Nikolai Gumilev’s Italian poems: The quest for image

This article analyzes the Italian poems of Nikolai Gumilev, with particular regard to the use of ekphrasis and ekphrastic vision. The poetic cycle in question marks a pivotal stage in author’s artistic path, relating to the foundation of Acmeism – a short-lived, yet influential, phenomenon within Russian Modernism. The analysis shows how programmatic quest for spatial and visual poetry grounded in literary tradition relates to the phenomenon of Italian literary travel.