Classical tradition in medieval literature: the painted heroes

Abstract

Western culture, since medieval times, has never ceased to relate to classical tradition through multiple forms of recovery such as quotations, allusions, imitations, and rewriting. However, the present study intends to focus on the memory of the heroes of Antiquity through the ekphrastic mechanism, as found in some chivalry romances. The use of this rhetorical figure, as well as its relationship with the visual culture of the Middle Ages and the 16th century, will be the subject of this article.