The painting on the wall

Fifth century BC painters Zeuxis of Heraclea and Parrhasius of Ephesus became familiar with each other when they both settled in Athens. Their activity was recorded 400 years later by Elder Pliny in his book Naturalis Historia. According to Pliny, they held a competition which one of them was a greater artist, that is - who painted pictures that look more realistic.

When Zeuxis revealed Parrhasius a painting of grapes, they looked so inviting and tempting that birds flew down from the sky to peck at them. And when Parrhasius asked Zeuxis to watch his painting and Zeuxis asked Parrhasius to divert the curtain over the painting, he found that the curtain itself was Parrhasius' drawing.

Zeuxis had to admit his loss in competition, and said: "I managed to deceive the eyes of birds, but Parrhasius managed to deceive the eyes of Zeuxis".

Nowadays big hyper-realistic wall paintings adorn buildings in many cities worldwide. Unlike spontaneous graffiti made at the dead of night, professional wall painters get an advanced approval of the municipalities to paint the walls of specific buildings in the city. So is Rami meiri, one of the first Israeli wall painters, that Tel-Aviv is one of the major stages for his art (he also painted in Germany, Beijing, Fort-Lauderdale Florida, and Buenos-Aires).

Most of his paintings are made by using Trompe-l'œil technique, designed to blur the boundaries between reality and illusion, and one of the most famous among them is The Scream, painted on the wall of Max Fine school at the intersection of Begin Road and Hashalom Road.

In an interview Meiri told about the inspiration for this painting:

"This painting is influenced by the first carnival I saw, in northern Brazil. It's kind of crazy sense, people get there into ecstasy, and I saw there one I liked. In the baby bottle there was alcohol, and the man ran and went wild. At the same time, the painting is not merely that. All good art is made of tension and relaxation. So here he increased the tension, was kind of a frightening figure, and suddenly you see that he has a bottle in the hand".

Is it only me that this painting reminds her of The Scream by Edvard Munch?