Don't be shy if you need dictionary.com. I had to look it up a few years ago.
Ekphrasis is Greek, and is the (usually verbal) praise of a work of art (usually visual), often in poetry (my definition).
Works by Cézanne hang in a fancy room at the old/new/old home of the Courtauld Gallery. And there is a disconnect. Inappropriate and distracting, this beautiful, ornate room makes this Cezanne look a country cousin attending a posh tea in old trousers.
To place him here disrespects Cézanne. I suppose curators wish to give him a prominent spot, so they chose this room. But why? Why here?
Cézanne’s simple portrait of a man in a hat hangs way above a fancy mantelpiece, well above anyone’s eye-line: painterly, eloquent, plain-spoken and out of place.
But then there is another painting hanging closer to the window, and my eyes focus in on the lake with a castle, perhaps the Château de Chillon?
Turns out it's the Lac d’Annecy, but no matter.
The kind of blue you feel watching an ancient glacier lake feeling the unexpected roil and flow of your life. The water holds me as it moved on the oil canvas, carrying whole epochs in its liquid mass.
Didn’t matter where the painting was, I was elsewhere.
