Ekphrasis-in-Progress
The past few days, I’ve been spending a great deal of time with Francine Sterle’s “Self-Portrait as an Allegory of Painting,” an ekphrastic poem that takes a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi as its subject matter. As a current exhibit of Gentileschi’s work in Rome demonstrates, the Italian Renaissance painter is not only a great artist but should now also be understood as an important feminist icon, one who used her art to speak to the importance of female power and agency. I find the story of Gentileschi’s life deeply compelling and, in Francis Sterle’s poem, I see one role model for how one might use a classical piece of visual art to meditate on our current moment. All of which is to say, I hope to finish drafting my own ekphrastic poem sometime soon, using Gerrit Don’s “Scholar Sharpening His Quill” as my subject matter. To be continued…