'With many a floryn he the hewes boghte': Ekphrasis and Symbolic Violence in the Knight's Tale

Description: Chaucer employs ekphrasis ("verbal representation of a visual representation") in the temples in KnT to comment on the social contexts and cultural production of art. The paintings and sculptures aesthetically justify Theseus's own authority, but their negativity indicates a power grounded in violence. The phrase "many a floryn" calls attention to the patron's ability to afford expensive pigment and to the artist's complicity in glorifying that wealth and concomitant power.