In opposition to a certain history of art, which considers the passage from Middle Ages to the Renaissance as a radical rupture, we are tempting here to see this passage rather as a continued evolution, starting with a lecture of Warburg. According to him, empathy is a psychological phenomenon proper to the Renaissance, manifesting itself by more animation in the images of the Quattrocento. This view neglects the empathic-relationship between the believer and devotional medieval image. The hypothesis formulated here is that instead of an abandon of hieratic and impassive medieval forms for an adoption of communicative and living forms, we should see this passage rather as an esthetization of visual patterns, motivated in the beginning by devotional empathy.