This type of story about the childhood demonstration of a prodigious natural artistic gift, recognized by an established master, is a staple anecdote in artists' biographies from the Renaissance on, beginning with Vasari's _Lives of the Artists_. Vasari, for example, recounts how the youthful Giotto, employed as a shepherd, was discovered by his subsequent master Cimabue making a beautiful drawing of a sheep on a rock in the pasture (using a dirt clod or something like that). Similar stories are told about the early signs of artistic gifts in Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. A recent book by Catherine M. Soussloff, _The Absolute Artist_, describes and analyzes conventional patterns in biographies of artists, showing (very convincingly, I think) how they emulate the structures of events characteristic in earlier literary lives of poets and, archetypally, saints' lives. It appears that the "reality" of these stories is as much a function of the fabric of type of tale being told as it is an actually occurring miraculous event, objectively recorded by a witnessing informant. Richard Wohlfeiler > >i'm doing a review of GOOD WILL HUNTING, focusing on the vicissitudes of >youthful genius. Overviewing myths about intellectual and artistic prodigies, >I want to say something about the recurrent theme of genius discovered in >childhood or adolescence in mean/humble circumstances. As a prime example, I >seem to recall that a Renaissance painter -- at least one -- was discovered as >a child by his future teacher drawing amazing pictures in the dust of his >peasant farmyard. I believe this was Caravaggio. Can anyone confirm or deny >this or otherwise trace the source of the tale to its reality, if such there >be? > >Many thanks > >Harvey Roy Greenbeg, MD ---- To sign off SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]