5 Must-see Fine Art Nudes in Rome.

1. Esquiline Venus (Capitoline Museums).
 

Nudes in art date from the Paleolithic age when curvy and bumper statuettes carved in stone, female bodies with abundant breasts, were regarded as symbols of fertility (Venus of Willendorf, c. 28,000 B.C.E–25,000 B.C.E.)                        

Aesthetically the representation of the naked body over the centuries is the result of different cultural systems.

In Greece, in the V century B.C. the anatomy of the human body becomes the object of scientific studies and Polykleitos provides a 'code': his aesthetic theories for artistic perfection being based on mathematics. Ancient Greeks competed naked or covered only by a thong.  Athletes became models: nudity immortalized by artists, such as Myron, a promise of perfection and beauty. 

In the Middle Ages, this conception faces a metamorphosis due to Christianity and if the body becomes the sacred urn of the spirit, it could nevertheless lead to sin and damnation.
 

For Renaissance artists such as Michelangelo the nude is a symbol of purity,  based on classic models, refined by the study of human anatomy and alluding to strength and spiritual courage (Michelangelo's David). 



2. Hermaphroditus
(Palazzo Massimo).
 

In 1545, the Council of Trent marks the end of freedom to represent the nude in art and artists are encouraged to be inspired by biblical stories. In 1559, Pope Paul IV ordered to cover Michelangelo's nudes in the Last Judgement. Through art the clergy tries to control 'heretical' ideas.
 



3. One of Michelangelo's
Ignudi
Sistine Chapel
Ceiling.

In the 17th century, the attitude is controversial: 'sacred' and 'profane' coexist in artists like Caravaggio or Bernini. 
 

One century later naked human figures must be based, according to Winckelmann, on the ideals of Greek art with its fixed proportions for beauty. Repressive social conventions are rejected. Canova's conception of nudity in one of his major works, Paolina Borghese, reflects the tradition of ancient Rome, portraying a mortal as a goddess. It's still debated whether Napoleon's sister really posed nude as a model.
 

4. Bernini's Rape of Proserpina
Borghese Gallery.
 



5. Canova's Paolina Bonaparte
Borghese Gallery.

The Lanternarius at the Baths of Diocletian.

Lanternarius with cucullus - I-II century A.D.
Rome Tiber, Palatine bridge.
National Roman Museum (Baths of Diocletian)
Michelangelo's Cloister.

A little mysterious statue rests in the shade of the cloister in the National Roman Museum (Baths of Diocletian).  Among hundreds of statues of the Imperial age, it would easily risk to go unnoticed if it were not for the seductive charm it emanates, a sense of peace, an aura of mystery.  
Rather than statues of emperors or victorious generals,  those 'extras', background actors in history, have much more to say about daily life back then:  a little boy, a slave, holding a lantern, fallen asleep while waiting for his master.  It's chilly outside and the lanternarius is wrapped in his cucullus, a rough hooded jacket. 

Streets had no public lighting, except when shows were held at night at the circus or amphitheater. 
Therefore to venture out it was necessary to have a torch or a lantern, perhaps carried by a slave (lanternarius).  Especially in the heavy and noisy night traffic.
Caesar in fact in 45 b.C. prohibited the circulation of carts and chariots during the day (Municipal Julian Law), except to transport building materials for great public works.

The cucullus, later adopted also by medieval monks (and by the likes of Yoda in Star Wars) was the work coat used by Roman slaves:  just as the toga was worn by  Roman citizens so the cucullus was indicative of a slave, who needed to be outside in bad weather. 

The cucullus is the ‘cloak of invisibility’ associated also with the underworld and the most renowned cucullatus divinity of Hellenistic antiquity is Telesphorus (god of sleep):  a hooded, cloaked, barefoot child-god, venerated also in association with Asklepios, the healer god who visits patients at night.  Thus often on tombs similar funerary statuettes illuminated the path of the dominus through the darkness of death. 

 

  

 

Klimt's Three Ages at Gallery of Modern Art in Rome.

Mothers have always been a popular subject in Art,  depicted as goddesses, tender Madonnas,  timeless mythological figures.
There is one work in particular that comes immediately to my mind when I think of motherhood. An icon. It's by Klimt, probably the greatest Austrian painter who ever lived and one of the most expensive of all time, after death.
It is surprisingly in Rome.
Shown for the first time at the Biennale in Venice in 1910, it won the gold medal in 1911 at the International Exhibition in Rome for the 50th Anniversary of Italian Unity. It was purchased by Rome's National Gallery of Modern Art in 1912.
A tender portrait of a loving mother posing as a Madonna. In fact it's often referred to as Mother and Child.  



