'Forget the last arrow, only the next will count.'
Most contemporary incarnations of the male form had their origins in mythology and with the Gods. Whether it be iconic holiday characters, classic sculptures or paintings, or the poses captured by so many of the artists that feature. Cupid, one of the most famous symbols of Valentine's, originates from two historical mythologies.
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the son of Venus, the Goddess of love. In Greek mythology, he was known as Eros, the son of Aphrodite was known as the God of love and sexual desire. According to Roman mythology, Cupid fell madly in love with Psyche despite his mothers jealousy over Psyche's beauty. Although most Greek Gods don't use their bow and arrow to shoot the love power, they hold connections to the Cupid's current incarnation.
Apollo mocked the god of love, Eros for his use of bow and arrow. Apollo was also patron of archery and taunted Eros with insults. 'What are you doing with powerful weapons, naughty boy...' Angry an insulted, Eros prepared two arrows: one of gold and one of lead. He shot Apollo with the gold arrow, instilling in the god a passionate love for the river nymph Daphne. He shot Daphne with the lead arrow, instilling in her a hatred for Apollo.
Many FH readers may remember my previous piece featuring London based photographer Statuesque, and his work with the Barleycorn Triplets. (The Three Graces) The images of Teucer and Apollo were a part of the photographic essay Statuesque was inspired the artist's lifelong love of sculpture and his feeling that it continues to be undervalued as an art form.
'It doesn’t have quite the same status as painting, and the crudest measure of this is the price mechanism. To acquire old master paintings you need to spend millions; a collection of fine piece of sculpture can be assembled for thousands. Sculpture is a very public art form. No one would dream of leaving a valuable painting exposed to the elements, be we walk past statues, monuments and memorials in the street, sometimes paying them no more attention than the lamp-posts.'
Teucer
'The idea behind Statuesque was to interpret great works of sculpture, ancient and modern, through the medium of photography: to bring the statues down off their plinths and into our world. To do justice to the magnificent works of art I had chosen, I needed a model whose body looked like a work of art in itself, and I found one in Danny. His magnificent physique made him the perfect interpreter of iconic images of make beauty like the Apollo Belvedere and Teucer.'
There was a problem with the bow in both images. I hired the props and costumes for the shoot from the National Theatre in London, but the only bow they could produce was so small it must have come from their recent production of Peter Pan. It certainly didn’t have a heroic feel about it. However my digital retoucher was able to isolate the bow from the photograph of the statuette of Teucer and put it into Danny’s hands for both photos.
Teucer is much more modern. Representing the great archer who fought with the Greeks at the siege of Troy, it was created as a life-size bronze figure by Hamo Thornycroft in 1882, and was so popular it was then turned into a sixteen-inch statuette for collectors.
The Apollo Belvedere is a Roman marble statue of the second century AD which was dug up in Italy in 1489. Its fame spread throughout Europe thanks to engravings, and it quickly established itself as the perfection of the ancient Greek ideal body.
Apollo
There was a problem with the bow in both images. I hired the props and costumes for the shoot from the National Theatre in London, but the only bow they could produce was so small it must have come from their recent production of Peter Pan. It certainly didn’t have a heroic feel about it. However my digital retoucher was able to isolate the bow from the photograph of the statuette of Teucer and put it into Danny’s hands for both photos.
Danny had never done a nude shoot before and was initially quite nervous about it. However, he completely bought into the vision behind the project and really threw himself into it. We did a lot of shots of Teucer, which was my favourite image of the series, but I wasn’t quite satisfied, so when he was just about to leave the set, I asked if we could try one more. He went up on the balls of his feet, which had the effect of tightening his thigh muscles and created the perfect silhouette.
Statuesque on ModelMayhem
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