Univ., Diss.--Perugia. / Contains bibl. (p. 602-683) and notes.

This thesis examines the city of Rome as a primary context of British sociability and portrait identity during the period from 1740 to 1830. Part I considers the work of the portrait painter Pompeo Batoni. It examines the pictorial record of grand tourist sociability at Rome in the 1750s, questioning the complex articulation of nationality among British visitors, and the introduction of overt references to antiquity in the portraiture of Pompeo Batoni. It subsequently interrogates Batoni's use of the partially nude Vatican Ariadne sculpture in five portraits of male grand tourists, dating from Charles John Crowle in 1762, to Thomas William Coke in 1774. Part II of this thesis considers the realities of viewing the sculpted body at Rome, recreating the studios of sculptors Christopher Hewetson and Antonio Canova. It postis the studio space as a locus of sociability for British visitors to Rome, drawing on the feminine gaze in the form of the early nineteenth-century writings of Charlotte Eaton and Lady Murray. The final chapter moves from the focus on British sitters to examine sculpture by Antonio Canova, framing it within a wider discourse of masculinity and propriety. Thte reception of Canova's nude portrait sculpture of Napoleon Bonaparte and Pauline Borghese is considered as indicative of cultural anxieties stemming from new conceptions of gender.

This research examines the manifestation of gender inequality represented in female sculptures during the Classical period and the relevance of such evidence. To achieve the purpose, the female figures and their sculptural developments are compared to their male counterparts, and their differences are examined and interpreted. After that, the essay views how female figures from Greek mythology were represented unequally regarding the “female nakedness” and its manipulation. To conclude, the relevance of the evidence on the manifestation of female inferiority in Classical Greek sculpture is discussed by examining how the Graeco-Roman world is often perceived and how this perception might be improved in the future for the new evidence to become more relevant.  During the Classical period, Greek sculpture embodied the ideals and values of the patriarchal society. This resulted in female figures that were never represented equally and instead were made to embody the societies’ misogynistic view of women and their bodies. While the male statues were nude, athletic, and heroic, the female figures were fully clothed or partially exposed, made erotic and sensual, and with the female nakedness, they were depicted as vulnerable, violated, and always enslaved to their biology.  Not only is the evidence on gender manifestation relevant, but it should be acknowledged on a much larger scale. The misguided perception of the Graeco-Roman world should be corrected, and we should begin a new chapter in art history and create a new generation of non- biased perceptions. Ultimately, the female figures should be acknowledged for what they represent and not ignored.

This Bachelor’s thesis examines the use of ancient bronze statues in the 2017 film Call me by your name by director Luca Guadagnino. Various scenes which feature ancient statues are examined individually using semiotic analysis. The scenes are examined individually, first described on a denotative level, then analyzed on a connotative level. The theoretical stand point is based on the studies of art works in film. Key theoretical concepts used are ”in between-ness” which is a state in which change in narrative is made possible through looking at art, and ”parallels”, a means of which to make art represent the characters in the film. The thesis finds the sculptures in Call me by your name to play a part in affecting the narrative of the film, mainly in regard to the love story between the two lead characters, two men named Elio and Oliver. The acts of looking, examining, and touching the statues in this film help the narrative turn in favor of the lead characters romantic relationship. The thesis argues that the nude bronze sculptures of men from ancient Greece are used in this film as signifiers of desire, timelessness and homoerotic lust.