I know. It’s something you’ve been asking yourself for a long time. I’ve only recently come across this consideration.
Here are a few points the Boys considered in the extant works:
- They are natural beings.
- Their form is human.
- Their image is human.
- They are described as beautiful.
- Their bodies are incorruptible.
- Their body parts are in no way disabled.
- They are described as having children.
- They have stated genders and orientations.
... I was halfway through trying to answer this myself when I came across a conclusive historical anecdote:
Yes, they did. And YES, they DID.
“Praxiteles is an artist whose date I have mentioned among those of the makers of bronze statues, but in the fame of his work in marble he surpassed even himself. There are works by him at Athens in the Cerameicus; and yet superior to anything not merely by Praxiteles, but in the whole world, is the Venus, which many people have sailed to Cnidus to see. He had made two figures, which he put up for sale together. One of them was draped and for this reason was preferred by the people of Cos, who had an option on the sale, although he offered it at the same price as the other. This they considered to be the only decent and dignified course of action. The statue which they refused was purchased by the people of Cnidus and achieved an immeasurably greater reputation. [21] Later King Nicomedes was anxious to buy it from them, promising so to discharge all the state's vast debts. The Cnidians, however, preferred to suffer anything but this, and rightly so; for with this statue Praxiteles made Cnidus a famous city. The shrine in which it stands is entirely open so as to allow the image of the goddess to be viewed from every side, and it is believed to have been made in this way with the blessing of the goddess herself. The statue is equally admirable from every angle. There is a story that a man once fell in love with it and hiding by night embraced it, and that a stain betrays this lustful act. [22] In Cnidus there are also other marble figures by notable artists, a Father Liber by Bryaxis, a Father Liber and a Minerva by Scopas; but there is no greater proof of the excellence of Praxiteles' Venus than the fact that amidst these works it alone receives mention. To Praxiteles belongs also a Cupid, with which Cicero taunted Verres, the famous Cupid for the sake of which men visited Thespiae, and which now stands in Octavia's Buildings. To him belongs, moreover, another Cupid, which is naked, at Parium, the colony on the Propontis, a work that matches the Venus of Cnidus in its renown, as well as in the outrageous treatment which it suffered. For Alcetas, a man from Rhodes, fell in love with it and left upon it a similar mark of his passion. [23] At Rome the works of Praxiteles are a Flora, a Triptolemus and a Ceres in the Gardens of Servilius, images of Success and Good Fortune on the Capitol, and likewise the Maenads, the so-called Thyiads and Caryatids and the Sileni in the collection of Asinius Pollio, as well as an Apollo and a Neptune. [24] The son of Praxiteles, Cephisodotus, inherited also his skill. His 'Persons Grappling' at Pergamum is highly praised, being notable for the fingers, which seem genuinely to sink into living flesh rather than into dead marble. At Rome his works are the Latona in the temple of the Palatine Apollo, a Venus in the collection of Asinius Pollio, and the Aesculapius and Diana in the temple of Juno within the Porticoes of Octavia. (Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 36.20-24)
I had a good laugh, trying to picture the physical logistics of accomplishing what that man did.
Imagine pearl-clutchers warning society against showing naked statues of goddesses, only for one of the first, and most famous, naked goddess statues to have been the target of ... "vandalism" I guess?
