Sex on show : seeing the erotic in Greece and Rome /

This handsome volume examines 200 objects--presented in excellent color photographs printed on good paper--collected chiefly by the British Museum. A specialist in ancient art, Vout (classics, Univ. of Cambridge, UK) asks how ancient peoples "read" these images depicting sexual organs and acts. Vases, lamps, wall frescoes, jewelry, and sacred statues and reliefs portray sexual beings (including lecherous gods and helpless children) and acts without moralizing cant. Vout argues that these products were intended to question human impulses, as well as sexually stimulate and inspire humor and awe. The book questions the social uses of ancient "sexhibitionism," rather than asking whether the art reflects lived reality. Vout usefully distinguishes Greek from Roman conceptions. To show sex requires Vout, like the artists she discusses, to "embrace the salacious," the perverse (bestiality, rape), and the arguably pornographic. The text considers the relationship between flesh and thought, eroticism and marble, but no coherent aesthetics or thesis with development connects the six chapters. The unexpected and welcome sixth (and final) chapter, "Desire for the Antique," discusses receptions of ancient sexuality, especially by British collectors. In later epochs, discomfort led to restricting these objects' existence and dissemination. This portfolio of well-chosen images of classical sexuality will intrigue the open-minded. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. D. Lateiner Ohio Wesleyan University

The frescoes in the brothel in Pompeii generally cause a stir among tourists. Oil lamps feature wicks coming out of erect penises. The Colosseum in Rome has male genitalia scratched high on a wall to indicate in which of the exit corridors (fornix) one can find a prostitute. Why were the ancient Greeks and Romans brash enough to make erotic art so public, and why are we fascinated with it centuries later? Art historian Vout (classics, Univ. of Cambridge; Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome; Antinous: The Face of the Antique) attempts to answer the question of whether the ancients reacted to these objects as we do. Were the citizens of Greece and Rome as discomfited by these images as some of us are today? What were their attitudes toward sex, eroticism, gender, and the human body? Vout even asks if her book should be considered pornographic. Readers must decide for themselves. This title is well illustrated, with full-color, in-text images of sixth-century BCE to fourth- century CE objects mainly from the British Museum's collection. The volume includes further-reading suggestions in the form of a bibliographic essay. VERDICT Appropriate for those interested in the intersections of sex, art, history, and culture.-Nancy J. Mactague, Aurora Univ. Lib., IL (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.