The Fortune of Gertrud Bing (1892-1964)
A Fragmented Memoir of a Phantomlike Muse
By (author) L. Tack
Sie stand anderen zur Seite und wuate sie zu inspirieren. It is clear that Ernst H. Gombrich saw Gertrud Bing (1892-1964) as the muse in the circle of scholars around Aby M. Warburg (1866-1929). Others have compared her to the figure of the nymph, which was essential to Warburg’s thought. Indeed, with Warburg’s fascination for the ninfa fiorentina, a picturing of ‘the feminine’ enters into the centre of his thinking. However, Warburg almost never voiced opinions about the role of gender in the structure of society. Nor does it seem that he actually admitted women to his intellectual universe. Gertrud Bing, it turns out, was the rare exception. Who was Gertrud Bing and what was her personal contribution to Warburg’s scientific project? This essay intends to map the agency of Gertrud Bing, in a way that she herself would have probably preferred. According to her, the ideal biography ought to merge the personal with the intellectual, since, what one experiences as a human being will also find its way into the academic oeuvre one leaves behind.
Sie stand anderen zur Seite und wuate sie zu inspirieren. It is clear that Ernst H. Gombrich saw Gertrud Bing (1892-1964) as the muse in the circle of scholars around Aby M. Warburg (1866-1929). Others have compared her to the figure of the nymph, which was essential to Warburg’s thought. Indeed, with Warburg’s fascination for the ninfa fiorentina, a picturing of ‘the feminine’ enters into the centre of his thinking. However, Warburg almost never voiced opinions about the role of gender in the structure of society. Nor does it seem that he actually admitted women to his intellectual universe. Gertrud Bing, it turns out, was the rare exception. Who was Gertrud Bing and what was her personal contribution to Warburg’s scientific project? This essay intends to map the agency of Gertrud Bing, in a way that she herself would have probably preferred. According to her, the ideal biography ought to merge the personal with the intellectual, since, what one experiences as a human being will also find its way into the academic oeuvre one leaves behind.
- By (author) L. Tack
Other Titles in this Series
Signed ‘PAN’
Erwin Panofsky's (1892-1968) "The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline" (Princeton, 1938)
Volume 18
Late Medieval Enclosed Gardens of the Low Countries
Contributions to Gender and Artistic Expression
Volume 2
The Right Moment
Essays Offered to Barbara Baert, Laureate of the 2016 Francqui Prize in Human Sciences, on the Occasion of the Celebratory Symposium at the Francqui Foundation, Brussels, 18-19 October 2018
Volume 20
Rocks and Tears
Niobe's Fate and the Dynamics of Form. Lecture on the Occasion of the Aby-Warburg-Stiftungsprofessur 2023
Volume 25
Nymph. Motif, Phantom, Affect. Part II
Aby Warburg's (1866-1929) Butterflies as Art Historical Paradigms
Volume 4
In Response to Echo
Beyond Mimesis or Dissolution as Scopic Regime (with Special Attention to Camouflage)
Volume 6
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