Arts & Culture
'Aphrodite and the Gods of Love' intoxicates at SAMA
Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei. Museo Archeologico di Napoli. Photo: © pedicinimages.com
Statue of Aphrodite from the amphitheater of Capua, Rome, AD 117-138.
Photo: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Statuette of Eros wearing the lionskin of Herakles, Greek, East Greek, late 1st century BC.
Published: October 3, 2012
By the by, it's definitely worth checking out the hilarious patron-submitted comment cards in the room "Aphrodite Yesterday and Today." "Oh my, how lewd!" exclaims one outraged 78-year-old patron (a card of dubious sincerity and provenance); another opines that "Love is … a fever in the blood, resulting in an imbalance of the four humours of the body." (This patron helpfully included his name — Hippocrates — and age: 2450. SAMA obviously has a deep subscription base in SA's medical community.) The exhibit's catalogue — $35 for a paperback at the book store — is edited by Christine Kondoleon and includes essays from some of the top scholars in the field; full of detailed photos, it's a worthy tabletop companion to one of the niftiest exhibits of classical art in America in the past two decades. If you've at all an interest in the history of western culture — or in web-footed sex goddesses hatched from the scariest recesses of our collective imaginations — you should go.
Aphrodite and the Gods of Love
$5-$10
10am-9pm Tues, Fri, Sat; 10am-5pm Wed-Thur; 10am-6pm Sun
San Antonio Museum of Art
200 W Jones
(210) 978-8100
samuseum.org
Through February 17
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