The return of the gods

My gig on Friday night was at Tate Britain, The first Friday of every month the gallery hosts a “Late at Tate” night. It’s a marvellous mixture of a regular evening out and a bit of gallery gawping – a combination of music, drinking, eating, acts, art and lectures. Apart from the food and drink, it’s all free. A sort of May Ball for grown-ups, but a lot cheaper.

I came in on the lecturing side. The Tate has just opened a new show of neo-classical sculpture, called “The Return of the Gods” – full of classically inspired themes in eighteenth and nineteenth-century sculpture, from Thetis dipping the baby Achilles in the Styx to Pandora wistfully wondering whether to open the box. My job was to talk to punters about just four pieces for ten minutes spread throughout the evening.

Highlight of the show, but not for me (I actually think it’s a bit irritating), is Canova’s Three Graces. I decided to talk about some of the less well known pieces. The aim was to explain why what may look like slightly insipid white marble, recreating some serenely voluptuous male and female flesh, is actually a lot cleverer and a lot more intellectually engaged with the Greco-Roman sources on which it is based than most people ever imagine.

I’m hugely keen on the sculptor John Gibson, who has several pieces in the show. Not, sadly, his Tinted Venus (on the right), a brilliant confection of the Aphrodite of Cnidos and the biblical Eve (the bright gold apple does double duty, as both the prize awarded by Paris to Aphrodite, and Eve’s fruit).

But an unexpected star on Friday was Johan Tobias Sergel’s, Diomedes.

It’s a sculpture of the Greek hero Diomedes, with the old Trojan statue called the Palladium. That is to say, it’s a Trojan War theme: Odysseus and Diomedes, tipped off that Troy is being protected by the old statue of Pallas creep into the city to steal it – so preparing the way for the Greek victory.

Under Diomedes’ arm is the Palladium itself. It’s always good fun when sculptors make sculptures of sculptures, but here there’s a double joke. Because one version of the ancient myth was that Diomedes and Odysseus hadn’t got the real Palladium at all – that went to Aeneas, who took it off to Rome where it ended up in the Temple of Vesta. They got a replica. So what is under Diomedes’ arm is actually a statue of a replica of a statue.

There’s another clever reference too. Diomedes is turning his head, slightly suspiciously. This points to another bit of the story: that on the way back to the Greek camp, mean Odysseus thought he would kill Diomedes and claim all the credit of getting the Palladium himself. But Diomedes just caught sight of his sword blade in time. Just what is happening here.

Another great piece is Gibson’s Narcissus (on the right). Narcissus’ self-obsessed gaze is always an artists’ favourite – prompting all kinds of questions about our own gaze at works of art. Are we just looking at ourselves when we go to a gallery. Here Gibson tries to answer that question: his Narcissus, he said, was not the self obsessed creation of Ovid, but the Narcissus of Pausanias – who had actually fallen in love with his twin sister and that’s what he thought he saw in the pool.

Anyway, after my performances, I went to the next event. It was a very punchy “body language” analysis by Judi James of those visitors who had been captured on camera in front of the statues earlier in the evening. (“I think these two are trying to outdo the sculptures..”, “They’re just pretending to be intimate..”)  It was all the Desmond Morris alpha-male clichés, but hugely successful and hugely funny. Especially when the victims were in the audience to speak for themselves.

Comments

[Tony Francis]

Dearest Foska, I wasn't trying to change the subject. My only objective was to defend the honor of a dead man, and great national treasure: Winston Churchill. Thanks for the site concerning sailors. It put the cherry on the top of my day.
Dearest Paulo: I have always avoided women with sharp weapons or garden tools. I never let them near my garden. They have no business there, and when I catch them, I run them off.
Concerning eroticism in war: During Desert Storm, a major in 1/5 Field Artillery told me he was in a state of permanent arousal for three days while he was commanding a group of M-109s:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M109_howitzer
Other officers commanding M1A1 Abrams told me the same thing:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1A1_Abrams
Whether this is selective memory, the fog of war or some other psychological aberration is left for you to decide. It is "too much information" for me. The only brush I had with homosexuality while I was with the US Army occurred after the war. An officer's wife told me: "I hate you, because my husband likes you better than he does me." For once, I could think of nothing to say. I never knew he cared. He never sent a card, or a letter, or flowers... nothing. Still, it's nice to be noticed, I guess.

