Mnemosyne Atlas 42
The Maenad under the Cross
Energetic and semantic inversions of the emotional formulae of suffering: orgiastic exaltation as a model for mournful despair (the Magdalene as 'Maenad under the Cross'); annihilation of the victim as a model for miraculous healing (St Anthony heals, Pentheus).Theme of mourning: the pre-coinage portrayal of heroic threnos – ancient funeral song for the hero – (Meleager, Alcestis, Prometheus – see plate 5) celebrates both the death of middle-class men in 15th Century, and the divine death of Christ; melancholic meditation on death.
Notes by Aby Warburg and coll. (1929)
Leidenspathos in energetischer Inversion (Pentheus, Mänade am Kreuz). Bürgerliche Totenklage, heroisiert. Kirchl. Totenklage. Tod des Erlösers (cf. Tafel 4). Grablegung. Todesmeditation.
Emotional expressivity: energetic inversion of suffering (Pentheus, Maenad on the cross). Civic lament for the desd, heroized. Christian lament for the dead. Death of the Saviour [cf. Panel 4]. Entombment. Meditation on death.
Notes by Gertrud Bing (ca. 1940)
Klage um den toten Gott. Das Beinabreissen des Pentheus durch die belauschten Mänaden wird: 1) Heilung bei Donatello, Antonius-Wunder 2) Klage um den privaten Toten Torbuoni Sassetti (“all’antica” gestattet einen ungebändigten Ausdruck des Schmerzes, der Kirchenzucht verboten hatte). 3) Grablegung Christi Grablegung bei Cossa (?) nach etrusk. Spiegel. D. Mänade wird zur Klagenden. Carpaccio steht für die Überwindung des wilden. Schmerzes durch Einordnung in den Ryhtmus von Verfall + Wiederkehr in der Natur.
Lamentation on the Dead God. The dismemberment of Pentheus’ limbs by the Maenads he had spied becomes: 1) Donatello’s Healing, Miracle of St Anthony 2) Lamentation over the private death of Tornabuoni Sassetti (the “all’antica” style allows an unrestrained expression of grief, which church discipline had forbidden) 3) Burial of Christ. Burial in Cossa (?) through the Etruscan mirror. The Maenad becomes a figure of mourning. Carpaccio represents the overcoming of unbridled grief with the inclusion of the rhythm of decay + return of nature.
Further Readings
♦ Seminario Mnemosyne, Letture grafiche di Tavola 42, “La Rivista di Engramma” 2, ottobre 2000 [OLD LAYOUT].
♦ G. Didi-Huberman, Mnémosyne 42, “La Rivista di Engramma” 100, settembre/ottobre 2012, 108-112.
Other Readings
♦ K. Mazzucco, G. Targia, Tavola 42, in Camere con vista. Aby Warburg, Firenze e il laboratorio delle immagini, Catalogo della mostra (Firenze, Gallerie degli Uffizi, 19 settembre / 10 dicembre 2023), a cura di M. Faietti, E.D. Schmidt, G. Targia, G. Wolf et al., Firenze 2023, 252-255.
