評論
打印
The early Roman Empire had idealised Greece and adopted much of her culture, and the cup shows what is clearly a Greek scene. Is this a Roman sexual fantasy of a Classical Greek male coupling? Perhaps by placing it in a Greek past, any moral discomfort is put at a safe distance, while adding to the titillation of the forbidden and exotic. And perhaps everybody everywhere believes that the best sex happens somewhere else. Professor James Davidson, author of 'The Greeks and Greek Love' explains:
早期的羅馬帝國十分推崇古希臘，他們接受了大部分的古希臘文化，而我們這只酒杯上所表現的很明顯就是希臘的場景。這是羅馬人對古希臘同性性愛的幻想嗎？也許，將它放在遙遠的古希臘背景里會減少一些人們的道德不適感，同時增加一些禁忌與異域風情所帶來的興奮感。也許人人都相信，最好的性愛發生在別處。《希臘人與希臘愛情》作者詹姆斯維森教授解釋道：
"What's interesting is that although this vase looks back to the Classical period, the Greek vase painters-who were by no means prudish or modest when it came to depicting sex-nevertheless carefully avoided scenes of homosexual intercourse, at least penetrative intercourse. So, in a way, the Romans are showing what couldn't be shown five hundred years earlier. So you can say if you like that the Greek world, as it did for Warren and as it did since the eighteenth century or even in the Middle Ages, provided an alibi for societies to think about homosexuality, to talk about homosexuality, to represent homosexuality. It made it into a piece of art more than pornography, so it's a kind of cover, if you like, for something which is not necessarily very easy to depict. It needs some kind of excuse, if you like, and the excuse is provided by Classical imagery."
銀杯描述的是古希臘的場景，但其實古希臘的畫家在描畫性愛時，雖然絕不會遮遮掩掩，但也會小心避免同性性愛，尤其是各種場景。因此羅馬人所描畫的內容在五百年前絕不會出現。希臘為人們提供了一個能讓社會思考、討論并表現同性戀的托詞, 自十八世紀以來，甚至在中世紀，都一直有人這么做。這讓這個酒杯成為一件藝術品，而不是色情畫。
