The Iconic Word: The Theological and Rhetorical Sources of a New Ut Pictura Poesis
This article questions the Renaissance, humanist understanding of the Horatian adage, Ut Pictura Poesis, and endeavors to elucidate the specific ways in which a lyric poem can be considered as an object to be looked at. The early modern poetic production of Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) and of his d...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4999 |
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| Summary: | This article questions the Renaissance, humanist understanding of the Horatian adage, Ut Pictura Poesis, and endeavors to elucidate the specific ways in which a lyric poem can be considered as an object to be looked at. The early modern poetic production of Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) and of his distant relation George Herbert (1593-1633) testifies to a crisis of the mimetic and ekphrastic powers of poetry. Written in a period following the iconoclast English Reformation and at a time when the humanist faith in the imitative powers of the artist was starting to splinter, their poetry substitutes a new form of visual materiality for the failing art of mimesis. Interestingly, it may help to account for the sense of awe and reverence we still experience when we behold a poem inscribed within the white “temple” of the page. |
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| ISSN: | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |