Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology

384 Pages·1997·5.88 MB·English

by  Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow

NAKED TRUTHS
Women, sexuality, and gender in classical art and
archaeology
Edited by
Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow
Claire L. Lyons
London and New York
First published 1997
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
First published in paperback 2000
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in
the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 1997 Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow and Claire L. Lyons All rights reserved. No
part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of
Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Naked Truths: Women, Sexuality and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology.
Edited by Ann Koloski-Ostrow and Claire L. Lyons.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Women in art. 2. Sexuality in art. 3. Gender identity in art. 4. Art, Classical.
I. Koloski-Ostrow, Ann Olga
II. Lyons, Claire L.
N7630.N36 1997
704.9‘424’0938–dc20 96–41228
ISBN 0-203-03771-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-18274-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–15995–4 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–21752–0 (pbk)
FIGURES AND TABLES
FIGURES
1 Prehistoric art in post-Pleistocene Italy
2 The evolution of gender symbols in prehistoric Italy
3 The Barberini Suppliant, Louvre MA 3433 (Photo: Museum)
4 Leda and the Swan, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts 04.14 (Photo: Museum)
5 Maiden and Centaur from West Pediment of the Temple of Zeus, Olympia,
Museum (Photo: from B. Ashmole and N. Yalouris, Olympia. The Sculptures
of the Temple of Zeus, Phaidon 1967, pl. 130)
6 Amazonomachy, Attic red-figure volute-krater, attributed to the Painter of the
Woolly Satyrs, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 07.286.84 (Photo:
Museum)
7 Side view of volute-krater in Fig. 6 (Photo: Museum)
8 Lansdowne Amazon, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 32.11.14
(Photo: Museum)
9 Rape of Kassandra, Attic red-figure Nolan amphora, attributed to the Ethiop
Painter, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art 56.171.41 (Photo: Museum)
10 Red-figure krater by the Dokimasia Painter, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
63.1246 (Photo: Museum)
11 Red-figure cup by the Marlay Painter, Ferrara, Museo Archeologico T264
(Drawing: F. Viret Bernal)
12 Red-figure krater by the Dokimasia Painter, reverse (Photo: Museum)
13 Black-figure hydria in Warsaw, Warsaw, National Museum 142333 (Photo:
Schwabe and Co., Basel)
14 Red-figure kalathoid krater by the Brygos Painter, Munich,
Antikensammlung 2416 (Photo: Museum)
15 Red-figure calyx-krater by the Tithonos Painter, Wuppertal, von de Heydt-
Museum 49 (Photo: from Antike Kunst aus Wuppertaler Privatbesitz, Von der
Heydt-Museum, 1971)
16 Red-figure hydria, Athens, National Museum inv. 1260 (Photo: Museum)
17 Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Sappho and Alcaeus, Baltimore, Walters Art
Gallery (Photo: Museum)
18 Judy Chicago, Sappho dinner plate from The Dinner Party, 1979 (Photo:
courtesy of Judy Chicago)
19 Parthenon East frieze block V, central peplos-folding scene, (Photo: J.
Younger)
20 Parthenon East frieze block V, the child/v. 35 (Photo: J. Younger)
21 Parthenon North frieze block XLII (Photo: J. Younger)
22 Parthenon West frieze block XII (cast) (Photo: J. Younger)
23 Parthenon West frieze block III (cast) (Photo: J. Younger)
24 Parthenon East frieze block IV (“Eponymous Heroes”) (Photo: J. Younger)
25 Parthenon East frieze block III (parthenoi) (Photo: J. Younger)
26 Parthenon East frieze block VI (Artemis, Aphrodite, Eros) (Photo: J.
Younger)
27 Parthenon North frieze block VI (hydriaphoroi) (Photo: J. Younger)
28 Parthenon West frieze block XII (Drawing: J. Younger)
29 Parthenon West frieze block III over a silhouette of W XII (Drawing: J.
Younger)
30 Parthenon North frieze block XLII over a silhouette of W XII (Drawing: J.
Younger)
31 Parthenon East frieze block V, central figures over silhouette of W XII
(Drawing: J. Younger)
