Assignment:
Prompt:
You work as a volunteer intern in a museum that is about to host an exhibition on the body in the ancient Greek and Roman world. The exhibition will include all the relevant visual material from the Iron Age (not material from the Paleolithic to the Bronze Age). The director of the department for community outreach has asked all volunteer interns to submit an essay in which they outline how they would present the highlights of the exhibition to museum visitors, focusing on how depictions of the naked body reflected and promoted socio-cultural identities and roles of gender, sexuality, class, and race.
Focus your discussion on the statues of the Doryphoros, Aphrodite of Knidos, and at least one Roman example of a Mars and Venus group, which are the exhibition highlights. In addition, you are asked to discuss one more visual example from the exhibition material that you select in order to shed more light on the construction of socio-cultural roles and identities through visual production.
Reference the broader socio-cultural context of your material (for example, what we know from other sources about the roles of men and women at that time; differences in the dress code and representation of men and women, in relation to socio-political developments, cultural trends, etc.).
You should support your analysis with specific visual and other contextual observations about the specific statues you are asked to consider and the one visual example you introduce (e.g. body language/pose/movement/gestures, body definition and body type, objects held or worn, expression, interaction with the viewer or lack thereof, original location if known, later popularity -e.g. through copies, etc.)
Comparing and contrasting the male and female figures is necessary for a more comprehensive discussion of this subject.
It is advisable that you discuss your material in chronological order, e.g. the Greek material first and then the Roman material based on previous Greek examples.
Develop a very generic statement into something more specific and present it as your thesis in the introduction of your essay.
Essay has to be maximum 3 to 4 pages double-spaced, 12-point letter size.
Readings:
1. OBESITY, CORPULENCE AND EMACIATION IN ROMAN ART
By Mark Bradley
2. Mythological Group Portraits in Antonine Rome: The Performance of Myth
By Rachel Kousser
3. ART, DESIRE, AND THE BODY IN ANCIENT GREECE
By ANDREW STEWART
4. Nudity as a Costume in Classical Art
By Larissa Bonfante