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I believe, in the whole, there were two hundred women.... The first
sofas were covered with cushions and rich carpets, on which sat the
ladies; and on the second, their slaves behind them,.... all being in the
state of nature, that is, in plain English, stark naked.... There were
many amongst them as exactly proportioned as ever any goddess was drawn by
the pencil of... Titian,.. I was charmed by their civility and beauty... Tis
no less than death for a man to be found in one of these places.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Letter to Elizabeth Rich on her experiences
in
the women's baths at Sophia, dated 1 April 1717
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Although the Minoans and later the ancient Greeks had bathtubs, it
was the Romans who made bathing popular. The epitome of Roman civilisation,
Roman therme, or baths, were luxurious and spacious. Pools, walls and
even floors were heated. Splendid examples of urban architecture, therme
were places where men bathed, had manicures and pedicures, took steam
baths and did gymnastic exercises. They were a focal point of social and
political activity. Romans are known to have made momentous decisions
whilst steaming in the baths or strolling about in sandals and towels.
With the fall of the Roman empire, this glorious bath culture disappeared
from the European scene. What later replaced it was certainly on a much
more modest scale. Medieval Nuremberg, for instance, boasted a total of
thirteen public "bathing rooms" in which huge wooden tubs were filled with
hot water. There were also sometimes steam baths and resting rooms heated
by tiled stoves. Such baths were not just venues for promoting body
culture; they were also used as surgeries: teeth were pulled, blood was
let, cupping-glasses were applied to the backs and chests of those with
colds and minor operations were performed. Bathing rooms were frowned on
by the Church owing to the voluptuous pleasures enjoyed in them. "Bath
attendants" were licentious women who are said to have been the reason why King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia visited the bathing
establishments of Prague, his capital, more frequently than was good for
his sensitive skin. In the Near East, on the other hand, the ancient bath
culture survived
because going to a hammam (bath) is prescribed by Islam.
Inspired by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's account of her travels in the
region, the French painter
Jean-Auguste
Dominique Ingres painted the
women's section of a Turkish bathhouse. The celebrated master was eighty-three years old when he added the crowning touch to his
oeuvre by depicting a Turkish bath scene.
Ingres made hundreds of
preliminary sketches for the painting before presenting it to Prince
Charles-Louis-Napoleon in December 1859. Only a few weeks later, however,
the painting was returned to
Ingres, allegedly because the prince's wife,
Eugenie de Montijo, was scandalised by the naked ladies depicted so
sensuously in this remarkable work. When Turkish Bath was exhibited
in a second, essentially unchanged version, the nudes were what brought
the painting widespread public acclaim. Critics praised it as a "tryst
with Oriental coquetry" or, rather crudely, as a "feast of carnal
delights" and a "still life of sensual pleasures". It certainly had an
impact on Picasso and other artists, who admired it both for its
composition and formal idiom. After this masterpiece,
Ingres was no longer
thought of as a "bloodless exponent of Neoclassicism". From now on he was
a groundbreaking "revolutionary".
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