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http://vcu.sagepub.comJournal of Visual Culture
DOI: 10.1177/1470412903002003001 2003; 2; 275 Journal of Visual
Culture
Georges Didi-Huberman The Imaginary Breeze: Remarks on the Air
of the Quattrocento
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The imaginary breeze: remarks on the air of the Quattrocento
Georges Didi-Huberman
The wind does more than just accompany the graceful footsteps
and the drapery ofthe nymphs that populate so many of the
Quattrocentos pictures. It is no more amere accessory of drapery in
motion than drapery is itself an accessory of thebody in motion.
Body, surfaces and air all hang together, like the Three Graces
inBotticellis Primavera (see Figure 1): each element in that
dialectical dance existsby virtue of its being borne, transported
and transformed by the others. Thedraperies are in the wind as the
wind is in the draperies, in the hair, and all aroundthe body: the
accessory in motion (bewegtes Beiwerk), as Warburg clearly
saw,touches and alters the very being of what it comes into contact
with. The wind doesmore than just pass over things: it transforms,
metamorphoses, profoundly touchesthe things it passes over.
Aby Warburg is probably the first Western historian of art to
have placed the wind the fluid par excellence at the centre of a
major exploration of Renaissance art. In18889, while he was still a
student, Warburg observed the epic wind that blows inGhibertis
reliefs and formulated his first hypotheses about the re-invention
ofpictorial values (das Malerisch) by the sculptors of the early
15th century
journal of visual culture
journal of visual cultureCopyright 2003 SAGE Publications
(London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi)
www.sagepublications.comVol 2(3): 275-289
[1470-4129(200312)2:3;275-289;038435]
AbstractAby Warburg placed the wind, or air, at the centre of
his investigation of the artof the Italian Renaissance. This
article investigates how an external cause of theimage takes on the
role of a figure in Quattrocento painting and sculpture, andbecomes
foundational for Warburgs understanding of the Pathosformel and
ofNachleben.
Key words air Botticelli dance displacement of affects drapery
Renaissance Warburg
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journal of visual culture 2(3)276
Figure 1 Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, c. 14825 (detail: the
Three Graces), tempera grassa on wood.Florence, Uffizi Gallery.
1990 Photo SCALA, Florence courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att.
Culturali. These images,protected by copyright and by watermark,
are for reference purposes only. The downloading,reproduction,
copy, publication or distribution of any of the images appearing on
this website areforbidden by law.
SCALA Picture Library
SCALA Picture Library
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(Warburg, 18889; Warburg, 1889, see Ghelardi, 2001[18889]:
7418).1 Later, byshifting his focus from the still beauty of Venus
to the turbulent edges of her body to hair, draperies, and breaths
of air Warburg, contra Winckelmann and hisimmobile goddesses, was
to re-invent our entire way of seeing Antiquity and theRenaissance,
placing bodily motion and the displacement of affects at the centre
ofour perception (Warburg, 1998[1893]).2In his 1893 thesis on
Botticelli, Warburg soon sought adequate expression for
thisphenomenon, which had not previously been studied by the
historical sciences butwhich, of course, had been grasped by
certain artists, poets and philosophers. Thisis why, at the
beginning of the chapter on Botticellis Primavera, Warburg
citedsome lines alluding to the wind written by Dante Gabriel
Rossetti. This is also whyhe borrowed the superb expression
imaginary breeze (in French in his text: briseimaginaire), probably
from some romantic poet (Warburg, 1998[1893]: 20, 26).3 Inthe same
spirit, he entitled the concluding chapter of his thesis with an
enigmaticand enticing expression: The external cause of the image
(die uereVeranlassung der Bilder) (pp. 4555).Why, then, was the
wind which merely stirs the draperies and hair of a number
of,mainly female, figures in Renaissance painting elevated to the
status of a cause,motive or impetus (as the term Veranlassung
suggests) for the entire picture?Because, from the start, Warburg
recognized in the wind a formal means ofexpression or Pathosformel,
as he was later to call it. The imaginary breeze causesthe hair of
Botticellis Venus or the clothes of Donatellos princess to flutter
freelywithout apparent cause (pp. 20, 30). For the artists of the
Quattrocento, mobilizing airhad become a tool or rather, a