32 Attic grave relief, Athens, National Museum inv. 1993 (Photo: after A.
Conze, Die attischen Grabreliefs, Berlin 1893–1922)
33 Attic grave relief, Avignon, Musée Calvet inv. E31 (Photo: after A. Conze,
Die attischen Grabreliefs, Berlin 1893–1922)
34 Early style terracotta doll, Princeton University Art Museum inv. 47–205
(Photo: Museum)
35 Later style terracotta doll, Bowdoin College Museum of Art inv. 1913–28
(Photo: Museum)
36 Attic grave relief, Arthur M. Sackler Museum inv. 1961–86 (Photo: Museum)
37 Terracotta figure, truncated type, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
20.205 (Photo: Museum)
38 Marble votive plaque, Athens, Acropolis Museum inv. 7232 (Photo:
Museum)
39 Thessalian grave stele from Larisa showing a woman nursing a child, Larisa,
Archaeological Museum (Photo: DAI, Athens, Inst. neg. 87.131)
40 South Italian red-figure pyxis by the Lipari Painter, goddess suckling the
baby Eros, Lipari, Museo Archeologico Eoliano (Photo: Museum)
41 Bronze horse trapping, from a female burial in Decima (Latium), woman
nursing a child, Rome, Museo Nazionale (Photo: Museum)
42 Etruscan bronze mirror, with Hera nursing the grown Herakles, Tarquinia,
Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Drawing: Museum)
43 Terracotta statuette of Pero and Micon from Pompeii, Naples Museo
Archeologico Nazionale (Photo: Museum)
44 Aphrodite Knidia, Vatican 812 (Photo: Art Resource, New York)
45 Hermes and the infant Dionysos, from the Heraion at Olympia, Olympia
Museum (Photo: Art Resource, New York)
46 Bronze statuette of Aphrodite, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Photo: Museum)
47 Hermaphrodite Borghese, Paris, Musée du Louvre (Photo: Art Resource, New
York)
48 Hermaphrodite statuette, Rome art market (Photo: DAI, Rome, Inst. Neg.
35.1956)
49 Terracotta figurine, Gela, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. 13859 (Photo:
A. Ajootian) 223
50 Satyr and hermaphrodite group, Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen 155
(Photo: DAI, Rome, Inst. Neg. 36.1385)
51 Satyr and hermaphrodite group, Rome, Torlonia Collection (Photo: DAI,
Rome, Inst. Neg. 55.723)
52 Plan of the Casa del Menandro (I.10.4), Pompeii (Photo: from E. La Rocca, et
al., Guida archeologica di Pompei, Verona, 1976, p. 178)
53 Wall-painting, rape of Cassandra with return of Helen to Menelaus, Casa del
Menandro (I.10.4), room 4, Pompeii (Photo: A. Koloski-Ostrow)
54 Wall-painting, death of Laocoon, Casa del Menandro (I.10.4), room 4,
Pompeii (Photo: A. Koloski-Ostrow)
55 Wall-painting, Actaeon, Casa del Menandro (I.10.4), apse 22 in back wall of
peristyle, Pompeii (Photo: A. Koloski-Ostrow)
56 Plan, Casa degli Amorini dorati (VI. 16.7.38), Pompeii (Photo: from E. La
Rocca, et al., Guida archeologica di Pompei, Verona, 1976, p. 283)
57 Wall-painting, Agamemnon with Achilles and Briseis, Casa degli Amorini
dorati (VI. 16.7.38), exedra G, Pompeii (Photo: A. Koloski-Ostrow)
58 Pulpitum arrangement, Casa degli Amorini dorati (VI. 16.7.38), west side of
peristyle, Pompeii (Photo: A. Koloski-Ostrow)
59 Panel relief, Arch of Trajan, Benevento (Photo: DAI, Rome, Inst. neg.
29.479)
60 Detail of frieze, Column of Trajan, Rome (Photo: DAI, Rome, Inst. neg.
57.902)
TABLES
1 Archaeological sources on gender in prehistoric Italy
2 Gender-specific grave goods in sexed burials at Pontecagnano (from Vida
Nararro 1992, Table 7, and original research, J. Robb and R. Bigazzi)
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
Aileen Ajootian Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Mississippi,
USA. Publications: “Hermaphroditos,” Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae
Classicae, vol. 5, Zurich, Artemis Verlag, 1990; “Praxiteles,” in J. J. Pollitt and
O. Palagia (eds), Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture, New York, Cambridge
University Press, 1996.
