Nymph. 'Hurry-Bring-It' in the Tornabuoni circle. Domestification

Emblematic of the entire Bilderatlas, or so argued E. H. Gombrich in his intellectual biography of Warburg, panel 46 presents a series of variations on Ghirlandaio's fruit-bearing 'nymph.' Images by Filippino Lippi, Raphael, Botticelli, and even a photograph taken by Warburg of an Italian peasant woman supplement Ghirlandaio’s Birth of John the Baptist. The panel, with its manuscript pages, also highlights how literary expression plays a crucial, dialectical role in Renaissance art and intellectual history. And as with panel 45, this panel draws on various published and unpublished texts in which Warburg explores the iconological values and historical contexts associated with the figure he also humorously dubbed “Miss Hurry-Bring-It.”

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