Imagining Images: Anacreontea 16 and 17
In: The Look of Lyric: Greek Song and the VisualSearch for other papers by Ippokratis Kantzios in
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Anacreontea 16 and 17 are part of a cultural milieu which cultivated a keen interest in the complexities of viewing mimetic art. The two verbal portraits, through their vividness and detailed instruction, strive for complete lifelikeness which does not confine itself to form alone but reveals aspects of character as well. The speaker does succumb to the effects of naturalist illusion, thinking that the depicted figures respond to him through reciprocal gaze; yet, on the whole he manages to maintain an awareness of the true nature of the images as paintings. The images themselves become the occasion for the fusion of roles and the nexus of interactions among the characters of the two poems and also between the poet and the reader. The instructions to the artist and the speaker’s response to the images indicate that the poet is cognizant of certain important aspects of the relationships between word and sight, viewer and representation, and brings them forth in a spirit of sophisticated playfulness.