「圖釋」(ekphrasis)作為一種古老的修辭法可以說是西方詩畫關係最早的源頭。而十四行詩的出現讓圖文關係的研究變得更為具象、系統。自19世 紀以來，英國蓬勃發展的圖像十四行詩(picture sonnet)不再拘泥於義大利文藝復興時期的「圖釋」傳統——讚美女性及畫技，或與英國的細密畫(miniature，或稱袖珍畫)相配，成為貴族、情人間流轉互贈的信物，而是在內容和形式上展現出更多元的一面。尤其是維多利亞時期的羅塞蒂(Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828-1882)，他自畫自題的十四行詩極大地拓展了「圖釋」的功能屬性，營造出一種獨特的唯美、裝飾風格。

本文從圖像學體系中的「圖釋」概念出發，結合分類、統計、比較、文獻等方法，透過圖文實例較為充實的西方繪畫及其對應的19世紀英語十四行詩，來探討圖文關係以及兩者之間的轉換規律和特點。

研究發現，這些圖像十四行詩不僅保留了傳統「圖釋」的記敘功 能，還融入了解釋、評論、拓展和裝飾圖像的現代特徵。它們之間的 轉換條件除擁有瞬間性和紀念的屬性外，無論是畫轉詩還是詩轉畫， 描繪女性或「愛」的主題始終是核心元素。此外，畫面中的象徵、隱 喻等意象是激發詩意想像的關鍵。而對應詩歌中使用頻率最高的「眼 睛」、「光」等詞亦是典型的圖像特徵。

本文在研究對象、角度和方法上具有獨創性。圖像十四行詩作為 西方詩畫關係的一個縮影，迄今尚無完整專注於此類詩畫的研究。本 文透過詩畫文 本對比分析，首次系統地梳理出現代「圖釋」的七種功 能類型。此外，本文從圖像學視角出發，運用客觀數據來分析圖像與十四行詩之間的轉化規律，為未來圖文關係和當代「圖釋」研究提供 了新的思路和素材。

Ekphrasis, an ancient rhetorical device, may be regarded as the earliest source of the interrelations between poetry and painting in the West. Through a quasi-fictional verbal mode, it conjures vast and mutable “images” in the reader’s mind. The subsequent emergence of the sonnet during the Italian Renaissance made the study of word–image relations more systematic and concrete, and introduced linkages between the sonnet and painting. Therein the thematic content of poetry largely adhered to the ekphrastic conventions established by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and Francis Petrarch (1304-1374), emphasizing praise of women and celebrating painterly skill. During the Elizabethan period, portrait miniatures were at times paired with sonnets as tokens circulated and exchanged among nobles and lovers. Yet securely documented pairings that match particular poems to particular images are scarce, and very few corresponding paintings with sonnet matches survive to the present day. From the nineteenth century onward, however, British picture sonnets flourished and displayed much greater diversity in both content and form. Romantic poets composed numerous sonnets in response to paintings, with a special focus on portraiture and landscape. At the same time, poets began to attend to the sonnet’s visual and graphic properties—its look upon the page and its typographic presentation. In the Victorian era, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) emerged as a consummate practitioner of the picture sonnet. The sonnets he wrote to accompany his own paintings significantly broadened the functional scope of ekphrasis, generating a distinctive aesthetic and ornamental style.

Beginning from the concept of ekphrasis as understood within an iconological framework, this article combines methods of typological classification, statistical analysis, comparative study, and documentary research. Drawing on a corpus of Western paintings for which relatively substantial text–image documentation exists, together with their paired nineteenth-century English sonnets, the article investigates the dynamics of text–image relations and the governing principles and distinctive features of their mutual transformation.

The study finds that these picture sonnets not only retain the narrative and descriptive functions of traditional ekphrasis, but also integrate modern features that interpret, critique, expand upon, and ornament the visual image. Beyond the shared qualities of capturing a moment and serving a commemorative purpose, the depiction of women or “love” remains a central thematic element, whether the direction of transformation runs from painting to poem or from poem to painting. Furthermore, symbols, metaphors, and other figurative motifs embedded in the image are crucial triggers of poetic imagination. Correspondingly, in the sonnets that respond to these works, the most frequently occurring lexical items— terms such as “eyes” and “light”—index quintessential visual characteristics and become verbal correlates of pictorial features.

In terms of research design, this article is original in its objects, perspectives, and methods. The picture sonnet, as a microcosm of the broader relationship between Western poetry and painting, has not previously been the subject of a comprehensive and dedicated inquiry. Through systematic, side-by-side analysis of poetic texts and pictorial works, this study is the first to delineate and organize seven functional types of modern ekphrasis. Additionally, adopting an iconological perspective and drawing on objective data, the study analyzes recurrent patterns in the conversion between image and sonnet, mapping how visual elements are transposed into verbal structures (and vice versa) under identifiable aesthetic, affective, and commemorative conditions. In so doing, it offers new approaches, analytical tools, and source materials for future research on text–image relations and on contemporary ekphrasis. The findings refine our understanding of the nineteenth-century English sonnet’s engagement with visual art and provide an evidence-based account of the rules, constraints, and affordances that shape this enduring dialogue between word and image.