Pia Cordero

This paper aims to contribute to understanding Edmund Husserl’s early theory of imagination by examining the immanent function and the symbolic function of image consciousness in Phantasy and Image Consciousness (1904/05). To this end, I will analyse the immanent function, which explains the inner relationship of the intentions that make up image consciousness, and the symbolic function, which expresses the “transeunt” character of image consciousness by which memories are associated with their intuitive content. This examination enables us to understand that image consciousness taken as image representation is fundamentally a consciousness of otherness formed by the frictions of its different correlates from the perspective of both its immanent and symbolic functioning. The relevance of this paper for aesthetics is that it enables us to explore the concept of “representation by similarity.” The analysis of representation by similarity allows Husserl to carry out detailed and in-depth examinations of aesthetic-artistic experiences, which contribute to the conceptualization of the functions of image consciousness.

Resumen Este artículo ofrece una lectura de la pintura renacentista según los principios establecidos por Leon Battista Alberti, uno de los primeros teóricos de la perspectiva en cuyo Tratado de pintura se refiere al cuadro como “una ventana abierta a la historia”. El concepto de historia empleado por Alberti, que se presta a numerosas interpretaciones, es abordado a partir de las reflexiones de Erwin Panofsky en torno a la perspectiva como “forma simbólica”, avanzando hacia una hipótesis en torno al carácter simbólico de la configuración y representación del tiempo en el cuadro-ventana albertiano.This paper offers a reading of the renaissance painting according to the principles established by Leon Battista Alberti, one of the first theorists of perspective in painting which Trattato della pittura define the frame of the painting as “an open window into history”. The concept of history employed by Alberti, which lends itself to many interpretations, is approached from the reflections of Erwin Panofsky about the prospect as “symbolic form”, moving towards a hypothesis about the symbolic nature of the configuration and representation of time in the alberti’s window.