It Is also possIble to analyse the Snake Dance as a vIsual analys Is that contaIns the spIrIt of transformatIon created by Warburg and the clues of Its era. Through the dances and objects of the natIves, a mIse-en-scene of an allegorIcal desIgn has been created In whIch the boundarIes of language and expressIon are destroyed wIth a reference to the order of the cultural world or a logIc of assocIatIon. In fact, the subject of a deep questIonIng between form and meanIng Is Warburg, who became the magIcIan of the early modernIst perIod. Therefore, the Pueblo IndIans mean much more than the symbolIc Snake Dance In Warburg's lIfe.

warburg: wizard of the early modernist period

Indeed, there is no doubt that the energy contained in this dance also constitutes an experience of self-discovery that, in Warburg’s theoretical approach, triggers a critical spirit and mobilises a hopeful defensive instinct, referring to the presence of strong symbolic relations in the discussion of origin and provenance in classical works. We are talking here about the power of synthesis shaped by the expression of historical imagery on Warburg’s cultural evolutionary trajectory (which is a dialectical trajectory, blending archaic, mythic and religious emphases), including the early modern. 

It is no coincidence that the analysis of the Snake Dance ritual undertaken by Warburg corresponds to the phase preceding the logic of mapping the visual memory of culture. The cultural connections between different time periods, the truth created by a surreal connection and the ongoing loss of reality through a social experience probably constitute for Warburg a foreseeable primordial threshold of historical time. It is important that this functions as a philosophical field of experience for a theorist. It is important that Warburg’s presentation of the Snake Dance as a primitive understanding of the Snake Dance of the Indians, Warburg’s extraction of the energy created by the metaphorical potential of this phenomenon from its context, and the discovery of a substructure that will decipher the archaic codes on this dance and give it a conceptual quality. Tracing the momentum of cultural construction, Warburg is of course aware of the strong connection of this ongoing empirical historical axis with cultural traditions and objects. 

It is as if Warburg felt the first diagrams of the theoretical visual map, which he would later realise in Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, in the life of the Pueblo Indians living in the timeless universe. In this metaphysical universe created by the power of snakes (lightning-lightning), combinations such as power, passion and faith, which characterise the environment by getting rid of external concerns and the material world, are the first contexts, fictions or constructions of cultural codes that are renewed and transferred to the future. 

It is also possible to analyse the Snake Dance as a visual analysis that contains the spirit of transformation created by Warburg and the clues of its era. Through the dances and objects of the natives, a mise-en-scene of an allegorical design has been created in which the boundaries of language and expression are destroyed with a reference to the order of the cultural world or a logic of association. In fact, the subject of a deep questioning between form and meaning is Warburg, who became the magician of the early modernist period. Therefore, the Pueblo Indians mean much more to Warburg’s life than the symbolic Snake Dance. And this situation also acquires a conceptual character in Warburg’s inventory as a cultural palimpsest and eternal repetition. The lightning that flashes with the clash of snakes turns into divine sparks and the illusion of the reality of the snake dance stands out among the masses of disorganised information, as if new codes of cultural correspondence are being written here. ♦