Lessing’s Laocoon: Painting vs. Poetry

Abstract

According to Lessing, painting and poetry are both mimetic but are distinct neighboring arts in terms of their media. Painting is a spatial art; it exists in space because its medium is spatial signs. These signs, the forms in a painting, correspond to bodies that exist in space. In contrast, poetry is a temporal art because its medium is temporal signs. These signs, words composed of articulated sounds in a poetic work, correspond to actions that unfold in time. The pictorial signs, placed next to each other on the pictorial surface, are suited to depicting bodies that exist alongside each other in space. The poetic signs, however, which follow one another in a poetic work, are suited to depicting actions that unfold in time. Since painting cannot depict bodies apart from action and poetry cannot depict actions without bodies, both must at times abandon their appropriate relationship and cross each other’s boundaries. The discussion considers both their crossing of boundaries, in which they nevertheless remain within the limits of their media (Homer, Raphael), as well as transgressions that result in poetry becoming confined to the domain of painting (Haller) and painting to the domain of poetry (Kavčič).