Ekphrasis

An interesting term that Professor Little talked about in lecture today was ekphrasis. Professor related the term to the barge scene (2.2.196) when Cleopatra makes her grand entrance; however, the scene is told about in Rome and the audience is denied seeing it. Therefore Professor explained how Shakespeare stopped the story to create a picture and paint an image for the audience, but not actually act out the scene on stage. I was a little confused on this term still so I did some online research.
The word, ekphrasis comes from the Greek ek and phrasis, 'out' and 'speak.’ The verb form, ekphrazein, means to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name. Dictionary.com described the term in this way: “Ekphrasis has been considered generally to be a rhetorical device in which one medium of art tries to relate to another medium by defining and describing its essence and form, and in doing so, relate more directly to the audience, through its illuminative liveliness.” This description helped to make more sense of the term. Another student in discussion said, “It is art about art” which also aids in my understanding. Hopefully this little information will shed some extra light on the Egyptian iconic scene that is told and not seen.

Candace Scalise, Discussion 1A