Gardens of Nudes - Part Two
The Horti Sallustiani were originally laid out by Gaius Sallustius Crispus (born 86 - died 35 BCE); during the reign of Tiberius they became part of the imperial estates. The emperors enjoyed this garden and its palace until both were destroyed during Alaric's sack of Rome on August 10, 410 CE. Among the statues found in this garden are the Dying Gaul and the Ludovisi Throne. A statue of one of Niobe's daughters was also found in this garden. In her book "Ancient Copies", Margarete Bieber pointed out that the original statue had been clothed and that the sculptor who copied the statue had denuded her. This Roman practice of creating nude or partially nude copies of female statues which were originally clothed seems to have been quite common. To a certain extent it is understandable; the Greeks had produced a lot of nude male statues, but female nudes were rare before the Hellenistic period. What seems strange is that the Romans didn't commission original statues of female nudes to adorn their gardens.
Many of the Roman Emperors must have had beautiful mistresses, but they don't seem to have decorated their gardens with statues of them. A number of Roman Emperors were known to have admired pretty boys, but the statues of Antinous are almost unique in Roman art. Even though Roman baths were full of nude bodies, artists looked back to nude statues which had been created centuries earlier. Nude statues had become divorced from reality.
The Roman's real creativity was in how they displayed sculpture in their gardens. I will explore that subject in my next article.
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