{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O132904"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O132904/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019ME5259/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2019ME5259/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2019ME5259","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AT8039","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O132904/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O132904","accessionNumber":"E.301-1972","objectType":"Drawing","titles":[{"title":"The Lacedaemonian Ambassadors","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Aubrey Beardsley's distinctive black and white drawings for Oscar Wilde's <i>Salomé</i>, published in 1894, brought him an extraordinary notoriety whilst still in his early twenties. His work for the periodical <i>The Yellow Book</i> confirmed his position as the most innovative illustrator of the day, but as a result of the hostile moralistic outcry that followed the arrest and trial of Oscar Wilde in early 1895, John Lane and other publishers panicked and dropped Beardsley. Thereafter, almost the only publisher who would use his drawings was Leonard Smithers. Smithers was a brilliant but shady character who operated on the fringes of the rare book trade, issuing small, clandestine editions of risqué books with the boast: 'I will publish the things the others are afraid to touch'. Smithers encouraged Beardsley's already growing interest in French, Latin and Greek texts of this kind and commissioned drawings to illustrate the <i>Satires</i> of the late Roman poet Juvenal and, most famously, Aristophanes's  bawdy satirical play <i>Lysistrata</i>.\r\n\r\nBeardsley knew of the ancient Greek theatrical tradition whereby the actors in comedies wore enormous stage-prop phalluses. He made appropriate and amusing use of the motif in several of his illustrations to Aristphanes' broad sexual comedy. Here he also makes a play upon the idea that in time of war the Lacedaemonian men dressed their hair and wore make-up without damaging their potency.","physicalDescription":"A pen and ink drawing over traces of pencil depicting three naked men, all with oversized erect penises. The first diminutive figure wears an elaborate feathered turban, the other two fanciful stockings and shoes.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent","id":"A8134"},"association":{"text":"draughtsman (artist)","id":"AAT112172"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"pen and Indian ink","id":"x47322"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing","id":"x32498"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pen and ink over pencil on paper","categories":[{"text":"Drawings","id":"THES48966"},{"text":"Illustration","id":"THES48938"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Gender and Sexuality","id":"THES48940"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2019ME5259","2006AT8039"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"I","shelf":"50","box":"D"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"drawing","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Epsom","id":"x35506"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1896","earliest":"1896-01-01","latest":"1896-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"E.349-1972","id":"O685584"},"association":"Reproduction"}],"creditLine":"Purchased with Art Fund support","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"262","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"image","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"180","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"image","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"278","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"194","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'AUBREY BEARDSLEY'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"signature"}],"objectHistory":"This drawing is for the illustration facing p 50 in <u>The Lysistrata of Aristophanes</u>, London, Leonard Smithers, 1896.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Drawing by Aubrey Beardsley, 'The Lacedaemonian Ambassadors', Illustration to <i>Lysistrata</i> by Aristophanes, published by Leonard Smithers, London 1896 (facing page 50). Pen and ink. ","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Aristophanes. <u>The Lysistrata of Aristophanes: now first wholly translated into English and illustrated with eight full page drawings by Aubrey Beardsley</u>. London: Leonard Smithers, 1896. 61p, 8 plates."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Reade, Brian. <u>Aubrey Beardsley</u>. 1969. Cat. 466."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Tim Batchelor, Cedar Lewisohn, Martin Myrone <u>Rude Britannia: British Comic Art</u> London: Tate Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 9781854378866."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"pp. 498-9","free":"Eds. Timothy Clark, C. Andrew Gerstle, Aki Ishigami and Akiko Yano, <u>Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese Art</u>, London, British Museum, 2013. ISBN: 9780714124766."}],"production":"Beardsley completed the eight drawings for <i>Lysistrata</i> during a stay at the Spread Eagle Hotel, Epsom, where he had been sent in the hope that country air would help arrest the development of tuberculosis.","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"penis","id":"x38340"},{"text":"turban","id":"AAT46127"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.301-1972"],"accessionNumberNum":"301","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1972,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2007-03-08","availableToBook":false}}