Między ekspresją artystyczną a ekspresją faktu. Jean-Martin Charcot i Aby Warburg wobec ikonografii szaleństwa

This paper deals with the relationship between art and medicine. It is concerned with the problem of artistic expression, as well as non-artistic and natural expression, in the context of questions on the genesis of a work of art, the meaning of expression in art, and the influence of visual images on the development of methods of expression. These issues, in which strictly artistic problems are related to the psychology of expression and representation, are raised by the Salpêtrière Hospital’s medical records on hysteria, gathered over the years under the supervision of Dr. Charcot, and depicting female patients in expressive poses. Another example used is the work of one of the most prominent historians of twentieth century art and culture, Aby Warburg, who was fascinated, among other things, by representations of violent sensations and emotional stirrings, mainly those caused by religious experience. An important aspect of the text is the comparison between the methods and interests of both researchers of madness. Another is finding out whether the similarity between the representations of the raving maenads, which for Warburg were a vehicle for expression, and the photographs and drawings of hysterics executed by the employees of Salpêtrière Hospital, leads to the conclusion that these depictions present the same “pathos formulas” recurring in art, and if the convergence between the photographs of Charcot’s patients and the photographs of carvings and images compared by Warburg in Mnemosyne Atlas may be interpreted as artistic formulas of expression. The article is also an attempt to examine how the hospital iconography of hysteria has influenced specific artistic works, in which “medical” expression has undergone a purely artistic transformation.