Aphrodite1.1066_Rauschenberg

Aphrodite1.1066_Rauschenberg

higher res
Ovid Met.6.146-312

Robert Rauschenberg, "Persimmon," 1964, Art Institute of Chicago

The artists of the Pop Art movement experimented with taking the traditional and combining it with production methods and imagery from the world of mass media. Rauschenberg used screenprinting to reproduce Peter Paul Rubens’ “The Toilet of Venus” (1613/14), the screen which he used in nine works of art during 1964. In “Persimmon,” he layers the goddess of art and beauty on top of images of objects and a city scene using a printing method formerly only used for advertising - fitting for an artistic movement which defined itself by questioning the definition of art and beauty.

Mixed media painting with a woman looking in a mirror, superimposed over urban landscapes and abstract elements

The name of the piece refers to a type of fruit common in Asia. Before they are ripe, the fruit is bitter and inedible, but with age it grows sweet and can even be used for medicinal purposes. Thus, when applied to this work by Rauchenberg, beauty grows with age.

This slide created by C.Monson.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.