[Xjy]

Not so much Return of the Gods, as Return of the Cods...

Visiting the Victory in Portsmouth I just managed to ask about the place of women on board before I disembarked. Interestingly enough the hulk was full of them in port, they more or less stormed the incoming vessels. And of course, partying all day and night and sampling the Navy Rum led to some of them failing to get off before the anchor was weighed... So there were the odd real ladies among the close-yer-eyes-and-think-of-England crowd. Next time I'll ask for some references to case stories and if the officers sent the many Marines on board (there to defend them from the often pressganged salts) to fetch the lassies up to their lofty perches. Or if they were happy with each other's company...

As for Churchill, I think he preferred horses, and cigars, though the odd bottle of rum probably touched his lips now and then, too. Best thing that ever happened to Britain (after the beheading of Charles I) was the old soak getting booted out of power after WW2.

Give me Sergel any old day!

[Paul Potts]

Tony, this reminds me of school-boy (nursery?) rhyme:

My friend Billy
had a ten-foot willie
and he showed it to the girl next door.

She thought it was a snake
and hit it with a rake
and now it's only five foot four.

Paulo

[SW Foska]

Tony, you can't foil us by switching the topic from neoclassical sculpture to gay life on board ship, Liverpool's galleries cater for the latter subject too. See:
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/exhibitions/gaylife/
yours transthematically, swf

[Tony Francis]

Winston Churchill was reported to have said, "the only naval traditions are rum, sodomy and the lash." A "gay panic" gripped the Royal Navy in the 1960s:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2378811.stm
Some years ago, I was sitting in an airport with a three hour wait for my flight. I purchased a book by one of the Bronte Sisters (Anne, Charlotte or Emily: does it matter?)
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronte_sisters
A girl I knew in junior high said "Jane Eyre" was the best book she ever read. Purchasing this Bronte book (which ever one it was, I can't remember) was a big mistake, because it turned a three hour wait into what seemed a six hour wait. However the introduction, written by an academic, was illustrative. It told of rampant homosexuality in English male boarding schools. At one, there was a young maid who had a terrible crush on one of the male students. She couldn't get his attention. Finally, frustrated, she rushed up to him, and pulling up her skirt, gave him a glimpse of the promised land. He was unsure about what he had seen. But he didn't think it belonged indoors. He grabbed his cricket bat, and quickly killed it.

[Tony Francis]

Ayn Rand was writing about the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, which she considered to be a quintessential endpoint. It was speculated that the character Howard Roark in "The Fountainhead" was Frank Lloyd Wright. Both Rand and Wright denied this. Still, the turmoil in Wright's personal life seems to parallel the romanticized antics of Roark in the novel. Have Wright's buildings stood the test of time?
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Frank_Lloyd_Wright_buildings
I think they look as dated as any other old style. The Wright designed building at Wichita State looks better in these photographs than in real life:
http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=coedean&p=/about/
The Japanese designed Shanghai World Financial Center will have a square hole at the top. It started out as a round hole, but this was thought to be too reminiscent of the "Rising Sun" and was changed to the sqaure. There is still animus between Japanese and Chinese, from what I can perceive.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=406979
I have mixed feelings about the design. Is it visionary, or does it look like a giant bottle opener/zeppilin-that-crashed?

[F.Gamberini]

The Three Graces vista does have a certain grand sweep about it, though not one we would necessarily want to replicate now in the same terms. I would agree that gothic revival was generally out of place; neo-classicism -Greek revival, that is- is different, because the classical Greek style has something timeless about it. That does not mean it is an appropriate syle for skyscrapers -but neither are the odd ("postmodern") shapes in which they are being built nowadays. Skyscrapers ought to consist of straight vertical lines and little else.

[Paul Potts]

I mentioned Churchill as an ordinary male human, because he was of the same generation as Owen and Sassoon, and involved in the First World War much as they were, but definitely not "violence averse" in ABC's odd and mildly aggressive phrase. I cannot give you details of his thinking about or involvement in homosexual activity. It's hardly something he would publish anything about. But his diaries and letters and the comments of others might be more productive. My point was not that he got involved, but that he decided not to.

