Before Mnemosyne
Wilhelmine Cultural History Exhibitions and the Genesis of Warburg's Picture Atlas
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11307359 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew Vollgraff (0000-0003-2013-2097, NOMIS Fellow eikones—Center for the Theory and History of the Image University of Basel, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 432-465 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0170-6233 • E-ISSN: 1522-2365 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/bewi.202300014 |
| PMID | 38587129 |
| OpenAlex | W4394570872 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
Aby Warburg's Bilderatlas Mnemosyne , left unfinished in 1929, has attracted significant interest in recent decades. This essay offers a new interpretation of Warburg's “picture atlas,” not in relation to modernist collage and photomontage, but as an heir to scientific pedagogical exhibitions of the late Wilhelmine period. It deals in particular with two “public enlightenment” shows curated by the Leipzig medical historian Karl Sudhoff, whose work Warburg admired and employed: the first on with the history of hygiene in Dresden in 1911, the second in Leipzig, three years later, on the development of scientific images. Like Warburg, Sudhoff appreciated artworks and artifacts as sources for the history of science and medicine. His exhibitions consisted of assemblages of photographic reproductions—some of which were provided by Warburg himself—and uncannily anticipate Mnemosyne in both form and content. By examining the exchange of materials and display methods between the two scholars, the article explores how their respective visual projects reflected deeper disagreements over the public role of science, the epistemic power of images, and the persistence of the irrational in the human psyche
Art · Art history · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Exhibition · Interpretation (philosophy · Woodcut · Multidisciplinary Warburg-centric Studies · Philosophy · Philosophy, Science, and History · Visual Culture and Art Theory
A Florentine Looks at Florence
Men and Ideas
"Was ist Kulturgeschichte - und was ist sie nicht?" Über den Begriff der Kulturgeschichte in der deutschen Geschichtswissenschaft des 19. Jahrhunderts
Divining and Knowing
Displaying the invisible
Country medicine in the city marketplace
When Jupiter Meets Saturn
The Archive and the Labyrinth
Between the Academy and the Avant-Garde
Aby Warburg and Cinema, Revisited
Aby Warburg's Babylonian paradigm
| Highly cited | No |
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