. But perfect fits are few and far between: there is always the possibil
ity o f absence o f vital evidence. It may seem obvious, but it is the absence of
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {261}
conclusive evidence which generates varieties o f interpretation. Perhaps the

historian is best counselled “ whereof one may not speak one should remain
silent” but this would run against the grain o f the built-in loquaciousness of
the practice o f art history. Like science, history is fallible and the best schol
ars are those who are most conscious o f the potential weaknesses o f their
case. And in the same way that new evidence may disprove an hypothesis, a
棘手的
lucky find may offer a solution to an intractable problem.
Warburg was aware o f the fact that works o f art do not explain them
selves and that in the search for explanation it is important to explore other
territories: the fields o f different scholarly practices. But in the hands o f his
followers, his wide range o f interests were narrowed down to iconography
and iconological research. Thankfully the Warburg Institute itself has long
避风港
been a haven for scholars from a wide range o f disciplines.
If one is going to look for the inventors o f the fictional Warburg method,
one couldn’t do much worse than turn to Fritz Saxl and Erwin Panofsky,
who introduced Warburg’s work into the United States through their essay
“ Classical Mythology in Medieval Art,” published in Metropolitan Museum
Studies in 1933. On its second page they declared:
w hat may be called the problem of “renaissance phenom ena” is one of the
central problems of the history of European culture. W ith this as his point of
departure the late Professor Aby W arburg of H am burg conceived the fruitful
idea o f directing his scientific research at the way in which classical thought
continued through the post-classical era. To this end he built up a library
devoted exclusively to that subject. In doing this, so far from confining himself
to what is usually called art history— for that would have made his research
impossible— he found it necessary to branch out into many other fields until
then untouched by art historians. His library, therefore, embraces the history
of religions as well as that of literature, science, philosophy, law, and what we
may generally call superstition, together with their various streams o f tradi-
tion. In the present essay it will be our endeavor, while exam ining a single
problem, to dem onstrate the methods o f research developed by Aby W arburg
and his followers.4
The designation o f Warburg’s point o f departure as “ renaissance phe

nomena” is a partial truth, though it is a perfectly adequate description o f
what they discuss in their article. What emerged, however, was a classic
{ 262} RICHARD WOODFIELD
exercise in Kunstgeschichte aïs Geistesgeschichte, whose major exponent was

Fritz Saxl s teacher, M ax Dvorâk. Admittedly, the material which had formed
the basis o f their essay was drawn from Warburg’s repertoire o f interests
though, significantly, his own focus was on the astrological cycle in the
Palazzo Schifanoja at Ferrara: a specific piece o f imagery in a specific place.
In the hands o f Saxl and Panofsky, the analysis turned into a study o f the
history o f the motifs o f the pagan gods, from their mutations and transfor
mations in the medieval west and Arabic east to their renaissance recreation,
nested into an account o f the differences between medieval and renaissance
Weltgeisten:
the Renaissance attitude towards antiquity was different from the medieval
one in that the Renaissance had become aware of the “historical distance” sep-
arating the Greeks and the Romans from the contem porary world. This real-
ization of the intellectual distance between the present and the past is
com parable to the realization of the intellectual distance between the eye and
the object, so that a parallel may be draw n between the discovery o f the
m odern “historical system,” ... and the invention of m odern perspective, both
of which were achieved by the Renaissance.5
They recast Warburg’s notion o f mental distance, between irrationality

and rationality, in terms o f a difference in attitudes to historical sources
between the middle ages and the Renaissance. Furthermore, instead of track
ing the specific psychological resonances to images in particular situations
they adopted a totalising and Hegelian mode o f explanation which Warburg
himself would have found uncongenial.
Panofsky’s theorisation o f Warburgian work, Studies in Iconology:
Humanistic Themes in the A rt o f the Renaissance, which appeared six years
later in 1939, did not emerge out o f an American cultural vacuum. As
William Kleinbauer has pointed out, iconographical research had already
been established by Charles Rufus Morey at Princeton and was flourishing
on Panofsky’s arrival.6 Furthermore, as Craig Hugh Smyth has shown,
Panofsky’s lecture “ The History o f Art as a Humanistic Discipline” was given
in the context o f Princeton’s Special Programme in the Humanities which
was based on the idea o f “ a belief in the supreme value, and the intercon
nectedness, o f all studies relating to the human condition.” 7
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {263}
Studies in Iconology offered a theorized vision o f what a rigorous

approach to the history o f renaissance imagery might be. In Panofsky’s
hands the “Warburg method” stood for the study o f the history o f the trans
formation o f artistic motifs, through their interaction with texts: it became
iconography.8 Unlike Warburg’s approach, which was to proceed from the
word to the image (Das Wort zum Bild ), the new iconographical approach
has been to assemble as many texts as possible to fit an image, with the
handy resource o f Migne’s indices which were, o f course, unavailable in the

Renaissance.
Iconography was to be supplemented by iconology, which Panofsky
defined as the:
History o f cultural symptoms or “symbols” in general (insight into the m anner

in which, under varying historical conditions, essential tendencies o f the human
mind were expressed by specific themes and concepts).9
This may be contrasted with Warburg’s understanding o f iconology:
For W arburg iconography was marginal; [in] his interpretation o f the astro-
logical im agery in the Palazzo Schifanoja in Ferrara ... it was less the
identification of the Decans that concerned him than the discovery o f ancient
images transform ed and disguised, waiting to be restored to their pristine
beauty.
If W arburg tu rn ed to iconography it was in fact only to make this p eda-
gogic point. He liked to contrast the same them e in its degraded and its
代理地
appropriate rendering, and to re-live vicariously the liberation o f a content
from alien accretions. He som etim es referred to this p reoccup ation as
“iconology,” b u t his iconology was n ot the study of com plex em blem s and
allegories b u t the in teractio n o f form s and contents in the clash o f
trad itio n s.10
In Warburg’s work one gains a sense o f individuals being involved in the

dramatic conflicts o f historical experience, with an emphasis on the tension
between the workings o f reason and unreason. In Panofsky’s work, by con
trast, one gains a sense o f almost ahistorical embodiment: Michelangelo’s
particular stylistic techniques represent not so much grapplings with the
contingencies o f a medium in a specific working context as the symbolic
equivalent o f a neo-Platonic world-view.
{264} R I CHARD W O O D F I E L D
Warburg’s ambitions for a cross-disciplinary study became mutated into

an investigation o f relations between image and text, contextualised into
broad cultural settings. His ambitions in the direction o f psycho-history and
蒸发
cultural psychology evaporated.
In the fateful year o f 1933, Fritz Saxl moved the K.B.W. from Hamburg to
London to enable its escape from the clutches o f the Nazis. His prim ary
concern on arrival was to find support for its work. As he recalled:
It was a strange adventure to be landed with some 60,000 books in the heart
o f London and to be told: “Find friends and introduce them to your
problems.”
The arrival of the Institute coincided with the rising interest in British edu-
cation in the study o f the visual docum ents o f the past. The W arburg Institute
was carried by this wave, and its m ethods of studying the works of art as an
expression o f an age appealed to some younger scholars.11
The problem was, of course, that the bulk of the books were written in
German and Italian, and represented continental traditions of scholarship.
Saxl turned that weakness into an asset.
As David Watkin has shown, British art history has been marked by a
倾向偏狭
strong streak o f insularity.12 Art history did not exist as a university disci
pline until the creation o f the Courtauld Institute in 1932. Up until then the
English approach to art was either a matter o f connoisseurship or criticism
繁荣
and it had thriving traditions in both areas. The problem in 1932 was to
本土的
create an indigenous sense o f historical scholarship and the Courtauld
Institute must have faced the same kinds o f difficulties that Oxbridge had
with literary studies some fifty years earlier. As Terry Eagleton has observed:
... since every English gentlem an read his own literature in his spare time
anyway, what was the point of subjecting it to systematic study? Fierce rear-
guard actions were fought by both ancient universities against this distress-
ingly dilettante subject: the definition of an academic subject was what could
be examined, and since English was no more than idle gossip about literary
taste it was difficult to know how to make it unpleasant enough to qualify as a
proper academic pursuit. ... The only way in which English seemed likely to
be able to justify its existence in the ancient universities was by systematically
m istaking itself for the Classics; but the classicists were hardly keen to have
this pathetic parody of themselves aro un d.13
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {265}
Legend has it that many o f the Courtauld’s first students simply wanted
to find out more about the paintings in their families’ collections. Its first
Director was W. G. Constable, who Kenneth Clark described as having
been “ an industrious official at the National Gallery.” 14 Its D eputy
Director and Reader in the History o f Art was James M ann, a specialist in
盔甲
the history o f armor. Constable’s successor, Tom Boase, was a medievalist
who was attacked by Herbert Read in the pages o f the Burlington
M agazine for being “ unknown to the world o f art studies” with the
qualification that
his researches into the history of the medieval Papacy have no doubt given
him a m ethodical and scholarly m ind which should be of great value in the
adm inistration of an institution which m ust in future pretend to learning or
lose all public respect. The appointm ent will surprise our foreign colleagues,
who are not familiar with our English eccentricity in such m atters.15
The arrival o f the Warburg Institute in 1933 meant that a very talented
group o f art historians, trained in the German traditions, could be used to
strengthen art historical studies. This had implications for the way in which
Warburg’s work was regarded in England. As Gombrich recalled
Previous generations o f art historians who were mainly based on the great
m useums had concentrated on connoisseurship and aesthetic criticism and so
it is not surprising that the endeavors o f the W arburg Institute to investigate
art in its cultural context were widely interpreted as an advocacy of icono-
graphie studies, the linking o f images w ith their textual sources, while the
concern with the positive and negative tendencies deriving from the ancient
world was simplified in the handy form ula of the “Study of the Classical
Tradition.”16
And, indeed, Fritz Saxl lent Otto Kurz and Ernst Gombrich to the
Courtauld Institute to teach religious and secular iconography and commis
sioned them to write textbooks on those subjects. He also prepared exhibi
tions to demonstrate the Institute’s work. The first was called The Visual
Approach to the Classics and
使断奶
was intended to wean the public from a purely aesthetic attitude and using
works of art as docum ents for the history of culture and of religion. It was a
great success and continued to be circulated in schools.17
{ 266 } R ICHARD W O O D F I E L D
According to Watkin, the most memorable exhibition for the academic

