Pathosformel

Art Term

Pathosformel or "pathos formula" (German plural: Pathosformeln) is a term coined by the German art historian and cultural theorist Aby Warburg (1866–1929) in his research on the afterlife of antiquity (das Nachleben der Antike). It is described as "the primitive words of passionate gesture language" and the "emotionally charged visual trope[s] that recur throughout images in Western Europe.