Nello specchio della traduzione: l’ecfrasi longhiana alla prova della lingua francese

Lots of studies have already underlined the richness and complexity of Roberto Longhi’s language and the literary dimension typical of his writings, in which the author stands out for having continuously experimented with the challenge of intersemiotic translation. However, the attention given to this peculiarity has not so far led to any contribution on the problem of the translation of these texts. The purpose of this essay is to investigate this issue, by focusing on Roberto Longhi's reception in France, by presenting thus a close reading of some translation examples of his texts in French, among which especially the paradigmatic case of "Proposte per una critica d’arte" translated by André Chastel and published in 1960. An early version of this essay, with several variations, was published in the Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana (2019). André Chastel is undoubtedly one of the protagonists in the field of translation in art history between 1950 and 1990 in France. This activity of translator to which he devoted a lot of effort and passion remains nevertheless one of the most neglected facets of his work. He considered Roberto Longhi as "the genius of ekphrasis", writing also: "Il s'est rendu célèbre par des pages admirables d'une très haute tenue littéraire, impossibles à traduire". Therefore, the linguistic and terminological difficulties encountered by the translator will be commented on in this paper, stressing the interpretation level of the author's thought, and thereby the essential role of translation in the methodological reflections during this particularly important period in the international evolution of the discipline.