world was British A rt and the Mediterranean , on the British debt to the clas
sical tradition, produced by Saxl and Rudolph Wittkower in 1941.18
Saxl was offered the directorship o f the Courtauld Institute but decided
to stay with the Warburg and Anthony Blunt, who had been amongst the
Warburg s supporters became the director instead. What had originally been
the Journal o f the Warburg Institute (1938-9), and before that the Studien der
Bibliothek Warburg, became the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld

Institutes (1939-42 to the present). The subsequent career o f the Warburg
Institute, and its journal is open to public inspection. What has not been
open to inspection, in the same public way, has been Warburg s own work.
a digression
On January 19th 1929, Warburg gave a lecture in Rome’s Hertziana on the the
“ Nympha” and one o f his listeners was Kenneth Clark, who told the story o f
his encounter in his autobiography. It is worth quoting at length:
W arburg was w ithout doubt the m ost original thinker on art history of our
time, and entirely changed the course of art historical studies. His point of
view could be described as a reaction against the form alist or stylistic
approach of Morelli and Berenson. But I am sure that this was no t his inten-
tion, because from the first his m ind moved in an entirely different way.
Instead of thinking o f works of art as life-enhancing representations he
thou gh t o f them as symbols, and he believed that the art historian should
concern him self w ith the origin, m eaning and transm ission o f symbolic
images. The Renaissance was his chosen field of enquiry, partly because renais-
sance art contained a large n um b er o f such symbolic images; and partly
because he had the true G erm an love of Italy. He accum ulated vast learning,
bu t his writings are all fragments. He should not have been an art historian,
b ut a poet Hôlderlin. He him self said that if he had been five inches taller (he
was even shorter than Berenson) he would have become an actor, and I can
believe it, for he had, to an uncanny degree, the gift o f mimesis. He could “get
inside” a character, so that w hen he quoted from Savonarola, one seemed to
hear the Frate s high, compelling voice; and when he read from Poliziano there
was all the daintiness and slight artificiality of the Medicean circle. Symbols
are a dangerous branch of study as they easily lead to magic; and magic leads
to the loss of reason. W arburg went out o f his m ind in 1918, bu t by 1927, under
the nun-like care of D r Bing, he was sufficiently recovered to visit Rome and
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {267}
give a lecture. D r Steinmann, the director o f the Herziana, knowing that my

G erm an was imperfect, arranged for us [Clark and his wife Jane] to sit in the
front row, and Warburg, who preferred to talk to an individual, directed the
whole lecture at me. It lasted over two hours, and I understood about two-
thirds. But it was enough. Thenceforward my interest in “connoisseurship”
became no more than a kind of habit, and my m ind was occupied in trying to
answer the kinds o f questions that had occupied Warburg. The parts o f my
writing that have given me most satisfaction, for example, the chapter in The
Nude called “Pathos,” are entirely W arburgian.19
While it was entirely appropriate for Clark to describe Warburg’s

approach as being distanced from connoisseurship, which it was, the con
trast with Berenson was rather over-stated. Berenson shared with Warburg a
deep interest in the relevance o f psychology to the study o f art, which he
theorised in terms o f “ life-enhancing representations.” He was also an
admirer o f Nietzsche’s Birth o f Tragedy, believing that it offered “ the best
thinking on aesthetics from a psychological point o f view.” 20 The critical
point, however, is that Warburg’s symbols were not lifeless abstractions but
products o f the depths o f human experience. As he declared in the final
section o f his Schifanoja lecture
W ith this tentatively hazarded, isolated effort, I wishes to perm it myself a

plaidoyer in favor of a methodical expansion of our art historical discipline, in
both its material and its spatial reaches.
Overly lim iting developm ental categories have until now hindered art
history from making its material available to the, albeit as yet unw ritten, “his-
toric psychology o f hum an expression.” Because o f its excessively materialistic
全景的
or excessively mystical tenor, our young discipline denies itself the panoram ic
view of world history.21
Warburg’s prim ary interest was in the “ historic psychology o f human

expression” and that was what Clark pursued in The Nude in his chapters
“ Energy” and “ Pathos.” In this respect Clark was closer to Warburg’s line of
thought than either Saxl or Panofsky.
The extent o f Warburg’s impact on Clark can also be registered in his
book Piero della Francesca, in which he wrote
No painter has shown m ore clearly the com m on foundations, in

M editerranean culture, o f C hristianity and paganism. His M adonna is the
great mother, his risen Christ the slain god; his altar is set up on the threshing
{ 268} R ICHARD W O O D F I E L D
floor, his saints have trodden in the w in e-p ress... This unquestioning sense of
brotherhood, of dignity, o f the returning seasons, and of the miraculous, has
survived many changes o f dogm a and organization, and may yet save Western
m an from the consequences o f materialism .22
In this context the belief in a cultural collective unconscious may seem to

have been drawn from Carl Jung. But in the light o f Warburg’s treatment by
the Jungian psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger it may ring true as a
Warburgian idea, the kind o f idea lying behind Mnemosyne.

Clark had recognised the ideas o f the deeply human and redemptive
powers o f visual imagery in W arburgs thought. At the end o f his Schifanoja
lecture Warburg had declared that:
O u r enthusiastic w on derm en t at the inconceivable achievm ent o f artistic

genius can only be strengthened by the recognition that genius is b o th a
blessing and conscious transform atory energy. The great new style th at the
遗赠
artistic genius o f Italy bequ eathed to us was rooted in the social will to
recover Greek hum anism from the shell of medieval, O riental-Latin “p rac-
tice.” W ith this will tow ard the restitution o f antiquity, the “good European”
began his struggle for enlightenm ent in the age of the international m igra-
tion o f images tha t we refer to— a little too mystically— as the age o f the
Renaissance.23
For Warburg, the achievements o f the Italian Renaissance resulted from

its artists’ conquest o f the powers o f darkness. Put that way, it can be seen
why this was not a route pursued by either Saxl or Panofsky, whose concerns
were with historical context rather than psychological dramaturgy. Not for
nothing did Warburg adopt the voices o f Savonarola and Poliziano.
While they were still in Hamburg, Fritz Saxl together with Gertrud Bing
conceived a project to introduce Warburg’s scholarly activities to a wider
audience. The idea was to publish a collection o f Warburg’s articles, his work
on M nemosyne , his unpublished lectures and m inor essays with his
“ Fragments o f a Theory o f Expression on Anthropological Foundations,” a
collection o f letters, aphorisms and autobiographical records and, finally, the
library’s catalogue.24 The first work to appear was the two volumes o f
Gesammelte Schriften in 1932;25 it would be interesting to explore its recep
tion in the burgeoning climate o f Nazism. In 1934 the Institute’s first volume
o f the Bibliography o f the Survival o f the Classics was favoured with the
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {269}
dubious distinction o f a full page review in the Vôlkische Beobachter which

was, as Saxl wrote, “equally outstanding for ignorance and insolence.” 26 The
rest o f the project fell by the wayside, excepting the lone publication o f an
English translation o f Warburg’s essay on Serpent Ritual in the second
volume o f the Journal for 1938/9.
Fritz Saxl died in 1955 and Gertrud Bing in 1964.27 Saxl had been too busy
to see the project through and it seems that Bing had given up in despair. In
a posthumously published article she wrote o f the difficulties involved:

