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Visual Art In Literature Analysis

1859 Words8 Pages
This endeavor is to present a unique combination of visual art with literature. Visual art in literature is commonly referred to as “Ekphraisis”*, or as Horace coined his famous dictum “Ut picture poesis”*. Several other writers have rejected the idea of Ekphraisis, based on the fact that language is linear while visual art is spatial. I suggest that our ancients were correct in instituting a relation between the words and art. I feel that one can accomplish a greater understanding of the two if they are either compared or understood in companionship reading, running parallel to each other. In this paper I am trying to elucidate upon one such case in point which would add reasonable strength to Ekphrasis using the examples from Caravaggio’s artwork and John Donne’s Poetry.The painter Caravaggio and the poet John Donne were contemporaries. In their work one can find the manifestation from Mannerist to Baroque. Ekphraisis – dates back to antiquity: Simondes of Ceos, who claimed that painting was silent poetry and poetry a speaking picture. UtPicturaPoesis – written by Horace in ArsPoetica; meaning as is painting so is poetry It is perfectly legitimate and historically grounded to identify the dark bedrock of painting with matter. It is for centuries that the Catholic Church had viewed darkness as an inert matter or nothingness and light as the representative and the intervention of the Devine and the principle of creation. Many artists like Bernini,
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