Drawing on examples of classical erotic art, some of them well-known and others rarely discussed, this beautifully illustrated book explores why the Greeks and Romans surrounded themselves with so many sexually explicit images. It examines how these images were used and what they reveal about how the ancients saw themselves and their world.
The Greeks and Romans were not shy about sex. In Classical Greece drinking cups were decorated with scenes of seduction and sexual intercourse which make the modern viewer blush and sculptures with erect penises served as boundary-stones and signposts. In ancient Rome models of penises were worn around the neck or hung from doorways and marble satyrs and nymphs grappled in gardens.
How are we to make sense of this abundance of sexual imagery? Were these images sexy, shocking, humorous? Were they about sex or love? And what and how do we learn from them? Sex on Show answers these questions and reveals ancient attitudes to religion, politics, sex and gender, and also how the ancient saw themselves and their world.
Covering material from the sixth century BC to the fourth century AD, as well as the reception of this material in the Renaissance and later, Sex on Show uses detailed visual analysis to ask not what but why. The centrality of the male nude in Greek and Roman art, the premium put on male-male desire in Greek culture and the anthropomorphism and promiscuity of the gods, already demands that we look differently. That we look at all makes us self- conscious.
Beautifully illustrated, this lively and thought-provoking book does not simply address theories of sexual practice or social history, it is a visual history - concerning what it meant and still means to have sex stare us in the face.
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