Medea senza serpenti: un percorso warburghiano

Abstract

Medea is one the ancient Greek figures that mostly attracted the attention of artists and scholars in the Twentieth Century. She is a woman, but also a witch and a stranger, she represents the otherness in all its charms and dangers. Among these interpretations, Aby Warburg’s research on Medea can be very significant for a wider comprehension of this figure, because it calls into play the idea of hero and its critique, and also another topic that is only apparently distant from the myth, i.e. the rising of consciousness. Through the analysis of these issues inside Warburg’s interpretation of the myth, I will try to imagine a different ending for Medea. This will happen through the consideration of a recent picture made with artificial intelligence that recalls, for some aspects, Rembrandt’s Medea, from which Warburg’s interpretation starts.