fundamental vehicle for conveying pathos. Warburgwanted to analyse
both the formulaic aspects of this vehicle, with their potential
forrepetition, and its dynamic aspects, with their liberating
potential (pp. 545). The wind causes all that it touches to quiver
or stir, to be moved or convulsed. Itfirst sends a quiver through
space: the graceful hereness of the princess recoiling infear is
reached by the elsewhere of a violent combat carried out in her
name, whichexhales its intensity in her direction. Here, then, the
entire space is moved by thewind. But the passage of air also sends
a quiver through time: Warburg discoveredwhy, during the
Renaissance, a sense of surface mobility in the figures (die
uereBeweglichkeit der Gestalten) was thought to be an essential
trait ... and a criterionfor any successful influence of antique
art (ein Kriterium des Einflusses derAntike) (p. 19). He also
noted, among the artists of the Quattrocento, the tendency... to
turn to the arts of the ancient world whenever life was to be
embodied inoutward motion (p. 22). Finally, Warburg showed that the
now of the Florentineservant-girl in the historia by Ghirlandaio
was affected by the then of the Nymphcopied from Roman sarcophagi
(Warburg, 1998[1893]: 1736).The air also sends a quiver through
bodies. The servant-girl draped in a statuesrobe only divulges her
appearance by virtue of the transitory energy of anapparition. Her
state is nothing but a flux in the picture she bursts into. It is
as if thewind that carries her, causing her dress to swirl, was a
required accessory for hercorporeality a corporeality which is
drastically altered and intensified inGhirlandaios fresco. Yet,
with this intensification, the air in motion imparts pathosto the
body of the servant, whose face is so closed and impassive, as in
Botticelli.
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The air, then, also sends a quiver through souls, and its
invisible atmosphericdisplacement an outward cause serves as a
fluid index for the displacement ofaffects, for inward causes. Even
before seeking any confirmation in the writtensources, this can be
ascertained simply by looking at the right-hand side ofPrimavera:
the Nymph Chloris is held by the wind (Zephyr incarnate) by virtue
ofbeing moved by him (for she is still fleeing him) and, at the
same time, by beingaffectively moved by him (for she is already
producing flowers, the fruit of theirsexual union, from her mouth).
As Andr Chastel (1978: 393405) has successfully shown through his
reading ofMarsilio Ficino and of Vasari, the notion of aria was
frequently called upon in theRenaissance to define what Vasari
termed a cosa mirabile e occulta di natura: thequality of a place
that is enigmatically effective on the dispositions of the
soul,through the agency of a subtle affection of bodies. Along with
this contextualisttheory of the affects, Renaissance men adopted an
entire psychology of the air inorder to justify (among other
things) certain mysteries of the psychology of art,such as when
Vasari tried to explain why, paradoxically, the Roman air was
bettersuited to Michelangelos Florentine genius (pp. 393405). The
theoreticalunderpinnings of this mysterious form of aerial
determinism, of course, remain tobe worked out.4
In the visual arts specifically, it is easy to see that the
motion of the air is integral tothe figurative concerns of both
painters and sculptors of the Quattrocento.Concerning the
intellectual training of the artist, Lorenzo Ghiberti (1998[c.
1447]: I,2, 8: 48) wanted to place knowledge of atmospheric and
celestial things (climata,astrologia) at the same level as
knowledge of corporeal and medical objects(notomia, medicina).
Further on, in his Commentarii, Ghiberti discusses the modelof
ancient works of art from the perspective of air sculpted into
draperies (in theymagini togate anticamente), of air painted by
Apelles as almost living breaths(gente paiono che spirino) or in
the form of a variety of atmospheric phenomena (I,6, 9; I, 8, 10;
I, 8, 15: 56, 72, 75).Ghiberti, therefore, clearly suggests that
air in motion should, by all accounts, beincluded in the figurative
concerns of modern art. In this spirit, he mentionsAmbrogio
Lorenzettis frescos at Siena (now lost), which show hail falling
hard ...wind blowing furiously, trees bowing down to the ground and
some of thembreaking (con venti meravigliosi... piegare gli alberi
insino in terra e qualespezzarsi); before mentioning his own
reliefs for the northern door of the Baptistryin Florence, which
show, among other things, the people [of Moses] at the foot ofthe
mountain, stricken with horror by the earthquakes, lightning and
claps ofthunder (2000[c. 1447]: II, 4; II, 8: 878, 96).
