Fascinating episode! If I can throw out another angle on the “whiteness” of statuary - there were tons of printed black and white representations of Ancient Greek/Roman statues from the 1600s onwards and I wonder if that might have helped form the public's idea of those statues as being monochromatic? Also, a sizeable percentage of old prints seem a bit porn-y but presenting them as images of statuary probably made them more acceptable and easy to market. I’m probably just repeating back what you said, though I think it was in more of a religious artwork framing but the whiteness like a sort of filter that allows a conservative society to appreciate them without reckoning with their nudity/sensuality. Painted genitals and pubic hair might be different somehow?
Fascinating episode! If I can throw out another angle on the “whiteness” of statuary - there were tons of printed black and white representations of Ancient Greek/Roman statues from the 1600s onwards and I wonder if that might have helped form the public's idea of those statues as being monochromatic? Also, a sizeable percentage of old prints seem a bit porn-y but presenting them as images of statuary probably made them more acceptable and easy to market. I’m probably just repeating back what you said, though I think it was in more of a religious artwork framing but the whiteness like a sort of filter that allows a conservative society to appreciate them without reckoning with their nudity/sensuality. Painted genitals and pubic hair might be different somehow?