Project #5: On the Frontier of the Posterior

Project #5: On the Frontier of the Posterior

By Sasha Afanasyeva

Aristotle once said that the sphere was the most perfect of geometric shapes. Although geometry of art is often discussed by academics, when it comes to artful representations of certain parts of the human body, they suddenly shy away. The human buttocks are essentially composed of two perfect geometric shapes and are often ignored by academia even when they are literally the centerpiece of a work of art. The Greeks and the Romans idolized the human body with perfect features (although certain features were too small) and perhaps the human fascination with the butt can be traced to there. The modern times are no exception as the butt transcends film, paintings, sculptures, and especially music with masterpieces like Major Lazer's “Bubble Butt.” 

To understand the nature of the butt in art history, I went the North Carolina Museum of Art. To analyze this further, I picked “Diana and Actaeon” by Paul Howard Manship a 1921 American bronze statue that combines the Greco-Roman idolization of the human body with a modern interpretation, influenced by the works that came before. For a backstory, Diana was a Roman goddess of the hunt (essentially the Roman take on Artemis from Greek mythology) who was caught bathing by a hunter named Actaeon in the woods. Angered, Diana (the one with the bow) turned Actaeon (the one pursued) into a stag and set his hounds on him, killing him.

Straying from the Roman origin of the characters, Manship did not turn Actaeon into a stag. Instead, he gave Actaeon small horn-like protrusions on the head. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of it the work is the difference in the butt on both the statues. At first glance, Actaeon's butt is very feminine due to how rounded and bubble-like it is. The bubble-like presentation of the butt is especially common in modern takes of the butt. Diana's butt has a far more toned, heroic look to it, much like you would expect on Roman heroic sculptures. This may very well represent the clash between the classical Roman take on the butt and the modern interpretation of it. Much of Manship's work used the Greco-Roman style in his sculptures. To explore this further, I analyzed other works of art featuring butts for a historic context on what likely influenced this difference in Diana's and Actaeon's posteriors.

Celestial God or Hero, Roman by Unknown from 1st or 2nd century

Note how the statue is clothed but the butt is very visibly exposed. The butt is essentially the most attention-drawing aspect of the statue, especially when looked at from behind. The face of the statue is rather bland. Unlike the round feminine butt of Actaeon, this statue has a perfect masculine butt, much like Diana’s, without muscles or imperfections. The Roman interpretation of the human body is heavily seen in Manship's Diana. Even the butt is similar despite Diana being the opposite sex.

“The Forge of Vulcan” by Jacopo Tintoretto, 1518/1519, Italian, Oil on Canvas

Going forward to the 1500's, "The Forge of Vulcan" features a butt that is very much the center of the image, the main focus. Unlike previous male butts looked at, which were rounded, this one is visibly muscular. The back of the center nude individual is also muscular in a nearly exaggerated sense. By showing the butt in the muscular and masculine state, the artist appears to be conveying that the centerpiece man is perhaps a hero due to the emphasis on the perfect physical build. In Manship's work, although Actaeon is a man, his butt is not represented this way at all, and this nearly resembles Diana's, who is in the heroic position of having that perfect physical build. Actaeon’s butt is rounded and smooth, indicating that he is weaker and perhaps even somehow unworthy from the perspective of this artist. Note that Vulcan is a god in Roman mythology just as Diana is a goddess.

“The Last Judgement”, 1573, by Crispijn van Den Broek, Oil on cradled panel, Netherlands

How would you use a butt to convey fear or torture? Almost the centerpiece of the painting, a demon-like man is shown attacking people, the judged ones, with a prod. On the left side of the painting and above is a depiction of heaven. The right side, however, starting with the demon-man is a representation of hell. The painting shows two types of butts, the most prominent one being that of the demon-man. In order to convey fear, the artist made the butt less round (compared to the female angelic butts on the left) and most notably, attached an eagle head where the tailbone would be found. The angelic butts are small, modest, and smooth, as opposed to the muscular eagle-beaked butt on the demon. Using butts to contrast good and evil is perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of this picture. Also note how those in hell, both the tortured and torturers are very muscular, as opposed to the fair and smooth appearance of the heavenly, butts included. Like “Diana and Actaeon” this painting shows a contrast between the butts of two different types of representations of people, in this case the sinners and the saints.

Diana was caught bathing in the woods by Actaeon, and turned him into a deer and set his hounds upon him as punishment. Diana, whose butt is masculinized like that of the demon-man, is the punisher, while Actaeon could be considered the innocent with his rounded feminine butt who accidentally stumbled across something he shouldn’t have. Note the woman in this painting being punished by the demon-man, looking like she almost stumbled into there. It is likely that Manship saw this contrast between “good” and “evil” semi-nude representations of people and incorporated that into his own sculptures.

“Diana”, Frederick Williams MacMonnies, 1888-1889, American, Bronze

Paul Howard Manship could well have drawn inspiration for his 1920’s piece “Diana and Actaeon” from another sculpture of Diana by MacMonnies. The sculpture features a petite, and even a slightly muscular butt as Diana stands in a heroic pose, attacking with her bow and arrow. This bears many similarities to the featured Manship statues. One, most notably, is the color, material (bronze), and the subject matter (Diana). However, upon closer inspection of the butt, there are further similarities. The butt, like in the one by Manship, is nearly masculine, unlike Actaeon’s which is rounded and feminine. Both statues show Diana in a position of power, an attack pose, and idolize her physical superiority. Shiny and modern, the black sculpture contrasts in many ways to the white Roman works it is based off of.
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On the net:
North Carolina Museum of Art: http://ncartmuseum.org/