Aby Warburg und Fritz Saxl enträtseln Velázquez - Ein spanisches Intermezzo zum Nachleben der Antike

In 1927, Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl successfully interpreted Velázquez's Hilanderas, one of the great mysteries of art history, as an 'allegory of the art of weaving,' by recognizing in the background scene the depiction of the contest between Athena and Arachne. Their dialogue produced a microhistorical contribution to research on the legacy of antiquity, a key focus of the Warburg Library of Cultural Studies.


Karin Hellwig, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, München.