Details and Expression. Giovanni Morelli’s Model and Aby Warburg’s “Types” in Connection with Experimental Psychology during the 19th century

Abstract

This essay aims to build a comparison between Giovanni Morelli (1816-1891), one of the founders of the concept of authorship in the 19 th century, and Aby Warburg (1866-1929), to whom we attribute the origin of iconology. In particular, the article is focused on one of the first works written by Warburg during his youth and concerns the Masolino and Masaccio frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine (Florence, Italy). This essay shows, indeed, that the same cultural background that inspired Morelli in the elaboration of his method can be found in Warburg, even though the outcomes reached, especially on the long run by this latter, were far away from connoisseurship and authorship. Nevertheless, both Morelli and Warburg were persuaded of the importance to build a “science of art”, meaning a reliable knowledge distant from pure aesthetic speculations.