Warburg’s wide ranging interests, his difficult use o f language and the appar
ent disconnectedness o f his projects and their wrecks and ruins. In short,
the published material could only be given real sense through a thorough
and difficult subterranean exploration o f his notes, recognising that “ the
spread o f scholarly curiosity is so wide as to obscure the red thread o f a
leading interest.” 28 The red thread was there; the problem was to follow it.
In 1970 Ernst Gombrich published Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography
in which he assumed the difficult task o f connecting Warburg’s published
work to his unpublished manuscripts. Not one o f its reviewers took on the
task o f analysing the strength of Warburg’s arguments or Gombrich’s critique.
From one point o f view this is understandable: independent judgements
would have to be framed on the basis o f an intimate knowledge o f Warburg’s
oeuvre. But this would be no reason for the absence o f an internal critique.
Possibly the views o f Lamprecht, Usener, Semon and Darwin would seem to
be so dated as not to merit serious consideration, let alone Warburg’s use of
them. Possibly Warburg’s project itself no longer strikes a chord. And,
折磨人的
possibly, no one wants to get involved in the gruelling demands that the book
itself makes. The reader who is not familiar with the rest o f Gombrich’s oeuvre
would find it doubly difficult. The remainder o f this paper offers reflections
on that book.
Gombrich had joined the staff o f the Warburg Institute in London in
January 1936. He had been employed by Saxl and Bing to work on Warburg’s
Mnemosyne papers for projected publication. The war intervened. Saxl and
Bing changed their minds about how Warburg’s work should be published
and then after the war Gom brich was given the task o f writing about
Warburg’s ideas, to complement a biography to be written by Bing. Bing
never got round to writing the biography and neither did M ax A dolf
{270} RI C HARD W O O D F I E L D
Warburg get round to producing a selection o f his father’s letters. So, as an

outstanding duty to honor the commitment o f the original project,
Gombrich published Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography with a Memoir
on the History o f the Library by F. Saxl in 1970. As he said in his introduction,
大部分
the bulk o f the manuscript had been completed in 1946 and 1947 and it
didn’t exactly delight Gertrud Bing when she saw the drafts: “ she was not
always happy to notice the critical detachment in these presentations.” 29 The
book was certainly detached in its presentation o f Warburg’s ideas and the
final chapter “Warburg’s achievement in perspective” offered a rather low
key critique. The book was, after all, intended to be a commemoration and
celebration of Warburg’s work.
Mnemosyne addressed “ not so much a problem o f formal traditions as
one o f collective psychology” 30 and that would be true o f the larger body o f
Warburg’s work. His library, the K.B.W., had been created for the pursuit o f
the scientific ( wissenschaftliche) study o f culture. Felix Gilbert complained
that Gombrich did not try to set Warburg within the context o f the wider
field o f those studies, but it should be sufficient to note the connection
between Warburg’s library and, his teacher, Lamprecht’s ideas.31 It was
Lamprecht who effectively transformed the status o f cultural history as an
academic discipline and Warburg can be seen as developing his project.
This does not mean to say that art history was irrelevant to Warburg’s
work, quite the reverse, but it was to be seen as a resource rather than as a
discipline. The history o f art offered a repertoire o f images for the study o f
cultural psychology and, in this context, mundane imagery was likely to be
more rewarding than the great art o f the past. Warburg’s interests extended
from Botticelli’s Primavera to a contemporary postage stamp.
Saxl had found in Gom brich a young scholar who was already well
equipped to engage in Warburgian work. He had himself written a disserta
tion on the extraordinary creations o f the artist Giulio Romano, based on
the archives in Mantua. He had emerged from that work critical o f the fash
ionable Geistesgeschichte approach to art history advocated by M ax Dvorák.
He had also pursued an interest in the relationship between psychology and
art history by following the work o f Karl Bühler, semiotician and Professor
o f Psychology at the University o f Vienna. On graduation he worked with
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {271}
Ernst Kris on a project on the emergence o f portrait caricature in the sei-

cento. Kris and Gombrich shared Warburg’s interest in popular imagery,
though they veered towards social, rather than cultural, psychology.
An important difference between Warburg and Gombrich, however, was
沉思
the form er’s habit o f keeping his theoretical ruminations private. To read
Warburg’s published work is to encounter mountains o f evidence, with the
theoretical substructure only revealing itself in the occasional gnomic utter
ance strategically based to help an argument along or to formulate a conclu

sion. By contrast, Gombrich believed that an argument’s theoretical
assumptions needed to be exposed and assessed. And it was those assump
tions which Gombrich found so difficult to accept when working on
Warburg’s biography.
Like Warburg, Gombrich did not subscribe to the Geistesgeschichte histo
rians’ totalising and neo-Hegelian approach to the relationship between style
and culture. He had discovered the flaws in that approach in his research
into Giulio Romano and described them as being based on what he was later
to call the “physiognomic fallacy.” He described that fallacy in an article pub
lished in 193732 and reframed it in an inaugural lecture twenty years later:
The idea which m ost o f us form of Medicean Florence is colored, and how
pleasantly colored, by that splendid cavalcade through a smiling landscape
which Benozzo Gozzoli painted in the Riccardi Palace. W ho would find it easy,
after a visit to Ravenna and its solemn mosaics, to think of noisy children in
Byzantium, or who thinks of haggard peasants in the Flanders of Rubens? Let
me call this tendency to see the past in terms of its typical style “the physio-
gnomic fallacy.”33
It was almost inevitable that art historians would take Botticelli’s

Primavera to be symptomatic o f the pagan sensuality o f Renaissance
Florence or Michelangelos late paintings as symptomatic o f a spiritual crisis
dominating Rome. And then no evidence o f the daily religiosity o f the
Florentine citizens or mundane concerns o f Papal officials would be allowed
as conterevidence against these inferences. The so-called hermeneutic circle
becomes a vicious circle when the works o f art which are called upon to
illustrate the spirit o f the times are established as a criterion by which that
spirit is then defined.
{ 272} RICHARD WOODFIELD
Warburg was acutely aware o f the complexities o f artistic life in quat

trocento Florence and he was unconvinced by Vasari’s retrospective
account o f developments leading up to the creation o f the High
Renaissance style:
He explictly rejected a “unilinear” interpretation o f art history and strove for

an understanding o f the complex fields of force that make up a “period.” In
trying to map out these tensions he could not but use his own experience of
his environm ent as a model. As a result he may have m isinterpreted the

meaning of choices and the overtone o f images which he was out to un der-
stand. But he should not, therefore, be denied the credit of having sensed and
expressed the degree to which every move in the realm of art or fashion may
be charged with social and moral m eanings.34
Living at the end o f the nineteenth century and being a witness to the
加重
various stylistic battles o f his day accentuated Warburg’s sense o f potentiali
ties for artistic conflict. And being a witness to the ways in which style was
used to promote self-image and fashion led him to project his own environ
ment back into the quattrocento. Ironically, he felt that he had particular
access to the cultural life o f the Florentine merchants in terms o f his own
social habitus and his family’s background in banking.
The way in which Warburg sought to understand the ways in which “ the
realm o f art or fashion may be charged with social and moral meanings” is
probably best demonstrated in Chapter VIII o f Warburg. “ The Conflict o f
Styles as a Psychological Problem (1904-1907)” is one o f the most interest
ing sections o f the book and also, surprisingly, one o f the least discussed.
The central theme o f the chapter is the question “ what factors motivated
artists’ stylistic choices in quattrocento Florence?” What would have m oti
vated the choice o f an antique m otif and what would have been the attrac
tion o f the style alla franzesé ? Warburg did not think that the solution to
these problems was self-evident and he rehearsed a variety o f solutions.
One o f Gom brich’s major problems in establishing what Warburg might
actually have thought about a subject was the fact that Warburg was a great
dramatist who was capable o f stating contradictory cases with complete
conviction. His decision to publish the apparently seamless Francesco
Sassettis Last Will and Testament must have been taken at the end o f a long
internal debate.
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {273}
W arburgs starting point, and it was the view that Panofsky and Saxl
echoed, was that there was
O n the one side a “naive realism” which lacks any sense of distance between
the present and the p a s t ... on the other “antiquarian idealism” ... Botticelli is
the forerunner of the second group, o f the painters of the grand m anner with
their mythological and antiquarian inspiration.35
Given the problem o f depicting scenes from classical mythology, the real
ists fell for the costume style “alia fram e” and this was:
the m ost powerful obstacle in the path of that more elevated and grander style
“all’ antica ’; it needed the heroic gesture of A ntonio Pollajuolo to shake off
the weighty splendours of so m uch clothing.36
The taste for fashionable costume was a product o f the merchants’ way of
life:
... the Florentines were both the masters and the slaves o f their m aterial
culture: silks, weavers of brocade, goldsmiths, masons, colour grinders.37
Their “ weighty splendours” represented the Florentine merchants’ invest

ment in the materialities o f life which would trap the workings o f the free
spirit. The obvious flaw in this line of argument is that the Franciscans, as
well as the Dominican priest Savonarola, thought that riches detracted from
the pursuit o f the spiritual life, so the rejection o f materiality would have
been quite consistent with either mysticism or enlightenment. Warburg
should have remembered Burckhardt’s early advice to him to think o f
“ Botticelli, the mystical theologian.” 38
Warburg was party to the various polarizations o f attitude which sur
rounded bourgeois taste around the turn o f the century. He was hostile to
what he called “ wealth and frenchifying elegance-Alsterufer.” 39 Costume pic
tures were in vogue amongst the bourgeoisie and the philistine citizen of
Hamburg was having difficulties with Bôcklin’s nude nymphs and satyrs.
Realism was tasteless and obstructed enlightenment. For Warburg this
wasn’t simply an issue o f taste, it had profound consequences for humanity:
In [W arburg’s] analysis the details of the costum e of a female figure in a

