Food for Thought: The Fruit Still Life in Góngora’s Polifemo

This article considers the reflection of Horace’s pronouncement of ut pictura poesis [as is painting so is poetry] in Luis de Góngora’s Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (1612), paying particular attention to the portrayal of the Cyclops’ fruit bag (stanzas X and XI) in light of frame theory, art theory about the still life, and Gracián’s scheme of wit. The main thesis is that this ekphrasis or poetic description fulfils the Baroque ideal of multum in parvo (less is more) because it (i) reinforces the poem’s internal consistency by echoing key characters and ideas (structural function) and by anticipating the ending (proleptic function); and (ii) symbolically reflects the polarity between a ludic understanding of literature that aims at surprising and amusing readers by celebrating the abundance of nature, and a development of more existential concerns summarized in the word ‘disillusionment’, or desengaño.