ABSTRACT
The renaissance of the picture as a means of macrocommunication in 20thcentury Western societies marks a historical development that appears somewhat at odds with the typical association of modernity with extraordinary advances in science and technology. Before eventually losing its central communicative status in the face of the Gutenberg revolution and the Enlightenment, the picture had allowed the Catholic churches of medieval Europe to foster the hegemony of religious thought in all areas of public life, including politics. Based upon its own set of religious symbols, emblems, and icons together with a number of symbols of secular potentates, a rudimentary visual language was established, with regional variations. Up to the time when German humanists began to use “emblemata” for a popular, symbolic critique of the interlaced aristocratic and ecclesiastic reign, these painted icons and emblems were generally crafted by a deferential, participatory brush that strived for an effect of supernatural reality. Painting was seen as a religious privilege, and there was little leeway for individual expression. Italian artists of the Renaissance sought to legitimate their creativity with the concept of “furor divinus,” meaning that their artistic expressions and messages were of transcendental origin.1