Q uattrocento print assume sym ptom atic value for the greatest issues not only
o f art bu t of hum an civilization.40
{274} RICHARD WOODFIELD
漩涡
The rendering o f life in motion through the swirl o f accessories was taken
by Warburg to signify a break with the medieval past and a leap towards
Michelet’s “ discovery o f man and the discovery o f the world.”
But from another point o f view Gothic realism could be seen as a neces
sary catalyst in the development o f the new style. The weight o f materialism
was necessary for patrons and artists to engage in a liberated escape, libera
tion being distinguished from mere freedom:
[Botticelli’s] mythological figures display that strangely suggestive flavor of

classical sculpture in m otion because they are liberated, rather than free cre-
ations of the painter’s imagination: liberated from the spell of the splendors of
courtly dress which decorated the luxury boxes, planet-books, and to u rn a -
m ent flags.41
One has to feel oppression to feel the full freedom o f escape; without
oppression, such freedom would be meaningless. Thus escape from the
clutches o f fashion would represent true freedom.
There is yet another way of looking at the matter: Com pared with the austere
grandeur of a Masaccio or a Donatello, [the International Gothic style] was
indeed reactionary, but was it not nevertheless a sym ptom of that zest for life,
that joy in the sensuous beauty o f the world, which we usually associate with
the Renaissance.42
It is possible that “ M asolino’s realistically strutting dandies” had more

going for them in the construction o f an energised classical style than “ the
unapproachable figure o f St. Peter striding past in Masaccio’s 'Shadow
healing’.” 43 At the level o f folk art “ the violent movement o f the Moresca
手势
dancers manifests that same will to unrestrained gesticulation and passion
ate motion which was to give birth to the new style o f classical maenads and
battle scenes.” 44
The possibilities to be offered by the use o f the different styles o f art were
only matched by the character o f the Florentines themselves:
All the heterogeneous characteristics o f the medieval-Christian, chivalrous-

rom antic and classic-platonizing idealist on the one side, and the w orld
Etruscan-pagan practical m erchant on the other, interpenetrate and unite in
the Medicean Florentine: they fuse in an enigmatic type of personality whose
explosive and yet harm onious vital energies show themselves in the way in
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {275}
which the Medicean Florentine joyously welcomes any stirring of the soul as
an extension of his m ental scope which he quietly develops and uses.45
This represents a major step away from regarding the Hamburg bour
geoisie as latter-day equivalents o f Florentine merchants. Perhaps it was a
better characterization o f Warburg himself.
结果
The upshot o f his meditations was his paper on Francesco Sassetti s Last
Will and Testament in which he argued that apparent contradictions could
兼容性
be resolved in terms o f straightforward compatibility. As Gombrich put it
Over his [Sassetti’s] tom b he had the painting of the saintly death of his
patron; on his tom b the desparate wailing of a pagan burial— how would he
harm onize the passion o f the pagan dem ons w ith the traditional medieval
philosophy of life?
... Antichità is not banned from the precincts o f the church. Rather it is allot-
ted a fixed place in the typological picture of history. It can stand side by side
with the Jewish Old Testament as part o f the world “before the Salvation.”46
But then the use o f classical pathos was not without its risks:
Just as the elements of the N orthern style can either tem pt the artist on to the
path of pedestrian and loquacious realism or help him to m irror the true
expression of the hum an face, so the language of the ancient world can be a
guide to the representation o f a higher, ideal, sphere or a tem ptation to loud
and theatrical hollowness. In the end it is up to the artist w hat use he makes of
the heritage that he enters.47
Consequently in Ghirlandaios “ Massacre” fresco:
the pagan figures have left the zone of archaeological contem plation and run
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riot on the stage. Here the sensationalism of “superlatives” has swamped the
artist’s aesthetic detachm ent and has tem pted him to an accum ulation of
horror and violence which foreshadows the “excesses” of Baroque art.48
The excesses of Baroque art formed the grounds for its rejection by the
eighteenth century classicists in general and Winckelmann in particular.
Winckelmann s views on classical art were shared by Nietzsche and so it is
very interesting that Gombrich should have remarked that it was in
Nietzsche’s Birth o f Tragedy that Warburg found “that identification o f stylis
tic trends with permanent psychological states which gradually replaced the
{276} RICH A R D W O O D F I E L D
evolutionist model in [his] system of thought.” 49 However, while Nietzsche

contrasted the Apollonian visual arts with the Dionysiae arts o f poetry and
drama, Warburg chose to concentrate on the “ Dionysiae elements in Graeco-
Roman sarcophagi.” 50 But why, as Gombrich observed, did Warburg identify
pagan art as such with Hellenistic art? Why not with other moments o f the
classical style as well? A likely explanation could have been in the pecularity
o f Warburg’s views on style, views which were rather more concerned with
contemporary artistic issues than the problems o f traditional art history. But
before turning to such issues it would be interesting to consider Gombrich’s
alternative account o f the development o f Botticelli’s style, particularly
because it was intended to demonstrate his own involvement with
Warburgian work.
At the beginning o f his career W arburg had addressed the problem
o f B otticelli’s use o f fluttering draperies. In the traditional account o f
the developm ent o f renaissance art such accessories would have been
regarded as a step backwards on the path to greater naturalism. In the
stylistic evolution towards the High Renaissance style from Masaccio to
Raphael, how could such a regression fit in? W arburg’s solution was
simple:
it may be one-sided, but not unjustified, to make the treatm ent of accessories
in m otion the touchstone of the “influence of antiquity.”51
Learning o f Poliziano’s fascination with antiquity and love o f such “ acces

sories in m otion” in his Giostra, Warburg imagined him suggesting the
theme o f the birth o f Venus to Botticelli and pointing out suitable antique
motifs to copy. Recognizing that Agostino di Duccio also used agitated
drapery, he imagined Alberti giving Agostino the same advice that
Politiziano gave to Botticelli. What Warburg failed to recognize was that the
use o f fluttering drapery extended considerably further than a small handful
o f Florentine artists. As Gombrich pointed out
it is particularly m arked in certain schools of N orthern sculpture and paint-

ing, where it is described as “late Gothic.” One o f the originators o f the device
is probably Rogier van der Weyden who can make m ost effective use of these
ornam ental flourishes o f w ind-blown scarves and ribbons both for com posi-
tional and for expressive purposes.52
WARBURG'S "METHOD" {277}
And he also commented that
W arburg had never been interested in the orthodox art historical approach
which concentrated on the slow evolution of stylistic means of representation.
He had no use for connoisseurship but aimed at a scientific psychology of the
artistic process.53
These last two sentences obscure rather than clarify Gombrich s point.
While orthodox art historians had certainly been deeply concerned with
stylistic issues, it was Gombrich him self who theorized the relationship
between stylistic concerns and the “ means o f representation” in A rt and
Illusion. And while Warburg undoubtedly “ aimed at a scientific psychology
o f the artistic process” it was deeply flawed through being based on out
moded psychological theories. This is bound to raise the question of the
relationship between psychology and the history o f art.
While the psychologist is in a position to analyse the process o f skill aqui-
sition, it is the art historian who should be concerned with the conventions
governing the aquisition and deployment o f such skills. So a central question
which should have concerned Warburg was “ How would Botticelli have
acquired his skill in the rendition of drapery and what were the technical
resources available to him?” It is at that point that the importance o f
International Gothic art should have become apparent. There is no evidence
to demonstrate that humanists were in the habit o f offering artists advice
and there was no need for it on this occasion because the particular m otif
was already available in contemporary artistic practice.
Throughout the fifteenth century pattern books filtered their way across
Europe from court to court and studio to studio, along with paintings and
artists themselves.54 The artists o f the International Gothic style introduced
a highly fashionable mode o f painting which bred its own success. Warburg
assumed that “ it is the revival o f classical subjects alone that accounts for
these formal characteristics [of accessories in m otion]” 55 failing to see that
they were part o f the International Gothic movement. Had Warburg asked
himself how Botticelli might be seen in this context
he m ight have interpreted the bias o f certain Q uattrocento artists for antique
平静的
statuary of expressive rather than serene quality as a sym ptom of the taste and
artistic problems of that time and place.56
{278} R I CHARD W O O D F I E L D
If earlier versions of the Nympha m otif had not been derived from classi
cal statuary, then it was not necessary to postulate that later versions o f the
same m otif had to be. In this context Gombrich paid Warburg a rather back-
handed complement:
Unless we follow W arburg’s later thought and interpret her deportm ent as a
break-through of racial memories we have to explain the persistence of this
type by the sway of conventions to which W arburg him self has opened our
eyes. 57
While it is true that Warburg was deeply interested in the persistence o f

