Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

Modigliani, Rouault, and Matisse. The predominance of the portrait genre in this
film “provides a counterpoint to the portrayal of subjectivity in crisis.” 61
Depictive Ekphrasis
In the second category I propose, the depictive ekphrasis, images are
discussed, described, or reflected on more extensively in the text or scene, and
several details or aspects of images are named and in the film shown in close-ups,
zooms, and with slow camera movement. Again I have borrowed the name from
Robillard’s system, but use it in a slightly modified way. Robillard includes in
this category both “description” of large or small sections of an artwork as well as
“analogous structuring” of the text (61). My depictive category does include the
texts that fall under Robillard’s subcategory “description,” but I keep the
“analogous structuring” for my next category, since in my view structural
similarity implies a more complex degree of ekphrasis.
This type of ekphrasis comes closest to the widespread definition of
ekphrasis as “verbal representation of visual representation” (Heffernan 3)
because even in film it is largely verbal, although of course aided by camera
movement and position, as well as by other auditory elements such as music. In
Plett’s terms, the quotations in this category are recognizably marked through
many details from the image. While they may or may not be frequent or occur at
prominent places in the text or film, they are qualitatively significant since these
61 Angela Dalle Vacche, “Jean Luc Godart’s Pierre le Fou: Cinema as Collage against Painting,”
Literature/Film Quarterly 23.1 (1995): 48.
48