ABSTRACT
THE DEVELOPMENT of secular high culture creates novel opportunities and obligations for the individuals whose performances constitute the summit of its achievements. Notoriety during one's lifetime and posthumous fame, with all the ambiguous perquisites that accompany them, may be the highest rewards earned by our greatest artists. On the other side of the ledger, one of the most difficult obligations with which the great artist is automatically burdened is that of fulfilling the public role of culture hero-recipient of general adulation, object of merciless scrutiny, and obligatory embodiment of many ideals of his civilization. Although such a role may be congenial to certain public figures and artists-Thomas Jefferson and Peter Paul Rubens come most readily to mind as examples-the personal lives of creative men can more often be made to conform to public requirements only by a process of mythification.
