Naked culture and art in the ancient world

Naked figures are a universal visual theme, deeply rooted in art history, and seem to be everywhere in ancient civilizations and arts in the Near East and the Mediterranean. The Antikenmuseum in Basel, Switzerland recently opened a new exhibition-Naked! Nude art-carefully study all aspects of nude art in the ancient world, and explore its significance and inheritance in western beauty and moral concepts. In an exclusive interview with the Encyclopedia of Ancient History, james blake Wiener and Dr. Thomas lochman, curator of Antioch Museum, talked about how ancient people in the Mediterranean and the Near East viewed nudity.

JBW: With the continuous debate on feminism, gender studies and the recent #MeToo movement, many people question the artistic expression of nudity in our museum. Is naked! Nude art organized in response to these controversies and social and cultural trends? If so, what problems does the exhibition try to solve? Why?

The condemnation of nudity in art urges us to pursue a very simple question: "Why were there so many nudes in ancient art"?

TL: At first, we planned this exhibition to pay attention to a core phenomenon in ancient culture and art: nudity is everywhere and has multiple connotations and meanings. In addition, this big theme gives us an opportunity to reorganize our permanent collection in theme and duration. The choice of possible exhibition projects is almost unlimited, so it is very beneficial to special exhibitions without encountering the high cost usually incurred when assembling special loans for international museums.

In addition to this artistic perspective, there is another supplementary reason for the "naked" exhibition, that is, the recent discussion on gender discrimination in art has made our exhibition a little glorious and relevant. All these questions about the condemnation of nudity in art urge us to pursue a very simple question: "Why are there so many nudes in ancient art"?

JBW: In the ancient Near East, thousands of stones and terracotta warriors and horses were unearthed, which dominated the depiction of female nudity. Dr. lochman, do you think there are * * * similarities between these statues of naked women? If so, what's the connection besides nudity?

TL: Obviously, all these prehistoric statues from the Near East (not only from the Near East, but also from other places) show the female body not only naked, but also in a form that obviously highlights it. * * *, pelvis and genitals are obviously emphasized, while head, arms and feet are reduced. In my opinion, the same thing is that the purpose of these figures is to celebrate women's fertility.

JBW: How did the ancient Egyptians associate nudity with social status and artistic pornography? It should be mentioned that ancient Egyptians often portrayed gods and children as naked.

TL: In the portraits of ancient Egypt, a person's social status is defined by his clothes. So nudity first means "no status". Yes, the ancient Egyptians did paint children naked because they had no status. Compared with the specific aspects of nudity in ancient Egyptian art, nudity certainly played an important role in pornography and evaluating the beauty and attractiveness of young women. We also found naked women and so-called concubines on the handles of toiletries, which were added to the graves as funerary objects of the deceased.

JBW: When I visited the exhibition, I was attracted by the normalization of nudity in Greek art. Dr. lochman, can you comment further on this? Perhaps it is easier for us to associate the ancient Greeks with nudity than other western civilizations or cultures.

TL: Nudity is dominant in ancient Greek art, indeed more than in other cultures. But more importantly than nudity, the human body is a quasi-exclusive theme of the whole Greek art. Nevertheless, most characters in ancient Greek art do not represent mortals, but represent gods and heroes. Some-this is a typical feature of Greek anthropocentrism-even represent the characters in fables, who personify terrain and abstract objects and terms.

The description of the ideal man in ancient Greece regarded nudity as a kind of "uniform".

Therefore, the human body is an important medium of secondary value or meaning, which provides sufficient reasoning for describing that the body looks better or even "perfect" than nature. Only through physical exercise can mortals approach the heroic position of God. Of course, they must also exercise and train their minds and spirits! In Greek art, it is very common for idealized athletes to participate in sports under the condition of * * * *. The description of the ideal man in ancient Greece regarded nudity as a kind of "uniform". This is why nudity is the main form of character expression in ancient Greek art.

