Traditionally, the category of ekphrasis is used on texts that describe how an object takes over a scene, either in prose or poetry. As literary exercise, it crosses the boundaries between description and narration, showing the difference between the two as convention. As an aesthetic category, it marks the entrance of the visual into the literary institution. It signals the passing of visual representations and their characteristics and the verbal representation and its all-consuming nature. In this brief article we propose that ekphrasis is key to the inclusion of Walter Benjamin within visual studies.