herenciageneticayenfermedad: Classical nudes and the Iranian President.

sábado, 6 de febrero de 2016

Classical nudes and the Iranian President.

It was said that Americans of the Victorian era were so prudish that they enveloped the legs of table and pianos with frilly garments to safeguard their modesty. This canard seems to have been the malicious invention of English novelist Frederick Marryat.

However, the mythical spirit of Victorian repression is alive and well in Italy, of all places. Last week Iranian president Hassan Rouhani paid a state visit to Rome to stitch up an US$18 billion trade deal. Much to the amusement of journalists at the press conference at the Capitoline Museums, classical nudes were covered with large boxes, presumably not to offend the Shi’ite dignitary.

This is the sort of event which sends journalists into paroxysms of sarcastic hilarity and pitches op-ed contributors into lugubrious forecasts about a Muslim Europe. In fact, no one has taken responsibility for requesting or authorising the prudery packages.

Whatever the facts of the matter, MercatorNet contributor Chiara Bertoglio sees in the event an opportunity to reflect on the Judeao-Christian view of the human body. “Each one of us, even if we are old, ugly, fat or disproportioned,” she writes, “is a creature in whom God rejoices: in our Creator’s eyes, each one of our bodies is as beautiful as the perfect nudes of Classical sculpture.” Read her article below.