Art inscribes the profile of a sleeping old man, Time, on the wall.
In this second version, Pliny provides a richer and more concrete setting for the legendary birth of painting, one which allows the original act of painting to lose its anonymity. Hence, the observation of a man’s shadow and the tracing of its contour is integrated into the particularity of a painful moment in which a young woman must face her lover’s departure. Painting, in other words, is located here at the intersection of love and loss, of eros and thanatos. Interpreters of Pliny’s anecdote have underscored the connection between image, shadow and death which seems to call for an anthropologically oriented investigation.,,,young man, who in all probability is forever absent.” Pliny’s legend clearly bears the mark of ancient conceptions of the magic quality of images as well as of a specific metaphysics underlying rituals of the dead. But, in addressing the significance of Pliny’s fable, it is perhaps even more important to notice the immense impact which this primordial image has carried for the future history of reflection on painting.
Size: 1995px × 2500px
Photo credit: © André Durand / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ancient, art, books, butades, cast, corinth, corinthian, derby, drawing, greek, invention, joseph, kora, lamp, light, maid, myth, origin, painting, pliny, plinys, profile, shadow, sicyon, sun, time, trace, wright, xxxiv, xxxv
