Abstract

An artist can represent any individual he pleases; which individual is represented in a picture depends on his intention … And he can make his intention to represent Socrates clear, by representing Socrates as having the characteristics traditionally associated with him. But in the way he can represent the subject of his picture as snubnosed, he cannot represent him as a particular real or fictitious person. If he could, it could be part of what a picture showed, that what it showed was real or imaginary—which is obvious nonsense.