motifs, he was rather lacking in interest in the period conventions which
dominated the production o f works o f art: those were Gombrich s field o f
interest, developed in A rt and Illusion.
Warburg retained the mimetic approach to the figurative arts which still
dominated art historians’ minds until Gombrich published A rt and Illusion.
He had been fascinated by what artists might have seen and this was one o f
his reasons for being interested in pageants. He held to Burckhardt’s dictum
that “ The tradition o f pageantry in Italy, in its more elevated form, is a true
transition from art to life” :
Were we perm itted to assume th at these festive pageants presented such

figures bodily to the artist’s eyes, as part of real life as it moved before them ,
we could more easily understand the process of artistic creation. In that case
迂腐的
the program m e of the learned adviser also loses som ething o f its pedantic
flavor, the inspiring scholar did not really suggest the object to be imitated, b ut
only facilitated its articulation.58
Gombrich referred to Warburg’s “ allegiance to the realistic movement o f

his time which had so impressed him during his visit to the Munich Art
Exhibition” and commented “ Perhaps the importance Warburg attached to
ancient statuary which the artist may actually have seen springs from a
similar conviction that the essence o f painting is always mimetic.” 59 But was
it an accepted convention o f quattrocento art that the artist should attempt
to depict pageants or festivities as opposed to illustrate them?60 The musical
iconographer Emanuel Winternitz has shown that “ the groupings and and
combinations o f angelic concerts in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century paint
ings have not proved reliable guides to reconstructing contemporary perfor-
w a rb u rg 's "m e t h o d " {¿ 79)
mance practice.” 61 Figurative images were not produced in the quattrocento

as windows on to contemporary life: Alberti’s metaphor has been
over-extended.
In his essay “Apollonio di Giovanni: A Florentine cassone workshop seen
through the eyes o f a humanist poet,” 62 Gombrich drew attention to the fact
that the poet, Ugolino Verino, a contemporary cassone painter, called
Apollonio “ the Tuscan Apelles” for his paintings o f scenes from Virgil.
Although the subject matter o f the painting was classical, in hindsight its
style was not. But what would a classical style have been in the mid-quattro-
cento?-presumably that most apt to receive classical forms o f praise:
if hum anists employed any conscious standard of criticism it was, of course,

that of tru th to nature, of which they could read in the ancient authors. This
standard seems well satisfied by G othic realism.63
Apollonio was an illustrator. His depiction o f the Tournament o f S. Croce

“develops a traditional scheme for jests which was employed by illustrators
o f romances” but he could also “ improvise a relief alV antica where the
context suggested it” and his use o f Byzantine costume for men “ is explained
by Vespasiano da Bisticci’s remark that the fashions o f dress had not
changed, in the East, since ancient times.” 64
In his own essay on Botticelli’s Mythologies, Gombrich adopted a typo
logical approach for understanding the imagery. Botticelli was familiar with
the traditions o f secular art:
Its m ain themes were drawn from the world o f chivalry and courtly love. The
Gardens and Bowers of Love, the Fountains of Youth, the pictures o f Venus
and her children, the storm ing o f the castle o f Love ... the w hole cycle of
courtly imagery w ith its flowery meadows and delicate m aidens m ust have
been in Botticelli’s m in d ... 65
But he was also a painter o f M adonnas and the connection between

Venus and the Madonna was one which was recognised in the association of
the Bower o f Love with Paradise, a cause o f complaint amongst devout
writers. Gombrich argued that
Botticelli did not visualize the Graces like the dancing maidens that used to
decorate the walls and coffers o f noble Florentines; nor did he look for models
{ 28 ο} R IC HARD W O O D F I E L D
am ong the frenzied m aenads o f classical sarcophagi. The rhythm of their

dance is inspired by the harm onious m otions of the blessed spirits in one of
Fra Angelico’s scenes o f Paradise or o f the chorus of angels in Sienese
paintings.66
Botticelli conceived o f the painting “on the scale and on the plane o f reli
gious painting. It was from this sphere that he derived the intense and noble
pathos that pervades his work.” 67
Gombrich challenged Warburg’s idea that Botticelli sought pathos in clas

sical art. Classical art had been available to artists for the adaptation o f
motifs throughout the middle ages and into the renaissance:
Religious art had never ceased adapting classical motifs and had done so con-
sciously ever since the Pisani. W hat w ould D onatello’s great “p athos” be
w ith ou t classical inspiration? If Botticelli borrow ed a classical m o tif for a
movem ent or a drapery he was only doing what m any artists had done before
him.
The significant feature o f Botticelli’s art, and a “departure o f momentous

significance” was that he had painted
a non-religious subject with the fervor and feeling usually reserved for objects
o f worship ... O nly th rough such a step was it possible for secular art to
assimilate and transform the pathos of classical sculpture.68
This must be the kind o f thing that Gombrich meant by the possibility of
Warburg’s having “misinterpreted the meaning o f choices and the overtone
o f images which he was out to understand.” But, as he went on to say,
Warburg “ should not, therefore, be denied the credit o f having sensed and
expressed the degree to which every move in the realm of art or fashion may
be charged with social and moral meanings.”
Warburg was convinced that the achievements o f the idealizing art o f the
High Renaissance were born out of the conquest o f the demoniacal dimen
sion o f antique imagery. At the end o f his Schifanoja lecture he declared
The grand new style that has been bestowed on us by the artistic genius of
Italy is rooted in the social will to liberate Greek hum anity from medieval,
oriental, latin m anipulation. W ith this will to recover antiquity “the good
E uropean” began his fight for enlightenm ent in that age of international
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {281}
m igration o f images which we still call a trifle too mystically the

Renaissance.69
And, again, in his essay on Luther he wrote
Ever since W inckelm ann we have been taught to look up on the classically
enobled world of their gods as a symbol o f classical antiquity as such; so much
so that we are inclined to forget that this w orld is in fact a creation of the
scholarly culture of the H um anists. For this “O lym pian” side of antique
culture had o f course first to be wrested from the old, traditional “dem onic
culture.”70
But we are less inclined now to credit the Renaissance with the resurrec
tion o f paganism than scholars in the nineteenth century. It is an interesting
question to ask why that belief was ever held but it cannot concern us here.
It is a strange suggestion to make, though, that Raphael had to distance
himself from demonic astrological figures in order to paint his own beauti
ful creations. Warburg believed in the importance o f confrontation and the
energies o f clash and conflict in the same way that the revolutionaries o f the
art world did at the turn o f the century: in the same way that academicism
had to be rigorously rejected so did the demonic dimension o f antiquity.
And in the same way that the use o f a particular style might demonstrate an
antibourgeois strategy so would the rejection o f realism “alia franzese” From
the end o f the eighteenth century artists and architects had a choice o f styles
upon which they could draw and it seemed to Warburg that the Florentine
artists o f the quattrocento were in the same position. But Florentine artists
did not choose to use the classical style, let alone confront and distance
themselves from its demonic dimensions.
Both Alberti, in the Prologue to Della Pittura , and Vasari, in the Preface to
Part III o f his Vite, had argued that artists’ work bore comparison with the
art o f antiquity and, by implication, that their successes were not due to it. It
was only during the High Renaissance and the following years that artists
could think o f antiquity as offering an exemplary style, as opposed to a
usable reservoir o f motifs which might be raided for the successful comple
tion o f a pose. The notion that in some way the renaissance recreated the
classical style misrepresents the ambitions o f both sets o f artists, though it
would be right to argue that they shared an ambition to create convincingly
lifelike imagery. As Gom brich concluded his essay “ The Style alV antica:
Imitation and Assimilation” :
I am sure that W arburg was right, that we should look for some general p rin -
ciple that Renaissance artists tried to distil from their study o f classical m o n u -
ments. I do not think that we would be far from his intentions if we called one
of these principles “the illusion of life.” Renaissance artists were narrators who
had a horror of all that looked rigid, stiff, and dead, as the conceptual art of
the M iddle Ages appeared to them . O f course, the Donatello o f the San
Lorenzo pulpits, the Leonardo o f the Last Supper, and the Michelangelo o f the
Sistine ceiling chose other ways towards this supreme goal than either im ita-
tion or assimilation o f the style alV antica. But those who first turned to the
A ntique for guidance in problems o f naturalistic representation, and came to
adm ire the art of the ancients for its vaunted fidelity to nature, m ust soon
have discovered that it also held the secret o f that higher fascination: the illu-
sion of movem ent and life. ... Even a few ancient sarcophagi of indifferent
quality could give plenty of hints on w hat to avoid and w hat to do.71
In quattrocento architecture, architects working in the style “alV antica ’

