The Rear view : a brief and elegant history of bottoms through the ages /
Brief and elegant history of bottoms through the ages
Jean-Luc Hennig ; translated by Margaret Crosland and Elfreda Powell.
- 1st American ed.
- New York : Crown Publishers, c1995.
- 181 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm.
Translation of: Brève histoire des fesses.
The Rear View is a celebration of the behind, ranging from its physical evolution to its history as a source of artistic and literary inspiration and as a barometer of social attitudes. The ancient Greeks revered the buttocks as being an aspect of the divine and portrayed them enthusiastically on marble statuary. With the Christian era, however, depiction of the nude figure sank into shameful ignominy until the fifteenth century, when Florentine artists once more raised. the bottom to subliminal heights, from which lofty eminence it was dashed by the prudish Victorians, who found everything from the waist down a source of embarrassment. Today dress designers decree that the bottom should once more be the focus of attention, and no dedicated followers of fashion can afford to neglect their rear view - or this well-rounded appraisal of it.