Red light Pompei
From the excavations reappears an erotic fresco of the famous myth of Leda and the swan
Art & Design
November 23rd, 2018
November 23rd, 2018
The art world is in fibrillation for a new, important find. During the excavations in the Regio V, the unexplored portion of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, in fact, a large fresco has been portrayed depicting Leda, the queen of Sparta, while she is impregnated by Jupiter, the king of the gods who it has become a swan. Rich in colors and nuances, the work, survived almost unscathed by the fury of the eruption, reveals the highest quality of execution and, as the director of the park Massimo Osanna emphasizes, a unique and interesting particular iconography, never so explicit and sensual: the woman almost completely naked, caressed by a golden cloth, looking at the observer, and legs open to welcome the animal.
The reference model seems to be the Leda of the Greek Timòteo, great sculptor of the fourth century BC and only one of the many artists who, over the centuries, from Michelangelo to Tintoretto, from Cezanne to Gericault, have made their own version of the popular myth Greek. The legend, already present in the Metamorphosis of Ovid, tells that, from the double embrace of the queen, first with Jupiter and then with her husband Tindaro, the twins Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri), Elena, future wife of Menelaus king of Sparta, will be born and because of the Trojan war, and Clytemnestra, then wife and murderer of Agamemnon king of Argos and brother of Menelaus. What will happen now to the finding just found on the wall of the small bedroom on the eastern side of Via del Vesuvio? Experts are considering the possibility of removing it and moving it to a place where it can be safeguarded and exposed to the public.
A fun fact: in the same domus of the portrait of Leda, probably the home of "a rich merchant anxious to raise his social status even with reference to the myths of the highest culture", last summer another interesting and decoration was found hot: Priapus in the act of weighing the phallus (an image similar to the one found in the now famous Via dei Balconi). Who knows what other treasures hides Pompeii?
