Italian 248 (section 1): Aby Warburg in Italy

Several decades into the recuperation of Aby Warburg’s work, his unfinished “Mnemosyne Atlas” (63 collaged boards combining reproductions of historical sites, objects, and artworks with contemporary ads, maps, stamps, postcards of 1927-1929) is newly accessible. Digital access to the Bilderatlas (https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/library-collections/warburg-institute-archive/online-bilderatlas-mnemosyne) and its recent full publication offer new perspectives on the Mnemosyne project and its view of Italy.

This graduate seminar will focus on Warburg as self-identifying Florentine, on his time in Italy, and on Italian components of the Bilderatlas as well as Warburg’s response to Italian Etruscan, ancient, medieval, and early modern / Renaissance rites, rituals, spaces, and images. We will question the implications of Warburg’s practice for the digital age, for contemporary artistic practices, for material archives such as historical slides collections, and for an interdisciplinary approach to history, images, postcolonialism, trauma, disabilities, and autobiography.

Topics include: word & image, translation, prints, cosmology, iconology and visual studies, photography, psychoanalysis, post-colonialism, tarot cards, art and anthropology, Hopi, Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project, cultural history, migration, the “pathos formula,” and the figure of the “ninfa.”

This course is designed to connect with other and further studies in adjacent fields including but not limited to Renaissance & Early Modern Studies, critical theory, interdisciplinary studies, and literature studies. Students from outside Italian Studies / History of Art are welcome; please email Prof. Lange to discuss your interest and potential adjustments.