The Three Ages of Woman (1905) - Gustav Klimt.
Galleria d'Arte Moderna - Rome.

But a mysterious third woman appears in the background: old, naked, an unforgiving depiction of decay.  A disturbing vision. So disturbing that in the numberless reproductions, posters and postcards, it's often simply 'cut out'.
The old woman might have been inspired, according to some scholars, by Rodin's  Old Courtesan, in Vienna for the Secession Exhibition in 1901.  
Three women at different stages in life: an allusion to the never-ending cycle of life and death. 
Klimt had lost his son Otto in 1902 and besides an apparent tribute to motherhood there is a clear obsession with time ad death.  Nevertheless it evokes also youth, fertility and love.
The vibrant colors of his palette convey a less bitter and tragic interpretation of the theme.  But the decorative elements in the background, similar to the byzantine mosaics he loved, are something else:  those mysterious shapes have been interpreted as bacteria and protozoa, symbols of decay and decomposition. He was fascinated by microbiology.
Death and sexuality were regarded as inconceivable elements of chaos by his society. Nevertheless Eros and Thanatos were the source of  Klimt's inspiration. 
The ageing process, especially concerning women, was a popular subject already in the Renaissance depicted by artists such as Giorgione. It became a common theme also in Klimt's Symbolist era.
His works have even been criticized for being pornographic.  He was fascinated and obsessed by female bodies. And by women's clothing.  Some of the outfits he created for his creatures are truly spectacular. Not surprising they inspired designer John Galliano for one of his collections.
Not much is known about his private life but he was apparently the father of at least 14 illegitimate children with his various lovers.
He once wrote: "I have never painted a self-portrait. I am more interested in other people, especially women.'





The topless bronze gladiatrix in Hamburg.

photo Alfonso Manas

Female gladiators existed!
A rarity, nevertheless, documented by Roman historians such as Dio Cassius (150-235 CE) who describes a festival organized by Nero for his mother (in which women fought). 
The same writer reports an event sponsored by the same emperor in the year 66 CE with Ethiopian women-gladiators in Pozzuoli in honor of the king of Armenia Tiridates.
Suetonius, another famous Roman historian and biographer (69-122 CE), describes games held under Domitian (88 CE) in which women fought against dwarfs!
Tacitus (Annales 15.32-33) reports that during a show in AD 63 some senators and noblewomen entered the arena to fight.
The satirical poet Juvenal describes Mevia hunting boars in the arena. 
Petronius (Satyricon) and Martial (Liber De Spectaculis) also refer to games involving women.
In the British Museum a marble relief found in Halicarnassus (Bodrum, Turkey) portrays 2 women gladiators nicknamed Achillia and Amazon. 

A bronze statuette, almost 2000 years old, in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbein, in Hamburg,  has recently been interpreted as woman-gladiator, according to researcher Alfonso Manas, of Spain's University of Granada.  It could be a bare-chested woman brandishing a short, curved sword (sica).  The mysterious object she holds was previously identified as a strigil (used by Romans, who did not use soap, for scraping the body clean).
Manas is persuaded she is a gladiator for the pose:  typical of victorious gladiators.
Not surprising that she is topless:  women and men fought with bare chest.
Considering the audience was largely formed by men that caused a certain impact of course.

The scarcity of archaeological evidence depicting women gladiators however proves that women were rarely fighting. Such custom was banned by the emperor Septimus Severus (200 AD).

Correggio's Danae: a soft porn or Virgin Mary's prefiguration?

Danae by Correggio (1531) - Borghese Gallery - Rome.

In Greek mythology Danae, the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos was imprisoned in a tower after an oracle predicted the king  that her son would kill him.  But men cannot fight Fate and Zeus visited her in the form of a golden shower.   Perseus, born from this divine union, will accidentally kill the king as the prophecy had foreseen. 

 

Interpretations of Danae have been ambivalent and often contradictory. 

For misogynist Roman poets she was interpreted as a venal woman whose love can be bought for money. 

The myth was Christianized during  the 14^th century and she became a sort of 'Virgin Mary', giving birth, impregnated by the Holy Spirit. 

Artists like Correggio and Titian in the Renaissance underlined the sensuality of the scene.

Coreggio’s Danae was mistakenly interpreted as a Venus by Vasari. 

