A Brief History of the Artist from God to Picasso

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also by paul barolsky Michelangelo and the Finger of God The Faun in the Garden: Michelangelo and the Poetic Origins of Italian Renaissance Art Giotto’s Father and the Family of Vasari’s Lives Why Mona Lisa Smiles and Other Tales by Vasari Michelangelo’s Nose: A Myth and Its Maker Walter Pater’s Renaissance Daniele da Volterra: A Catalogue Raisonné Infinite Jest: Wit and Humor in Italian Renaissance Art Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barolsky, Paul, 1941– A brief history of the artist from God to Picasso / Paul Barolsky. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: ‘‘Explores art history and imaginative literature to show how fiction and history inform each other. Traces the modern idea of the artist to the epic tradition from Homer and Ovid to Dante, leading to Michelangelo. Examines how Vasari shaped Balzac’s idea of the artist, and Balzac influenced Picasso’s’’—Provided by publisher. isbn 978-0-271-03675-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Artists—History. 2. Art—Historiography. 3. Literature and history. I. Title. n8351.b37 2010 709—dc22 2009038199 Copyright 䉷 2010 The Pennsylvania State University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802-1003 It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ansi z39.48-1992. This book is printed on Nature’s Natural, which contains 50% post-consumer waste. For emma and hannah A good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a good thing; the more’s the pity. —herman melville, Moby-Dick ...