Fool Me Once

HERE IS A paradoxical connection between realism and unreality that dates back to the beginnings of art. In his , the Roman historian Pliny the Elder described a contest between the 5thcentury B.C. artists Zeuxis and Parrhasius to determine who was the greater painter. Zeuxis did a still life of grapes so realistic that birds descended to peck at the painted fruit. Parrhasius, when he was finished with his painting, asked Zeuxis to pull aside the curtain that covered it. When he tried to do so, he discovered that the curtain was actually the painting itself. Parrhasius won, and Zeuxis conceded by saying, “Zeuxis has deceived the birds, but Parrhasius has deceived Zeuxis.”