The Poetics of Ekphrasis in the ‘Pushkinian Text’ by B. K. Zaytsev

The article deals with the poetics of ekphrasis in B. K. Zaytsev’s ‘Pushkinian text’ (eight essays on Pushkin, 1925–1962). The ecphrastic codes and their functions in Zaytsev’s essay on Pushkin are analyzed: architectural (architecture of the Italian Renaissance, French neoclassicism, French Gothic); sculptural (monument by A. M. Opekushin); pictorial ecphrasis (iconography by A. Rublev, “Vatican Stanzas” by Raphael); musical ecphrasis (Bach, Mozart). The monument by the sculptor Opekushin becomes for Zaytsev a landmark image of the Celebrations of 1880 and a living link with them in the twentieth century. This monument is an eternal image above time, above the tragic whirlpools of Russian history, its witness and ontological accomplice of living life. Zaytsev ontologizes sculptural ecphrasis, blurring the boundaries between life and art and ontologically “resurrecting” Pushkin. Zaytsev’s understanding of Pushkin as a whole is characterized by Raphael’s “reading” of the poet as a Renaissance and harmonious creator who synthesized antiquity and Christianity in his work. The ecphrastic codes in Zaytsev’s ‘Pushkinian text’ visualize and reveal Pushkin’s “image” and the cultural and spiritual tradition behind it: Dostoevsky’s tradition in Pushkin’s understanding (“universal responsiveness”), which Zaytsev continues; Zaytsev’s own understanding (Pushkin as a harmonious Renaissance genius freely combining different cultures); the writer’s dialogue with the contemporary religious and philosophical thought of Russian emigration (N. A. Berdyaev, G. P. Fedotov). The result of Zaytsev’s ecphrastic strategies in the ‘Pushkinian text’ is the ontologization of Pushkin’s image, which makes him closer to the modern reader.