The rhetoric of the arts

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During the Italian «Cinquecento» a theory of expression drawing on the precepts of classical rhetoric was developed which concerned not only the Sister Arts of poetry and painting, but also music and architecture. The purpose of this treatise is to identify, classify, and compare rhetorical devices used in verbal and nonverbal media at the main levels and sublevels of structure. Analyses of works by Marino, Poussin, and Monteverdi, while illustrating the use of such devices by Italian and French artists, propose a method for crossmedia investigations congruent with the cultural code of the period.