Sunday, March 2, 2008

Andy Furnas: Nudity in Ancient Greece



In ancient Greece male nudity seemed to be common. Many athletes performed in the nude and the nude male body was seen a measure of prowess. Male nudity was seen as a sign of "triumph, glory and even moral excellence." (http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/HD/nuan/hd_nuan.htm) That is the link to a fascinating article about "The Nude in Western Art and its Beginning in Antiquity" from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had no idea that the male body could be held to such incredibly high standards and seen in such a way. What I found absolutely fascinating also, is that the article claims that the life-size sculptures for the male athletes were not necessarily replicates of real people, but rather idealized bodies with pre-calculated mathematically perfect ratios.
In contrast to the male body, the female body was often clothed in ancient Greek sculpting. That is, until Paxiteles in the 4th century BC decided to sculpt a nude of the goddess Aphrodite. And, Paxiteles also paid careful attention to the beautiful mathematical proportions and used them in his work of the female body as well.
I find it fascinating that the sculptures in ancient Greece were supposedly built with such precision not to reflect reality, but rather to reflect an idealized position... maybe as a way of providing something aesthetically pleasing, but knowledge that it is only symbolic? I wonder if instead of having plastic-models all over our modern day magazines and tv sets we should bring back this idea of the idealized and mathematically well-proportioned nude. It may be a nice way to keep young men and women from falling into depression with eating disorders and low self-esteem. Hmm...

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