We will focus on the presence of descriptions of or allusions to
the figurative arts (painting and sculpture) in Greek texts in prose and poetry
from the Imperial period, up to the 4th century. Texts will include extracts
from the Greek novels (Achilles Tatius, Longus, Heliodorus), the allegorical Tabula
Cebetis, texts by Lucian (e.g. the Calumny of Apelles, Zeuxis, the Hall),
Philostratos and Dio Chrysostom and from some early Christian authors (e.g.
Asterios of Amaseia). We will look in detail at the literary and rhetorical
techniques used in these texts, at their intertextual relationships to earlier
texts (especially the Homeric Shield of Achilles), in order to understand the
different types of interaction between text and image that are in play. We will
pay particular attention to the potential metaliterary and metafictional
functions of descriptions of works of art as well as to ancient theories of
description (ekphrasis and enargeia), vision and artistic creation.
