Aby Warburg and Fernando Pessoa: the question of astrology in the midst of the possibilities of Art History as science of expression.

• Grant number: 22/04845-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2023
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Cássio da Silva Fernandes
• Grantee: Antônio Leandro Gomes de Souza Barros
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The works of Aby Warburg (1866-1929) have exerted a growing influence on the Art History, especially since the 1990s onwards, precisely when a serious narrative crisis took place in the discipline. This is largely due to his proposal to change the parameter of aestheticism and representation in favor of a science of expression, a "psycho-iconology". Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) contemporary of Warburg also dedicated his work to this change for a science of expression, a "psychology of figures that only exist in paintings", elaborating poetic concepts that dialogue a lot with those of the german historian. But more surprisingly is the fact that they both carried out such projects involved in astrological studies. Specialists in Warburg and specialists in Pessoa recognize this dimension in their works, but tend to minimize it as a mere theme or just eccentricity. This, however, neglects a decisive and well-documented historical fact: the involvement that astrology has, since antiquity, with the philosophical problem of expression. Thus, this project proposes to reassess the validity of these particular critical fortunes from precisely this dialectical encounter - a case study still unheard of in the Art History. To do so, we propose to review, in contrast, the key concepts that each one established for their "sciences", and even to go through the well-known psychological dramas that both went through in this process. A research trajectory that leads from historiographical problems to possible anthropological comprehensions that both productions exerted. After all, what would be the effective critical relevance of astrology towards an Art History focused on expression instead of representation?