On Eels and Angels: Amelia Rosselli and Francesca Woodman between Devotion and Deconstruction of the Traditional Topoi

By bringing into dialogue the poet Amelia Rosselli and the artist Francesca Woodman, this article will focus on how an intermedial and comparative methodological framework can bring a better understanding of both poetic texts and visual arts. We will reflect on the conflict between devotion and defection of a given media tradition (photography on the one hand, poetry on the other) by analyzing some figures shared by Woodman and Rosselli: the visiting angel and the eel. Such a comparison will allow us to ask ourselves whether the two artists’ texts and photographs are as “feminine” as they appear at first sight, as well as to consider the formal procedures through which they achieved or voluntarily failed in the construction of a fixed identity.