I thought it might be interesting to upload these images from a recent trip to Rome. The Sleeping Hermaphrodite is an image which Fausto-Sterling puts in her book when she talks about the history of Hermaphrodites. When i saw this statue i was taken by the humor of the Greek sculptor (Fausto-Sterling dates the statue to a Roman sculptor of the second century AD, but it is actually a Roman copy of a Greek original). I thought it would be nice to add the imagery from the rear-side of the statue, which Fausto-Sterling ignored. This statue is from an era in Greek art in which the audience was supposed to engage in a 360-degree relationship with the piece. Clearly, when viewed from the back, one sees a sultry woman in a revealing position. The sculptor did this on purpose to highlight his playfulness - it is only when the viewer walks completely to the front of the statue that one realizes this is not the body of a woman, but that of a hermaphrodite!
While this may not speak too greatly on the nature of Greek and Romans perception of hermaphrodites, i thought it was an interesting part of the statue's history and importance which Fausto-Sterling ignored.
Thanks for sharing this! I actually didn't see the significance of the photo since the quality wasn't too clear. After seeing the back, I understand why Sterling chose to put this image in her book!
ReplyDeleteHillary-
ReplyDeleteI think that this statue is extremely interesting, and your pictures definitely highlight why Fausto-Sterling decided to include it in her novel. I think that often, art is a great way to illuminate the collective beliefs and ideologies of a culture (i.e. Guernica, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, etc.). This statue, while highly detailed and full of the aforementioned irony/humor, also holds cultural significance, rather than sole artistic brilliance. As Fausto-Sterling demonstrates there have been rules and regulations for how to deal with intersexed individuals throughout our history as humans. However, one of the more interesting qualities of this history is how the intersexed were more accepted in the early ages. Clearly, a hermaphrodite was considered a beautiful sculpture in ancient Greece/ Rome, as opposed to today, where I feel that many artists would never think of or would feel uncomfortable to portray this subject matter. I could be wrong about this since I don't know much about modern art. However, I think that an important step in the acceptance of intersexed individuals (who make up 1% of our population) is the incorporation of this phenomenon into all aspects of the media today, including art.