moved by a process o f eradication o f errors, like the philologists, though
unlike the philologists they had no idea o f what a genuinely classical style
might be.
Furthermore, it is seriously open to question whether the Renaissance
witnessed a revival o f paganism at all in Warburg’s sense:
By “paganism,” as we know, W arburg m eant a psychological state, the state of

surrender to im pulses of frenzy and o f fear. It was this fateful heritage he
m eant to study, and in this quest he freely identified the life of the individual
and that o f the collective m ind. The dram a of the revival of these impulses
that had been dorm ant in the collective m em ory is mainly played out on the
stage o f the Renaissance.72
Warburg had been deeply impressed by seeing the Death o f Orpheus

illustrated in an Italian print and by reading Poliziano’s Orfeo. In his essay
on Dürer he claimed:
We know that the Death of O rpheus was not just a studio motive of formal
interest to artists but a real experience felt in the spirit of the pagan past, an
event from the dark mystery plays of the Dionysian myth, relived w ith passion
and understanding.73
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {283}
But Poliziano’s Orfeo was as much a fiction as the depiction o f the death
o f Orpheus in a print. There is no evidence that Poliziano actually believed
the fictional tale he wrote and even a convincing performance on the actors’
part would not lead to that belief either. If one is going to write about the
subjects o f classical myth one uses their repertoires and that is as far as it
goes. One does not have to believe in magic to retell Apuleius’s Golden Ass.
And if, as Gombrich once suggested, Botticelli’s Primavera had been based
on an episode from the Golden Ass its effect would have been more likely
through the power o f example rather than through any force o f magic.
Furthermore, Warburg was guilty of, and it sounds odd, demonizing antiq
uity and the Arabic East. The Mystery plays were no more or less demonic
than the Christian Passion. And the introduction o f Arabic astrology into
Western Europe heralded the renovatio o f the science o f astronomy. The fact
that Arabic figure drawing was not as good as Greek simply bore testimony to
a shift in priorities and was hardly a sign o f an Arabic lack o f rationality.
A history has yet to be written o f the demonization o f the Middle Ages.
One suspects that its roots were in the aftermath o f the Reformation and
that it developed in the eighteenth century Enlightenment.
A great deal has been made o f Warburg’s interest in the concept of
empathy. It was a similar exercise in empathy when Anthony Ashley Cooper,
the Third Earl o f Shaftesbury, declared that lack o f appreciation for classical
art was a sign o f irrationality: “ Bad figures; bad minds.” 74 As a direct result
o f the achievements o f the artists o f the Italian High Renaissance, the culti
vation o f art became an activity fit for a gentleman and the appreciation of
“Apollonian” art a symptom o f good taste and high-minded behavior.
Remarking on Plato’s looking “ wistfully towards the Egyptian laws,”
Shaftesbury wondered whether the
last and present grand hierarchy of Romish Church should not have followed
the Egyptian in this (as in m any other things) and keep the orthodox forms
horrid, savage, and consequently inspiring superstition, as in reality their first
were from the G othic tim es or last feces o f the Empire and o f Arts, w hen
images, etc., were introduced.75
Art could be an important instrument o f social control and the use of

superstition would be more useful to an authoritarian society than an appeal
{284} R ICHARD W O O D F I E L D
to taste and rationality. Thus the Roman Catholics would have been better
off by sticking to grotesque medievalisms than to allow the development of
High Renaissance art. It can be argued that Warburg stood at the end o f an
Enlightenment tradition which saw Greek classicism as the mark o f rational
ity and that this is a context in which his famous declaration “Athens must
always be conquered afresh from Alexandria” may be understood.
It does seem as though Warburg committed Gombrich’s physiognomic
fallacy. As he pointed out in his chapter “Warburg’s achievement in

perspective”
Certain questions W arburg never appears to have asked. One is the w arrant
for identifying paganism as such with Hellenistic art, the relatively late phase
of classical sculpture that bequeathed to us the Laocoon and the archtypes of
the sarcophagi. There are references in W arburg to the revels of the Dionysiae
rites and other mystery religions which are to support this identification, bu t
such m emories of Nietzsche and of anthropological parallels cannot by th em -
selves account for the fact that these gestures and movements were only repre-
sented in a particular phase o f ancient art.76
If it were the case that there was a dark side to Greek culture then that
would have been just as present at the time o f “Apollonian” imagery as at the
time o f “ Dionysiae” imagery. Thus to see the Dionysiae mentality as
uniquely revealed in classical art from a particular period is to fail to recog
nise a gradual change in style which was autonomous from the mentalité
which it was alleged to represent. This invites the obvious question o f the
relationship between styles and mentalités.
In his essay “ In Search o f Cultural H istory” Gombrich proposed an
important distinction between the historical concepts o f “ periods” and
“ movements.” Periods are simply convenient temporal brackets, like the
quattrocento, whereas movements are people-centred.
The Renaissance was a people-centred movement: it was the humanista ,
like Niccolô Niccoli, who inspired a fascination for the purification o f classi
cal literature. It was the humanista who created a sense o f what the ambi
tions o f classical art might have been: they revived the category of Art 77 and
they offered categories for aesthetic evaluation but they had no conception
o f a classical style o f visual art and they were not in the habit o f talking to
quattrocento artists. It was only in the cinquecento that there was a
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {285}
significant increase in interaction and there has yet to be a fully documented

study o f the emergence o f the so-called artist’s programme.
As Gombrich pointed out, movements are not necessarily homogenous
and can operate at a number o f different levels:
Each m ovem ent ... has a core of dedicated souls, a crowd of hangers-on, not
to forget a lunatic fringe. There is a whole spectrum of attitudes and degrees of
conversion. Even w ithin the individual there may be fluctuating levels o f con-
viction, various conscious and unconscious fluctuations in loyalty.
The consequence to be drawn from this is that
the cultural historian will be a little wary of the claims o f cultural psychology.
He will n ot deny tha t the success of certain styles may be sym ptom atic of
changing attitudes, but he will resist the tem ptation to use changing styles and
fashions as indicators of profound psychological changes.78
Take, for example, the use o f astrology. In a little-known article published

in a Belgian magazine in the early 50s, Gombrich discussed a carnival song
written by Lorenzo the Magnificent and argued that astrology offered a
range o f metaphors which could be deployed to characterize human behav
ior: astrology does not so much explain joviality as create it. The same
remark could be applied to the contemporary categories o f “ introverts” and
“extroverts,” “ schizophrenics” and “neurotics” ; they do not so much explain
behaviour as create its presence out o f “ le chaos déconcertant du théâtre
humain.” 79 It is interesting that zodiacal signs are still used today to charac
terise rich personality traits rather than the poor terms o f “ introvert” and
“extrovert” ; there is still an alchemy o f star signs at work.
The use o f astrological terms as a rhetorical device invites the thought
that there was a greater use o f rhetoric in Renaissance culture than might be
commonly recognized.
When Luther changed the date o f his birthday, to engage in debate over
his horoscope, this was little more than a rhetorical ploy to be adopted in
a war o f propaganda. And when Federico Gonzaga created a building in
the rustic mode it was out o f a recognition o f the tone which it struck as a
有特权的
matter o f stylishness.80 Stylish behaviour is not a prerogative o f
contem porary life and there were still the same possibilities for strategic
effect.81
{ 286} R ICHARD W O O D F I E L D
Consider Francesco Sassetti’s stylish adoption o f Fortuna for his personal

重商的
impresa. This should not be taken to mean that in his mercantile affairs he
would never plan anything, as everything was in the lap o f the gods anyway.
“Fortuna ’ was simply available for use when things went wrong, like the
expression “ Sod’s Law” is today; it is a practical w rite-off device. The
humanists’ recovery and refinements o f classical literature made available an
extended and alternative language to describe human behavior. But it would
推断
be a great mistake to extrapolate from the use o f that language to the

existence o f a mentalité.
In a radio discussion with Gombrich in 1973, the historian Peter Burke
made the suggestion that there was a need for the concept o f “ mentality” to
explain cultural differences. Gombrich replied:
I would not deny that “m entality” is a useful term, b ut I think that it is also
true that people change their mentalities. I am rather attracted by the socio-
logical concept of role-playing in this respect. If you get into another group
you may feel th at your m entality is changing: let us say, as an extreme
example, the Army, or another group where everybody seems to act and to
think and to speak in a different way, and this reacts back on your own
responses to a surprising degree. Language is the best guide to m entality in
this way. ... The role is not the person, and we are all many persons. Years ago I
took part in experiments about the interpretation of facial expressions in news
photographs. This turned out to be almost impossible unless you were also
given the context: b u t there was an exception. You easily recognised the
expression which was “p ut on” to proclaim a public role— as when a Nazi
sto rm -troop er modelled his bearing on his Führer. M em bership o f such a
m ovement stamps a m an m uch m ore than, say, m em bership o f a ping-pong
club.82 [my emphasis]
This is a very important factor to take into account when attempting the
analyse the behaviour and beliefs o f quattrocento Florentines. To what
extent did the fashion for literature alV antica have an effect on their beliefs
and behavior?
There can be little doubt that new translations played a role in the resur
gence o f interest in platonism, for example. But if we bear in mind that pla
tonism played an extremely important role in creating the foundations o f
Christian theology it is hard to believe that the new platonists, o f the
Theologica Platonica , were pagans; they were Christian platonists with a
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {287}
developed sense o f what it was to be a platonist. The spread o f knowledge o f

ancient artistic ideals, through Pliny and the rhetoricians, helped create a
linguistic climate for the praise o f contemporary art but as Baxandall, and
Gombrich before him, demonstrated, this could be quite consistent with a
variety o f artistic styles. In a sense the humanist writers did not know what a
classic style might be until after it had been created; its creation might be
called retrodiction. What was really important, as Gombrich has demon
strated, was a belief in the value o f Art with a capital “A.”

