According to a certain travel writer, a courtesan, having convinced a famous artist to give her his most beautiful work, asked him to tell her which work it was. When he refused to say, she devised a trick. Who were the courtesan and the artist, and what was the trick? And who, by the way, was the travel writer?

TabbyTom

The artist was Praxiteles and the courtesan was his mistress Phryne. The trick was to tell him that his studio was on fire, which made him exclaim something like “I hope my Satyr and Eros aren’t destroyed!” The travel writer was Pausanias. http://www.grecoreport.com/Hetairai.htm The statue of Eros, which Phryne chose, is supposed to have found its way eventually to Rome and to have been destroyed in the great fire in Nero’s reign. There’s a picture of Praxiteles presenting his Erios to Phryne by Angelica Kauffmann in the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design: http://www.risd.edu/museum_paint_collect4.cfm?Choice=Paint%&Choice2=Museum Jul 29 05, 8:48 AM

lanfranco

Ah ha! Yay, TT, I was getting worried about this one. Care to take a stab at #58364? Jul 29 05, 9:01 AM

princess9

Just my luck...I had this question figured out and TabbyTom beat me to it! Jul 29 05, 6:26 PM

lanfranco

Not to worry, princess. I've got plenty more where that came from. Jul 29 05, 8:52 PM

TabbyTom

I've now had a stab at #56384, thanks to some info from a couple of obscure websites. I don't remember hearing about the find at the time. Jul 30 05, 9:22 AM