ekphrasis
1
9.9
- noun
- /ɛkˈfræsɪs/
- Literature
:
ekfrasis
- He described the landscape with such ekphrasis that the readers could almost see the scene unfold in their minds.
Examples
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The same perception is found in Photios's ekphrasis of the Pharos church: "It seems that everything is in ecstatic motion, and the church itself is circling around."
Academic text (2006) -
The artist's ekphrasis brought the painting to life, making the colors and emotions palpable to the audience.
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Certainly, their ekphrasis admires her way of looking at Christ.
Academic text (2017) -
Emily Gephart spoke on ekphrasis and dreaming, and the way that a "mental image creates echo-objects in our minds."
Blog text (26) -
Thus, in observing paintings of death, ekphrasis, describing the silent dead, alternates with prosopopoeia, making the dead speak.
Academic text (2017) -
In their hands, ekphrasis in its proper descriptive mode gives way to prosopopoeia, face-making, with an implied life story.
Academic text (2017) -
But if "A Pietà" is about styles of mourning, then the dead Christ is less important to the Fields' ekphrasis than is Mary Magdalene.
Academic text (2017) -
If prosopopoeia gives words to the silent dead, ekphrasis gives words to silent paintings; to render in verse the painted corpses distills the challenges presented by both devices.
Academic text (2017) -
Some theorists have argued that ekphrasis, since it strives to describe an art object not now present, is underwritten by absence—an absence that poets frequently figure in terms of death.
Academic text (2017) -
In her novel, the vivid ekphrasis turned the silent sculpture into a character with its own story.
Synonyms
43
4.6
Language that makes you picture scenes, sights, or sounds
A detailed written description of a painting or sculpture
How Vivid
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word ekphrasis comes from the Greek parts ek- meaning 'out' and phrasis meaning 'saying', and phrasis is like the English word phrase. So an ekphrasis is a 'speaking out' description that makes a work of art feel alive.