The Snake and the Lightning

ABY WARBURG (1866-1929) founded modern pictorial science with his work. His main theme was the study of the afterlife of antiquity in the Renaissance, which he recorded in his iconic pictorial atlas Mnemosyne. His American voyage is evidence of how early Warburg already directed his gaze beyond the Western cultural context to explore the interplay of myths, images, and rites.UWE FLECKNER (\*1961) is one of the acknowledged international experts on Warburg. Since 2004 he has been professor of art history at the University of Hamburg and a member of the board of directors of the Warburg House there. As co-editor of the collected works of Carl Einstein and Aby Warburg, he has produced numerous publications on the subject.