Interests in magic and astrology have been called in as witness to the
resurgence o f paganism but both predated the quattrocento and both can be
located in the Christian middle ages. O f course Marsilio Ficino cast horo
scopes and wrote on the impressive effects o f magic but he also published
Disputatio Contra ludicium Astrologorum , which was an attack on the prac
tice o f astrology. In a letter to Francesco Ippoliti, Count o f Gazzoldo, he
wrote:
These astrologers, in declaring that every single thing is necessarily brought to

pass by the stars, are themselves involved in three highly pernicious errors.
For, insofar as they are able, they take away from God, Almighty and Supreme,
his own providence and his absolute sovereignty over the universe. Next they
deny the justice of the Angels; ... Lastly, they take away from m en their free
will and deprive them of all peace of mind, for it seems to the astrologers that
men, no less than beasts are driven hither and thither.83
Marsilio Ficino could change his mind to suit the occasion. Casting horo
scopes was not inconsistent with the rejection o f astrology; it was all a
matter o f context.
It would be beyond the purpose o f this contribution to a collection of
essays on Warburg to discuss the logics o f role play and pre-scientific expla
nations; such a discussion would start from Berger and Luckmann’s The
Social Construction o f Reality84 and Dan Sperber’s Rethinking Symbolism and
On Anthropological Knowledge.85 It is important to point out to the fact that
anthropology, as a discipline o f understanding and self-understanding, has
moved on since Warburg’s day. It is also important to add that the world has
changed since Warburg visited the Pueblo Indians: multi-cultural sensitivity
has lead to an awareness o f the process o f demonization. Cultural difference
is not the same as irrationality and one cannot help but feel that Warburg’s
{ 288} R I CHARD W O O D F I E L D
own pathological condition shaped his views on paganism:86 paganism was

not pagan in his sense.
A history which thinks o f artistic styles as defining characteristics o f m en
talités is likely to take those mentalités to be incommensurable, thus it is
likely to adopt a position of extreme historical relativism. With such an atti
tude the existence o f evidence and the use o f analysis is irrelevant because
one commentator’s opinion is just as legitimate as another’s. At which point
it is better to give up the historical project altogether than indulge in the

vanity o f self-indulgence.
While recognizing the fact that cultures offer different ways o f articulat
ing human experience, Gombrich argued that there are common features o f
human life and experience.87 Thus it is possible to recognize the articulation
o f difference and it is also possible to achieve translation between languages,
while at the same time recognising deviances in formation, accentuation or
range. Cultures are hardly closed systems: if they were there would be no
point in trying to achieve historical understanding. And the mere use o f a
foreign language would be an act o f self-alienation. Given the difficulties o f
understanding Warburg’s own thought we should not underestimate the
difficulties in explaining the beliefs and values o f quattrocento Florentines.
But we will not find an easy route through empathetic reaction to their
images, whether they be the images which they painted for themselves or
those “ images” which they presented for their contemporaries.
Warburg’s ultimate achievement lies in his having raised the kinds o f
questions which he did about relations between visual imagery and culture
rather than the solutions that he gave to them, which are now dated in the
light o f subsequent research into historical anthropology.
notes
1 W arburg, quoted in E. H. Gombrich, Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography, with

a memoir on the history o f the library by F. Saxl, London, The W arburg Institute
1970, 322; henceforth this text will be referred to as Warburg. I w ould like to
acknowledge a great personal debt to Sir Ernst for patiently putting up w ith my
questions over m any years and giving me access to m anuscripts of his u n p u b -
lished material. Any faults in this essay are my own.
2 W arburg in Warburg, 307.
w a r b u r g 's "m e t h o d " {2 8 9 }
3 E. H. Gombrich, Address to the Association of Art Historians, 1975, ms.

4 Erwin Panofsky and Fritz Saxl, “Classical M ythology in Medieval Art,”
Metropolitan Museum Studies, IV (1933), 229.
5 “Classical Mythology,” 274.
6 W. Eugene Kleinbauer, Modern Perspectives in Western Art History, New York 1971,57.
7 “Thoughts on Erwin Panofsky’s First Years in Princeton,” in Irving Lavin (ed.),
Meaning in the Visual Arts: Views from the Outside, Princeton 1995,354.
8 Cf. Creighton Gilbert, Renaissance Art, New York 1970, xvi:
One of the most effective [methods and schools of art history] (and one o f the few to
have been somewhat self-analytical) is iconology— or the Warburg method, after its
发布者
promulgator. ... This method in simple essence is to study the work o f art as a carrier of
the interests of its culture and its social myths. Iconologists show and define the atti
tudes in a work of art by analyzing its technique, its design and style, and most obvi
ously its subject matter, or iconography, and further those details in which this work
varies from earlier and later presentations o f the same subject matter. This last has been
the most triumphant and illuminating Warburg technique ...
9 Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology, New York 1967,15.

10 G om brich in Warburg, 312-3.
11 Saxl in Warburg, 337.
12 David Watkin, The Rise o f Architectural History, London 1980. Note also the tenor
o f the article by John Onians, “Art History, Kunstgeschichte and Historia,” origi-
nally published in A rt History 1(2), 1978, reprinted in Eric Fernie (ed.), A rt History
and its Methods: a critical anthology, London 1995.
13 Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction, Oxford 1983, 29.
14 Kenneth Clark, Another Part o f the Wood, London 1974, 177. Constable was a
sufficiently m inor figure not to even w arrant m ention in Udo K ultermann’s very
catholic book The History of the History o f A rt History, New York 1993; translation
of Geschichte der Kunstgeschichte, 1966.
15 Q uoted in David Watkin, The Rise o f Architectural History, London 1983,147-8.
16 E. H. Gombrich, “W arburg Institute: A Personal Memoir,” The A rt Newspaper, 2 ,
November 1990,9.
17 Ibid.
18 The exhibition was published in book form in 1948 as F. Saxl and R. Wittkower,
British A rt and the Mediterranean, Oxford 1949; reprinted 1969.
19 Kenneth Clark, Another Part o f the Wood, London 1974,189-90.
20 Q uoted from Ernest Samuels, Bernard Berenson: The Making o f a Connoisseur,
Cambridge Mass. 1981, 209.
21 Aby W arburg, “Italian Art and International Astrology in the Palazzo Schifanoia
in Ferrara,” in Gert Schiff (ed), German Essays on A rt History, New York 1988, 252.
{290} RICHA R D W O O D F I E L D
22 Q uoted in E. H. Gombrich, “Kenneth Clark’s ‘Piero della Francesca,” in Reflections

on the History o f A rt (ed. Richard Woodfield), Oxford 1987,57.
23 W arburg in Schiff, 252-3.
24 Warburg, 2.
25 This is the title u nd er which it is generally know n. The full bibliographical
description is: A. [by] W arburg, Gesammelte Schriften, hrsg. von der Bibliothek
W arburg, Bd. I u nd II: Die E rneuerung der heidnischen Antike.
Kulturwissenschaftliche Beitràge zur Geschichte der europàischen Renaissance.
M it einem Anhang unverôffentlichter Zusàtze. U nter M itarbeit von Fritz
Rougemont, hrsg. von G ertrud Bing, Leipzig-Berlin 1932.

26 Saxl in Warburg, 336.
27 Saxl wrote a m em oir on the history of the library, published by G om brich as part
of Aby Warburg: A n Intellectual Biography, London 1970 and the Journal o f the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes published “A. M. W arburg” by G ertrud Bing in
1965 (28), 299-313.
28 Bing, op. cit., 302.
29 Gom brich in Warburg, 4.
31 For a detailed study o f Lam precht see Roger Chickering, Karl Lamprecht: A
German Academic Life (1856- 1915), New Jersey 1993. Chickering has some very
interesting and pertinent things to say about the study of cultural history in the
later part of the nineteenth century, 87-93.
32 “W ertproblem e u n d m ittelalterliche Kunst,” Kritische Berichte; translated as
“Achievement in Medieval Art,” Meditations on a Hobby Horse, London 1963.
33 “Art and Scholarship,” Meditations, 108.
34 Warburg, 319.
38 Q uoted by G om brich in Warburg, 65.
39 W arburg in Warburg, 151-2.
42 G om brich in Warburg, 162.
44 Gom brich in Warburg, 164-5.
46 Gom brich in Warburg, 175-6.
warburg's "method" {2 9 1 }

50 Preface to the 2nd edition of Warburg, Oxford 1986, viii.
51 W arburg in Gombrich, Warburg, 61.
52 Gombrich, Warburg, 311.
53 Gombrich, Warburg, 308.
54 See E H Gombrich, “Supply and D em and in the History o f A rt” in Topics o f our
Time, London 1991.
55 G ombrich in Warburg, 311.

