Martin Warnke. A question of method

The present essay attempts to bring into light some discontinuities between two theoretical attitudes conventionally considered as belonging to the same tradition of studies, a tradition supposedly originating with Aby Warburg's method and his "Geistespolitik", and persisting through the present mainly due to the image studies reinvigorated in the mid-nineties by the restoration and programmatic rebirth of the Warburg-Haus in Hamburg. Namely, the political iconography of the art historian Martin Warnke (1937-2019), the main catalyst of such a "Nachleben", comes here into question with respect to its controversial relationship with the theoretical gesture of the culture historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929).