A Brief History of the Artist from God to Picasso

Bibliographical Note

b i b l i og r a ph ic al no te As I hope I have made clear, my greatest debt is to the artful example of Peter Whiffle, especially to Whiffle’s sense of brevity. More than any other writer on art, he has shaped my thinking. For Whiffle’s thought and theory of art, I refer the reader to Carl Van Vechten’s engaging biography (1922). At the same time, however, I am, as in my previous work, also heavily indebted to the opinions of Tristram Shandy. The fact that his autobiography—one of the great autobiographies of an artist in the modern period—is a work of fiction is, as the reader should know by now, beside the point. I have also written this meditation under the spell of Italo Calvino (1970), especially his delicate treatment of the ideal of ‘‘lightness.’’ More specifically, my book is born of my love of two wonderful classics in the history of writing on the idea of the artist: the brief and beautiful book on the legends of the artists by Ernst Kurz and Otto Kris (1969) and the equally splendid book on the biographies of artists by Margot and Rudolf Wittkower (1969). Although I have been inspired by both of these works, I depart from them by focusing on the role of poetic fantasy and imagination in anecdotes about artists. The Faber book of anecdotes edited by Edward Lucie-Smith (1997) presents a rich array of entertaining anecdotes, including many that I have discussed. Countless other tales included in this anthology still cry out for interpretation . There are excellent recent works on the artist in the modern period by Hans Belting (2001) and Oskar Bätschmann (1997) to which the reader may also turn. The former presents an especially suggestive discussion of Balzac in relation to E. T. A. Hoffmann, to which my own account is closely related. My book overlaps the work of David Carrier (2003), and also of Catherine Soussloff (1997), among others who have written about art-historical narratives or the idea of the artist. A recent book on Bernini’s biographies edited by Maarten Delbeke, Evonne Levy, and Steven Ostrow (2006) should be consulted in any account of the modern biography of the artist. For an alternative view of biography in which the limitations of the genre are discussed, see the important work of George Kubler (1962). Despite his reservations, Kubler has very interesting things to say about biography, especially in his attention to the obsessions of artists. bibliographical note The chapter on God as an artist is very much indebted to Jack Miles ’s brilliant biography of God (1995). My thinking about art and literature is deeply informed by the classic essay on this subject by G. E. Lessing (1984). Similarly, the appreciation of the theme of art in Ovid owes a great deal to the excellent book by Joseph Solodow (1998). Readers will be aware that although I have written about the epic poet’s self-image, I have only spoken in passing about Virgil. Any discussion of Virgil and the artist will profit from the work of Brooks Otis (1964). My understanding of Dante’s construction of a literary history in which the poet himself occupies an important place depends on the very valuable commentary of John D. Sinclair on Dante’s Purgatorio (1975). Charles Singleton’s exegesis of Dante’s typological allegory (1977) enriches my understanding of Dante. Graham Smith has written an erudite and charming book on the modern legend of ‘‘the stone of Dante’’ (2000). For a discussion of Balzac’s ‘‘The Unknown Masterpiece,’’ see Dore Ashton’s still invaluable book on the subject (1980) and Arthur Danto’s fine essay on the story in Richard Howard’s recent translation (2001). I have relied heavily on John Richardson’s superb biography of Picasso (1991–2007). For the life and works of Douanier Rousseau, the reader may turn to R. H. Wilenski’s work (1940). My thinking about modern myths depends heavily on the work of Ian Watt (1996). Since this book is less an argument than a series of suggestions and an approach to the subject, I urge the reader to read or reread the novels and stories to which I refer in their entirety rather than search out particular quotations, which in isolation can often be misleading. Moreover, I am confident that in the history of literature countless examples sustain my...