On Form: Wind and Warburg Examined – The Edgar Wind Journal

Guido Boffi Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano

Volume 1, October 2021

Abstract
These days, forms of artistic products mostly belong to the universe of the generalized visual
regime. Can we mean the same thing when we apply the expression ‘form of the artwork’ to the
products of our time as well as to the works described by Wind and especially by Warburg? In
other words: what is the issue of the artwork’s form? I maintain that the compelling nature of the
question of form may well emerge in the light of the writings of Wind and Warburg. For both, the
artwork reveals itself as the connection along time between the deep background (mythicalenergetic), and its phenomenality, in which it materializes but can never be exhausted. In this sense,
the form is the differential between being and a configuring, expressive force. Warburg’s research
moves from a primitive (prelinguistic) background to its redefinition in panels and linkages of
meaning (the Bilderatlas); Wind goes the opposite way: from Panofsky-like schematism to empirics
and historicity.

Keywords
Artwork; Form; Historicity; Myth; Time

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