The Lover is the Perfect Artist: Praxiteles and the Cnidian Aphrodite in Greek Ekphrastic Epigram
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Lucia Floridi
Abstract
In this paper I explore the possible connections between some of the poems on the Aphrodite of Cnidus in the Greek Anthology and the anecdotal tradition that flourished around Praxiteles and his creation. I show that in several epigrams the artist is constructed as a lover, and I argue that this has to do with the stories that circulated about Praxiteles and his mistress. If read in this light, these poems appear to exploit the theme of the lover as the perfect artist, most famously exemplified by the myth of Pygmalion. I then concentrate on the peculiar exploitation of the visual memory of their audience on the part of some of the authors who deal with this subject: not only do they not provide any description of the work of art, but they also evoke visual schemata that go beyond Praxiteles’ masterpiece. The paradoxical result is that while the epigrams are devoted to a specific work of art, the audience is invited to visualize different images of Aphrodite and to freely combine them to form their own mental portrait of the goddess. Like Praxiteles, the poets — and their audiences — can thus be lover-artists and create masterpieces.
Abstract
In this paper I explore the possible connections between some of the poems on the Aphrodite of Cnidus in the Greek Anthology and the anecdotal tradition that flourished around Praxiteles and his creation. I show that in several epigrams the artist is constructed as a lover, and I argue that this has to do with the stories that circulated about Praxiteles and his mistress. If read in this light, these poems appear to exploit the theme of the lover as the perfect artist, most famously exemplified by the myth of Pygmalion. I then concentrate on the peculiar exploitation of the visual memory of their audience on the part of some of the authors who deal with this subject: not only do they not provide any description of the work of art, but they also evoke visual schemata that go beyond Praxiteles’ masterpiece. The paradoxical result is that while the epigrams are devoted to a specific work of art, the audience is invited to visualize different images of Aphrodite and to freely combine them to form their own mental portrait of the goddess. Like Praxiteles, the poets — and their audiences — can thus be lover-artists and create masterpieces.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword V
- Contents VII
- List of Figures IX
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Ekphrasis and Hellenistic Poetics
- Poets’ Signatures and Ekphrasis in Inscribed Greek Epigrams 15
- Leonidas of Tarentum and Hellenistic Ekphrasis 45
- Pictures in Motion: Descriptive Performance in Hellenistic carmina figurata 69
- Aratus’ Ekphrastic Skies: Between the Dragon and the Stars Without Name 89
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Part II: Ekphrastic Visualization In and Out of the Mind
- The Lover is the Perfect Artist: Praxiteles and the Cnidian Aphrodite in Greek Ekphrastic Epigram 117
- Imagined Spaces, Imagined Buildings, and the Idea of Architectural Representation: Phantasia in the Wall Paintings of the 2nd Style in Rome and the Vesuvian Cities 141
- A Library of Memory in a Ptolemaic Reading Primer (P. Cairo J.E. 65445) 193
- Learning from Illusion: Myron’s Heifer and the Stoic Poetics of Ekphrasis 217
- Can You Feel It? Ekphrasis and Mind-Reading in Hellenistic Epigram 255
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Part III: Developments in Late Antique Ekphrasis
- Patchwork Voices: Poetics and Aesthetics of Ekphrasis in Ancient Greek Cento-Poetry 275
- Exegete or Ecstatic Visionary? On the Self-Fashioning of the Poet in the Ekphrasis tabulae mundi of John of Gaza 289
- Ekphrastic poikilia in Triphiodorus’ Sack of Troy: Towards a Late Antique Poetics of Similarity 313
- A Guided Tour through a Poetic Collection of Statues: Observations on Christodorus of Coptus’ Ekphrastic Practice 339
- List of Contributors 361
- Index Nominum
- Index Rerum
- Index Locorum
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Foreword V
- Contents VII
- List of Figures IX
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Ekphrasis and Hellenistic Poetics
- Poets’ Signatures and Ekphrasis in Inscribed Greek Epigrams 15
- Leonidas of Tarentum and Hellenistic Ekphrasis 45
- Pictures in Motion: Descriptive Performance in Hellenistic carmina figurata 69
- Aratus’ Ekphrastic Skies: Between the Dragon and the Stars Without Name 89
-
Part II: Ekphrastic Visualization In and Out of the Mind
- The Lover is the Perfect Artist: Praxiteles and the Cnidian Aphrodite in Greek Ekphrastic Epigram 117
- Imagined Spaces, Imagined Buildings, and the Idea of Architectural Representation: Phantasia in the Wall Paintings of the 2nd Style in Rome and the Vesuvian Cities 141
- A Library of Memory in a Ptolemaic Reading Primer (P. Cairo J.E. 65445) 193
- Learning from Illusion: Myron’s Heifer and the Stoic Poetics of Ekphrasis 217
- Can You Feel It? Ekphrasis and Mind-Reading in Hellenistic Epigram 255
-
Part III: Developments in Late Antique Ekphrasis
- Patchwork Voices: Poetics and Aesthetics of Ekphrasis in Ancient Greek Cento-Poetry 275
- Exegete or Ecstatic Visionary? On the Self-Fashioning of the Poet in the Ekphrasis tabulae mundi of John of Gaza 289
- Ekphrastic poikilia in Triphiodorus’ Sack of Troy: Towards a Late Antique Poetics of Similarity 313
- A Guided Tour through a Poetic Collection of Statues: Observations on Christodorus of Coptus’ Ekphrastic Practice 339
- List of Contributors 361
- Index Nominum
- Index Rerum
- Index Locorum
