Description
Book Synopsis The 4th century BC Greek painter Parrhasius murdered his model--an old man who was his slave--to achieve, so the story goes, a more lifelike depiction of nature. The tale has inspired similar, more elaborate stories about both well known and obscure artists--including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rubens. Elements of the tale have appeared in theater, literature and film, as well as in comments by painters, historians, critics and anatomists. Challenging the archetype of the artist as a sympathetic lover of nature, this book examines the artist as cruel and murderous in service of art and ambition, and indirectly addresses a different understanding of the relationship between art and life.
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments viii
- Preface
- 1. Introduction: The Artist as Murderer
- 2. The Image of Parrhasius
- 3. Parrhasius and the Olynthian Slave
- 4. The Afterlife of Seneca's Tale
- 5. Tormented Models
- 6. Michelangelo Murders a Model
- 7. Carpenter's Tale
- 8. The Tale Retold
- 9. Variations on the Tale
- 10. Professional Opinions
- 11. A Turkish Spy on Giotto
- 12. A Legend of a Sculptor
- 13. Parrhasius in Love
- 14. The Return of Parrhasius
- 15. "The Man in Purple"
- 16. Socrates and Parrhasius
- 17. The Return of Michelangelo
- 18. Criminal Artists
- 19. Death and Detachment
- 20. Afterword: Art and Life
- Appendix A: Giovanni Paolo Marana, "A Turkish Spy on Giotto"
- Appendix B: Adelbert von Chamisso, "The Crucifix: An Artist's Legend"
- Appendix C: Nathaniel Parker Willis, "Parrhasius"
- Appendix D: Espy W.H. Williams, "Parrhasius; or, Thriftless Ambition"
- Appendix E: Pierre Louÿs, "The Man in Purple"
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
