ABSTRACT
This chapter examines various critical points related to the particular type of ekphrasis called “notional ekphrasis” (J. Hollander) as exemplified in several cases in point. The study of this type of description of an imagined work of art as a boundary case may trigger a reflection about writing for/about art (see Stephen Cheeke) and art history. The chapter concludes with a proposed definition of the Pictorial Third (see Louvel’s The Pictorial Third) as “reading event” (Louis Marin) and mode of conceiving the image as a phenomenon hovering in-between the materiality of the book and the reader’s own mind. “Notional ekphrasis” is the perfect instance of an invented representation and its hazy textual actualization perfectly suited to the dematerialized digital medium as well.
