Slideshow lecture regarding the doctrine of ut pictura poesis and the questioning of same, leading up to Lessing's "Laocoon."

1. Ut pictura poesis: The classical basis of word & image studies

2. Ut pictura poesis: meaning as is painting, so is poetry OR as it is in painting, so let it be in poetry (many poets have said the reverse, i.e., as is poetry, so is painting )

3. Ut pictura poesis: This key phrase hails from the Ars Poetica , or Art of Poetry , written c. 20-10 BCE by the Latin poet Horace (65-8 BCE). ( AP is one of the most influential works of critical theory from the classical period – it was first translated into English by Queen Elizabeth I, in 1598!)

4. Ut pictura poesis: Horace did not invent this idea that poetry is like painting, or vice versa; he simply gave definitive expression to what was already a commonplace comparison.

23. (This is a copy.)

25. William Blake’s engraved interpretation of the figure (c. 1826-27)