Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...
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present, and constitutes a device central to the te<strong>at</strong>ro histórico as Buero Vallejo<br />
conceives it. 74<br />
In film, the tableau will generally be shown with slow camera movement<br />
and a wide angle view, so th<strong>at</strong> the camera can briefly linger over the tableau to<br />
invite a comparison with the actual picture. This is thus a mostly visual form <strong>of</strong><br />
ekphrasis, though verbal discourse and auditory elements such as music may be<br />
present and add further nuances to the interpret<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> the image. For example,<br />
Alexander Korda’s Rembrandt (1936) represents David Playing the Harp Before<br />
Saul (ca. 1656) in a tableau vivant. While Rembrandt is painting his models, a<br />
beggar as King Saul and his son Titus as David, he narr<strong>at</strong>es the biblical story <strong>of</strong><br />
King Saul to the beggar-model, who is moved to tears <strong>by</strong> it and <strong>at</strong> one point wipes<br />
his tears on the curtains just as he does in Rembrandt’s canvas. Curiously, this<br />
visual ekphrasis is produced <strong>by</strong> the artist’s storytelling power, <strong>by</strong> his narr<strong>at</strong>ive. In<br />
other words, the verbal narr<strong>at</strong>ive produces the visual ekphrasis, yet <strong>at</strong> the same<br />
time, the narr<strong>at</strong>ive becomes the verbal ekphrasis <strong>of</strong> this visual ekphrasis, since it<br />
narr<strong>at</strong>es and verbalizes wh<strong>at</strong> is visually represented in the scene. <strong>The</strong> film thus<br />
invites comparison both between the film image and Rembrandt’s painting, and<br />
between the two visual versions and the verbal story.<br />
Another filmic example occurs in Peter Greenaway’s A Zed & Two<br />
Noughts (1985) with Vermeer’s <strong>The</strong> Art <strong>of</strong> Painting (ca. 1666-67). 75 <strong>The</strong><br />
74 See, for example Antonio Buero Vallejo, “Acerca del drama histórico,” Obras Competas II, ed.<br />
Luis Feijoo and Mariano de Paco (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1994) 827-8. See also Virtudes Serrano,<br />
introducción, Las meninas, <strong>by</strong> Antonio Buero Vallejo (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1999) 10-25.<br />
75 A Zed and Two Noughts, dir. Peter Greenaway, perf. Andréa Ferréol, Eric Deacon, Brian<br />
Deacon, and Gerard Thoolen, 1985, Fox Lorber Home Video, New York: Distributed <strong>by</strong> WinStar<br />
TV and Video, 1999. Screenplay <strong>by</strong> Peter Greenaway, A Zed and Two Noughts (London and<br />
Boston: faber and faber, 1986)<br />
59