Myths, History, and Art : Twelve Essays on Art as Deception.

Intro -- Myths, History, and Art -- About the Author -- Copyright Information © -- Acknowledgment -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 -- Disguising Cruelty as a Political Message -- i. Marat: The Real-Life Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde -- ii. The Last Portrait: An Example of Art as Power -- 2 -- Portraying an Inwardly Flawed Artist as a Pious Man -- i. Bernini's Character: The Shadows Behind the Light -- ii. The Rapture of Saint Teresa -- 3 -- Portraying the Queen of France as a Woman of the People -- i. A Calm, Kind Woman with a Strong Sense of Mission -- ii. The Painting of 1787 of the Queen with Her Children -- 4 -- Accentuating Beauty to Hide Foul Character -- i. The Leighton Beauty and Its Antecedents -- ii. Erotic Versus Attractive Feminine Beauty and the Element of Deception -- 5 -- Deceiving the Eye by Exploiting the Rules of Perspective: An Artistic Miracle -- 6 -- Who Is Good and Who Is Bad? -- i. The 3rd of May 1808 -- ii. An Earlier but Crude Forerunner -- 7 -- Projecting a Brutal God as a Romantic Figure -- i. The Uncertainties of a Great Work of Art -- Where Did Dionysus Come From? -- Who Were His Parents? -- The God's Sexuality -- A Modern Simplification of the Myth: Does It Beautify or Deceive Us? -- 8 -- Depicting or Promoting Illicit Sex? -- 9 -- Unrequited Love: Literature's First Recorded Instance -- i. Unrequited Love: An Unexplored Theme in Ancient Greek Literature -- ii. Homer Properly Read -- iii. Homer Misrepresented by Art -- 10 -- Art Softening Cruel Greek Myths: An Essay in Imagination -- i. Preliminary Observations on Two Interrelated Canvases -- ii. The Principal Painting -- iii. The Painting Which Was Never Delivered to the King Revives the Actaeon Controversy -- 11 -- A Poet's and an Artist's View on Loneliness -- i. Life of an Unusual Artist -- Trying to Do Good and Forced by Nature to Do Harm.

ii. Postscript. Serov and Vrubel: A Sketch of Two Friends in Parallel -- 12 -- State Defined Deception: A New Dogma for the Arts -- i. Preliminary Thoughts on the Russian Approach -- ii. Another Form of Evil -- iii. Soviet Literature from the Early 1930s Onwards -- iv. The way pressure was applied -- v. The Uncompromising Writers -- vi. Pictorial Art Under the Influence of Soviet Realism -- vii. Graphic Art in Posters -- Example One -- Example Two -- Example Three -- Example Four -- viii. An Attempt to End with an Objective Postscript -- Concluding Thoughts -- i. Character, Character and Only Character -- ii. Is the Deception Obvious of Itself or Does It Need Supporting Facts? -- iii. The Motives Behind the Deception -- iv. Signs that the Soviet Desire to Control Thought May Be Reappearing in Muted Forms in the West -- Epilogue -- Character Shadows, Flaws and Deviations -- Letting the Mind Wander Beyond What It Has Seen and Read Thus Far -- Preferences -- Appendix on Some Portraits of Anna Akhmatova Related to Ideas Expressed in the Text About Her Life, Looks and Temperament -- Books and Articles Quoted in This Book.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.