ABSTRACT
Fritz Saxl’s most important contribution to the iconography of medieval art can be identified in his work on the problem of the “after-life” of antiquity. An extract from the work in progress on pictures by Saxl and library assistants was given the title “Atlas of the Language of Gestures”. This atlas by Saxl was composed of diagrams and notes and in all probability had a display of pictures, but it has been dispersed and is identifiable only in a series of fragmentary documents. The horizontal diagrams, which are possible instructions for displaying pictures on a board or panel, neatly disposed in chronological order and classified thematically in three main categories: first, pagan gods and their Nachleben; second, motives and pathos formulae; and third, individual figures and scenes. In looking at the origins of the Warburg Institute’s emblem, it first occurs in the first prospectus of the library – reopened in Thames House after the move from Hamburg.
