Astrological Pathosformeln in Aby Warburg: Words and Images for Cosmic Orientation

Abstract

The article approaches the concepts of image, art and Pathosformel in the studies of Aby Warburg, with special attention to the astrological topic, here understood as expression of a “figurative cosmic orientation”, which integrates the collective imagery. Warburg thought figurative sources as testimonies of man in history, having the theme of the stars a constant and essentially useful presence in the outline of his scientific-cultural proposal (Kulturwissenschaft). Investigating “the development of the cosmological element”, Warburg is driven to “an oriented science in the form of images”, which led him to a creation of “a new history of scientific-cultural art”. Considering that works of art reflect historical life, he also understood them as “guiding instruments in the celestial cosmos”, and delved into man’s relationship with the world-time-space, detecting “polar tensions” of these cosmic struggles, between freedom and necessity, calculation and worship, logic and myth, or, as he used to conceptualize in a very own manner, Athens and Alexandria.