The contest of Zeuxis and Parrhasius
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Zeuxis and his contemporary Parrhasius were two ancient Greek painters reported in the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder to have staged a contest to determine which of the two was the greater artist.
Pliny described Parrhasius's contest with Zeuxis: Zeuxis painted some grapes so perfectly luscious and inviting that a flock of birds few down to eat them but, instead, only pecked at their picture. Zeuxis had fooled the birds with his picture.
Parrhasius and Zeuxis walked to Parrhasius's studio where upon Parrhasius asked Zeuxis to draw aside the curtain and witness his own masterpiece. When Zeuxis attempted to do so, he realized that the curtain was not a curtain, but a painting of a curtain. Zeuxis conceded defeat, for while Zeuxis had deceived the birds, Parrhasius had deceived Zeuxis, saying
- 'I have deceived the birds, but Parrhasius has deceived Zeuxis.'
In a 1964 seminar, the psychoanalyst and theorist Jacques Lacan observed that the myth of the two painters reveals an interesting aspect of human cognition. While animals are attracted to superficial appearances, humans are enticed by the idea of that which is hidden.
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