The Atlas Mnemosyne by Any Warburg...
10:42 a.m.
05/30/19 - The Museo de Bellas Artes is currently presenting an exhibition about an Art Historian. Although this is not very common, it's worth the chance to meet Aby Warburg (Germany, 1866- 1929), whose studies were very notorious by the end of the 20th Century.
Warburg wrote no books, there's only records of his conferences. When they were finally translated into English, we were given the chance to understand the ideas of the first Historian to systematize iconography. His studies were focused in a figure that appeared during Renaissance and could then be found through the History of Art: the nymph, a pagan character continuously changing. Her particular way of showing herself (pathos), dancing or in movement, and her clothes, challenged the Classicism pretended by Renaissance.
To explain his theory, Warburg created the "Atlas Mnemosyne", where he placed the many artworks that referred to this character.
Atlas Mnemosyne, by Aby Warburg,
dedicated to Sandro Boticelli and the nymph - October 1929
Exhibition copy / Measures: 120 x 95 cm
To Warburg, who anticipated globalization with his atlas of human evolution, everything was related, since History is not a continuous line: what happened in the past is still happening in the present (Eternal Return).
The dance of four women, by Andrea Zoan (¿Giovanni Antonio da Brescia?), according to an etching by Andrea Mantegna (ca. 1500)
Technique: burin on paper / Measures: 24 x 34.3 cm
Nymphs' bath, by Jan Brueghel I (1612-1625)
Technique: oil on oak wood / Measures: 58.5 x 85.5 cm
Ceres, by Raquel Forner (1933)
Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 170 cm x 100 cm
The nymph as a feminine figure is presented as a free spirit, and the fabric of her dresses, as well as her hair, are always animated by the movement of her body.
This is a rare exhibition which also allows us to acknowledge the diversity of the Museum's permanent collection.
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