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Warburg
The Rebirth of Pagan Antiquity – Editorial index
The index reproduces the publishing history
of Warburg’s writings: the essays written during his lifetime
(between 1883 and 1922); those collected by his assistant Gertrud
Bing (1932) after his death; the most recent Italian edition
of his complete works (from 2002); the German publications (partial
editions: 1980, 1998, complete edition from 2000) and translations
into Italian (1966), French (1990) and English (1999).
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Essays
Alexander the Great represented as Christ
in two Armenian illuminated manuscripts
Two illuminated manuscripts preserved in the Library of the
Mechitarista Monastery of San Lazzaro in Venice (MS 424, second
half of C14th ; MS Kourdian 280 dated 1526) contain the text
of The Romance of Alexander,elaborated in the first centuries
of the Christian era but drawn from more ancient historic and
legendary sources. From the 4th century, the life of the Macedonian
leader is read as a prefiguration of the life of Christ: his
miraculous birth by divine conception, his life studded with
prodigies, his death at 33 years of age were key elements for
drawing parallels between Alexander the Great and Christ. From
an iconographical viewpoint, too, the figure of Alexander in
the two Venetian illuminated manuscripts has strong similarities
with the iconography of the Saviour. The reuse of iconographic
models and themes is, first of all, a resourceful and economical
exploitation of figurative repertories in use, but this explanation
can also be interlinked with the more elaborate theory of a
deliberate and intentional Christianisation of pagan themes,
of the interpretatio Christiana of Alexander. The merely
‘functional’ reuse of Christian iconographic models is perceptible
in several episodes of the first Armenian codex (MS 424), whilst
in the case of the second codex (MS Kourdian 280) it is possible
to theorise an intentional religious reading. For example, in
the episode describing the birth of Alexander, the composition
of the scene is entirely modelled on the Birth of Christ
(even the garment worn by Queen Olympias appears to be entirely
interchangeable with that worn by the Virgin in many Armenian
codices and design books). The conscious and not merely functional
reuse of the sacred iconography of Christianity is linked to
the fact that, in practice, in Armenian scriptoria the
scribe was frequently the illuminator too, and it is possible
to argue that it is unlikely that the decorator was unable to
interpret the text, or was unaware of its significance.
Alexander the Great: the history of an iconographic journey
Monica Centanni, Claudia Danotti
Italian bookshops are offering for sale a volume entitled Alexander
the Great (ed. by Monica Centanni and Claudia Daniotti)
which brings together the translations of two of the most ancient
Greek sources for the life and exploits of the Macedonian leader:
The Romance of Alexander, written between the 3rd century
BC and the C1st AD, and the Life of Alexander written
by Plutarch around 110-115 AD. With kind permission of the publisher,
Engramma publishes an extended iconographic appendix. The long
story of the myth of Alexander is also a rich iconographic story,
which from the end of the 4th BC, from the first contemporary
witnesses to the life and exploits of the King, reaches us today.
His face, his extraordinary military exploits and his journeys
are illustrated and handed down in infinite examples that derive
from places frequently long distances apart, from all the countries
that were conquered or subjected by Alexander, from the extreme
West of Europe to the far East of Asia. It is a centuries-old
and wide-ranging iconographic journey which is reproduced in
the Appendix, through emblematic examples gathered together
in a gallery of images from Hellenic times to the Renaissance,
from the most ancient evidence provided by sculptural portraits
to the learned reuse of Alexander in C16th century painting. |
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engramma