*
In none of these examples is air that natural element which we
breathe without evenbeing aware of it. It is a supernatural
substance, stirred by the effect of someextraordinary event. In
Giotto, the wings of the devils put to flight by Saint Francismake
a tumult in the blueness of the sky, while the angels wings make
the entirespace above the dead Christ tremble.5 In the Scrovegni
chapel, an aerodynamicangel traverses the Dream of Joachim, the
angels lower body nothing but a trail of
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air; while the Baptism of Christ takes place under a tremendous
breath (spiritus) ofdivine grace. In countless Crucifixions from
the Trecento to Raphael and beyond,the air is saturated with the
vibrations of wings or draperies agitated by angels orseraphim.
Wherever there are supernatural struggles, the entire atmosphere is
astirand tormented, such as in Ucellos Saint George, in deluges, or
agonistic visions.
Warburg spoke all the more legitimately of an imaginary breeze,
for in Primaverathe supernatural power of Zephyrs breath went hand
in hand with a personifiedrepresentation of the wind. The air,
then, also appears as an allegorical fluid. Itrecuperates an entire
tradition, which stretches back to Antiquity and
remainsuninterrupted in the Middle Ages (see Raff, 19789: 71218).
Mercury himself, onthe left in Primavera, has close affinities with
the wind; he is the god of prodigiousspeeds through the atmosphere,
the god who cleaves the air (see Roscher, 1878).Several years
before Botticellis painted Zephyrs in the Birth of Venus and
inPrimavera, Liberale da Verona had designed the illuminated
initials for Sienneseliturgical books in the turbulent form of a
representation of the North Wind (DelBravo, 1967: 20, xxxviii;
Gilbert, 1981: 21721; Eberhardt, 1983: 6676).At the same time, a
number of images included puffs, breaths or blasts of air
asallegorical elements in their own right. From the Leonello dEstes
medal, with itssail swelling in the wind, to the Leon Battista
Albertis occhio alato, from the Talesof Fortune Pinturicchio of
Siena to various Allegories of the Passion, artistsdeveloped an
entire use value for air in the domain of allegory. Its pedigree
hadalready been established in the Trecento, with Giottos famous
grisailles at Padua with Hope and especially with Inconstancy, who
spins in the wind like aweathervane and with the Allegories of the
Liberal Arts by Andrea da Firenze atSanta Maria Novella. In the
1450s, Agostino di Duccio set out to cover the TempioMalatestiano
in Rimini with his extraordinary, vibrant reliefs in which
everything winds and water, hair and draperies, nature and allegory
tends toward a strangelystylized fluidity. His Euterpe, the Muse of
feasts and dithyrambs, already seems towear windswept drapery with
an extreme degree of mannerism, although she isstill reminiscent of
a (somewhat enlarged) medieval ivory (Warburg, 1998[1893]:12;
Pointner, 1909: 25111; Campigli, 1999: 2744).To the contemporary
eye, the most striking feature of most of these imaginarybreezes or
winds is their spatial incoherence. Paolo Uccello may well
havedesigned his Deluge with rigorous unity of perspective, yet he
did not hesitate todivide his wind in two, so that the trees on the
left are almost uprooted by the stormwhile Noahs draperies on the
right do not quiver in the least. The cloud in SaintGeorge is as
theatrical as the dragons cave (see Francastel, 1967; Damisch,
1992:1006). In the Karlsruhe Adoration, the wind filling the boats
sails seems not toreach the rather sculptural, almost metallic
palm-tree in the foreground. Elsewhere,supernatural breaths of wind
leave natural things unfazed, as witnessed by the treesthat remain
impassive despite the unfurling of angelic wings in Benozzo
Gozzoli, orin Botticelli.6
In Primavera, Floras step raises a breeze that is immediately
refuted by the steps ofChloris beside her. As for Ghirlandaios
Ninfa fiorentina, much admired by Warburg,the wind that almost
carries the nymph is conspicuously one that she brings along,as if
for herself alone. What does this imply, if not that air only
constitutes a means
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of figuration to the extent that it is a local fluid? It is a
particular movement or atrembling, a particular disturbance of
surfaces, a symptom, an index of strangenessthat affects a single
body and, by the same token, signals itself as a spiritus, a
bearerof thoughts and the movements of the affects. If Renaissance
painting continues todivide the air (there will never be a breeze
in Giorgiones Tempest), it is notbecause it is archaic or partial
and incoherent in its representation of atmosphericphenomena, as
some art historians have affirmed (Rostworowski, 1973: 1330). Itis
because, for Renaissance man, the aria follows so closely upon
bodilymovements that she air being feminine to the Italian ear
becomes the subtlesymptom, almost invisible in her fluidity, of the
movements of the anima.
