Competition is an ancient topos in the history of art. In one of the earliest stories we know of, two artists vied to see who could produce a painting that most effectively embodied a certain quality. One decisively trumped the other. Who were these artists, and what did they paint?

TabbyTom

This is probably the story of Zeuxis and Parrhasius, Greek painters of the 5th century BC. The competition was to decide who could produce the most realistic painting. Zeuxis painted a bunch of grapes that looked so natural that birds flew down to peck at them when the painting was unveiled. He then asked Parrhasius to draw back the curtain on his picture, only to find that what looked like a curtain *was* a picture. So Parrhasius won: he had deceived an artist, not just a flock of birds. I seem to remember that Zeuxis is said to have laughed himself to death, but that must have been on another occasion. May 31 05, 6:40 PM

lanfranco

Quite fine, TT, though the dating ranges from the 5th to the 4th century, depending on the source. I'm gathering material for a book on the competition topos, so I thought I'd try it out here, just for fun. Yay! Zeuxis supposedly laughed himself to death over a particularly amusing portrait of an elderly woman. May 31 05, 7:13 PM

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Competition is an ancient topos in the history of art. In one of the earliest stories we know of, two artists vied to see who could produce a painting that most effectively embodied a certain quality. One decisively trumped the other. Who were these artists, and what did they paint? It is said that in the 18th century, two well-known artists engaged in a dispute over whether it was possible to produce a successful painting that employed a certain color as its dominant chromatic theme. One of the painters set out to prove that it was, and the result hangs in an American museum. Who were the artists, what is the painting, and can you provide an illustration of it? Though it was a mere blip on the artistic landscape until the middle of the last century, this painting is, today, regarded as a cultural icon in its country of origin. Depicting a certain gentleman engaged in a enjoyable sport, it was long thought to have been painted by one of the most famed artists of the country in question. Recently, that attribution has been doubted. What is it, who are the two artists associated with it, and can you provide an illustration? What type of paint was used by most European artists before the introduction of oil paint? Commissioned for a chapel in a district of Rome, this painting shocked certain viewers owing to its seeming lack of decorum and was rejected. Artists, however, admired it, and one soon-to-be very famous painter recommended that one of his own patrons should buy it. It eventually ended up in a royal court and then in one of the world's great museums. What is it, who painted it, and who arranged for that first purchase?

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