Aby Warburg. Rytual, Pathosformeln i forma posrednia

In the iconographic tradition of the West certain configurations of gestures return after a long periods of concealment, albeit carrying already a new emotional burden. Can this phenomenon be understood while limiting ourselves to an analysis of the images alone, or should we rather embark upon an analysis starting with ritual activity, myths and tales that accompany a depiction of those gestures? How are those relics to be perceived within the perspective of the anthropology of the image without succumbing to generalities of the “social context” at the cost of the complex formal specificity of the “work of art”? Such questions, situated along the crossing point of anthropology, aesthetics and the history of art were posed at the academic onset of this discipline by one of its founders – Aby Warburg.