Abstract：The theory of the heterogeneity of poetry and painting as expounded in Laocoon by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, has exerted a profound and lasting impact on the literary and artistic thought of later generations. However, the systematic research results of western visual representation before Laocoon are still rare. The four aspects, such as, the visual representation of “mimetic theory”, “mirror theory”, rationalism and empiricism clearly clarify the western theoretical origin of visual representation before Laocoon.The history of visual representation can be traced back to the ancient Greece. Before Plato, Socrates developed the idea that art imitates reality and idealizes it. Plato and Aristotle laid the foundation for the mode of western visual thinking. According to the visual representation view of “mimetic theory”, artists are the recreators of reality, both vision and text are imitations of the world in essence, and “representation” refers to both the act of imitation and the result of imitation. The mirror is often used as a metaphor in western literature to emphasize its verisimilitude. Plato used the mirror as a metaphor for the essence of imitation, which was often used by later theorists of literature and art, and until the 18th century some influential critics still explained the concept of imitation in terms of the essence of the mirror. The mirror theory is closely related to the imitation theory, which is actually a kind of visual representation. The two are basically used to explain the relationship between the work and the outside world, thinking that the work is a reflection of the outside world, just like a mirror, which is both objective and subjective. But the mirror theory ignores the author’s creative personality, the inherent requirements of the work and the influence of the artistic tradition.After the Renaissance, western visual representation developed in two directions, one being rationalism visual representation, and the other empiricism visual representation. Rationalism culture is a kind of text-oriented and visual culture which emphasizes “the representation of the soul”. The visual representation of empiricism takes perceptual experience as the starting point of visual representation, which gives empiricism philosophy a distinctively pictorial character. Natural philosophers have introduced the research methods of mechanical science into the field of psychological research, and one of the remarkable characteristics of these theories is picturization.Before Laocoon, the characteristics of western visual representation theory are mainly embodied in two aspects: the visual supremacy and the visual representation. The visual supremacy is established by the hierarchy of senses. Narrative and representation, as the basic categories of western poetic theory, are inseparable. The concept of visual representation remains a central theme from Platonism to neo-Platonism and then to contemporary anti-Platonism. An in-depth study of the theoretical foundation of the visual representation prior to Laocoon not only helps us to understand the academic historic origin of Lessing’s theory of the the heterogeneity of poetry and painting, but also provides significant insights into the critiques of the concept of visual representation in Western literary and artistic theory during the second half of the 20th century.
蔡熙. 《拉奥孔》之前西方文学研究的视觉维度[J]. 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版), 2025, 55(1): 136-147.
Cai Xi. On Visual Representation of Western Literature and Art Before Laocoon. JOURNAL OF ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY, 2025, 55(1): 136-147.
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2025, Vol. 55 
