Mnemosyne. Un Trauerspiel moderno da Amburgo. In bianco e nero

Abstract

Warburg’s inquiry does not oppose Renaissance to Baroque; on the contrary the Renaissance shows here the features of those melancholy which for Benjamin belongs to the seventeen-century “Trauerspiel”. The melancholy constellation of the past, the mirror in which – both for Benjamin and for Warburg – actuality looks at itself, is enlightened in Benjamin by a redemption spark that is denied to Warburg. The set of photographic fragments to which, like a modern “Trauerspiel”, the “Mnemosyne Atlas” reduces the world does’t admit indeed any transcendence.