 

A 'soft porn', part of a cycle of Jupiter’s Loves which Correggio painted towards the end of his life.  Commissioned by Federico Gonzaga, duke of Mantua, who continued the glorious patronage of arts started by his mother Isabella d’Este. 

Correggio's style reinterprets freely Raphael and Leonardo's suggestions.  This is one of my favourite paintings at the Borghese for its fascinating ambiguity:  how shall we interpret Cupid's gesture?  Is he trying to prevent  or to favour the 'union'?  Is he covering or uncovering Danae?

Barberini Palace: great anthology of Italian Art.

Beatrice Cenci (attributed to Guido Reni)

This glorious gallery is a must! 
Especially after the recent refurbishing.
Built for the pope Urban VIII, the Palace's project is by Maderno, Borromini and Bernini.
See the amazing staircases by Bernini (square) and Borromini (oval).
The Salon ceiling is decorated by Pietro da Cortona (Triumph of the Divine Providence trompe-l'oeil fresco).  The collection is stunning:  a show of the major and most important Italian paintings of all times,
arranged in order to provide an overview of the development of Italian art.  Masterpieces include La Fornarina by Raphael, The Annunciation by Filippo Lippi,  Guido Reni's Beatrice Cenci, Hans Holbein's famous portrait of Henry VIII. For Caravaggio fans the gruesome Judith beheading Holophernes and Narcissus. Hopefully the wonderful gardens will be restored very soon.

The Sleeping Hermaphrodite at Palazzo Massimo

Sleeping Hermaphrodite  (1st century BC) -  Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (Museo Nazionale Romano) Rome.

Hermaphrodite is the androgynous child Venus (anything but monogamous) conceived with Hermes.
From behind we perceive the curve of a female back and the suggestion of a woman’s breast.
Turning around and facing the statue we discover the figure is endowed with male genitals.
According to Ovid he was incredibly handsome and he was transformed into an androgynous being by union with the water nymph Salmacis.
Salmacis tried to seduce him but the naive youth rejected the nymph's advances.  
So when he was bathing undressed she jumped into the pool, wrapping herself around him.
He struggled of course, recalcitrant, but by invoking the gods she obtained they would be together forever. So with the aid of divine intervention their bodies blended and formed a creature of both sexes.

THE SENSUAL APHRODITE BY DOIDALSAS AT PALAZZO MASSIMO.

The original bronze statue of a Crouching Venus by the famous Greek sculptor Doidalsas (3rd century b.C.) no longer survives but it served as a model for many Roman copies.
One of the best versions is considered to be the one at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (National Roman Museum).  The Crouching Venus is undoubtedly one of the most sensual statues from Antiquity.
The attention to detail is great: the mouth is half-open and we can admire her beautiful teeth.
In some versions she is accompanied by Eros who probably was not foreseen by Doidalsas.  The original Aphrodite had to be plumper and show more curves while in the marble translations she has apparently lost weight.
Twisted, she is trying to cover her nudity, almost hiding.  Pure charm and grace.


Doidalsas of Bythinia (200 B.C. - 100 B.C.) is a
Greek sculptor, mentioned also by Pliny, who describes a statue of Aphrodite bathing herself in the Portico of Octavia in Rome. 
The pose is convincing even if, standing up, the figure would be too elongated.  The effect is intentional:  her fleshiness is unparalleled in other Aphrodite types. 

LYSIPPUS' BOXER IS RESTING AT PALAZZO MASSIMO.

One of the highlights at Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (main seat of the National Roman Museum) is undoubtedly the Boxer at rest:  a magnificent bronze statue long attributed to Apollonius (1st century b.C).  Recent studies prove that it is certainly by Lysippus (340 b.C.) the greatest Greek sculptor known for his meticulous attention to detail. The mistake was due to the alleged existence of an inscription on his left glove strings showing Apollonius' signature. Lysippus was a restless artist:  (more than 1500 works are attributed to him and his workshop).  Unfortunately most of his works are lost and we have mostly Roman replicas of his statues.  His masterpieces were moved to Rome as spoils (as the Apoxiomenos on display at the Vatican Museums) and then sent to Constantinople (when the capital was moved). Just a few survived.
The Greek bronze statue was discovered in 1885 on the Quirinal hill while building the Teatro Drammatico Nazionale (closed in 1929).  The area was originally the site of Constantine Baths.
It has been suggested that it could represent the Olympic athlete Theogenes.  Probably it's not a true portrait  but a generic character of boxer.  It is surprisingly well preserved (except for the eye balls).  His hands are protected by boxing gloves.  
Formed by eight separately cast segments. The lip, wounds and scars on his face were originally inlaid with copper and further copper inlays are used for drops of blood on his bruised body. The fingers were worn from being rubbed by passers-by in ancient times.  It's the muscular and noble body of a middle aged man revealing scars, marks and deformities caused by such a violent profession.  His expression suggests also weariness and a sort of resignation.  Even if the Boxer is 'at rest' the pose does not diminish his strenght.  His head is turned as if someone had caught his attention in that precise moment.

