Second Book: Daphnis and Chloe Embrace One Another (Daphnis et Chloe apres le depart des Methymniens) Possibly 1937

Editor: This is Aristide Maillol's "Second Book: Daphnis and Chloe Embrace One Another," possibly from 1937, done in ink, as an engraving and a print. It feels so intimate, yet distant. What can you tell me about this embrace? Curator: This work, depicting an embrace, speaks volumes about societal constructs of love and intimacy during its time. Given that this was possibly made in 1937, think of the rise of fascism and impending war. Doesn’t the deliberate archaicism, recalling classical Greece, almost serve as a quiet form of resistance? How might depicting this pastoral, same-sex love provide respite from those looming, very serious gendered and political expectations? Editor: I hadn't considered it in light of political resistance. So, the conscious return to classical forms…was that a commentary itself? Curator: Absolutely. The choice isn't just aesthetic. Think about what the “classical” represented, and continues to represent. Here the deliberate revival acts as an appeal to perceived lost ideals of harmony and perhaps more radically, allows exploration outside the stringent moral codes increasingly being imposed at the time, or perhaps even imposed since antiquity. How does that framework reshape your initial understanding of intimacy? Editor: I see it differently now, with a sense of the personal becoming very political through something as simple as a loving embrace between Daphnis and Chloe. I can feel Maillol’s commentary on larger social issues just through these figures. Curator: Exactly. The image is an invitation for us to think through our understanding of bodies and social constructs. So what might Maillol be urging us to reimagine for ourselves? Editor: I guess it means love can also act as an enduring symbol of hope in difficult times.