Classical Clayton

THE BELVEDERE TORSO: MAN OR BEAST?   The Belvedere Torso was once one of the most famous sculptures in the world, despite being so badly-damaged that it is missing its head, both arms and both lower legs.   It was held in such high esteem that the 1816 Parliamentary Select Committee, established to determine how much the British Museum should pay Lord Elgin for the Parthenon Marbles (the ‘Elgin Marbles’), asked its expert witnesses whether the sculptures from the Parthenon were in the same league as acknowledged masterpieces, like the Apollo Belvedere , the Belvedere Torso and the Laocoön ?                       Plaster cast of the Belvedere Torso in the Ashmolean Cast Gallery, Oxford In the 18 th century this sculpture was so famous that art historians and Romantic poets could simply refer to it as ‘the Torso ’ or ‘le Torse’ (always with a capital T), confident that their readers would be familiar with it through v...

DISCOBOLOS GOES TO THE MOVIES: STATUE OF THE MONTH: JUNE 2020 What did Scarlet Overkill from the 2015 Minions movie have in common with Adolf Hitler (other than a desire for world domination)?   The answer is that they both managed to acquire the same statue: a marble copy the Discobolos (the Discus-Thrower).   In the Minions movie we get a glimpse of Scarlet Overkill’s stash of looted art treasures, a hoard of instantly-recognisable cultural icons: Michelangelo’s David , Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Can , one of the Easter Island moai – and, representing the art of the ancient world, the marble Discobolos . Unlike other pieces of ancient art, Discobolos doesn’t require any knowledge of the mythological or religious context in order to understand it.   It’s obvious what’s going on here: it’s a nude guy (Greek athletic contests were held in the nude) in the process of throwing a discus.   The statue is so widely-recognised by the public that it ha...

SALAMMBO: SACRED PROSTITUTION - &WHY YOU SHOULD PAY YOUR MERCENARIES STATUE OF THE MONTH, MAY 2020 ‘For this woman, men would commit every sin … every sacrilege!’               (slogan on advertising poster for The Loves of Salammbo , 1960) The woman in question, Salammbo, forms the subject of a dramatic and erotic statue in the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight.   William Hesketh Lever, soap manufacturer and art collector, was a keen collector of contemporary sculpture; he purchased Salaambo from the artist, the French sculptor Maurice Ferrary, at the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900 (the event for which the Eiffel Tower was constructed).   It has remained in the Lever collection ever since, forming the centrepiece of a purpose-built circular sculpture hall.                              ...