Seduction and gesture in ancient imagery

Abstract

For the Greeks, the body, and especially the body of youths, is one of the principal themes in visual representation. By studying the system of attitudes towards seduction as shown on a number of Attic vases, I intend to show how red‐figure representations reveal an aesthetic view of homosexuality different from the black‐figure one. Corporal expression is the key in the opposition between these two systems of representation where a dynamic gesture gradually replaces a static gesture through the creation of a “conversational art”; which was unknown in the earlier genre.