Queer & Amphora depicting older man courting young man

Queer, 2022

Jolie Rolnick

watercolor on paper

I chose to create a watercolor painting which depicts homosexual intimacy. The vase I am responding to depicts a homosexual relationship but it hardly exposes its queerness; if one were not familiar with the tradition of pederasty in Ancient Greece, one may very well miss the homosexual element of the piece altogether. My goal was to create a piece that is unabashedly queer but maintains a certain softness and modesty. I allowed both the female and male figures to hold each other in an expression of tenderness, but have kept them from actually engaging in a sexual act. I hope to communicate queer intimacy and sensuality through the sheer body language of the figures. While animal gifts are central to the pederastic relationship on the amphora, I did not include any objects to distinguish the relationships between lovers as passionate and non-transactional. I framed my piece in a gold antique frame to contrast antiquity, a period in which queer lovers were barred from expressing their queerness, with this distinctly modern, vibrant expression of queerness.

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Storage Jar (Amphora) depicting older man courting young man, 550 - 540 BCE

Greek, Attica

Terracotta, black figure

RISD Museum, Gift of Mrs. Gustav Radeke 13.1497

In Ancient Greece, it was customary for older men (erastês) to seek out younger boys (erômenos) as protégés, in a sexual relationship known as “pederasty.” Scholars believe the younger boys to be between the ages of twelve and fifteen, and the older men at least twenty five. In these homosexual relationships, the older man serves as a mentor, guiding the boy as he enters Greek society. These relationships were most common among the upper classes. While the younger male is described as a “passive” partner, he holds some degree of power in that he is able to choose his lover from the suitors who pursue him. The relationship between the older man and the younger boy represents the only homosexual relationship condoned (or encouraged) in Ancient Greece; homosexual relations between two men of similar ages was condemned. Even pederastic relationships were not supposed to continue after the younger boy reaches the age of twenty, at which point he might seek out marital relationships with women.

This black-figure amphora depicts this initial courting. On one side of the jar, the older man, signified by his beard, gifts the younger man a leashed dog. The younger man is holding two roosters. On the other side of the jar the older man presents a stag while reaching out to touch the younger man’s face. This action might be interpreted as a demonstration of dominance. Both men are nude, and appear to be engaging in conversation. The relationship is, evidently, transactional in nature. The courting portrayed on the jar is signified by the tangible gifts– in this case live animals– that the older man is able to offer the boy. Only the older man, not the younger boy, is supposed to experience sexual pleasure as a result of this relationship. The boy is meant to seek socialization, a coming into his manhood, rather than any sort of sexual pleasure.

Attic black-figure vases serve as key sources for modern scholars to understand pederasty in Ancient Greece. Other common depictions of pederasty feature the older man reaching for the boy’s face and/or genitals, or intercrural sex between the man and the boy.