Venus Callipyge
The example of the importance of restorations and the danger of modern interpretations.
We all have a little visual idea of a classical art sculpture.
Without being experts or amateurs of that art, we know that the prevailing standard of statuary in Antiquity has such representative conventions and canons that are part of the collective imagination.
Let’s delve deeper into its visual aspect since Antiquity. In that case, we have received an iconography in sculpture that constantly moves between a very sophisticated idealization of beauty and an evident lustful tendency, so much so that it cannot be ignored.
Although no specific consensus has been reached, since the interpretations are both valid (a particular ideal of beauty or a game of eroticism, even both at the same time), what is unmistakable and unquestionable is the influence that classical sculpture had during many subsequent periods, particularly from the Renaissance onwards.
The most enduring characteristic of these sculptures, model, and inspiration for artists and critics of both art and history, has been the nude.
It is undoubtedly the plastic and visual paradigm of all classical culture, above other disciplines such as literature or philosophy. The image of a torso of…
