The smell of marble: Warmth and Sensuality of the Twenty-first Century Classical
L’odeur du marbre : chaleur et sensualité des corps antiquisants au XXIe siècle
Résumé
The use of classical bodies in the visual arts often intends to arouse emotions, particularly desire, from the receiver. Ancient statues, updated, are adorned by artists with pheromones and sweat, engendering phantasms. Indeed, the representation of a body combining Antiquity and living flesh undeniably releases warmth and eroticism, especially in advertising and cinema, as well as in the singular universe of contemporary art. The notions of virility, femininity and sexuality are at the center of these constructions, linked to the history of the representation of the ancient body in contemporary culture .
These representations, strongly influenced by fascism, sports culture, cinema and advertising, will be at the heart of this article. Indeed, while the role of these different influences in the history of the body have been extensively discussed in historiography, the role of Antiquity is rarely addressed, even in diachronic approaches (De Baecque, Courtine ). Nevertheless there are publications on the subject, but fascim is almost always at the center of the attention (A. Leoussi) and the XXIst century tends to be forgotten . Finally, while sensitives studies have made their way into classical studies, now constituting a recognized branch , odors are rarely taken into account in contemporary classical reception, despite their role, especially in advertising: this proposition is a continuation of recent publications on the history of odors and their imaginary. We will first talk about the differents solutions implemented by the creators and how to apprehend their gaze on the past and the present through the various visual supports mentioned above, before looking at the public reception and, finally, at how the collective imagination is used. Gender will be a transversal axis: how are classical elements reinvested in order to visually and sensorially spread model(s) of virility and femininity?