58 Q uoted in Gombrich, Warburg, 63.
59 Jfcic/.
60 My words are intended to draw a distinction between an image which is an eye-
witness recreation of an event as opposed to symbolic concrétisations o f imagina-
tively present objects. In “Tobias and the Angel,” Symbolic Images, London 1972
G om brich argued th at Tobias was present in the picture as the Archangel
Raphael’s ^identifying attribute, thus the picture is truly a symbolic image. In
“Evolution in the Arts: The Altar Painting, itsAncestry and Progess” in Evolution
and its Influence (ed. A Grafen, London 1989,107-25) he similarly argues that the
Renaissance witnessed the transition from iconic images of collections of saints to
images in which their relationship is narratively imagined. In “Raphael’s Stanza
della Segnatura and the Nature of its Symbolism” (reprinted in Richard Woodfield
(ed.), The Essential Gombrich) he stresses the medieval precedents o f the images
and refuses to recognise The School o f Athens as a bunch of philosophers dis-
cussing each others’ interests, as Edgar W ind would have done.
61 Ellen Rosand “Music and Iconology” in Irving Lavin, Meaning in the Visual Arts:
View from the Outside, 257.
62 Republished in Norm and Form, London 1966.
63 Michael Baxandall developed this aperçu in Giotto and the Orators: H um anist
observers of painting in Italy and the discovery of pictorial composition 1350- 1450,
Oxford 1971.
64 “Apollonio di Giovanni,” 19.
65 “Botticelli’s Mythologies: A Study in the Neo-Platonic Symbolism of his circle,”
republished in Symbolic Images, London 1972,62.
66 “Mythologies,” 63.
67 “Mythologies,” 63.
68 Ibid, 63-4.
69 Translation given to me by Ernst G om brich in a personal discussion.
70 W arburg “H eidnisch-antike Weissagung in W ort u n d Bild zu Luthers Zeiten,”

Gesammelte Schriften, II, 491, quoted in translation in Jan Bialostocki, Dürer and
his critics, Baden-Baden 1986,333.
71 “The style alV antica: Im itation and Assimilation,” Norm and Form, 128.
73 “D ürer und die italienische Antike,” Gesammelte Schriften, II, 443-9 translated in
Bialostocki, 340.
74 Plastics (in Second Characters, ed. Benjamin Rand, Cambridge 1914), 105. This is a
classicist commonplace; for a discussion of its significance see Μ. H. Abrams, The
Mirror and the Lamp, New York 1958, chapter IX.

75 Plastics, 103-4.
77 See particularly G om brich’s essays “The Renaissance C onception o f Artistic
Progress and its Consequences” and “The Early Medici as Patrons of A rt” in Norm
and Form.
78 Ibid, 389.
79 “L’influence des astres sur la culture de la Renaissance,” Les Beaux Arts: hebdo-
maire d ’ information artistique, special edition: L’Europe Humaniste, Mercredi 15
Decembre 1954,7.
80 See “A rchitecture and Rhetoric in Giulio R om ano’s Palazzo del T è” in The
Essential Gombrich.
81 Observers o f contem porary life m ust be aware of the disjunctures between
routine existence and stylish pose. There is a current Volkswagen advertisement
which trades on this theme: you get more than you see, the hardcase bouncer has
a sensitive soul and the bespectacled m atron has a lust for chocolate and sex.
82 “Ernst G om brich discusses the concept of cultural history with Peter Burke,” The
Listener, 27 December 1973, 881-2. The article is w orth reading in full, particularly
for G om brich’s critique o f a straightforw ardly functionalist anthropological
approach to visual imagery.
Another way, my way, of putting his point is to say that people operate across a
wide variety of discursively em bodied fronts. A refinem ent is to suggest that each
one of these discourses operates with what Dan Sperber has called encyclopedic
knowledge.
One of the characteristics of hum anist writing was com bination o f stylishness
with eclecticism, to the point o f a lack of recognition o f the content o f what is
being said; as an instance of this read “Marsilio Ficino oratio de laudibus
philosophiae” translated in The Letters o f Marsilio Ficino, volume 3, London 1981,
18-21. G om brich him self came to this realisation after w riting ^ leones Symbolicae:
The Visual Image in N eo-Platonic T hought,” Journal o f the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes, XI, 1948,163-92; see the revision in Symbolic Images, London
WARBURG'S "METHOD" {293}
1972 and then his devastating critique of Panofsky in “Idea in the Theory of Art:
Philosophy or Rhetoric?,” Idea, Colloquio Internationale, Roma 5-7 Jennaio 1989,
ed. M. Fattori e M. L. Bionilli (Lessico Intellettuale Europeo LI).
83 Letter 37, in Letters, 75.
84 H arm ondsw orth 1967. Still useful and a m uch misrepresented work.
85 Cambridge 1988 & 1994.
86 O n this subject see “Psychohistorie im Zeichen Saturns: Aby W arburg s
Denksystem un d die m oderne Kulturgeschichte” by Bernd Roeck in Wolfgang
Hardtwig u nd H ans-Ulrich Wehler, Kulturgeschichte Heute, Gottingen 1996.

87 G om brich deals with this subject at length in “Relativism in the Humanities: The
Debate about H um an N ature” republished in Topics.

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Scenic Art as a Philosophical Context

Media Research: Technology, Art, Communication

Literature, Media, Information Systems

England and Its Aesthetes: Biography and Taste

The Wake o f Art: Criticism, Philosophy, and the Ends o f Taste

Beauty is Nowhere: Ethical Issues in Art and Design

Music/Ideology: Resisting the Aesthetic

Footnotes: Six Choreographers Inscribe the Page

Difference/Indifference: Meetings on Postmodernism, Marcel Duchamp and John Cage

Art History as Cultural History: Warburg's Projects

The Information Subject

Critical Voices: The Myths o f Postmodern Theory

Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation

Looking In: The Art o f Viewing

Framing Formalism: Riegl's Work

Music Inside Out: Going too far in Musical Essays

Looking Back to the Future

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First Published 2001 by Gordon and Breach Publishers

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint o f the Taylor & Francis Group, an informabusiness

Copyright © 2001 Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

ISBN 978-9-057-01003-3 (softcover)

ISBN 978-1-315-07857-1 (elSBN)

Introduction to the Series IX

The Entry of the Idealizing 7 Aby Warburg

Warburg Centenary Lecture 33 Ernst H. Gombrich

The Nineteenth Century Notion 55 Ernst H. Gombrich

Aby Warburg and the 65 Kathryn Brush

Making a Reception for Warburg: 93 Dorothea McEwan

Mimesis and Allegory: On Aby 121 Matthew Rampley

Urania redux: A View of Aby 151 Kristen Lippincott

“Serious Issues”: The Last Plates 183 Charlotte Schoell-Glass

Aby Warburg and the Florentine 209 Peg Katritzky

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CRITICAL VOICES IN ART, THEORY A N D

Culture is a response to the changing

opportunity to analyze and re-evaluate the position of those thinkers who

ALONG W IT H CURRENT INTEREST IN

tion o f providing a significant contribution to the discourses that are

revivals have been initiated with the intent o f establishing methodological as

such formulations as liquidating the complex and often contradictory forces

this, Warburg joins Hegel’s dialectic of historical change to Nietzsches “gay

THE THEM E I HAVE THE HONOR OF

presenting to you today, the Entry o f

historical precision, exactly as he is depicted on his own triumphal arch. For

In attempting a stylistic analysis o f this kind, we are fortunate that sketch­

worked with him in the decoration o f the Sassetti chapel.

he is furthest removed from the Arch o f Constantine. The story o f the

itual capacity to symbolise a mental event mysteriously and convincingly.

come into existence in Arezzo, whose monumental heroism, in its mingling

one estimate, by no means excessive, it is possible to prove that the inventory

the form o f furniture painting, such as on wedding chests or on the bowls

Se vous estez femme de roy If you are the wife of a king

by an intensely nervous, tragic sense o f pathos which, in the case o f individ­

the triumph o f Christian faith. Only in the background does an antique

original, according to the sketchbook o f Ghirlandaio’s workshop. A woman

o f secondary significance; we can think o f this nymph as a symbol o f the

Q u ant’ è bella giovinezza However beautiful youth is,

In attempting a stylistic analysis o f this kind, we are fortunate that sketch

by an intensely nervous, tragic sense o f pathos which, in the case o f individ

through the comparative analysis o f decorated initials, to portray the evolu