Modes of ekphrasis: Simone Martini’s Sienese condottiere through the eyes of Zbigniew Herbert and Gustaw Herling-Grudziński

The article focuses on descriptions of works of art in essays. It presents the form of ekphrasis and the method of inter-artistic analysis, and also emphasises the efficiency of the translatological perspective (e.g. intersemiotic translation) in the study of the phenomenon of ekphrasis. As a starting point for the analysis and interpretation of fragments of Herbert’s and Herling-Grudziński’s essays, the article presents Martini’s Guidoriccio da Fogliano at the Siege of Montemassi, from the perspective of art history. Next, it discusses the verbal accounts of the painting presented by Herbert and Herling- Grudziński, examining their contents and poetics and paying attention to the character of the descriptions they propose. The description may focus either on the object or on the viewer, either on the representation itself or on its connotations. Accordingly, it is suggested that the corresponding modes of ekphrasis should be labelled ‘denotative’ and ‘connotative’, respectively. The aim is to present concrete realizations of ekphrasis and characteristic modes of perceiving and writing about a work of art, as well as to show how the subjective perspective of the observer (describing, commenting, interpreting) and an idiomatic style of expression are manifested.