The Goddess Aphrodite Goes West (To The Getty)

Head of Aphrodite ("The Bartlett Head"), Greek, Late Classical or Early Hellenistic Period, about 330–300 B.C. Parian marble.

Typically associated with beauty and erotic desire, Aphrodite is one of the most compelling and powerful of ancient Greek divinities. Aphrodite and the Gods of Love, on view at the Getty Villa from March 28 through July 9, 2012, presents the goddess in her manifold aspects, exploring her precursors in the ancient Near East, her devotees, her companions and offspring, and culminates with her adaptation in Roman religion as Venus. 

“We are thrilled to have worked collaboratively with our colleagues at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston to present this first U.S. museum exhibition devoted to Aphrodite, which includes many important works from the collections of both museums as well as from Italian institutions,” says David Bomford, acting director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “This exhibition is an opportunity for a broader examination of the goddess, a favored subject of J. Paul Getty himself.” 

Oil flask (lekythos) in the form of Aphrodite, Greek, Late Classical Period, mid-4th century B.C. Ceramic, Figural.

David Saunders, assistant curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition at the Getty adds, “This exhibition goes beyond the conventional preconceptions of Aphrodite as simply the goddess of love. It reveals other sides of her that deserve attention—her role as a protectress in certain cities, for example, or her care for sailors and merchants. Furthermore, we demonstrate that she was not always benevolent. There are numerous cases in which she and Eros manipulate the desires of both men and gods.” 

Statuette of Aphrodite untying a sandal (Sandalbinder), Greek, East Greek, Late Hellenistic Period, 1st century B.C. Terracotta.

The exhibition begins with Aphrodite as we expect her—nude, beautiful, and seductive. Her naked body was first depicted by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles around 350 B.C., and his sensational cult statue for her temple at Knidos (in present-day Turkey)—now lost— proved enormously influential. In the exhibition, sculptures showing Aphrodite bathing and dressing herself represent the major variations of the female nude. In addition, perfume vessels, storage jars, and mirrors demonstrate how the goddess served as a model for women in their boudoirs and baths. 

Sleeping Hermaphrodite, Roman, Imperial Period, 1st century B.C. Marble. Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma.

 Having outlined what is familiar about Aphrodite, the exhibition turns to lesser known themes. First is the vexed question of her origins. She was not native to early Greek religion but evolved over centuries, influenced by a variety of Near Eastern goddesses associated with power, fertility, and war. Figurines from Cyprus and the Near East dating as far back as the third millennium B.C. are used to explore the complex story of the goddess’s genesis. The next section of the exhibition looks at Aphrodite’s involvement in affairs of the heart, most notably in the mythical Judgment of Paris, when she offered Helen, queen of Sparta, as her prize. 

The Judgment of Paris, Roman, Imperial Period, 45–79 A.D. Fresco. Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.

Aphrodite was hardly a model wife herself, and the child of her liaison with Hermes was Hermaphroditos, represented in the exhibition by the magnificent sculpture of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite from the Palazzo Massimo in Rome. The fickle nature of Aphrodite’s companion, and in some sources, son, Eros is also explored in this section. He is a child who toys with lovers, and is often described in ancient texts as capricious and troublesome. Many of the depictions of Eros in the exhibition reinforce this notion. One terracotta statue portrays him as a young boy wearing a lion-skin, just like Herakles. The combination looks endearing, but conveys how powerful and potentially destructive desire can be. 

Statuette of Eros wearing the lionskin of Herakles, Greek, East Greek, Hellenistic Period, 1st century B.C. Terracotta.

 

The final section of the exhibition focuses on Aphrodite’s worship, using material from sites such as Athens, Cyprus, Naukratis, and Aphrodisias to examine the identity of her devotees, the kinds of offerings they made, and regional cults. On display only at the Getty Villa are votive offerings from Aphrodite’s sanctuary at the Etruscan port of Gravisca. 

Statuette of Aphrodite emerging from the sea, Greek or Roman, Eastern Mediterranean, Hellenistic or Imperial Period, 1st century B.C. or 1st century A.D. Marble probably from the Greek island of Paros.

These demonstrate her importance to merchants, for her powers over the sea meant that she could permit smooth-sailing for travelers. At the center of this section stands the Capua Venus, an over life-size Roman statue discovered in the amphitheater at Capua. This imposing figure originally held a shield, a symbol of Aphrodite’s much-debated martial nature. The statue also looks forward to the final section of the exhibition—the similarities and differences between the Greek goddess, and Venus, her Roman counterpart.

