The first ever Roman exhibit at the National Gallery in Washington is indeed a convincing trip back in time: to the McCarthy era. The wan written commentary seems designed to reinforce what viewers already believe rather than educate them about what they don't know. Many, many artifacts have no commentary at all. Although the show's subtitle specifically promises the culture of the ancient world, nowhere do the curators acknowledge the prevalence of same-sex relationships. The exhibit is packed with male subjects who exclusively or enthusiastically loved men, yet this aspect of their lives is whitewashed: Plato, Alexander the Great, Epicurus, Julius Caesar, Caligula, Nero, and Achilles.
Of course the statues, busts, frescoes, pilasters, vases, cups, jewelry and other artifacts are ravishing. [Photography is not allowed.] Their ennobling beauty conveys its own truths, but as for academic enlightenment, you're on your own. Even Carol Mattusch's pretty, 360-page catalog does not have index entries for gay, homosexuality, or sexuality.
Is the enormous painting above Vesuvius erupting or my mind exploding? The curators' decision to degay their exhibit was twice as painful coming a week after the British Museum's superlative, superior Hadrian show. Just as it was doubly disappointing that this screaming omission was ignored by art critics at the Washington Post and the New York Times.
You must go. It's free, no tickets required, in DC until March 22. Then it's in Los Angeles, at LACMA, from May 3 to October 4.
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