Thinking in Hieroglyphic Images: from the Renaissance Hermetic tradition through the Avant-garde to Contemporary art

Abstract

In the crucible of the Renaissance aesthetic, one of the main elements of the alloy was hieroglyphic image, which defined both its formality and the theoretical substratum that shapes it. That kind of image influenced some of the most characteristic visual structures of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as emblems. However, far from disappearing, in the subsequent years, that kind of aesthetic pursuit had several reappearances, especially during the 20th century, with advertising, comics (Jodorowsky, Promethea), some of the incursions in the new languages of the avant-garde movement (Torres-García) or contemporary artists, such as Laffoley or Bruskin. All of those artists share some essential traits, with a framework that merges Hermetism, Neoplatonism, Kabbalah, Western esotericism, etc. In both the Renaissance and now, it drifts into a style that takes hieroglyphic writing as mythical model. Therefore, in the present text, we will analyse one of the least investigated roots of the avant-gardes and contemporary art, whose influence should not be underestimated. In said root, we can find a development of what we could call thinking in images.