«La (per così dire) energia delle figure»

• Main Author: Bertrand Rougé
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Firenze University Press 2012-05-01
• Series: Aisthesis
• Subjects: Artwork; Ekphrasis; Energetics of art; Figure.
• Online Access: http://www.fupress.net/index.php/aisthesis/article/view/10996

What is it that makes an artwork function and present itself as an artwork distinct from non-art? Such is the question of the artwork’s persuasive evidence. Through a re-reading of the rhetorical literature about ekphrasis — <em>enargeia</em> that grounds it and <em>energeia</em> that motivates it — this paper attempts to describe the artwork in its dynamic dimension, as an occasion to move (<em>phora</em> and <em>transitus</em>). The stress is then put on the energetic movement of the «<em>pro ommaton poiein</em>» which is specific of how a figure functions, but it is then demonstrated that this is the movement of the figure per se, dissociable from classic mimesis and its «cinematographical fantasy». A few examples are then analyzed to show how this global theory may encompass trompe-l’œil as well as plasticity, redaymades or abstract art, thus launching a possible «energetics of art». <p> </p>