Marble Statue of a Wounded Amazon

The writer Pliny the Edler of Rome once described a competition where famous sculptors including Phidias, Polykleitos, and Kresilas would have to create a piece depicting an Amazon. In Greek myth, Amazons were depicted as strong warrior women, often batteling heros such as Achilles. Here, the nudity is actually not the main focus, but her face. Here serene expression doesn't give way to the fact that she has lost the battle she was fighting. We know this because of the wound on her breast, making the nudity a necessity, rather than as aesthetic choice. Women, although warriors in their own right, don't get to show wounds like this, for fear of being judged and persecuted by a jury of their peers. Are we warriors? Or are we naked and afraid?

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