Art, desire, and the body in ancient Greece

The body was central to the visual culture of ancient Greece, reflecting an obsession with physical beauty, integrity, dynamism, and power. Greek images of the body, nude and draped, still captivate the Western imagination. In this penetrating study, Andrew Stewart analyzes the problem of the Greeks' strange preoccupation with nakedness and sketches how artworks filter our understanding of the subject. Exploring selected constructions of gender, ranging from the men of the Parthenon frieze to naked girls on Spartan hand mirrors, he offers close readings of the two most authoritative essays on the subject: Polykleitos' Spearbearer and Praxiteles' Knidian Aphrodite. Moreover, Stewart investigates the Greek body as a microcosm of society, focusing on figurations of the Athenian body polity; erotica for men and women; and selected representations of the Other, such as Gorgons, Satyrs, Centaurs, and Amazons. A cultural, theoretical, and sociological study of this seminal topic, Stewart's analysis offers new insights into the society and mentality of the ancient Greeks.