*
The De pictura clearly suggests this dialectic. In the same way
that, for Alberti,movements of the body make visible movements of
the soul (motus animi exmotibus corporis cognoscuntur), the
movements of surfaces, and primarily of thelight, flowing surfaces
of draperies, make visible the movements of the air (Alberti,1435:
II, 41). Yet, a genuine dialectic is involved here; that is, a
dance in the roundlike that of the Three Graces in Primavera (see
Figure 1): just as the perturbationsof the soul (animi
perturbationes) find expression in bodily gestures, those
gestureshave to be accompanied, prolonged and adorned by
perturbations of surfaces, thesurfaces of draperies and hair moved
by the wind:
Finally, each persons bodily movements, in keeping with dignity,
should berelated to the emotions you wish to express. And the
greatest emotions mustbe expressed by the most powerful physical
indications (maximarum animiperturbationum maximae in membris
significationes adsint necesse est). Thisrule concerning movements
is common to all living creatures (in omnianimante) ... Now I must
speak of the way in which inanimate things move,since I believe all
the movements I mentioned are necessary in painting alsoin relation
to them. The movements of hair and manes and branches andleaves and
clothing are very pleasing when represented in painting
(etcapillorum et iubarum et ramorum et frondium et vestium motus in
picturaexpressi delectant) ... in the folds of garments care should
be taken that, justas the branches of a tree emanate in all
directions from the trunk, so foldsshould issue from a fold (sic ex
plica succedant plicae), like branches. Inthese too all the
movements (omnes motus) should be done in such a way thatin no
garment is there any part in which similar movements are not to
befound. Since by nature clothes are heavy and do not make curves
at all, asthey tend always to fall straight down to the ground it
will be a good idea,when we wish clothing to have movement (pannos
motibus aptos esse) tohave in the corner of the picture (ad
historiae angulum), the face of the Westor South Wind blowing
between the clouds and moving all the clothing beforeit. The
pleasing result will be that those sides of the bodies the wind
strikeswill appear under the covering of the clothes almost as if
they were naked,since the clothes are made to adhere to the body by
the force of the wind (subpanni velamento prope nuda appareant); on
the other sides the clothingblown about by the wind will wave
appropriately up in the air. (II, 445;Grayson, 1975: 801)
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Here, in the space of a few lines, Alberti traces the full
circle of our dialecticalsequence: movements of the soul, movements
of the body, movements of surfacesand movements of air have,
indeed, become indissociable by the time he concludeshis reasoning.
In fact, Alberti here defines nothing less than the field of
animationproper to painting. The principal flaw of painting namely,
that it is an inanimatesurface that merely bears a semblance to
animate things becomes prodigious onceall of the movements in a
painting function with the same level of effectiveness.Whether they
are mechanical or organic, subsidiary or essential, local
disturbancesor disturbances globally propagated throughout the
picture, they all conspire toanimate the image. When this occurs,
iconographic hierarchies become relativised:in painting, it is
always possible that a piece of fabric in motion will be morelively
than the movement of a head. Furthermore, throughout other passages
of theDe pictura, Alberti put forward a quasi-animistic theory of
painted objects (II, 25).Everything in a painting is dead, nothing
really moves; yet, everything is invokedthere under the
quasi-magical aspect of things and beings that move in order toform
a historia and to move (movere) the viewer in turn.Alberti insists,
then, that this power of animation should incorporate the field
ofaccessories in motion: hair, manes (think, once again, of
Donatellos SaintGeorge), branches, foliage, or draperies. It is
fascinating to observe the extent towhich Alberti enters into the
fractal intimacy of these surfaces in motion, to whichhe assigns a
common morphology. Multiple folds emanate from a single fold
likeleaves grow from the twig, the twigs from the branch and the
branches from thetrunk; but, in addition, each local fold
reproduces the global structure, each detail ofthe movement
contains the totality of possible movements.
