A few days ago
matt b

The Devil’s Dictionary. Does anyone know?

I need help with this. In Ambrose Bierce’s cynical dictionary, he defined a painting as:

“The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather and exposing them to the critic.Formerly, painting and sculpture were combined in the same work: the ancients painted their statues. The only present alliance between the two arts is that the modern painter chisels his patrons.”

This is what my professor assigned; she said “To what group of paintings might Ambrose Bierce have been referring? Explain and substantiate your conclusion.”

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You

Top 1 Answers
A few days ago
Anonymous

Favorite Answer

What an odd question. Bierce wasn’t referring to any specific group of paintings – he was referring to paintings in general. The comment about the ancients painting their statues is quite true – both the Greeks and the Romans painted their statuary to give it a more lifelike appearance.

The only suggestion I can give you is to refer to your class notes. If there’s some specific group or style of painting to which your professor has alluded in class, that’s probably what she’s looking for. If it’s an art history class, you might check out whatever school of painting was prevalent when Bierce wrote, around about the end of the Nineteenth Century. That would be the style with which he was most familiar.

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