Votive Relief with Aphrodite and devotees, Greek, Late Classical period, 4th century B.C. Marble. Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. 

NOTE:  

This exhibition looks splendid.  I’m sorry I didn’t see it in Boston, but my travels lately have been tightly circumscribed.  If you are looking for me (unlikely, but possible), I’m easy to find.    I answer to several names, however.  

Spring is here and the time is righter than ever (as Cliff Richard used to say in response to nagging questions about when he would finally marry)  for Aphrodite.  If I were in Los Angeles, I would make tracks to the Getty Villa  to visit this show.

Disruptive Technologies

Madagascar: New species --  Brown lemur

          This morning the odd and seemingly pointless LinkedIn professional networking service/website informed me that a former work colleague and friend aka Jerk No. 1 had added to his Professional Skills listing. 
 

          He now claims to be an expert in “Disruptive Technologies.”

Disruptive Technology House (?)

                 Obviously, on first, second and third consideration (and especially if you know him), this sounds embarrassing, stupid, pointless, meaningless, trivial and highly pretentious.

Disruptive Technology "S" Curve (??)

          Chief among this fellow's personal and professional vices is that he never returns telephone calls unless and until he believes to an immoral certainty that there’s something in it for him.  (Although this behavior is not unique to him, and can be said, in fact, to be a leitmotif of contemporary business practice, this guy has raised it to Nobel Prize theory and world champion practice levels.)

Disruptive Technology (???)  

          While on the surface he appears to be a pleasant and polite fellow, he is not -- he is simply unforgivably and unforgettably rude and self-centered.   Over the years, I have met a Veritable  Multitude of egocentric recording artists with whom my wife worked -- Big Rock Stars -- who are positively St. Theresa -like  -- paragons of humility, empathy and charity -- compared to this guy.  (Not to mention more talented and better-looking. I mention this because he's exceedingly vain.)

Cliff !

          A queer & coincidental corollary to this person’s mien and modus operandi is that the two of us have a mutual acquaintance (another former colleague), Jerk No. 2,  who is exactly as rude in exactly the same ways, and who vies for Jerk No. 1's # 1 (with a bullet) position on the Jerk Hit Parade.   

         On the rare occasions when one gains a telephonic or in--person audience with Jerk No. 1, he complains incessantly about Jerk No. 2, who has not yet publicly announced and self-identified as a Disruptive Technologies expert and, particularly, about his failure to return telephone calls.  (N.b.: I feel in my toes that this announcement is on the horizon; Jerk No. 2 is "all over the social media like a cheap suit", rather than bestriding it like a Colossus.)

 

R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders !!

          Query: When two Disruptive Technologies experts get together (in a manner of speaking), do they cancel each other out?

Authentic First Principle !!!

          Around the dawn-hour LinkedIn's missive disturbed, distressed and disrupted my day, the Discovery Channel informed me that isolated living was an essential element in natural selection's  process of forming new species. 

Papua, New Guinea: New species -- Tube-nosed fruit bat

          Perhaps I have these guys all wrong. Perhaps Disruptive Technologies are in fact God’s work, promoting existential isolation and part of the evolutionary plan. 

          I would like to believe this is positive.    

          But the way things are going lately, that is very difficult to do.

Typhoon Roke -- 9/21/11

          Just possibly:

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang,

Or a whimper, 

But Instead 

An Unreturned Telephone Call. 

Disrupted Technology

Isolated Living

4 Abbey Road Vignettes

   3 Abbey Road, London NW8

I.                    Artur Schnabel, the world famous pianist, was almost a resident at Abbey Road during the 30s when he recorded all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas and five concertos.  But it was apparent when he first walked into the studio to find the orchestra set up and his piano in place that his stay was not to be a happy one.  He paced around the studio, stopping in the middle of the room and declaring,  ‘I play here’.  Hastily his piano was moved and work began.  But still the recording did not go smoothly and on one occasion 29 waxes were required for a single record because Schnabel continually slammed down his piano lid or kicked his stool and muttered, ‘Impossible, impossible’, as things went from bad to worse.  Recording the 15 volumes, made up of 100 records, took more than a decade to complete.

It was the classical artists who dominated Abbey Road during those early years and fortunately all of them were not as difficult as Schnabel.  Pablo Casals, the world famous cellist, had a much calmer approach.  During the recording of a Brahms concerto the D string on his cello snapped and he calmly tied it together with a sailor’s knot and continued playing.  Fritz Kreisler took no chances when he recorded with his violin in Abbey Road.  He changed into carpet slippers (to avoid any inadvertent squeak from his shoes) when he arrived at the studio which was always a good hour or so before anyone else.  Armed with a small meter for reading the humidity of the studio, he would decide which violin to use – his Stradivarius or the Guarnerius.  Once decided, he would toss the other violin away casually and it would be left lying about in a corner during the recording.