Such reflection approaches a form of Naturphilosophie or a
dynamics of fluids.Except from the outset, Alberti re-affirms the
fictional nature of all these gracefulsurface movements, of which
Primavera provides such an impressive inventory.Even during the
Quattrocento, a woman in a dressing gown would not produce
theanimation of fabric that Botticellis Three Graces produce: only
the painter candefy gravity and intensify the natural
configurations of movement, whether or nothe justifies this by
Zephyr blowing out of the corner of the painting as amythological
detour. This brings us to the issue of the power of air over
visiblethings. This is why Albertis text concludes on the subject
of fabrics plastered to thelimbs by the wind: the wind reveals
nudity, motion and the intimacy of bodies. Itmoves surfaces and
fabrics only in order to make visible as if by contact a set
ofgestures invisibly ordered by the movements of the soul. In the
painting, then, aria,spiritus, and anima are derived from the same
imaginary breeze.
Warburg, of course, cited the Alberti passage in his 1893
thesis; it played a crucialrole in illuminating the concept of
accessories in motion (Warburg, 1998[1893]:1011). The passage is
discussed from the point of view of a dialectical tensionbetween
two terms: the anthropomorphic imagination
(anthropomorphistischePhantasie), from which both animism and
empathy proceed, and differentialreflection (vergleichende
Reflexion):
This rule of Albertis shows both imagination and reflection in
equalproportions. On the one hand, he is glad to see hair and
garments in marked
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journal of visual culture 2(3)282
Figure 2 Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, c. 14845
(detail: Zephyr, Flora and Spring), temperamagra on canvas.
Florence, Uffizi Gallery. 1990 Photo SCALA, Florence courtesy of
the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali. These images,protected by
copyright and by watermark, are for reference purposes only. The
downloading,reproduction, copy, publication or distribution of any
of the images appearing on this website areforbidden by law.
SCALA Picture Library
SCALA Picture Library
SCALA Picture Library
SCALA Picture Library
SCALA Picture Library
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movement, and he gives rein to his fancy, attributing organic
life to inanimateaccessory forms; at such moments he sees snakes
tangling, flames licking, orthe branches of a tree. On the other
hand, however, Alberti expressly insiststhat he set his accessory
forms in motion only where the wind really mighthave caused such
motion. This cannot be done, however, without oneconcession to the
imagination: the youthful human heads that the painter is toshow
blowing in order to account for the motion of hair and garments,
are nomore and no less than a compromise between anthropomorphic
imaginationand differential reflection (vergleichende Reflexion).
