Stargates – The Magic of Images from Heka to the Monas Hieroglyphica

  • Start date:
    23/03/2021, 17:00

Stargates – The Magic of Images from Heka to the Monas Hieroglyphica

A lecture series dedicated to the material aspects of making magical images

Organised by Luisa Capodieci (Frances A. Yates Long Term Fellow, Warburg Institute)

 

Giuseppe ARCIMBOLDO, "Astrologie", 1585, Florence, Galerie des Offices (source : WGA).

Giuseppe ARCIMBOLDO, "Astrologie", 1585, Florence, Galerie des Offices (source : WGA).

Stargates – The Magic of Images from Heka to the Monas Hieroglyphica is a lecture series dedicated to the material aspects of making magical images, including the arsenal of objects and media which allow the maker to manipulate the flow of stellar influences. The roots of the question are Egyptian; they lie buried in a passage of the hermetic text, Asclepius, which explains how Egyptian priests “make gods” by shaping images able to attract the souls of the stars. Herbs, stones and aromas “which have an occult virtue of divine efficacity”, words, sounds and fumigations are the other ingredients of this magic panoply, which has been discussed and enriched from Antiquity to the Renaissance and beyond.

Considering small portable talismans and large artworks, this lecture series features five leading scholars who offer a broad historical perspective. Combining a wide range of disciplines including archaeology, history, art history, anthropology, philosophy and cultural history, they will discuss both the “making” and the “mechanism” of these stargates, capable of bringing the stars down to earth.

Following a chronological sequence in order to underline the transformations, continuities, and discontinuities from ancient to “modern” practices, this lecture series builds on the legacy of the Warburg Institute scholars D.P. Walker and Frances Yates.

 

Programme

‘The Magic of Images and Images for Magic in Ancient Egypt’

23 March 2021, 5:30 – 7pm | Presented by Marc Etienne (musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités égyptiennes)

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‘The Theory and Practice of Talismans’

20 April 2021, 5:30 – 7pm | Presented by Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute)

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‘Scientific Utopia versus Magic in the Thirteenth Century: two Ways for endowing Artificial figurae with Celestial Powers’

19 May 2021, 5:30 – 7pm | Presented by Nicolas Weill-Parot (EPHE – Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes)

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‘Ficino and the Stars’

26 May 2021, 5:30 – 7pm | Presented by Stéphane Toussaint (CNRS, Centre André Chastel)

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‘Hieroglyph, Anatomy and Cosmos: John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica

22 June 2021, 5:30 – 7pm | Presented by Stephen Clucas (Birkbeck College)

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