The realization that a work of art should only be judged as a product of the factors of its time, in which real life is reflected inspired Aby Warburg to formulate an art history as a cultural science that knows neither temporal nor spatial boundaries. This book extends his new science of pictorial orientation to include the consciousness of artists as seismographs (Uwe Fleckner) up to the present day: concentrating on one single object each, the short contributions by international art historians assembled in this volume outline a contemporary approach to art history and show how artworks, as reflecting instruments of orientation, become seismographs of the world--and through them, we as well.