Functions of the works of visual arts in O.Wilde's play "An ideal husband": in context of the problem of ekphrasis

The article is aimed at the analysis of functions of the works of visual arts in the ekphrastic portraits in O.Wilde's play "An Ideal Husband". Different approaches to ekphrasis and picturesqueness in O.Wilde's works in the contemporary literary criticism are considered. It is concluded that the works of sculpture and painting (as well as their absence) help Wilde to create the picturesque portraits of characters, to hint at the main idea of the play and express the esthetic position. The author associates an ideal of beauty with the Greek antiquity, meanwhile he ironically contrasts Watteau and Boucher's mythological characters with Van Dyck and Thomas Lawrence's gala portraits.