1. Antiquity and Middle Ages. The image of the
individualist artist is tied to the elevation of practi-
tioners from the rank of mere craftsmen to the level
of emancipated creators. Such a change has come about
twice in the history of Western art: in fourth-century
Greece and again in fifteenth-century Italy. A process
of individualization began even earlier in Greece.
Pliny, our main source for Greek artists, reports that
the mid-sixth-century B.C. architect and sculptor,
Theodoros of Samos, cast a bronze self-portrait “famed
as a wondrous likeness” (Pliny, xxxiv, 83; Sellers, 1896).
And the fifth century B.C., the classical period of Greek
art, saw the rise of a diversified literature by artists
on art (Overbeck, 1868; Sellers, 1896; Kalkmann, 1898).
Apelles' teacher, Pamphilos (ca. 390-340 B.C.), was the
first painter who could boast an all-round education
and a special knowledge in arithmetic and geometry
(Pliny, xxxv, 76), and we have it on good authority that
artists during this period wanted to appear as gentle-
men in dress and mien: Zeuxis is reported to have
amassed great wealth and to have displayed his name
woven in golden letters into the embroideries of his
garments, and his rival, Parrhasios, who lived in luxury,
indulged in similar extravagances (Pliny, xxxv, 62, 71).
But despite the highly developed self-esteem of artists,
public recognition was lacking.
The Greeks felt contempt for those who had to toil
with their hands for money; they hardly ranked them
higher than slaves. It was the skill of the craftsman
that was valued (Poeschel, 1925; Schweitzer, 1925;
Zilsel, 1926), and artists, therefore, were mentioned in
the company of barbers, cooks, and blacksmiths.
Moreover, both Plato and Aristotle assigned to the
visual arts a place much below music and poetry.
Plato's doctrine of divine enthusiasm had room for
poets and musicians but not for artists. Nevertheless,
in the fourth century B.C., i.e., in Aristotle's days, the
public's attitude began to change.
Characteristically, at the end of the fourth century
the historian Duris of Samos wrote a book on the Lives
of Painters and Sculptors and this work, of which only
a few fragments have survived, inaugurated the bio-
graphical literature on artists, implying an interest in
artists' personalities and individual idiosyncrasies.
There are many other indications to show that the
respect for the individual creator superseded that for
the anonymous craftsman. The Stoics as well as such
authors as Philostratus (ca. A.D. 170-245) and Pausanias
(late second century A.D.) acknowledged that, just like
poets, painters experienced inspiration and ecstasy
(Schweitzer, 1925). Masterpieces now found eager bid-
ders; an interest in art and involvement in art criticism
became a status symbol. It is credibly reported that
Alexander the Great and his court painter Apelles were
tied by bonds of friendship (Pliny, xxxv, 85). Later, such
Roman emperors as Nero, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurel-
ius regarded painting and sculpting as a suitable pas-
time for themselves. In spite of all this, the old philo-
sophical and social traditions never ceased to assert
themselves; we find them reflected as late as the first
century A.D. in Plutarch's well known dictum “We
enjoy the work and despise the maker” (Pericles i, 4, 5;
Dresdner, 1915); or even a hundred years later in
Lucian's assessment that by becoming a sculptor “you
will be nothing but a labourer... one of the swarming
rabble... whatever your achievement you would be
considered an artisan, a craftsman, one who lives by
the work of his hands” (Somnium, 9).
With the decline and fall of Rome the modest
“breakthrough” of the artist was soon forgotten and
for many centuries he was once again reduced to the
status of artisan and craftsman. This is certainly true,
although we now know that the Victorian image of
the medieval craftsman, content to be an anonymous
member of his lodge and devoted to his work for the
glory of God alone, is a myth unsupported by historical
facts. Many names of medieval artists have come down
to us and even at the darkest period there were masters
of distinct individuality such as S. Eligius, who died
as Bishop of Noyon in 658; before having taken the
vows he had won fame as an artist of remarkable
accomplishments. It is recorded that he was a passion-
ate reader, that he loved precious jewelry and gorgeous
gowns, that he kept servants, and was surrounded by
devoted pupils (Schlosser, 1891). From the eleventh
century onward the names of artists abound and, judg-
ing from some of their self-laudatory inscriptions—such
as those of Rainaldus, one of the architects of Pisa
Cathedral (after 1063), or of Lanfrancus, at Modena
Cathedral (1099)—we may safely assume that they had
a high opinion of their own merits and achievements
(Jahn, 1965). Epithets such as
doctus, expertus, probus,
sapiens, prudens, praestans, and
artificiosus, frequently
found in early documents and inscriptions should,
however, not be too highly valued as individual char-
acterizations but should, rather, be regarded as refer-
ring to the expert handling of execution. While some
medieval masters rose to positions of trust and distinc-
tion, while some architects in particular attained social
advancement and high honors, the rank and file of
artists were, in the words of Bishop Otto von Freising
(d. 1158), not admitted to higher positions and were
kept away “like the plague... from more honorable
and liberal studies” (Booz, 1956).
When from the thirteenth century onward the urban
working population of western Europe became in-
creasingly organized in guilds, artists could not easily
assert their individuality; in the fourteenth century and
even in the fifteenth the guilds tended to control the
whole man, from the education of apprentices to the
exercise of jurisdiction. Nor did they omit to look after
the physical and moral conduct of their members. Thus
there are good grounds to argue that the guilds had
an equalizing influence, for artists were de jure and
de facto craftsmen with a well-regulated training and
a well-regulated daily routine. On the other hand, it
cannot be denied that the city breeds individualism,
and it is against the very background of the guild-
controlled craftsman that the personality problems of
Renaissance artists appear revolutionary and emphat-
ically real. It would seem that Jacob Burckhardt's
famous thesis of the liberation of the individual in the
age of the Renaissance remains valid, especially in the
field of the visual arts, although Burckhardt excluded
this aspect from his Civilization of the Renaissance
(1860).
