1000 Erotic Works of Genius. Victoria Charles
Читать онлайн книгу.
art from the time. The Greek practice of pederasty, in which an older man attached himself to a beautiful youth as a form of mentorship, was often depicted on vases, such as those by the Triptolemus Painter and the Brygos Painter. Patriarchal Greek society had little room for female sexual agency; females in Greek erotic scenes were usually prostitutes or deities. The beauty of Praxiteles’ fourth century B. C. Aphrodite of Knidos, the most famous sculpture of classical Antiquity, became a tourist attraction for the island and, according to Pliny, won the love of a man who attempted intercourse with it.
Drama and emotion characterised the Hellenistic phase of Greek art, as in the highly sensuous Barberini Faun. Part goat, his unfiltered sexuality and drunken allegiance to Dionysos highlight his animal nature. The famous Vénus de Milo was a graceful representation of Aphrodite showing the Hellenistic ideal of female beauty. As with nearly all free-standing Greek sculpture after the Archaic period, what survives today are largely Roman copies of the Greek originals.
In Italy, the Etruscans adapted many Greek ideas into their own culture, which offered considerably more status to women. Etruscan sarcophagi often depicted a man and woman together as a couple, and decorations in Etruscan tombs sometimes featured paintings of explicit or suggested sexual activity.
Their successors, the Romans, also respected and imitated many aspects of Greek culture. As more Roman art survived than Greek, we thus have more erotic scenes, particularly in painting. Excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum have revealed the rich sexual culture of the Romans, often humorous in nature as in the depictions of Priapus, cursed with an eternal erection. Brothels often had erotic advertisements and interior decorations. Homosexual themes were not uncommon; the Warren cup depicted two male couples in coitus, and sculptures of Antinous, Emperor Hadrian’s young lover, abounded. Despite a tradition of realism, Roman depictions of bodies followed the Greek methods of idealisation. The classical model of Greece and Rome became the ideal of art and culture for centuries to come.
2. Anonymous, Venus of Laussel, c. 20,000–18,000 B. C. E. Limestone, 54 × 36 × 15.5 cm. Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux (France).
3. Anonymous, Reclining Female Figure, Naxos (?) (Greece), 2,400–2,300 B. C. E. White marble, 36.8 × 11.3 × 3.2 cm. The Menil Collection, Houston (United States).
4. Anonymous, Statuette of a Snake Goddess, c. 1,600–1,500 B. C. E. Gold and ivory, h: 16.1 cm. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (United States).
5. Anonymous, The Cosmic Union of Geb and Nut (detail from an Egyptian papyrus), c. 1,025 B. C. E. Vignette, 53 × 93 cm. The British Museum, London (United Kingdom).
6. Anonymous, Skyphos with an Erotic Group (detail), c. 1 C. E.
7. Anonymous, Sarcophagus of a Couple from Cerveteri, c. 520–510 B. C. E. Painted terra-cotta, 111 × 194 × 69 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris (France).
Though their civilisation flourished alongside that of the Greeks, our limited understanding of Etruscan language and culture has left a veil of mystery over the people who lived in Italy before the Roman Republic. Their art was strongly influenced by that of the Greeks, as evidenced by this terracotta sarcophagus with its echoes of the style of the Greek Archaic period. In Etruscan sculpture, however, we find more lively subjects, like this couple, animated in their easy affection for each other. Like so much of Etruscan art, this is a funerary piece, designed for placement in one of the elaborate tombs the Etruscans carved out of the soft volcanic bedrock of central Italy. It reveals the Etruscan view of the afterlife: an eternal party, where men and women would lounge at a banquet, enjoying good food, drink, and the company of their loved ones.
8. Anonymous, The Sounion Kouros, c. 600 B. C. E. Marble, h: 305 cm. National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Athens (Greece).
9. Anonymous, Kleobis and Biton, Apollo Sanctuary, Delphi, c. 610–580 B. C. E. Marble, h: 218 cm. Archaeological Museum of Delphi, Delphi (Greece).
Kleobis and Biton are life-size statues that were found in the sanctuary at Delphi. An inscription identifies the artist as coming from Argos, on the Peloponnesus. The sculptures’ origin in Argos links them to the mythical twins Kleobis and Biton. These young men from Argos were said to pull a cart a full five miles in order to bring their mother to a festival dedicated to the goddess Hera. In return, Hera granted the men what was seen as a great gift: a gentle death while sleeping. The brothers fell asleep after the festival and never woke up. Their great strength, devotion to their mother, and their early deaths were memorialised in dedicatory statues offered at the great sanctuary at Delphi, according to the historian Herodotus. These statues, which may be those described by Herodotus, are close in date to the Dipylon Head and share the same Egyptian style and decorative, incised details.
10. Anonymous, The Kritios Boy, Acropolis, Athens, c. 480–470 B. C. E. Marble, h: 116 cm. Acropolis Museum, Athens (Greece).
11. Anonymous, Kouros, known as Apollo from Tenea, c. 560–550 B. C. E. Marble, h: 153 cm. Glyptothek, Munich (Germany).
12. Anonymous, Kroisos, Anavyssos, c. 525 B. C. E. Marble, h: 193 cm. National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Athens (Greece).
13. Euaichme Painter, Man Offering a Gift to a Youth, c. 530–430 B. C. E. Athenian red-figure vase. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (United Kingdom).
14. Anonymous, Man and Ephebe Having a Conversation, c. 420 B. C. E. Red-figure dish (detail). Musée Municipal, Laon (France).
15. Euphronios, Ephebes at the Bath, c. 1500–505 B. C. E. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin (Germany).
16. Anonymous, Satyr Playing the Flute, beginning of the Common Era. Attican Plate.
17. Triptolemus Painter, Attican cup. Museo Nazionale Tarquiniese, Tarquinia (Italy).
18. Anonymous, Scene of Debauchery, 510–500 B. C. E. Red-figure cup.
19. Brygos Painter, Erastes Soliciting an Eromenos. Attican cup. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (United Kingdom).
20. Anonymous, The Battle Between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, West Pediment, Temple of Zeus, Olympia, c. 470–456 B. C. E. Marble, h: 330 cm. Archaeological Museum, Olympia (Greece).
21. Anonymous, 470 B. C. E. Bronze. Athen.
22. After Myron, Discobolus, c. 450 B. C. E. Marble, h: 148 cm. Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome (Italy).
In Myron’s Discobolus, we see the human form freed from the standing, frontal pose of earlier statues. Here, the artist is clearly interested not only in the body of the athlete, but in the movement of the discus thrower. His muscles tense and