A Comparison of Poems and Paintings

     Leonardo da Vinci argued that painting was the most supreme of the arts, going after poetry in particular: "if you, o poet, tell a story with your pen, the painter with his brush can tell it more easily, with simpler completeness, and less tedious to follow."  Points taken, brush-slinger.  There are advantages to painting that would seemingly make it superior.  But as we all know, taste is in the eye of the beholder.  There are things a poem can do that a painting cannot.  A poem can lead the reader's thoughts to places a painting cannot, which are sometimes places that cannot be physically represented.  Poetry is more flexible in that it can incorporate events, ideas, and relationships more fluidly, so that the reader can relate with it on a more personal level.  Rather than looking at a rigid scene, which can't be changed mentally or physically, the imagination creates a narrative in poetry, allowing it to freely create its own image(s) in the mind.  That is why a poem can evoke more complex emotions and stories than a painting can.  With a painting, you similarly have to put pieces together (if there is a narrative) in the image, so I don't really see it as simpler and less tedious to interpret.  Abstract expressionists and cubists were just as obtuse as the most difficult poets are.  Of course, these more modern painting styles did not exist in Da Vinci's time, but poetry had been around for centuries and had an incongruous evolution with painting.  He might see it differently in today's world.

    Another thing a painting can do is tell a more personal version of a story.  A painting's rigidity means it can only be seen from the artist's viewpoint.  With a poem, so many viewpoints are possible that it adds an extra dimension to interpretation; a completely mental one that only exists in the minds of each specific reader.  So when we see a painting and read a poem that both express the same story, the poem will allow the mind to conjure a more appropriate image that is relatable, while the painting is restricted to the context the artist has shown.  The advantage of the painting on this point is that it can open our minds to imagery we aren't familiar with.