A Word About Sculpture

A word about Sculpture:  many of us have statues or busts as decoration in our homes.  They are, and have been for centuries a commonly used element or accessory.  We see statues in museums, catalogues and books.  My absolute favorite is Nike of Samothrace which is in the Louvre.  When I saw it in person many years ago, I almost swooned it's so beautiful. 

But it started me wondering why the majority of the Greek and Roman statues are missing heads and limbs.  Were they so poorly made or fragile that anything “sticking out” was doomed to destruction?  Didn’t anyone know how to make a statue that didn’t fall apart?

 

So I did some research.  Do you know why they’re without heads or limbs?  Because the bloody, fanatical Christians of that era chopped them off!  Virtually all sculptures were of Pagan gods or goddesses so they decapitated them and destroyed any part of the statue which might give away its identity thus preventing anyone worshipping them.  The only statues allowed to stand untouched were of actual historical/religious figures (like David or The Pieta) or saints of the Catholic Church.  Pagan statues were considered an affront to the Christian God; blasphemy and idolatry, if you will.  So they had to be stripped of their identity so they couldn’t be honored or prayed to.  Ironically, when Henry VIII engineered the split from Catholicism, the Anglicans rounded up all the Catholic statues and destroyed them for exactly the same reason: idolatry.  Karma, anyone?

Though it had a more sinister purpose, the same thing was done to images of the ancient Egyptian female Pharaohs, whether by their male successors or Roman conquerors.  Pagans may have been hated by Christians, but everyone hated and feared women, most especially powerful women.  (And they still do in most parts of the world.)  So let sculpture keep this thought in the forefront of your mind: From the beginning of time until present day, no matter what  race or nationality, people do not change.  They will always destroy things with which they disagree and they will always use religion to justify it.