Dissolving: “...cor meum vigilat”

Surely we see here another example of that hidden life of images, which impressed Aby Warburg so much, that he presented it as a separate phenomenon, called Pathosformel, in his 1905 study about Dürer’s relationship to classical antiquity. It is a more or less unconscious and timeless survival of expressive pictorial formulas, which here takes shape in the form of the rays emanating from the heart of the security guard.



The two doors are separated by only a few meters in the old town of Palma. The first one is in carrer del Call, opposite the “Las Olas” restaurant. The other at the corner of carrer de Sant Alonso and Santa Clara.

Carrer de Pont i Vich

The Sacred Heart of Jesus plaques, with the uppercase “BENDECIRÉ” (“I will bless”) label * were once present on almost all the doors of the city. Today only a few survive on the inner doors that open directly to the apartments. On the street front, only a few decaying ones have been left. Their place is occupied by the new type of image, whose presence is bound to a monthly fee.


Claudio Monteverdi: Sacred Music. Roberto Gini, Lavinia Bertotti & Ensemble Concerto. “Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat” (I’m sleeping, but my heart is watching)