The paper analyses the ekphrastic poetry of the art historian Vojeslav Molè (1886–1973), who shaped Slovene art history and was in his youth a poet and essayist. Before he emigrated to Poland in 1926, Molè published two poetry collections, a few essays related to art history and some poems.. Formally, Molè’s poetry was marked by his interests in Antiquity and Symbolism, and his major themes were love, women, and, later in his career, an idealistic longing for youth. While in Rome he was fascinated by Tizian paintings Sacred and Profane Love, as well as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Rafael’s Apollo and Marsyas, published in 1910 in his first book When Flowers Bloomed. During his stay in Rome he also wrote the essay Art and Nature, in which he discussed the relationships among visual art, literature and nature. Poems like Giorgione and Byzantine Madonna make reference to Venice and the monuments he visited during his travels. In terms of ekphrasis, Molè applies a classical approach to underline the beauty and importance of the focal artistic works. His ekphrastic perspective is rather similar to that of romantic poetry. During WW I Molè was captured as a prisoner and sent to Siberia, where he wrote the poems that were eventually collected in Tristia ex Siberia, published in 1920. Despite the fact that Molè was fascinated by Rilke’s poetry, which played important role in his artistic development, it is not possible to know whether he was influenced by that author’s most famous ekphrastic poem, Archaic Torso of Apollo. Overall, most of Molè’s ekphrastic poetry refers to much earlier works of art, with only a few exceptions. One of these is the poem The Sower, that could have been inspired by The Sower, an oil on canvas that was painted by Molè’s contemporary, the Slovene Impressionist Ivan Grohar.Članek se ukvarja z ekfrastično poezijo enega od utemeljiteljev slovenske umetnostnozgodovinske stroke Vojeslava Moleta, ki je bil v mladosti znan kot pesnik in esejist. Preden je leta 1926 emigriral na Poljsko in začel z uspešno znanstveno kariero na krakovski Jagelonski univerzi, je izdal dve pesniški zbirki ter v revijah objavil posamezne pesmi in eseje. Njegova poetika je po formalni plati zavezana antiki in simbolizmu, glavni temi sta ljubezen in ženska, kasneje se jima pridruži še hrepenenje po mladosti. Pesnik, ki se je izobraževal v Trstu, Novem mestu, Krakovu, Rimu in na Dunaju, je napisal precej ekfrastičnih besedil. V italijanski prestolnici so ga prevzele Tizianova alegorija Sveta in profana ljubezen, Leonardova Mona Lisa ter Rafaelova freska Apolon in Marsija, ki se pojavijo že v naslovih ekfrastičnih pesmi prve zbirke Ko so cvele rože iz leta 1910. Tudi esej Umetnost in narava, v katerem razpravlja o razmerju med likovno umetnostjo, literaturo in naravo, je nastal v Rimu. Pesmi Giorgione in Bizantinska madona se nanašata na pesnikov obisk Benetk v času potovanja po Italiji. Moletov ekfrastični pristop je klasičen v smislu poveličevanja lepote in pomena umetniškega dela, kar ga približuje romantični poeziji. V pesmi V oglejskem muzeju je perspektiva kompleksnejša, saj se pesniški subjekt bolj odziva na sedanjost in obenem pripoveduje zgodbo o detomorilki iz časa hunskih vpadov. Zbirka Tristia ex Siberia, ki je izšla leta 1920, je nastajala v znamenju prve svetovne vojne, ko je bil pesnik v ujetništvu v Sibiriji. Pesmi Hegezo in Milonska Venera, napisani v že Grkom znanem in med pesniki kasnejših dob priljubljenem načinu »prosopopoeia«, lahko razumemo kot posledico doživljanja tesnobe in strahu v izgnanstvu. Antična relief in kip sta medij za izražanje pesnikove zapuščenosti v brezsmiselnem svetu ter hrepenenja po ljubezni, ženi in domovini. Čeprav je Rilke v Moletovem pesniškem razvoju odigral pomembno vlogo, ni mogoče z gotovostjo trditi, da je nanj vplivala Rilkejeva najznamenitejša ekfrastična pesem Apolonov arhajski torzo. Ob Moletovem osredotočanju na daljno preteklost in izogibanju sočasni umetniški produkciji je pesem Sejavec izjema. Vprašanje, ali jo je navdihnila znamenita slika Sejalec impresionista Ivana Groharja, ostaja odprto
