A phallos-bird flies into the Barbican

Readers of the Stothard blog will have guessed that I have been prepping for the Greeks vs Romans battle at the Cheltenham Literary Festival tomorrow. So off to the new “Seduced” exhibition at the Barbican Gallery, the new show on “art and sex” through the ages to see how the ancient world fared.

It was, of course, a walk-over for the Romans. True, there were some very pretty Greek pots, decorated with various scenes of (rather uncomfortable-looking) copulation. But the Roman material was predictably more inventive. The show had got a real star in the gorgeous marble hermaphrodite from the Borghese Gallery in Rome. Come up to her from behind, and you’d think she was a lovely sleeping lady, walk round to take a look at her face – and, whoops, you find that she’s not exactly a lady, after all: she got breasts and a penis.

There were also some wonderfully writhing satyrs and nymphs, not to mention a good range of Pompeian erotica. I’ve always thought that one of the best ways of undermining male phallic power was to cast a phallus in bronze, give it some wings (that’s the “phallus-bird”) , hang bells on it, then hang it up as a wind-chime . And that, of course, is exactly what the Romans did – as you can see in the show.

The exhibition actually goes up to the twentieth century and is well worth a look (I particularly liked the “nipple-buttons” on sale in the shop). But overall I thought it was rather less than stimulating.

I did have another motive for going, as I’d been asked to review it for “Night Waves”, that excellent Radio 3 arts programme (the kind of thing the BBC exists to do, I emphasise – on the outside chance that any Trustee is reading this).  So I gave the whole of it a pretty good going over.

The problem was not just the individual pieces they had chosen (and actually there were some good things: connoisseurs will appreciate my pleasure at seeing Warhol’s “Blow Job” (that's a still from it on the right) next to k r buxey’s “Requiem”). It was the slightly serious, po-faced tone of much of the information material. Although the Barbican is getting a lot of publicity for giving the whole exhibition an “18 certificate” (under-18s are not allowed in, even though they can surf much raunchier stuff than this on their own computer screens), when you get inside there’s a whiff of health and safety about it all. At the entrance to the harder core rooms (Mapplethorpe, for example, or -- bizarrely -- the Kinsey room), there is polite little notice to the effect of “This room contains explicit material which some visitors my find offensive”. Hooray I thought, isn’t that why we’ve come?

But what got me crossest, when I got home with the catalogue, was what they seemed to think they were saying about the Greeks and Romans. No surprise that antiquity was painted, as it usually is, as an admirable age of freedom of sexual expression (so, excuse me, why was there such a fuss about Praxiteles’ representation of the first female nude in marble?). Worse was the medley of misinformation. Have the Greeks and Romans gone so far off the cultural radar that even academic writers like these feel OK pontificating about ancient history without actually checking with someone who knows?

Athenian pots from time to time get described as ‘Etruscan’. OK, they were mainly found in Etruria (and Josiah Wedgwood – who called his factory Etruria in honour of that -- would have felt at home). But they weren’t made there. And even a Romano-phile like me wouldn’t want to give any credit for these to the Italian soil.

But take the first sentence of the preface. “Inherent in the Latin meaning of ‘seduced’ is the concept of ‘bringing close to oneself’ from seducere.”– Hang on. . . There may be a few examples in Latin where that idea is a factor, But the point about seducere is the se- which means “away” or “separate”. Just the reverse.

‘O tempora O mores’, as Cicero would say.

Comments

[klimt]

Well... that adds a whole new dimension to 'pull the other one, it's got bells on it!'

[Tony Francis]

The actress who stormed off the shooting of "Lonesome Cowboys" was named Viva. Andy Warhol described her as: "[Viva] had a face that was so striking you had the choice of whether to call her beautiful or ugly... she talked constantly, and it was the most tiresome voice I'd ever heard." Ugly or beautiful? You decide:
http://www.warholstars.org/warhol/warhol1/andy/warhol/can/viva14.html
Concerning the amusing story of "Lonesome Cowboys":
http://www.warholstars.org/warhol/warhol1/andy/warhol/can/lone15.html

[Tony Francis]

Interestingly, the film "Blow Job" may have been something of a hoax. It is unclear who the actor is, and there has been speculation that the he or she doing the job (not shown in the film) never existed.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blow_Job_%28film%29
It was followed in 1967 with an hour long sequel entitled "Eating Too Fast". This too, may have been a hoax.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_Too_Fast
Warhol also shot an 8 hour film of a stationary Empire State Building. Declared unwatchable, it was recently projected in its entirety in London:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_%281964_film%29
The Warhol film "Lonesome Cowboys" was said to show a rape scene. It was so realistic, the actress quit in anger and disgust. The FBI investigated it for transport of pornography across state lines, but to no substantive end.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonesome_Cowboys_%281968_film%29
Warhol was reported to be openly homosexual. But speculation has run rampant concerning the enigmatic nature of the man:
http://members.tripod.com/arlindo_correia/020102.html
He was also reported to be a Byzantine Catholic who attended daily mass, and worked in homeless shelters.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_warhol
He was a maze, ending in an enigma, with no answers forthcoming. He is a blank screen that has served, even after death, to reflect the transference of thoughts and beliefs of many others. But the real Andy Warhol is undiscoverable.

