Shadows and sculpture at the Uffizi

Heavenly Venus, first half of the 2nd century (head), 1st–2nd century (torso), 16th century (additions)

Berlinde de Bruyckere, Self-Portrait, 2010

Roman replica of Hellenistic original, Colossal Head of a Sea God, 2nd century

Shadow of classical statue (probably Roman copy of the ancient Greek Discobolus by Myron)

Greek, Gaddi Torso, 1st century BCE

Roman, Young Dionysus with a Panther, first half of the 2nd century with late-Renaissance restorations, likely by Giovanni Caccini (1556–1613)

Anne Seymour Damer, Self-Portrait, 1778

Shadow of the Medici Venus, late 19th century plaster cast of classical marble

Venus Victrix or Belvedere Venus, first half of the 2nd century (body), mid-2nd century (head)

Hellenistic, Head of the so-called “Dying Alexander,” late 2nd century BCE

Ancient androgyny

Bust of a possible Amazon in the collection of Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.

Not much has changed since last week (or the week before, or the week before that). I continue to inch closer to a query letter that doesn’t make me queasy, comb through editing projects, and let ideas for the next book quietly break apart and reconstitute in the back of my mind. The closest thing I’ve had to a breakthrough is figuring out how to talk about characters who don’t use gendered pronouns in something as short as a query. Or, not so much figure out as accept the fact that I must first betray the underlying concept of my book in order to get people interested in the concept in the first place.

Along those lines, I’ve been thinking about the awkwardness of communicating non-traditional genders a lot lately, and that has brought me back to the sculptures pictured in this post.

Androgynous figure from the Gran Museum del Mundo Maya, Mérida. Photo by Renée DeVoe Mertz.