(pp. 1112)
Can the historical context, and the sources of this emphasis on
hair and draperiesblowing in the wind, be situated with more
precision? After Warburg, some authorshave linked this aspect of
Albertis aesthetics to Botticellis mythological paintings.The
connection is facilitated by the fact that the De pictura conjures
up a clearimage of the Three Graces represented in antiquity as
laughing and holding hands,adorned with loose and transparent
clothes (soluta et perlucida veste ornatas)(Alberti, 1435: III, 54;
see Michel, 1930: 4389; Rosand, 1987: 15663).When Alberti (1435)
calls for hair ... to tie itself in a knot (vertantur), to
waveupwards in the air (undent in aera) like flames, to weave like
serpents (serpant)beneath other hair and sometimes lift on one side
and another (attollant) on eachside (II, 45: 81), he is alluding to
a typology of the seven movements (septimusmovendi modus) presented
some lines further up, and recognizable as directlyborrowed from
Quintilians Institutio oratoria (II, 43; XI, 3).7
However,commentators are silent when it comes to the supposed
direct source of Albertisinjunction to make hair and drapery float
in the wind.8 This is probably because theinjunction was issued in
response to several determinants. The three major
conceptsenumerated in Warburgs Vorbemerkung in 1893 the survival of
antiquity, thepathos formulae and empathy respond rigorously to
those determinants.For painting to affirm its humanistic vocation
and its ability to compose figuresallantica, draperies and hair had
first to undulate in the air (undent in aera).9Next, this
figurative tool had to demonstrate its pathetic force, its ability
toillustrate the historia with greater clarity and to improve its
composition.10 Theillustrious examples that Alberti calls upon in
this respect Giottos Navicella, theCalumny by Apelles bring into
play the physical force of the wind, the patheticmovements of
bodies, and the moral values of these things, visible in the
variousprotagonists of these paintings (Alberti, 1435: II, 42; III,
534).11 Finally, all thisanimation of the figures had to produce
effects on, and affects in, the eye: it had tomove the viewer. This
effect is termed movere in ancient rhetoric and in
theinterpretation of that tradition at the time of Alberti; it is
called Einfhlung in thenew aesthetics of Aby Warburgs time.12
The story will touch the souls of the viewers (animos ...
spectantium movebithistoria) when the men painted display very
visibly the movements of their soul,so that the man or woman
weeping in the painting will be able to invite (invitet)the viewer
to weep with him (Alberti, 1435: II, 412). This famous injunction
byAlberti once again borrows a known principle from classical
eloquence, accordingto which the very clarity (evidentia) of an
argument is conveyed through the
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channels of pathos and affect (adfectus), of imagination
(phantasia) andamplification: such is the task Quintilian sets for
what he calls ornament (ornatus)(VI, 2; VIII, 34). This is how
eloquence though an artificial thing, like a painting revolves
around the activities of life (opera vitae), [for] each person
relates tohimself (ad se refert) what he understands, what he
recognises (VIII, 3).The air stirred by the draperies of the Three
Graces, then, should give birth to aform of moral yearning, an
aspiration to dispense grace for each grace dispensed,as the
ancient precept taken up by Alberti says (Alberti, 1435: III,
54).13 But itshould also give birth more rhythmically, more
organically to a desire to dance.It is as if the air stirring those
beautiful surfaces, with their white trails and theharmonics of
their borders that envelop and intensify the bodies of the Graces,
wassomething like an ornament of the soul.
*
This should hardly come as a surprise: it is precisely in this
way that the men of the Quattrocento explained the essentially
figurative nature of dance, with the result that the respective
vocabularies of painting and choreography not onlymatched, but were
even interpreted reciprocally. On this point, Warburg wished
todevelop an intuition of Burckhardts. That intuition concerned the
exchange andempathetic interpenetration of movements represented in
sculpture and painting, onone hand, and the elements of a life
genuinely infused with motion (wirklichbewegten Lebens) in feasts,
theatre and dance, on the other. Warburg considered that the latter
was an invaluable material when it came to understanding theprocess
of artistic creation (der knstlerisch gestaltende Proze)
(Warburg,1998[1893]: 37).There is no divorce between dance and
painting or sculpture, wrote Lucian inantiquity: Quite the
contrary, it also seeks to achieve the eurhythmia thatcharacterises
those arts (Lucian, De Saltat: 35; quoted by Reinach,
1985[1921]:359). This constitutive affinity of the visual and
gestural arts under the aspect offiguration, which pertains to
semiotics, and under the aspect of rhythm, whichpertains to
dynamics was taken quite literally by the Florentine humanists.
This iswhy the vocabulary of motion in Pollaiuolo (prompto) or of
grace in Filippo Lippi(gratioso) is, as Michael Baxandall has
shown, directly borrowed from treatises ondance (Baxandall, 1972:
1206, 195212, 2234). In every context, bodily move-ments along with
the accessories that invariably attached to them, were perceivedas
the indexes of a soul. As such, they were liable to encompass an
entire scale ofstates ranging from decency to obscenity, from
parody to the grotesque. Finally,they were perceived as the index
of a style, or of a certain technique of composition.
