IN THE MOOD FOR NUDE
In museums of antiquity, naked bodies are pretty much guaranteed. Makes sense, since the human body has been a favourite subject of art ever since the first cave people poked a stick in some pigment and called it home décor. In collections of ancient sculpture, nudes are typically among the most prized, priceless possessions: stone or bronze testaments to artistic ingenuity and tributes to the wonder of the human form, they stand in magnificent poses on plinths or in glass cases for visitors to admire. The nudes, however, aren’t usually moving.
But a museum in Spain recently turned that model on its head, opening its doors to nudists for a special tour during which the visitors could ditch their clothes.
The Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia joined forces with the Catalan Naturism Club on October 28 for a 90-minute tour of a fitting exhibition: photographs of the Bronzes of Riace, a pair of Greek warriors dating back to the fifth century BCE.
But why? As museum guide Edgard Mestre — pictured here wearing nothing but shoes — explained, “We wanted people to feel exactly the same as the work they were looking at.”
The sculptures, meanwhile, cast in about 460 to 450 BCE, are significant because they are among only a few surviving full-size, ancient Greek bronzes in the world. Though the Greeks worked frequently in bronze, most of the works have been lost, melted down and recycled over the centuries into coins, cannons and other objects. Only about 100 to 200 sculptures from the Hellenistic period survive.
This pair was discovered in the sea in 1972 near Riace in southern Italy. Today they can be seen in that country’s National Museum of Magna Graecia in Reggio Calabria. The museum’s website calls them “the most significant bronze sculptures from the Greek period and among the few survivors of works by its master sculptors”.
The nudist tour in the Spanish museum was of an exhibition of photographs by Italian journalist and historian Luigi Spina.
The museum’s website promised visitors the chance to “admire the works by posing in the same situation as they are, completely naked and surrounded by other bodies”.
Reuters quoted the woman in the photo, identified only as Marta, 59, as saying: “[I feel] the same intensity as observing it with clothes on, but with the difference that we might understand better that nudity has always existed and bodies should not be a source of shame for anyone.”
The city where you will find the museum is the capital of the Catalonia region and a top tourist magnet in Spain, famous for such sites as its epic, yet unfinished, Basilica Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudí and its tree-lined pedestrian street called La Rambla.
To stand a chance of winning R500, tell us the name of the city where you will find the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia. Email your answer to travelquiz@sundaytimes.co.za before noon on November 8.