“How will it affect you?” this ad for Celebrity Cruises asks. It ran in the New York Times this past Sunday, and I tore it out because I thought the statue looked somewhat familiar. The delicate nose nestled against the right shoulder, the dimple over the left hip, the outward curl of the lower spine . . .
There are more than six known copies of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite in the world’s museums, according to the catalog of the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome, which has one. (So does the Galleria Borghese, also in Rome, but the picture above is from the website of the Louvre, whose version has a sort of quilted mattress; the towel in the original, you will observe, is somewhat differently placed, and is not in fact terry-cloth.) Looking from the statue’s left, you see what appears to be the figure of a woman, but when you walk around to the other side, the story abruptly changes.
We're going to London next week so I'll look for one in the British Museum? Cheerio!
Have fun, and let me know what you find!
The copy in the Galeria Borghese (in the Sala dell' Ermafrodito) appears to have been part of Julia Ward Howe's impetus for her hermaphrodite novel. Unfortunately, the side photographed above is unavailable for view at the Galeria Borghese.