[Dichtung]

Lawrence Durrell
Conon the Critic on the six Landscape Painters of Greece
On Peter of Thebes
'This landscape is not original in its own mode. First smells
were born — of resin and pine. Then someone got drunk on
arbutus berries. Finally as an explanatory text someone added
this red staunch clay and roots. You cannot smell one without
tasting the other — as with fish and red sauce.'

On Manoli of Crete
'After a lifetime of writing acrostics he took up a brush and
everything became twice as attentive. Trees had been trees be-
fore. Distinctions had been in ideas. Now the old man went
mad, for everything undressed and ran laughing into his arms.'

On Julian of Arcadia
'Arcadia is original in a particular sense. There is no feeling
of "Therefore" in it. Origin, reason, meaning it has none in the
sense of recognizable past. In this, both Arcadia and all good
poems are original.'

On Spiridon of Epirus
'You look at this landscape for five years. You see little but
something attentive watching you. Another five and you remark
a shape that is barely a shape; a shadow like the moon's penumbra.
Look a lifetime and you will see that the mountains lie like the
covers of a bed; and you discern the form lying under them.'

On Hero of Corinth
'Style is the cut of the mind. Hero was not much interested
in his landscape, but by a perpetual self-confession in art removed
both himself and his subject out of the reach of the people. Thus
one day there remained only a picture-frame, an empty studio,
and an idea of Hero the painter.'

On Alexander of Athens
'Alexander was in love with Athens. He was a glutton and
exhausted both himself and his subject in his art. Thus when
he had smelt a flower it was quite used up, and when he painted
a mountain it felt that living on could only be a useless competi-
tion against Alexander's painting of it. Thus with him Athens
ceased to exist, and we have been walking about inside his
canvases ever since looking for a way back from art into life.'