Peplos
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Difference between revisions)
| Revision as of 20:42, 8 September 2009 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | The '''Callipygian Venus''' or '''Venus Kallipygos''', or "[[Aphrodite]] of the Beautiful Buttocks", is a type of nude female statue of the [[Hellenistic]] era. It depicts a partially-draped woman, raising her light [[peplos]] to uncover her [[hip (anatomy)#Cultural significance of hips|hips]] and [[buttocks]], and looking back and down over her shoulder, perhaps to evaluate them. | ||
| - | ==Identification== | + | A '''peplos''' is a body-length [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] garment worn by women in the years before [[500 BC]]. The peplos is a tubular cloth, essentially, folded inside-out from the top about halfway down, so that what was the top of the tube is now at the waist and the bottom of the tube is about ankle-length. The garment is then gathered about the waist and the open top (at the fold) pinned over the shoulders. The top of the tube (now inside-out) drapes over the waist providing the appearance of a second piece of clothing, except in the statues of the [[Caryatid]]. |
| - | In the 18th and 19th centuries, the statue was thought to illustrate a story from classical antiquity of two girls in [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] who were trying to decide which of them had the more shapely buttocks. The story is recorded in [[Athenaeus]]' ''[[Deipnosophists]]'' 12.554 c-e: | + | |
| - | :"The people of those days were so attached to their sensual pleasures that they even went so far as to dedicate a temple to Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks, for the following reason. Once upon a time a farmer had two beautiful daughters. One day these girls, getting into a dispute as to which one had a more beautiful backside, went out onto the public street. And by chance a young man was passing by, the son of a rich old man. They showed themselves to him, and when he saw them he voted in favor of the older girl. And in fact, falling in love with her, when he got back to town, he took to his bed and told his younger brother everything that had happened. And the younger brother also went to the country and saw the girls, and he fell in love with the other daughter. And so when the boys' father tried to get them to marry someone of the upper classes, he couldn't persuade his sons, and so he brought the girls in from the country, with their father's permission, and married them to his sons. And so these girls were called fair-buttocked by the citizens, as [[Cercidas]] of Megalopolis says in his [[Iambic Verse]]s: "There was a pair of beautiful-buttocked girls in Syracuse." And so these girls, when they got wealthy and famous, founded a temple of Aphrodite and called the goddess the Fair-buttocked, as Archelaus of Chersonesus tells us in his Iambic Verses." | + | |
| - | The fact that there was a religious cult of Aphrodite Kallipygos at Syracuse is also mentioned by the Christian author [[Clement of Alexandria]] in a list of erotic manifestations of pagan religion. Clement cites the poet [[Nicander]] of Colophon, and generously quotes the alternative term (''kalligloutos'', "with a beautiful bottom") that Nicander used. | + | This Classical period garment is represented often in the vase painting since the fifth century B.C. and in the [[Metope (architecture)|metope]]s of the [[Temple]]s in [[Doric order]]. |
| - | ==Ancient examples== | + | On the last day of the [[Pyanopsion]], the [[priestess]] of [[Athena Polias]] and the [[Arrephoroi]], a troop of girls chosen to help in the making of the sacred peplos, set up the loom on which the enormous peplos was to be woven by the [[Ergastinai]], another troop of girls chosen to spend approximately nine months making the sacred peplos. They had to weave a theme of [[Athena|Athena's]] defeat of [[Enceladus (mythology)|Enkelados]] and the Olympian's defeat of the Giants. The peplos of the statue was changed each year during the [[Plynteria]]. |
| - | The best known example is a small Roman marble copy of a [[Hellenistic]] original. It was found at Rome. It was on show in the [[Palazzo Farnese]] and thus joined the [[Farnese]] [[Farnese Marbles|collection]] when that palace was acquired. With that collection it found its way to Naples in 1802. It was then considered dangerously erotic, on the level of pornography (the more so for being partially draped rather than entirely nude like the [[Venus de Medici]]) and was included amongst other such material in the [[Secret Cabinet]]. | + | |
| - | In 1836, Famin called it a "charming statuette" but noted that it was: | + | ==Related articles== |
| - | :''"...placed in a reserved hall, where the curious are only introduced under the surveillance of a guardian, though even this precaution has not prevented the rounded forms which won for the goddess the name of Callipyge, from being covered with a dark tint, which betrays the profane kisses that fanatic admirers have every day impressed there. We ourselves knew a young German tourist smitten with a mad passion for this [[voluptuous]] marble; and the commiseration his state of mind inspired set aside all idea of ridicule."'' | + | *[[Clothing in the ancient world]] |
| - | + | *[[Clothing in ancient Greece]] | |
| - | It is currently on display at the [[Naples National Archaeological Museum|Museo Archeologico Nazionale]]. | + | *[[Chiton_(costume)|Chiton]] |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==Modern copies== | + | |
| - | A marble copy by [[Jean-Jacques Clérion]] (1686) was sent to Versailles. Another copy was made by [[François Barois]] during his residence at the [[French Academy in Rome]], 1683-86. It was sent to [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]], then to [[Marly-le-Roi]] in 1695, where it was provided with additional marble draperies by Jean Thierry, not to offend an increasingly prudish public taste; it remained at Marly until the Revolution, when it found it way to the [[Jardin des Tuileries]]. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | [[Augustus the Strong]] ordered a copy, which was executed by [[Pierre de l’Estache]] in Rome between 1722-23, for the ''Grosser Garten'', Dresden. However it was destroyed in 1945 (Desmas 2002). | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==Modern appreciation== | + | |
| - | The 19th century identification was popularised by the 20th century lyrics of the Frenchman [[Georges Brassens]], particularly an extract from ''La Fontaine'' which paraphrases Athenaeus' account and ends: | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | {{cquote|I do not know what they intended,<br>But this was the temple of Greece<br>For which I professed the most devotion. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==References== | + | |
| - | *Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, 1984. ''Taste and the Antique'' Cat. 86. | + | |
| - | *Laurentino García y García, Luciana Jacobelli, Louis Barré, 2001. ''Museo Segreto. With a Facsimile edition of Herculanum et Pompéi. Recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques... (1877).'' (Pompei: Marius Edizioni) [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2003/2003-07-38.html Eric M. Moormann, On-line Bryn Mawr Classical Review 20]. | + | |
| - | *Dericksen Brinkerhoff, review of ''Aphrodite Kallipygos'' by Gosta Saflund and Peter M. Fraser - [[American Journal of Archaeology]], Vol. 69, No. 1 (Jan., 1965), pp. 78-79. | + | |
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
A peplos is a body-length Greek garment worn by women in the years before 500 BC. The peplos is a tubular cloth, essentially, folded inside-out from the top about halfway down, so that what was the top of the tube is now at the waist and the bottom of the tube is about ankle-length. The garment is then gathered about the waist and the open top (at the fold) pinned over the shoulders. The top of the tube (now inside-out) drapes over the waist providing the appearance of a second piece of clothing, except in the statues of the Caryatid.
This Classical period garment is represented often in the vase painting since the fifth century B.C. and in the metopes of the Temples in Doric order.
On the last day of the Pyanopsion, the priestess of Athena Polias and the Arrephoroi, a troop of girls chosen to help in the making of the sacred peplos, set up the loom on which the enormous peplos was to be woven by the Ergastinai, another troop of girls chosen to spend approximately nine months making the sacred peplos. They had to weave a theme of Athena's defeat of Enkelados and the Olympian's defeat of the Giants. The peplos of the statue was changed each year during the Plynteria.
[edit]
Related articles
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Peplos" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
