Maenad in motion: emotional potential of a classic pose


https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2019-5-10-28

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Abstract

The article considers one of the most popular examples of Aby Warburg’s ‘pathosformeln’, i. e. a classical image of an ecstatically dancing maenad adapted by Renaissance artists for representation of Mary Magdalene’s grief. The maenad’s pose is placed within a wider historical context and examined with the method of formal analysis, thus revealing a variety of adaptations that cannot be limited to the sole example of energetic inversion. The extensive use of that pose in the works of art is due to its rich expressional and emotional potential, concentrated in characteristics such as “instability”, “movement” and “liberation”.

About the Author

E. S. Mikhailova-Smol’nyakova
European University at Saint Petersburg
Russian Federation

Ekaterina S. Mikhailova-Smol’nyakova, postgraduate student

bld. 6/1A, Gagarinskaya Street, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191187

 



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Supplementary files

For citation: Mikhailova-Smol’nyakova E.S. Maenad in motion: emotional potential of a classic pose. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2019;(5):10-28. https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2019-5-10-28

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