Paulo

[Tony Francis]

Ayn Rand wrote: "Skyscrapers are the greatest structural invention of mankind. Yet they made them look like Greek temples and Gothic cathedrals, and mongrels of every ancient style they could borrow. Form must follow function in architecture. These structures were marvelous when they were built for the first time, 2000 years ago. Building for the common taste they have produced great big marble bromides." In light of this, does anyone care to defend the Gothic Revival/Beaux Arts style of the Three Graces?
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Liver_Building
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunard_Building
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Liverpool_Building
Saying these buildings have been emasculated assumes they were masculine to begin with. Are these really girlie buildings? Was Ayn Rand correct?

[Tony Francis]

Dear Paulo, Are you sure about the statement that Winston Churchill was bisexual? He was accused of "buggery" while at Sandhurst. He filed a defamation claim which was settled for 400 pounds and a retraction by his accuser. Read the section about Sandhurt:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
His books "The River War", "London to Ladysmith Via Pretoria" and "The Story of the Malakand Field Force" can be downloaded for free from Gutenberg Project:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4943
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14426
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9404
I'm not saying it isn't true. I have never seen it.

[Paul Potts]

Yes, ABC, Owen and Sassoon were bisexual, but so was Winston Churchill - documented in his own accounts of his South African adventure. He no doubt wisely decided not to pursue that aspect of life. And, and ..... well enough.

I once knew a clergyman who had bunked university (OK, Lincoln Oxford) and then gone to South Africa, having spent a year in London as as professional prostiture. His theological training meant he had a car journey from his place of residence to his place of training past the Simonstown naval base. He would give lifts to marines, and woul always proposition them. He said, over a number of months, twice a day, he was never refused. Not that he was physically attractive, though.

At the time I heard his story, my car in Lusaka Zambia was stolen, Glad to get rid of it, actually, bur for some weeks I was dependent on Zambian taxi drivers. I thought to repeat the experiment, and was only once refused, by a guy who had just come from hospital and had his penis wrapped in bandages. He displayed it to me ruefully.

Canaan Banana, the first President of Zimbabwe, was well-known for hompsezual practices, and one does wonder why Robert Mugabe gets so het up about the matter,

I need to add before I close that buggery is very rare among males - as in heterosexual intercourse, only in special circumstances. And that sex only rarely leads to long-term relationships.

The presnt tangledom in the Church of England abour such matters is very funny. They have to decide whether they are talking about the practice, which is universl, or the culture, which is univerally disgusting.

Paulo

[SW Foska]

Mary, from Wikipedia, it seems to be a retrospective label from the early 2000s. But when the redevelopment of Liverpool is over, the whole centre will probably be renamed 'pot en daube'.

[Mary]

Foska: the buildings are great, but whoever decided to emasculate them with that title?

[SW Foska]

mary, what is your opinion of the buildings on the Pier Head, Liverpool, also known as the Three Graces (see Wikipedia disambiguation page)?

[Mary]

On the 3 graces Paul...it's too eager to please; and a bit empty headed.

No Richard, I dont think my body language was done (though I had to leave before the end). I imagine, by the way, that everyone had given permission -- as there was a posed as well as an unposed pic. m

[abc]

"smallpox". I can't do my work, this and upward management as well.

[abc]

It's "averse" and Lady Godiva with small pox.

[abc]

Owen and Sassoon were bisexual. They wrote about the pity of war and were predominantly violence adverse.

