“Chameleon of Energy” : Warburg between Neutrality and Neutralization

This paper addresses Aby Warburg’s conception of images as an energetic theory. The idea of a constitutive energetic nature of images accompanied Warburg through the course of his intellectual career. Fundamental references were for him Goethe's morphology and Nietzsche's conception of the Dionysian, together with the doctrine of material memory developed by Hering and Semon. This contribution investigates these sources, focussing on the critical issues in Warburg's theory of the Pathosformel as a polarized structure of the iconic expression.