Have you ever wondered why so much official American art is homoerotic?
Prague may win the award for
the most public penises, but Washington, DC is a close second. Here are the top 10 naked men in DC.
1. Horatio Greenough's statue of a muscular, naked George Washington (ok, a sheet is covering his private parts). It used to be in the Capitol Rotunda, but now it's hidden away on the second floor of the Smithsonian.
2. The Von Steuben Memorial in Lafayette Park, by Albert Jaegers (1903). He was a German officer who served in the Revolutionary War. The statue, called "Military Instruction," depicts a naked guy about to sit on the lap of his commanding officer.
3. The Arts of War (Leo Friedlander 1939) on the entrance to the Arlington Memorial Bridge in West Potomoc Park. It shows a naked muscle god walking alongside a winged Pegasus. There are several other Friedlander nudes in the park.
4. The Boy Scout Memorial (Donald De Luc, 1993) commemorates the contribution of the homophobic Boy Scouts to American culture with a scout being followed by a naked man (penis covered) and a woman. They represent the Spirit of Manhood and Womanhood, respectively, but only the man is naked.
5. The Court of Neptune Fountain, outside the Library of Congress (Ronald Hinton Perry, 1898), features a muscular, bearded Neptune (visible penis) flanked by two muscular Tritons (hands covering their penises). There are also nude women around.
More after the break.
6. Rodin's "Walking Man" (L'Homme que Marche, 1900) has no head or arms, but he does have a penis (or at least a bulge). He's on the grounds of the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, by the National Mall.
There are lots of other nude statues inside the museum.
7. The Dying Indian, aka The Dying Indian Chief Contemplating the Progress of Civilization (leaving out Noble Savages, apparently). Carved by Thomas Crawford in 1853, this one is in the New York Historical Society, but there's another version above the Senate Entrance to the Capitol, along with another half-naked youth.
Sculptor Thomas Crawford, who may have been gay (he spent many year in Italy with a series of male buddies) has enlivened other parts of DC with his beefcake "manuments." He designed the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol Dome, the doors to the Senate and House entrances, and the figures of Justice and History.
8. Ok, the Majesty of Law (C. Paul Jennewein, 1933) is coyly covering his penis with a sheet, but he's too hot to pass up, massively muscled in the Art Deco Style, in the foyer of the Department of Justice. He has a female counterpart, the Spirit of Justice.
9. The Dying Gaul is a Roman marble sculpture symbolizing the rise of civilization (like the Dying Indian Chief, above). His permanent home is the Capitolene Museums in Rome, but he's on loan to the National Gallery of Art through 2014
10. The most famous of the public penises of Washington DC is the Washington Monument, designed by architect Robert Mills, commemorating the first president of the United States with a 555-foot tall erect penis.