JBW: Dr. lochman, Etruscans seem very different from Romans. Although the Romans disdain nudity, they are still eager to fill their private houses with nude statues of heroes and gods, even * * *. How do Etruscans view nudity and express it with their own artistic traditions?

TL: An obvious difference between Etruscans and Greeks and Romans is that Etruscan women enjoy more freedom in social life than Greek and Roman women. Greek sports are limited to men, while Etruscan girls can practice sports with boys, and it is completely physical! Therefore, it is not unusual for men and women to be naked in outdoor public places, and it is impossible to cause any scandal. This explains why the Etruscan people have low artistic reservations about * * *.

JBW: The exhibition includes objects made by ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. What are the "highlights" of the items on display? Besides, is there anything in the exhibit that you personally like?

TL: Even though the exhibition is dominated by Greek works of art, although I am an expert in Greek and Roman sculpture, my two favorite highlights are not from Greece or Rome, but from Syria and Egypt. The first is the Syrian idol, which is the oldest object in the exhibition, and its history can be traced back to around 5000 BC. It depicts the beauty of a gorgeous throne that emphasizes * * *, thus praising women's fertility. The second piece is a bust of an Egyptian court lady in the New Kingdom period around BC 1300 (BC 1550-BC 1077). She wears good clothes, but the clothes are like thin curtains; The graceful curves and shapes of her body appear below, as if she were naked.

This interaction between revealing and hiding is not only a Greek feature at the end of the 5th century BC, but also mastered by Egyptian artists nine centuries ago! One of the highlights of the Greek part should also be mentioned here: the marble trunk of Polykleitian Diadumenos type. Even though this is a later Roman replica, this work is very exquisite and can be considered as the best of all Roman replicas after Polykleitos's lost masterpiece (5th century BC).

JBW: For ancient artists, the depiction of nudity has various associations that span time and space; For example, it is related to the concepts of immortality, religious sanctity, primitive natural state and civilization. Speaking of nudity in artistic nudity, have we deviated too much from our ancient ancestors? What do you think, Dr. lochman?

TL: Nudity is ubiquitous not only in ancient art, but also in modern art, which is generally accepted. Regarding nudity in art, the only problem we may encounter is that nudity is understood or considered for no reason. In ancient times, nudity always had a reason. We can distinguish ritual nudity, heroic nudity, civilized nudity, uncivilized nudity, legalized nudity and erotic nudity.

Strangely, for many viewers, explicit pornographic performances, such as those on vases in some seminars, are more provocative than naked women in modern art nudity, in which the reasons for nudity cannot be specifically identified (or no longer understood).

JBW: Dr. lochman, on behalf of the encyclopedia of ancient history, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us and introducing this fascinating exhibition to our readers. I wish you many pleasant experiences in your research until we meet next time.

Thank you and AHE for your attention to our exhibition!

Naked! Nude art was exhibited at the Antikenmuseum in Basel, Switzerland, until April 28th, 20 19.

Dr Thomas lochman 1959 was born in Prague, Czech Republic, and 1969 has been living in Basel, Switzerland. 1980- 1986 studied classical archaeology in university of basel, and 1993 received his doctorate. His thesis is about the Roman Empire. 1986, Dr. lochman once worked in the Antioch Museum in Basel, and in 20 13, he became the curator of Greek and Roman sculpture in Antioch Museum. From 2000 to 20 16, Dr. lochman served as the Chairman List of the International Association for Protection and Promotion (IACPC). In 2006, he was a visiting professor at Fran College. The Anatolian research of Ais was supported by CNRS of France. Lochman's research fields include ancient sculptures (from Greece, Rome and the Eastern Roman Empire) and modern acceptance of the ancient times. In his museum exhibitions and activities, lochman intends to trace the afterlife of historical heritage in the contemporary popular media. The most important exhibitions in lochman are Antico-mix (ancient in comics), antice imkino (ancient in movies), the art of Swiss neoclassical sculptor Ferdinand Schlote, the eternity of Rome (from Santarelli and Zeri series) and Naked! Nude art "