But ultimately Danto is disappointed. He decides that Rothko's paintings are all surface, just about beauty. Actually, the paintings have always been dominated by gloomy black rectangles floating on a maroon ground. Well, no matter. Although he often appears distracted when dealing with just one artist, he never tires of pairs.
Some comparisons are fruitful and others fizzle.
In the game of compare and contrast, the figures who are called into action time and again are Ludwig Wittgenstein, John Cage, Bertrand Russell and Marcel Duchamp. And of course Warhol. Tiepolo has multiplied the figure of Punchinello ''with the wit with which Warhol iterates 'Mona Lisas' in his 'Thirty Are Better Than One.' ''You have to admit, that comparison takes guts, or something indiscernible from it. Danto's title, ''The Madonna of the Future,'' comes from a Henry James story about a failed artist named Theobald who sees a beautiful woman and is inspired to paint her as a Madonna. Theobald dies, leaving behind a blank canvas.