Personality and Work of the Artist

Abstract

Reading Pliny one gets the impression that in classical antiquity, at least with the cultured Romans, the personality and work of a number of famous artists from the (especially Greek) past is known in broad outline. In his Books XXXIV and XXXV he has recorded as much as possible about this; he gives first-, second- or thirdhand enumerations of artists, he relates anecdotal or historical particulars from their lives, some characteristics of their works or methods and he often enumerates a number of their works. Such an approach, aimed at the personality of the artist is rare in medieval texts. The evaluations of artists found in medieval texts, are, to our mind, too generally laudatory without being critical; they do not aim at drawing the attention to those characteristics in their works which distinguish them from other works. Very often the same stereotype, laudatory phrases are applied to artists or works quite different to our opinion.