[Dewey Long]

Oxymoron?

National-Socialist Extreme Right?

Still operating with that archaic genetic load, eh?

What does this mean when Hillary blames the Clinton's troubles on the extreme right wing and at the same time advocates national socialized medicine?

Logically oil and water don't mix, so what is struggling to be pulled here? Daffy taffy?

[Wynne]

To call the bronze phallus a "wind-chime" is completely ridiculous - and anyway this is not Art.

Just like Damien Hirst's grotesque diamonded skull it is a 'fetish'. Ownership of is meant to give (its owner) power - and not simply sexual power, of course. The bells are there, not to make a pretty tune, but to enhance its 'presence' (like the diamonds on Hirst's skull).

I think it is very sad that a professor of ancient history should make the mistake of viewing the past through the present.

In fact, it is a huge mistake to show ancient erotic objects together with modern artefacts. Judeo-Christianity bequeathed the burden of puritanism and we now look at eroticism in a completely different way.

[Nina Papas]

Very sad to see a Dr from a Greek University post a comment that undermines the education system he is part of.Who knows,maybe he doesnt remember or he never learned that Greek culture and Greek ancient culture especialy is part of the Greek's life,as the Christian Orthodox religion,as the miday lunch around the table with the whole family etc,etc/He better come in Northern Greece,maybe he will remember,almost every week a new ancient site is found,and we walk throu them,we view them,we respect them.We dont need to learn them,its part of our life,around the road we travel,around the school we go,around the nature we live.And since he refered to the issue of Macedonia,can he explain to me how i will answer from now on to my foreign new friends,Where are you from?Iam from Greece,what part of Greece?Macedonia.So what iam?Can i still call myself a Macedonian being a Greek?Or those who have no history are justified to steal the names and sings of our history just because they want it and their constitution says it?Stay in your litle world professor and dont try to explain with logic,when we live it in our lifes.We have the common religion,language,social behaviour ancient heritage and long tradition that have kepts a strong and united nation no matter what.Better read your history again.Or better come up here and live like a Greek again.From a Greek,with a father from Constantinopole,mother from the depth of Pontos in Russia,born and raised in Macedonia.Greek Macedonia./

[Wynne]

I do so agree with you, Dr Pericles. How anyone could put the Romans on a level with the Greeks is utterly beyond comprehension!

Personally, it may be extreme but I think the only useful thing the Romans did was to invent cement and I agree with the archaeologist Neil Faulkner that the Roman Empire was only "robbery with violence".

As for Ms. Beard she lost all credibility for me when she wrote a long commentary in the 'Independent' saying the only way to get a good degree is to fall in love with your tutor! It is that sort of romantic rubbish that makes her and so many Brits starry-eyed about the Romans.

We British completely misunderstand Greek culture. The best thing we can do is to send back the Parthenon Marbles and face up to the fact that we British have nothing to replace them and exactly why that is so - why we have never created any great art whatsoever.

[Eileen]

I take it that the Barberni Faun is not part of the exhibition? Too bad, since Warhol's Blow Job boy is such a ringer for it.

[harry]

How Mrs beard loves herself!

Academics like Mrs Beard are similar to children bubbling over with the need to tell everyone how clever they are - usually a case of low self-esteem caused by nasty domineering uncaring parents, and resulting in tedious egotistical garbage like the article here.

She is about as subversive as Coronation St.

And to prove the point, all comments are moderated by the author - ooooh, subversive!
Yawn.

[Eugene]

This winged phallus, with its own well-hung idem, is of course, to the information of many, the image responsible for the English expression equivalent to the famous Latin "Fututio Volans", and the not less famous "flipping of the bird". It is also a symbol of "fugit irreparabile tempus" a constant in Roman literature, the implied meaning being "time flies, so you better get that flyer of yours flying too, before it's too late and you die "infututus", that is, without having lived.

[dr venables preller]

With dicky as an alternative word for formal male neckwear (not to mention foldaway back seat in early motoring days, located where we now call the boot), and the displacement activity of adjusting same (by either party) a valid intention signal, equating the symbolic with the actual (or none of it) requires less stretching of the imagination for potency of meaning than the extended hand might imply.

But there’s probably a simpler explanation.

[DAVID VINTER]

TO HAVE BOTH BREASTS AND A PHALLUS SEEMS A DICTONARY DEFINITION OF GREED TO ME.

