Beschreibung:

256 p., 200 color ill. Originalhardcover mit Schutzumschlag.

Bemerkung:

From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Stamp on foot cut, else an impeccable copy. - The ancient Greeks and Romans were not shy about sex. Sex scenes starring anonymous mortals or heroes and gods met their eyes at every turn. Phallic imagery and scenes of seduction graced drinking cups, oil-lamps and walls. In Athens sculptures with erect penises served as boundary stones and signposts. In Pompeii people wore penis pendants around their necks, or hung them from doorways. Two thousand years later this exhibitionism can appear strange or surprising, even embarrassing. Caroline Vout examines the abundance of sexual imagery in Greek and Roman culture and the questions that arise from it: are we right to see this material as ?sexual?? Are the images about sex or love? Were they intended to be stimulating, moralizing, shocking or humorous? Are our responses to them akin to those of the ancients? The answers to these questions provide fascinating insights into ancient attitudes to art, religion, politics, sex, gender and the body. They reveal how the ancients saw themselves and their world, and how subsequent centuries have seen them. Covering the sixth century bc to the fourth century ad, and embracing Renaissance and post-Renaissance material. Sex on Show uses detailed visual analysis to ask not what but how, why and to what effect. The centrality of the male nude in classical art, the premium put on male-male desire in Greek culture, the anthropomorphism and promiscuity of the pagan gods and the birth of Christianity under Rome already demand that we look differently. That we look at all makes us self-conscious. Beautifully written and lavishly illustrated, this 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. - Caroline Vout is a Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Christ?s College. In 2008 she was awarded a prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize for Art History. She has contributed to numerous publications and is the author of The Hills of Rome: Signature of an Eternal City (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome (Cambridge University Press, 2007), and Antinous: The Face of the Antique (Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, 2006), which won the inaugural Art Book Award. ISBN 9780520 280205