Évelyne Prioux

Abstract

Indications of colors are not present in all the ekphraseis of the Elder Philostratus' Eikones. Most of his ekphraseis are indeed totally deprived of such indications or mention one or more of the following colours : gold, black and white. Other tints only occur in a very small number of descriptions. This paper argues that the details for which the Elder Philostratus provides indications of color are far from being unsignificant : of course, several indications are given about the painters' representation of skin and eyes, but the other mentions of colors mainly concern objects that were frequently used as metaphors of poetry and of literary composition in Ancient literary criticism : curly hair, streams, rivers and the sea, gems, horse bridles, garlands, wings and weaved fabric.

Évelyne Prioux, ancienne élève dell’Ecole Normale Supérieure (Parigi), è ricercatrice presso il CNRS e insegna presso il Dipartimento di Storia dell’Arte dell’Università di Paris Ouest – Nanterre – La Défense. Specialista della poesia ellenistica, della critica d’arte e della critica letteraria antiche, è autrice di svariati studi sui nuovi epigrammi di Posidippo di Pella, per i quali ha ottenuto la medaglia di bronzo del cnrs: Regards alexandrins. Histoire et théorie des arts dans l’épigramme hellénistique, Peeters Publishers, Louvain 2007 e Petits musées en vers. Épigramme et discours sur les collections antiques, L’art et l’Essai, Paris 2008.