Between Ekphrasis and Hypotyposis – the Motif of the Mother of Sorrows in the "Amber Apple" by Halina Tvaranovich

Abstract

In this article, I discussed the issue of ekphrasis and hypotyposis, understood
as literary descriptions (and interpretations) of works of art, in poems by Halina Tvaranovich, a Belarusian poet and professor of Slavic literature. The subject of the study was poems from the volume Amber Apple, including ekphrastic and hypotypical references to motifs of religious art such as the Pietà and the Mother of Sorrows. The paper discusses analogies between these poems and the sculpture of Pietà by Nicolas Cousteau, Orthodox iconography, and religious painting. The author of Amber Apple is primarily interested in the deep spiritual message of the artifacts she describes, as well as motifs and images present in art, their expression, and their impact on the recipients. As a result, what prevails in her works is not classical ekphrasis, merely describing works of art, but interpretive ekphrasis, focusing on the meaning of artifacts.