Renaissance der Ekphrasis - Ekphrasis der Renaissance

The emergence of ekphrasis as an aesthetic category in the Renaissance was influenced by ancient scholarly rhetoric and literary tradition, from the Homeric epic to the Byzantine popularization of ekphrastic subgenres. This publication approaches the humanistic understanding of ekphrasis, shedding light on hitherto little-noted phenomena such as the scholastic rhetorical aspect of Giorgio Vasari's Vita or the traces of natural philosophical and technical description in Renaissance visual culture, from books of symbols and scientific treatises to the sottobosco paintings and experimental poetry of the early Baroque, citing the example of Luis de Góngora.

• First Study on the influence of the scholarly rhetorical and literary tradition of ekphrasis on Renaissance visual culture
• Special focus on the transmission and dissemination of early modern ideas of nature and the ecological through collections of symbols