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Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures
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Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures Hardback - 2012

by Leonard Barkan

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Reader reviews for Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures

From the publisher

The skirmish between painting and poetry--from Plato and Praxiteles to Rembrandt and Shakespeare

Why do painters sometimes wish they were poets--and why do poets sometimes wish they were painters? What happens when Rembrandt spells out Hebrew in the sky or Poussin spells out Latin on a tombstone? What happens when Virgil, Ovid, or Shakespeare suspend their plots to describe a fictitious painting? In Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures, Leonard Barkan explores such questions as he examines the deliciously ambiguous history of the relationship between words and pictures, focusing on the period from antiquity to the Renaissance but offering insights that also have much to say about modern art and literature.

The idea that a poem is like a picture has been a commonplace since at least ancient Greece, and writers and artists have frequently discussed poetry by discussing painting, and vice versa, but their efforts raise more questions than they answer. From Plutarch ("painting is mute poetry, poetry a speaking picture") to Horace ("as a picture, so a poem"), apparent clarity quickly leads to confusion about, for example, what qualities of pictures are being urged upon poets or how pictorial properties can be converted into poetical ones.

The history of comparing and contrasting painting and poetry turns out to be partly a story of attempts to promote one medium at the expense of the other. At the same time, analogies between word and image have enabled writers and painters to think about and practice their craft. Ultimately, Barkan argues, this dialogue is an expression of desire: the painter longs for the rich signification of language while the poet yearns for the direct sensuousness of painting.

From the rear cover

"In this inspired book, Leonard Barkan traces the origins and transformations of the word-image conundrum in art and literature from Plato to Shakespeare, providing a deeply learned and often brilliant meditation on a central theme of contemporary aesthetics and cultural history. This is vintage Barkan--a seductive book, written with eloquence and insight, and giving much pleasure and intellectual profit."--Marvin Trachtenberg, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

"Vibrant, insightful, and elegantly written, this book reflects a lifetime of thought by a master of his subject."--Jaś Elsner, University of Oxford and University of Chicago

"A dazzling display of erudition spiced with humor and rhetorical wizardry, this book will interest anyone who cares about pictures or words--and what else is there?"--Michael Ann Holly, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Details

  • Title Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures
  • Author Leonard Barkan
  • Binding Hardback
  • Pages 208
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Princeton University Press, U.S.A.
  • Publication date 2012
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index
  • ISBN 9780691141831 / 0691141835
  • Weight 1.2 lbs (0.54 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 in (23.62 x 16.26 x 2.03 cm)
  • Themes
    • Interdisciplinary Studies: Communication Studies
  • Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Library of Congress subjects Written communication, Visual communication
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2012019508
  • Dewey Decimal Code 700.1

Media reviews

Citations

  • Choice, 05/01/2013, Page 0
  • Publishers Weekly, 10/01/2012, Page 85

About the author

Leonard Barkan is the Class of 1943 University Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University. His books include Michelangelo: A Life on Paper (Princeton); Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture; The Gods Made Flesh: Metamorphosis and the Pursuit of Paganism; and Satyr Square: A Year, a Life in Rome.

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Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures (Essays in the Arts)
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Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures (Essays in the Arts)

by Leonard Barkan

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Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures (Essays in the Arts)
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Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures (Essays in the Arts)

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Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures

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Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures (Essays in the Arts) [Hardcover] Barkan, Leonard
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