Abstract

Cinema and history, in Benjamin’s thought, are subject to the same law. This privileges the suspension of the single event, allowing for an analysis of the single frame as if in it the whole of the sequence (or historical happening) was collected in an immense contraction of time. This being the case, the Benjaminian doctrine about an authentic state of exception can be explored through significant images, which played a major role in the author’s philosophical formation. In these iconographic analyses, the names of Grünewald, Dürer and Raphael will emerge above all others.