Larissa Bonfante Professor of Classics, New York University, USA.
Publications: The World of Roman Costume, co-edited with Judith Sebesta,
Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1994; Reading The Past: Etruscan,
London, British Museum Publications, 1990; Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A
Handbook of Etruscan Studies, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1986;
Etruscan Dress, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.
Shelby Brown Research Associate, Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, USA.
Publications: “Feminist Research in Archaeology: What Does It Mean? Why Is
It Taking So Long?,” in Amy Richlin and Nancy Rabinowitz (eds), Feminist
Theory and the Classics, London, Routledge, 1993, pp. 238–71; “Death As
Decoration: Scenes of the Arena on Roman Domestic Mosaics,” in Amy Richlin
(ed.), Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome, Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 1992, pp. 180–211; Late Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and
Sacrificial Monuments in the Mediterranean Context, Sheffield, JSOT Press,
1991.
Beth Cohen She has taught at the University of Rochester in Italy, Bard
College, Columbia University, and the University of Wisconsin, USA.
Publications: editor, The Distaff Side: Representing the Female in Homer’s
Odyssey, New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995; “From Bowman
to Clubman: Herakles and Olympia,” The Art Bulletin, 1994, vol. 75, pp. 695–
715; co-author with Diana Buitron et al., The Odyssey and Ancient Art: An Epic
in Word and Image, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 1992; Attic
Bilingual Vases and Their Painters, Garland Publishing, NY, 1978.
Natalie Boymel Kampen Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Women’s Studies
and of Art History, Barnard College, Columbia University, USA. Publications:
Image and Status: Working Women in Ostia, Berlin, Mann, 1981; contributor,
Women in the Classical World: Image and Text, New York and Oxford, Oxford
University Press, 1994; editor, Sexuality in Ancient Art: Near East, Egypt,
Greece, and Italy, Cambridge and New York, Cambridge University Press, 1996;
“Theorizing Gender in Roman Art,” in D. Kleiner and S. Matheson, I, Claudia:
Women in Roman Art, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1996, pp. 14–25.
Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow Assistant Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis
University, USA. Publications: The Sarno Bath Complex, Rome, “L’Erma” di
Bretschneider, 1990; “Finding Social Meaning in the Public Latrines of
Pompeii,” in N. de Haan and G. jansen (eds), Cura Aquarum in Campania:
Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress on the History of Water
Management and Hydraulic Engineering in the Mediterranean Region, BABesh,
Suppl. 4, Leiden, 1996, 79–86; “Water in the Roman World: New research from
Cura Aquarum and the Frontinus Society,” with N. de Haan, G. de Kleijn, and S.
Piras, JRA, 1997, vol. 10, pp. 181–91; ed. and contributor “Water Use and
Hydraulics in the Roman City,” Archaeological Institute of America Colloquia
and Conference Papers, forthcoming; “The City Baths of Pompeii and
Herculaneum,” in P. W Foss and J. J. Dobbins (eds), Pompeii and the Ancient
Settlements Undr Vesuvius, New York and London, Routledge, in press; and a
book on health and sanitation in Roman Italy, in preparation.
Claire L. Lyons Collections Curator, Getty Research Institute for the History
of Art and the Humanities, USA. Publications: Morgantina Studies V: The
Archaic Cemeteries, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1996; “Modalità di
acculturazione a Morgantina,” Bollettino di Archeologia, 1991, vols 11– 12, pp.
1–10; “Sikel Burials at Morgantina: Defining Social and Ethnic Identities,” in R.
Leighton (ed.), Early Societies in Sicily: New Developments in Archaeological
Research, London, Accordia Publications, 1996, pp. 177– 88; and various
articles on the history of archaeology and collecting.
Joan Reilly Director of Visual Resources, City University of New York, USA,
1993–5. Publications: “Many Brides: ‘Mistress and Maid’ on Athenian
Lekythoi,” Hesperia, 1989, vol. 58, pp. 411–44; “Standards, Maypoles, and
Sacred Trees?,” Archäologischer Anzeiger, 1994, pp. 499–505.