Fritz Kreisler

II.                  One unique piece of equipment which was used at Abbey Road throughout the 30s was a huge Compton organ, installed in Studio 1 in order that the popular cinema and theater organ recitals, which were a feature of the day, could be recorded more precisely and more comfortably.  Reginald Dixon, who recently celebrated 50 years of recording and announced his retirement due to ill health, remembers the great Abbey Road organ.  ‘I was a corporal in the RAF when I first went there and recorded on this huge instrument.  I remember that when we finished a session I would often stay on and play until the early hours of the morning, fortified only by a bottle or two of Bass beer.  To be totally honest, though I never said anything at the time, I never really liked the Compton, but because of the problems recording in cinemas, theaters or even at Blackpool, I had no choice but to use it.

Fats Waller at the Compton organ, Abbey Road Studios

A visitor from America who used to play the Compton organ regularly, but again always after hours, was Fats Waller.  In 1938 he recorded an album called Fats Waller in London and, as an admirer of pipe organs, he couldn’t resist the temptation to play around in the wee small hours.  With the aid of a bottle of whisky, Waller put the staid old instrument through its paces and extracted sounds which had never been heard before.

Bruce Welch (l), Hank B. Marvin (r) -- Shadows

III.                Bruce Welch, along with the Shadows and Cliff Richard, had become, however, a firm fan of Studio 2 by this time.  ‘It was the pop studio – Move It was done there and so was Apache and then the Beatles went in there.  Before Cliff and ourselves went there and began making hits nobody  had really established the studio but by the time we’d finished, along with Helen Shapiro and Frank Ifield, then everybody wanted to move in.  It’s strange to hear people talking about the studio as the place where the Beatles recorded all their hits because before that they used to say, ‘This is the place where Cliff and the Shadows recorded all their hit records’.

Cliff Richard and The Shadows  (left to right: Bruce Welch, Cliff Richard, Hank B. Marvin, Jet Harris, Tony Meehan)

With four years experience in the business, Bruce was interested to see the latest pop phenomenon  which had taken the country by storm.  ‘I remember the Beatles coming in and as the “old pros” we went to get to know them.  It was obvious they were going to be enormous; their talent was obvious.  They not only wrote great songs but they had that Liverpool front – a lot of confidence and four very distinct personalities.  What they wrote and recorded in there was totally fresh and was like a bombshell to everybody that heard it, including us.  Then they began calling the tune in the studio as they became more and more successful, they changed everything and ended up virtually running the studio. We used to get calls asking us to move out of number 2 studio because the Beatles wanted it but we never moved, we just carried on until we’d finished.

  

John Lennon, Abbey Road, 1964

IV.                During the hectic days of the early 60s, life for the Beatles become one round of live dates, press and radio interviews, television appearances and recording sessions, the latter taking place in Abbey Road where the most famous group in the history of pop music began to seek some respite from the pressures of the outside world.

The Beatles, Abbey Road, 1964

‘I think to some degree it was a refuge for us,’ explains Paul, ‘but to be honest it was the place where we recorded; we had to come here anyway whether it was a refuge or not.  It was a nice place to come to; the reason wasn’t that it was such a great place to be in that we stayed here through the night, it was actually just the workers taking over the tools of their trade.   All that kind of thing was being mooted anyway, and we would be working on a thing quite late and we would kinda say, “What time can we go on to tonight?” and we eventually started to sort of stretch it, you know?’

 Studio 2

The Beatles’ ability to work long hours undisturbed is a legend in Abbey Road.  Endless cups of tea, fish and chips, and Chinese takeaways were ordered as they worked night and day to finish the records that brought them more and more success, increased pressures, and ultimately, greater control of their destiny.

From:  Brian Southall, Abbey Road:  The Story of the world’s most famous recording studios, Wellingborough (UK), Patrick Stephens, 1982

November 12, 1931:  Opening of EMI Studios, Abbey Road by Sir Edward Elgar (Press link to play Pomp and Circumstance)

The Beatles with George Martin, Studio 2

Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Studio 2, with producer Norrie Paramor (Click on photo to enlarge).

Reginald Dixon playing the Blackpool Tower organ (early 1930s) (press link to play)

George Martin (l) recording Peter Sellers (r)(Press link to play: Balham - Gateway to the South)