Brueghel, Van Gogh, and Chirico: Inter-Animation of Painting and Writing in Some Ekphrastic Poems

Abstract

This article examines a critical reading of some selected ekphrastic poems to underscore the ways an ekphrastic poem re-presents or subverts the meaning of the original work of art and offers new ways of consumption. Ekphrasis, in its purest form, is the vivid verbal or literary description or reconstruction of a visual piece of art, real or imaginary. An ekphrastic poem is an amalgam of the poet’s intellectual and emotional responses to the art and oftentimes varies in meanings and expressions from the work it took inspiration from, that is, an ekphrastic poem may add to, and sometimes even deconstruct or subvert the meanings of the art. An ekphrastic poem not only appears as an independent form of art but also mobilizes the readers. This article unfolds in two ways. It offers a comparative reading of some select ekphrastic poems that are premised on the same work of art. It investigates three sets of poems that re-imagine Pieter Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus and Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. This article also addresses some poems based on Giorgio de Chirico’s Conversation among the Ruins and demonstrates how Sylvia Plath’s eponymous poem subverts the male gaze accentuated in Chirico’s painting. This article contends that ekphrastic poems are not mere descriptions of the paintings, rather they stand alone as independent forms of art as a result of being outcomes of the poets’ creative and emotional responses.

Keywords

• ekphrasis
• ekphrastic poems
• painting