L’‘Immagine antica’. Leopardi, Warburg e la ricerca della nympha fugiens

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the theme of the nympha fugiens in Giacomo Leopardi's works, by comparing his perspective on imagination – as shown in the Zibaldone – with Aby Warburg's works on the nymph. Starting from D’Intino's categories of fall and rebirth, this paper reconstructs the common ground between Leopardi's readings before writing the Diario del primo amore (1817–1818) and Warburg's sources when composing the dissertation of 1891, La ‘Nascita di Venere’ e la ‘Primavera’ di Sandro Botticelli. This work has allowed me to read Leopardi's ‘desiderio antico’ – as in the Diario – and the cyclical return of the ‘dolce imago’ in the Canti, from Warburg's perspective of a Nachleben der Antike – a survival of the ancient. This survival results in the pathosformel of the nymph, an ancient image that is able to show itself only through imagination. Finally, this paper compares Leopardi's perspective on imagination with Warburg's late works on the opposite polarities of ‘logic’ and ‘magic’ in the artistic process.