Before Aura: The foundation of painting according to Walter Benjamin

Abstract

While in his late works Walter Benjamin seems to employ painting in an accessory way - either as an auratic counterfigure, or as a propitiatory victim of the technical image -, the allusions to the medium that guide his trajectory show its importance in the whole of his aesthetic reflection and even in the development of his theory of language. Especially relevant to understanding the general features of his idea of painting is the unpublished youth essay "On Painting, or Sign and Mark", as well as other writings of the same period that, although address the matter tangentially, shape it to a greater or lesser degree and determine its general scope.