The functions of pictorial imagery in pre-raphaelite ballads through the example of A. C. Swinburne's ‘The king's daughter’

This article focuses on intermediality as one of the foundations of Pre-Raphaelitism. In their work, the Pre-Raphaelites practise both more complex and more applicative approach to intermedial interaction, seeing in the material and method of other arts the potential to enrich the poetic language. This was particularly evident in the framework of pictorial-poetic synthesis, which affected not only those Pre- Raphaelites who worked simultaneously as poets and painters but also those of them who were engaged in one kind of art. The first part of the article deals with the intermedial aspect of Pre-Raphaelitism, its theoretical foundations, historical and cultural context, and the specificity of the approach in comparison with previous periods. The particular focus is on painterliness and attention to detail as key qualities of Pre-Raphaelite poetics; these were mainly reflected in the principle of fidelity to detail that the Pre-Raphaelites embraced and also in the use of light and color in their poems. The next part of the article shows the innovative approach which involved the active use of material-oriented and visual imagery not only in static genres but also in narrative ones, such as the ballad. The third part illustrates how pictorial imagery was modeled in A. C. Swinburne’s ballad The King’s Daughter, and what functions it fulfilled. The result of the study is the conclusion that the pictorial mode of representation manifests itself in the Swinburne’s ballad despite the fact that the author himself was not an artist. It is manifested not only on the lexical but also on grammatical and syntactical levels. Such a model of a visual image transmission performs several important functions, participating both in the compositional organization of the work and in the plot development and character building.