“A fuga para o Egipto” (the escape to Egypt): colour pulsation and meaning in a (neo)baroque concert

Abstract

The present article consists of an intersemiotic analysis of Mário Cláudio’s novella A fuga para o Egipto. This analysis is based on the following assumptions: 1) The writer has transformed Giambattista Tiepolo’s painting The flight into Egypt into words through the implementation of ekphrasis, which reproduces the chiaroscuro technique, the proportions, the geometry and the baroque themes which were used by the Venetian artist in his painting. 2) The novella establishes an analogy between itself and baroque music through the transformation of the aforementioned painting into a theme and by enabling each of its characters, who speak in monologues, to have a voice. This has conferred the “flight” a new musical art. 3) The metamorphosis of the painting into a text appears as a result of an observation of the human saga and the evolution of craftsmanship into art in a sensible and theoretical manner.