No Speed Bumps

Vintage Cutties: Jo Dallesandro, Perseus and Doryphorus!

I remember as a kid of 8 or 9, thinking there was a quantum difference between sculptures of public figures, and those like the Perseus of Cellini (C16 Renaissance cast bronze - first two pics, taken on a trip in 2003, remembering back to 8 or 9!) or the Doryphoros of Polykleitos (C4th BC) :















The last is a Roman copy of the Hellenistic original, known as the 'canon' as it represented, in the C18, the ideal of one type of male beauty (viz heavy build with certain proportions). The other ('finer' more elegant) type was often represented by the Apollo of the Bellevedere, again a Roman copy of a Greek original:


I reckon the type you like is seriously character-revealing: Doryphoros > sensual, and Apollo > intellectual. What do you think?

All of which I was reminded of looking at some older photos of Jo Dallesandro which were based on retrievable 'classical' works of art ( ... 'oh, yeah' I can hear you say, but give me a chance). This early photo one harks back to Canova's sculpture of Pauline Borghese (1805-8), and to Ingres' 'La Grande Odalesque' (1814):




And this one to the Doryphoros (Jo had that type of male beauty):


I don't remember quite which one this refers to! Anyone help me out?!

Some more of Jo's in his 'non-classical' phase! The arse pic is particularly interesting. Dallesandro was put onto the international consciousness by Andy Warhol and The Factory (his worshop in NY, where lots of artists, scene people, and others gathered round Andy). Jo appeared in Warhol films such and 'Heat', 'Flesh', 'Trash' and 'Pink Flamingos' (with Divine). The pic seems to me quite exploitative in that it demonstrates Warhol gratuitously trying to buy into the emerging gay public consciousness and movement. He was gay (or asexual by some accounts) - Jo was not, or interested - just trying to get 'in'.