The virtue of dance comes from the fact that it is an action
which makesspiritual movements visible (una azione dimostrativa di
fuori di movimentispirituali) ... certain graceful movements are
there engendered which, beingconfined as if against their nature,
strive as hard as they can to escape andmake themselves manifest in
the form of active movements (uscire fuori efarsi in atto
manifesti) (Ebreo, 1873[c. 1465]): 7).
This very general notion perfectly matches Albertis theory of
the figuration of
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gestures in painting. It covers a very broad field that ranges
from the moralevaluation of a manner of walking in the street (look
at that girl walk and you willknow whether you can marry her)14 to
the stylistic codifications of representation.In this respect,
Ninfa appears as the very embodiment of ambivalence: her wingedgait
gracefully amplifies the step of an onesta, humble young girl, and
this is whyshe is found in religious contexts, in Lippi or
Ghirlandaio, for example. But her gaitis also already a dance,
already too ornate, too ancient, pagan and sensual: it isSalomes
dance, the disonesta young princess par excellence. The same
decorum what we called the ornament of the soul further up is
susceptible to so manydifferent values that, not surprisingly, it
becomes a matter of endless nuance andsubtlety. (On this subject,
see McGrath, 1977: 8192 [on decency and thegrotesque, grace and
madness]; Franko, 1986; Padovan, 1987: 59111; Fermor,1992:
7888.)The most important of these subtleties or choreographic
artifices consists inenhancing the natural gesture, in the spatial
sense as well as in the dialectical sense.When Ninfa moves forward,
her step is enhanced in that it is amplified andintensified; its
nature undergoes a complete change as it turns into a whirlwind
ofreturning time: the Nymph or Victory does not so much walk as
leap forward.As such, her step disrupts and choreographs the
trivial present of the Florentineservant-girl, who no longer merely
brings fruit to her mistress from the country butherself becomes
something of an offering from the gods of antiquity. This is
allmade physically perceptible in the ascent of her foot in motion
and of her draperyraised by the wind. Alberti (1435) is quite clear
on this point:
beauty and grace should be sought in all motion (in omni motu
venustas etgratia sectanda est). The most lively and graceful
(vivaces et gratissimi)movements are those of the limbs rising in
the air (aera in altum) (II, 37).
Is it surprising, then, that the aria or aere became one of the
key concepts oftreatises on dance, and of aesthetic writings
generally, in the Quattrocento? InAlberti, the Italian word ariosa
translates the Latin grata, so that all grace is seen toparticipate
in a certain quality of the air, whether this word is taken to
refer to anappearance or to the atmosphere (II, 44; Grayson,
1975[1435]: 789). WithGuglielmo Ebreo and Antonio Cornazano, aere
specifically designates a moment ofgrace in the gestures of dance:
the brief rising movement executed by the dancer atthe beginning of
a step. This movement confers an airy presence (aierosapresenza)
and another grace that makes these movements pleasurable to the
eye(unaltra gratia tal di movimenti che rendati piacera a gli
occhi) (cited andcommented by Fermor, 1990).This vocabulary, which
has been analysed in detail by Sharon Fermor, is as preciseas it is
fascinating: it describes the grace (gratia) and suavity (soavit)
that is,the serene fluidity of all corporeal composition, if this
expression may be usedto describe choreographic movement (Fermor,
1990: 12035). In the Quattrocento,this vocabulary anticipates all
that the following century was to designate asmanner (maniera) (see
Treves, 1941: 6988; Shearman, 1970: 181221;Summers, 1972; Hazard,
1974). Above all, it defines a framework of
intelligibilitycharacterized by an impressive degree of dialectical
subtlety. The aere is defined,
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first of all, as an intensification of presence that authors
like to describe as veryhuman (umanissima). Secondly, it is
considered in the light of an intensification ofform. This gives
rise to an entire vocabulary of undulation (ondeggiare); as
ifbodies, in their airy motions, were capable of assuming the
images of waves, blastsof air, or draperies lifted by a breeze.
