Legend has it that the penis on Michelangelo's David was originally
supposed to be larger, but after an accidental slip of the chisel
chopped it off, Michelangelo had to fashion a new organ from the
remaining marble. While this is an amusing story, it has no historical
basis. Michelangelo, like many Renaissance artists, sculpted in the
classical style, which mimicked ancient Greco-Roman sculpture. Since
the ancient Greeks viewed large genitals as comical and bestial, they
typically depicted heroic figures with very small equipment. Many
Roman sculptors followed this tradition, and Michelangelo followed the
examples set by the Greeks and Romans.
Here is a quote from sexual theorist Camille Paglia on the subject:
"Most of the world has probably always esteemed a large penis, except
for Ancient Greece. I think that was an exception to the rule. In
Greece, there was a period of interest in proportion -- they were
working out the ideal proportions of the human body... Roman statues
were in the style of Greek nudes, and nudes that survived from the
Greco-Roman period always had small penises. In art, the penis has
often been extremely small, imitating the Classical Greek style. "
Urban Desires
http://desires.com/1.2/sex/docs/paglia5.html
From "The Bulletin of the History of Medicine," (Volume 75: Pages
375-405, Fall 2001) comes a fascinating article about male genital
aesthetics in ancient Greece and Rome. An excerpt:
"This process is most clearly attested in a hortatory verse in
Aristophanes' comedy Clouds. In the first prescriptive part of the
oration, Socrates' Better Argument states:
If you follow my recommendations,
And keep them ever in mind,
You will always have a rippling chest, radiant skin,
Broad shoulders, a wee tongue,
A grand rump and a petite posthe.
Here, the allusion to the posthe clearly, although humorously, summons
up an image of the entire penis, albeit one that conforms to the
aesthetic ideal seen in artistic depictions of gods and heroes... if a
big penis goes with a hideous face and a small penis with a handsome
face, it is the small penis which was admired."
Circumcision Information and Resource Pages
http://www.cirp.org/library/history/hodges2/
In researching this matter, I used various combinations of these
search terms:
statue
statues
michelangelo's david
small genitals
small penis
classical
greek
roman
greco-roman
aesthetic ideal
Thanks for asking an interesting question. If anything above is
unclear or incomplete, or if any of the links do not function, please
request clarification before rating my answer, and I'll gladly offer
further assistance.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |
