Zeuxis and Parrhasius
example · classical/Greek ·
retold in 6 talks
Two painters compete; one paints grapes so real birds peck them; the other paints a curtain. The second wins because he organizes the surface to generate the appearance of something behind it.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 6
“the true illusion is not what is behind the curtain the true illusion is to organize the surface in such a way that it generates the appearance that there is something behind the curtain”
“He painted a veil... unveil it so that I see what is behind.”
“appearance always creates a supposed in itself what is behind the appearance. Each and so the true fight against ideology is not just destroy the appearance”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 3 jobsuses
trompe l'oeil
×1
spectral power of appearance
×1
subject as appearance without anything behind it
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Italo Calvino2Julian Jaynes2Anthoni Schoonjans2Zeuxis2Marlon Brando2Jim Carrey2George Balanchine2Bernard Williams2
alongside works
Every retelling 6
Two painters compete; one paints grapes so real birds peck them; the other paints a curtain. The second wins because he organizes the surface to generate the appearance of something behind it., illustrating Zeuxis and Parrhasius,spectral power of appearance
Two Greek painters compete: one paints grapes so real birds peck them; the other paints a veil. The winner is the one who paints the veil, tricking the viewer into wanting to 'unveil' what isn't there., illustrating Appearance of nothing,Reflexively redoubled appearance
Žižek invokes the two Greek painters to argue that appearance always creates a supposed in-itself behind itself; ideological critique must undermine both the surface appearance and the fantasy of depth it generates., illustrating appearance and in-itself,ideology
1:22:15 Slavoj Žižek Masterclass: Jacques Lacan: A Lateral Introduction. Part 5pub. 2018-11-28 · 2:04:45
Two Greek painters compete: Zeuxis paints grapes so real birds peck at them; Parrhasius paints a curtain, and when Zeuxis asks Parrhasius to reveal what's behind, that IS the painting. The curtain conceals only that there is nothing behind it, pure appearance without a substance behind it., illustrating the thing as a sign of itself,predicate-to-subject reversal,subject as supposition
Two ancient Greek painters compete: Zeuxis paints grapes so real birds try to eat them; Parrhasius wins by painting a curtain on a wall so that Zeuxis asks him to pull it aside. The mystery is not in what is hidden but in the convincing painting of a veil that creates the illusion of hidden content., illustrating the real as form not hidden content,fantasmic supplement,the mystery of the form itself
In a legendary competition, Zeuxis paints grapes so real birds peck them. Parrhasius paints a curtain so convincing that Zeuxis asks to see behind it. Parrhasius wins: the true illusion is not copying an object but organizing a surface to generate the impression of hidden depth., illustrating trompe l'oeil,Lacanian Real,femininity as masquerade,depth as appearance-effect