Historical Images
Due to its tendency towards psychology, anthropology and sociology, Warburg’s philosophy seems to put a lot of emphasis on the human gesture. On one hand, the work can thus be understood as a sign language through the technique of pantomime. On the other hand, it may have entailed personified views of the material worlds (such as nature, architecture, the cosmos) around human beings. Do you agree? Aby Warburg was interested in the “Graf Zeppelin”, a German construction, which was captained by a German, showing an element of patriotism.
Syntax Panels
There is a certain “narrative” which runs through the first three panels A, B, C and 1.
The first three panels A, B and C14 are a sort of theoretical prologue in which Aby Warburg tried to lay out the elements and schemes which he considered important to reflect his ideas about the inner and outer cosmos. Aby Warburg believed that the identification between human being and the outer world could only be achieved with a sky which would be animated, made graspable. He included a map of the regions of Europe which stood for history and geography. However, his ideas about the Native American primitive cultures didn’t get included in the Atlas. Finally, he took the genealogy to illustrate human being’s rootedness in history. The second panel B shows the ideas relating to the Maco and Micro Cosmos, working both ways. The third panel C shows the development of understanding of and scientific research on the cosmos. All three panels are the schemes of the Atlas.
Images on Paper
Warburg started his first compositions between 1905 and 1908, twenty years before the latest version. He learned from historical or geographical Bilderatlen to define the format of the theoretical “Bilderatlas”. At this time, his resources were limited and the image archive not existing so that he used sketches drawn by his wife.
Other resources included photographs of images, reproductions from books, and visual materials from newspapers or daily life. In the 1920s, he managed to technically reproduce sepia toned images from books using a photo-clerk and hired an in-house photographer.
Layout of Images on Panels
One may even speculate that the Mnemosyne Atlas would not have looked as interesting if the images had been laid out in a grid and it had gone into print in an ordered format.