[Tony Francis]

The Wiki entry for Sergels Torg must have been written by a Swedish Comedian:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergels_Torg

[Tony Francis]

There was an American named William Wetmore Story who was a graduate of Harvard Law School. He gave up chiselling the law and became a chiseler of marble.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wetmore_Story
You can down-load his book "A Roman Lawyer in Jerusalem, First Century" for free from the Gutenburg Project link at the bottom of the wiki site. Personally, I'm not interested.
Story did a sculpture not only of Cleopatra, but the Libyan Sibyl. Whether these statues feature native African features is left for you to decide. (Click the wiki images to enlarge them.)
http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wetmore_Story
The depiction of the Libyan Sibyl as a Jewess is pretty screw-ball unto itself, since she was supposed to be from either Zeus, Libya or Crete.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_Sibyl
The Michelangelo Libyan Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel is clearly Caucasion. Story's Angel of Grief is reminiscent of Chopin's Grave in Pere Lachaise.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Chopin.grave.Paris.JPG

[arindam bandyopadhaya]

Many Thanks Paul Potts.
I, a diehard heterosexual male, was somewhat tempted on seeing the picture of Narcissus. I can imagine what it would be like on seeing the statue in person.

Regards

[James]

When Mary says that the sculptures are revealing a lot more intellectually than just voluptuous flesh and insipid white marble, would she be referring to ideas relating to race and the racial origins of the Greeks?

I read an article about a sculptor named Storey who created an image of Cleopatra, that although white on the surface was supposed to suggest that Cleopatra was actually black due to her facial features and style of clothes. Anyway, it confused the hell out of me and was wondering if there was anyone who could shed some light on this??

[Paul Potts]

For Arindam Bandyopadhaya

Narcissus may or may or not be androgynous, but the point may be that all male human beings are bisexual. Crede perito

Paolo

[Paul Potts]

Do you mean to say that if I attend an exhibition at the New Tate, I am liable to be captured on camera without my consent? And required to respond to the results? In that case, I shall not go.

Paolo

[Paul Potts]

Yes, I know what you mean about Canova's Three Graces. It would be good to hear why you are "irritated" though. For myself, it is a beautifully accomplished presentation of a cliche, but nothing else. Some of us expect more than that of a work of art.

I take that your point about your chosen items is that the cliche is nuanced or twisted, and is therefore worth discussion.

Paolo

[Xjy]

Johan Tobias Sergel gives his name to Stockholm's most central and ugliest square, Sergels Torg, poor bloke. Good to see him mentioned here though. He was part of a rich cultural upsurge in Stockholm in the late 18th century, figure-headed by king Gustav III and eternalized by Sergel and the poet-troubadour Carl Michael Bellman (one of the great rewards of learning Swedish, after Gunnar Ekelöf and Göran Printz-Påhlson - or Strindberg if you like that sort of thing).
Sergel is vigorous, dramatic and down-to-earth, not in the least insipid or fawning on rank or reputation. Lots of nice voluptuous stuff at the National Museum in Stockholm, just over the water from the royal palace.
His drawings are perhaps even more to our taste these days, with a touch of Picasso about them.
As for the metapoetics of the representation of a representation of a representation, Göran Printz-Påhlson who died recently is a poet and critic who held this particularly torch high in our own day - as you can see in his poem "Turing-maskin"(machine) from the 60s.

[Candadai Tirumalai]

John Gibson's idea of bringing Aphrodite and Eve together iluminates the development of the Western intellectual tradition, which offers several approches to the relationship of the classical and the Biblical. Gladstone was keenly interested in this question.
" A statue of a replica of a statue": Plato, who thought dramatic and other art an imitation of an imitation, may have been curious about that.

[abc]

On the subject of victims, and to pick up on Lady Godiva from your last post, one might look at Owen, Sassoon, Rupert Brookes and consider the Suffragette Movement. Godiva is a bit surreal.

[arindam bandyopadhaya]

Although his genitals are well visualised,his physique appears quite feminine. Was Narcissus androgynous?

Regards

[SW Foska]

To see the Tinted Venus - and many other of Gibson's pieces - in the tinted marble flesh, a trip to Liverpool is necessary. An exhibition and conference comparable to that on Joseph Wright of Derby (now showing, reinterprets him in a scouse context) would be desirable. It's important as Gladstone, Arthur Hugh Clough and other distinguished Hellenists may have imbibed aspects of their neoclassical vision from their hometown. Meanwhile, access Gibson exegesis podcastically at http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/podcasts/gibson_pandora.aspx

[abc]

Yep. Takes one hell of an alpha male to do potties and flu jabs and care for their friends.

[Richard]

Was your own body language analysed?
Best wishes,
Richard