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Part of the book: Saint-Amant and the Theory of 'Ut Pictura Poesis'

Christopher D. Rolfe

MHRA Texts and Dissertations 6

Modern Humanities Research Association

RenaissanceFrenchPoetryopen

Abstract.  It will be remembered that, amongst others, it was Lessing who pointed out that what the poet could really 'paint' was action, that poetry, being a temporal art, lent itself easily to the portrayal of movement. With this in mind let us now turn our attention, having discussed the way Saint-Amant treats the essentially static scenes which the countryside offers, to his descriptions involving move- ment. His poetry is, in fact, full of descriptions of action, often violent action, and of objects in motion. On reading his poetry, it becomes apparent that Saint-Amant enjoyed treating certain specific themes, themes which appear again and again and on which we will concentrate. They are water, the sea, ships, battles and combats, the latter now and then involving monsters or dangerous beasts.

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