What does Botticelli's Venus have in common with contemporary Instagram stars? How did the influential Renaissance concept of the figura serpentinata become a cornerstone of modern sexual imagery? How did Michelangelo's infernal orgies survive into the present, reappearing in images of destruction and catastrophe? And what does the adjective “pornographic” actually mean? By addressing these questions, the course offers a practical introduction to iconology as defined and developed by Aby M. Warburg and Ernst Cassirer in the 1920s and 1930s, a methodology that continues to exert considerable influence today. Drawing on their closely interconnected approaches, the course examines critical aspects of this “nameless science” through the reconstruction and analysis of the complex genealogy of a surprisingly interconnected spectrum of images. These include selfies, underwear advertisements, cloud imagery, abstract painting, representations of war atrocities, and hygiene-related illustrations, all of which reveal unexpected and often strikingly pornographic visual relationships.
Poslední úprava: Váša Ondřej, Mgr., Ph.D. (11.09.2026)
What does Botticelli's Venus have in common with contemporary Instagram stars? How did the influential Renaissance concept of the figura serpentinata become a cornerstone of modern sexual imagery? How did Michelangelo's infernal orgies survive into the present, reappearing in images of destruction and catastrophe? And what does the adjective “pornographic” actually mean? By addressing these questions, the course offers a practical introduction to iconology as defined and developed by Aby M. Warburg and Ernst Cassirer in the 1920s and 1930s, a methodology that continues to exert considerable influence today. Drawing on their closely interconnected approaches, the course examines critical aspects of this “nameless science” through the reconstruction and analysis of the complex genealogy of a surprisingly interconnected spectrum of images. These include selfies, underwear advertisements, cloud imagery, abstract painting, representations of war atrocities, and hygiene-related illustrations, all of which reveal unexpected and often strikingly pornographic visual relationships.
Poslední úprava: Váša Ondřej, Mgr., Ph.D. (11.09.2026)
Sylabus - angličtina
GENERAL OVERVIEW (selected topics)
1) Introduction:Representing the Human Body. What Is Porn? (discussion)
SECTION I: The Beginnings, from the Renaissance to William Hogarth
2) Between Plato and Ficino: the philosophical origins of thefigura serpentinataand its opposition to the “pornographic wilderness”
3) Between Michelangelo and Lomazzo: (de-)eroticizing the body
SECTION II: From William Hogarth to Hygienic Imperatives
4 + 5) The unexpected consequences of Hogarth's mistakes: William Hogarth as the father of the “modern line”
6) The hygienic discourse of the eighteenth century: clean outlines and healthy bodies
7) Art Nouveau and its implications:figura serpentinataruns wild
SECTION III: Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Aftermaths
8) The “cloud turn” in art: the demise of the line and the triumph of flesh
9) Uncomfortable bodies: the imperatives of architectural drawing
10) Fascist reactions: individual erotic wilderness versus hollow social bodies
11) Figura serpentinataand the contemporary anatomical imagination: spirituality held in check
12) Between war and pornography: contemporary survivals of Renaissance concepts
Poslední úprava: Váša Ondřej, Mgr., Ph.D. (11.09.2026)
