ekphrasis
noun/ˈɛkfɹəsɪs/
Etymology From Ancient Greek ἔκφρασις (ékphrasis, “description”), from ἐκφράζω (ekphrázō, “I describe”), from ἐκ (ek, “out, ex-”) + φράζω (phrázō, “I explain, point out”).
1
Rhetoric A clear, intense, self-contained argument or verbal description of an object, especially of an artwork.
- One [trope] is ekphrasis, the literary description of a work of art, the most famous example of which may be the careful depiction of the shield of Achilles in book 18 of the Iliad.2004, Daniel Donoghue, Old English Literature, Blackwell, published 2004, page 75:
- Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is a good contender, the classic example of ekphrasis.2026 June 3, Elisa Gabbert, “How Poets Went From Describing Art to Personally Admiring It”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Derived terms
- ekphrasic, ekphrastic
- Related terms
- hypotyposis