Villa Giulia: the eternal banquet of an Etruscan couple.

 

Ancient Etruscan Sarcophagus of the Spouses, 520 BC, made of terracotta which was once brightly painted, currently located at the Villa Giulia National Etruscan Museum, Rome.

 

From the Banditaccia necropolis in Caere (modern Cerveteri), previously owned by the Ruspoli family, from which Felice Barnabei, founder of the museum, bought broken into more than 400 fragments! 

However, its function remains uncertain because burial and cremation were both practiced by the Etruscans. It may actually have been a large urn designed to contain the ashes of the deceased. Another example similar to this work is known (Louvre, Paris).
The urn is shaped as a bed upon which the deceased are resting and banqueting. The Etruscans, like the Greeks had adopted the Eastern custom of feasting in a reclining position. Etruscan women, who held an important place in society, could take part in a banquet (in Greece only men were admitted).

Centrale Montemartini. Not the average museum in Rome.

Agrippina the Younger.

What if the location for a collection of classical statues is a disused power station?
It happens in Rome where as many as 400 statues from the Capitoline Museums are housed since 1997 in the first public power station in Rome, built in 1912, named after its designer and fallen into disuse in 1963.
The result is certainly original:  the unusual contrast of Ancient Roman art and industrial archaeology is fascinating. 
When in 1995 humidity menaced the Roman sculptures on display in the Galleria Lapidaria wing of the Capitoline Museums the problem was solved by moving them to the Centrale Montemartini.
The first exhibition in 1997 The Machines and the Gods was to be only temporary but thanks to its success the 400 Roman sculptures remained.

A blasphemous Crucifixion (Palatine Museum).

Graffito caricature of the Crucifixion. Graffito from the early Christian period mocking the new religion. A man named Alexamenos is shown worshipping a donkey-headed figure on the Cross. Crucifixion was a humiliating punishment for the Romans. What is ridiculed here is that a sect could have grown up around the worship of a crucified man. The blasphemous inscription in Greek reads: ‘ Alexamenos worships his god’.

A blasphemous Crucifixion (Modern Art Gallery – Rome).

Crucifixion (1941). Renato Guttuso. 

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna

One of the most famous paintings by Renato Guttuso.
Revolutionary, even heretical, especially for the presence of the naked figure of Mary Magdalene (which earned the artist the title of pictor diabolicus). The face of Christ is hidden and we can only guess his grimace of pain. It recalls the pathos of Rosso Fiorentino in the Deposition from the Cross. Influenced by Picasso’s Guernica Guttuso pays homage to the figure of the horse very similar to that depicted in Guernica. The agony of Christ as a symbol for those who suffer outrage, imprisonment and torture for their ideas.
Sciascia claimed that whatever Guttuso wanted to paint he always painted Sicily.

Beauty cases for the underworld.

Cista Ficoroni (IV century b.C.) - Etruscan Museum Villa Giulia.

Cistae are metal boxes mostly cylindrical, covered with incised decorations.They were found in the fourth-century necropolis at Praeneste (a town, located 37 kilometers southeast of Rome, an Etruscan outpost in the seventh century B.C.). The most famous cista and the first to be discovered is the Ficoroni presently in the Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome, named after the collector Francesco Ficoroni who first owned it. The cista was found at Praeneste but its dedicatory inscription indicates Rome as the place of production: NOVIOS PLVTIUS MED ROMAI FECID/ DINDIA MACOLNIA FILEAI DEDIT (Novios Plutios made me in Rome/ Dindia Macolnia gave me to her daughter).
The engraving represents the myth of the Argonauts: the boxing match between Pollux and Amicus, in which Pollux is victorious. The engravings might be the reproduction of a lost fifth-century painting by Mikon.
The function and use of Praenestine cistae are still unresolved questions. We can safely say that they were used as funerary objects to accompany the deceased into the next world. It has also been suggested that they were used as containers for toiletries, like a beauty case. Some contained tweezers, make-up boxes, mirrors, strigils and sponges. The large size of the Ficoroni cista, however, excludes such a function and points toward a more ritualistic use.