That ain’t it. Plus, I’d like to see what pubic hair on a Greek or Roman statue would look like.
Carved curls.
I’ve heard that the Greeks had a different view of “ideal” for that item. To them large testicles were a sign of virility, while all a large penis could do is give pleasure to their women, so who cares? Certainly wouldn’t want one so large that it makes your balls look small.
They were quite good at rationalizing.
Well, each sculptor had to have seen at least one person, and probably several persons, with sufficiently-pleasant proportions for these ideal forms to appear. I doubt everybody looked like my namesake, but somebody had to, right?
I think you underestimate the power of imagination. Images of Heracles in particular seem to be “what if you took a regular guy and made his muscles really big?” rather than a realistic person.
Quote:
Men were obliged to be ready and able up to age 59 to put on armor
Is this correct? What was the average lifespan in 200 BC? 59 mst have been ancient!
Several years back I saw an art history series on PBS called How Art Made the World, and in one episode they showed how if you look at the evolution of Ancient Greek sculpture then the depiction of the human form become more and more realistic over time…and then continued on past realism with statues that had “better than life” proportions like longer legs and straighter spines. They were sort of like comic book superheroes rather than naturalistic depictions of real human beings. On the show they pointed out that these proportions are actually anatomically impossible and (IIRC) that a human who did have that body wouldn’t even be able to stand up.
Surely the men had larger penises.
Bob
A common misconception. A lot of the lower life expectancy in ancient times is due to infant mortality and death during childbirth. A male who got past infancy could expect a reasonably long lifespan, but all the dead women and babies bring the average down.
Uncle Cecil actually did a column on this topic a few years back: Why does so much ancient Greek art feature males with small genitalia?
Short version: The Greeks were not at all shy about depictions of the male member, and there actually was plenty of Greek art that portrayed well-endowed men – sometimes very well-endowed. This tended to be low-brow stuff though, and seems mostly to have been intended to be funny and/or gross. For depictions of gods (fertility gods being a notable exception), heroes, and the like, a small penis was considered more tasteful and aesthetically pleasing.
Cecil doesn’t mention this, but I could believe that one reason why the Greek statues of nude men with small genitals are far more famous now than other Greek art showing guys with huge schlongs is that modern Westerners also tend to feel that obvious genitals = comedy or porn, not fine art.
I always wondered about their faces. They all have the same idealized face, yet I’ve never seen anyone in real life who has a Greek statue face. On the other hand, Dying Gaul, sculpted to represent a non-Greek person, looks very realistic to me.
I can dig this. Greek female depictions are bad. But the male forms are good, even by today’s standards.
Me. I have been told that I do. :lol: My nose, setting of the eyes, and my facial structure all look very classical Greek.
I’m actually Sicilian though, not “Greek”. But my father’s hometown was settled by ancient Greeks.
Not that much different from the hair on their heads.
I have to agree with NitroPress on one thing. I don’t like dwelling on pubic hair. Have more growing up to do.
It’s a cultural thing and goes by generation. It wouldn’t be any issue if it stemmed from a legitimate source.
True, the Greeks and Romans did seem to like their women with a certain…thickness. Not to mention any woman likes fat when she’s 12 feet tall.
I think there was also a practical matter that they were carving statues out of stone. I don’t think a statue with proportions like a Victoria Secret’s model would be able to support it’s own weight.
I’m also guessing Katy Perry’s proportions are probably closer to some Greek or Italian statues than you might think when she isn’t wearing 6" heels and dressed like a candycane.
- It stems from a source of evil.
- It’s not the thickness I was referring to.
- Many a Victoria’s Secret model I might have to feed first before rounding the bases.
- I used “fit” when referring to Katy Perry for a reason. Sometimes she better hike twice as much.
They should have an art-science course on this stuff.
In answer to the OP - yes.
Here for example is statuary depicting a typical family outing of the period.
