Born Under Saturn

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There is a nearly unanimous belief that artists have a distinctive personality and that they are always and have been egocentric, capricious, romantic, rebellious, informal, licentious, eccentric, obsessed with their work, and difficult to live with. Art historians have contributed little to this topic, as they do not consider psychoanalysis useful for historical research, which has somewhat deprived them of a deeper understanding of both the behavior of ancient and modern artists and their works. The aim is to investigate when, where, and why a typical image of the artist was created in the minds of the general public and what its distinctive traits and critical fortune have been. The answer has been sought in the vast array of historical sources: biographies, letters, and documents, meaning that the research is rigorously focused on historical documentation.