Behind the picture

by Martin Kemp

The Roman author Pliny tells the story - well known in the Renaissance - of the famous Greek painter Apelles hiding behind one of his pictures to overhear the comments of spectators. Martin Kemp takes this motif as an effective point of entry into the problem of what lies behind the business of picture-making in the Renaissance, in particular the role of the artist and the function of works of art in relation to their various kinds of audience.