Depictions of nudity are rampant throughout ancient Greek and Roman forms of art; so commonplace, in fact, that the “ideal form” as exemplified by the gods was a highly athletic, physically strong, nude male. This was a distinct Greco-Roman tradition as other ancient sculptures, like that of the Egyptians and Persians, were not crafted in this manner; “[t]o the Greeks [nudity] was the mark of a hero” (Singh, 2015). The choice to depict their greatest heroes and gods in the nude was not on a whim, but rather part of a deeply rooted philosophical and cultural ideology in which the human body was celebrated rather than shamed. Athletic competitions at religious festivals were done in the nude, and these demonstrated a love and idolization of the body in ways that were “unparalleled” (Sorabella, 2008).
Further, the idealization of the body was even more important in the Greco-Roman tradition than simply admiring the human form. In the nude sculptures, the bodies are portrayed as mathematically ideal, not realistic — a common theme throughout most Greek art, although Romans were more realistic in their portrayals of people in general. They are also not diverse; many of the statues would be interchangeable if not for defining characteristics that we look for in any work of art about the gods or goddesses, like Athena’s aegis or Apollo’s crown of laurels.
This is essential in comprehending the message behind the choice to portray their greatest heroes and the gods, because it is not about making them vulnerable, weak, or overtly sexual (although the argument differs when it comes to the depictions of women and goddesses). Rather, their goal was to revere and show admiration for them, and their main avenue for expressing the glory, heroism, and divinity of these statues was making them nude. Not all nudes are used for this purpose; also located in the British Museum, the Assyrian galleries have “nudes but they are not heroic. They are victims of war, stripped and flayed alive… [Greek] nudity was part of a dissociation from the reality of war” (Singh, 2015). This renders the nude tradition of Greece and Rome particularly interesting, as it reveals their sociocultural relationship to art and their forms of worship.
Just as nude men were utilized as a means of demonstrating heroism and strength, the female nude possessed its own connotations. Despite the obvious adoration of the male body, presentations of naked females in ancient art were nonexistent until the fourth century BCE, when Praxiteles sculpted the famous Aphrodite of Knidos (Bass-Krueger). After this event, the naked female body flourished in artwork, but the purpose was drastically different than that of male nude production. The power derived from the male body was not also transmitted to the female; rather, her body was used as a means of expressing fertility, sensuality/sexuality, and modesty. Many of the women portrayed both in antiquity and beyond are typically seen covering themselves, such as in the Knidian Aphrodite (a Roman copy of which is featured below), or are being intruded upon by the physical manifestation of the male gaze.
The latter is essential in Greek mythology and in portrayals of such. Many popular myths include goddesses being watched while bathing, a deeply intimate act: Diana (Artemis) is accidentally walked in on by Acteon, whom she turns into a boar so his dogs will tear him apart (Ovid); Athena is watched by Tiresias, whom she hits across the face to render him blind (Wilkinson, 2009). The former is frequently displayed in art, which we as a class were able to see in the National Gallery. Despite the retribution the goddesses are able to attain upon their invaders, that is not quite the point of the story (nor of the accompanying artwork). Goddesses, the most powerful and ethereal beings to the Greeks and Romans, were still being objectified and placed in vulnerable, subservient, and weak positions in relation to the men. Their bodies are used as the framework upon which a story can be told, and although the end of the story brings about great physical harm for both perpetrators, that is not something that readily comes across when artists depict the moment.
Furthermore, when one takes a look at the actual nakedness of the goddesses and women presented, it is important to note that the female genitalia are never actually crafted. While there are countless works in which male nudity is presented in full (and has somehow managed to survive thousands of years of abuse), females were relegated to a genitalia-less existence, which once again presented important sociopolitical connotations. These “statues present a value – an idealized value – of male and female roles in society that codified a power dynamic and social order that persists in so many ways today,” and the contexts in which they were produced (for the male gaze, to denote sexuality, fertility, innocence, purity, etc.) create interesting discourse about the nature of gender relations in ancient Greece and Rome; alternatively, of course, these dynamics were already exhibited by the pronounced sexism, victim blaming, and usage of rape throughout Greek and Roman mythology.
Ultimately, nudes in Greco-Roman art as well as portrayals of mythology are not meaningless, but rather serve as key insights into the sociopolitical and cultural realm in which this art was being created and displayed and in which the gods and goddesses of old were being worshipped. It is essential that we continue to study the depictions of nudity in such art and to think about the reasons behind these depictions, because they allow us to delve even deeper into the cultural world of the Greeks and Romans. Moreover, by learning about the Greco-Roman dynamics of gender, art, and culture — and the confluence of these — we are able to better understand the artistic movements throughout other time periods, and to derive greater understanding about the realities of the ancient world.
WORKS CITED
Bass-Krueger, Mauede A Brief History of Nudes. Available at: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/theme/XwISmlY5uQWdJQ (Accessed: 29/06/17).
McFadden, Syreeta (2015) The lack of female genitals in art seems thoughtless until you see it repeated. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/13/absent-female-genitals-art-repeated (29/06/17).
Ovid Metamorphoses.
Singh, Anita (2015) British Museum explains why Greek statues are naked. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11333473/British-Museum-explains-why-Greek-statues-are-naked.html (Accessed: 26/06/17).
Sorabella, Jean (2008) The Nude in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/numr/hd_numr.htm (Accessed: 26/06/17).
Sorabella, Jean (2008) The Nude in Western Art and its Beginnings in Antiquity. Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nuan/hd_nuan.htm. (Accessed: 28/06/17).
Wilkinson, Philip (2009) Myths and Legends. London: Dorling Kindersley.