Portrét a rétorika. Na margo vzťahov a súvislostí medzi rečníckymi ozdobami a formulami pátosu v ranonovovekej portrétnej teórii a praxi / Portrait and Rhetoric. On the Relationships and Connections Between Rhetorical Embellishments and Formulas of Pathos

Abstract

The theme of eternal returns in art and culture focuses on certain historically returning principles that survive in cultural society, even under new conditions, in a modified form. As one of them, the survival of ancient rhetoric through the centuries to the present day is one of them. The presented text shows the trajectories of how classical rhetoric was reactivated in the early modern period in theoretical writing on art and functionally applied to contemporary visual (especially portrait) practice. It also points to the internal parallels between the effort of German and Netherlandish painters and theorists of art to emphasize the persuasive necessity of certain forms of dynamic movement in the picture to Aby Warburg’s much the same ambition to identify such movement, energizing and spiritual patterns (pathos formulas) in his paintings. Last but not least, the contribution opens a new field of research into the experience of Warburgian pathos formulas in early modern portraiture.