A Brief History of the Artist from God to Picasso / / Paul Barolsky.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
• VerfasserIn: Barolsky, Paul,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2015]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (168 p.)

In A Brief History of the Artist from God to Picasso, Paul Barolsky explores the ways in which fiction shapes history and history informs fiction. It is a playful book about artistic obsession, about art history as both tragedy and farce, and about the heroic and the mock-heroic. The book demonstrates that the modern idea of the artist has deep roots in the image of the epic poet, from Homer to Ovid to Dante. Barolsky’s major claim is that the history of the artist is inseparable from historical fiction about the artist and that fiction is essential to the reality of the artist’s imagination.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- One. The Art of God from the Beginning of the World till the End of Time -- Two. Homer, Hephaistos, and the Poetic Origins of Art History -- Three. Ovid’s Protean Epic and Artistic Personae -- Four. Dante and the Modern Cult of the Artist -- Five. Vasari and the Quixotic Painter -- Six. Leonardo, Vasari, and the Historical Imagination -- Seven. Vasari and the Autobiography of Michelangelo -- Eight. Balzac and the Fable of Failure in Modern Art -- Nine. Myths and Mysteries of Modern Art -- Ten. Toward a Mock-Heroic History of Art -- Eleven. The Metamorphoses of Picasso -- Coda -- Bibliographical note -- Selected Bibliography -- Index