The images have always provoked mixed reactions. Be it fascinated gazes or iconoclastic revulsion, the images however were rarely seen as true sources of knowledge. Today, it seems that the traditional criticism of the show has given way to an unconditional acceptance of the visual. However, it is by no means obvious that our everyday interactions with images also imply that we understand how they work. "The Diaphanous Image" covers the history of the western attitude towards images, and the provocation that they represent for the intellect. By showing how in pre-modernity the question of images was inextricably linked to the dimension of appearances and their media, the book offers a new genealogy of phenomenology and the concept of media. Images are not transparent windows to the world, nor are they hidden media that carry out their activities behind our backs. On their own surface, in their material display, they constantly reactivate the power to appear, giving visibility to something that could not appear otherwise.