How do rulers use art, images and monuments to persuade people to accept their legitimacy and authority as rulers? Why did Alexander the Great in particular become one of the major prototypes for good rulers for the next millennium? Why do statues of nude women in Greek art almost ways show them covering their genitals, and why do statues of nude men in Greek art almost never do that? And why do we still think that is totally normal today?
Here are the images we’ll be looking at: Alexander portraits, Alexander Mosaic, plus these of female “nudes.”
Readings:
- PBS video, 2006: How Art Made the World, first three episodes (episode 3 is the most important).
- The Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii, on Smarthistory
- Capitoline Venus, on Smarthistory
[If you are curious about the guy with the gold hair-clips from the PBS video who may have built Stonehenge (or are wondering how they could possibly tell that he came from Central Europe) here is a good, short reading on him. (NOT required)]
