Pictorial Models and Narrative Ekphrasis

Abstract

Ekphrasis is an umbrella term that subsumes various forms of render- ing the visual object in words. This variety is often arbitrarily restricted, largely because some of the forms, though manifest in artistic practice, are not recog- nized in criticism. This essay analyzes two such neglected forms: pictorial models and narrative ekphrasis. Their intersection compounds the ekphrasis of visual model (as distinct from unique artwork) with narrativized (as against descrip- tive, picturelike) effect, though not only within narrative works. The neglect of both forms, I point out, relates to theory's doctrinal biases, namely, the insis- tence on interart reproduction (mimesis) and so on either-or choices (between epic and lyric, action and description, narrativity and pictoriality). Instead, I argue for the centrality and the specifically narrative roles of the pictorial model. To enhance the evocability and perceptibility of the visual source, literary texts often allude to visual common denominator (e.g., the thematic makeup of a Madonna with child or the familiar components of a Turner seascape). Furthermore, such ekphrastic models often join forces with narrativity to bring the visual source into distinctively literary play, not least along the time axis. Thus, when visual clich6 is transmitted through the subjectivity of an inside observer, it enters into narrative patterns such as plot and characterization, as well as point of view. These and various other interplays between the ekphras- tic model and narrativity are illustrated in the second part of the essay, mainly through the poetics of Isak Dinesen.