Képgyűjtemények. Giorgio Agamben és a festészet kérdése
Collections of Images: Giorgio Agamben and the Question of Painting

Summary/Abstract: This paper discusses Giorgio Agamben’s writings on the theory of images. Among his early topics, we can rarely find problems of aesthetics or the history of art (Agamben even speaks about the destruction of aesthetics). Nevertheless, his descriptions of classical paintings (like his ekphrasis of Dürer’s Melancholy or Tiziano’s Nymph and Shepherd) are an important part of his books. Furthermore, images have recently occupied a central position in his philosophical writings and thoughts. His latest publications could be mentioned here, namely Self-portrait in the Studio or Pulcinnella, and foremost, Studiolo. In this essay, I intend to analyse Agamben’s approach to the history of images (by the mediation of Aby Warburg and his Atlas Mnemosyne). Subsequently, following the traces of the Warburgian figure (Pathosformel) of the “Nymph”, I try to outline Agamben’s own method concerning the analysis of images. It is apparent that his most personal writings can be found among these enigmatic descriptions of images, which speak about the pictures as well as the philosopher.

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