Carlo Ginzburg's Political Iconography Essays Collected in French

Four essays by historian Carlo Ginzburg, originally published between 2001 and 2009, are now translated and gathered in a French volume titled 'Carlo Ginzburg : images politiques' by Les Presses du réel. The essays analyze political images: the frontispiece of Hobbes's Leviathan (1651), David's Marat (1793), a British recruitment poster (1914), and Picasso's Guernica (1937). Ginzburg applies an interdisciplinary method combining political philosophy, art history, hermeneutics, and iconology, drawing on Aby Warburg's concept of Pathosformel ('emotion formulas') to trace the ancient roots of modern images and their transformations. The essay on Hobbes, 'Peur révérence terreur', gives the collection its title. Ginzburg argues that Marat and Guernica are images of terror, with Marat speaking a classical language with a Christian accent. For Guernica, he hypothesizes a proximity between Picasso and Georges Bataille, whose ideas may have influenced the painting's paradoxical absence of the fascist enemy. The most original essay examines the Kitchener recruitment poster, tracing its genealogy from Pliny, Nicholas of Cusa, Caravaggio, and early cinema, though Ginzburg acknowledges gaps in the chain. The collection demonstrates the ongoing relevance of Warburg's method for political iconography.