Des femmes au "louterion." À la croisée d'une esthétique masculine et féminine au travers des objets

Exploring symbolic objects that their particular iconography, one can glimpse a new construction of feminine beauty in Athens in the fifth century. At a time when their representation is propagated on vases, one witnesses the emergence of pictures of naked women who gather around a pool, an image that was previously reserved for young athletes. In the latter, beauty was expressed through youth, while the beauty of the women came from their adornment, their apparel, and their virtue. Through these images, painters attribute to women the kind of beauty and eroticism associated with young men. Gradually, one sees a shift where signifiers resume their place and the more "traditional" code of naked women is replaced by dressed and athletic women.