Ecfrasi comes from the Ancient Greek ἔκφρασις (ékphrasis, description), a rhetorical device to describe a work of art in words.
In his short story La traduzione (I volatili del Beato Angelico, Sellerio, 1987), Italian writer Antonio Tabucchi says that translating is like an ékphrasis: the translator sees the message in one language and describes it in another.
Communicating science is an ékphrasis too. We see the science and describe it to others. Science is, like art, a human manufact.