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June 25, 2016
Clarke is an academic art critic known for his work on sexuality in Greek and Roman art. In this book he argues that the Romans were not just like us (despite what 'popular' historians, novelists and the BBC would have one think) and explores this difference through an analysis of Roman sexual culture and the visual images it produced.
By contextualising the erotic images he discusses, he explores the way sexual representations on cups, walls painting, mirrors, vases etc. are embedded within Roman social practices and are public indicators of culture, social status and luxury, rather than private objects as they might be for us.
For anyone who works on Latin literary texts, this is an ideal way for thinking about the interaction between the visual and material culture surrounding the poets who wrote erotic poetry, and makes some of the texts less cultural shocking, indeed, almost tame in comparison with some of the pictures that surrounded Romans in their daily lives.
Acutely pointing out that while sexual and erotic acts might stay the same, their meaning can be nuanced in different cultural contexts, Clarke adds nicely to the literature on sexuality and the erotic in Roman culture.
By contextualising the erotic images he discusses, he explores the way sexual representations on cups, walls painting, mirrors, vases etc. are embedded within Roman social practices and are public indicators of culture, social status and luxury, rather than private objects as they might be for us.
For anyone who works on Latin literary texts, this is an ideal way for thinking about the interaction between the visual and material culture surrounding the poets who wrote erotic poetry, and makes some of the texts less cultural shocking, indeed, almost tame in comparison with some of the pictures that surrounded Romans in their daily lives.
Acutely pointing out that while sexual and erotic acts might stay the same, their meaning can be nuanced in different cultural contexts, Clarke adds nicely to the literature on sexuality and the erotic in Roman culture.
Displaying 1 of 1 review