Naked and Unashamed: a Study of the Aphrodite
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Naked and Unashamed: A Study of the Aphrodite Anadyomene in the Greco-Roman World by Marianne Eileen Wardle Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Sheila Dillon, Supervisor ___________________________ Mary T. Boatwright ___________________________ Caroline A. Bruzelius ___________________________ Richard J. Powell ___________________________ Kristine Stiles Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosopy in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 ABSTRACT Naked and Unashamed: A Study of the Aphrodite Anadyomene in the Greco-Roman World by Marianne Eileen Wardle Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Sheila Dillon, Supervisor ___________________________ Mary T. Boatwright ___________________________ Caroline A. Bruzelius ___________________________ Richard J. Powell ___________________________ Kristine Stiles An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosopy in the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2010 Copyright by Marianne Eileen Wardle 2010 Abstract This dissertation presents a study of the Aphrodite Anadyomene type in its cultural and physical contexts. Like many other naked Aphrodites, the Anadyomene was not posed to conceal the body, but with arms raised, naked and unashamed, exposing the goddess’ body to the gaze. Depictions of the Aphrodite Anadyomene present the female body as an object to be desired. The Anadyomene offers none of the complicated games of peek-a- boo which pudica Venuses play by shielding their bodies from view. Instead, the goddess offers her body to the viewer’s gaze and there is no doubt that we, as viewers, are meant to look, and that our looking should produce desire. As a type, the Anadyomene glorifies the process of the feminine toilette and adornment and as the goddess stands, naked and unashamed, she presents an achievable ideal for the female viewer. The roots of the iconography of the Anaydyomene can be found in archaic Greek texts such as Hesiod’s Theogony and Homeric Hymn from the eighth century B.C.E, as well as in paintings of women bathing on red-figure vases from the fifth century B.C.E. The Anadyomene type provides a helpful case study to consider the ways that representations of Aphrodite were utilized. Consulting archaeological reports and detailed studies of display contexts make it possible to reconstruct and imagine the original settings for these kinds of works. The known findspots for representations of the Anadyomene can be grouped into four contexts: Graves, Sanctuaries, Baths and Fountains, and Houses. Small objects might have been seen, handled, and used daily that carried connotations and meanings which these ancient viewers would have brought to other more elite or public works. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iv PART ONE: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Defining the Anadyomene ................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Birth and Bath: the themes and motifs of the Aphrodite Anadyomene .......... 32 PART TWO: THE APHRODITE ANADYOMENE IN CONTEXT ..................................................... 81 Chapter 3: The Aphrodite Anadyomene in Sanctuaries ...................................................... 92 Chapter 4: The Aphrodite Anadyomene in Graves .......................................................... 125 Chapter 5: The Aphrodite Anadyomene in Fountains and Baths .................................... 145 Chapter 6: The Aphrodite Anadyomene at Home ........................................................... 179 Chapter 7: Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 256 Appendix A: Options for the Aphrodite Anadyomene ......................................................... 263 Appendix B: Hair-Washing Bathers on Vases, Mirrors, and Cistae....................................... 264 Selected Works ..................................................................................................................... 287 Biography ............................................................................................................................. 301 Illustrations ........................................................................................................................... 302 v Part One: Introduction Early in the morning of December 28, 1913, a group of young Italian soldiers patrolling the ruins of ancient Cyrene on the North African coast must have been shocked by the vision of a goddess, still evocatively wet from the violent winter storms that had uncovered her, rising from the earth.1 In fact, what they had found was a life-sized marble Aphrodite Anadyomene, whose name signifies the birth of the goddess from the foam of the sea. (Figure 1) This sculpture had originally been set in the frigidarium (or cold room) of a luxurious Roman bath, which the Italian colonial government excavated immediately. The dig revealed an additional twenty-six works, including two groups of the Graces.2 This newest generation of Italian colonizers recognized the high quality of the sensitively carved Aphrodite and shipped a cast to Genoa for a colonial exhibition. It must have lacked the potency of the original, however, since, as Gilbert Bagnani reported in 1921, “Yielding to the universal desire, the Government made an exception to the rule that works of art should remain in Africa, and brought it to Rome, where it was exhibited in the Museo delle 1 Gilbert Bagnani, “Hellenistic Sculpture from Cyrene,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 41, part 2 (1921): 232, relates the circumstances of the find. The soldiers were part of an occupying force holding the territory as a protectorate following the Italo-Turkish War (September 1911-October 1912); Cyrene officially became an Italian colony in 1919. For more about Italian archaeology in North Africa during this period see: Stefan Altekamp, “Italian Colonial Archaeology in Libya 1912-1943,” in Michael L. Galaty and Charles Watkinson, ed. Archaeology Under Dictatorship (New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic/Plenu Publishers, 2004): 55-72, and Massimiliano Munzi, “Italian Archaeology in Libya: From Colonial Romanità to Decolonization of the Past,” in Michael L. Galaty and Charles Watkinson, ed. Archaeology Under Dictatorship (New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic/Plenu Publishers, 2004): 73-108. 2 Many of these works are discussed by Bagnani, 232-246; at the time of his article twenty works had been found. H. Mandersheid, Die Skupturenausstattung der kaiserzeitlichen Thermenlagen (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1981): 100-103, nos. 265-291, provides the final count of 27 total. 1 Terme.”3 It remained there as a spoil of war, symbolic justification of colonial domination, enchanting a generation of scholars, students, and visitors alike.4 The evocative figure finally returned to north Africa in 2008, when Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi transported it to Libya in his private jet, and it stood at the centerpiece of a ceremony celebrating Italy’s agreement to pay reparations to its former colony.5 The removal of the statue from Cyrene to Rome in 1914 echoes the centuries-earlier confiscation of another Aphrodite Anadyomene by the Romans. In the late first century BCE, Augustus appropriated from the island of Kos an already famous painting of the goddess rising from the sea, the first representation of the Aphrodite Anadyomene attested in ancient literature.6 It had been painted in the fourth century BCE by the well-known artist Apelles, a friend of Alexander the Great. The image originally hung within the precincts of the great healing center of the shrine of Aesclepius, established in the mid-fifth century BCE and famous for the medical school associated with the native-born physician, Hippocrates.7 The great value of the painting is demonstrated by the fact that Augustus 3 Bagnani, 233. Emphasis mine. Mus. Naz. Rome, no. 72115. 4 Bagnani, 232, underscores the deployment of the work as justification for colonialism in his introductory paragraph where he states, “Exactly ten years ago the Italian Government wrested the territory of Tripolitania from the Turks, and the hope was at once entertained that archaeology, safe from the blind fanaticism that had so seriously hindered former expeditions, might reap a rich harvest from the ruins of the famous cities of the Pentapolis, and especially from Cyrene. This hope has not been disappointed.” 5 For coverage on the ceremony see, for example, Nick Pisa, “Silvio Berlusconi apologizes to Libya for colonial rule,” Telegraph, 1 September 2008. 6 On Augustus’ actions: Strabo, Geo. 14.2.19. Similar to the occupation of Cyrene, the island of Kos was also taken by the Italians during the Italo-Turkish war. Hellenistic epigrams preserved in the Greek Anthology mention the work: GA 15.180, 15.182, 16.182. 7 The Asclepion was excavated by the Germans beginning