From nothing, from an “idea”: Barbara Baert’s iconology of immersions and transitions
Vlad Ionescu
The following article discusses the iconological research of prof.dr. Barbara Baert (Francquis Chair 2016) on the Pneuma, a motifs that includes breath, wind, rauch, odour, stains, movement and silence. It is based on her latest publication Pneuma and the Visual Medium in the Middle Ages and Early Modernity. Essays on Wind, Rauch, Odour, Stains, Movement and Silence (Peeters, 2016) a book that is related to her broader iconological research. The author argues that the value of prof Baert’s approach consists in inventing an iconological method where meaning emerges from its relation to the latent sensitive potential of artworks. Baert’s method subtly integrates iconology into a phenomenology of all the senses, from smell to touch and hearing.