Reinvent the spring, or the affiliations of the revolt

Abstract

The article discusses the question of starting over in Ernst Bloch and Aby Warburg, relating it to the notions of return and repetition, as well as to the role of imagination in the Blochian meaning of utopia. Furthermore, the author rethinks the place of the Renaissance in Art History, while discussing a genealogy of the revolt involving the peasant insurrection of Thomas Müntzer and the scientific insurrection of Giordano Bruno, but also the position of Martin Luther in the face of the uprising, in the key of a political iconography. It should be highlighted the relevant and fruitful approaches between the works of Bloch and Warburg, concerning their returns to the Renaissance and, from there to Antiquity.