[anthony alcock]

Any pornography in the Seduced exhibition ?

[Michael Bulley]

To get back to the phallus bird, it's a nice coincidence, but nothing more than that, I should guess, that in British English (not sure about other varieties) there is the hypocoristic "dicky bird" for any kind of bird, which, because of the rhyme, is used by adults for "word", especially in negative phrases - "I haven't had a dicky bird from her". Why bird for word? I suppose it's because it's the best choice among the monosyllabic nouns rhyming with word. It's too fanciful, I think, to imagine it's because both birds and words fly through the air. As for the choice of "dicky", I don't know why. Does anyone? I assume it's just a random choice among forenames. I'd guess there was no phallic connotation, even though there are other examples in classical Greek and Roman art, apart from the one illustrated above, of birds in phallic form (or phalluses in bird form).

[Mary]

For Liz:
You can "Listen Again" to it (it broadcast last Thursday) on the Night Waves (Radio 3) website. It's the first item in the programme.
Oh -- and thanks to Dr Vallianos: I shall be prepared.

[aaazq]

I guess a conclusion is that morality/ immorality in sexual terms isn't necessarily determinative of empowerment. Although choice/non choice is ? And seduction is, again, a difficult term. Constancy could be another debate.

[aaazq]

Another one is disabled women who are called non corporate/ repressed. What's the difference between this and historic male penetrative power. It's like raped women who becomes emasculated as a consequence of a rape. To comment on the masculinisation of the woman is almost like a secondary rape. These rapes are around all the time, funnily enough often present women vis-a-vis women.

[aaazq]

Of interest is virginity as a seductive device, restraint functioning not as repression but as the expression of ultimate female corporal power, subverting the very notion of what might otherwise be deemed to be military and corporate. Elizabeth I used virginity to determine her own marital status against male competitors in Europe etc. - female power over the male.

[F.Gamberini]

Does it undermine male phallic power (apart from causing some mild embarrassment)?
As for the debate: I guess it really comes down to whether you think the Euro Ch'ship is harder than the World Cup.
(Veni, vidi, and retalki bullshit).

Dr. Vallianos,
I am surprised that a comic-book film like 300 should have been so enthusiastically preferred over Alexander (which you yourself describe as "execrable"). Not only was Alexander more realistic -it was also aesthetically fine and a personal triumph for Vangelis, whose music was most evocative.

[Liz]

So, for those of us expats glued to their BBC Radio Players over the internet to remind us of home, when will the Nightwaves episode be airing?

[aaazq]

Also:-

English common law defined the crime of seduction as a felony committed "when a male person induced an unmarried female of previously chaste character to engage in an act of sexual intercourse on a promise of marriage." A father had the right to maintain an action for the seduction of his daughter (or the enticement of a son who left home), since this deprived him of services or earnings.

Fascinating stuff.

[aaazq]

A point about eroticism and seduction too is that for so long as there is choice, there is always empowerment.

[aaazq]

An interesting idea would be to juxtapose homoeroticism with female rape behaviour?

[Michael Bulley]

I feel another couplet arriving:

numquis dum futuit canit et uolitat simul? immo
pennata inuenta est mentula quae resonat.

[Dr. Pericles S. Vallianos]

Dear Prof. Beard, judging from the stupendously silly responses of my fellow Greeks (with a couple of honorable exceptions) to your Olympia article, I advise you to expect a torrent of abuse on account of the present one -on the outside chance that anyone will actually read it, let alone understand it. To praise the erotic inventiveness of the Romans over the Greeks is of course to wound our national soul mortally, let alone to insinuate homoeroticism as you did in your article on the 300. I was actually surprised that you were not subjected to vilification on that occasion as well. It may have to do with the fact that the film itself was perceived here overall as a fine piece of "pro-Greek" propaganda. When I saw it (because my son insisted that we do) the whole movie theater erupted with applause in the final scene. The 300 spoiled for a moment the firm and general preconception here of a foreign conspiracy to rob us of our "property", i.e. ancient culture, a preconception that rose to fever pitch with the execrable Alexander of Oliver Stone -execrable mind you on purely artistic terms, not because of its presentation of the Macedonian's sexual proclivities. Anyway, the sad upshot of all this is that "ancient culture" here is just a miserable political football. As J. de Romilly once said the average modern Greek knows of the ancient poets only as street names (and of the Gods I might add as football teams. Education at all levels has failed miserably to instill any true knowledge and love of the subjects. The dangerous result is that a perverted caricature of ancient Greece has been hijacked by the national-socialist extreme right and wielded as an ideological weapon. And what is more worrying still is that this abomination exerts deep influence upon all segements of society and all segments of political opinion. So brace yourself for more obnoxious attacks and may the gods (or some of them anyway) come to your aid. Dr. Pericles Vallianos, University of Athens