In 1455, Antonio Cornazano (1915[1455]) insistently claimed that
the ondeggiare isa rhythmic quality that goes well beyond mere
conformity of steps to music. Heheld that it concerns the totality
of the form created by upward motion, producingundulation,
ornamentation and the flowing of the dancer and the space as a
whole.15Dancing is not merely a matter of executing a number of
more or less beautifulmovements, it involves the bodys recreation
of a certain air, which the accessory ofdrapery serves to
emphasize; and, along with all of this, the recreation of a
certainsoul, which must be signified by the gestures.
Let us look, once again, at our Botticellian Grace. Through a
movement ofondeggiare, the dancer of the Quattrocento ornaments the
air and reciprocallygrants visible fluidity to the anima or
fantasia seeking outward expression. Formand intensity combine in
these graceful movements and subtle elevations of theaere. We can
now understand why this corporeal velocity (prestezza corporale),
asDomenico da Piacenza put it, falls under the category of phantoms
(fantasmata)such as it was defined by Italian choreographers: in
the suspense of immobility andmotion, the dancer must suddenly
become a phantasmal shadow (ombra phantas-matica) (Fermor, 1990:
467; see also Castelli, 1987: 3557.) She then escapesgravity and
the earthly condition; she becomes a semblance of the ancient gods,
anairy creature of dreams and after-life, a revenant: an embodiment
of Nachleben.
Translated by John Zeimbekis, translation revised by Vivian
Rehberg
Notes
1. Warburg (1889) was recently published with a commentary by
Ghelardi (2001[18889]).2. The authoritative edition of Warburg
(1893) is edited by Bing and Rougemont, see
Warburg (1998[1893]).3. The verses from Rossetti are as follows:
What mystery here is read / Of homage or of
hope? But how command / Dead Springs to answer? And how question
here / Thesemummers of that wind-withered New Year? I have not been
able to find the expressionbrise imaginaire in either Taine or
Eugne Mntz.
4. The elements of a psycho-physiology of the air in the
Renaissance are to be found inThorndike (1934: III, 2457, 3278,
514, 528, 5568, etc; IV, 58, 137, 293, 318, 380,505, etc.)
5. In the frescos of Assisi and Padua. 6. The former in the
Medici-Riccardi Palace (Florence, 1459), the latter in the
Mystical
Nativity (1501) in London.7. On the rhetorical and poetical
aspects of the De pictura, see Gilbert, 19435: 87106;
Spencer, 1957: 2644; Baxandall, 1971: 12139; Wright, 1984:
5271.. 8. In the edition by H. Janitschek, which was used by
Warburg (Alberti, 1877), as well as
in the more recent edition by Grayson (1975), paragraphs 44 and
45 of Book II are notannotated.
9. On Alberti and the Antique, see Grayson (1998: 3141); Locher
(1999: 75107); Michel(2000: 37987).
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10. On Albertis concept of historia, see Galantic (1969: 2366);
Patz (1986: 26987);Greenstein (1990: 27399); Hope (2001:
25167).
11. On Giottos Navicella, see Khren-Jansen (1993). On the
Calumny of Apelles see Cast(1981) and Massing (1990).
12. On the concept of movere in Alberti, see Cameron (19756:
258); Zllner (1977:2339).
13. The reference is obviously to Seneca, De beneficiis, IIII,
24.14. This is the essence of a letter sent by a Florentine lady to
her son in 1465; see Macinghi
negli Strozzi, 1877: 4589.15. Anchora nel danzare non solamente
sobserva la misura de gli suoni, ma une misura la
quale non musicale, anzi fore di tutte quelle, che un misurare
laere nel levamentodellondeggiare, cio che sempre salzi a un modo;
ch altrimenti si romperia misura.Londeggiare non altro che uno
alzamento tardo di tutta la persona e labbassamentopresto.
(Cornazano, 1915[1455]: 13).
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Georges Didi-Huberman teaches anthropology of images at the
Ecole desHautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His latest
publications include:Limage survivante: histoire de lart et temps
des fantmes selon Aby Warburg(Editions de Minuit, 2002), Ninfa
Moderna: Essai sur le drap tomb (Gallimard:2002) and Devant le
temps: histoire de lart et anachronisme des images (Editionsde
Minuit, 2000).
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